Ayo hi! Continuing with the story....
Warnings: talks of gore and death. Swearing.
SLAM! The door opened. A silhouette stood in the middle of the doorway. They were covered in splashes of crimson liquid...their clothes were wet and they were hunched over.
"Honey...I'm back.....something bad has happened...."
Genevieve turned around immediately, grabbing the nearest weapon....well nearest possible weapon. Before her grandfather could hold her back, she started to run towards the figure in the doorway, just before she reached the figure John screamed.
"WAIT GEN, HOLD ON! DON'T ATTACK!"
She stopped and turned around. Confusion evident on her face.
"Um...what do you mean.There is a intruder breaking into our house and you want me to 'hold on' WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!???" Gen shouted.
"Ok 1. I'm your grandfather so don't shout at me..." He stated with a low growl.
"Number 2, if they were an intruder HOW COME THEY'RE NOT ATTACKING US YOU IDIOT!" Genevieve's grandfather hit her on the head.
Now as the two started to bicker, the supposed "intruder" stood still in the doorway . Trying to grasp hold of this, confusing situation, to say the least. The angle which the person was standing at made the shadow of street lights cover their face. So it was very hard to actually see them.
"Hey, you two ,calm DOWN!" The mysterious person shouted. Everything went silent. The person took this as their cue to reveal who they were.
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"Finally, you've come back!" Genevieve's grandad folded his arms, rolling his eyes he sat back down as he looked at the mysterious person.
"Wait...you two know each other?" Genevieve stood there, very very confused on what was happening.
"So who's the kid John. I told you, I've got something important to say, and I can't have a kid listening in." Anon said.( well at least what Genevieve has named the "intruder " for now)
Anon was a woman. She had Raven coloured hair, brown eyes and a round face shape. She was glaring hard at Genevieve. Her lips in a straight line, a neutral expression gracing her face. She was quite short, and had very wrinkly skin . She wore a black dress with a torn blue cardigan. It had a red liquid splashed all over her clothes. On her feet were brown leather boots. The woman looked very familiar.
Genevieve took a double take on the woman. That's when she saw the giant gash on the persons hand. It had dried blood covering it. Genevieve was about to scream until-
"Honey, this is Genevieve....our granddaughter." Gens grandfather said with a soft tone.
"Wait- Huh. Well look at that! Genevieve-Katrina- Cortez. It's been a long time honey.." the woman's expression turned from dark and menacing to light and cheery in a matter of seconds.
"W-what is going on...why are you bleeding...what's happen-"
Then it all went dark.
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I woke up. It was pitch black, I couldn't see anything. I tried to move my hands but it felt like they were tied up. I realised I was sitting on a chair.
"Hello," I called. I heard shuffling, then a small light came on. It was in the middle of the room.
"Ok..ok this so getting weird now. If this is some sort of prank... grandad I know it's you..come out." I continued. It was starting to get a bit weird. My eyes scanned across the room, then I table in the corner of the room. On it was a piece of paper propped on a flower vase.
I tried to move around again, this time wiggling my whole body. It looked like my feet weren't tied. That's good.CLANK! My feet hit something. I looked down. Next to my feet was a Stanley blade. I turned my head to look at my hands. I couldn't properly see everything, but it looked like my hands were tied with rope. 'Maybe if I cut the rope with the Stanley blade....but how am I supposed to get the blade' I thought.
After about five minutes of trying to get the blade with my "fancy footwork", I got it on top of my foot.' Okay now I just need to flip it so it gets onto my lap.' I theorised. Unfortunately, unlike all the other kids that I know, I can't do that flippy thing with my feet. I mean you know when people play football, (you can call it soccer if you are someone who doesn't call it football. ), and they do the kick thing. Anyways, I started at my foot for a few seconds, remembering that I've been possibly kidnapped and I need to get out of here, I attempted at flipping the blade.
"Y-YE.....oh crap." I kicked the blade away from me.
'Wow, ok so I have the best luck in the world.' I complained to myself. Ok ,so now that didn't work. 'What else could I do, maybe...' I looked back at my hands. I then tried to find a knot in the rope. "Ah- HAH" I grabbed the knot. 'Finally, something I'm good at' I untied the knot in the rope and freed myself from the scratchy imprisonment. I rubbed my wrists and looked around."A-ah pins and needles." I cried. I then walked towards the Stanley blade from earlier, bent down and grabbed it. I pulled myself up and stared at the contraption in my hand...
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Hang on a second- '1. If I have been stuck here for around ten to fifteen minutes..shouldn't the kidnappers have come back by now? Number two..WHY AM I GOING SO SLOW THIS AIN'T A HORROR MOVIE, GENEVIEVE GET THE FRICK OUTTA HERE!!!...ok ok calm down Gen.Now look around you...what do you see.'
I took a deep breath and looked around. What I saw:
A light bulb
A desk
A piece of paper
An envelope
A vase
A door. I turned around and was about to count the chair when..WAIT A DOOR-.
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She spun back around. She still had her Stanley blade so she pushed the blade up. She held it in a 'fencing style style' and headed for the door. She then remembered the desk and letter.
'I might need this later' She turned back to the door when...SLAM!
"Great job honey, you made the team. You could use a little bit more training though."
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"W-what are you talking about, who are you, what did you do to grandad!" Genevieve demanded. Anon ( the mysterious lady from before) stood in the doorway, a proud smile on her face.
"Hey, calm down..your grandfather is right here." Anon said. She stepped aside, letting Jonathan Cortez enter the room.
"Hey Gen. we got some explaining to do Huh?" He chuckled. An ever growing expression of confusion, once again spreading onto Genevieve's face.
All three of them walked into a another room next to the one Genevieve almost escaped. The next room was a bit more cosier, it had a nice look to it. There was a couch, bookshelf and trophy case to the left. To the right there was a wall covered in photos and frames. I'm the middle of the room we're three chairs, a small square table in the middle. Two chairs were on one side, on the opposite was t her last chair.
"Well have a seat," John pointed to the chairs in the middle of the table. They all sat down, Johnathan and Anon on one side, and Genevieve on the other.
"Well, like your grandfather said, we have a bit of explaining to do." Anon said. "But first, let me introduce myself. Hello, I'm Hannah Cortez, your grandmother." Everything was quiet. Genevieve was still, a look of shock stuck on her face.
"W-wow...you don't look like me grandmother though..." that was the first thing that came out of Genevieve's mouth. (I know, not very smart)
"Oh really, well it's not my fault your pretty little ass can't handle the ageing process. AND I LOOK AMAZING SO YOU BETTER" Hannah started.
"WELL MAYBE THE AGEING PROCESS DID SOMETHING TO YOUR EYESIGHT TOO YOU UGLY-" Genevieve was about to go she her sentence when
"Ok ok, calm down you two, no need to fight. Let me start this honey.. " Genevieve's grandfather took over.
"Genevieve darling, do you know why we weren't allowed to see you for most of your life?" He started.
"No.." Genevieve didn't understand where this conversation was going.
"Well, what we're trying to say here is..you're a Cortez Genevieve," Jonathan stated.
"Dun, Dun, duhhh! Yes obviously grandad, BUT THAT DOESN'T EXPLAIN WHY I WAS STUCK IN A ROOM, TIED UP TO A CHAIR, AND THE GIANT GASH ON ANON- HANNAH'S HAND!" Genevieve screamed. The noise startling her grandfather.
"HEY DON'T SPEAK TO US THAT WAY YOUNG LADY-" Hannah started.
"OK STOP! IM GONNA NEED YOU TWO IDIOTS TO TONE IT DOWN! I GOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY SO SHUT UP!" Jonathan burst, everyone -not expecting that reaction- became quiet.
"Ok, now we have quiet I can explain." He said quietly.
"Genevieve, there is something about this family you do not know. At a certain age, you have to find out about this information, but because of your parents..you did not exactly get that chance." Genevieve's grandfather continued.
"As a Cortez, this information is compulsory and-"
"Let's just cut to the chase. Our family is a bunch of supernatural shit." Hannah said with a deadpan expression. For an old lady, she sure was fiery.
"What." Genevieve stated.
"Well, in less simpler terms..our family has a history of...well a few generations ago, your great great great great something, grandmother accidentally found out about.....the people of the shadow.
As you may not know, the people of the shadow are a group of..monsters..from another realm. They call themselves the people of the shadow because that realm is complete darkness. Your something greats grandmother, called Sylvia, started to look deeper into these people.. and her being her...fell In live with one of them. Now she was young.. and she didn't understand how the world works. They misinterpreted she fell in love with was called E.
E was a kind gentleman, or gentle monster. And the people of the shadow were very welcoming...or that's as what it seems." Jonathan ended there, letting Hannah take over.
"Sylvia was madly 'in love' with E. and he loved her back...Now this ain't a Romeo and Juliet family. And as you can tell, our family is very...peculiar . The rest of Sylvias family didn't care who she married, but she would regret they didn't.Soon E and Sylvia got engaged..it was all lovey dovey, until that moment. As your Grandfather said before the people of the shadow are monsters..literally and metaphorically.
Sylvia had to make a deal wi to the devil, a ritual.The people fo the shadow had a special ritual in case...a foreigner came and married one of them. This ritual would be to take the blood of the foreigner, and mix it with the shadows of their homeland. In the end, if the shadows didn't take over the foreigner, they would get to be with one of their kind..If not, we'll. they would perish. Getting dragged down to the deeps of their world." Hannah said.
"So what happened to...to Sylvia??" Genevieve leaned forward.
"Well this is we're the Cortez family comes in, after Sylvia heard about the ritual from E, she started to think. She knew that this would be dangerous, and the fact that it wasn't a fantasy...she started to get cold feet. She realised that for all she knows they could be tricking her...so she thought of a plan.
In her free time Sylvia researched in secret, about the "people of the shadows" . Back then, as you know women were not allowed to be smart..which was stupid. So most, if not all her time was spent on this. Soon she asked E if anyone had survived the ritual..E hesitated before tell her no. The all her hopes came crashing down." Her grandfather said.
"She tried and tried to find a way to beat this, but she couldn't figure it out...Soon she found out why no one survived the ritual." Hannah whispered.
"It was because...
No one
Had
Light." Hannah paused.
" what....light...what do you mean-?" Genevieve asked. This was giving her more questions than answers.
" we did say before, Sylvia was making a deal with the devil. Naturally, it wasn't going to be fair. The people of the shadow had had 20 other people try before her, everyone single one lost. They all had researched, they all had thought, hell they even tried to cheat! But none found out the answer. It was right in front of them! Light . The way each ritual went was they got kicked into a black hole, which was the entrance to the people of the shadows-"Hannah stopped explaining when
"Hey, honey, can we please use the shorter name for the 'people of the shadows' John interrupted.
"Really..really John? Right now???" Hannah said. "Ok fine, P.o.T.S. happy now???" Hannah said , annoyed.
"Yes." John started to laugh.
"HEY THIS IS A SERIOUS MATTER JOHN!" Hannah and John proceeded to argue for the next few minutes, while Genevieve sat there open mouthed. Trying to grasp hold of h thy r fact that all this was real.
"Ok, we're back to serious now," Hannah glared at her husband menacingly.
"Back to what we were saying, the black hole is the entrance to their world. And people got kicked down there. Now when Sylvia asked for accounts of people attempting the ritual, she realised something they all didn't have. A source of light...she also realised that what is not mentioned by P.o.T.S is that they have to beat three riddles." Hannah stared at her husband.
"P.o.T.S also rigged the whole thing.."
"WHAT!" Genevieve shouted. That wasn't fair, why would they-
"If you're thinking why would they do that, well the people of the shadows aren't as good as they seem. It is real life people, and in life, not everyone is going to go by the rules. Sylvia was the only one who realised this, and as such figured out how to beat all of it." Hannah explained, this was a very long explanation.
"Basically, well, in short Sylvia passed the test and got married to E. they had kids and those kids had kids and those kids had kids, soon it came to me." John clarified.
"So your telling me I have monster blood..." Genevieve said in disgust.
"Exactly."
Hey, I hope this chapter wasn't too long...ok it was but at least now you know some more stuff about the Cortez family...next chapter has a bit more clarification! Thank you or reading.
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