Nyctophiliac🌙

2 | Ruby

My front porch's wooden floor creaked below me. I tried as hard as I could to make my steps inaudible, I had to be really careful not to get caught.

I walked inside and locked the door. As I walked on the staircase that led to my room, I heard a knock on the door. So I quickly went back down and peeked outside from my window next to the door.
There was no one, but a box.
I opened the door and picked up the box. Who left it here?
It was a simple little wooden box. I examined it, trying to find the name of the sender. But there was none.

I looked around but there was no sign of life except the sound of crickets and owls.
Who would drop off a box in the middle of the night? I thought.
I quickly got inside and locked the door. I dashed upstairs to my room.

I sat on my bed and stared at the box in front of me. My mind was battling whether I should wait for mother or open it right this second. But curiosity got the best of me so I opened the box gingerly.

Inside the box there was a coven miniature with tiny carvings on top of it. It looked ancient and mysterious, It was intriguing. I opened it slowly and saw a gorgeous ring with a ruby on it. This must be expensive, who would give something like this to me? My hands roamed inside the box but I still didn't find any letter or the name of the sender.

I took the ring out of the box and placed it on my ring finger. It fitted perfectly.

But then a thought came to my mind. Maybe it's for my mother, maybe she bought it online? I gave myself a reasonable idea, even though I knew mother never bought anything online. I'll just ask her tomorrow. I took it off and placed it back inside the coven. I placed it far on the edge of my cupboard. I didn't know why but I felt as if I just had to hide it safely.

Then I continued my sleepless night working on my online school work.
________________

"Crystal! Dear, come down for breakfast!" Mother's voice echoed through my room from downstairs.
"Be there in a sec!" I shouted back, rubbing my tired eyes. I didn't sleep last night because I knew what would happen if I did. The smell of mom's corn soup made my stomach growl in hunger. I got out from my Unicorn Onesie and went downstairs.

As I sat on the dining table with my mom, I remembered the box from last night. I started to panic, trying to find the right words to ask her. I was afraid she would notice that the ring was used, by me.
"I-um.. mum?" I started. "Yes? What is it dear?" Mother looked up to me from her plate. "I was just- um.. wondering. Have you ordered anything online? Or are you expecting a gift from someone..?" I carefully asked. "No.. why?" She asked me back skeptically.

Should I tell her about the box even though it wasn't meant for her either? No no, she's gonna freak. What do I say now? Stupid, stupid Crystal. I mentally cursed myself while trying to come up with an excuse. "Oh, you know, I was just waiting for my- um.. school's new schedule." I said the first thing that came into my head. Jeez, that's the stupidest excuse I've ever heard. I panicked.

"Honey, you're home schooled." Mother stared at me weirdly. "Haha.. eh I know." I laughed awkwardly. The room went silent so I continued, "The school made some changes. They decided to make the new schedule, paper form. Cuz- um.. there were glitches on our previous virtual schedule." I nervously said, hoping mother didn't notice my extremely bad skill at lying.

"Right.. okay." She said before she continued eating. I sighed.
Thank god, luck's on my side today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up from my deep sleep.
I looked outside to see a beautiful sunset. I quickly showered, grabbed the mysterious ring from my cupboard and placed it inside my bag. I waited for midnight to come, while adding another coat of black nail polish and reading books. When midnight came, I looked for my mother and couldn't find her anywhere. I assumed she was already sleeping and immediately went to the woods.

As usual, I walked alone to the sycamore tree. When I arrived there, I plugged on my earphones, and pulled out my book. Sometimes I did some panorama drawing, sometimes I wrote a song, a poem or even just a letter to no one. Whenever I felt like drawing, I always climbed up to the tree so I could get full view of the environment around me.

This night I decided to draw the sycamore tree. I sat closer to the tree and brought my torch closer to the stem to see the details of it. Then something caught my attention. There were words on the tree, it wasn't here yesterday. It looked like someone used their long and sharp fingers to scratch words.

Do you like the present?
Wear it when you're in the woods.

A gasp escaped my mouth. Is this person talking about the ring or is this just a weird coincidence..? But why would someone scratch words like this in a random tree in the middle of the woods?

My curiosity was over the top, so I did what it said. I pulled out the mini coven from my bag and placed the ring on my finger. I was taken aback when the ring suddenly glowed in the dark. It was a neon red shade. I was scared for a moment. Just then, I heard something moved behind the bushes. "Who's there? Come out!" I said in defense mode. I pulled out my survival knife from my bag. For once I felt glad that I stole this knife from the kitchen just in case there was a goon or wild animal in the woods.

The glow on my ring increased at every passing second. Beads of sweat started to form on my forehead in the middle of the windy air. My heart rate escalated and my eyes roamed wildly as it searched for a possible predator. Then my eyes landed on two red dots. It looked like two red eyes staring at me in the darkness. I backed away rigidly. I was so scared, I wanted to scream. I quickly grabbed my bag and took one last glance. The eyes were gone. I turned around, and my bag almost fell out of my grip as I jumped back in shock. There was someone's head spying at me creepily, with the same red eyes. I blinked, and it was gone as fast as the wind. My mouth was hanging open before I realized what just happened.

I gathered myself to run for my life, but then an idea came to my mind. I went back to the tree and carved something on the tree with my knife.

Who are you?

I took one last glance at the words I carved, I made sure the words could be read clearly before I ran home as fast as my legs could take me with a terrified expression on my face.

When I got inside my house and locked all doors, I immediately went to bed and hid under the blanket.
What just happened..
Something wasn't right. I felt like something was missing. Then it clicked. My drawing book, it was left behind.
Oh no, I couldn't lose it. Every single one of my art was in that book. From songs, drawings, poems, it had become my own personal life journal.
I have to go back. And this time, I need to be ready. I became lost in my own thoughts. I was scared and confused. My mind and body really needed to rest.
Therefore, I forced myself to sleep.
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A/N:
I'm back people! I will publish new chapters whenever I feel like it. Could be tomorrow, every Friday, next week, next month, who knows.
Depending on my mood.

Please vote and leave nice comments. 'Cause it really does motivate me to write more frequently. Love u guys ;)