The Sworn Bond

Chapter 1

After twelve years of not seeing my mother I was finally able to see her, but with needles poking in and out of her. My mother had sent me to live with my Aunt Jessica in Arizona when I was five. I was never told why, just that my father had died, who I had no remembrance over, and my mom needed some time alone. That time alone extended to twelve years and I could only assume she didn't want me. My spunky aunt sort of became the mom I was missing and I looked up to her for advice and saw her as my only family.

I shuddered, remembering how I ended up here though. I had come home from grocery errands to find my aunt in her apartment sitting in the dark with the TV on and the phone off its deck. I tried flipping on the light switch but it wouldn't work (I found it odd all other electrical items worked besides the lights) so I had walked to where my aunt was sitting.

"Jessica?" I had said as I crept closer. "Jessica?" I stared at my aunt's pale face, lightened only by the television screen. Her eyes were wide open, staring motionlessly out in space. I waved my hand in front of her face. "Jessica," I whispered. Still no response.

I reached out my hand and not knowing what else to do, gently poked her shoulder. My aunt immediately reacted to my touch and leaped up. Screaming, I shot back away from my aunt only to stop when she gave me a confused look.

"What are you doing on the floor?" she asked.

I blinked, more than a little confused myself. "You-you were-"

"I was what?" Now she looked at me like I was crazy when it should've been the other way around.

"Nevermind," I mumbled. "Maybe I should just get some sleep." I stood and meant to head to my room when my aunt's cold hand on my arm stopped me.

"Here," she said in an odd monotone voice. She handed me something and I was shocked to see it was a plane ticket. "Your mother's sick." With that, my aunt went and sat back down on the chair and stared into space, just like before. After that my aunt didn't say anything. She didn't even move. Scared out of my wits and puzzled beyond belief I didn't know what to do, eventually deciding to leave.

My aunt's condition or whatever it was wasn't changing and the lights never did come back on. I didn't know how to fix it and I sure didn't know who to call. I was homeschooled and my only neighbors spent their days and nights drinking, occasionally taking a trip down loony lane with drugs. My aunt wasn't exactly dying either so 911 seemed out of the question, not to mention I didn't want her to end up at an asylum. So two days later after checking my aunt's pulse and seeing it was still there as strong as ever, I left a note, still a bit unsure of what I was doing, and took the scheduled flight to Virginia.

I arrived to a little house in the woods, just a bit off a road, with a quick note on the doorstep explaining how my mother was at the hospital but not why and that there was a spare key hidden in the flower bed. Upon entering the little cottage I found it extremely cluttered and papers strewn across the floor. The dirty dishes left on the kitchen counters and floor didn't go unnoticed. For the past three days I had spent all my extra time cleaning up the place and finding an odd assortment of objects, including many dried herbs and a dog I thought was a mop.

The newspaper clippings and internet articles I found everywhere were the oddest. They were all about the same three people who had gone missing and reappeared in the woods wondering where and who the heck they were. They were all found with a gash in their forearm. I could only then look out the window at the surrounding trees and wonder what I had gotten myself into. I also found an article that didn't fit in with the rest. It was about a Sylvia Silverstone who had recently become mayor. The only picture on there had been of a colonial styled mansion where the new mayor now lived.