In stark contrast to the failing walls and smaller buildings around it, a single structure resembling a temple stood in the center of the rubble. While covered in moss and obviously old, it appeared to be mostly intact. Columns flanked the front entrance, which didn't actually have a door, and vines had grown up around them.
Once again, the hair on the back of my neck stood up as we approached it. I could feel a darkness nearby, but couldn't put my finger on what it might be or where it came from. The unease leeched into my bones, leaving a hollow feeling.
Two officers stood near the doorway and raised a hand in greeting as we approached. They, too, appeared to be uncomfortable in the situation. More so than one might expect for a simple unattended death.
“Hello, I'm officer Stanton. I'm so very sorry for your loss. We appreciate you coming all the way out here. I'm hoping you could take a look around and tell us if anything seems off to you, or is missing, and identify the body?”
My mom bit her lip and peered past him into the dark interior. At first, I couldn't tell if she felt sad or scared. “I will try. I haven't entered this building in decades, so I don't know what all remained inside. It held nothing of monetary value, as far as I know. I can definitely identify my sister for you though.”
I eyed her from off to the side. It was news to me that she had ever been to the ruins, much less inside the temple. For a woman who had always claimed she steered clear of the sanctuary, there seemed to be a few details she had neglected to mention to me. We followed the officer inside after he handed us each a flashlight, explaining that without electricity they were unable to set up any of the bigger lights like we had seen at the house.
As we crossed the threshold I shivered. The temperature dropped by at least fifteen degrees and the cool air had an unfamiliar tinge to it. My scar began to itch. I scratched at it, doing little to ease the sensation.
The short entry hall led to a single open room that took up most of the footprint of the architecture. Pictures had been carved into the walls and statues rested on pedestals. The floor tiles each sported individual symbols that I did not recognize. In the far left corner stood a shrine of some sort. My aunt's body lay at the foot of it.
“We believe she suffered a heart attack, but obviously the official cause will come from our medical examiner's office.” The officer used a gentle tone as he explained what they knew to my mom.
“Leah, please don't look,” Mom said. Her eyes remained trained on the floor as she made the request.
Intuition led me to ignore her, unable to dispel the feeling that I needed to be close to my aunt one more time. More tears spilled down my cheeks as I walked over to the raised platform, my mother and the officer right behind me. I heard my mother let out a small sound as we approached, almost as if she was choking on something.
“That's Aimee.” The words were strangled as they left her throat.
She turned away; the officer taking her arm to help her as she turned away from the sight of her sister. I continued forward and knelt at my aunt's side. Her veins had turned black, running across her body like a road map. They stood out against her translucent skin.
Strangely, neither my mother nor the officer seemed to take notice of that detail. Could they really not see it? Other than that peculiar symptom, the body showed no other signs of trauma and gave no indication as to what might have been the cause of her death. Through the tears, I took in every detail I could. Instinct told me they might be important later.
Her long hair cascaded down the steps, much longer than it had been the last time we were together. I reached out to touch it gently before moving on in my visual examination. It remained soft and smooth, even in her last moments. Both eyes were closed, as was her mouth, her lips pale. Her clothing looked to be average every day wear; her style leaned to the more casual apparel.
Both her hands rested close together on her chest, clenched into fists. As I leaned over her, a tear dropped from my chin onto her hands, causing a brief blue glow to come from one of them, catching my eye. When I did a double take, it was gone. Reaching out, I touched her left hand, intending it to be a comforting gesture. The contact caused her tightly clenched fist to open, revealing an old metal skeleton key in her grip. Glancing back to be sure the officer and my mother were still occupied, I reached out and picked it up, curling my fingers around it.
The iron itself felt as if it had been laying in the snow, but the longer I held it the more feverish I became. Heat crawled up from deep in my belly, causing my cheeks to flush and beads of sweat to form along my brow. Wiping them away, I slipped the key into my pocket, immediately feeling relief once I no longer maintained contact with the artifact.
Just in case, I reached out and gently stroked her other hand with just my fingertip. Her fingers did not relax or open, and I didn't see anything clutched between them.
I stared down at her body, unable to believe that her life ended this way. Guilt for not coming to see her when I had the chance ate at me. She'd been all alone out here for years, since my uncle had disappeared when I was a very little girl, and I let my mother influence me against what I knew would have been the right thing to do.
A touch on my shoulder brought me back to the present and caused me to jump, so that I lost my balance and tumbled off the step I had been kneeling on. My right elbow caught the edge of the stone tread, sending searing pain up my arm. Aside from that, the only other thing injured was my rear end as I landed squarely on the edge of the next stair down. And my pride.
“Leah, are you alright? I'm so sorry.” My mom peered down at me as she leaned over to help me up.
“It's okay, and I'm fine. I guess I was just lost in thought. I feel so guilty that she has been alone out here for all these years and I didn't make it back to visit her.” I sighed. I rubbed the offending elbow. There would be a nasty bruise there by the end of the day.
The muscles in my mother's jaw clenched as she gritted her teeth. “I suppose a lot of that is my fault.” Her eyes were sad as she said it.
I shook my head. “I'm an adult. Have been for a long time now. I could have come to see her if I wanted to.”
The officer interrupted us. “We'd like to remove the body now, and there's no reason for you to see that. Can we escort you back to the house?”
“When will we be able to make funeral plans and lay her to rest?”
“I can't be specific for you, as all unattended deaths require an autopsy, but I can't imagine it would be a very long time. The medical examiner's office will get in touch with you once they are ready to release your sister.”
My mom nodded and turned away. I reached out, touching Aunt Aimee's arm one last time. What I wanted was to hug her, and to feel her arms around me one last time, but my chance at that no longer existed. Without speaking the words aloud, I promised her that I would somehow find out what had happened to her and make it right. Doctor or not, but this didn't look like a straightforward heart attack to me.
As we moved toward the entrance to the temple, I felt as if something tried to tug me back inside. I turned around, taking a glance at the interior that was visible from where I stood. Nothing seemed obviously amiss, if you ignored my aunt's body at the base of the altar, but I knew I'd be back here soon to investigate further.
We exited the ruins back into the forest as the wind picked up and I could smell more rain on the horizon. At some point while we were inside, the emergency medical personnel arrived with a gurney to transport my aunt out of the temple. They entered once we were clear of the building, and at that exact moment a wolf howled. His call was long and mournful, rising above the treetops to greet the sun. Answering calls echoed from every direction.
The officer peered into the trees around us, visibly unnerved by the sounds. His hand rested on the butt of his gun.
My mom looked at him, eyebrows raised. “That won't be necessary. They are simply voicing their sorrow over the loss of my sister. She has been their protector for decades n
ow.”
“Besides,” I interjected, “this is a sanctuary. It would be illegal to shoot any of the wolves here.”
He opened his mouth to respond, then thought better of it, and ducked his head, removing his hand and dangling it at his side instead. We followed the trail back towards my aunt's cabin with the officer leading the way.
Thunder cracked above our heads, muffled only slightly by the dense forest. I heard the rain begin to fall before I felt it. The dense canopy of trees slowed its descent to the earth and the tops of our heads. Another wolf howled, sounding much closer than before. Picking up his pace, the officer began to swivel his head from side to side, trying to keep an equal watch all the way around us.
Before we made it halfway back to the house, we were all soaked through. The rain that made it to the forest floor turned the trail into a spongy mess that not even the layer of pine needles could keep my feet from sinking into. Tiny rivers formed and ran through the roots of the towering trees. Goosebumps erupted underneath my dripping hoodie and my jeans stuck to my legs. Water squished from my shoes and socks with every step. It made me think that the sanctuary cried over my aunt's death just as I did.
As we approached the clearing, I could see the ambulance parked at the side of the house, lights still flashing. The tiny chipmunks had moved on, probably in an attempt to get somewhere dry and out of the rain. My chest tightened, but I continued walking.
Stepping out of the forest and into the clearing gave the rain a clear shot at us. The three of us picked up the pace and made a beeline for the relative safety and cover of the back porch. My mom and the officer spent a few minutes talking as I let myself into the house through the back door, somewhat surprised to see that she had left it unlocked. Not that she had many nosy neighbors who'd let themselves in.
I made my way into the kitchen, standing at the sink and staring out the window toward the forest. As I watched, the medics with the gurney exited the forest and headed toward the ambulance. They, too, were sopping wet. Part of me was thankful the black plastic body bag kept my aunt dry. The other half screamed inside that they needed to unzip and not keep her in there, that she couldn't breathe. Unable to see the whole journey from the angle of the window, I knew when they had made it into the vehicle because the flashing lights no longer reflected through the yard.
Somehow I doubted the autopsy would give us any clues to my aunt's true manner of death, but I had high hopes that the answer was somewhere within the house, and I had every intention of finding it. Whoever did this to her would not go unpunished.
CHAPTER THREE
The kitchen looked to be much the same as the last time I'd been in it. Nothing major had changed, not even the color scheme. Rummaging through the cupboards, I found the coffee and filters, putting on a fresh pot. Both Mother and I could use some, and I figured the officers would appreciate a hot cup too if they had to be stuck here much longer.
Opening the fridge, I found my aunt's favorite French vanilla creamer, right on the shelf it had always been kept. The sight brought a smile to my face. She was a creature of habit, if nothing else. When I used to come and visit, she always made me hot cocoa and added some of her creamer to my cup, just the same as she did to her own. We'd sit at the kitchen table or in front of the fireplace in the main living room and just chat, sharing thoughts and dreams with each other. She had always encouraged me, no matter what crazy things I told her I wanted to do with my life.
The back door opened and my mother made her way in. “Do I smell coffee?”
I grinned. “Yes, you do. I figured everybody out in the rain might want a cup to warm up.”
“Well, the last officers just left, so we're back to it being just you and me, kid. Let's get dry and we can have a cup.”
“That was quick. I guess we'll have to drink the whole pot ourselves. And I've got to grab my bag out of the car. Lucky for you I put an extra set of sweats in there, Miss I won't need a bag.”
Once I brought my duffle in, we both got dried off and changed, our hair wrapped in identical towels from the bathroom down the hall. I took a minute to study her features, realizing how much alike she and Aunt Aimee looked, almost twins and only a year and a half apart in age.
Opening the cupboard, I pulled a unicorn mug from the shelf. “Would you look at this? She still has my mug in the cupboard. As a kid I never wanted to use any other one, and as I grew older it, just became a habit to reach for it. I can't believe it's survived all these years!” The familiar sight brought a gentle wave of comfort.
My mom walked over and took the mug from my hand. “Did you know she broke it once?”
I looked at her in surprise, then back at the cup which obviously was still intact. “She did?”
A faraway look came over my mom's face. “She called me in a total panic one day. She knocked it out of the cupboard when looking for something in the back of the shelf, and it shattered when it hit the counter. She spent the next few weeks searching high and low, scouring the internet for one that was its identical twin. That's the only time you wanted to go to Auntie's house for the weekend and she put you off. She feared the temper tantrum that would ensue if you couldn't have cocoa in your mug. She wanted to order two, so she had one for backup but could never find another one like it.”
Laughter bubbled up. “Temper tantrum? That sounds nothing like me. I'm sure I don't know what you are speaking of. I would never...”
Her giggles escaped to match mine. We both knew that I had quite the temper when I was a girl, and if everything wasn't just so, the entire world knew of my displeasure. Luckily, I had grown out of it. Honest.
Her smile flattened out. “I should have made more of an effort to mend fences between us.”
“Mom...”
She put her hand up. “No, most of our estrangement was my fault. It just never occurred to me that we wouldn't have more time. I never in a million years would have seen this coming.” She stood up. “I should probably get back to the house.”
“Don't go. You don't have to be back at work right away, why don't you stay here with me?”
“Why don't you come home with me instead?” she countered.
“That's a negative, Nancy. I need to be here right now, and I think you know it. Why don't you go home and get some clothes, then come back here? Just for the weekend. If you want to go home after that, I won't argue with you.”
“And you'll come home with me?”
“No promises.”
The set of her shoulders told me that she knew it would be pointless to argue for the moment. “Is there anything you want me to grab from the house for you?”
“Can I make you a short list?”
I rooted through the drawers and pulled out a small notepad and pen. Using the pen inscribed with the sanctuary logo, I scribbled my requests, along with where to find each item, and handed it to her, waiting while she looked it over.
“Do you plan to be here a while? This seems like a lot of stuff for just a few days.”
“Well, we're the only family she had. It seems obvious that one of us needs to stay here and go through her stuff. We need to get things straightened out and decide what needs to be done. I don't know about you, but I have no clue what needs to happen after someone passes away. All this stuff can't just sit here in limbo forever.” I left out my intention to look into her true cause of death, knowing my mother would dig her heels in and refuse to have any part of it, possibly refusing to stay here with me, even temporarily.
She nodded her head, seemingly lost in thought. I watched curiously as she opened her mouth and then closed it multiple times in a row, as if she couldn't decide whether to say something or not. For a moment she looked like a goldfish in a bowl. Finally, she decided to speak.
“I know your Aunt had a will, and most of this now belongs to you. I will make a call to her attorney when I get to the house. I have the information at home.”
Now it was my turn to gape like a fish, mouth open in an O.
I stared at her, shell-shocked. Aunt Aimee had left all of this to me? She'd had no kids of her own, but still. You never think of what will happen after someone's death when they're so young, I guess.
Shaking my head in wonder, I brought myself back to the moment at hand. “It's getting awfully late, are you sure you want to make that drive twice more today?”
“I was thinking I would drive home now and spend the afternoon and evening gathering what we need. I can spend the night at the house and then head up here bright and early tomorrow morning, if you aren't concerned about being left here all by yourself?”
My stomach jumped at the thought of being out here all alone, but I did my best not to let on that it worried me. “I'll be fine.”
“I'll make a trip to the grocery store on my way back here tomorrow, that way we won't have to head into town again.”
“We shouldn't need much. Auntie always did big grocery shopping since she didn't like to leave the sanctuary often. I bet her big freezer and pantry are full.”
“I'll just get the fresh items then. And I'll be back by mid-morning at the latest.”
“Sounds good, Mom.” I walked over and wrapped my arms around her. For a moment she stood stiffly, then relaxed and returned the hug.
My mother had never been an overly affectionate woman, but I knew that she enjoyed the contact even when she wasn't willing to initiate it. All my life it had only been the two of us and we were close as we could be, in spite of her naturally distant ways. I always suspected it had something to do with my father, but that subject didn't make for pleasant conversation, so I avoided it. He'd never been a part of my life and I certainly wasn't looking to put forth effort for someone who couldn't be bothered to meet his own daughter.
“Keep the doors locked, just in case, okay?” She raised her eyebrows at me, the signal that said she knew I would find her request ridiculous but that she wanted me to indulge her, anyway.
Crescent Marked: StarHaven Sanctuary Book One Page 2
