Marcus/Rocco
The basement was exactly as creepy as you'd expect.
Maybe worse. The stairs groaned beneath our weight as we descended.
Dust coated the walls. The air smelled old. My stomach
tightened for more reasons than one. Callie noticed my expression. Her smile
faded. She knew too.
We went further inside and suddenly I wasn't standing
in the present anymore.
I was ten again. Running. Screaming and terrified. I
blinked hard. The memory left but the feeling remained.
"You, okay?" Riley's voice broke through the silence.
I nodded. Maybe a little too quickly.
The deeper we went, the quieter everyone became.
Then we reached the bottom and the entire group
stopped. Burn marks. Everywhere.
Black scars stretched across the stone walls. Across
support beams. Across the floor itself.
"What happened here?" Livia whispered. I couldn't
bring myself to answer the question.
Seraphina stepped forward. Her gaze moved slowly
across the room. "When the attack happened…"
Her voice sounded quieter than usual. "…thirty people
died here." The room fell silent.
"Every servant." Every face turned toward her. Except
me.
"Every guard." She swallowed.
"My brother… and his wife." The words landed heavily.
"Alessandro and Vittoria Azzurro."
Nobody spoke. Because this wasn't history. It wasn't
some distant event. It was real.
Seraphina looked around the basement. For a moment she
didn't seem like the calm mentor we'd known, she seemed tired and older.
"I had the manor cleaned after I'd found little
Callista." She glanced toward the burn marks. "But somethings couldn't be
removed."
The room fell silent again.
I stepped forward before realizing I was moving. The
stone floor felt familiar beneath my feet. Painfully familiar.
The memories hit me like a brick wall. Mothers eyes
opened and not moving. Blood everywhere. Fire.
My breathing caught.
A massive figure standing in the centre of the room.
Darkness pouring from him. Power twisting through the air.
Aldo.
And opposite him, Father. Fighting and losing. Tossing
the bracelet to me. "Run."
I staggered, breathing harder as the memories keep
hitting me.
Callie's hand immediately caught my arm. "Rocco." I
blinked. The present returned. But the memory stayed.
Valen stood nearby. Watching quietly. For once, he
didn't joke.
Darren crouched near one of the burn marks. Examining
it closely. "Guys." Something in his voice made everyone look over.
"What's up?" Noah asked.
Darren brushed dust away from the floor. Revealing a
symbol carved into the stone. Ancient. Complex.
Then another. And another. And another.
The room suddenly felt colder. Seraphina stepped
forward. Her expression immediately darkening. "No."
The single word echoed through the basement. "What?"
Riley asked.
Seraphina slowly knelt beside the markings. Her
fingers hovered over the symbols. Then she looked up.
"This wasn't only a battle." Nobody liked that answer.
"What was it then?" Callie asked.
Seraphina's eyes moved across the room. Across the
carvings. Across the scars left behind. Then realization appeared on her face.
"It was a seal."
Silence. Which seemed to be happening a lot lately.
A seal…
I didn't know what was sealed or if it was even still
here.
Waiting.