The Key to Night Ch. 04

Hey everyone! I know it is frustrating that my chapters are short but, I promise that the 7th chapter will be super long as I have been working on it nearly everyday. I just wanted to let you all know :) ~JF

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Shantae sat up in bed with a start. She had been having one of her dreams, again. No one knew about them, not even Merrick, as much as he would like to think he knew every little thing about her. Shantae kept them to herself and for a very good reason.

People who knew about them set out to use her visions for their own gain. This one was what she thought was in the future, of a battle that was to be the bloodiest of battles yet to be fought. Maybe I can stop this from happening, she thought to herself as she got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. No, she thought as she stared into the mirror, I remember what happened the last time. It ended up getting worse than the dream she had about it.

~*~*~

1876

A young woman of 16 years stood looking out of her bedroom window. She had a slim and willowy figure with skin that was as luminescent as the moon above. It was quite a contrast with her pitch black hair that blended into the dark background of the room. Her violet eyes usually shown like the stars themselves, but tonight her they were clouded as she thought upon what she should do. She had had a premonition before, about little things, like what she was going to get for her birthday and when Raoul was going to ask her to the Winter Ball that Lady Farthiwell was holding, but this one was different. It was about a fire that had set the entire manor ablaze, and her mother and father were killed by the burning tendrils that flowed over the house as if trying to swallow it whole.

Shantae frowned slightly as she tried to figure out when the fire was going to take place. In her premonition, it was night out, and the sun was just starting to rise now so it is not until at least tonight. That would give her a chance to get her family as far away from their home as she could get them.

Later that day, she talked her father into taking the family to her Aunt Cammilla's to stay for the summer. She knew that her father would have to come back sooner than everyone so he could run his newspaper, but her vision had showed her mother and father being killed by the fire, so it couldn't happen while he was there by himself.

Shantae tried to forget about her vision all that summer, but it was always there, in some part of her mind, making her distracted and restless. Her father left almost a month before she and her mother did, and she was always wondering, "What if I was wrong and it does happen to Papa while we are gone?" She would shake her head at herself and say, "At least I would have Mama. I would rather have both of my beloved parents, but one is better than none."

She and her mother returned home three months later. Shantae breathed a sigh of relief that the manor was still completely intact and that her father was rushing down the walk to greet them.

Her relief was short lived, though. While she was in bed later that night, she could smell it. The first wisps of smoke crawling into her room from where ever they had started from. It woke her up from a dead sleep. Shantae jumped out of bed and ran as fast as she could after she grabbed the bag of clothes that she had made just in case if her vision had not been prevented.

She rushed to her mother and father's room only to be stopped by a wall of flames. It was already too late.

~*~*~

Shantae had lost everything she held dear to her that night and she learned one very important lesson. You can't out run fate or destiny.

Her pondering was brought to a close by the sound of knocking on her bedroom door. For a moment she debated not answering, but she knew it was futile to ignore who ever it was. She got up out of bed, calling out, "Who is it?"