The Night of betrayal

“Mother!! does she mean the Mother Goddess" said Yvonne

" We were to find her before our twentieth birthday,” added Aelina.

“Could it be…….” Aelina thought

As they were lost in thoughts on what the voice said. Then came a heavy storm,a violent downpour accompanied by howling winds and crashing thunder

The storm battered Vale Hollow with a vengeance that night.

Thunder clapped across the sky,spreeing lightning here and there, rattling windows in their frames. Even the fire in the hearth sputtered as if it was been suffocating.

Aelina curled tighter into her chair, staring into the flames. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the storm wasn’t natural. It felt…alive somehow. Yvonne felt the same as she reached out to her pendant clutching it tightly.

Yvonne was quieter than usual. She sat cross-legged on the rug, their mother’s leather-bound journal open in her lap. Her fingers moved around the ink as she said the words aloud.

“…They are not like other children. I can feel it every day. The Hollow watches them even now. If I fail and they awaken too soon… the balance will break.”

Aelina's stomach twisted and then she snapped “Stop reading.”

Those words were doing something to her, it made her feel overwhelmed. She felt something might happen if they knew more than they did now.

“She wrote this for us,” Yvonne said softly. “We deserve to know.”

“We know enough.” Aelina rose abruptly, crossing the room to check the windows for the fifth time. Rain beats the grass in angry sheets. “Mother’s dead. Whatever secrets she kept, they’re buried with her.” but she thought wrong.

Yvonne didn’t argue, but she didn’t close the book either.

---

The knock came just after midnight.

Three sharp raps against the front door.

Aelina froze. “No one comes here at this hour.”

“Maybe Aunt Vivienne,” Yvonne suggested. But her voice lacked convictions needed

“Vivienne doesn’t knock.”

The knock came again—harder this time.

---

At the door stood a stranger.

A man cloaked in black, head bowed to hide his face from the rain. His voice sounded deep and hoarse.

“Please. The storm. Let me in.”

Before Aelina could respond, she caught a flicker of movement. Another shadow behind him. And another.

Her stomach turned cold.

“Yvonne run” she said

Though it was too late.

---

Five figures came into the house.

They moved silent, precise, deadly. Silver daggers flashed in the dim light, their masks wet from the rain

The first assassin swirled his dagger at Aelina.

The blade never struck.

The violet pendant around her neck came to life, emitting a burst of scorching light blasting the man back into the hallway. He slammed against the wall with a sickening crack and crumpled.

Two more charged at Yvonne. Shadows exploded from the floor, writhing like living serpents. The shadows wrapped around the attackers’ legs and dragged them down, their screams muffled by the storm.

“Aelina!” Yvonne’s voice shook. “I didn’t— I didn’t do that!”

“I didn’t either!”

---

The final two assassins circled, now more cautious than ever. One hurled a knife.

It never reached them.

The pendants flared again, their combined power erupting in a shockwave that shattered windows and sent the last two men flying.

The girls stood panting, the air heavy with heat and unspoken fears

---

When the house fell silent, Aelina and Yvonne clung to each other.

“Why would anyone do this to us? Apparently we just lost our mom, now why will someone try to eliminate us” Yvonne said

“I don’t know, I have no idea ” Aelina said. But a voice in her head whispered something worse: Or maybe you do.

---

Later That Night

Yvonne's pendant began to glow faintly again. A low hum was heard through her pendant and vibrated through the floorboards.

“Yvonne…”

They followed the sound to their mother’s old study. One of the bookcases stood slightly ajar, as if someone had tried to close it in a hurry.

Behind it was a stairwell leading down. No one knows where it leads but they kept moving.

The air grew colder with each step.

---

At the bottom, they found a small stone room lit by flickering candles.

A shrine.

Carvings of twin figures was found on the walls: one wreathed in fire, the other cloaked in shadow. In the center stood an old journal, open to a page written in their mother’s hand.

"If you’re reading this, then I have failed. The pendants will protect you for now, but the Hollow grows stronger every day. Before your twentieth year, you must find Her—the Mother of All. She alone can awaken what sleeps within you. You have to find her. Remember!" The hollow will seek you now. I couldn't hold him forever. I bought you time. Now you must buy the world more”

Aelina’s throat tightened. “She knew.”

“Mom sacrificed her life for us,”Yvonne whispered.

For the first time, Aelina wept

She felt she shouldn't have given her life up, not now they needed her help. Yvonne joined her weeping,after a while

“What do we do now” she asked

But no answer came. Only the sound of the storm raging above them.

---

Meanwhile…

At the end of the forest , stood Aunt Vivienne watching the flickering lights of Vale Hollow. Her gloves slicked with rain as she pressed her fingers to her lips, smirking.

“Their power’s awakened,” she thought. “Good. Let the world hunt them now. I won’t have to dirty my own hands again.” “

" Hollow will come for people who are not like then” she said amidst her devilish laugter

She turned and disappeared into the trees.

—