Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 3 - Midnight Horror

Zayne exploded through the front door of his aunt's home, fake fighting Damien the whole way in. Ver just had that awkward smile on her face as she shook her head right behind them. Zayne got a good glimpse around the place before returning to his bickering with Damien. This place was new. Very new, actually, it had just been built in a very interesting and scenic spot. Quite a ways from the actual city, or from any populated area in fact, was a large portion of land that included hills, forests, and even a really big cave right in the open a little ways into the property. It was all ruled over by the owners of this home, who were currently Veronica and Keith Smith, Zayne's aunt and uncle. They were pretty rich, so they had the money available to buy the nearly one hundred acre plot along with the mansion included in the deal.

To be honest it wasn't actually a mansion, but compared to Zayne's home this place was like a castle it was so big. The main entrance was made of finely cut and polished woods and stones, forming an arch right in front of the separation of the entrance and the living room. There was a bit of a buffer zone between the front door and any other part of the home, allowing people to take off shoes, put away coats, or get off dirty tracks before bringing them into the house. The living room was massive. On the front wall of the living room, to the left of the front door entrance, was the massive almost theater sized TV. It took up around seventy percent of the wall, which was very large.

On the other side of the living room, opposite the front entrance was the back entrance and porch, which was just one big wall of windows looking out into the backyard of the property. The deck was almost the same size as the living room. There was a large round table sitting in the middle of the living room, surrounded by chairs and couches of every variety and color. It was honestly a horrible mixture of colors, but Ver and Keith's taste in style was much different from Zayne's. Under the TV was a large movie stand with hundreds of movies sitting on their shelves. On the middle shelf were two gaming consoles, a Nintendo Switch and a Playstation Four. Zayne's uncle Keith was playing on the Playstation as they entered.

"Heya bud, long time no see," Keith greeted warmly while he kept his attention centered on his intense game.

"Yup," Zayne simply replied, finally done messing with Damien.

"Mom what's for dinner?" Damien shouted to Ver, who had entered the kitchen behind the living room.

The kitchen was directly behind the living room, not separated by anything. There was a large island slash bar type counter that stretched across the middle of the kitchen, with counters and appliances lining the back wall. A dinner table and chairs rested in the back left corner of the tile covered floor. Ver had just opened and closed the fridge with two full oven pizzas in their boxes. She rattled one in Damien's sight range, making him smile and shoot a thumbs up to her. Zayne focused on Keith's game he was playing. It had something to do with robots, tribes, and an open world rpg concept. Zayne had seen it before but had never actually memorized its name. He didn't have a Playstation, so it didn't really matter.

"So how was your day?" Keith asked, still struggling in his game.

"Fine," both Zayne and Damien replied in unison, instantly giving each other smiles.

"Good, good. So Zayne are we taking you to school tomorrow?" Keith still didn't move his focus from the screen.

"Yes I'm taking him to school tomorrow, you've got work remember?" Ver called from the kitchen as she closed the oven.

"Well if you're leaving tomorrow we better get stuff done tonight," Damien eagerly suggested as he got up and started walking towards the bedrooms.

Directly to the right of the front door, on the other side of the kitchen wall was a hallway that led to dozens of doors on either side. The first one to the right was the laundry room. The first one of the left was the guest bathroom. The second row of doors were double guest bedrooms, both furnished entirely with anything one would need. The final door to the right was the master bedroom where Ver and Keith slept. It was massive, with their bed being surrounded on all sides by windows. Even with the windows they had enough room to furnish two massive clothes dressers, a massive walk in closet, and the doorway to the master bathroom, which was also connected to Damien's room across the way.