Heart of Darkness

Chapter One: Fatal Fortunes

Chapter One: Fatal Fortunes

   The Wilder Household-- Blythe, Washington

   "Avelina? What is it?" Zorana Wilder said softly as she caught sight of the young girl curled up in the warm kitchen's corner. This was not unusual- Avelina often sat in her corner of the kitchen, since it was comfortable to her.

   However, she had not sat down at the kitchen table as Zorana thought she would, but Avelina was snuggled as far into the corner as she could get in a very heavy blanket. Zorana had nearly finished making the loaf of breakfast bread she had begun earlier when Avelina went into a fit of shivers. The girl's teeth chattered endlessly, and a frown soon furrowed Zorana dark brow.

   "It's c-cold, Mama...s-so cold."

    Zorana glanced a the blue-black haired seventeen year old in the blanket, shaking and looking like a scared kitten. A sense of unease came over the old woman as she set the finished, steaming loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread on the kitchen table, discarded her oven mitts, and went over to crouch in front of Avelina. Zorana reached out and took her pale face in her palms; Avelina's face visibly flushed within the next moment or so-- a sweat rapidly broke on her fine brow and her skin flushed from her high cheeks to the column of her throat. Zorana's own brow made even deeper furrows as she felt along Avelina's cheeks, forehead, and throat; she even reached deeper into the blanket to feel Avelina's chest.

    She was burning.

    "He's coming, Mama.... He's coming for me..."

    Zorana stilled, stared into the teen's pewter eyes, now glazed over. They weren't even focusing on the older woman, but more over her shoulder, to the outside world beyond the kitchen door. Zorana worriedly looked over her shoulder, but turned back to her youngest when she saw that nothing was there.

    "Who is coming, Avelina?" Zorana demanded, concern seeping into her clear voice.

    "D-....dark....so dark...." Avelina trailed off and suddenly broke into a coughing fit and didin't stop until blood, dark and thick, rose from her throat and spewed from her lips,.

    "Oh, my god!" Zorana cried; Avelina cringed, obviously in pain and feeling utterly horrible.

    "M-Mama.... he's killing me-- I can't-- " another bloody cough made her gurgle, tears blurring her vision as shadows invaded her peripheral. Zorana gave another cry and reached from something to staunch the blood.

    Avelina ignored her antics to try and clean on instinct; instead the teenager took her wrist in a hard grip. Avelina had already started to tell her adopted mother the truth: she wouldn't stop now.

   "Mama, he's killing me....and I can't.....can't stop him..." she let a whimper escape her throat before she left the shadows conquer and take control, shielding her from the light and sending her to sleep.

   Hours later, just after Sunset...

   "Someone is killing our daughter?" Konstantine Wilder's deep voice was a harsh, cold, Russian timbre that reminded his sons and daughters just how much of a demon he still was. Zorana nodded, a frightened expression on her face.

   "And she said that she coudln't stop it, before she fainted..." Zorana said shakily as she changed the cloths on Avelina's brow, cheeks, and throat. The Wilder children, from eldest Jasha to youngest Douglas and everyone in between were rather frightened themselves over the replay of Avelina's ordeal in the kitchen. They had not seen Zorana so upset since she revealed that the first daughter born to the Varinksis in a thousands years did not share the blood of the demon clan and had mated with Zorana and Konstantine's truest youngest son, Douglas. Firebird was keeping two-year-old Aleksandr busy with building blocks; Karen and Tasya were getting more rags and bowls of hot or icy water; Konstantine sat in his LAY-Z Boy as Jasha and Rurik paced in synchronization behind the couch; Jackson and Douglas were in the midst of cleaning a small artillery of guns by the stairs as Adrik polished some knives.