Hayden's gate

Chapter 7: brotherly bond

                                   Catrina
    The day began like every other. The only difference is the weight of a war playing at my chest. I made my way out of the small basement and up the stairs. Tiredness still filled my eyes due to my lack of sleep.
   Everything looked normal, like it was in place except the people. Every morning I would walk into the kitchen, Alice Bellamy and Lawrence would have the kids up and everybody would be eating breakfast. I rushed past the kitchen into the living room and upped the small flight of stairs. Firstly, I made my way to Alice's bedroom I knocked I know she went to bed earlier than she's normally awake by now.
   " Alice" no response " Alice are you in there?" no response again. I reached for the handled turning it lightly opening the door slowly so that way if she wasn't here, she know I was entering. When the door fully open, I looked into her bedroom; her bedroom and all its glory still perfectly pristine, the sheets are even made. Panic fills my body if something happened to her.
   I rushed down the flight of stairs, back into the kitchen and down the basement stairs quickly making my way to Lawrence's room. I knock once and I got no answer.
  " Lawrence this is some sort of joke. This is not funny." I'm banging on his door, but once again, no answer. I go in my room, throwing on my cloak over my nightgown and some easy slip on shoes before rushing out the front door. Something was off really off.
      As soon as my face hit the outside that's when I saw the thick cloud of smoke coming down from the village. The fire was perfectly in the open plaza. Thankfully, because it was so far away, it wouldn't be able to spread to the other houses.
   Rushed my way down the stairs on the hill and to the plaza, seeing the panicked faces and devastated children all around. My eyes skin, the people and I saw rubbing Myra's shoulder as she sobbed.
   " I can't believe this is happening" her soft, timid voice cries, it pulls up my heartstrings to see her this upset.
   " he is going to pay" Lawrence quickly looks my way as I approach them. " do you want to take a guess or do you already know?"
  " Zane" I say dryly
  " bingo you're crazy ass brother strikes for the first time"
  " Zane, your brother..." her voice doesn't sound angry like I expected just surprised.
  " yes he is"
  " oh no cat I am so sorry"
  "Myra it's OK why are you apologizing?"
  " he came into my store the other day snooping around asking questions about you and where are you like to be? Who you've been hanging out with" She sucks in a breath looking away from my gaze " he knew your name, I thought he was a boyfriend or something someone important to you"
   "Oh god Myra you didn't..." Lawrence looks at her in horror.
   " I'm sorry" it's the only sentence she could form between her sobs
  " it's OK you thought you were doing the right thing" I reach out to Rub her arm gingerly " you need to go home get some rest" she nods before scurrying away " this is bad this is really bad, if Zane's been snooping for information that means"
  " he's going after the people you care about..."
" he keeps taking it further..." I shake my head and disbelief, looking at the broken stand " Why did he do this?"
" Davis told us that Zane came over asking about a product he had and when Zane told him they were not open and had to go grab some product from his house Zane torched it"
" you and Alice need to start on those war plans immediately get everyone's not willing to fight out, Zane's not gonna stop until we make him" I clutch my cloak around me, pulling it tightly to my body.
" what are you gonna do?"
" I'm gonna go see if there's anything he can think of. He's the only one who remembers Maxwell died. If it's connected to the gates of hell and that's why Zane's doing all this, then maybe he'll know what our next plan should be."
" sounds like a plan. Do you still want to spar after dinner?"
" yeah of course" my shoes hit the gravel make my way to the guard tower. Even though Ambrose has a small little house this is where he spends most of the days even sleeping here at some point.

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I let the metal door click behind me as I make my way up the spiraling stairs. I make it all the way to the top of the four-story tower. I see Ambros and gross and whatever he's reading. The book is big and has intricate working at the front.
" Ambrose" I say lately, not to startle him, giving the door frame a little knock.
He turned around and smiles at me " hey cat what are you doing up here?"
  " I just came up here to talk about things going on" I look around before sitting in a nearby chair.
   " I'm assuming you heard what happened with Zane"
  " yeah I did. That's why I came up here."
  " I kind of figured" he shuts the book he was making sure to put a placer in it before turning his full attention to me. " so what do you wanna talk about?"
  " yesterday you said Zane didn't take the forgetting potion or whatever" he nods swiftly " is that why you think he's trying to open the gate of hell because he thinks Maxwell is in there"
  " honestly, I'm not sure. The only reason I suspect that he remembers is because he used to draw these pictures. I don't know if you even remember them. But they were this large portal type thing. Had these veins coming out of it that seem to capture whatever area he drew it in. But it was the light that really reminded me of Maxwell's room. And all of Zane's drawings, there was a bright red shine that would come out of this portal"
  " I remember those drawings, the adults are used to look at him like he was insane for drawing them"
   " I think that's where Maxwell got taken, nobody has ever seen his body. It's not confirmed that he's dead. Maybe Zane is vengeful of hell or maybe he thinks Maxwell is there" Ambrose shakes his head " the reason I do think Zane is trying to open the gates of hell"  he slowly opens the book that he was reading to the pages " I've been doing my own research on it and this book has a few different ways you can do it. I don't even know if it's real. But Zane's been cooped up in that cabin outside of town. I can only imagine what he's getting into" I peer over his shoulder looking at this huge book. I see a monstrous looking creature with red eyes and pale gray skin.
   " what is that?"
   " I mentioned them yesterday they're beings that live and exist in hell" He flips over the page and it shows a whole section for them. The title at the top proudly titled shadow demons. " these things are said to be more powerful than almost any creature on earth" I stare at the pages in horror, could this be what Zane's going after to become one of these?
   " are you able to turn into one of these?"
   " I'm not entirely sure of the process the information on hell in general is sparse but on these creatures it's even sparser"
   " Zane is going after this..."
   " he could have enough power to rule the entire world" Ambrose finishes my sentence as if he could read my mind " Zane has always been odd, but would he really try this?"
  " you have been gone for a long time Ambrose things have changed, Zane has changed"
   " I mean he's always an odd kid a little antisocial, but never like this" Ambrose looks down at his hands rubbing them softly together as if he's lost in History. " could you talk to him? I mean you're his twin sister he loves you." I shake my head fast.
   " the last time I talked to Zane before he showed up here. He said I was sister of his. I think we are way beyond the whole twin thing."
  " don't be so sure. If anyone was able to talk him out of this, it would be you."
   " I don't know Ambrose..."
   " right it's too dangerous anyways if anyone was with you, Zane would just put on his mask and you were not talking to him alone" alone, if I was going to get anywhere with saying that it would be. Just like old times and talking for hours it might be able to work.
" yeah, there's no way Zane would ever change his ways for me" I stand abruptly smoothing out my dress " I should go get some food in my stomach. I'm starving." I start making my way to the entrance before I turn back to Ambrose " will I see you at dinner?"
" yeah now that you know who I am, I can eat around you"
" perfect see you then" I make my descent down the stairwell and out the guard tower. The bright Sun streams down on my face and the breeze hits me.
  
     my feet hit the dirt path as I walk smiling at following neighbors trying not to look suspicious. I walk up to the gates and smile at the guard on duty he opens it with no questions asked. Thanks to Ambrose I know exactly where he staying.
   I make my descent, the small cabin in the woods. The thick forest overgrown that has probably been cut back in decades. Once I reached the cabin, it says, dingy as I remembered. I did some exploring when I first got here and when I saw it and asked Alice what it was, she told me this was where Lord would stay when they came from travels. Obviously it hasn't been used in a really long time. Most of the Lords that come to Hayden's gate are friends or family and have places to stay inside the gates.
The wood rots on the outside and I scrunch my nose. How could anyone bear to stay here let alone Zane?
My nerves set in as I take a step on the front porch trying to look through the windows but to my surprise they were completely covered. He was my best friend surly I can convince him to stop this madness. He will understand...hopefully.
I walk to the front door knocking lightly. I hear shuffling from inside but no answer. Is he seriously going to ignore me.
"Hello zane" I knock again more shuffling happens inside and worry strikes my heart. What if something happened to him and he's in there all alone. "Zane I know your in there it's cat I just want to talk" at this point I am frantically banging on the door. But nothing don't even hear the moving anymore. I lean down clutching the dagger from my boot and pull it to my hand. I reach for the door nob turning it slowly. The door opens with a pop.
I try my best to look inside but the room is completely dark only the light from the open door shining in. Once the door creeks open I see it....the portal my brother used to draw so frequently...the gate to hell.