The next day.

Esmeralda was now up on her feet, standing at the entrance of the house beside her mentor, sending Aspen and Kate to their voyage to the human world.

Vearah handed the leather belt to Aspen. "You can use this belt to open up the portal that will lead you to my place," she told him.

Aspen accepted the leather belt. "Thank you so much for this gift, Immortal Vearah!"

Vearah gave the necklace to Kate. "Child, this necklace is yours. You can also use this to open the portal and it will lead you back to this mountain," she said.

Kate inspected the necklace. It has one single diamond on it and the thread used was made of plain silver. "Wow, what a cute necklace! How I\'m going to use it if I wanted to come back here?" she asked in bewilderment. To her, it looks just like a simple necklace.

"Let me teach you." Aspen took the necklace in his hand and made a demonstration in front of Kate. "You will do it like this. First, you will take out the necklace from your neck and point it in the air and say the word...\'Portal, take me to Immortal Vearah\'s place! Then the portal will open up for you and after you entered it, the portal will take you back here. That\'s how simple it is," he said.

Kate smiled broadly. "I see... I got it!" she said and looked at the immortal. "Thank you so much Granny Vearah for your precious gift," she said.

Vearah smiled in reply to Kate\'s thank you words.

"You take care of yourselves, guys!" Esmeralda said.

Kate went to Esmeralda\'s side and hugged her tightly. "I\'m going to miss you, Granny!" she said.

Then she went to the immortal\'s side and gave her a quick hug. "I\'m going to miss you too, Granny Vearah!" she said, teary-eyed.

Vearah smiled and waved them goodbye. "Take care, guys!" she said.

Aspen picked up the bundle of different fruits that Kate has taken from the garden as her gifts for her family. "Let\'s go...Kate!" he said.

Kate looked at him. "You open up the portal now!" she ordered him.

"You do it! Let me see if you know how to use the necklace," he said encouraging her.

Kate smiled. "Okay, let me try!" she said and hold the necklace in her hand and pointed it at the space in front of her. "Portal, take me to the Browncliffe Village!" she said.

Suddenly, a neon color opening, the size of a big hole appeared out of nowhere...

"OMG! I successfully opened the portal!" Kate exclaimed excitedly.

"Let\'s go!" Aspen told her.

Kate looked at the two women for the last time and waved goodbye at them. "Bye Grandmas..." she said and followed Aspen inside the portal.

A few minutes later, the portal disappeared from the women\'s sight.

"They\'re gone," Vearah told her companion.

Esmeralda nodded her head. "Yes, they are..." she said looking at the clouds and beyond. "Let\'s go back inside..." she said.

The two women retreated into the house.

~o0o~

The portal opened up in the forest near the entrance of the Browncliffe village.

"We\'re finally here in my village!" Kate\'s face broke into a dazzling smile.

"Alright, let\'s start walking towards your house," Aspen said.

"Okay, follow me. I will lead the way!" she said. She walked towards the short-cut path which will lead directly to their house. As much as possible, she wants to avoid the neighbors. They might ask her a lot of questions, asking why she was gone from the village for a long time?

A few minutes later, they were now approaching the wooden house. Kate was wondering why the house looks deserted and only a few plants in the garden were growing still?

"Where are they?" she asked aloud.

"Looks like an abandoned house that no one lives," Aspen commented.

They finally reached the back of the house and Kate knocked twice on the door of the kitchen, no one is opening the door.

"Stay here," she told Aspen. "I will go to the entrance of the house and investigate. On her way, she noticed that the windows were down and she can\'t hear any movements or noises inside the house.

Suddenly, her heart was beating faster in her rib cage. "Where are they?" she murmured to herself and began knocking on the front door frantically. "Aunt Margie, Ella! Open the door!"

Still, no one was opening the door.

This is not good! Where are they?

She went back to where she left Aspen. "There\'s no one inside the house," she told him.

Aspen agreed. "Don\'t worry, I already opened the door for you. Let\'s get inside and investigate further," he said and pushed the door.

They entered the house. Kate went to the main door and opened it. Aspen opened the windows and let the fresh air circulate inside the house.

Kate went to check the rooms and found out that some of the clothes were still intact in the cabinet. But plenty of dust was already gathering all over the house. Which means it\'s been one or two weeks already that the house was abandoned, based on her calculations.

She went to sit beside Aspen on the wooden bench in the tiny living room. "They\'re all gone..." she said teary-eyed.

"Hmm...maybe they relocated to the next village? Or they went to town and will be back tomorrow or next week," Aspen took a wild guess just to make her feel better.

Kate was shaking her head. "No. I know them too well. Aunt Margie won\'t leave this house and Ella won\'t leave as well. Something bad must have taken place here, while I am trapped inside the castle..." she said.

"Like what -?" he asked.

"I dunno. You wait here. I\'ll go to the nearest neighbor to inquire what\'s going on," she said and stood up about to leave the house.

She saw Julia approaching her place, she waited for her to reach the house.

"OMG! Kate, you\'re back!" Julia exclaimed in surprise.

"Julia, do you know Aunt Margie and Ella\'s whereabouts? I can\'t find them," she asked her right away.

"Oh...did you just come back today?" Julia asked.

"Yes, please sit down," Kate said and motioned the wooden chair.

Julia lowered herself on the chair and smiled at Aspen, he returned her smile.

"Where are they? Do you know anything, Julia?" Kate asked again.

"Ahm...I\'m sorry to say that when you went to the castle to find your sister Ivy...something bad happened to Aunt Margie..." Julia\'s voice faltered.

Kate\'s heart beats faster, she\'s feeling nervous all of a sudden. "What happened to Aunt Margie? Please tell me!" she demanded, her voice frantic.

"I\'m sorry to inform you about the bad news. Aunt Margie was bitten by a poisonous snake in the forest and died. We buried her in the public cemetery. If you want to visit her grave... I will accompany you there," Julia offered sadly.

Kate was holding her breath for a long time, she had a hard time breathing due to extreme sadness after hearing that her beloved aunt already passed away. Tears sprang in her eyes and rolled down her face. She began sobbing uncontrollably in front of Aspen and Julia. Her heart was enveloped with extreme sadness.

Julia rubbed Kate\'s back gently, trying her best to comfort her.

A few seconds later, Kate\'s tears subsided a bit. "How about my sister, Ella? Where is she?"

Julia took a deep breath. "After we buried your aunt, Ella decided to go to the castle to find out what happened to you and Ivy. She asked me to watch over the house when I\'m not busy until she returns..."

Damn! Fresh tears emerged in Kate\'s eyes. Aunt Margie\'s sudden death was already bad enough, and Ella going to the castle was the worst of the worse.

"I think Ella went to the castle to inform you, that your Aunt already passed away," Julia said.

Kate took a deep breath trying to block the avalanche of tears from falling her face. She doesn\'t want to cry anymore in front of Julia and Aspen. She wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand.

"The neighbors did everything to help Ella bury your aunt properly. I also begged my parents to adopt Ella and they agreed, but your sister still went to the castle. I\'m sorry I was not able to stop her," Julia apologized.

"It\'s okay, Julia. You\'ve been a good friend to my sister. Thank you so much for being there by her side when she needed someone to comfort her," Kate said.

"By the way, this is Aspen, my friend...and this is Julia..." Kate introduced the two people.

"Hi, Julia..." Aspen said.

"Hello..." Julia replied. She rose to her feet. "I\'ll take my leave now. My mother instructed me to buy laundry soap in the store nearby. She might already be wondering why it took me so long to return to our house. I\'ll come back later after lunch so that I can accompany you to the cemetery," she said.

"Thank you, Julia," Kate said.

Julia nods at Aspen and left the house in a hurry.

Kate entered one of the rooms and resumed her crying.

Aspen was sighing while listening to Kate\'s loud crying. \'Pool girl! Poor sisters!\' he murmured to himself. He plans to leave Kate after they arrived at her house, but he can\'t leave her alone when she was distraught like this.

He was also taken aback by what happened to Ella. She was probably inside the castle right now, frightened and horrified after discovering that the castle was housing terrifying monsters inside. He was sure the vampires already imprisoned her. They will never let her go.

Tsk...tsk...poor girl!