[ 47 ] 2013

Harley opened her blue eyes to find herself in a familiar place. It was dark, but she could see just enough to know where she was. Her sight could only see a few feet down the hall and she saw to one side to see it empty, and then to the other. That was where she saw Calum, his hand gripped Claire's arm like a vice as she tried to wrench herself out of his hold, all to no avail.

This scene reminded Harley of one she had witnessed once before, but with another person. 

With Kylie.

Through gritted teeth, Claire continued to struggle in his grasp and looked up at him, her eyes full of anger. "I could have helped you have Harley for yourself." She said to him, her words laced with venom. "But you didn't want to. You're just like your grandmother. Anne-Sophie was always a softy. That's why she was so easy to kill." Her last sentence came out mockingly. 

But Calum ignored her. Instead, he walked along towards Harley, while the timer counted down. 

"And you," Claire glared at her granddaughter. "How can you let them do this to me? We're family."

Harley only gave an uncaring shrug of her shoulders. "You wanted to take Calum and Ashton, we couldn't let you do that. You deserve to go to hell all by yourself."

Claire laughed bitterly at Harley's words. "Oh, you want them both for yourself then?"

"Neither of us wanted to go with you." Calum informed her.

Now he, with Claire in tow, and Harley, walked to the nearest door. They both knew she wouldn't willingly choose a door for herself. Not when she had gone through so much trouble to try to take her own granddaughter's  body as hers.

Calum pushed the door open and they looked inside. They could see nothing. It was just as dark, if not darker in there. Calum let go of Claire's arm and motioned to push her in when Claire grabbed a hold of Harley's arm and pulled her close. "If I go, we're both going." She grinned at Calum, who's eyes were wide with shock. 

"Calum!" Harley shouted, her hands reaching for him.

But Claire was backing into the door. There were only seconds left on the clock. As the seconds counted down, they felt a force pulling them into the door. But Calum was not willing to let Harley go. He jumped inside the darkness of the room and shut the door behind him. He didn't know where it led, and he didn't know if there was a way out.

-

When they opened their eyes, they were in Harley's house. It was dark and there was something different about it. For one, the house was decorated in furniture of another time period and when Calum saw a phone on the side table, it had a round dial, like old phones used to have. 

On the far wall, he saw family portraits of...Ashton's family. 

Beside him. Harley was just coming to her senses. But Claire was nowhere to be found. 

They had fallen on the cold tiled floor of the livingroom and Calum propped his arms on the rose patterned couch to help himself get up. Harley took in her surroundings as well, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "This looks like my house...but everything is all wrong." She said in a low voice.

Calum offered his hand to help her get up and she got to her feet. The raven haired boy saw a paper calendar hung by the wooden front door. The date on it read: March 15th, 1963. 

"Fuck." Calum cursed under his breath. 

"What?" Harley's blue eyes looked over at Calum.

"This is the night Mirror Boy died." He told her in a whisper.

"How do you know that?" She wondered, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Everyone in the neighborhood knows that." He told her. "The Sydney Police Department had a murder tour each your at your house when no one owned it. They still had the same furniture and the family pictures. I think they're at the Sydney Police Department Museum now. There's this exhibit dedicated to the case because it was unsolved and it was the biggest case in the city." But both Calum and Harley knew Calum's grandfather had been the one who committed the murders. Back then, technology hadn't been as advanced and they were not able to catch him.

The two felt their heart race when they heard hurried footsteps coming towards them from another room in the house. Calum took Harley's hand and pulled her down beside the couch that was by the doorway. They saw a group of men dressed in black, run a few feet past them. 

In their hurry, they didn't notice the two teenagers hiding beside the couch. They went to a room that was in current times Aaron's den.

"We have to try to get out of here." Calum said to Harley. 

Still with his hand in hers, he stood up and hurried with her up the stairs that led to the bedrooms. Calum knew the story of the murders well and knew to avoid the master bedroom. What he needed wasn't there anyway.

He led Harley into the room that was currently hers, but used to be Ashton's. Inside, she saw the nineteen year old tied to a chair and rushed to his side while Calum went to observe the mirror in the room. "Ashton!" She cried, and her arms reached out for him. Harley was startled when her arms went right through him, like she was a ghost. "Calum, what's happening?" She looked to him.

"He can't hear you or see you because this isn't the past." He explained, his hands gripping the mirror and pushing it forward to reveal the back with Ashton's initials on it. "Its Claire's hell. She's going to spend eternity having to watch this murder scene in repeat."

Harley looked to the closet door to see Claire sitting on the floor with her knees to her chest. Her eyes were closed tight, and her hands were to her ears to clock out sounds. There were even tears streaming down her face. 

"Come on," Calum waved her over. Harley watched as he knelt down and carved her initials in the back, along with the year they came from. When he finished, he carved his own. "I really hope this works, or else we'll be trapped in here forever. We have to get back before the new year." He had learned from his grandfather that a shifter with his abilities could also travel between the past and the present. But he needed an object that had been in the time period he wanted to go to.

The mirror had been in the house ever since he could remember. It had to help for something.

And he had also learned that when travelling, he had to return to his time before a new year came or their souls wouldn't be able to return.

He pushed the mirror back against the wall just as a black hole opened up from the mirror and dragged Harley in first, and then Calum. This time, they didn't fight the unseen force that dragged them in because they hoped it would return them home.

Calum and Harley felt like they were dropped into the present from a couple of feet. Their heads felt heavy and their eyes were tired. Calum blinked back a couple of times, trying to keep himself conscious. He looked to his side to see Harley was unconscious. And the other people in the room were too blurry to make out.

"Are we...in 2013?" He asked to any of them.

The response came from Andrea. "Its thirty seconds before the new year."

Calum nodded, "Good." He let his eyes close, and sleep take over him. 

The background was filled with excited cheers from everyone else in the room, welcoming the new year while there were two on the floor who had just escaped death. 

But Calum knew he could rest relieved now because Claire was in her own personal hell.

-

short chapter but i wanted to update before i head out. im going to watch the galaxy vs montreal soccer game with my university. they were hosting this fieldtrip and i've been so excited. im going to wear my jersey and take me mexican flag so my bby giovani can see i support him.

anyway, there are five more chapters left for this book to end and a new one to start. and i went back to the beginning and wow! last year i was celebrating mexican independence on my first post of this book. mexican independence is going to be on the 16th of this month. so it took me like a year to write this book. that's a long time. MITM took me 6 months to write. so as a new book resolution, i plan to write mortalis in about that amount of time as well.

thank you all so much for reading and supporting me. it really has meant so much. 

and no question of the day. just tell me something interesting about yourself! for me...hm. i am writing articles for a sports website ^.^ and its a lot of fun bc that's what i want to do as a career: i want to be a sports journalist. but not all sports, just soccer.

i love you all, have a blessed day!

-clary xx