It all began with a loud scream and a strange, guttural noise coming from Ryan's room at midnight. You could tell from his yelling that he was in great pain. I bolted out of bed and ran toward his room, only to find Mom sitting there, her head resting against his door in tears.
I asked her what was wrong, but she didn't reply. I started banging on the door, yelling at him to open it, but there was no answer. All I could hear from the other side was screaming and the sound of his room being turned upside down. I asked Mom why she wasn't doing anything, but she just looked at me and lowered her head again, offering no explanation.
After about ten minutes, the screaming died down and the lock clicked open. I was terrified, but Mom seemed strangely calm. We went inside and found Ryan lying on the floor like a lifeless body, gasping for breath. His skin was stained with blood, as were the walls and the windows.
What shocked me most was when Mom tried to lift him. I saw deep cuts on his back three parallel, slanted scratches, like they had been made by a big cat with massive claws. I think my heart skipped a beat when I saw that.
Mom called Alex to help get Ryan to the car. Alex is a manservant, but he's been with us for over ten years, so he's more like family now. Before Mom drove off, I asked if Becky my little sister and I could come along.
"No, honey," she said. "Just stay with Becky. I'll be back with Ryan by morning."
Then she zoomed off. With Alex accompanying her, Becky and I were the only ones left in the house. I couldn't sleep, so I sat in Becky's room and thought about what had happened. Eventually, I decided to track Mom's car using my PC.
I watched the screen, expecting her to head to the clinic, but she drove right past it. I thought maybe she was going to a different one, but she passed the next one, too. I watched until they were out of town. I thought about calling her, but I didn't want to distract her while she was driving.
Suddenly, she went off-road, heading into a thick forest. Before she disappeared into the trees, the signal cut out. My heart sank. I tried to reconnect over and over, but all my attempts failed. I wondered if she had crashed or if the area just didn't have GPS access. Eventually, exhaustion won, and I fell asleep at my desk.
Beep... beep... beep... I woke up with heavy eyes, realizing I'd slept with my head on the keyboard. The sound was coming from my PC Mom's car location had been picked up again, right where it had disappeared. She was coming home.
It was 5:35 AM. I went to the living room to wait. I should probably introduce myself I'm Freya, the second child of the Maheegan family. Weird name, right? Ryan is the eldest, and Becky is the youngest. Our father passed away when I was three from a rare, incurable disease.
Within five minutes, I heard the car pull up. I ran out to hug Mom, but I stopped when I saw her right arm. It was wrapped in some kind of animal skin that glowed with a faint blue light. Before I could ask what it was, she hurried us inside. Ryan looked completely fine normal, even but he didn't say a word.
I sat next to Mom, determined to get answers. But before I could speak, she asked about Becky. Once she knew Becky was still asleep, she looked me in the eye.
"I know you have a lot of questions, Freya," she said. "But before you ask them, you need to listen to this."
"Long ago," she began, "in a time when humans could still speak with animals and magic walked among men, there lived a powerful witch named Ravelna. She lived in the land of Earldor with her two daughters, Alchera and Nezralia.
Ravelna was consumed by a single, dark obsession: resurrecting her husband. He had been sacrificed by her own coven on the day her daughters were born because he possessed no magic of his own. When Ravelna discovered this betrayal, her grief turned into a terrifying rage. She wiped out her entire coven, inheriting their combined strength and becoming the most powerful being in existence.
For five years, she searched for a way to bring him back. Finally, she found a hidden spell. It revealed that for a soul to return to the human world, it had to be bonded to the genes of another living organism. A soul for a soul. But there was a catch the resurrected person would take on the traits of whatever animal was used in the ritual.
Ravelna chose a wolf. She didn't want her husband to be a mere man again; she wanted her family to be feared and powerful.
She spent years scavenging for artefacts, slaying anyone who stood in her way. She found everything she needed except for one thing: Alccahryl, a substance that could bind human and animal genes together. It was a rare plant that looked like stone, hidden deep beneath the mountains. Legend says she searched until the very day the sky opened up and it rained Alccahryl upon the earth.
She returned to her daughters and finished the potion. She took her husband's ashes from a sacred vase and mixed them with the brew. Finally, she cast a wolf into the ritual fires.
As the wolf burned, its ashes rose and swirled in mid-air, intertwining with the ashes of her husband. Dark clouds choked the sky, and a violent wind tore through the village. The people thought the world was ending; they felt a cold, ancient darkness pressing against their skin.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, the wind died down and the clouds faded. In the centre of the circle stood a man reborn. That was the moment Jahraz was brought back to life."