Lily returned to the warehouse the next night with more determination. She could not ignore what she had seen—and felt. The building now seemed even more ominous as it stood there in darkness, drawing her in as if recognizing her presence.
She pushed open the rusted door and stepped inside, her flashlight cutting through the darkness. It was colder here than it had been the day before, and the silence seemed oppressive, as though the building itself was holding its breath.
She walked slowly, methodically, knowing she had to be careful. The steps echoed in that emptiness, and the farther she walked inside the warehouse, the greater the sense of being observed grew.
She headed for the rear of the building, as her editor had told her there were files she needed in a secret room. She walked down a narrow hall flanked by crates of dust that led to old storage rooms. In the far corner, she spotted a half-buried, rusted filing cabinet behind a heap of broken pallets.
Her fingers trembled as she got to it, pushing open the drawer. In there the files were yellowed to a point, curled about the edges. She scanned through each of them, her breathing catching when she came to one marked "The Keepers of the Shadows".
Dreading, she opened the file. Inside, were full notes on the cult and their rituals, influence on the city, and chillingly enough, their belief in selecting individuals to carry on the dark legacy.
And attached to the bottom of the file was a photograph.
Lily gazed at it, her blood running cold. The picture was of a young woman sitting in a circle with others. The faces were all obscured by shadows, but Lily knew that face.
It was her mother.
As Lily delves deeper into the cult's dark past and the forces shrouded around the warehouse, she starts realizing that her mother did not go missing accidentally. The cult took her, and now, it was coming for Lily. Mysteries from the past begin to unravel, but the forces that have been waiting for her return are as well.