Fading Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 2 (5 page)

“What! How many relatives do you have?” I asked coming to a halt along the footpath.
He laughed and turned towards me. He reached up and brushed a piece of my wondering hair away
from my face.
“Relax everyone is going to love you. Just like I do.” he said looking at me carefully.
“I hate leaving you. It's hard to work when all I do is think about getting back to you.”
I wasn't sure what was happening but I didn't like where it was going. Luckily for me footsteps on
the gravelled driveway interrupted us.
“Sorry Cam, but we need you for a bit.” said Tallen.
Shasta and Roman stood a few feet away from him. Cam nodded and looked back at me.
“The party will give you something to look forward to, take your mind off things. Try not to get into
too much trouble while I'm gone.” he said kissing me on the cheek.
He turned and walked away into the shadows with the others. I stood on the same spot confused. I
thought Cam viewed me as an adopted sister but after the way he'd just said he loved me it made me
doubt how he saw me.
I hurried back inside and ran all the way to the top of the stairs. I knocked on Senka's bedroom door
but there was no answer. I walked through the games rooms, kitchen and gym but he wasn't around.
I asked a some of the guys but no one had seen him. I wondered back to my bedroom feeling a little
upset and lost not knowing what to do with myself. I sat at my dressing table spinning Senka's door
key round in circles.
Cam tonight made it seem like he might have feelings for me, I had a scary feeling he was in love
with me. But I didn't feel that way about Cam and now sitting here on my own I think it was
becoming clearer and clearer I had feelings for someone else. I missed Senka when he wasn't here. I
hadn't really realised how much I missed him until today. It wasn't the same way I missed Kenzie or
the way I didn't really miss Cam when he was gone. I
really
missed Senka.
But at the same time I thought of Senka, Mack's face came to mind. There was something there.
Who was he to me? I spun around on my dressing table stool and looked at the chest where I had
hidden Mack's T-shirt.
I could remember his name and everything we had talked about earlier. That had never happened
before. I normally woke up and only remembered what he looked like and the beach. Everything
else was always hazy. But it was the way I felt about him, it felt so real. It didn't feel like a silly
crush it felt like something more.
About three weeks after I'd woken up from my coma I started having a hard time getting to sleep at
night. So I stayed up late into the night which meant I was usually tired by late afternoon. I started
taking afternoon naps and then one day I dreamt of Mack, but I never remembered his name. I
started napping more and more hoping I would dream of the boy on the pebbled beach which is
where I always saw him.
But my sleep patterned changed and sometimes I didn't feel tired in the afternoons and depending
on what I was doing with Kenzie or Senka meant I missed many days with no naps and I hadn't
dreamt of Mack for at least two weeks. But up until today I thought they were only dreams. Now I
wasn't so sure and the rolled up T-shirt in my blanket chest suggested otherwise.
If it was real, it meant he was real but where was he? Was he dreaming as well? I sounded like a
crazy person. Maybe that was it I was going mad and the dreams were just the start of it.
The bracelet Mack had mentioned popped into my head. I turned back around and opened the small
jewellery box where I had put it last. I picked it up and let it dangle down looking at it. A silver
chain with black stones that glistened in the light. Mack had said this was how Cam finds me.
When I woke up from my coma this was the only piece of jewellery I had on. I soon took it off and
put it away as it looked old and I didn't want to ruin it or lose it, so I stopped wearing it completely.
I dropped it back into the box and shut the lid. Mack had said I had grown up with a brother called
Seth and my mother. Cam had told me differently. Who was I to believe Cam who looked after me
and provided everything for me or the stranger from my dreams that seemed to know more about
me than I did. Someone was lying to me and I had a gut feeling it was Cam. If that was the case,
was Cam really making me forget my past? Why would he do something like that? More to the
point how would he do something like that?
I walked over to my bookcase and picked up my geometry book there was still some unfinished
homework I needed to get done before I saw Grayson tomorrow and I needed to do something to
distract myself from the one million random thoughts I was having.
I took my homework and went back to the main staircase and walked up halfway and sat down. I
would be able to see if Senka came back and I would get my homework done at the same time. I
could see a grandfather clock from where I was sitting, the manor house had them scattered
everywhere it got really noisy each hour when all the clocks chimed together. The clock had just
chimed for nine o'clock. I could hear voices down below, I scooted across the step and looked
through the railings. I could see Alex and a few others but no Senka. I looked back at my homework
and finished off what I was doing.
The others passed me but Alex stopped and sat on the step next to me.
“Oooo geometry, that looks about as boring as Hell.” he said picking up the textbook and looking at
the cover. “He's not coming back tonight, he had to stay on.” he added placing the book back on the
step.
I nodded, trying not to look as sad as I felt. Alex stood up and patted me on the shoulder before
walking up the steps.
I dropped my finished homework off in my bedroom and wondered down to the first floor. The
manor had a very large library full of all sorts of books, fiction, non fiction, cooking books you
name it, it had it. I had spent many hours in there reading fiction novels and looking through a very
large animal encyclopedia book which also had pictures. Non of the pictures matched the things I
saw outside in the gardens though.
The library was dark and the main lights were off. I quickly flicked the switch on. It was moments
like that when I panicked. The manor took on a creepy appearance when it was dark.
The servants only stood in the corridors until ten each evening then the corridors became deserted
apart from the servant/guard posted outside the elevator door and the one at the main front door,
those doors were rarely unattended.
It was the main reason I went upstairs. The third floor was noisy and there was always someone
around at anytime of the night, it was as though they didn't sleep up there. I would lay in bed some
nights and just listen to the music from above it was crystal clear some nights depending on how
loud they had it turned up.
I had also spent many evenings with Kenzie. He lived in one of the cottages outside. It was a three
storey cottage with five bedrooms, three upstairs and two small attic rooms. Kenzie had an attic
room opposite Roman's room. Tallen, Ryu and Shasta were on the first floor. I always felt a bit
awkward when I was around the others. Shasta didn't say much to me, Roman was always friendly
and had a smile for me. Tallen was polite but didn't say much and Ryu who I don't think had ever
spoken to me. Kenzie and I would play board games and mix really bad cocktail drinks and dare
one another to drink them. We watched many movies in Kenzie's room but the TV wasn't connected
to an aerial so we couldn't watch normal TV. The same as the other TVs inside the manor. I asked
Kenzie once why we had no TV channels and he'd told me the reception down here wasn't good
enough to pick up any TV channels. I didn't have a TV in my room so if I wanted to watch
something on DVD I had to go over to Kenzie's, they had tons of movies and box sets.
I walked around the library trying to find something related to dreams.
There was a lot to look through and so many books had been put back in the wrong sections that it
made finding anything difficult. The clocks chimed ten o'clock. I was about to give up and head
back to my room when I remembered there were more bookcases in Cam's study.
I tip toed along the corridor and put my ear up to the door of Cam's study. He called it his den which
he used as an office, where he spent time with Grayson and other workers. There was no sound
coming from inside. I slowly turned the handle, I was surprised when the door popped open. It
wasn't locked.
The room was pitch black. I felt along the wall but couldn't find the light switch quick enough so I
went over to the table and felt around for the small lamp, switching it on. Cam's den consisted of a
long dark wooden table in the middle that seated about twelve people, a liquor cabinet in the corner,
a wall of bookcases and hidden behind the bookcases was a seating area with a couch under the
window and a massive pile of cushions on the floor.
I looked along the shelves which were considerably more organised than the library. I had only ever
been in this room once before with Cam and I hadn't looked at the books. But looking at the books
now I realised they were nothing like the books in the library. These were old and I mean really old,
some looked like they were falling apart and the binding looked ancient.
As I looked further along I realised Cam must have an interest in the paranormal as there were
books on witchcraft, werewolves and I even found one on vampirism.
There were books in different languages with weird symbols on the front, books with demon like
creatures on the front but I couldn't read the titles and it wasn't any language I recognised. There
was a large section full of books on angels and fallen angels.
I got impatient and started skimming over the books hoping to find something useful. The clocks
chimed eleven o'clock and I nearly jumped out of my own skin. I looked over at the clock near the
wall that was chiming away, trying to calm myself down. There was one last section of books I
hadn't looked at yet. I knelt down on the floor and started pulling books out from the bottom shelf
and after the sixth book along I finally found something that looked interesting.
A large thick blue book with the title
'Dreams'
was written across the front. There was a picture of a
dream catcher in the corner which seemed to nudge a memory.
I remembered hanging two up in a bedroom, one at the window the other on the door handle. I
blinked trying to remember anything else but nothing else came to me. I opened the first page and
looked at the picture of a night sky full of stars. Something tapped me on the shoulder and I jumped
forward knocking into the book case. I turned around quickly to see Kenzie looking down at me.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I picked up the book and tried to stand but somehow managed to step on my dress and ended up
falling onto Kenzie, he helped me back up and in the process took the book from me. He looked at
the front of the book then back at me with a questionable look.
“You need to get out of here. Cam is on his way up here with the others. You shouldn't be in here on
your own.” he said sliding the book back onto the shelf.
“Come on,” he said taking me by the elbow and leading me to the door. “Take the servants
staircase.”
I nodded and hurried along the corridor, the staircase was at the end around the corner. I made it
there just in time as I heard Shasta laughing and Roman talking. I ran up the steps and went back to
my bedroom. Kenzie hadn't seemed annoyed or upset with me. He'd looked more concerned than
anything. Hopefully with Cam gone tomorrow I would be able to get back into his den and get my
hands on that book again.
I didn't feel tired or ready for bed just yet so I took a hot shower and changed into a lavender
coloured nightdress. I stood in front of the mirror swishing the bottom of the nightdress wondering
how it would look a little shorter. I had about a dozen other nightdresses. Maybe no one would
notice if I took the scissors to this one? I went into the sewing and fabrics room which was down
the corridor from my room. I switched the light on, the walls were painted white and the floor was
white lino with sparkly bits. I blinked a few time as my eyes adjusted to the brightness of the room.
I looked through trays and drawers in search of scissors, not having much luck I started looking on
the tall open shelves which were crammed with rolls of fabric.
I finally found a trolley at the back of the room with a plastic tub full of scissors.
I opened the tub but the lid sprang off a bit quick and I dropped the whole lot on the floor. I squatted
down and started putting them back one by one in the tub, when I noticed a shoe sticking out from
under some fabrics.
I pulled at it and the fabrics covering it fell away revealing another shoe. I looked at the pair of
shoes. They were hi-tops black with a purple turn down at the back and turquoise laces.
They reminded me of Kenzie's shoes, he always wore shoes like these and I always felt jealous. I
only had one pair of sandals that I wore everyday, a pair of riding boots and about fifty different
styles of heeled shoes that all looked like something out of a classical novel that I refused to wear.
I held the shoe next to the bottom of my foot they both looked very similar in size. I pulled the laces
loose and pulled one on. The fit was snug and I soon pulled the other one on. I stood up and walked
over to the mirror, lifting my nightdress up for a better look. They felt great on and were even my
size, I couldn't believe they had just been left in here. I walked back to the trolley and lifted up
some of the other fabrics thinking there might be something else hidden under there.
Folded neatly was a pair of black denim trousers, I lifted them out and inspected them then held
them against my own legs they even looked the right length for me. The pocket rustled and I stuck
my hand inside and pulled out two pieces of crinkled paper. One was a receipt for gas another had
an address written on it.

104 Green Oak Park,
Ridge Road,
Heaven's Point

I had no idea where that was though. I spent a few more minutes rummaging around on the trolley
and came across a black hoodie, a red/black stripped vest top and a black bra. I looked at the bra
feeling jealous of whoever it belonged to, I didn't have any in my closet and it looked comfy. Not
that I really needed a bra my chest was small already and the dresses I wore only compacted it
down even more. Who did these clothes belong to and why had they been hidden under here?
Off course I had to try the whole lot on. I went back to the mirror to see how I looked. For once I
actually liked what I was wearing and the person I saw in the mirror looked slightly familiar
compared to the usual girl wearing the strange long dresses that felt uncomfortable and out of place.
I put all the clothes back where I'd found them, I didn't know who they belonged to and I wanted to
ask Narmi. Narmi organised my closet and regularly refilled the rails with dresses I didn't want to
wear, she might know who they belonged to. I slipped the address and receipt back into the pocket.
I stood in front of the mirror holding the scissors in one hand, looking at ways I could improve my
nightdress. The sleeves came off first, all the nightdresses I had were long sleeved and I hated them
I always got too hot in bed wearing them. After the sleeves I attacked the length. It started off below
the knee, then above the knee and before I knew what had happened I had shortened it to mid thigh
length. It was definitely an improvement. I spun around admiring my handy work. The clock in the
corridor chimed midnight. I needed to get some sleep I had to be up and ready in the morning for
my studies.
I climbed into bed and turned the bedside light off. The night sky outside was lighter tonight even
though the moon wasn't visible. The passing clouds formed shadows on my floor through the glass
doors. I heard a distant howl and some other strange animal noises coming from outside. This place
gave me the creeps sometimes. I shut my eyes and pulled the covers over my head.