Chapter One
The old, wooden grandfather clock clicked ferociously as it impatiently waited to
chime midnight. It gasped with a few more obnoxious ticks, and then fell deathly silent,
as if to catch it's breath before it triumphantly expelled a high-pitched bellow to
signify twelve o'clock. The loud, gentle chiming echoed through the chilly night air,
reverberating within Faye's ears as she stood outside, leaning delicately up against a
gnarled, wrought-iron railing. Her narrowed eyes flickered up toward the large house
towering over her as she slowly pulled her newly lit cigarette away from her slightly
parted lips, issuing out a thin whisp of smoke into the ambient darkness. She took one
gentle, inconspicious step forward, her shoes creating a soft noise upon the concrete
doorstep as she inhaled deeply upon her cigarette again. Her finger tapped down on it
as a snowstorm of ashes danced from the tip.
Rather abruptly, she exhaled again into the cold night air and extinguished the
cigarette, leaving it upon the doorstep. Her freezing fingertips traced over the doorhandle
before she swung open the door and entered the tall house, the rapid ticking of the antique
clock buzzing throughout the night.
Faye's dark hazel eyes narrowed more slightly, into delicate slits, as she
approached a staircase that appeared to have an ill composure due to sharp twists that it
took as it spiraled dramatically upward to a dimly lit floor garnished with glittering
chandaliers. She began her tedious trek up the wooden stairs her severely placid footsteps
ringing throughout the calm air within the shelter of the large house. The stench of
cigarette smoke lingered upon her warm breath and on her cotton clothing as her fingers
slid upon the smooth, glossy railing; as she carefully moved up the staircase, her vast
shadow moved along with her, flickering upon the walls with the dim light from the burning
candles. As the candles burned with dancing flames upon their wicks, a scent was emitted
through the air of something resembling cinnamon sprinkled upon baked apples. Faye winced
slightly at the odor wafting throughout the utter stillness of the night as her feet stepped
upon the final stair.
She took her last cautious step up the sickening staircase and stood on the top
floor, her shoes buried within the lush strands of carpet. Her thin lips curved upward into
a remarkable smirk, but she bit her bottom lip to rid her expression of the awkward sneer.
As she stepped toward the first room on her right, the night's stillness became shattered
as the clock downstairs wailed insistantly with steady ticking noises, just as it had before
as she had loitered outside.
Yet as she so suddenly exhaled a breath of air, something awkward clued her in to
the fact that something wasn't right, even within the air saturating with a calmness that
was indeed suffocating. Faye's movement ceased instinctively.
Her quick intake of air caught in her throat as the hair on the back of her neck
rose. She was supposed to be the only one in this unfamiliar house on that very night, and
as she whirled around, her body ached with an abrupt chill that insisted creeping throughout
her entire body. The gaze of her wide hazel eyes automatically locked with those peering
back at her, causing the dramatic tingle of the insistant chill to feel like shards of ice
pumping with difficulty through her veins. The eyes that had glared up at her were
magnificently beautiful yet overflowed with malice of a tangibile sort and appeared as blue
flames glittering in the void, as if gazing directly into her soul to uncover her deepest
secrets. Yet no matter the overpowering glower of vehemence creeping upon her, nothing in
the world seemed to be able to tear her locked gaze away. Who's glare it was happened to not
be of importance at the moment. The only thing that mattered to Faye was to leave the house
at the quickest moment possible, for she had seen many things in her 23 years and this by
far, was a situation in which her instincts were wailing at her frantically to take her
leave.
Faye's widened eyes tore away from the gaze of who was examining her from below
and she gently took a step down onto the winding staircase. She was quite aware that she
did not belong in the house that she was currently stuck in, but she also had a suspicion
that the person on the floor below didn't belong in the house either. The last thing that
she wanted to do was to confront the one who had displayed such power with only a look
from their eyes,but the only way out of the house was to venture down the stairs to the
floor below, in which a possible encounter awaited.
Faye's hurried thoughts became awkwardly interrupted as the gentle click of
footsteps echoed throughout the air as the person's shoes glided across the tile floor.
She dared not to move and even silenced her rapid breathing as the person began their trek
up the stairs within the uncomfortable darkness of the house. The person paused halfway up,
their breathing buzzing like a delicate whisper and their fingertips absentmindedly
tracing the texture of the wall. They slowly tipped their head upward, their icy blue eyes
glistening brighter than the dancing flame residing on the wick of one of the scented
candles carefully placed upon a table near the master bedroom. The stare of the glittering
sapphire eyes caused Faye to freeze up again, perhaps nearly worse than before.
"Faye," a soothing, gentle voice said, ringing throughout the night with such an
air of animosity. As the calm voice of the female calling her name blindly registered, she
felt her whole body go completely numb.