31: House of Pain

“Jill…she…she killed Lizzy!”

Daijah rushed over to check Jill’s pulse and shook her head somberly. “She’s gone,” she reported. “I can’t imagine what she must have thought she was seeing. But now you can see what I meant about these weapons! We have to stay away from them and EVERYONE needs to remain calm. Just try and remember that what you’re seeing may not be real.” Daijah picked up the book where Jill dropped it and turned to the others.

“Ok, everyone remain calm, Kalene and Karima grab a few sheets and cover Jill and Lizzy. Holley, get the axe and move it to the other room back there. Nancy get the chairs moved against the wall and Nedra get out your phone and call the police or anyone,” Daijah instructed.

“I…I can’t,” Kalene cried. Karima placed an arm around her and pushed her into a seat as she covered the bodies near the door.

The others joined Daijah on the couch and Kalene leaned over her shoulder to peer into the book as she started reading.

“What are we going to do?” Holley interrupted. “We can’t just sit here! We have to get out of this house!”

“No! That’s exactly what they want you to do Holley, look,” Daijah said turning the book towards her.

“Ok let’s be logical about this. Who does it say dies next?” Karima asked.

“Holley.”

“Ok, and how does she die?”

“By vampire; it says she suggests we leave the house and she dies after being grabbed by one just outside on the…porch.”

The girls turned their attention towards the door.

“Does that mean he’s out there now?”

“No, that means he had to change his plans,” a sultry voice echoed from behind them. They  turned and jumped away as he reached for Holley.

“Let her go!”

“I will after I get what I came for,” he smiled. He closed his teeth over Holley’s neck and began draining the life from her. Karima and Daijah hit at him and pulled at Holley to try and free her but to no avail. Her lifeless body fell to the floor. “Now then, how about we take the rest of you with her?”

They turned and ran from the room and upstairs to the masters’. Karima shut the door tight and the others piled things against it to keep the vampire at bay.

“The book, did anyone grab it?” Nancy asked backing against the wall.

“No.”

“Then we have no idea what’s happening next?” Nedra added.

Kalene dropped to the ground and hung her head in her arms. “We’re not getting out of here, we’re all gonna die,” she cried. “We should have never come here. This isn’t supposed to be like this.”

“Try and relax, Kal,” Daijah said. “Let me think. We can get out of here.”

“This is all your fault! You know that? We’re here because of you!”

“And I can’t tell you how that makes me feel! I never intended for any of this but I will get you out of here.”

The window behind Kalene crashed in and the girls turned away from it. “We’re not safe up here. We have to get into the attic, away from windows and everything,” Karima suggested.

“No, no that’s crazy! There’s no way I’m pinning myself up there! We’d be trapped!” Nedra reasoned.

“But she’s right about one thing, we can’t stay here.”

Karima and Daijah moved the stuff away from the door and Kalene dropped to the floor again. “I’m not going up there either! I’m not leaving this room!”

“Kalene we don’t have time for this! We have to move, now!”

“It’s no use, it doesn’t matter. I just want to go home; I just want to go home. I just want…,” she screamed.

“GET THEM OFF OF ME!” she yelled and jumped to her feet.

“Get what? Kalene there is nothing there,” Nedra tried soothing her. 

“The bugs! Get them off! Get them off! Get them off!” she hit at herself and rushed past the girls.

“There’s nothing there, Kalene wait!” Nancy yelled.

She kept rushing forward hitting at the pests. Hovering precariously above the staircase, Karima moved towards her and reached over to grab her but was too late.

Kalene lost her footing and plummeted down the stairs landing with a sickening thud on the ground below.

“NO!” Nedra yelled looking over the banister at her fallen body. 

“We have to hold it together and make it to the book,” Karima said. “It’s the only way.”

“There are dead bodies in that room.”

“There are dead bodies all over the house, but I’ll go ahead and move them to a different place,” Daijah suggested. “Just everyone stay calm.”

After she left, Karima gave Nedra and Nancy a look. Silent nods were exchanged and they followed her down to the living room.

“Ok, I’ve moved Jill, Kalene, Holley and Lizzy to the other room there. Karima could you grab the book and read?”

“No, I’ll grab a rope instead,” Karima said. “You're not going anywhere!”

Nancy and Nedra grabbed a chair and tied her down as Karima grabbed the book from her lap. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because like Kal said, this is all your fault. Everett had to have been talking about you. I don’t find it coincidental there’s a second book with your name on it!”

“This isn’t going to help anyone, you know that right?”

“Yeah well maybe we will stop dying if we can figure out a solution.”

“A solution? Yeah, read ahead!” Daijah said as she wiggled in the chair. “Tying me down only means that when it’s my turn the spirits won’t have far to go to get me. I won’t beg you though, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“No. I know another way.”

“Another way?” Nedra asked taking a seat beside her.

“Yes; everything in this book is coming true right? Would it make sense that we could write an alternate ending to the story and get everyone back and out safely? I mean we’re writers right? Maybe that’s what this whole thing has been about. We can make a new story!”

“That’s great!” Nancy cried joining them on the couch. “But do you think it’ll work?”

“It’s worth a try!” Karima began scribbling away in the text writing a new ending to the story.

There was a loud bang on the door and Nancy and Nedra jumped up from their seats.

“Looks like your friends want to play,” Daijah teased. “Maybe I could help keep them at bay if I weren’t tied up!”

They ignored her and pushed the bookcase against the wall.

“Yeah a lot of good that’s going to do,” she laughed. “They’re spirits! They walk through walls!”

“Then what do you suggest huh?” Nedra asked glaring at her.

She sighed and lifted her head to face them. “Salt and lots of it. According to myth ghosts can’t cross it and you are safe within its boundaries. There’s a few packs of it in the kitchen above the stove.”

Nancy looked at her and shook her head. “I’m not going out there. I don’t believe you.”

“She’s right,” Karima said looking up as she finished writing an alternate ending. “We can go as a group, grab the salt and get back here. It’s right across the hall. Everyone stay close, hold hands; we can do this.”

The girls pushed the bookcase away from the door and quickly and quietly made it across the hall. Nedra stood at the door keeping watch as Nancy and Karima grabbed the salt containers from the table and from over the stove and hurried back to the door.

“The door won’t open!” Nancy shrieked as she pulled on the handle. “It’s not budging!”

The lights blew out again and she heard Karima and Nedra scream.

The door creaked open and a small amount of light from the hall peeked through. She saw she was standing alone in the dining room and quickly ran back to Daijah in the living room.

“Where are the others?” she asked still twisting within her binds.

“Gone. I don’t know.”

“I heard screams.”

“They’re gone!” she said slumping onto the sofa. “We’re the only ones left!”

There was a scream upstairs and Nancy jumped up to move the bookcase back in place.

“You’re not going to help them?” Daijah asked. “Someone’s in danger up there.”

“No…I can’t. I can’t leave this room!”

“Self-preservation? And I’m the one you tied down? At least I would have tried.”

“Nedra? Nedra is that you?” Karima yelled through the wall.

“Yes! Yes Karima it’s me! Where are you?”

“In a closet I think. It’s so dark and I can’t find the door. You have to help me Nedra.”

“I can’t, I can’t move! They’ll get me, I can’t I’m sorry.”

“Nedra if you don’t I’ll suffocate! I can’t breathe in here, the space is too small, please you have to help me!” 

There was a creaking sound against the wall and Karima gasped as the walls seemed to push in further towards her.

“Nedra! Help me! PLEASE!”

“Karima? Karima answer me!”

Nedra found herself surrounded by worms, scorpions and a large assortment of beetles. They’d backed her against the wall and she could not find her way around them.

She threw a lamp towards the bugs and it blocked her path a bit more. “Karima I’m sorry!” she yelled. 

The insects started crawling up her legs until her arm was covered in them. She hit at them a few times but couldn’t shake them.

Tripping over the cord of the lamp she’d tossed, she hit her head against the wall and became dizzied before falling out of the 2^nd story bedroom window landing hard to the ground below.

There was banging on the door and Nancy backed up until she was next to Daijah. She clutched the top of the chair, a silent whimper emitted from her throat as she thought about what could be on the other side of the door.

“Perhaps you should read a little more like I did. You might find what happens next very interesting.”

“What does it say next?!?” Nancy yelled as Daijah squirmed in her chair.

“Oh yeah, I would LOVE to help you and all Nancy but I’m a bit tied down at the moment.”

She silently undid the ropes. “I told them tying me up wouldn’t help them.” Daijah grabbed the book and thumbed through the pages of the text. “Keep watch!”

“‘The last two waited in the darkness of the living room for help to arrive. There was a loud bang in the hall and Nancy jumped, moving back towards Daijah as she read their fates. Nancy turned towards her as she stood from the chair; an expression of horror crossed her face as she realized she was staring down the barrel of a glock. NO! Nancy yelled right before…’ 

Nancy turned towards Daijah once more and an expression of horror crossed her face.

“I pulled the trigger!” Daijah smiled and without hesitation the hammer released sending a bullet whizzing towards Nancy’s chest.

The force of the projectile threw her back and she landed hard against the bookcase, dying instantly. Daijah laughed wickedly and stepped over the last body of her friends. She pushed the bookcase out of her way heading towards the dining room.

“Oh Daijah, your friends were so easy to manipulate,” she smiled and stepped into the kitchen. “But honestly, I could not have done any of it without you.”

She opened one of the doors of the pantry and a body fell out to the floor. She grinned and kicked the corpse, rolling her onto her back. “My dearest Daijah; had you not planned this trip, I would have never gotten the souls I needed to return. I’m sorry you had to die, you would have made an excellent reaper, but I couldn’t have you cancel this wonderful little party after you’d discovered me! It would have ruined everything!”

Daijah’s body lay in rot on the wooden plank in the kitchen as the demon revealed his true self.

“Dad, did you really have to stuff her in the pantry?” a low female voice asked. He turned around to face his child and partner in crime. Quiana stood next to Everett and both were smiling menacingly.

“Of course I did. I thought it would add to the ambience,” he smirked and sniffed the air. “You both did your jobs well! If it weren’t for you Everett, splitting them up would have been much more difficult but you made them turn on one another with that ‘one of you has a connection’ bit.”

“Thank you Lord. I’ve always had a knack for acting. I tricked my wife for years,” he laughed.

“And if it weren’t for your sacrifice of those two sinners, I may never have been able to move forward collecting the souls I’ve needed. And you, my precious little girl; brilliant you were keeping the suspicions off of yourself as you maneuvered around the house.”

“Well, Jill actually made that easier for me at the start. Her wanting to take a trip to the graveyard allowed me to plant those papers in a place Lizzy would find them. But Everett almost killed it for me suggesting they go to the neighbors!”

“What? I had to make it sound convincing. I knew there wasn’t a soul on this island that would help them.”

“Yeah and lucky for us they didn’t and those trick-or-treaters came just in time so I could lead everyone back here again.”

“And let’s not forget the phone calls you made to ensure everyone got here in time. The last 10 souls,” he sighed. “And now that I have everything I need, time for the real show to begin!”

His body started weakening and he glanced at his hands as they began dusting over. “No! What is this?”

Everett and Quiana also began fading as their bodies gave out. “Daddy what’s happening?” she shrieked as she watched Everett become a pile of dust.

"The book!" He and Quiana rushed towards the living room. “Something changed, one of them…” his last words faded with the dusting of his corpse.

“No! Daddy!” Quiana yelled as she joined him in the afterlife. Silence fell over the house as the reaper came to finish collecting souls.

He smiled as he read over the words on the page left open in the book.

“My job has just begun!” he hissed before vanishing in a puff of black smoke.

“This place is creepy,” Jill said stepping from the car. She glanced up at the old building and let out a frustrated sigh. 

Slowly she limps towards the gun on the bench
her aching lungs burning from the putrid stench
her hands are bloodied and too slippery to grip
the gun just out of reach of her swollen fingertips

From behind her he takes a handful of hair
Tossing her violently throughout the air
Painful and sore her body hits the ground
She screams in fear yet he doesn’t make a sound 

His yellow eyes burning a look of pure hate
The knife in his hand that will seal her fate
It’s too late to run, she lies silent on the floor
Hoping it’s done but his smirk says there’s more

A quick look around the room her eyes slowly found
others like her, mouths sewn; bodies bound
some wrapped in plastic, others tied by cable
and his tools of the trade spread out on the table

He pulled her from the floor and tied her to the bed
if she hadn’t already; she’d wish she were dead
He picks up a knife and nears her with a grin
she thinks to herself, “Is this how it ends?”

He cuts her arm, her screams fill the room
Her flesh falls to the floor as she nears her doom
Her tears of mercy fell silent to his ears
He enjoyed her pain; relished in her fears

“Why are you doing this? Please let me go!”
He laughed at the question; an answer she’ll never know
Slice after slice her blood drained to the floor
He’d teach this girl a lesson just like the others before.

His merciless and brutal torture went on for too long
her heart was still beating though her fight was all gone
Grunting and whining were the sounds that escaped
her beaten and bloodied body with her mouth now agape

She could not speak though she tried her best
to ask for forgiveness and a save from this mess
he reached for a scalpel and gouged out her eyes
one last sigh heard as she met her demise

I watched through the cracks as I hide behind the door
the bodies that bled and filled his room with gore
he turned towards my spot as if he knew
and said in my direction “I see you!”

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Thank you all for sharing in my Twisted Tales!
They were very fun to write and even more to see.
Go out and treat yourself tonight as you deserve.
Have a wonderful, safe evening and Happy Halloween!

Also please check out my newest story After Midnight with the Season One Premiere tonight!

Thank you again :)


To my Lovely Ladies at Rebel Writers, thank you for your support and encouragement but most of all, thank you for sharing your fears with me :D I couldn't have done it without you! (You had to know that was the reason for that thread right?) **Evil Laugh**