The lightning cracked the tree closest to Aura Abercromby as she ran for her life. She could smell the sulfur of fire and knew she had to run faster. Thunder boomed so loud, it sounded as if a train were speeding by.
She didn't know why she was running, or who she was running from, she just knew she had to keep running or she wouldn't survive this night.
A vision loomed in the distance, an eerie figure that glowed in the dark night, almost translucent, yet she knew it was a man, and that he was there to help her. She ran and slipped in the muddy earth that felt as if it were trying to grip her feet to keep her there, though the wind pushed her forward towards the lighted figure beckoning her on. Finally, gasping for air and shivering, she reaches the glowing figure. He points to a well, and without any time to do more than gasp one more large breath, he pushed her forward into the dark, wet abyss.
~Chapter 1~
Aura awakens, gasping for breath as usual. She keeps having this crazy dream, but what does it mean? Sometimes it's water in a well, sometimes it's a hole amid old stones, but it's always a circle of some kind. What is in there, and why does it feel so real, and so urgent?Looking at the clock on her nightstand, Aura groans, but knowing she won't be able to go back to sleep she forces herself out of bed and stumbles to the shower.
The hot water flowing over her body is so relaxing, but she can't help but think back to that well again. She knows she's seen it before, it is so real to her, but where? She grew up in foster homes, not even sure where she was actually from. She remembers back to being around six years old and being taken in by a nice foster family. They didn't have a well there, did they? She exhales loudly and curses her lack of memories from her childhood. Nearly twenty five years old, and she can tell you all about her adult life details, but very little about her childhood. It's like there are holes, time missing that she just can't remember at all.
Deciding there's no point in dwelling in her lack of a past, she gets dressed for the day and locks up as she heads downstairs. Though she has little memories of her own childhood, she has always been drawn to old things. Old books, antiques of any kind, anything with history. She loves to look up the history of things, to find out when it was made, and where. It gives the item meaning, a personality even.
She was blessed to have had a short term foster home where the older couple really took a liking to her. They had an antiques shop, her afternoons after school were spent learning about the history and learning to research to find out more about the items. When one day they were swept away in a rare flood in the area, she found out the store was left to her along with their life savings. They had lived in an old victorian, it was very large and most of the downstairs was the store. Behind that was a large lovely kitchen, a powder room and a parlor, before heading upstairs to five large bedrooms and two full baths. It was all situated on a main street with a large fenced in yard at the edge of downtown. It was easily walkable for locals and visitors. Aura thoroughly enjoyed being in the middle of their small downtown, close to other shop owners so she felt a part of something.
As she unlocks the doors to the store, she realizes it's pouring rain outside. Well that should mean a quiet business day. Noticing the wind, she decided it would be a great day for some candles and to light the fire, just in case. Aura had travelled a bit, and some of her dreams had led her to travel Ireland, where she was charmed by the smell and slow burn of peat fires. While there she was told about an Irish family that had settled in the states that actually sold Irish peat out of Boston. She made it a point to travel there before winter to stock up on some for her fire at the store. It was rare here in the US, but it smelled lovely and guests were charmed by it as she was.
