I am giving up my search for the fountain. The water is evil and I will not taste it again. The thirst will soon kill me, and this is comforting.
I have destroyed everything I have ever loved, abandoned everything that mattered. And I no longer want to live.
Ana and my young Scarlet both fled from me and left me empty of love and hope. But now I understand there is no room for love and hope in the heart of a man consumed by addiction.
I only pray no one else falls victim to the taste of the blue water. The taste of true death….
Scarlet’s lips parted as she stared at her father’s entry. Hungry for more information, Scarlet began searching through the journal again, one page at a time.
Blurry nonsense was all she found until her eyes landed on a drawing.
Scarlet gasped.
Gabriel rolled up another map and put it away. So far, he hadn’t found anything helpful.
“So, what’s the deal with your love curse?” Heather was to his right, examining her own map.
Gabriel slanted his eyes to her. “Is that what Scarlet calls it?”
“No,” Heather said, rolling up her map and putting it away. “That’s what I call it. But we can give it a different name if you want. How about the Curse of Perpetual Doom?” she said with a deep voice as she looked at him in mock seriousness.
He shook his head and pulled out a new map. “What is it you want to know?”
Unrolling another map, Heather said, “Is it true your ex-girlfriend cast the curse?”
“Yep.”
“Is it true you can’t fall in love with anyone aside from Scarlet?”
“Yep.”
“Is it true that no else, besides Scarlet, can ever fall in love with you?”
“Yep.”
Heather stopped reading her map. “So you’re telling me that, in five hundred years, not one girl has fallen in love with you?”
“Nope.”
She snorted in disbelief.
Gabriel shrugged. “It’s true.”
Heather looked at him for a moment, her eyes tracing his face carefully before she turned back to her map. “Well, that sucks. Your ex-girlfriend was a bi-otch.”
Gabriel put his map away. “You have no idea.”
A moment passed.
Heather said, “Well, I’m glad you at least get to have Scarlet fall in love with you when she’s alive.”
Gabriel paused. “Did Scarlet tell you she’s in love with me?”
Heather looked unsure for a moment.
Gabriel tilted his head. “Or are you just assuming that she loves me because of the curse?”
Heather blinked. “I guess I just assumed that was how it worked.” She hurriedly added, “But Scarlet totally loves you.”
Gabriel nodded and went back to his map. He knew Scarlet loved him. And he loved her. They loved each other.
So why did he still feel empty inside? Why was the hole in his chest still lingering in the background, making him want something…more?
Thunder echoed above them and the lights in the cellar flickered.
Heather looked up, her brown eyes nervous. “If the lights go out and we get stuck down here, so help me—”
The lights went out.
Heather’s small, cold hands were immediately gripping Gabriel’s bicep. “O-M-G, O-M-G, O-M-G.”
“Calm down.” Gabriel looked around, hoping his eyes would adjust, but being underground meant no natural light penetrated the cellar walls.
They were in complete darkness.
“Uh…guys?” Nate’s voice trembled a bit as it echoed across the cellar. “Does anyone else feel like we’re in a scary movie? Perhaps one in which all the main characters die?”
“I’m sure the storm just knocked out the power, that’s all,” Scarlet’s voice said.
“Yeah,” Nate replied. “That’s what all the main characters say right before they die.”
“Nate,” Gabriel said into the blackness, trying not to roll his eyes. “You’re immortal. You can’t die.”
“But I can still feel pain!”
Heather plastered herself to Gabriel’s side, sinking her fingernails into his upper arm. “I’m not immortal. I’m totally killable.” She sucked in a breath as her pitch rose. “And I’m blond. Blonds always die first.”
“That’s true,” Nate said matter-of-factly.
Heather made a freaked-out squeaky noise. “I don’t want to die.”
Gabriel smirked. “Well, maybe being a member of Team Awesome wasn’t such a great idea after all.”
“Really, Gabriel?” Heather snapped. “A lecture? Now?”
“Ooh, ooh!” Nate’s voice chimed into the cellar again. “I might have something.”
Gabriel heard Nate rustle around for a moment before a small stream of light lit up his face.
“My handy dandy flashlight,” he said with a grin.
Shining it across the room, he helped everyone find their way back to the table in the center of the cellar. Heather finally pulled her claws out of Gabriel’s arm. Another boom of thunder rattled the ceiling.
“Okay, I think our time in the dungeon of information is done,” Nate said. “Let’s get out of here.”
One by one, they climbed back up the stairs, Nate in the lead. When they reached the door to the hallway, Nate turned the handle and found it locked.
He jostled it again, but the door did not open.
“Well, this is terrifying,” Nate said.
Heather’s fingernails found their way back into Gabriel’s arm as she squeaked, “Are we locked down here? In the dark?”
“Try knocking,” Scarlet said. “Maybe he forgot we were here or something.”
Or maybe he was going to kill them all in his bathrobe.
Nate knocked on the door and, like magic—creepy, weird magic—the door opened, but no Mr. Brooks was beyond it.
Yeah. Field trip time was over.
In a line, they made their way back down the dark hallway, past the owls, past the cobwebs and past the hidden rats.
Gabriel pried Heather’s razor-sharp fingernails from his skin.
Nate called out, “Mr. Brooks?”
No answer.
Heather tried, “Mr. Brooks? Are you still here?”
Still no answer.
Thunder rattled the old house, causing statue owls to shuffle on their shelves.
“Maybe he left,” Scarlet said.
Nate complained, “But I really wanted to ask about the Bluestone weapons.”
“Next time,” Heather said. “You can ask about the weird blue knife next time. I want to get out of here.”
Nate sighed. “Fine.”
They made their way out of the house and found that the wind had picked up. The sky was darker and heavy rain was now falling all around them. The howling of a dog echoed in the distance.
Everyone hurried down the porch steps and headed through the rain to Heather’s car.
Once they were all inside the tiny vehicle, Scarlet said. “Mr. Brooks’ house is a little creepy.”
“A little?” Nate raised a brow. “The guy has dead owls everywhere.”
“And rats,” Gabriel said.
“And owls,” Nate repeated.
Heather asked. “Did we find anything useful in there?”