My Long Lost Mate

"Mind the stairs," Luke said in front of me, holding the lantern in one hand and my hand in the other.

The underground room was very dark, and the only source of light in this place was the lantern in Luke's hand and the light that came through the open door. The dust here was even worse than what was upstairs.  ​​

Immediately after opening the door, I could smell something unpleasant coming from under here. The smell grew even worse as I walked down the stairs, and I could finally tell what kind of a smell this was. It was the smell of magic—black magic. 

It was the exact smell that I had smelled on Maggie, but this one was even worse. It smelled as bad as the sweaty guards back in Quinn's manor on a hot summer day, where they didn't seem to have bathed for weeks. I didn't know why they did that—even to this day—but maybe it was because they were forced to stay alert for 20 hours a day, which only left 4 hours for them to sleep. Though, that's only my guess. All that I could remember was that they smelled rotten. 

When Luke heard me groan, he turned around, but I told him that it was merely due to the smell. The room was just as I recalled it to be, except it didn't smell nearly as horrible. Three large racks spanned three out of four walls here, leaving only one empty. When I looked around, there was nothing unusual among the items that had been left behind. The only thing that seemed unusual was the statue.

"Don't you see the snakes?" I asked Luke, walking closer to the statue. I examined the statue for any differences from the first time I saw it, but I found nothing. It remained the same as it had been before.

"I do see them now," he focused his gaze on the snakes before letting go of my hand. He then watched as the snakes vanished from his sight the moment he let go of my hand. "I can only see them when I'm touching you."

What's with this statue? Is it just a normal statue? What about the snakes, though? Why can they only be seen by someone with magic? I circled the statue, looking for anything hidden—perhaps hidden behind or under the statue—but there was nothing. I frowned. 

I reached out my hand to the statue—very carefully—and successfully landed without anything happening to me. When I touched it, it didn't hurt me as it did previously. Is this really just a normal statue? No matter where I looked, there was nothing wrong with this statue if not for the snakes. But even the snakes look normal to me now. 

"It's quite strange to have snakes wrapped around a nun," Luke said, examining the snakes. He touched them, but this time too, nothing happened. "Unless... this is not a nun? Though knowing that won't matter if this is just a normal statue."

Why can't we find anything here? I'm sure something has to be here, hidden somewhere. If there was nothing, why were the villagers so agitated about us being in this place? It should have been an abandoned church that no one cares about. But the smell... 

I walked closer to the statue, sniffing, wondering if this was the source of the smell. Though it had a hint of the smell, it didn't come mainly from here. The source was from somewhere else. 

I sniffed rack after rack, smelling nothing but dust. There were a lot of things here, but none of them had anything to do with magic. Luke questioned what I was doing, worried about me inhaling the dust, but I ignored him and focused solely on my sense of smell. 

I closed my eyes, trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. Following the smell, I walked towards it, and when I opened my eyes, I went back to the statue—except for the fact that I was now standing towards the empty wall beside it. 

It came from behind the wall. 

"I think... there's something behind the wall," I said to Luke, though unsure if I was right about this. "The smell is the strongest here." 

Luke stood next to me, staring at the wall. He then pressed his hands against the wall, hoping to find a secret switch, but there was none. "Do you need me to destroy this wall?" He asked, seriously considering his question.

"You can do that?" I gaped, unsure of just how strong this man was. Despite being the Supreme Alpha, I doubt he'd have such monstrous strength to destroy a wall with just his punch... right? 

Hearing my question, he took a rock from the ground—smirking—then crushed the rock, which was as big as his fist, almost effortlessly. Seeing the big rock turning to pieces, I did my hardest to keep my mouth from falling while also making a mental note not to enrage the man. 

Now that I think of it, I've never seen him angry before. Or have I? I think not. When he needed something from someone, he'd only casually threaten them, but it'd never been to the point where he had to raise his voice—perhaps because his threat alone was enough to scare people. Even I don't want to know what would happen if he was angry. 

Luke gave me his lantern and stretched his arms, preparing for his punch. He then waved his hand at me, asking me to move away. He took five steps back, balled his fist, and then lunged forward to the wall—before I stopped him. 

"Wait!" I shouted, stopping him right before his fist touched the wall. He stumbled forward, using the wall to support his body from falling. He quickly glanced back at me, surprised at my interference. "Sorry," I chuckled. "I just remembered about the inscription I found here. I need to see that before you destroy the wall." 

I moved closer to the wall and raised my lantern, hoping that the light would ȧssist me in finding the inscription. I recall it being written in the same language as the inscription above the door, so I'm curious if I'll be able to read this one as well.

"I think it's around here..." I dusted the wall, looking for anything concealed beneath the layers of dust. "Ah! There it is!" Cleaning the wall off the dust, I found the inscription in the middle of the wall, still in a foreign language. When my fingers touched the inscription, the words then shuffled into a sentence that I can now comprehend. 

"Hail... all... witches?" 

Right after I said it, the wall moved, instantly shaking the whole room. Luke quickly pulled me behind him, trying to protect me from whatever was hidden behind the wall. The wall slid to the side, showing a stairway leading us even deeper under the ground. 

"So we don't need to destroy the wall after all," Luke said after a brief pause. He appeared to be disappointed, as he'd just missed an opportunity to show off his strength.

I stared at the stairs—into the impenetrable darkness—and swallowed the lump in my throat. Though it was fortunate that we'd finally discovered anything more that could lead us to find the church's secret, this didn't look good—at all. I felt nauseous, very. 

"Are you okay?" Luke asked, catching me right before I stumbled backward. 

"I... I am," I ȧssured him, giving him a little smile. "It's just that the smell is too strong." 

"Black magic?" He asked, and I nodded. Given how strong the smell was becoming, I'm convinced that whatever was down there was what the witch was trying to hide. We're getting closer to it.

"Ready to go?" Luke extended his hand to me, and I took it way too hastily, which made him laugh. I couldn't help but be a little spooked by the darkness. 

We braced ourselves—I mean, I braced myself to head downstairs with our hands together, but before we did so, a sound stopped us. It wasn't a sound that came from both of us.

"Did you hear that?" Luke asked, and I glanced up at him, nodding. We listened to the sound, trying to make out what it was. It sounded like a hiss. Wait—a hiss? 

I turned around to the statue and realized that the snakes were gone. The two snakes were gone from the nun's arms. They're not statues—they're real. 

"Luke, it's the snakes!" I told him, and he jerked his head towards the statue, also seeing the snakes gone. We listened to the sounds again, to their hisses, trying to look for them. But they were nowhere to be seen. Not on the statue. Not on the ground. Where are they? 

Before we managed to find them, a shriek came, and two snakes appeared. Baring their deadly fangs, they leaped at us—at Luke. 

"Luke!!"