Max was still thinking about what happened today. That mysterious lady in black wasn't the main cause of Max's tension, it was Julie.

Max knew whatever she did was not wrong on her part. Max was too rude to her.

"Did anything happen today?" asked Kevin.

"Nothing to worry about," assured Max as he smiled.

"You are not at all good at telling lies," mocked Kevin, "Now tell me what's wrong."

It was not that Max couldn't hide things, he was quite good at this, but Kevin always understood what he was going through.

"I was thinking about Julie...."

"Isn't she the girl who had been after you since you were in grade 2? I didn't know that you guys are already in a relationship," he teased.

"Yeah," sighed Max.

Kevin's brown eyes widened.

"What? No!!" Max scream when he realized what he had just earlier. He was already blushing.

Max was an attractive guy and the pink tinge, which appeared when he was shy, added to his cuteness.

Kevin couldn't control his laugh. He fell on the bed laughing insanely.

Ding-dong.

It was the house bell. It wasn't an ordinary bell sound, it was much heavy than the usual ones. This gave the house sort of creepy effect.

The exterior of the house was already enough scary to keep strangers away. It was a shadowy, large house that had the look of a haunted mansion from a typical '90s horror movie. Almost everything in the house, along with the flooring, was pure hardwood, giving it a delightfully dingy look.

It was said that the house, along with all antiques it robed under it, had belonged to the Wilson family for more than a century. Multiple paintings of their ancestors hung on the hallway.

"Mom," shouted Kevin, "someone's at the door."

"I can hear that. Why don't you just get up and open the door?" Aunt May yelled back at him from the kitchen.

Aunt May was Kevin's mother and the next person in the house who genuinely cared for Max. She loved Max as much as she loved Kevin.

Kevin turned towards Max with his puppy eyes. Max understood what he meant.

Despite being elder to Max, he was still a child from within.

"Alright, alright, I'll check that out," Max giggled as he jumped off the bed, and went towards the staircase outside his room.

Max looked around to make sure no one was there, and then slid down the stair railing in a blink. He marched towards the door. It was a huge wooden door which made a sad, eerie sound on opening.

Ding-dong. The bell was pressed once more.

"Yes?" asked Max as he reached the door. They rarely had guests so Max thought it was much safe to ask first and then open the door.

No one replied.

Max asked once more, "Who's there?"

No reply.

Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.

"What the hell?" the frequent bell sound was now irritating Max.

"Why can't anyone open that door?" Shane came out of his room. Even he looked irritated by the bell's noise. Aunt May also trailed out of the kitchen to see what was going on.

Max thought that anything would be better than facing Shane's rage.

He was a short-tempered man. Everyone tried staying out of his way, and whatever he said was final.

Max opened the door. In front of him was the girl about whom he had been thinking since the moment he came back from school.

"Ju... Julie?" Max stammered.

She was wearing a bright yellow t-shirt and denim shorts. Her hairs were open this time and the curls fell beautifully on her shoulder. She had a sheepish smile on her face. Julie was never a shy type of girl. She liked playing football, giving a tough competition to the most athletic boys in the school.

Max was immobilized by her smile. He stood there staring at her.

"I just came here to say... Max? Are you listening?" said Julie.

"Oh, yes. What were you saying?" Max said as he snapped out of it.

"I was saying that-"

"Who is there Max?" asked Kevin.

'Oh great!' Max thought as he sighed on hearing him.

Kevin walked to the door. On seeing Julie, the change in his expressions was commendable.

"It's your girlfriend Julie!" he exclaimed.

"She is just my FRIEND!" Max countered.

"We never knew Max had such a beautiful friend. Why don't you come in, my child? So your name's Julie?" Aunt May said with utmost politeness.

As already said, they rarely had guests. The sudden arrival of Julie had given Aunt May a chance to fulfill her life's motive- to cook delicious food and feed people twice their usual appetite. Even Kevin seemed to be over-excited.

Max wasn't sure how Shane would react to this though.

"Yeah, and thank you," Julie stammered as Aunt May's compliment made her blush.

"We would really be happy if you came in," Aunt May repeated her statement pushing on her to enter.

Julie was about to enter when Max interrupted in between, "No, I mean she has other work. She just came to say, um, what you were saying?" he turned to her. Max didn't want to let her in as it would make the situation even weirder for both of them.

"Can we talk? Alone?" Julie whispered as she looked at everyone's eyes fixed upon her.

"What happened to your manners, Max?" frowned Aunt May and then turned to Julie, "You both can talk in Max's room, and by that time I'll prepare something delicious for you".

Julie was hesitating in entering but Aunt May walked to her and pulled her inside the house. Max wanted to bang his head on the door. Who knows what was about to come?

"Who do we have here?" asked Shane in his grave voice.

"She is a friend of Max...." said Aunt May. He gave her a look in return which commanded her to leave.

Aunt May understood what he meant and quietly moved to the kitchen.

"Good evening, sir. It is my pleasure to meet you," Julie greeted Shane politely.

Max also rushed by her side. Leaving Julie alone with him was definitely not a good choice. He was sure to say something which could freak her out. Shane was carefully observing her as if trying to recognize her.

"The pleasure's all mine," he said as he was staring at her. This was a bit weird to Max as Shane had never been that kind to anyone! "The arrival of one of the tyrfings shows that it has already begun..... you all are about to come face to face with what destiny has in store for you," Shane said as a look of worry came on his face.

This is what Max had feared.

"Tyrfings?" Max said.

"It's a cursed sword," Julie began, "having powers that could defeat the strongest of enemies, but ultimately kill the wielder too..." She looked quite uncomfortable as she said that.

'What an awful thing to say! But how did Julie even understand what Shane meant? Why does she know such stuff?' Max thought.

"I am rather curious to know what you are possessed with," Shane asked her.

Julie stood there, stunned.

"Alright, that's enough. Let's talk in my room," Max suggested getting the situation under control.

"But..." Julie was about to argue but Max held her hand and pulled her to his room. Julie looked back at Shane. He had a slight smile on his face.

Max entered his room and locked the door. He knew quite well that this act of his could not prevent Shane from talking to Julie if he wanted to, but at least it would make it clear that Max didn't want to involve her in all this crap.

Max made Julie sit on the bed, dragged a chair, and sat in front of her.

"You don't have to worry about whatever he said. He often says things which hardly make any sense," Max tried to get Julie at ease.

"It's not the first time someone had called me a tyfring."

"What? Why would anyone call you that?"

Her body shook convulsively. This brought back some terrible memories of hers which had been locked up in a tiny, dark chamber of her heart.

Her mind was no more in the same room. She was tightly holding the bed sheet, her head was hung down and her eyes fixed on the floor. She was trembling!

"Are you okay? Julie?" Max kept his hand over hers.

"Yeah, I- I'm fine. I need to go," she stood up and started walking away from him.

"But Aunt May went to...." he couldn't even finish what he was saying. Julie opened the door and immediately went out. She didn't even say what she came for.

Max wanted to go after her but the way she rushed out clearly showed that she was not in a condition to talk to anyone. It would be better if he talked to her at school. He had no idea things would turn out this way. Well done Shane!

That night Max wasn't able to sleep. He kept turning sides from left to right restlessly on his bed. Suddenly the thought of reading Shane's diary came in his mind.

He got off his bed, turned on the lights, and sat at his desk with the diary in front of him.

He took a deep breath and opened it!

It appeared to be a well-organized journal, but the entries were quite old, maybe it was an old diary of his. He opened it to the first page.

October 12th, 1998:
They took you away from me... I lost the only person I loved because of the responsibility that's bestowed upon me. This is not a life Jane, it's a curse that I am going through. Having you by my side at least kept me alive.... and now since you're gone, I'll be dying every single day until he comes and sets me free, free from this life. I love you, Jane. I wish I could have said this when you were here, but now it's too late...

Whoa! Max wasn't expecting this. He saw that the ink was smeared at some places. Shane was crying when he wrote this. He seemed to really love this woman, Jane. But Max had never heard about her from anyone in the house.

He then turned the page and continued reading. In a nutshell, Jane was either dead or abducted, and Shawn was completely torn on losing her. For several continuous months, he just kept writing about how much he missed her. They seemed to be one-sided conversations with Jane rather than plain diary entries. There were some references for some 'he' who wasn't even born at that time. It was written that 'he' would come to set Shane free from his curse of immortality finally allowing him to rest, and most importantly, to save all the realms.

'Was this guy drunk, and watching some dramatic sci-fi movie at the same time?' Max thought. Actually, he felt bad for all that he had gone through by losing Jane, but what followed was just insanely weird for Max to understand.

Max finished reading it only to find out that almost two hours had passed. The last page was what's called bothersome...

September 23rd, 1999:
Archangel Raphael visited today, she brought a woman along. She had a child with her too.
This was the first time I smiled since you left, but even that turned to be just false hope. Raphael told that he wasn't the chosen one, nor one of his mates. But he said that this one would be no less than the four mates, he would be there to support the chosen one till the very last breath of his own. Though there is still a lustrum for the real ones to come...
You won't believe, this child has the exact same pair of eyes like you had. I named him Kevin. You always loved that name, didn't you?