Chapter Twenty-Three
Elle POV

The old mansion would have once been the envy of the town, once upon a time. But now, the coloured tiles had cracked, and dirt filled the gaps. The paint of the walls had braved the time and weather poorly. It was faded, chipped and torn. Broken lights hung from the ceiling – grand old candle chandeliers that rattled in the air flowing through the broken windows.

The house's occupants hadn't survived long enough to see electricity popularised, so the light from outside had to fight against the moth-torn curtains and the crumbling cardboard that boarded the windows. It wasn't enough, and dark shadows blanketed the house.

The house had heavy influences from the Georgian and Victorian eras, but there was a deep saturation of old Greek design. Corinthian columns, each topped with intricate marble pediments and several large frescos that had turned motley with age, were peeling from the walls as the old paint bubbled beneath them. Four tall vases which matched the frescos framed the walkways with mocking status, with historic Greek depictions painted upon them in golden hues.

The floorboards creaked, and the balusters of the second storey were unsteady, rickety, and at times decay had rotted away at the railings.

My heart jumped as the thought of falling over the railings sprung to the forefront of my mind.

I tightened my grip on the wooden frame and felt the rough edge leave splinters in my palm. The house's past haunted the air, and it was stifling, hanging heavy around us like toxic smog as we stole through the faded memories. Anne Clarke had been crushed to death, not twenty steps away from where we had climbed the stairs, and we had stepped over the blood-stained floorboards. Now, we were twenty steps from where my great, great, great grandfather had found her brittle form, crushed on the landing, pale and decaying, with mottled skin and rotting flesh.

Goosebumps pimpled my skin, and the hair on the nape of my neck prickled, standing on end. My body rippled with a shiver, my hands clenching into a fist.

I saw something move in the gloom, and it looked like a shadow moving within the darkness.

I kept my eyes on it, studying it, waiting for it to move again to figure out what it was. It wasn't until it lept out, shrieking, arms flailing, that I finally stumbled away. While my stomach twisted and my heart skittered in my chest, I felt, more than heard, Kendra fall to the ground, cowering behind me.

A scream that I couldn't be sure had come from me or Kendra pierced the air, but I didn't turn or run. Instead, my vision tunnelled, and I drove my fist through the air, landing my punch with a dull thunk.

'AGH! Jesus!'

I blinked, staring at the kinky brown coils and expresso skin of the woman I knew.

'Carmon?' The air whooshed into my lungs, wheezing, as I remembered how to breathe. I fell back against the ground beside Kendra. A cold draft skittered over the floorboards, chasing the flushed heat that coursed over my body. 'What the hell is wrong with you!'

Pain seared my hand, radiating from my knuckles, but I reached for Kendra, pressing my fingers against her wrist. Her pulse raced, and she gasped for air, panting as the colour returned to her cheeks.

Carmon had dissolved into a fit of laughter, holding onto the wall as she doubled over. A groaning pain sullied the laughter as she tenderly touched a finger to a welting bruise that bloomed on her jaw. 'I'm sorry.' She rasped, wheezing between bouts of hysteria. 'You should have seen your faces!'

Kendra scampered to her feet and then shoved past Carmon, turning a bright shade of red. She hung her head, letting her hair curtain her blistering embarrassment as she trudged down the hallway, following the walls around the corner.

'Sorry.' Carmon mumbled towards her shuffling feet. 'I didn't realise you were bringing anyone.'

'I didn't want to come here by myself.'

Carmon lifted her rose-coloured glasses and looked around with new eyes. Dust glinted in the setting light of the sun. It stuck to our airways, creating a constant itch in my throat. An unpleasant smell permeated the walls, and rotting mould ate at the walls and floor, leaving cavities in the boards that made walking unsafe.

'Fair enough.' She stated.

'I wasn't expecting to see you here tonight?'

She swept away some dust that clung to my clothes and regarded me carefully, with familial affection. She coughed, clearing her throat and pulled away, shoving her hands under her arms, her words caught in her throat. 'I just wanted to thank you for doing this. I've got a walkie-talkie for you. Just turn the light on once we've moved from the house, but don't check through the window because they might see you. I've tapped mine, so you'll hear everything I'm saying.'

'Sounds good.'

Carmon only stayed long enough to say, 'I've set up some snacks and everything down the hall in Anne's room', and pressed an old, battered walkie-talkie into my hand before she pranced down the stairs. She bounced over the old bloodstains, grinning as she waved, fleeing from the foyer without a shadow crossing her smile.

I picked my way down the hallway, watching my steps, and Kendra breathed a sigh of relief when I shuffled into Anne's old room, careful not to touch the walls. She had set up her mum's old picnic blanket and was gazing up at the cracks in the roof. 'This is perfect. We will be able to see the stars soon.'

The house groaned, the wind firing an assault upon the old structure, and every so often, it would pick through the floorboards, casting an arctic draft skittering across the room and kicking up dust.

'Elle?'

Kendra set up her laptop, and a movie paused on the company logo. She had arranged Carmon's and her own snacks out on the blanket and pulled a travel pillow from the bottom of her bag. I rolled my eyes, snorting as I sat beside her. 'Why am I not surprised?'

'Why would I study when we are literally having a sleepover at a haunted house.'

'You jump in the Hunger Games when those freaky, mutant cats jump out.'

'It's scary!'

'You've watched it like seventy times!'

She stiffened, 'So!'

She picked at the frayed edges of the blanket, and I stifled my laughter. 'You can't watch Jaws without having nightmares for a week.'

'It's the soundtrack!'

Kendra was old enough to make her own decisions, so I quickly shook my head, leaning across the blanket to press the spacebar. The opening scene to Jigsaw started, and I rumbled with voiceless laughter, 'You're not going to last the night!'

***

I hadn't taken my eyes off the screen for over two hours, but when the end credits trailed across the screen, I blinked and remembered where I was. The room was darker now that the screen was cast in black, and I had to squint at Kendra to make sure she hadn't passed out.

She was breathing heavily, but she was looking up at the cracks in the ceiling. She wouldn't have gotten far through the film, and I wondered how long she'd been watching the stars. I saw glimpses of winking lights as clouds rolled across the vast expanse, swallowing the stars from the east.

'Elle?'

I swallowed, tugging my jacket across my body as a chill set in. Kendra was staring back at me when I turned to look at her, and ice seared through my veins. 'Are you okay?'

Her gaze lingered, her brow crinkling. My stomach knotted as the ends of my nerves frayed. Guilt engulfed my thoughts, and I realised I should have been the voice of reason when she'd suggested the movie.

'Why didn't you tell me?'

Like warm honey, the guilt melted away, sweetened, and the concern disappeared from my face. I sighed, falling back against my backpack, 'Tell you what?'

She paused, a long, drawn-out silence that weighted down on my chest and made my pulse sluggish, something soured in my mouth, and my fingertips felt tingly. Finally, she sighed and looked back up at the stars. 'Why didn't you tell me about Kaden?'

I sucked in a lungful of air that burned through my airways. My pulse raced, and my chest felt jumbled. 'I don't know what to tell you.'

'Jenna Zelezniak asked me if you two were really soulmates.'

I blinked, inhaling sharply when my lungs screamed for air. 'From the Caeruleum pack?'

'I think so. What is happening, Elle?'

I wrung the edge of my jacket in my fingers, tensing my entire body as I pressed my lips into a thin line. 'He told me we were mates yesterday! If Jenna knows...' I swallowed, clenching and unclenching my fist. They couldn't know! I closed my eyes and steadied my breath. 'I don't know what's going on. He says he's known for thirteen years but never said anything. It's always seemed like he's never noticed me. He says it was because he was protecting me, but from what? What if he is lying?'

'Elle!' Kendra rested her hand on mine, squeezing it gently while concern rippled across her face. 'This is good.' She said it with such sincerity that I wanted to believe her, but something kept whispering what if it's a lie again and again. 'You've always been attracted to him, Elle. Unlike Lachlan, I promise not everyone is out to lie to you.

'I feel giddy just when he looks at me, and it feels like I can't breathe if he looks away. It feels as though I've been sitting in the passenger seat my whole life, but when he talks to me, I take the wheel, and it's exhilarating. But what if he isn't my soulmate? What if it is a lie?'

She sat up, a frown furrowing her brow and her arms crossing over her chest. 'And what if the moon falls out of the sky? What if they nuke the world tomorrow? They're all big "what ifs". You can't live your life based on a what-if, Elle. Because what if you push him away, and he is your soulmate? What if he really does care about you? What if he was protecting you?'

I puckered my lips and dug my nails into my palm, fighting back the sting of tears in my eyes. 'I can't do it again.'

I didn't recognise the desperation in my voice, but it clung to my words with a viciousness I couldn't cope with. Tears spilled over, cascading down my cheeks. I snivelled, and snot joined the tears. 'I-' I couldn't force the words past the sobs, 'I-' Kendra was just a blur, but she wrapped her arms around me.. 'don't know-' Lightheaded and losing my words to the gasps for air, I used the backhand of my sleeve to wipe away the evidence of my breakdown. 'what-' It didn't last long as more tears streamed down my face, dripping down my neck. 'to do! I don't know what to do.'

She held me tightly, her eyes wet, mirroring mine. 'Trust him because you'll regret it if you don't.'

She didn't need to say any more on the matter. Instead, she found a thermal of hot chocolate that Carmon had gifted us and poured it into two plastic cups. It was lukewarm now, but the rich chocolate was comforting, and we sipped it, bundled together, listening for the tour group, our eyelids slowly drooping as thunder cracked across the sky.

***

I felt like I had woken with a head cold without the sniffling nose. My head felt like it was filled with rocks, and the dust in the air tickled my throat so that it was dry and painful when I coughed.

I laid there for a while, wondering if the aches in my body were because I'd suddenly come down with the flu or if I'd rolled off my sleeping mat at some point during the night. I tried to remember when we'd fallen asleep, but things started to blur after I'd cried over the Kaden situation, and I couldn't remember if we had lit the lantern last night.

'Ke-' I croaked, my voice catching before I could even finish calling Kendra's name. I coughed, letting the darkness drag at my eyelids. I couldn't hear the walkie-talkie, which meant we had probably missed it, and it was too dark outside for it to be morning. Maybe if I just got a little more sleep, I'd feel better when I woke up again.

But after trying everything I knew to fall back asleep, counting sheep and doing maths equations in my head, I was dragged out of unconsciousness. Things started to pierce the veil and sink in, like the musky scent of stale air and the feel of the rock beneath me that was stealing my body's warmth.

I reached out in the darkness, feeling around for Kendra in the dark, but instead of our picnic blanket or the mats we had laid out on the hardwood floors, my hand skimmed over cold, hard concrete. I pulled my hand away so fast I hit my chest with a painful gasp. 'Kendra!'

I scrambled to my feet, searching blindly in the dark as I felt around the room. My nails dug into etchings on the rock wall, like lines hatched into the surface. The more I touched them, the more it brought the image of tally marks to mind, and as my fingers dragged across them, there would have been hundreds.

I couldn't even hold my hands out without pushing up against the opposite wall, and I flinched against something even colder than the stone. Something rattled as I searched desperately for an exit. 

Chains.

And then something fell loose. I felt around blindly until my fingers brushed against it. It was dry, chalky, and somewhat porous. It was heavy but light, like it was hollowed out. For a moment, I wondered if I could use it somehow before everything started to connect. It was a bone—an old bone of someone who had died a long time ago, all alone in this cell.

Crying out, I dropped it, wiping my hands over my jeans as they clattered against the stone.

'Kendra!'

I slammed against the bars, the metal smarting against my cold hands.

Pressure built in my chest, and it felt like I was being pressed against from all sides. I cried out for Kendra, my voice sounding muffled.

I couldn't stop screaming as my blood turned cold in my veins, and my hands shook so much that they ached.