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Chapter 2: The Tome of Eternal Darkness
Two weeks later…
"A two week long mission trip in Mexico… I am never doing that again…" Danielle mumbled, lying face-down on her pillow. As soon as she had arrived in Providence, Rhode Island, she had been called to a softball game because they were short one player. Now she was dead tired, still in her jersey, and ready to sleep twenty-four hours straight. That was when the phone rang. "It never fails," she muttered darkly, snatching up the phone. "Hello?"
"Um… Is this Danielle Sterling?" a female voice asked.
"Yeah, it is. Who's this?" Danielle felt a sense of déjà vu or something. This was almost just like when her grandfather had called her.
"My name's Alexandra Roivas. My grandfather left me a note to call you. Do you think you can come to the mansion right away? It's an emergency."
Immediately, Danielle rolled out of bed and slipped on her tennis shoes. "I'll be over ASAP. Don't worry." She hung up the phone, heart pounding with excitement and fear. She was going to meet her sister face-to-face. But what was the emergency about? She locked the door to her house and jogged down the street with the setting sun blazing behind her. In another few hours, night would fall.
Minutes passed by in almost complete silence. Every now and then a car would pass by, but that was all. Danielle walked up the steps and rang the doorbell, surprised when the door opened barely even a second later. Alexandra Roivas stood staring at Danielle with wide eyes. "You must be Danielle, right?" Danielle nodded. "Wow. I didn't expect this… I mean, I never knew I had a younger sister and all…" She smiled a bit, obviously nervous. "Come on in. You can call me Alex, by the way."
Danielle stepped inside, deciding to get right to the point. "Hate to be rude, but… What's the emergency?"
Alex's smile fell away, replaced by an expression of deep sorrow. "Something happened to Grandpa. He…" She shook her head. "He was murdered two weeks ago. I came here looking for clues. That was when I found the note he wrote. Your number was on there, along with a whole explanation about us being siblings. I figured that maybe you could help me out."
Danielle thought about it for a second and nodded. "We should look around. Should we split up and look around?"
Alex nodded and pointed to a door beyond the left stairwell. "You go ahead and look in the dining room. I'll be in the kitchen. If we can't find anything, then we'll check the library together."
"What about upstairs?"
"The doors are locked and the key broke when I used it. The basement is also locked, and I can't find a key anywhere for it."
Danielle shrugged. "Guess that leaves us with only three places to look. If I find anything, I'll tell you immediately." Alex nodded, and they both went to check their respective rooms. "Let's hope I find something," Danielle whispered to herself as she entered the dining room.
All of the lights were off, so the setting sun gave the room an orange-colored hue. An elaborate piano was immediately to her left, and a table set for one person was on her right. From the look of things, her grandfather hadn't led much of a social life… Danielle scanned the room once more. A few things of unimportance mostly, but what caught her eye was a strange painting over the fireplace.
Four colored circles with strange symbols in the middle of them were arranged in a peculiar pattern. The red, blue, and green circles were arranged in a triangle, and the purple circle was in the middle of them all. Below the painting were four marble blocks with each of the symbols carved on their surfaces.
Danielle rubbed her chin, slightly confused. Those symbols seemed to be of some importance, but what did they mean. And why did they seem so familiar to her, like she had seen them before? She was about to pick one of the blocks up when she felt a rush of cold air against the back of her neck, like something had brushed against it. She spun around quickly, but nothing was there.
"Just like every horror film… Alone in a dark, creepy house, weird things happening… Next thing you know, I'll be seeing ghosts," she muttered, chiding herself for getting worked up over nothing. Danielle sighed and was about to leave when she noticed an aged piece of paper on the dining room table. It was definitely old, probably by a good few years or so. She had no idea what it was from, but she was positive it hadn't been there before.
Danielle walked over to the table, reading the words at the top of the page. "'In Darkest Night'," she read. "Sounds like something from a book. She read a bit more and noticed a small caption just under the title. "A.D. 2000 Sterling Family Household, Rhode Island… What the heck?" Her heart skipped a beat as she saw her name in the first line, but she didn't get a chance to read on. A cold hang gripped her shoulder gently. Danielle glanced down at it, surprised at the sight of a ghostly blue translucent hand. Slowly, she pulled away and turned around.
Her grandfather was standing there, but he looked a lot different than when she had seen him the first time. He was wearing the same clothes as before, along with the glasses, but he had no eyes. He looked like some sort of ghost that always appeared in those cheesy horror films. Except that this time, it was real. "G-Grandpa…?" Danielle whispered, all thoughts about the page vanishing from her mind.
Solemnly, he nodded, picking up the piece of paper from the table. "Yes. It's me. I know this might come as a surprise to you, but you're now involved in something that had spanned for millennia. This single page from the Tome of Eternal Darkness explains how you were caught up in this war, but it is too soon to show you now."
Danielle hesitated for a second. Here she was talking to a ghost and she wasn't all that freaked out. "I don't get it. You're supposed to be dead, but you're right here standing in front of me. What the heck's going on here?"
"I am dead, but like the others, I can still appear in the form of an apparition. I do not have much time. Do not tell Alex about me appearing to you or what you saw on this page. You will both learn the truth soon enough."
Danielle opened her mouth to ask him what others, but he quickly vanished. The dining room door opened, and Danielle barely stifled a cry of surprise. Alex walked in, looking slightly worried. "What's the matter? Looks like you've seen a ghost." Danielle merely shrugged, but Alex spoke before she could say anything. "When you didn't come in, I decided to check on you. Did you find anything?"
She shook her head. "No, and I looked everywhere. That's what took so long." She felt guilty for lying, but she had been told not to reveal anything. "How about you?"
"There was a strange plaque that kept the pantry door locked, but that's all. Guess that leaves the library and observatory…"
"An observatory? Dang… Never heard of one of those being inside a house," Danielle commented as they entered the library. She looked at the door to her right. "Is it in there?"
Alex nodded. "Yup… Why don't you see what's in there and come get me when you find something. And this time, remember to check in," she said jokingly.
Danielle chuckled. "Sure thing. I'll remember to do it this time." She watched Alex walk around a corner before turning around and entering the observatory. She let out a low whistle, examining the enormous telescope and the rows of books on astronomy. On a nearby desk was an open book with sketches and notes on a planetary alignment of some sorts.
She walked over to the desk, quickly skimming over the notes before she turned the page. There were even more notes, but this time they talked about something called the Tome of Eternal Darkness. "Wait… That's the book Grandpa mentioned. So that means…" Danielle stared down at the notebook. This could possibly explain what all was going on around here… She took one last look at the telescope before reading on.
Using the grandfather clock to keep a secret passage closed is an ingenious idea, but why would Grandpa have something like this made? And why was he so interested in the occult? He was hiding something…
When Alex opened the door at the end of the passage, she found out what it exactly was that Edward Roivas wanted hidden. It was a small study with numerous shelves, paintings, and various knick-knacks that Edward had collected over the years. There was even an old sword mounted in a frame. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust except for the desk. On it were several books, notes, and one particularly large book bound in what appeared to be leather with intricate designs on it. It had no title on the cover, but a nearby note described it as the ancient Tome of Eternal Darkness.
Alex sat down, pulling open the book. As soon as she read the first few lines of text, strange images flooded her mind so fast that she didn't have time to remember details. She shook her head a few times, falling back in the chair. What was this book? And what the heck were those things she just saw? Eagerly, she read on.
"I did not know what was to come, nor did I care. How the knowledge changed me, it will also change you. As you read this, you will come to understand fear as I have. You, too, will come to understand, or you will perish."