Forces Beyond The Grave

Chapter Seven

'Lennox, wake up' 

"Hm," Lennox shifted as she felt a gentle hand brush over her arm. 

'Lennox, come on sweetie, it's time to wake up.' 

She recognised the voice as her mother's. Stirring from her sleep, she awoke to the sweet smell of clementines - her mother's favourite perfume, and she opened her eyes. Her mother smiled. 

'Good morning sweetie.' 

"Mom?" 

'Come on now, it's time to wake up. Kaila has something to show you.' 

She began to fade away as she spoke, making Lennox frown as she blinked and was suddenly looking up at Kaila. 

"Morning sunshine." 

"Kaila? What...what happened?" 

Lennox took a second to adjust her eyes to the bright light of the morning, but when she tried to rub them she felt the rope tied around her wrists, but didn't register it until a few seconds later. She recognised the grass of the field and felt a sudden panic rush through her body as she attempted to pull her hands apart. 

"Wh- where are we? What did you do to me?" 

Things were slowly coming back to Lennox as she remembered the previous night's events - how Kaila had blown what seemed to be smoke in her face, but was black mist upon better recollection. After that, she had no idea what had happened, or why they were in the field, but the questions intensified when Lennox turned in her panic and laid eyes on the manor. Her body froze, she was no longer concerned about the rope around her wrists or the fact that Kaila had kidnapped her. 

"What...Kaila what is that?" She asked urgently. 

"What does it look like? It's the manor, silly. She looks good, doesn't she?" Kaila smiled. 

"No...no, this is joke right? This isn't real, it can't be." 

"Well why don't we go inside? You can see for yourself." 

"No, no!" Lennox thrust herself away from Kaila's outreached hand. "That's not possible! I watched that manor burn down, we both did!" 

"And you have been kidding yourself if you thought it wasn't powerful enough to make you see what it wanted you to see. You didn't really think it would be that simple, did you?" 

Kaila gave Lennox the most fake frown she could muster, but when the terrified expression on Lennox's face didn't change her frown became real. "You did. That's unfortunate." 

"Kaila take me home." 

"You know the less you fight back the easier this will be right?" 

"Take me home! I've been through enough with this place, it was over," 

"It was never over Lennox. But we wouldn't be here if you hadn't have opened up to Jay. Lets go."