Tonight felt weird. I could feel it. Something bad was going to happen and this feeling sent goosebumps all over me.
What generated this feeling was the fact I got locked inside my apartment. When Jake left for the store to get groceries for dinner, I seized that moment to sneak out of the apartment but my key couldn't open the door.
'What the...' I tried again and took a closer look at the key in my hand. 'I have been using this key for a long time! So why is it failing me now?'
I rush to the bedroom to escape through the window but as usual, it was locked.
'Dang it! Now, what do I do?'
I thought long and hard. 'It is a thirty-minute walk from here to the convenience store and thirty minutes back.' I look at the time. 'I have forty-five minutes left so I have to get out of here fast.'
I search the house hoping he left the spare key and find what looked like it in my Aunt's drawer. I used the key to open the door and run out of the apartment building to meet with Gwen who was waiting for me down the street.
"You are late." She barked.
I ignore her and flag down a taxi. We didn't talk to each other on our way to the Subway Station and when we boarded the train to the outskirts of town. The ride was a pretty long one with sleepy passengers and tired-looking office workers. None of us said a word to each other which was heartbreaking because I wanted to say something, to do something, anything to build the bridge I allegedly destroyed.
We get off the train and find Alice and Stan waiting for us outside the station.
"Hey, kiddos!" Alice said. "Figured you guys would take the train. I did not bring my car today so we are walking alright?"
The walk to the mansion was a quiet one and I fed my eyes with the buildings of the abandoned factory and visualize what might have happened before the incident.
'Back in the day this place would be thriving with workers but the owners went bankrupt and workers had to move to the next town to find work. Rumors spread about the place being haunted by the souls of the Madison family along with the spirits of the workers who died here by accident.'
Now I am wondering how Molly was able to go to school and still maintain the status quo of a normal girl because it stated in her file that no one knew her family was rich until she died.
'Maybe she rented a hotel and only went home on the weekends?'
An owl screeched making me jump and watched it fly inside one of the empty warehouses through the window.
"I love owls," Stan said. "They remind me of the rumors saying they bring bad omens!"
I look Stan and see a smile on his face. Creeped out, I walk passed him.
"Say you guys aren't talking to each other." He said catching up to us. "What is the matter? You guys pissed at something?"
None of us said a word.
"Or are you mad that you lost to Emma's stalker?"
I stop and glare at him. Seeing the look on my face, he laughed.
"What? The pretty girl didn't tell you?" he said bringing his baseball down. "She didn't tell you how she challenged him to a fight and lost? I heard..."
Without warning, Gwen swung the back of the machete at his head. He staggered back as blood stained his sandy brown hair and looked at her with a sadistic smile on his face.
"Oh, beauty! You really f&cked up right?" he looked at the blood on his hand and licked it. "Too bad you already f&cked up when you lost to him."
Gwen was seething in anger.
He chuckled and swung the baseball bat to his shoulder. "And here you are taking your anger on me."
I watched him walk passed us while Alice gave him a side glance.
"Yep you f%cked up," he said.
Gwen looked like she was going to burst but she held it in. I tried approaching her but she brushed me aside and continued to walk.
Tension hung in the air until we reached our destination. The tall dark building resembling that of the medieval mansion stood before us. I take out my phone, take a picture of the place and look at the windows of the mansion. My skin crawled when I saw something move.
"Looks like there is someone in there," Stan said striding up to the place with an air of confidence. "I hope they would be nice enough to let me ring the doorbell."
"Don't you think it is stupid to ring the bell of a haunted house?" I ask.
"Yeah, but it would be idiotic to enter one." Alice turned the doorknob and push the door open. It made a squeaking sound and our footsteps echoed through the hall as we walked in. It was dark so I take out my torch from my bag and turn it on.
Apparently, I was the only person who brought one.
I lead the way up the stairs and where a huge clock was hung. It was not ticking but the long hand was pointing to 9 while the short one was pointing to 3.
"Well, what now?" Stan asked looking at it.
"I...I don't know." I reply. "I think we should go left."
"Wrong," Alice said. "I say we go right."
I did not want to argue with her but I was not sure about her suggestion. "We need to find a place where we can get information on Malcolm or the demon without dragging attention."
"All right then, let's split up," Alice suggested. "Stan you are with me. Gwen, you are with Emma."
I wanted to protest again because it was a bad idea and they did not have a torch but she was already dragging Stan into the darkness. I sigh and went to the East Wing.
'I hope they will be okay.'
As we walked, I caught sight of something walking with us and dismissed it as my imagination caused by paranoia but a shadow said otherwise.
"Did you see that?" I ask Gwen who huffed and walked passed me. Then something wet fell on me from above. I look up to see a pair of red eyes revealing a stickily creature with long hair and wearing a white dress with its mouth opened wide. Its eyes were dried inside its sockets flies and maggots were swarming out of its mouth. Suddenly it jumped on me making me fall to the floor and screamed into my face only to be impaled, grabbed, and dragged into the darkness.
I jump to my feet and break into a run only to have myself bump into Gwen.
"What where you are going!" she screamed pushing me away. I land on someone and once I get off the person, I see it is a woman.
She blinked and was about to yell when I cover her nose and mouth. She did not struggle. Instead, she looked at me with her vacant eyes until I could no longer feel the warm air through my fingers.
'She is hypnotized.' I think getting off her. Whispering was heard and seeing light coming our way, Gwen and I ran quickly to hide inside a trunk nearby. Peeking through the small crack, we see a group of people wearing white clothes and holding candles whispering to each other.
"One of us is dead."
"Yes indeed."
"She was killed."
"Yes indeed."
"I heard a noise."
"Yes indeed."
"Let's tell the master."
"Yes indeed."
They walked passed us and we climbed out of our hiding place. Gwen did not say a word to me but led the way until we found a huge door with an electric lock on it.
"Move." Gwen shoved me aside and raised her machete in the air.
I stop her and point at the piece of paper taped next to it. "There is a clue next to the door."
She shrugged off my hand. "So?"
I take a good look at the words written on the paper and take a picture of it. 'Bougainvillea, Golden Trumpets, Almond, Hibiscus.' Putting a hand on my chin, I think hard, looked at the electric lock on the door, and whipped out my notebook. There I wrote the letters of the English alphabet and their numbers underneath.
'Plants.' I press the buttons 1,6 1,2 1, 1,4 2,0 19. It beeped and the door clicked open.
The room was a bedroom at least it was made to look like a bedroom. There was a huge bed with someone sleeping on it with a book placed right in front of it. Something foul hung in the air making me want to gag but I hold it in and take the book.
'This is where the smell is coming from.' I opened it and tiny flies filled my face while a nasty smell hit me hard on the nose. Inside the book was a human heart in a little pool of blood.
I gaged and shut the book.
"There are no drawers." Gwen coldly said while heading to the door. "Let's get out of here."
I was about to leave when moaning was heard and the blankets began to move but we did not stick around to know what it was. Closing the door behind us we walked towards another room but there was light shining underneath the door with someone whispering something in it so we skipped it and approached another door which was guarded by two people wearing robes.
'Maybe there is a clue in there.' I sneak closer and hide behind a small drawer. 'Or...'
"Hey!" one of them yelled pointing in my direction.
'Crap! They saw me!' but it wasn't me they were after. It was Gwen. Two of the guards ran towards her with knives in their hands but she swung her machete at his head, cracking his skull and making blood spill out. The other wanted to attack but I grabbed him and put a knife in his neck while holding his mouth to prevent him from screaming. I hold on to him until he felt heavy and lay him on the floor.
There was no electric lock on the door so we open it and come face to face with Molly's picture. Candles surrounded the picture and from the look of the candle wax running down the stands, it was clear they had been here for a long time. On the walls were pictures of Molly ranging from moments when she was a baby to her grave.
'Is this person her stalker?' I ask while looking around the place. 'Maybe he is because this room looks like a shrine.'
"Found something." Gwen held up a book and when we opened it, the foul smell of fermented blood filled my nose.
'All the pages are written in blood!' I think holding down my vomit as I read.
'I want her! I want my Molly back! I...I didn't mean to do what I did! I did not know what came over me! Her...her father wanted to take her away! I knew the family business was shady because of the conspiracy surrounding it but they did not have to take her too!
I was mad! I tried to talk some sense into him last night but he refused to listen to reason! I snapped and did not realize what I had just done until I saw the blood on my hands. I wanted to cover up my tracks so I snuck in and killed Molly's mom. I stabbed her in the eye. Then I snuck into Molly's room and told her what I did. She wasn't happy. I had already set fire to the house and grabbed her sleeping sister but she said she would rather die than to be with me. So she stabbed herself in the neck.
I was so mad! I was so sad! I wanted her! At least I have her sister.
We stop reading. 'So he was the one who killed the Madison's.'
Gwen flipped to another page.
I am angry and sick of running. Clair tried to get away but I caught her and hit her on the head. She is unconscious now. Gosh, it is cold and I am unhappy. Clair is not Molly. She is not as beautiful as she and I can't make romantic gestures toward her because she is young! Oh, Molly! Why did you have to die? We could have made a life together.
We flip passed a few more pages until we see something that catches our eye.
I met him. He calls himself a powerful god and gave me the power to manipulate people to do my whim! He said he can bring Molly back to life but I have to do my part. I have to sacrifice people to him.
I was not sure about this until he said I had to sacrifice girls who had black hair to reawaken her spirit. It sounds crazy but it just might work! He gave me an incantation and a ritual to perform when I was done sacrificing them but he says I have to do this repeatedly to reawaken her spirit and make her inherit the body of the deceased and the reason why I have to do this over and over again is Molly's spirit might reject her new body.
We flip to the end of the book.
It has been years now and I have a lot of servants waiting at my beck and call. The problem is, Molly has continued to reject every single vessel I have brought to reawaken her and Clair refuses to talk to me.
I complained and he told me there was a black haired who would serve as a perfect vessel for Molly's spirit. Her name is Emma Cross-wood. Since I have failed to reawaken her, he told me to bring her alive since most of his agents have failed. I agreed. Anything for my Molly.
Okay, I was shivering like a leaf. 'He wants me. He is going to hypnotize people to find me!'
I calm my beating heart. 'Agents. This means the demon is someone who resides in the school but who is it? Could it be a teacher or a student?'
"Here," Gwen said handing me the book. "We should give this to Caroline. I don't have a bag so you hold on to it."
I take the book from her and we sneak out of the room.
'Now I see why that room is guarded.' I say to myself. 'That was the room he kept to resurrect Molly but does he think this nonsense is true? It is clear he was not hypnotized by the way he used the blood of his victims to write every entry in the book and...'
"How does it feel?" Gwen asked out of the blue.
"Hmm?"
"How does it feel living with him?"224Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzAslvBPCGF
