Zyra's POV
"This is fun, sis!" Cinder shouted happily. We were roleplaying in the bedroom, letting (Y/n) rest outside in the living room on the couch. I was playing as one of her favorite characters from a movie she liked and she was being his animal, well, I should say dragon best friend. Yep. We were roleplaying one of our own 'How to Train Your Dragon' adventures. I was the female Hiccup we had promptly named Hally. She was the fearsome female Toothless, Nightrider. We chose Nightrider because she was a Night Fury. It made the most sense and it sounded good.
I was currently trying to tame my sister. I held out a piece of string, both of us pretending it was an eel. She roared at it and I pretended to freak out and toss it away. My sister giggled to herself as I did, having fun in acting out some of our favorite scenes. We had to skip over the flying scene since she was smaller than me and couldn't carry me.
As we were playing, I heard a noise outside. We both looked at each other in confusion. Cinder's eyes brightened up when she came to her own conclusion.
"(Y/n)'s up!" She said.
"Cinder, wait up!" I called, rushing after my little sister. We ran out and she saw that (Y/n) had just woken up. Wait...if she just got up, what made that noise? I wondered. She smiled at us.
"Hello, girls. How did you both get here?" She asked
"Chris dropped us off!" Cinder said.
"Oh, sorry girls. I forgot we had to take you both with us. I was just...really drained." She explained. She looked around.
"Where's Connor?" She asked.
"He went out to do something! He might not be back for a bit!" Cinder informed her. I was more confused now that she said that. What had made that sound. Maybe it was one of the wolves. I didn't know the two that well, but maybe they were clumsy or something?
"Do you know where he went?" (Y/n) asked.
"No! He didn't tell us!" Cinder said. (Y/n) looked a little confused, but she shrugged it off.
"Well, I'm sure he will be back before dark. Come on, how about we all relax and watch a movie or play a game while we wait for him to come back." (Y/n) suggested. Cinder clapped happily, but I couldn't forget about that noise.
We all sat down on the couch and (Y/n) put in a movie. For a little bit, I forgot about the noise, but then we all heard it. There was a loud thump that came from upstairs. (Y/n) took our hands.
"Girls, get to the basement." She said quietly.
"What's going on?" Cinder asked. (Y/n) didn't reply. She just quickly guided Cinder over to me and repeated herself.
"Get to the basement. Now. Don't come out unless it's me, Connor, or the wolves. Hurry." She ordered quickly. I hurried to pull my sister down the hall and to the basement. I made sure the door was secure and we both huddled down under a table covered with a tarp. Now, all we could do was wait and pray that everything was fine.
Your POV
You decided to be safe with this. You wrote a note to Connor. It only had one word on it. Underground. You knew he'd be able to find the girls now if something happened to you. You felt like you were being paranoid, but at the same time...you felt that you couldn't be too cautious.
You grabbed a knife from the kitchen and headed upstairs quietly. You had slipped your own shirt back on so that way you could at least avoid walking around the house with most of your upper body completely exposed.
You looked around, peeking into the rooms before checking over them one by one. You made it to your bedroom. The window was open and the curtains were fluttering thanks to the winter breeze outside. You walked over, keeping yourself alert. You shut the window and you waited. Nothing happened. You turned around and looked for anything out of the ordinary. Maybe something had fallen over. Maybe you'd simply heard a crack from the cold outside affecting the house. You relaxed your body as you came to the simpler conclusions. It was nothing. Thank God.
You headed to go get the girls and throw away the note, but you were suddenly grabbed. You screamed, but it was cut off by a hand covering your mouth. You couldn't get a good look at your attacker. You kicked and thrashed against him, but he was clearly very strong. You managed to land a kick to his favorite body part. He nearly dropped you and you heard a deep grunt, but his grip stayed tight as he dragged you backward.
Suddenly, the hand on your mouth moved to your throat, choking you. You gagged and coughed, trying to fight him off so you could breathe. The edges over your vision were already becoming red and blurry. You ket struggling, but it was no use. You were now fading in and out of consciousness. You heard the sound of the window opening and it seconds you were thrown like a ragdoll out of the two stories high window. You gasped as you were able to breathe for a moment. The cold, the shock, and the terror hit you all at once. You managed to cry out before hitting the ground. You felt a sharp pain as you felt some things break before blacking out in the snow, your blood turning the fluffy white it a sticky and sickly blue. The last thing you saw was a large shadowed figure in the lit up window above you.
Connor's POV
*4 hours earlier*
I had been driving for an hour now. I was getting closer. Her parents had lived in a small house about an hour out of town, but the addition of traffic had slowed me down a bit. I had about a half an hour left to go.
I looked around. The buildings that made up the city faded into snowed over grasslands and trees. The branches of some of the trees sagged thanks to the snow and icicles clinging to the branches. It looked really beautiful if I was being honest. I could picture kids running around outside of the few houses I saw if it were summer and then I saw a group of snowmen in front of one house. I chuckled slightly.
As I drove, I thought about what I would possibly find in (Y/n)'s parents house. Would it still be in good condition with nobody taking care of it? I couldn't be sure that I would even find anything. For all I knew, it could be falling apart at the seems. The thought of finding nothing made me feel like I was wasting my time, so I tried my best to keep my hopes high without over expecting.
After a little while longer, I finally arrived at the house. I parked on the side of the road since the driveway was filled with snow and there were even a few tall grass stalks poking out of it. I got out of the car and looked over the house looming before me. It looked like it was in good condition, but you could tell it was old. The outside walls were clearly brown before, but now they were greatly faded and the roof was covered in mounds of snow. Both garage doors were closed and the garage had old faded marks on it. Since it was white, the marks were still very noticeable. It looked like an old faded polaroid picture. A moment captured in time that had very subtly begun to wither away.
I slowly walked up to the house. I had never been here before, but knowing and loving (Y/n) as I did, it seemed to have a greater affect on me. Greater than I expected for sure. I had to pull and tug on my feet to reach the house thanks to the mounds of snow that hadn't been cleared or even touched. I felt like I was disturbing something as I looked back and saw my deep boot prints in the snow. It was almost like I was disturbing something that I shouldn't. Still my curiosity and need to find out what was inside compeled me to keep going and kept me from turning back.
I made it to the front door. I was glad the front door opened in instead of opened out. It made it easier for me to get inside. Or it would have if the door hadn't been locked. My gaze hardened slightly and I decided to go around to the garage and see if there was any door I could get in through. I looked around and I saw a door on the outer facing side of the garage. I tried the door. It was also locked. I sighed, knowing I had one last option. The garage door had a dog door as well.
I looked over it, not entirely sure I was going to fit. I knew I had to try. I pushed the flap open and squeezed through. I had minor flashbacks to the night (Y/n) and I had to go retrive Hank for our first Eden Club adventure. At least the window hadn't been a tight fit. Then again my landing wasn't neat either so I suppose it evened out.
I brushed off my pants since they had snow on them now from crawling through the door door. I looked around. There were old boxes covered in thick layers of dust and a deep blue almost navy blue car that had four flat tires, a rusted bottom, and it's own layer of dust.
I looked at the shelves that harborded the many boxes surrounding me. As I did, it all hit me once again. It had been years since anybody had been in this houe and I was the first to return. I wasn't even returning really. I was here for the first time, but I was the only one to come here in a long time. It made me slightly uncomfortable, but I kept going, taking a deep breathe to calm myself before finally, finally, entering the house.
If the house hadn't also given off an almost comforting sense of silence, it would've been like opening a door in a horror movie, but it wasn't like that. It was almost as if the weight of a loaded past that was not my own had claimed myself as its newest host and was now riding on my entire body and being, forcing me to carry a burden that was never meant for me. And yet...this burden was mine.
I stared down the hall ahead of me. I could see a faded brown couch at the end allowing me to assume that I would end up in the living room. I wasn't shaking, but it felt like my breathe was caught in my throat as I looked ahead. It was time I finally found out for myself the secrets the house before me held that so many people had forgotten or buried over the course of the years. It was time to learn the truth.