Chapter Two - Cold
As Mara wakes up, she felt off, her entire apartment feels off. There is a coldness to the room
that was never present before, as Mara keeps the AC set at a high seventy-five degrees. Enough
to keep the brutal heat of Florida at bay but not enough to send a chill down her spine. She is
currently receiving a chill down her spine. As she sits up, she lets out an audible groan and
becomes very aware that sleeping on a couch instead of a bed was a bad idea. The soreness in her
neck mixes with the cold to form a horrible storm of uncomfortableness. She scans her room quickly
and sees the thermostat set at the crisp seventy-five degrees she always keeps it at but, the actual
temperature of the room is a chilling fifty. She also notices on her countertop, the book open with
a green current similar to what she saw last night flowing from the book. She still did not notice
the current faintly flowing around her fingers, with the faintest hint of pale green. She gets off
the couch and moves slowly toward the book like a baby deer approaching something unknown. When she
reaches the book, her breath shakes as she realizes that the book was open two pages full of strange
symbols. As she looked upon these symbols it was like she instinctively knew what they meant. The
title reads "companion ritual" below it reads "highly advanced" and "dangerous". Though some of the
symbol's meanings still elude Mara she was able to read enough to know how the ritual was supposed
to be performed.
Mara spent some time thinking staring at this book and the symbols and the ritual. It was starting
to get overwhelming for her. How could she suddenly read these symbols? What did the dream mean? Why
is it so cold? Where is this green current coming from? More importantly what is it? Too many questions
not enough answers for Mara. Then she notices the green current around her left fingertips. It is as
faint as a whisper, weaving around her fingers like a snake. She stares at it for a moment before she
closes the book. She turns to go outside wanting to get away from this book as just looking at it makes
her sick to her stomach. She tries waving her left hand to get rid of the current, which it dissipates
for a few seconds only for it to slowly reform back to its faint pale green form. Frustration and
confusion begin to rise within Mara to the point that she must go outside. She begins to walk toward
the door anxiety rising with every step. Not just any anxiety or the social anxiety she feels when she
must talk to someone new, rather an anxiety that she is forgetting something. When she reaches the door,
she hears a voice calling her name, the voice that called her name was her mother's. She turned expecting
to see her mother after six years without her but instead she saw an empty apartment. She turns back around
anxiety replaced with rage remembering what her family did to her, she swings open the door and walks
outside, the familiar Florida heat engulfs her. Though, the heat stings after being stuck in a cold room
and the humidity sticks to her still cold skin.