Chapter 220

[ 1,874 words ]

[DEVON’s Point of View]

I wasn’t sure what really happened, but I couldn’t tell my sister what I really did.

Diana looked at me as I did the most heinous crime of the century.

“Tell me, Devon!” Diana’s eyes were wide as she grabbed me by the shoulders and asked me again. “What did you do in that dungeon with the Phantom lady?!”

“I am not sure,” I answered, and it was true! I really couldn’t remember what happened. When I opened my eyes and woke up, I was already there with Uncle Liam’s phone in my hand, and I panicked so badly that I searched for Dad’s number on the phone and called him about my scary, weird dream. “I never wanted to go there, though, and I told you already I was sleepwalking!”

Diana squinted her eyes at me, still not convinced. “This is not good, Devon. Once Mom and Dad find out about this, I don’t know what they’ll do.”

“It’s not as if they would disown me,” I grinned at Diana, but when I saw that stoic look on her face, my smile faded, and I started to worry. “—wouldn’t they?”

“I don’t know what you did, but I have a terrible feeling about it,” Diana said as she folded her arms on her chest, still scolding me. “At least next time, tell me if something is bothering you like this. Mom told us that we have to help each other, remember? How can I help you if I don’t know what’s going on?”

I lowered my face and pouted. “I don’t know, Diana. It’s not as if I want this to happen. I had no control over it, and I told you already I never wanted it to happen.”

Diana sighed as she patted me on the shoulder, trying to soothe my feelings. “There, there. I am sorry if I get a little upset. I am just worried, Devon.”

How could I tell my sister that I really did?

Even I couldn’t believe it myself. She would be really furious, and Mom and Dad would kill me if they ever found out. I was just surprised that the illusion that was used in that glass cell worked on Uncle Liam. But it didn’t work on me. I knew she got out. The glass cell was opened when I woke up from my sleepwalking, but I wasn’t sure how the Phantom Lady got out.

Could it be that I opened the cage for her?

Did I let her go?!

That thought brought a pit of nauseous feeling in me, and I had to open the round window of the small attic, or I might throw up from both the unpleasant feeling in my head, chest, and stomach together with the smell of the old books, dust, and boxes. I suddenly regret that I went there.

“Maybe we should go down now?” I asked my sister, but she walked towards the window with her eyes staring straight outside as if she saw something mesmerizing from the forest.

“What is it?”

“There!”

Diana gestured with her little finger, directing my gaze toward the bright red light coming from the depths of the Black Forest.

“What do you think that is, Devon? It’s beautiful…” Diana murmured slowly as if possessed by something. “Do you think it’s Mom and Dad?”

“I am not sure, Diana. But maybe it’s best not to stare at it. We have no idea what that is,” I warned her as I pushed her away from the window, and that’s when she blinked fast. A few seconds later, the light eventually disappeared, which made Diana suddenly look sad.

“Mom and Dad… I have a feeling they are both in the Black Forest again,” Diana said to me with a worried tone. “I feel like something bad is happening again, and we need to help them.”

Panic struck my head because I had already made something that would surely make Mom and Dad toss me to the dungeon themselves, but I didn’t let that fear show to my sister. Instead, I cleared my throat and asked her calmly, “Maybe we should go down now and sleep? I worry Uncle Liam will find out that we are still up, Diana. We can’t let him know that we went here in the attic.”

“Yeah?” She raised an eyebrow at me as she gave me a stern look. “I will tell him this is your idea.”

A pulsing white light glowed from the dark, sending me jumping, and I wrapped my arms around my sister in utter surprise. Diana was scared, too, but she gave me a stoic look as she removed my arms around her.

“You are starting to behave like a hysterical chicken, Devon. Relax! Maybe it’s just a lamp!” she rolled her eyes at me, which made my face turn red with embarrassment. After the sleepwalking issue, I couldn’t trust my instinct again.

“I just got scared!” I grimaced at her and then went straight to the staircase. “If you are not going down, I will leave you here and tell Uncle Liam this is your idea!”

Diana gasped at my despicable threat, and she placed her hands on her hips, looking furious. “Don’t you ever dare, Devon! I know Uncle Liam won’t believe you anyway! Besides, you took his phone!”

She was right. Uncle Liam would never believe me.

“Diana! What are you doing?!”

I was alarmed when Diana started to move the boxes, pushing them out of the way as she went to the source of the light that suddenly glowed in the room. I knew Grandma’s things were full of mysterious objects, and touching any of them was a terrible idea.

“Diana!!!” I hissed at her again.

“Sshhh!!!”

I frowned when she stopped where the light was, and when I got to her, my eyes widened in horror when I saw the crystal ball that was shattered in the clock tower. It was the phantom lady’s crystal ball, which she said was cursed, and I immediately grabbed Diana’s wrist to pull her away from it.

“What are you doing, Devon! Let go!” she eyed me and then shoved my hand away. “I am not going to touch it. I just want to look!”

“Let’s go downstairs, Diana!”

“Look, Devon!”

To be honest, I wanted to throw the thing out of the window, but Diana’s surprised tone distracted me from the thought, and I looked again at where her finger was pointing. I thought I was just hallucinating at first, but were those images I was seeing on the other half of the crystal ball?

“What is that…”

I looked closely enough to see clearly that it was a little house in the middle of a foggy forest. The Black Forest. I knew because of the tall old trees surrounding it. Diana and I had spent so much time there that I could recognize the place right away.

“Do you think the crystal ball reacted when the red light from the Black Forest shone bright?” Diana asked, looking so curious, which was a bad thing. I never wanted her to do anything with this cursed thing.

“Maybe we should just leave it here, Diana. We don’t know what this thing could do to us! You heard the phantom lady when she threw this on Mom, right? This is cursed, and we shouldn’t meddle with things like this. It’s dangerous!”

“But we need to know something. It must be connected to the red light, and I have a feeling it is about Mom and Dad! We have to know. Maybe there is something that the crystal ball wants us to find out, which can help Mom and Dad.”

I swallowed hard as I looked down at the thing. My wolf felt the bad aura coming from it, and I knew Diana felt it too. But she was too stubborn to listen. She was too curious about the images that the reflection of the crystal ball was showing us.

“Fine. Just don’t ever dare touch it, understand?”

Diana nodded as she bent down to watch the images that played on the glowing thing. Her eyes were wide as she focused on it.

“There is an old man wearing a silver wolf mask. Do you think he’s the giant wolf that guards the Moon Wolf Spring? Do you think he is related to Dad?” Diana asked curiously while she continued watching, as if she were viewing her usual shows on her tablet.

“Let me see the diary,” I asked Diana, and she handed me Grandma’s diary without even looking at me. And I started to flip it open, hoping I could find an answer in it.

“I feel like that’s the one who is guarding the spring. He looks the same as the one that is sketched here,” I answered Diana’s question as I tried to figure out the picture that was drawn in the diary. “He’s feeding something to the giant silver wolf—like he’s trying to cure it from something.”

“Do you think the Moon Wolf Spring is the answer to curing Dad’s and Uncle Killian’s curse as well?” Diana stood with excitement on her face as she looked at me with hope in her eyes. “Do you think they went there to finally get rid of Dad’s sickness?!”

“I am not sure—”

“Give me the phone.”

“What?” I asked, a little confused.

“Uncle Liam’s phone! Give me!” Diana held her hand out.

I was so focused on the image on the crystal ball and the diary that I forgot I indeed had Uncle Liam’s phone in the back pocket of my shorts. “Oh, yup. Here. What are you going to do with it?”

“Mom and Dad need to see this—”

“Are you out of your mind?! You will take a picture of the crystal ball and send it to them? Do you want Mom and Dad to feel worried about us here?!” I uttered in panic. I couldn’t let Diana do this when I still had another issue I had to explain to both our parents!

“They will think it’s Uncle Liam and not us, Devon, relax!” Diana gave me a frustrated glance and snapped a picture of the crystal ball, which displayed images of the old man and the wolf. They have to know this. They might need it.”

“There! Sent!”

“DEVON?! DIANA!?”

“Oh no! Uncle Liam!” so we hissed at each other. Both of us got scared of the anger that awaited us downstairs.

“I’m so sorry! We just thought there was a rat here upstairs, so we looked!” I immediately thought of an excuse so Uncle Liam won’t scold us both. “We are really sorry!”

When Diana and I raced downstairs, Uncle Liam was there, standing between our beds, holding our baby pet wolf in his hands with a worried face.

“I think something is wrong with him,” he said as he looked down, and Diana and I noticed how its eyes turned glowing purple, just like the giant silver wolf that guarded the Moon Wolf Spring in the Black Forest.

Diana and I looked at each other’s faces; both of us were shocked by what happened.

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