What Lies Beneath The Clearing

15.1

Jay was holding Lennox until she was calm enough to go into the house. Once inside, he sat her on the couch and went back to lock the door before going over to her. 

"What is going on? I need you to talk to me, because none of this is making any sense. Is this about the manor?" 

He watched her nervously rub her knuckles as she nodded. 

"I remembered what happened last night. I know why I went there." 

"You remembered, okay well that's good, isn't it?" 

The question made her eyes well, and after a few seconds she shook her head. "Jay," 

"Okay, I'm sorry, just tell me, tell me what happened." He waited for her to explain, so she took a breath of preparation. 

"I dreamt of Kaila, after you came to get me from the forest. She gave me a message, that everything would be over soon." 

"Over? Over how?" 

"She said I had five days to solve the puzzle. To figure out everything I should've been able to before. But I have to do it alone, she told me the riddle I dreamt of was a threat, that if I tried to do it with anyone else they'd get hurt. And she said I had my memories of what happened at the manor to help, but I didn't remember until now. When I went to the manor there was this...black mist, it led me to the basement and then the ground opened up underneath me, like the hole Kaila fell down. There's something under the manor that I have to find. There was a girl there, she didn't have a face but the mist was inside of her, and she gave it to me. It didn't make sense when I saw it on me before," 

"Wait a minute, saw what?" Jay frowned as Lennox moved aside the neckline of her shirt, revealing the cut she bled from in the hospital. 

Only it hadn't healed at all, and it was black. She had striations spreading from the cut, like thousands of tiny veins fraying in a million directions. 

"Oh my God," He whispered, his face changing from confused to scared. 

"There's something inside of me Jay. If I don't figure everything out it'll kill me. Kaila said that it would be the end of my life as I know it." She gently touched her chest, never taking her eyes off him. "I need to go back to the manor." 

"No." He shook his head. "No way,"

"I have to."

"Lennox you're not going back."

"But I don't want to die!" Jay went quiet, staring at her as a tear spilled over onto her cheek. "And after Kaila, and Sasha, I have to take it seriously. I don't want to go back either. But I have to try and save myself, and my friends. I don't want to lose everything, I can't lose what I have left. Caleb, Skye, my dad, you? I already lost my friends, I have to try and stop it."