Strange Nights ( Dr Strange #1)

Chapter 15 : Ghostling

She yanked off the blood-soaked cardigan. Wanda and Pepper watched silently in the rear-view mirror as Y/N tried fruitlessly to remove the dried blood from the cheek. There weren't too many stains – mostly on her face and neck.

Pepper pulled over to an abrupt halt and opened the doors. Pentagons and circles were drawn in the mid-driveway that was lined with burnt-out candles.

"What's wrong?" Pepper and Y/N asked in unison when Wanda held out a hand to bar them from venturing any further. "After that attack on Halloween night, Stephen and I had put multiple protection spells on your house. No one unless invited could have entered the house. Looks like someone broke in. Whatever we are dealing with is dangerous... you shouldn't go in Y/N."

Y/N would have paid heed to the warning – almost had - if she hadn't spotted the police cruiser parked on the dark sidewalk of the house. Matt. She dashed for the door. Fast enough for the off-guarded vampires to notice. As soon as she passes the threshold, however, she froze. For there, lying devitalised on the floor was her dad, Matt. Thick blood spilt out from a wound on his side. Around him what used to be the living-cum-dining room lay in shambles. Most of the furniture had been knocked to pieces on the left wall. And on the edge of the large pile of rubble, lay Matt.

A sharp scream pierced through the night as Stephen was about to lay his hands on a jaguar. Against his instincts, he backed away from the prey towards his new ordeal.

After what he had heard, he was expecting to deal with a hysterical girl, crying and thrashing around. Oddly, Y/N was sitting still on the porch steps, as quiet as death, with blank eyes. As his eyes lifted to the door, Wanda stepped out. Luckily the neighbours are out. I think no one has noticed anything. There's too much blood, you should leave. You are not in a right-

"I know." He crouched in front of Y/N, a finger gently lifting her face to meet his gaze. "I know this is difficult for you –"

"You don't know anything," she gritted through her teeth. "Y/N you aren't safe here." Wanda pleaded once again. She had tried to get her back to their house while Pepper called for an ambulance, but the girl won't listen. They would have driven both of them home if she had known that Stephen would come from mid-hunting.

"Until we figure out who is behind this, you'll stay with us. You can see Matt in the hospital once he gains consciousness," Stephen said. His eyes pleaded for her to obey him for one last time. "What guarantee is there that I'll be safe with you?"

"You have to trust me."

"How can I trust you, when my life became much messier than it already was after you turned up?" Y/N cried out, recounting every horrible incident that occurred after that fateful evening in the cafe. She felt ten years younger. Things now were exactly like they were a decade back. The constant threat of death to her loved ones was back. It was like the death monster had hibernated for a few years after her mother's death. It had woken up the day she lost her father, Charles and now was back into action once again.

"Please," the man before her pleaded with all his sincerity.

"What do we do next?" Wanda asked Stephen, as they watched Morgan and Y/N pad to her room. His hunting ritual had been cut short, obviously, he needed to hunt. On the other hand, his reflection on the glass door urged him to get himself cleaned of the dried blood. He wondered how Y/N hadn't screamed at the sight of him then recalled she had asked him not to touch her, a long while ago. "Any lead from Matt?"

"Not much." She was disappointed when she looked into his mind and found nothing on the intruder. They had entered and blasted him with an energy wave knocking him out along with the furniture. "Then whoever went in, didn't expect she was out... Try looking for a friend of hers, Anna-"