Tell Me A Story

Chapter 32: Back to Little Falls

Suddenly I was aware of the spinning of  the Earth. Everything seemed to be caught in a whirlpool around me. I couldn't focus; I couldn't breathe.

It was Anna from the beginning. Irene's life is threatened... I can't let her harm Irene...

Somehow, mom joined the dots and deduced that something was seriously wrong and that Anna was behind it. She pulled me out into the car and started the engine without any questions.

Once we hit the road, mom raced back to Little Falls. She was concentrating on driving as fast as she could. I exhaled sharply.

"Irene's in danger, mom," I said, slow and cautious.

"I know," she replied nonchalantly.

"And Anna's the one responsible," I said.

"I know," she said again, without taking her eyes off the road.

It was then that I noticed how dark the surroundings had become. The last rays of the sun were disappearing fast. It looked like the good was being consumed by evil.

When Nana had explained the connections of the bloodlines, Anna asked her why she was spared. But she was faking it. She knew it was her. 

Anna is the reincarnation of George!

She must have manipulated Seth to act as decoy. She'd known about the Palace, In Cubiculo Magicas and everything else from the beginning. She didn't find it out from the diary, she'd remembered it all.

She killed her own brother! She is a cold-blooded, merciless murderer.

Trees and streams rushed past us as we continued to speed through the road. As my thoughts went deeper, things turned darker and confusing.

I shook my head. Certain things were not ringing a bell at all. But I guess I would have a proper explanation when I confronted her. 

She's planning to spill Irene's blood so that the requirements for the ritual are met... But I won't let her harm Irene. She killed Cathy, she killed dad, she killed Jake, she killed Judith, she killed Regina. It's time somebody killed her. Me.

Five people had fallen prey to her sinister plan so far. The blood of one more person had to be spilled in order to resurrect two souls. George and Amelia.

Mom turned on the headlights which cut across the air in front of us like an arrow. It was just us on the road. Just one car with two passengers driving back to their place amidst the silent, creepy darkness through a narrow, deserted road with no other living soul in sight.

She's doing her job well!

The first time I went to Nana's, just before Anna dragged me into the house, the apparition of my dad had said. I thought he was speaking about Amelia. He was referring to Anna. Well, of course she was excellent in doing her job. She was with me the whole time. She was misleading me. And I entrusted Irene's life to her. I ended up giving just what she wanted. The sixth victim...

"What's happened here?" exclaimed mom.

I was so deeply immersed in my thoughts, replaying the events to join the dots, to tie up the loose ends that I didn't notice at first that we'd reached Little Falls. That was one reason. The other was that the whole place was dead silent. No lights were turned on in any of the houses we passed. Even the street lamps were out. The only source of light was our car and it was proving to be insufficient.

"It's like everybody has fled the place!" I said, shifting my gaze from one house to the next.

To be honest, the whole countryside looked like nobody had lived there in a hundred years. The silence around us was deeply unsettling. I swallowed down the lump in my throat.