The Harvest of Souls

CHAPTER 28

"Sure," Scarlet said, helping Mila to pick up about fifteen different books.

They took the books into the bedroom and placed them on top of the mattress on the floor. The two girls then returned to the library to open the fourth drawer.

"This is the movies drawer. Oh my, lots of movies," Mila spoke, looking at a multitude of boxes with different titles.

"Let's focus on the horror ones," Scarlet spoke.

"Almost half of it then," Mila replied.

They were following title by title to understand what would be the volume of horror movies.

"There are so many. Let's take what we know were her favorites," Scarlet spoke.

They selected some movies and placed them with the books on the mattress. Then they returned to open the last vertical drawer, filled with another large volume of boxes.

"The Series," Scarlet spoke.

The girls read every single title.

"I think there is nothing here that can guide us," said Mila frustrated.

"I think we already have enough material," Scarlet spoke.

"I agree. We will also need a totem book, to know how to interpret the inside of this one," Mila spoke taking the cloth bag from her pocket.

"Yes. Shall we call the folks and go down to the library?"

"Yes. Do you think it's valid to call them here before?"

"No, it can be impacting for Vaughan. He's already compassionate. Let's meet in the library, and then we'll see what we do about the room," Scarlet replied.

The two girls left Jean's room, closing the door behind them, a pile of books and movie discs floating beside them. Mila took her MC and had the idea to create a communication group. She decided to name it "The Asturians," stealing Charlotte's expression to refer to them. She added Vaughan, Fernand, Lélia, Richard, Nair, Mário, Scarlet in the group. Mila thought about including her mother or not, deciding to leave her mother out of the group to avoid unnecessary stress with her overprotection. She texted everyone, informing them that she was going with Scarlet to the library and that they had made some findings, then asking everyone to meet them at the library. She then sent the same message separately directly to her mother.

Five minutes later, everyone was in the library. The last to enter was Mário, who closed the double doors that led to the hall.

"What happened?" Asked Vaughan.

"Van, look at this," Mila spoke, delivering the totem to Vaughan. "We went to Jeannie's room, trying to find something relevant. We brought some books and movies too, but what we found most strange was this totem. I did a test. It's an evil totem. It's already blocked," she quickly completed when she saw the terrified look of her mother.

Vaughan turned the Totem from side to side, took it to his nose, and tried to smell its inside. He got up and went to one of the extended library shelves and began to read some titles on the covers. He then went up to the mezzanine and walked to a specific shelf, continued to read the labels until he picked up a slim hardcover book with a relatively newer appearance compared to the rest of the books.

He descended the winding wooden stairs and went to the table where everyone was seated. Vaughan then took the totem and untied the knot made of roots, scattering the contents of the totem across the table. Everyone approached to see what was inside, and Nair began to sort the contents.

"There are dried peppers, pepper seeds, a piece of cheese, wow, how disgusting," when Nair took the old piece of cheese, it fell apart between her fingers. "There's a piece of meat. Nair took a small red square and took it to her nose. "It's bacon," she said.

"You can already make a sandwich," said Mila.

As Nair mentioned the contents, Vaughan flipped the small book back and forth through the pages.

"There is a powder, which seems to be cocoa, you see," Nair pointed to a dark powder on the table. "The basis of everything are these mixed herbs. This one, you see, is from the leaves of Ginkgo Biloba, a tree from the Far Continent, not very common around here. Vaughan, give me those roots. Vaughan took the roots in which the bag had been wrapped from the table and passed them to Nair. She felt for the roots and sniffed. "That's Valerian root," she spoke.

Marta approached the table and began to separate more herbs. With her fingertips, she drew a thin thread from between them.

"There is a hair here in the middle," she spoke to the group.

Vaughan held out his hand, asking for the strand of hair that Marta passed on.

"It's Jeannie's," he said.

"This one is Artemisia," Nair continued separating small dry leaves. "Now, this one I can't identify."

"Let me see," said Mário. "I have no idea either," he passed the small leaf fragment to his mother beside him, who also turned the leaf from side to side but didn't identify it either, handing it to Mila.

"I know! I know what it is," said Mila excited. "I had tea made of ​​this, in Tacán, some time ago, some native use the tea to have visions and epiphanies."

"Calea zacatechichi?" Asked Vaughan.

"That's right! You know it?" Mila asked.

"No, but it's the last thing missing to complete this specific totem," Vaughan replied, getting up and placing the book in the center of the table for everyone to read. "It's a totem to bring not only bad dreams but bad memories. Everything I said to you in the Kitchen this morning, I said because it's been disturbing me, I've constantly been dreaming whenever I fall asleep, always about the loss of my son with Lélia."

"But this one had Jeannie's strand of hair," Scarlet spoke.

"Yes, what makes me believe that in my room, there must be a totem just like this one, but with my strand of hair. And that whoever is doing this is doing it for personal reasons. Let's search our rooms. Has anyone else here had nightmares?"

Nobody spoke.

"So it can be something aimed at my family," Vaughan looked at Mila. "Mila, send a message to the group telling what we found out and ask if anyone else has been having nightmares while they were at the manor. I'm going up to my room and see if you found anything."

"Want company?" Nair asked.

"No thanks, I was really thinking I was going crazy constantly reminiscing about my worst days, but now I know it's pure evil magic. Since you guys didn't have any nightmares, stay here, and have a look at the books the girls brought," Vaughan stared at everyone. "I'll be right back."