I replied, "I'm okay. It's just... there has been something wrong since the moment I woke up."
Jax didn't laugh or call it a prank. Instead, he looked at me seriously and said, "My uncle works for the police. Let's call him and check the CCTV footage from your home and the street."
We went back to the mansion and checked the footage from my parents' study. There was no trace of a woman or a maid in the video. In fact, no one of that description even worked at the estate. We checked the road footage, and it was the same: after the accident, I stepped out of my car, and the driver in front of me was the only one there, shouting in anger. I appeared to be running toward a crowd that didn't exist, looking like a madman until Jax arrived.
Back at the apartment, Jax looked at me with worried eyes. "Theo, can we see a doctor?" I didn't get angry; I knew how insane I sounded. "Go home, Jax," I said softly. But he insisted on staying the night, and I let him. He cooked, we ate in silence, and eventually, we drifted off.
Around 2:00 AM, a heavy thud on the ceiling jolted me awake. It was so loud that Jax woke up too. The sound moved, as if something were dragging itself closer. Jax jumped out of bed and grabbed a vase. Suddenly, the bedroom door was flung open, then slammed shut with a boom that echoed through the hallway. Jax tried to pull it open, and I kicked at the wood, but it wouldn't budge.
"Stop!" I yelled. Jax looked at me, puzzled. "Look," I whispered. "The door is locked from the inside." Neither of us had locked it, and neither of us had opened it.
Neither of us slept. At 7:00 AM, the door finally yielded. When we looked up at the ceiling, the word "GO" had been carved deep into the plaster.
Still in our pajamas, we grabbed the keys and raced to my parents' house. They were bewildered to see us in such a state. We told them everything. My dad called the police, assuming an intruder had broken in, while my mom tried to soothe me. "Go wash up, honey. Dad will handle this." They didn't believe the supernatural part; they thought it was just a break-in.
Jax turned to me and whispered, "I'm sorry I didn't believe you at first."
"I wouldn't have believed it either, Jax," I replied with a grim smile. "But we have to find out what this is. We have to stop it."
After breakfast, my parents suggested I stay at the manor and begin working, since my studies were finished. I shook my head. "I want a year off to travel—a vacation before I settle down." They agreed, and I gave Jax a knowing nod.
That evening, as Jax prepared to leave, he said, "Stay safe. Call me if anything happens."
"You too," I joked weakly. "Don't stay alone. Go stay with your 'baby.'" We laughed, and he left.
Later that night, I was making my bed when the door creaked open. My mother walked in, her movements stiff and strange. She pointed a trembling hand toward the door and rasped a single word: "GO." Suddenly, a violent gush of wind roared through the room, turning everything upside down. Then, my mother collapsed. I carried her down the stairs, shouting for my father, and we rushed her to the hospital.
My father sat in the waiting room, his face a mask of confusion. "I don't know what's happening to you, Theo. The driver said you had an accident... your mother is exhausted and fainted. Please, let the doctors check you too."
"I'm just tired," I snapped, walking out of the hospital into the cool night air. A car pulled up abruptly. My grandmother, Thalassa Graves, stepped out like a thunderclap. She looked at me with eyes that knew too much.
"You need to visit your other grandmother," she said sternly. "You must go to Agatha Nightfall. The previous Matriarch of the Nightfall line."