[ SAME OUTFIT FROM LAST CHAPTER! ]

⤵︎

CHAPTER 8. ❝LULLABIES
SUNG BY DEATH!❞

[3.08| PART TWO]

LORELEI LORENZO ALWAYS FELT THIS NEED FOR EXPLORATION IN HER BONES.

It might've been the reason for her drive to walk almost everywhere she wanted to go. Of course, Lorelei had a car, as most teens her age do, but there was an irrefutable grace that came with letting your body carry you around to places in this world.

She'd savor the wind as it swept effortlessly across her body, feeling it within her fingertips. She'd feel alive under the glimmering sun, casting its heat on her face, seething through her clothes. And, she'd gain peace of mind as her eyes roam around the surroundings she found herself in.

But there Lorelei was now mid afternoon, wandering around the great land that had become her new home, Mystic Falls, still pursuing to wander her mind from the events that yesterday costed her.

For a majority of the day that passed by her in such a blur, memories of yesterday kept replaying in Lory's mind, tormenting her, and seeking to break her apart. Even if half of the time, that's all that her mind tend to do anyways.

Some part of her wished it hadn't even happened. While the other was grateful for the experience that was granted to her; being able to say goodbye to her father one last time, for good.

But at what cost? Her sanity, her humanity, what else could she hold onto now?

Her father was gone again. And yes, she was able to part ways with him the way that she always wished she could've. But then again, Lorelei knew she wanted more time—even if it wasn't good for the world. She was just a selfish girl wanting her father back again, no matter the cost that it came with.

In the meantime, Lorelei Lorenzo found herself settled back to the place of her terrible speculation; the first place in this town, that intrigued her.

The bridge.....

As expected, the lights were not on, as it was the brightest time of the day. She wandered towards the middle, then leaned her body over the bridge, holding onto the railing with a firm grip.

Her reflection was clearer than it was a few days ago, though, the little waves and rumbles of water caused the reflection to wobble.

Lory's face scrunched, her mind trailing back to that day of what she saw, almost feeling the same chills and anxiety creep back to her in real-time. It faltered her senses, only being paranoid that she'd see the same terrifying thing again, but questioning why she even wanted to know if it'll happen again.

Yes, she was unquestionably frightened at the possibility of it. However, it was like something in her system almost wanted it to happen again, just to convince herself that she wasn't crazy in seeing such a thing.

She stuck around for a couple more seconds, with a sharp gaze at her reflection in the water, before ultimately pulling herself back up and standing tall.

Discontent had clashed with relief as it rushed throughout her body. It conflicted Lorelei's train of thought, given she still couldn't make up her mind about whether or not to be happy that nothing happened, or disappointed that she was wrong.

But suddenly, in the middle of her internal war, the Lorenzo hears something that bore a terrible sense of familiarity.

Faint, but low whispers.....

Her breathing almost floundered hearing them. So much so, that it seized her back to another memory of a nightmare she had, that mortified her forever.

NIGHT.
SEPTEMBER 21ST, 2005

𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍:
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐙𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄
𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐆𝐎, 𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐒

     IN THE MIDDLE OF ANOTHER FOREIGN FOREST, stayed thirteen-year-old Lorelei Lorenzo, who was evermore on her conquest of exploration. In this dream state, Lory hardly remembered that this is the same forest she'd been seeing since she was a young girl, but still, her feet continued moving in a straight direction.

However, this time around, Lorelei suddenly caught sight of something a couple of blocks in the distance. Something that was vague in her line of sight...

A house? She wondered.

That was her motivation to pick up the speed, and start running, watching as she got closer, that the thing in the distance became clearer. It indeed was a house, or a small cabin out in the middle of nowhere.

Her lungs became very much overwhelmed by how fast and determined Lorelei was to make it there. Her legs burned, and her feet ached. But finally after a couple more seconds, with barely enough in her lungs, she made it to the house that took up her interest.

She peered down at the ground, with both hands on her knees, struggling to catch her breaths from what felt like a marathon. Lory subconsciously did the breathing exercises her mom had taught her when she first started training, and looked back up at the house.

There was a small wooden staircase leading up to the entrance, and past it, was a dark brown door. To the left and right, were two medium-sized windows.

The left windows had a hole right in the middle, as shattered bits of the glass were scattered on the grass, and the right ones were the complete opposite, being in perfect condition.

Not yet suspicious, Lory took a step up the staircase, her weight letting out a creak on the step, and with each one leading up to the door. As her fingertips were inching near the doorknob, a chill crawled its way up her spine, getting this sense of uneasiness the house radiated. She hesitated, but confided to her curiosity, opening the door slowly.

The first thing that caught her gaze was the kitchen to her right, and the mess that had been left around it. Heck, roaming around the house as a whole, Lorelei realized that this house was abandoned, like it was left to rot by nature and all.

Left of her was what she thought to be a living room, with a couch, a fireplace with things on its countertop like a snowglobe, and a picture frame of what looked like a normal family with a white border around it.

Simple looking parents and their teenage daughter in the middle.

A small smile crept up to her, unknowingly, but it quickly diminished as she blinked, and suddenly, the father was missing from the photograph.

Her expression was painted in confusion. "What the hell?" she whispered, grabbing the picture frame and holding it in her hands.

Lory's mind tried to think of what was happening, even if it didn't seem at all logical. It wasn't until she blinked again, that it was now the mother missing from the photo. Now it was only the daughter left.

Now she was more than terrified.

Lorelei didn't know if it was due to her thinking that this was her brink point of going insane, or from the radiating uneasiness that house still had.

Perhaps even both for that matter......

Another blink later, this was really what shook Lory to her core, not like anything in her life has ever.

The daughter didn't go missing, not like her parents before. Instead, the picture changed. It wasn't some random teenage daughter there with a bright smile on her face, but it was now Lory herself.

Every inch and voice in her head was telling her to look away, but the sight of her smiling back to herself was haunting her into a statue.

Moments of what felt like forever to Lorelei, she blinked once again, and nothing happened. Nothing about the picture had altered in any way. Of course, this still wasn't enough to ease Lory of the fear she'd been covered in, but it was better than nothing.

The Lorenzo looked away from the picture to the ground back to the living room. Perhaps then it was her own fault for looking back at the picture frame once more, as doing so, Lory saw herself with blood dripping slowly down her lips, with the same smile she had plastered on her face.

Her heart had never stopped so abruptly in her entire existence, than in that second alone

What was worse, was Lorelei observed in real time, this small droplet of blood course its way down her lips and trailing down her chin.

Worst of all, the blood didn't just drop off her body, down to the nothingness of the picture. But instead, Lory watched as a part of the white border on the bottom of the picture frame began to show a red droplet growing into a puddle.

In a flash, the picture frame is dropped to the ground, as the room echoed of glass breaking.

Lory was surprised she wasn't crying right about now. Her mother told her sometimes you might find yourself crying due to immense amounts of fear. But in spite of what's happened in the past five minutes, Lorelei Lorenzo's face never faltered, not even her jaw to tremble and shake. She held contentment in her expression, to keep herself together, even in deep fear.

Learning her lesson, the brunette didn't look down at the picture. Not even to glance at it. Not even to ease her always curious mind. Instead, Lory stepped away from the living room, and walked to the beginning of the hallway near the kitchen.

She assumed the rooms straight ahead were ordinary rooms in a household. Bedrooms, bathrooms, and whatever else. It all seemed normal, mostly.

On both sides of the hallways, there were two doors on each of them. And at the end of the hallway, was just one door that was vaguely open, as a bit of light was shining from the inside.

Her feet slowly moved forward, and with every step, little creaks from the wooden ground came with it.

But what came along with the creaks, were faint noses that Lorelei began to hear, but she'd get mixed up between if it was something else or the creaks from her steps. Sooner, rather than later, after taking more steps near the end of the hallway, Lorelei figured out it really wasn't just creaks after all.

It was also—little whispers of voices.

Well, it started out as whispers. But the moment grew more tense as the whispers grew louder. Like it was caving into her being. Inching closer to her being.

Eventually, with the whispering growing louder, it became clearer on what they were saying.

"You will never escape fate." Over, and over again.

"You will never escape fate."

"You will never escape fate."

"You will never escape fate."

"You will never escape fate."

But when she stepped only a foot away from the door at the end of the hall, the whispers came to a stop. A very abrupt, and eerie stop. One that left the hairs on Lorelei's skin to crawl up.

Confusion plasters itself on her face, as the rest of her body was shaking in anxiousness.

It took a while as she brings her hand to the door handle, turning it and slowly opening the door.

At first, it seemed like a normal empty room, but what Lorelei found as she opened the door fully, would be something that would forever change her being.

There laid, a man's body lying on the ground that was soaked in blood from head to toe. His skin was scarily pale and had lost almost all its color. And the most traumatizing of it all; his throat was slashed, as well as his wrists as it was still bleeding out blood.

Her body froze, as did everything else in her body, as did her world, time, and her breathing in-fact.

Thirteen-year-old Lorelei Lorenzo hadn't seen a sight so brutal and graphic in her life. Sure, her imaginations might've run too wild, but to see this? This was a whole other level of murder that she's ever seen.

But before she could let out a ear-piercing scream...

*Phone ringing*

     It felt like a lightning bolt had hit her when Lorelei found herself back in her own reality. Only now could she feel her phone ringing in her back pocket, and hear her ringtone faintly with it.

She grabbed it to see who was calling her.

"Bonnie?" Lorelei whispered, confusion laced in her tone. She answers it, bringing her phone to her ear. "Hello?...Bonnie?" she says a bit shakily.

Bonnie sighs into the line. "Yeah hi, Lorelei, I know this is probably really random for me to be calling you right now but uh-" she pauses. "I'm at Alaric's place right now, and we might've found these Viking scrips in a cave yesterday, and I just wanted to ask if you can take a look at them and try to help us decipher them. You know...considering what you showed me earlier today."

Lorelei, still anxious from what just happened, stayed silent for a beat before replying. "Yeah...yeah, just text me the address, and I'll meet you there," ending the call afterward. 

She spent the next couple of seconds attempting to get her thought straight. Which took much of a minute actually, to do.

Lory hated how she heard whispers awhile ago. And she most importantly hated how it made her practically relive that horrific nightmare, again.

That one specific nightmare she hadn't thought about in forever, yet still had a grip on her like it did right after she woke up that day.

God, did she despise it.

But—being Lorelei Lorenzo herself, she knew she was strong enough to pull herself out of it.

She wasn't thirteen anymore. She was eighteen now, and has learned a lot since that nightmare came to her dreams to haunt her.

So no, she wasn't going to let it get in the way of her anymore. Lorelei fucking Lorenzo, was finally going to conquer her fears, and she wasn't going to let anything get in the way of it.

Taking one last breath into her system, she lets herself think about the nightmare one last time, before bringing walking down the bridge, leaving to where Bonnie wanted her to go.

Translating Viking scripts, here I come....

lani's talking!

GUESS WHOS BAAAAAACK 😁😁😁

everyone's fav it girl lorelei ofc !!

yuh it's only fair that since I've been back on wattpad for a while now, that I update everyone's beloved favorite story 👍🏼

anyways lowkey I've had this chapter like partially almost done for the longest time now and im so relieved I finally brought myself to finish it :)

it's bit shorter than all the other chapters, but I PROMISE YALL the next couple of chapters will be spicy in drama so be on the lookout for that and pray that I don't go on hiatus again (pls)

also be on the lookout for a certain MAN coming back in between the next two chapters 🤭 im just as excited to write THAT so HEIWKFJSOF

but yeah, thank you guys for reading! ily all sm byeee <333