authors note: okay so i deleted and then rewrote this so now there seems to be more of a storyline and there is more of a chance of me uploading more. and if anyone would like to make me a cover? lol
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It was a warm summer evening so I had decided my favorite white tank top and cute denim mini shorts would be perfect, sexy and breezy-although I did have my favourite black hoodie stuffed in Logan’s bag for later on when it got cooler. I was on a sort of date with my boyfriend. He suggested we spend a night in our local "haunted house", that it would be fun. So naturally, I agreed.
Up ahead the haunted house loomed above us, dark and daunting. I clutched Logan’s hand, not in fear but nervousness.
As we approached I saw it was not just a house but a mansion, with a three meter high rusting, twisted Iron Gate. Even though everything was run down and either rusted or rotting you could see the beauty and elegance underneath it all. It would have been even more beautiful a hundred or so years ago.
The gate squeaked as Logan slowly pushed it open and let me through before letting it swing shut with a loud clang that made us both flinch. The gate had been chained shut at one stage but the chain had been cut and was hanging open.
The closer we got to the house the more nervous I felt. This place just felt so…wrong. I told Logan this but he just chuckled and said "don’t be silly, it’s just the setting… we’ll be fine"
I just shrugged and said "okay" trying to convince myself and Logan but only succeeding in the latter. The front door was actually double doors, three meters high and made of old, thick, stained oak. The doors were miraculously carved with giant tigers and lions leaping at each other, a tiger was leaping from the left hand door with its teeth bared and the Lion was leaping from the right door with a snarl on its face. Other unrecognizable creatures, all shaped into one giant detailed tree, roots and all, covered the rest of both the doors. For some strange reason I felt somehow connected to the leaping tiger
Expecting them to be locked, I walked up to the doors to have a closer look but they swung open silently just as I reached out to touch them. I thought I saw something move in the shadows inside. I heard Logan gasp from the steps behind me, and, thinking he had seen the movement, turned around to ask, but he was gone leaving a set of fresh footprints going around the side of the mansion. No, wait, a set of footprints and the sort of marks someone being dragged would probably leave behind (how do I even know that??).
I screamed Logan’s name, instinct telling me something bad had happened to him, that the drag marks were his. I raced down the stairs and followed the tracks around the corner, completely forgetting about the doors that had opened by themselves.
I followed the tracks around the house and back to the front doors which were now closed, but the tracks lead into the house so I had to find another way in, never once did the thought cross my mind that it could be dangerous. I didn’t even have my torch or anything we had brought with us because Logan had been carrying them in his backpack which had disappeared with him. I jogged around to the back of the house where I had glanced an old trellis covered in dead roses as I ran past. I climbed up it with a rock from the overgrown garden clutched in my hand to smash the first window I came to. Once I was inside and standing up straight I picked up a piece of long, thin glass and held it tight in my hand, not noticing the blood dripping down my hand to the floor. Once again I didn’t even think about what I was doing.
Standing in the middle of the room I had climbed into I looked around in a trance, it was beautiful, the thick, blood red carpet was still soft and slightly spongy underfoot, despite the thin layer of dust. The old faded white wallpaper painted with green vines and some sort of strange flower still held beauty. But it was the ceiling that held my gaze; it was just like the front doors with the carved animals shaped into a tree, but this time there was no lion, just a tiger standing tall and proud, making my heart thump in recognition. I shook myself, coming out the trance and walked to the door and making as little noise as possible I opened it a crack, listening. Hearing nothing I opened the door even more and peeked out, making sure there was no one there before I entered the long corridor. "It’s like I already know how to do all this," I thought "from a past life or something maybe."
At the end of the hall I heard a scream, a horrible, bloodcurdling scream. LOGAN! I screamed inside my head and ran towards the noise that had started after the scream a strange, sucking, yet vaguely familiar noise that makes my skin crawl.
After two flights of stairs, and another weaker, but still bloodcurdling scream I arrived at the door where the noise was coming from. Covered in sweat, I slowly pushed open the door, afraid of what I might see.
I stepped inside the room and… I had found Logan. But oh god, he was so pale! He looked bloodless almost…just, hanging there. And then, that thing, that…creature, just standing there. But the blood… there was blood everywhere, Logan’s blood, covering its face, its mouth, and fangs?. Yes they were fangs, no doubt... oh god it couldn’t be!
I screamed. I stood there and just screamed. The thing finally pulled away from Logan and turned to face me, slowly but surely. The thing sniffed the air as i stepped forward and suddenly froze. I had to strain to hear as it whispered something:
"
Tigris shifter antiquis, sed fabula!" ("the ancient tiger shifter, but it is a myth!")
The world seemed to snap into place around me and the fear vanished. Crouching into a fighting stance holding the shard of glass in front of me I know who I am. I am Breaca Saint with the flaming copper red hair, one of the of an ancient race, set out to protect the few of us that are left. I recognised this place because its where I'm from, my domus,my home. I must protect it.
I push all thoughts as to how I got here to the back of my head and focus on taking down the creature in front of me, the lamia. My skin ripples and I pounce, taking the creature to the ground.
