Ascension (Nanowrimo13)

Ascension [16]

Chapter 15

The ceremony itself was to take place in the lower bowels of the Carrington Estate. Normally the ceremony was done before a large group of friends and peers, the crowd unknowing of the route that she would take until they made the choice. Colbie, as she floated down the hallway, felt like she was going to her death. Never had she expected to be here, with no choice other than to choose immortality.

Her feet slapped on the stone steps as she followed her mother and talon, down and down. She went down further into the earth than she had ever been before - further than she had ever wanted to be. Despite her heritage, the princess had never been the biggest fan of dark confined spaces.

The curling, winding staircase stopped abruptly. Colbie almost ran into the back of her mother who had stopped saddened. A quickly glance over her shoulder revealed a door, a closed door. Her mother stared at the door for several long seconds before dropping her head so that her chin rested on her chest. She sighed and looked back at Colbie before leaning forwards to whisper to Talon.

They nodded and murmured. The next thing Colbie knew, Eleanor Carrington was gone. One second she was there and next she wasn’t. Having lived around the supernatural all her life, the young woman should have been used to the strange and the wonderful but still she felt her heart racing at the rapid disappearance of her mother.

It was a feat that she had never been able to get used to. Her family had all turned hundreds of years before she had ever been born and thus were well used to their gifts. Their slip from human speed to vampire speed was instantaneous.

Colbie gulped and looked down at Talon but he too had gone. The door which had been locked fast only moments before was now standing wide open, beckoning her into the darkness within. It would be the end of her life as she knew it and the start of an entirely new one.

Putting one foot in front of the other, she stepped through the wooden threshold and into the darkness. It caressed and comforted her as it something within her heart urged her feet forwards. Her footsteps continued to slap as she walked further into the depths of the Carrington estate in complete blindness. She felt her heart beating twice its normal speed as it banged against her ribcage just begging to be released.

The door behind her groaned before a loud bang echoed through the stone space. And then the definite sound of the lock clicking into place was like putting the final nail in the coffin. Colbie closed her eyes and will herself to go on.

And then she was walking so fast forwards that her feet were barely touching the ground. She put her hands out in front of her to protect her body from any hidden dangers but the darkness just stretched on and on. It was claustrophobic because Colbie had no way of telling which way was which or if the walls were only a few inches away or whether they were so far away she could host a ball and there would still be room to space.

It was like the thought had triggered something in the passageway as flickering light drew her attention. It looked about two hundred metres away but there was definitely light coming from under the edge of a door. She followed it willingly and when she came to the door, she pressed both hands against the wood and pushed. It opened with ease.  The hinges were obviously more cared for as there wasn’t even the slightest groan as the wood gave way under her touch.

Light assaulted her eyes, blinding her temporarily with its sudden brightness. And then her eyes adjusted and Colbie smiled. She recognised the room. It trigged some faint memory from her childhood, one so deeply locked away that she had forgotten he place even existed. It was her grandfather’s old study.

Ralph Carrington was a strange man – or at least that was how the stories had gone. The old coot had been so paranoid about attacks from humans and supernatural types alike that he had chosen the deepest and most defended part of the old Carrington fortress to put his private quarters. As to why she had been brought to the hidden rooms was not a question Colbie could answer.