It started with a whisper. A disembodied murmuring that all within the outer temple could hear the moment Sam and Serena walked through its bronze doors. This whisper became two, and then three, until a chorus of ghostly voices were murmuring all around them.
'The girl… the girl… the goddess claims her,' they murmured, their voices becoming more insistent with each second.
These whispers didn’t sound friendly, and hearing them caused Sam’s shoulders to shake with fear. He tried to repress his shuddering though because Serena was so frightened by the disembodied voices that she buried her head in her brother’s chest and Sam didn’t want his sister to think he was scared too.
“Wh-what’s going on?” she asked.
Sam could feel Serena shivering next to him, and this caused him to get over his fear. He wrapped her in a protective hug he hoped would make her feel better.
“It’ll be okay,” Sam promised. “Mom and dad are here.”