Chapter 17

The darkness was all-consuming. Ava´s body could feel everything, yet nothing, as she was standing in the abyss. The feeling was both overwhelming and excruciating. Even though she could not see anything, her ears heard everything, even her heartbeat. Her legs walked on clouds as they started to move, without her acknowledging it.

Walking through the darkness was never-ending. Ava´s hands could not feel anything around her, no walls, no roof, nothing. Even as her feet walked, she believed for a brief second that there was no solid ground beneath her.

Even the air was off, lighter, sweeter, and more fulfilling than usual. It left Ava in a state of euphoria. Everything was bliss, except for the eerie feeling growing in her stomach.

The darkness left all of her senses in a state of high alert. As she was deprived of her sight, the remaining of her senses worked overtime. Out of nowhere, the strands on her arms rose. Ava tried to stop as the haunting feeling replaced the euphoria. Her legs continued moving forward, declining her demand of stopping.

Not long after, a dim light appeared. The closer she got, the larger and warmer the light turned out to be. A low voice blended in with the sudden brightness, making it all so much more overwhelming. The unknown voice spoke unfamiliar words in a hauntingly low voice as if they were trying to stay silent. Ava tried to stop. Arms flailing about as she tried to get a hold of something which would stop her legs´ determination. Her breath quickened terrified, alongside the speed of her panicking arms.

As if she got hit against something hard, Ava lost her breath. It took a while for her eyes to adjust to the bright lights all around her. Her back leaned further against whatever was behind her as her gaze wandered about. From what she could see she was at the end of a cave.

As she saw the cloaked people sitting in front of the burning candles, she held her breath, afraid that her presence would make them stop chanting.

It was a single voice talking, muttering words she didn´t recognize. Her gaze wandered over to books laying all around the floor, filled with drawings and words she couldn´t point out. As the voice stopped talking, Ava´s gaze shot back at the person sitting closest to what she assumed to be an altar.

As she shifted her attention to the person sitting in front, the four other cloaks sitting further back, now laid on the floor. With no one beneath them. Her heart stopped for a brief second as she leaned her head back, drawing in a sharp breath. Terrified to move due to the silence, she pressed her back further up against the wooden floors.

As soon as the voice started chanting again, she let out the breath she had been holding. Now, she looked directly at the altar; at the burning candle, the dried flowers, the rocks glowing in the dim light, and then over to the back of the book which seemed all too familiar, but she could not pinpoint where she had seen it before.

The voice abruptly stopped right as every candle stopped burning, except for the one residing on the stone altar. The person sitting in the front suddenly turned around, but she could not see the face due to the cloak covering their face.

"The truth is scary, isn´t it?"

Right after, every candle lit up again, revealing the four faces standing right in front of Ava. Two of them were all too familiar, which made her heart stop. The scream built up in her chest as she looked at the green boils on one face, and the hollow eye on the other familiar face.

Ava sat up with a scream, her hands flailing around her as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. What the nightmare had meant. It was just a nightmare after all, right? As she tried to collect herself, her gaze wandered about the scenery in front of her.

She was still in the position she had been as she had fallen asleep. With her back leaning against the railing on the veranda and with her shoulders covered in a blanket. Her sprained leg rested on a pillow. The snow was still softly falling from the sky and which left a larger fingerprint tonight than it had done last night.

A sigh escaped her as the thundering headache made itself present once again. Ava let out a groan, tired as ever, as she leaned her back on the pillow she had stolen from the couch inside. Even though she tried to fall back asleep, her mind continued to stay awake. Her mind skimmed through every single bit of information from the nightmare. Which wasn´t a lot to go on, as it was just a nightmare.

The truth is scary, isn´t it? What did it mean? Was she close to discovering the truth? It didn´t feel like it. She was just as confused as ever. What was even more confusing was the two faces from her dream. It was two people she hadn´t expected to see at all.

She turned her head and looked over at the front door, which reminded her of the decomposing body of the older lady inside. After camping outside of this cabin for so long, she couldn´t help but believe she had gone immune to the rotten smell.

A sigh left her lips as the old woman's face was suddenly in her mind, in her dream, once again. Why had she dreamt of the older lady? Was it because her subconscious had been reminded of the smell, after being ignorant of it for so long?

Yet, the thing which was all the more confusing was the second familiar face. Thinking of it now, Ava had been surprised to see a kind and familiar face. Nonetheless, she couldn´t understand why she had dreamt of her.

Why had Raven suddenly been in her dream?