(A/N):
Drop a meme here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.
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Marvel: Starting as Ghost Rider!!!
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....
By the time Jojo, Lorraine, and Leah finally reached the mansion, the familiar gray sky of Forks had already darkened into evening, and the wet road reflected the headlights of their car as they pulled into the driveway.
After spending several days in Los Angeles, the quietness of the town almost felt strange.
There were no endless horns, no crowded streets, and no constant movement around them, only the sound of tires passing over the wet road and the occasional rustling of trees in the wind.
Jojo switched off the engine and was about to get out when he noticed something that made him pause.
The front door of the mansion was already open.
He stared at it for a moment before stepping out of the car.
"I don't remember leaving the door open."
Leah climbed out after him, stretching her arms after the long journey.
She glanced toward the entrance and shrugged.
"Probably Alice. She probably knew we were coming back before we even reached Washington."
"Or Rosalie,"
Lorraine said as she collected her things from the back seat.
"You know how they are. If Alice saw us coming, she probably told everyone."
Jojo gave the open door one last look before picking up his bag.
"Either way, I'm not going to complain. After that apartment in Los Angeles, I'd rather have Alice opening doors than whatever was opening doors over there."
They entered the mansion together, and the familiar warmth immediately replaced the damp evening air outside.
Jojo dropped his keys onto the table near the entrance and started walking toward the living room, but Lorraine didn't follow immediately.
She remained near the doorway with her bag hanging from one shoulder, looking distracted.
Jojo noticed and turned around.
"You've been quiet since we left Los Angeles. What's wrong?"
Lorraine looked at him for a moment before answering.
"There is something I didn't tell you during the drive."
Leah, who had already started walking toward the kitchen, stopped and turned around.
"That doesn't sound good."
"It's not exactly bad,"
Lorraine said, though the uncertainty in her voice suggested otherwise.
"I had a dream while I was sleeping during the journey back."
Jojo raised an eyebrow.
"A dream?"
Lorraine nodded her head.
"At first I thought it was just a nightmare, but it felt different. You know what my contract has done to me. Sometimes when I sleep, I don't feel like I'm completely disconnected from the supernatural world anymore. This felt like one of those times."
Jojo's expression became more serious.
"Tell me exactly what you saw."
Lorraine took a breath before beginning.
"I was standing outside a church. I don't know where it was, and I've never seen the church before in my life. It looked old, almost abandoned, with a stone entrance and a large set of wooden doors."
"There was a path leading toward it, but there was nobody around. I could hear the wind, and somewhere in the distance there was a bell ringing, but I couldn't see anyone near the bell tower."
She paused for a moment, her eyes drifting toward the floor as she tried to remember the details.
"Then I noticed someone hanging above the entrance."
Jojo's face remained still.
"A woman,"
Lorraine continued.
"She was wearing a nun's habit. At first I thought she was simply standing there because I couldn't understand what I was looking at, but when I got closer I realized there was a rope around her neck and her body was hanging from the entrance of the church. Her feet weren't touching the ground."
Leah's expression became uncomfortable.
"That's one hell of a nightmare."
"I thought so too,"
Lorraine replied.
"But then she moved."
Jojo stopped hearing it for a second.
Lorraine looked directly at him.
"Her head lifted slowly, and I could finally see her face. Her skin looked almost dead, her eyes were dark, and she looked directly at me. Then she smiled."
Jojo didn't respond.
Something had already started moving through his mind.
A nun. A church. A hanging body.
A demonic presence.
The details were too specific.
He knew that image.
Not from anything that had happened in this world, but from the memories of the life he had lived before this one.
He remembered the movies, the stories, the characters and the chronology.
He remembered the opening sequence.
The nun.
Valak.
His expression slowly hardened.
Lorraine noticed immediately.
"You know who she is."
Jojo didn't answer.
"Jojo?"
He finally looked at her.
"When did you have this dream?"
"During the drive back. I think I was asleep for about forty minutes."
"And she was hanging at the entrance of the church?"
"Yes."
"Did she speak to you?"
"No. She just looked at me."
"Anything else?"
Lorraine thought about it.
"There was a bell. I remember that clearly. I could hear it ringing even though the place looked abandoned. I also had this strange feeling that she wanted me to know she was there."
Jojo slowly exhaled.
That confirmed his suspicion.
This wasn't simply Lorraine dreaming about a random demon. Something had reached her through the supernatural connection created by her contract, and if his memories were correct, the entity behind that image was supposed to become active much later.
Years later.
Not now.
Not in this timeline.
Yet Lorraine had seen her already.
Leah walked closer.
"You're making that face again."
"What face?"
"The one you make when you know something that the rest of us don't."
Jojo looked at her.
Leah crossed her arms.
"Don't bother denying it. You've been doing it since we came back."
Lorraine also looked at him expectantly.
"Who was she?"
Jojo was silent for several seconds before finally answering.
"She's a demon."
Leah sighed. "That much I figured."
"Her name is Valak."
The name itself seemed to make the atmosphere in the hallway heavier.
Lorraine frowned.
"You've heard of her?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Jojo looked away for a moment, knowing there was no simple way to explain that he knew things about a demon whose story technically hadn't happened yet.
"I've encountered information about her before."
It was technically true.
Just not in the way either of them would understand.
Jojo continued,
"The problem isn't that you saw her. The problem is when you saw her."
Lorraine's expression changed.
"What do you mean?"
"She's supposed to be dormant."
Leah's eyes narrowed
. "Supposed to be?"
Jojo nodded slowly.
"The events connected to her shouldn't have happened yet."
Lorraine looked increasingly concerned.
"Then why did I see her?"
Jojo's gaze moved toward the large windows overlooking the dark forest outside.
"Because something is changing."
He didn't like saying it aloud.
The parasite.
The Four Unholy Books.
The mysterious weapon the demons were searching for.
And now Valak appearing in Lorraine's dream before she was supposed to.
It was beginning to feel less like a collection of separate supernatural incidents and more like the world itself was moving pieces around earlier than it should.
Lorraine quietly asked,
"Do you think she was warning me?"
Jojo shook his head.
"I don't know."
"Then what do you think?"
He looked back at her.
"I think she wanted you to see her."
That answer made Lorraine go silent.
Leah glanced toward the dark windows.
"So she's awake?"
Jojo didn't immediately answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the darkness outside.
"I think she's waking up."
For several seconds none of them spoke.
Then Lorraine quietly asked,
"And if she is?"
Jojo picked up the bag containing the ancient book and started toward the stairs.
"Then we'll find out why she's waking up now."
Leah followed him.
"You're not going to sleep tonight, are you?"
Jojo gave her a tired look.
"I just spent five days waiting for a parasite to make another move, came home with four cursed books to worry about, and now Lorraine has started dreaming about demonic nuns. What do you think?"
Leah smiled faintly.
"I think you need a vacation."
"I think I need a stronger coffee."
Lorraine followed them upstairs, but before leaving the entrance hall she glanced once more toward the window.
For just a moment, she thought she saw a dark figure standing between the trees.
She blinked.
Nothing was there.
She said nothing.
But somewhere far beyond Forks, in a church she had never visited and could not possibly have known existed, an old bell moved slightly despite the complete absence of wind.
And beneath the shadow of the church entrance, something that had been sleeping for a very long time slowly opened its eyes.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Thanks for reading the chapter!
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