Disclaimer; I don't own W.I.T.C.H., perhaps you already knew that.
Thank you for your reviews on the last chapter, I Will try to update this story once a week, so stay tuned...
"It is beautiful," Susan exclaimed. Will and Dean could only agree with the woman's remark. The old monastery building was truly gorgeously. Upon a hill was a long neo gothic building of stone with elaborate carvings and gargoyles. The front, facing the road were they came, was probably a hundred meter in length and three stories high with multiple windows, and at the center was an entrance that could have belonged to a cathedral. The steep roof was made of stone with a dozen chimneys on top of it. The dense forest surrounded the asylum, closing it in from every angle with ancient oak trees and pines. As they approached the building, Will realized that the magnificent building had the shape of a horseshoe. It was even more of it stretching further behind. Dean had no problem finding a parking spot, what probably was the old monastery garden once, must have been turned into a parking lot when it was remade into an asylum. No other cars were seen there for obvious reasons, and the space was big enough for around thirty cars, so the process of parking took comfortable two seconds.
Susan and Dean quickly left the car, it took a moment longer for Will because she had to take her little brother with her.
When they all had gathered themselves on the outside, Susan said, "We leave the luggage in the car for now while we look for a place to sleep for the night, because if there isn't we will have to drive back to the village and see if they have a room for us there."
Dean's face suddenly got very bleak, probably at the thought of sleeping inside the old asylum, so Will decided to walk up to him. "Did the old man's story frighten you?" She asked.
"No of course not," he said, not entirely convincing Will. "But I didn't imagined the institute to be of this size, it is enormous, I wonder of many rooms there are."
"Well, if I should guess from the first look of it, I would say we might find a room or two if we look reeealy hard." Will said jokingly.
Then Will took William's hand and put on a brave smile not to worry Dean any further, but on the inside, she felt uneasy, the story seemed scarier now as she looked up at the house and the dark forest. True enough, it was an architectural masterpiece but its bleak loneliness in the middle of a dark forest made her feel anxious. Its dark grey walls, tall and imposing, telling people to stay away, unwilling to let reveal its hidden secrets. People who came, but never left… She shook her head, she was a witch for goodness sake, or rather a guardian of an infinite number of universes, she had seen and met things nobody else ever could dream about, and not only that, she had the heart of Kandrakar and was probably one of the most powerful beings on earth. However, that was together with her fellow guardians and best friends, right now, she was just Will Vandom and felt uneasy.
"Were we not supposed to meet the lawyer here?" Asked Will.
"Yes, but he won't be here before tomorrow evening, so before he comes we will have the time to explore and see what we are going to do with the building," said Susan and started to walk to the stairs leading up to the gothic entrance with double wooden oak doors.
Dean and Will stood for a while, just looking as Susan made her way to the front doors, the setting sun made everything around them glow in magnificent red and gold. However, this also made the inside of the windows look black as the darkest night as nothing could be seen through them from the outside. Susan, now on top of the stairs turned around and shouted back to the two strollers behind, "Hey, are you two coming anytime soon, or would you rather stay outside until it gets dark?"
At that remark, Will and Dean looked at each other and thought something similar around the lines; "I wonder if it will be darker inside than outside by that time…" Nevertheless, they both started jogging up the stairs to where Susan waited. Dean pulled out a key from his pocket and opened one of the huge doors.
Will was disappointed, the outside had looked much like a fairytale building, but the inside had the unmistakable marks of a rundown modern institution. What had once been a grand hall with great space and two stairs on each side of the room leading up to the floors above, had been transformed into a reception ninety sixty/seventy style. At the far side of the hall, situated between the two stairs was a reception desk packed with old papers, office stuff and a dusty old black telephone. On each side of the hall, right before the bottom of the stairs were passages leading into the right and left wing. From the lofty ceiling above hung a huge iron lamp with twelve arms. Funny enough, Will thought, the old paintings of some of the monks were still hanging on the walls together with some saints that were unknown to her. The one above the desk was especially creepy, the searching eyes of a long dead monk stared at her no matter where in the room she was standing, as if it was wanting to tell her there were no place to hide. When she finally was able to tear her own eyes from the picture, she could see that everything in the room was covered in a thick layer of dust, and several places, the wallpaper hung from the wall. Her parents must have had a similar thought, because she could see glimpse of disappointment in their eyes. Dean was the first to speak what they all thought.
"I must confess that I thought when someone had been living here, they would have taken better care of this place. At least kept the entrance in a better shape."
"You can say that again," said Will, "where do you think your aunt lived? We could spend the entire night here just looking for the right room. And to be honest, this place looks creepy, and it will be even worse when the sun goes down."
Susan answered back with a skeptical voice to her daughter, "Don't tell me you are afraid of ghosts Will, you are too old for that nonsense."
"Of course not" Will said, but wasn't entirely convinced. She had already met other supernatural beings on earth, albeit most of them in one way or another came from other worlds. Most of them were usually too afraid of humans to let themselves be known, but not always. However, even if the place looked a bit spooky, there was probably nothing to be scared of; it was just an old house with a silly story attached to it, made up by angry people who lost their job when the place was shut down. It wasn't that everything she bumped into had to be related to her double life. They were only going to sleep her for one night, look at this place, most probably turn down the testament and drive back home for eight long and boring hours. This time it was Dean who spoke.
"Alright guys, let us find a place to sleep for tonight, and maybe a toilet that still works. I rather not travel back to the village each time nature calls..."
After that, they went to have a quick exploration. It didn't take long before they found the recently deceased's old living quarters. It turned out the reception had a simple map attached to the wall, stating where the patients had their rooms and where the staff had theirs. The entire right wing on the first floor belonged to the staff. It had a kitchen, a laundry, a living room, bedrooms and other sort of rooms for those who didn't reside in the village.
As they walked through the wing, everything was much cleaner and more tidy than what they got from their first impression in the reception. They first passed the laundry room on their left side, thereby followed by the kitchen. After that was the living room, which didn't have any doors, it was just a big space in the wing with some book cases stuffed with medical books, some chairs, a large sofa and an old TV. Will was sure she could make it "work" later, she just had to be careful so neither Susan nor her stepfather realized how she did it.
The entire time they had the windows on their right side. Then they came to the bedrooms, there were several of them like pearls on a string along the corridor, all of them had an ugly dark brown shade and came likely from the ninety-fifties or -sixties. The guardian opened some doors and looked inside a couple of them. Each bedroom had similar interior; a bed with a commode and a closet on the opposite wall, facing the bed. On the right side of the bed was a window, facing the open space behind the old monastery. Will walked inside and looked out the window. There, under the darkening sky was an old overgrown garden with wild bushes and century old fruit trees, their trunks twisted in pain while the naked branches stretched skywards like skeleton fingers in a silent prayer. A wind suddenly came and took hold of the winter dead garden. It made everything move like every bush and tree was alive. Cornelia with her earth magic would have brought it back to its former glory in no time thought Will to herself, and didn't realize something silently walked up behind her.
"That must have been a nice garden once."
Will jumped high in fear and spun quickly around ready to attack whatever it was, but luckily, she held back. "MOM, don't frighten me like that!" Will shouted. Her mother jerked back a little, surprised at her daughters outburst but didn't comment it.
"Perhaps you would like to sleep here tonight, Dean and I are going to take the room next to this," Susan said.
The redhead calmed herself a little and gave her mother a reply, "Ok mom, is William going to sleep with you or with me tonight?"
Susan watched the teenager and said, "I think he can sleep with you, you always seem to be the best of us to keep him calm during the nights. Besides, he can help you keep your thoughts away from whatever you might have been thinking about right now."
"What!" said Will.
"The way you reacted when I came up behind you tells me you are letting your fantasy running away with yourself."
Will let out a sight and looked down, "I guess you are right, I let my imagination running wild. I will go back to the car and get our stuff. Do you think you can fix my bed while I do that?" Her mother smiled to her and gave a nod before she walked out of the room. Just before she was going to leave the room herself, Will felt a shiver charge down her spine like an electric shock! She hastily took a glance back at the cold window, and there out in the old garden she thought she saw a shadow that moved. Will froze to the floor where she was standing and looked again. Nothing. "Will get a grip on yourself," she thought, "the next thing that will scare you will probably be your own shadow. The worst thing out there would probably be an owl that would attack you if you came too close. Besides, you are a guardian for heaven's sake, what could possibly be worse than things you already have met?"
But when you are alone, things tend to get much worse than when you are not, and fear double as the courage shrink away in the dark…