Fade Into Black - Shadows of the Night 5

Chapter 42

Hi,

Many of you asked about Anna's whereabouts, or maybe you wanted her back as the main narrator. Your wish is my command... ;-) A word of warning, you might not get exactly what you asked for.

Lara

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Chapter 42

ANNA

She moved through the dark building with ease, could have walked through the corridor backwards and blindfolded. Another eight steps forward, one turn to the left, then one more.

She stopped.

It was nighttime, there was no electricity, and she would have been stuck in total darkness, if not for the residue of light from the streetlamps outside.

Nothing seemed out of place, but the faint smell of musk mixed and mingled with stale air. Someone was here recently. Probably the shapeshifters. Maybe even Marrok himself. Second sight showed a blend of various auratic remains, the power of the grave like a soft undercurrent.

So not only wolves.

The remains looked not older than a day. She moved on, pushed forward by the undercurrent of the dark singsong that was her own ever since that night.

Entering via portal was one of the safest options to enter hiding places undetected. Le Mouret was once her favorite hiding place. The old hotel was a welcome change to the warehouses or the underground stations Raphael Medici had favored.

That was, before someone compromised this hiding place. She wasn't going to take any chances. If someone was keeping an eye on the hotel they would be thorough. And fast.

She had to be quick and efficient. And she would be.

She was almost certain that it was still here where she left it. She'd hidden it well.

Just a few nights ago she was here. The memory seemed like a cheap storyline someone else was explaining to her, like a movie that was way out of her genre or comfort zone.

The door to the room she used was open, the semi-light from the street-lamp outside stretching in through the window like a bony hand. It looked vacant, as if no one had lived in there for years. Maybe no one had detected its hiding place after all. It was possible they hadn't found anything and simply left. It was possible that it was still there.

She stepped into the room, sure-footed and determined, and moved to the bed. Then stopped and stared at the wall, again caught up by the odd sensation of shifting out of place. Somewhere within something stirred. A memory maybe, or a conversation someone else might have had in another life or another century.

Dreams were faded memories, were pictures that vanished like smoke into thin air. Nothing left each time she awoke. Another day, another nightmare she would survive. Too much time had passed. Too much to remember. Not enough to forget. She closed her eyes.

She was alone in this. And she would survive, even on her own. She always had.

The dark current within her hummed. Ready. There for her. There, should she need it.

She blinked, focused on the here and now, on what she had. The calm settled slowly. She was going to survive. The magic was there, all around her. Power pulsed underneath her skin, waiting and ready. No one was going to push her around anymore. Her past was a violent history that had come to an end.