Page 7 of Gothikana

‘I don’t doubt it. You have that air about you,’ Jade commented, waving a hand around the room. ‘You be you. Do whatever makes you comfortable. I’m chill.’

The universe had done her a solid with this girl. Smiling, she took out the incense sticks she’d made before her journey with crushed flowers and sage and basil leaves. The scent reminded her of home, of beautiful, warm memories of love and affection before it disappeared. Breathing it in, she lit up two of them and slipped them in their wooden holder. Placing them in the corner where she’d seen the light flicker twice, she took out two unscented homemade candles. Lighting them up, she placed them beside the incense stick holder and closed her eyes.

She murmured the quick prayer as she had every night since she could remember, folding her hands together and bowing her head. She felt the love fill her heart as it always did when she did her little ritual, an anchor in a place anew, a way for her to feel closer to her mama.

‘You believe in spirits?’ her roommate asked her after a few minutes when she was done.

Corvina shrugged. ‘Why?’

‘Just curious.’

‘I believe more in energies,’ Corvina told her.

‘Yeah, I can understand that. My foster father…’

Corvina let Jade talk about her foster family as she went back to the bed to clear away the items, only to suddenly stop. One single card from her deck was upturned on her sheets, a card she didn’t remember pulling, a card she didn’t even remember touching.

The Death card.

The castle groanedat night. It was eerie.

Despite being completely and utterly exhausted after coming from dinner, Corvina couldn’t fall asleep and she really, really wanted to. She didn’t know if it was being in a new bed or sharing her room with someone or just the sounds of the wind whistling outside her window and the tower settling, but it kept her up.

Jade had fallen into bed almost immediately after their return from dinner. She snored away as Corvina stared up at the wooden beams on the ceiling, the shadows dancing over them in a morbidly beautiful kind of way.

She watched those shadows play, and suddenly, something else joined the sounds of the wind and the castle.

A haunting melody.

Corvina blinked her eyes, taking in the unfamiliar bedroom, taking a moment to realisehow different it was from her old cottage, taking in the darkness around her. She turned her bedside lamp on, her eyes drifting over to her roommate fast asleep and curled in the blanket the university had provided them. The clock beside her told her it was two hours past midnight.

The melody continued. Haunting. Eerie. Ethereal.

Corvina turned the lights off, deciding to try and sleep. She’d been bone-tired by the end of the evening, so much so that she’d barely changed into her nightgown before crashing on the bed.

But something had kept her from her slumber. She didn’t know what it was, but it tugged at her heart, pulling her toward the music, the tug so acute it left her breathless. Was this what sailors had felt in ages past when sirens called?

Gritting her teeth, she lay down before immediately getting up again. She was meant to listen to this music. There was a reason for it. The last time she’d felt this breathless tug had been right before her mama had been taken away, a longing deep-rooted in her heart. This was, for some reason, important and she couldn’t ignore it.

The melody continued to drift to her as she slipped into her flats by the bed. Without a flashlight to take, she walked to the dresser she shared with Jade and stuck a candle in the candelabra she’d kept there. Lighting it up, she blew on the matchstick and headed to the door.

Jade had told her there weren’t any restrictions per se at night but usually, nobody left their rooms. She had made a funny face when informing her about it, but Corvina had been too exhausted for furtherconversation. She wouldn’t have left her room either, had it not been for that melody. Not because she was scared of the dark or anything that lurked within it — but simply because she was drained.

Cracking the door open, she looked out into the dark of the hallway. Her room was on the second level of the tower, along with eight other rooms, all of which were silent. One lone light hung on the side close to the staircase, leaving the rest of the hallway in the dark.

Corvina looked down at her white, half-sleeved nightgown and wondered if she should change. She’d always worn gowns at night, and skirts and dresses during the day. Her loose pair of pants had been a new addition to her wardrobe just for travel purposes.

To hell with it.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped out into the hallway and shut the door behind her. A chilly breeze lifted the strands of her loose, long hair, wrapping itself around her as the volume of the music became louder. Following the trail of sound, she walked on quiet footsteps in the candlelight to the stairs, realising the sound was coming from above.

Gathering her gown in her free hand, she slowly climbed the stairs, the music getting louder and louder with each level she ascended, her breaths heaving at the consistent climb. How was nobody else waking up at the music? Were they so used to it? Or couldn’t they hear it at all? Was it inside her head?

One.

Two.

Three.

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