I rolled off the sofa, and my head was throbbing as I carried myself to the bathroom and walked in, cutting my foot. "God damnit!" I yelled, taking a seat and pulling the glass out from under my foot. Man great way to start the fucking day, good thing it wasn't too deep. Making me sigh as I turned on the shower and began to take off my clothes, causing my body to ache. Getting into the shower, I let the hot water flow over me, soothing my hurting muscles and making me feel better. Grabbing the soap, I began to wash myself as a chuckle ran out.
"Feeling better after drinking yourself to sleep? You know that's not healthy." The voice said, making me sigh. "I don't want to deal with you right now, please just leave me alone," I said, making the voice go silent at least. He is being more accommodating this time. As I got out, making sure to step around the glass, and walked to my room, grabbing some sweats and a t-shirt before coming back downstairs to get something to eat, only to stop the moment I looked at the table and saw the package.
"That's right, I got an inheritance," I said, pulling the chair out and looking at it before running my fingers over a wax seal. It had a strange design. Breaking it and unwrapping it, opening the box, and a letter sat on top of some objects, along with a key. It was an old key with the same design as the wax stamp. As I ran my fingers over the key, I hit a sharp edge, drawing blood as it flowed onto the key, making me drop it as I put my thumb into my mouth and got up to get a paper towel, coming back to wipe the blood off the key, only to see it was clean.
"Odd, maybe I didn't get any on it. But knowing my luck, I am just going crazy." I said, putting the key down and picking up the letter, breaking the wax seal on it. "Bennet Hollowmere, you don't know me, and we have never met. I write this to you as you're the youngest of our direct bloodline. Hoping that you have what other blood members have lost connection to. I leave you the Hollowmere manor along with everything in it and the vast fortune our bloodline has amassed over the 400 years our family has lived in the New World." That was all the letter said as I picked up a book and opened it, making me drop it as I stepped back from the table.
That mansion, I have seen it before in my dreams as I picked it up and turned the page, seeing a family tree. "Lazarus Hollowmere and Medea Hollowmere." Those were the two names at the top as I worked my fingers down, stopping on one of their children. "Samira Hollowmere, husband normal human?" That's an unusual way to describe a person. As I ran down her branch, I stopped. "Jacob Hollowmere, my father," I said before reaching the end with me. I turned the page, and it had a brief history of Hollowmere. We left Europe because the Hollowmere were being hunted, but it didn't say why or by whom. And it went over the wealth it gained from slave training and doing odd jobs for the rich and powerful. Yet again, it was vague, as if it didn't want to reveal the secrets of the Hollowmeres. I wanted to know more, as if something inside me yearned for that knowledge.
I looked at the bottom of the package, and a card with coordinates was on it. Pulling out my phone and putting them in it showed up on Google Maps in a fifty-mile blacked-out area of the woods four hours north of here. As I looked at my phone and made up my mind, I stood up, went to my room, grabbed a hiking bag, put clothes and water inside it, and then looked for some flashlights and batteries. As I changed into clothes fitting for being in the woods, I grabbed the bag and walked down the hallway past a mirror. "You sure you want to do this? Who knows what awaits you at the end of that dark forest trail or what hides within those manor halls?" The me in the mirror said, making me look at him.
"I am already at rock bottom, just a step away from death. I would much rather die doing something than living this kind of life." I said, making him smirk. "Then walk your path, just know I will never leave your side." He said making me kind of happy in a strange crazy fucked up way. Perhaps I am delusional, and this entire scenario is a figment of my imagination. As I walked to the front door and opened it, it was already nine am—four hours to get to the woods, and who knows how long to walk to the mansion. I locked the door with the book in my hand and the key in my pocket.
As I got in the car and adjusted the side mirrors, I noticed him sitting in the passenger's seat, which made me smile. I started the car, and the radio began to play 'Highway to hell', making me laugh. "Well, isn't that ominous?" I chuckled out, making my way to the highway.
The drive was silent, thoughts racing through my head as I finally stopped on a dead-end road. The pavement was overgrown with weeds and grass as I exited my car and looked at the small overgrown path. I looked at my phone, and it was twenty-five miles to the pin. As I opened the trunk of my car, I put the book into the backpack. Walking towards the end of the pavement, an eerie gust of wind escaped the forest. I left my right foot and stepped onto the forest path.
As I traveled the forest path, not a sound could be heard; there were no insects or animals. As if they were too afraid to be in this part of the woods, I pulled my phone out and found that it was dead. I had been charging it the whole time, while driving, it shouldn't have died after only two hours of walking. I didn't turn back, I had come to find out about my family and those dreams. As time passed, the sun began to set, and the forest grew darker. I pulled out the flashlight, relieved to find that at least it worked.
I started to walk again, only to hear the sound of twigs breaking, swinging the flashlight in that direction, only to see a little girl in old clothing holding a porcelain doll standing near a tree, peeking from around it. Fear rang out inside my head, but I pulled the courage inside me to open my mouth. "Little girl, what are you doing in the forest at night. You should go home." I said, knowing that the clothes and doll were out of place. But not speaking made things scary as she smiled and stepped out from behind the tree, making me turn and run the moment I saw her whole face.
"Fuck that shit, how the fuck can she be missing half her face and part of her skull with her brains out in the open!" I yelled, fuck me. I took off running as fast as I could as I heard a little girl's giggling behind me. I didn't stop; I kept running when I noticed more and more people showing up in the woods, missing skin and parts of their bodies, pushing me to run faster. Until I saw in the distance that same mansion in my dreams, calling me, telling me that if I slowed down, I was going to die in this forest. My lungs burned as I felt something tug on the bag, only for that thing to let go when I heard a thump from behind me. "Keep running!" His voice yelled out.
As I crossed the threshold of the gate, a loud banging sound could be heard as I swung around to see tens of thousands of people looking at me with hatred as their voices echoed. "HOLLOWMERE!" They screamed and cried in rage, hitting against something that stopped them from entering. As I gasped for air and sat on the ground, looking at them, I saw they had clothes from so many different periods. I could tell one thing for sure: they died in horrible ways, and it has something to do with my family. Making me look back at the mansion, for something in the middle of the woods, it was in fantastic condition. "How did they build this?" I thought in amazement.
I stood up and began to walk towards the mansion, feeling my heart beat a soothing, peaceful pace. This place felt warm to me, like I belonged here.