Own My Soul - Chapter Two

The Manor hadn't changed much inside, either, Max noted as he trudged up the stairs. The drive down wasn't that bad, but three and a half hours in a car with his sister and a crying cat were still tiring. He was feeling it now and really wanted to sleep, despite it only being mid-afternoon. Lyssa, though, seemed to have a spring in her step. Especially after the tackling the twins had done a few minutes ago. They were pretty eager to see their aunt and uncle.

"Don't you think it's weird that the basement's off-limits?" he asked, giving her a little side-eyed look. She was peering down over the railing, swinging the cat carrier gently. Somehow, the movement had lulled Nyx into calmness. Max wished the car would do the same, but apparently not. "Lyss, are you even listening to me?"

She turned back towards him as they reached the second floor landing. "Yeah," she muttered, keeping her voice down. They glanced back down the stairs as she continued. "That's definitely weird, but also...active crime scene? What the hell? I thought they ruled it an accident?"

"Seems like we've been given conflicting information, doesn't it?"

"No shit." Lyssa set the cat carrier down with a frown before digging her phone out of her pocket. Max kept half an eye on her and the other half on the stairs. There was a weird, unsettling sensation creeping over him now. It was almost like they were being watched. "Luke and Jae want to catch up."

Max shook himself, trying to ignore the sudden creepy feeling. "Do they?" he asked, and reached for his own phone. Sure enough, there were a couple of messages from their two best friends. "Let's meet them for brunch tomorrow. Tell them to meet us at the Robin at 11, okay?"

"Sure," Lyssa said, typing away into her phone.

He saw the message pop up on his end and stashed the phone away with a grin. "I think a shower and a nap is good idea. I'm gonna go see where Puck ended up." Max nudged the cat carrier, making Nyx meow pitifully again. "Wake me up in a few hours, okay?"

"Sure thing," Lyssa replied as he headed off down the hall.

Max waved a hand back in her direction absently as he peeked into the first door on the right. It was empty except for a bed, a desk and a bedside cabinet. There was another door on the left and a window directly across from him. He couldn't see Puck, so he pulled back and kept going. The next handful of rooms on both sides of the hall were either eerily empty or full of boxes and various other pieces of junk. Max avoided those rooms in particular. It seemed that old Grandma Blackwood and Great Aunt Val had decided to just use the Manor as storage. It made him curious, but at the same time wary. What kind of crazy magical, possibly cursed stuff would a pair of old women keep in a mostly abandoned old manor? Max wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

He found Puck in the second last room from the end of the hall. The Cat Sith was curled up on the double bed, seemingly fast asleep. Max dumped his bag just inside the door and crossed the bed, flinging himself down on it. He bounced for a second before settling and reached out to give Puck's ears a scratch. The faerie cat huffed out a little snort and buried its head beneath a paw, essentially ignoring him.

"Well, Puck," Max muttered, looking around the room. The walls were a faded grey-green and peeling in places; the floor was waxed hardwood, reddish in colour and actual rather pretty. Max admired it for a moment before glancing towards the window. The curtains were dark red and drawn back, exposing a view of the guesthouses, the stables and a tiny corner of the graveyard. He could also see a couple of horses out in a paddack behind the guest house, stable and barn complex. "What do you think of the place?"

It's horrible, and it smells disgusting.

He laughed, peering down at the Cat Sith. Puck's ears were laying flat, and as Max went to scratch them again, Puck raised his head and met Max's gaze with a flat stare. "You don't like?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow at the cat. "Surely it can't be that bad."

It's worse, Puck told him, gaze narrowing before he turned to look about the room. At least this room is strongly warded.

Max sighed. "I'm not going to even bother asking what 'worse' means. And what do you mean, the room's warded?"

The cat snorted and got up, stretching lazily. Aishe, it told him, and Max understood.

So apparently their sister wasn't completely unaware of the house and its weirdness. He glanced about the room again, this time looking for the tell-tale signs of warding. A ward sigil by the window and the door, another by the walk-in wardrobe, and a different type of warding sigil above both doors and the window. He nodded and made a mental note to try adding his own warding to the room.

Puck shifted on the bed and Max dragged his gaze off the wards. The Cat Sith turned in a circle, made a small huffing sound and curled up again. Max stretched out of the bed beside his familiar, frowning at the off-white ceiling with its fancy cornicing and the elaborate light fitting. He rubbed a hand over his face and glanced towards the window again.

"Hey, Puck," he said, not looing at the cat. "Wake me up around sunset, will you?"

The Cat Sith snorted and Max glanced down at him. Wake yourself up, sir.

With that, Puck tucked his head back under his paw and then added his bushy tail for good measure. Max shook his head, watching the cat familiar with a small smile before he pulled his phone out of his pocket, unlocked it and set up an alarm for about five-thirty. He set it down on the bedside cabinet before rolled to put his back to the door and trying to nap.

Sometime later, he was woken by giggling in the hall and failed upright in the darkness. It was dark outside the window and even darker inside the room. Max frowned, glancing towards the doorway before checking on Puck. The Cat Sith was fast asleep beside him, and hadn't even moved an inch. Max reached for his phone and frowned when he found it missing.

The giggling in the hall came again ad he stumbled up onto his feet, heading for the doorway to peek out into the hall. For a moment, he couldn't see or hear anything, but then he heard another giggle and caught a glimpse of low light from what appeared to be a phone screen. Max sighed and leaned against the doorframe.

"Guys, get back here and give me back a phone," he called, sounding bored. The giggling came again and then his niece and nephew appeared in the glow of his phone from a doorway just down the hall. "Hey, Brynn. Hey, Blair. Phone, please?"

They skipped across the hall and into his room. He turned to watch them as they handed the phone back before deciding to jump up onto his bed, disturbing Puck. The Cat Sith hissed and dashed off the bed, hiding beneath a desk on the far side of the room. All Max could see of him was glowing amber eyes. He turned back to his niece and nephew.

"How's school been?" he asked, glancing down at his phone to check the time. Max paused, blinking dumbly at the screen of his phone. How was it four in the morning? He frowned deeper and put the phone away, gaze straying to the twin twelve-year-olds still nouncing on his bed. "Anything I should know about?"

"School's been great!" Blair said, grinning at him. She picked up a pillow and brandished it at her brother. "Brynn's soooo got a girlfriend!"

"I do not!" her brother exclaimed, brandishing his own pillow. "She's just a friend! Besides, Blair's got a boooyfriend!"

"He's just a friend," his niece muttered, and tossed the pillow at him. "Besides, I like Claire more than Harper. She's pretty."

Max's eyebrows rose. Well, then, he thought, watching his niece and nephew as they proceeded to get into a pillow fight. At least someone is taking after their favourite aunt and uncle. He sighed and moved to join them on the bed, catching a pillow that Brynn launched at Blair before it hit her.

"You two should be in bed," Max told them, setting the pillow down and snatching the other one out of Blair's hands. "Why are you even up?"

The twins exchanged a look in the now semi-dark room. Max frowned deeply at the pair of twelve-year-olds. He waited, trying for patient and probably failing. Puck crept out from under the desk and hopped back up onto the bed, slowly crawling into his lap. He gave the Cat Sith an absent pat. It was Brynn who started talking first after pouting at his sister.

"We heard a noise," he began only to be cut off by Blair.

"It was a voice," she insisted, scowling at him. "And it wants us to go downstairs."

"Downstairs?" Max asked, confused. What was even downstairs? After a moment of deep thought, he froze. Surely they didn't.... "Do you meaning the basement?"

"Yes!" Blair exclaimed, bouncing up onto her feet. Brynn was slower to get up. "I don't know why it says to go down there, but well..."

"It keeps asking us to do something," Brynn put in, sounding a lot calmer than he had a few moments ago. "But we don't always remember what that is."

Max put down the other pillow slowly, watching his niece and nephew closely. He moved Puck off his lap, ignoring the tiny growl the Cat Sith gave him. He stood up and took them each by the hand, leading them out into the hall.

"Why don't you two go back to bed and I ward your room, okay?"

"Okay," they muttered at the same time, and Max took them back to their room.

He layered several wards over the room and added an extra charm for good measure, to ensure they slept well. He really wanted to ask them more about the voice and the request to go downstairs, but figured it was probably best not to push too much. Max vaguely remembered something about not talking about what, exactly, he was supposed to do all those years ago. They'd talk when they needed to, and besides, he felt better knowing they had more wards on their room than usual. Somehow, though, he doubted it would keep whatever was in their dreams, or in the basement, at bay. He could hope, though.