So I think this is one of the chapters that everyone has pretty much been anticipating. And man was it easy to write; the words just flowed like I've had them trapped in my head since I first started writing...

But you don't want to hear/read my useless babble... on with the chapter.

Chapter 03 – Tunnel of Truth

Hailey left early that morning, after giving Tyler a kiss goodbye she jumped in to her car and drove the hour and fifteen minutes back home to Ipswich. Her mind racing the entire time about what she was about to snoop around in, and what she was going to discover.

She had no idea where to start, but figured that the Putnam Barn might be a good source. She found the dirt road that lead back in to the old colony houses. She drove down the old road, a bit spooked by her surroundings.

It was early morning, and a bit creepy, but in a beautiful way.

The road winded around a corner and her interest was sparked by a pile of rubbish off to her left. She slowed her car down and pulled over on to the side of the road. She hoped out of the car and headed straight to the large mess in the middle of nowhere.

She was scared at first, wondering what might possible be here, and what might have possibly happened here. She wasn't sure what to believe, or what her imagination might conjure up.

Would she see his face again on someone else? Or would she see him?

What were the guys hiding from her? What was Tyler hiding from her?

No more secrets… no more lies, those were his exact words the day that Reid had found her by the lake after everyone found out about the bet with Aaron.

Hailey saw an old wooden wagon off to her right and immediately trucked in the thick dirt to get to her destination. Her gaze fell upon the rotting piece of old history, she let her fingers touch the splintered wood in hopes of feeling something, of getting some answers.

She waited, but nothing, sighing she let her gaze settle on the rubbish. She could tell there had been a fire here, the wood had been charred and was almost unrecognizable. Hailey found herself wondering through the debris, trying to get a feel of what went down that day.

She studied the scene, almost as if she was a police officer investigating the original occurrence. She judged it with a critical eye, trying to find clues of what happened. She found quite a few foot prints, some larger than others. She found pieces of torn clothing attached to pieces of wood or blood that was smeared with water, dirt and burning wood.

But she found no answers.

Hailey mentally noted everything she could before climbing back in to her car and driving further down the dirt roads. The original Ipswich colony, the dirt road contained the houses of the founding families.

She glanced to her right a mile down the road from the Putnam barn, it was a road that lead off to the first Danvers' colony house, the next on the left belonged to the Parry's, two miles up the road on the right was the Garwin original manor, and at the end of the road was the Simms' original colony house.

She stopped the car and turned it off. She walked up towards the small gate that encircled the property. The windows were blacked out from years of being abandoned. Feeling her stomach tightened she took another step on to the property, looking around quietly for a sign of life, or a sign of what was to come.

Nothing.

She started towards the front door, and stopped. What if it was locked? Her lips pursed together as she looked around and swallowed hard. She was in the middle of no where and no one ever came out here, they wouldn't notice if she letherself in, would they?

Smiling, she approached the front door and twisted the handle, it clicked and opened, no hassle, and it wasn't stuck. She looked up at the sky and smiled, maybe this was a good sign. She entered the dark, dingy house and left the door open behind her.

She tip toed her way through the bottom half of the home, it was still furnished she noted. Everything seemed like it belonged, like no one ever left, except for the several inches of dust settling on most of the objects.

"This is strange…" She said aloud seeing what looked like foot prints in the dust and soot. She followed the footprints and they lead to what appeared to be a basement door.

Swallowing Hailey opened the door and looked down; it was completely dark down there. She took a step back and searched her pockets for any source of light. A lighter, or matches or something… but she realized she didn't keep those kinds of things on hand, she wasn't a smoker.

A light bulb went off and she darted out of the front door and to her car. She wasn't a smoker, but Reid was. And Reid had been in her car countless times, there had to be a lighter or something in her car.

She tore her front seat apart, looking for some kind of lighting mechanism. She pulled the seats back looking under them, pulling open the console she found a little blue lighter wedged between a pair of old sunglasses and one of Tyler's many cards he had given her over the past few months.

Snatching the lighter up she walked back in to the house, looking around carefully as if she was gong to be seen by someone. She hurried in to the house and borrowed a candle stick from one of the antique looking silver candle holders.

The brunette took her first step down to the dark basement, a winding stone staircase lead her to a cold, dark room. It was covered with antiques and clutter. She held the candle out looking for anything interesting.

She saw a stack of old books in the corner and proceeded towards them. She knelt down not caring if her blue jeans got dirty, picking up the leather bound book she read the cover of it out loud.

"The journal of Theodore Simms, 1676-1686" and underneath it was a continuing series of journals. "The journal of Theodore Simms, 1687-1697" the next several journals were of different names, but the last name the same. They were Tyler's ancestors.

Hailey grabbed the top two journals that belonged to Theodore Simms and held them close to her chest as she rose from the ground. She held the candle stick up and looked for anything else, any other possible clues.

She saw a dark opening to her left and stepped further, the closer she got the more the opening looked more like an underground tunnel. She approached where this opening was, where a wall should have been and noticed that it was a dark, damp and she could hear the sound of water dripping to the cemented ground.

Following her instinct she headed in to the tunnel, wondering where this was going to take her. Holding the candle up the girl stopped. She held the candle to the wall and saw that encrypted in to the walls were names.

Harvey Simms and Marie Simms, son Andrew Simms. Benjamin Simms and Cordelia Simms, son Theodore Simms.

The names continued as she walked further in to the tunnel, the last etching made her bite her lip in question.

Glenn Simms and Rosalind Simms, son Tyler Simms.

It was almost like a family tree of sorts. She stared at the encrypting words and swallowed, it was almost becoming difficult to breath. What were there families? Were they some under ground cult?

Or were they just very family orientated?

She continued the long haul down the curving tunnel, the tunnel walls began showing writing again as she held up the candle. This time it wasn't the Simms names that stared back at her, it was another set of familiar names starting with one she recognized right away.

Joseph Garwin and Meredith Garwin, son Reid Garwin.

And the Garwin line continued as she walked towards another opening, the opening she realized lead to another basement. She figured the Garwin basement by the names etched in to the walls.

Her mind began running again, wondering what this meant; she steadily followed her candlelight to another opening that lead to another tunnel. She had fumbled upon an underground link; something that held the four boys together, their roots.

After finding her way through the Parry tunnel, finding Pogue's name. She supposed that the next tunnel lead to the Danvers' basement and tunnel. What she found was something different. The Parry tunnel didn't turn to the right where the Danvers' colony house would be; instead it continued to go straight.

Not thinking anything of it, she continued down the tunnel, holding her candle out that was burning down slowly. She gave it to the old candle makers, they don't make them like they used to, she thought.

Words began forming on the wall, but the last name wasn't Danvers, it was Putnam. The names on the wall weren't familiar to her. She had heard the stories about John Putnam, and that he was burned at the stake.

Frederick Putnam and Annabelle Putnam, son John Putnam.

Hailey was expecting the names to stop, that was until she held her candle a bit further and saw a single name written in the stoned wall. One that made her entire body lock in an instant.

Chase Collins.

The name made her want to turn back around and run for the Simms house, to get in her car and drive back to Boston and not look back. It made her want to march up to the Sons of Ipswich and demand some answers.

Collecting herself, and her thoughts she made her feet move, made herself carryon with her investigation. The name on the wall was a little light on the subject. She hoped that wherever this tunnel led her that she would be able to get some more answers.

She hurried through what was the basement of the Putnam's and felt her pace picking up as she followed the path to what she hoped was the Danvers' colony house and not another surprise.

But she was right, it lead straight to the Danvers' the name on the wall confirming this for her.

James Danvers and Evelyn Danvers, son Caleb Danvers.

She held her breath and walked in to the opening. Not believing what she saw before her, Hailey rubbed her eyes and held out the candle. A large room catered with bookshelves lining every possible space, five large stone benches circled a dark stoned table, that had something etched in to it she couldn't see from where she was standing.

Matching stone stairs lead up to the house, Hailey dropped her handle and her books, her hands flying to her mouth. She didn't know what to think of this. Maybe they were a cult. And Chase Collins was trying to come back and take over what he had lost.

She watched as the entire room lit up, glancing down she saw her candle had landed in what appeared to be a stoned fire pit, that lead around the benches and in to the middle of them.

Her eyes grew wide seeing that it wasn't just any stone circle in the middle of the benches, it was a pentagram. Her entire body froze at the thought, that her boyfriend, the man that she loved was part of some cult… or maybe a Wiccan cult.

"Oh my god, Tyler…" She whispered.

She gathered the books from the ground and walked towards the pentagram. On each stone a name was engraved; Danvers, Parry, Garwin, Simms, and Putnam. And each bench was at the point of the pentagram.

She took a seat on the Simms stone bench and looked around completely flabbergasted by her discovery. Wanting to know more she opened the first page of the first journal.

'June 16th, 1676

Today is my thirteenth birthday. Mother and Father both say today is a very important day, but if it is so important why are they sending me to this camp. The camp is called Camp Iwanahee, they also gave me this journal this morning, to record things in. Father is acting unusually awkward today, to say the least.'

Hailey sifted through the rest of the journal entry and skipped to the next page.

'June 17th. 1676

I have just gone through the most torturous experience of my life. I don't know what it was, but as soon as I got an explanation from Gorman Twoberry about where I was and why I was there, these dark thunderous clouds rolled in. Thunder and lightening cracked in the sky, and I was lifted off of the ground… nearly ten feet. My entire body was shaking and in pain, four other boys were with me. They had all experienced this already. I was told I was the youngest; I was the last to receive The Power.'

The Power, Hailey thought, what was this Power that Theodore Simms spoke about?

'June 20th, 1676

I'm a witch. That is what I experienced the night of my birthday. I am a witch; I have powers unlike any other human being.'

Hailey's eyes froze on the first few sentences, a witch? She though to herself. Wanting more answers, wanting an elaboration she continued sifting through the journal entries that followed.

A journal entry from August stood out to her, she lifted her gaze to the bookshelves lining the basement of the Danvers' colony house.

'August 27th, 1676

… we were great friends now, finding out much about one another from our parents whom we never knew were best of friends in their day. We met at the Danvers' colony house. Mr. Danvers showed us The Covenant's meeting place. It is in the basement a large stone pentagram lies in the middle of five benches each with one of our last names inscribed.

… we each are getting our turn to read to Book of Damnations. We have to visit the Danvers' colony house every weekend for our lesson. The Book is not allowed to leave the Covenant's coven.'

Hailey tried to read the titles on the books across from her, but she was having no luck. Some of the books hadn't been touched in months, some even years. She set the journal down next to her and stood up.

She glanced over at the Danvers' bench and across from it was a bookshelf, a bookshelf that had a very large, leather bound book poking out uncharacteristically. Hailey moved towards this book and slowly pulled it from it's spot on the shelf.

It fell in to her arms with a heavy weight, she stumbled back a bit unaware at how heavy this book might be. She cleared her throat and pushed her hair out of her face setting the book down on the middle of the stone pentagram.

Hailey opened the book and chapter by chapter she read the writings of the ancestors of her boyfriend and friends. From their move from Ipswich, England to the new founded 13 Colonies, and founding the Ipswich Colony, to the witch Hunts, and having to hide their secret.

Secrets, Hailey thought. She felt her anger boil deep within her. Tyler had kept this from her; he had lied to her about who Chase Collins was… he had fabricated a story to hide who he really was from her.

She didn't know what to think of all this, could this be true. Could this be who her boyfriend really was? Is that why Chase Collins would appear and disappear within a simple blink of an eye? Is that why he had come to her in her dreams?

She swallowed hard, flipping through the last written chapter of The Book of Damnation. She found that it was about the Sons… her Sons. She read through it, detailed information about what happened the first week of school.

How Chase appeared out of nowhere and rattled their friendship, and their relationships. She pursed her lips together and wondered what Chase had meant by what he had said to her in her dream.

But, then she realized by Tyler's 18th birthday, all of the sons would be eighteen. They would have allascended as the book called it. He wanted their matured powers, but how did she play in to this?

Why was Chase involving her?

'She was my bait to get to you, and you were just my bait to get to Caleb…' a voice echoed in her head.

A familiar voice, the voice of Chase Collins.

Hurriedly putting the Book away she grabbed the journals and the fallen candle and hightailed it back through the tunnels. She had found her answers, whether or not she was ready to accept these answers, she wasn't quite sure yet.

So... what do you think? How do you think she's going to process the new information? Or react to Tyler and the boys now?

We're going to do a little poll here... how would you like her to react, let me know in your review, or PM me:)