CHAPTER 124: 124-THE RITUALS IN THE NORTH

Clementine:

"Dude, let her be. She’s not Dora the Explorer." I could already hear Yorick’s grunting voice warning Ian not to drag me with him.

"I’m pretty sure she can speak for herself, but fine, I’ll go by myself," Ian said as he got up, holding a can of soda and walking upstairs.

"I mean, there’s nothing else, nothing better to do. We should have explored the top floors when we arrived. How did it escape our minds?" I complained to Yorick as I began to walk upstairs. It was my way of letting him know I did want to explore the second and third floors.

Yorick started to come after me. "I don’t know, you’re probably right, but last night was weird, don’t you think?" he said. I turned to look at him and nodded.

Suddenly, Ian returned and spread his arms across, placing a hand on the railing to block my way.

"Ian, step out of her way." Yorick didn’t even want to know why Ian was doing it, he just came to my defense.

"I don’t think she should, or anyone should, go upstairs," Ian said, making my heartbeat slow a little.

"Why? What’s upstairs?" I asked Ian. But the way he glanced at Yorick and gave a slight shake of his head made me think it was something serious. That only made me more determined to find out.

I stepped closer, gently placing my finger on Ian’s hand. That was his sign to let go. He did, but then he put his hands in his pockets and groaned, almost like he knew I was going to see something.

Once I stepped onto the second floor, the shock hit me. There were bones everywhere.

"What is that?" I gasped, my eyes wide as I looked around. Yorick quickly followed us, his reaction the same, but he stretched an arm out to keep me behind him before stepping ahead.

"Ian, do you think what I’m thinking?" he murmured, glancing toward the one watching silently.

"Yep," Ian confirmed with a nod.

Yorick scanned the room, and I snapped back to reality. There weren’t just bones, there were candles, which seemed to have burned all night because now they were nothing but stubs. That explained why there were candles resting in the bedroom, the bathroom, and everywhere else.

"But why the heck are there bones here? They look like human remains, maybe a werewolf’s, a witch’s, or just a human’s," I uttered.

"Could be just a pure human," Yorick remarked as he moved toward the circle.

"Wait!" I caught his hand and pulled him back, pointing at the circle I had noticed but hadn’t thought to mention until he stepped toward it. Drawings and marks covered the walls and floor.

The second floor was huge, with a few doors—bedrooms visible along the way. But each bedroom door had a large red cross painted on it and was locked with heavy chains. And the shock didn’t end there. The circles on the ground were drawn in something red, probably blood.

While we were on the second floor exploring, we heard footsteps coming up. They were frantic, almost urgent. I turned toward the stairs along with Ian and Yorick, and we watched Troy and Haiden rush toward us. They didn’t stop, even when they reached the landing. They began tapping Ian on the back, then Yorick, urging them to follow.

Troy came at full speed, wrapped an arm around me, and pulled me along.

"Wait, what?" I blurted.

Troy turned to me, pressing a finger to his lips, quietly shushing me. We hurried toward the staircase to the third floor. I had no idea what we would find there, more importantly, why we were running, or what we were running from.

When we reached the third floor, we saw it was completely vacant. No bedrooms, just a huge hall. Troy didn’t stop, he kept pulling me toward the rooftop, the others running behind us.

At the top, I fumbled to unlock the door. My hands shook from the panic in my body.

"Come on, come on, quick," Troy urged softly behind me.

"But guys, what’s going on?" Yorick muttered in a low tone.

"We’ll explain later. We just need to get out of here," Haiden replied in a hushed tone.

Finally, I managed to unlock the door, probably the longest it had ever taken me to pick such a small, simple lock. The door was heavy, and the boys gripped it carefully, trying not to make a sound. But I could already hear noises from the ground floor. Someone had come in.

Stepping out onto the rooftop, I noticed the weather had turned bad. The storm raged, and early-morning fog was there too. When I breathed, I could see a cloud in front of me.

The alphas shut the door again, locking it from the outside with the same lock I’d picked. Then Troy faced me, clearly ready to answer my questions.

"The house owners are back," he revealed, sending goosebumps racing up my arms. Not because it was such an odd thing to say, but because they were probably the reason for the bones and the second floor full of ritual objects.

As silence hit us all, we were too numb to move, afraid the noises from walking on the rooftop might reach their ears. After a while, when we had just stood in the corner of the building on the rooftop, I started, "The house owners have been doing some ritual," I said, remembering the markings and everything.

"Yeah, what was all that stuff on the second floor?" Troy complained, bringing up what he had seen in passing because he and Haiden came rushing upstairs.

"It was some blood, bones, and candles. Probably they were doing some ritual," Yorick explained.

But it was Ian who had a more important question. "Why did you guys run? I mean, when we come across people in the north, we don’t just run from them." The question from Yorick came from the fact that what made Haiden and Troy think we were in danger, especially when they didn’t even know about the ritual stuff?

Then the look that the two shared, it was so scary. I knew Troy and Haiden had seen some pretty fucked-up things, and they confirmed it when Haiden replied, "They came with severed body parts."

As soon as he said that, I felt my body go numb. But the shocker wasn’t over yet. We heard someone yell from outside the houses, down on the road, "We know you are all hiding in here. Come out."

It was a new voice, an unfamiliar male voice, and he was speaking directly to us.