Chapter 124: Chapter 124

Charlotte sighs and closes her eyes. She has a headache and it won’t just stop. She has taken the medicine but looks like it isn’t working.

When she opens her eyes she sees Katya walking towards the house. Charlotte slightly smiles and stands up from the chair.

“Hey! Ready?” Katya asks.

“Yeah. Just give me a minute.” Charlotte says and quickly sips some water and then follows Katya out.

“So…Everything alright?”

“Yeah..just a headache.”

“Oh..okay…we can finish the session quickly if you want to.” Katya offers.

“Nah…that won’t be necessary.” Charlotte smiles gratefully.

Katya has been helping her work on her intuition. Her sessions have helped Charlotte a lot. She is getting better at mindlinking and weirdly enough she is no more uncomfortable or afraid about the shift. In Katya’s words, she has finally surrendered.

Katya and Charlotte walk up to their usual spot between the trees and the ground providing comfort to Charlotte that she didn’t know she needed.

“Close your eyes and relax. Take deep breaths. Inhale to the count of four, then hold your breath till the count of four, exhale till the count of four and then hold till the count of four….repeat it till you feel relaxed and your mind clear.”

Charlotte follows the instructions and soon enough she can feel the tension leaving her body.

“Now visualize….there are roots sprouting from your body and growing beneath the surface of the earth. Thank mother Earth for being your support and grounding you. Your roots attach you to the solid foundation of the earth providing you with the very anchor that you need. Now, you are not afraid of any storm. No one and nothing can uproot you from the strong foundation beneath you….” Katya’s voice fades in the background as imagination comes alive behind Charlotte’s eyes.

The sounds around her go quiet as Charlotte realizes that she is not in the forest anymore. Instead, she is in a place that is unknown to her. She glances around her to realize it’s the very city she has grown up in. She recognizes the street on which her house is situated. The very same house in which she lived with her uncle with the Grishams living next door.

Her feet take her to the house she grew up in. Surprisingly, she doesn’t feel anything. No emotions make her stop from entering the house she used to call home.

She opens the front gate and makes her way to the door slowly. To her surprise, the door is ajar and she can hear that there is someone inside.

Charlotte quietly peeks through the door and her eyes widen in disbelief. There near the window, on the loveseat, was sitting none other than a 10-year-old version of Charlotte. That place was her favorite place to sit and read. But that’s not what shocked her. There is someone else there too.

And it’s not a person.

A black shadow is sitting beside the 10-year-old Charlotte. The figure is transparent with a black hue and it appears to be looming over the book Charlotte is reading.

A sickening feeling enters Charlotte’s heart as she tries to remember the moment in front of her.

She doesn’t remember it!

Maybe because she always sat on the same seat and read till a few months ago…or perhaps because she isn’t supposed to remember it!

Holding her breath, she continues to watch the scene unfold without entering the house.

The younger version of herself is busy reading unaware of the black shadow breathing down her neck.

“You should take some rest Charlotte!” The voice of a female confuses Charlotte.

A female with blonde hair enters the scene in front of her. Her back is towards the door where Charlotte is standing. She is wearing a black high-neck sweater with blue jeans and her hair flows in waves on her back.

“No…let me finish this book.” Young Charlotte says.

The lady huffs and moves to the side. To her surprise, the black figure is no longer sitting next to her near the window.

Charlotte scans the area as much as she can from the ajar door but she doesn’t see the black shadow or the blonde lady. She keeps her eyes on Charlotte in hopes that something will happen for a few minutes.

It’s all quiet for a minute and the next moment the black shadow is in Charlotte’s face with a screeching sound that has the potential to make her go deaf.

Charlotte takes a step back out of fear. Her heart feels like it will come out of her chest because it is beating so wildly. She can’t breathe…her hand involuntarily goes to her chest and she tries to calm herself down. The black shadow is watching her from the door. For some reason, it can’t come out of the house. It’s like there is a transparent shield around the house that is preventing the shadow from coming out of the house and killing Charlotte!

Scared that this might become dangerous very soon, Charlotte walks out of the main gate and gives a fleeting look to the house. She can still see the younger Charlotte sitting peacefully near the window and reading her book.

Charlotte walks down the road further but stops when she sees a dead end. Confused, she looks back from where she started walking. Yes, it is the same street but it never ended here. In front of her is a dense forest where used to be two roads going in left and right directions.

Gathering every bit of courage, Charlotte decided to enter the forest. As soon as she puts her foot in the forest, she starts hearing loud noises around her. Charlotte looks around her but can’t see anything. The wind started blowing harshly, whipping her hair on her face. The dirt flies in her eyes making it difficult to open her eyes and see what’s going on. The sounds make her heart drop in her stomach. The air around her feels ominous. It’s like she isn’t supposed to be here but has to be!

The wind is so strong that it is pushing her back out of the forest. With every bit of strength left in her, she holds on to the ground so that she is not thrown out of the forest.

“Charlotte? Charlotte?”

A hand on her shoulder makes her jerk and open her eyes.

A gasp leaves her mouth as she realizes she is sitting in the forest where Katya and she began her session.

“Are you okay?” Katya’s concerned face enters her line of vision.

“Yeah.” She gulps. “I’m fine.”

“I have been calling you for the last 2 minutes. What happened?”

Charlotte narrates everything she saw and felt. As more and more words come out of her mouth, Katya’s face becomes more and more concerned.

Once she is done, Katya opens her mouth to say something but before she can, her cell phone rings.

Katya fishes her phone out of her pocket and gives an apologetic look to Charlotte.

“Theo?”

Charlotte can hear the next words that Theo says because of her wolf.

“Katya…Alana is at our borders!”