04: Into the Shadows

“I thought you said the ferry wasn’t available until next month,” Nedra said watching Holley and Lizzy enter the hall.

“It’s not. They must have gotten here earlier?” Daijah asked looking at Lizzy for an answer.

“Yeah, Holley got us lost on the other side of the island. The GPS died on us and there weren’t any gas stations per se to stop and ask for directions so we basically drove around this place until we found it. But there were some pretty interesting tourist traps along the way. Oh hey, did you know there is a cemetery behind this house? It’s pretty close and at night looked pretty creepy too!”

“I’m betting she did,” Kalene sighed. “She seems to have a lot of little ‘surprises’ scattered throughout this place.”

Daijah laughed and turned to head back up the stairs. “Come, we were just about to settle in and find sleeping quarters for everyone. 11 women in one house and 1 bathroom, it ought to make things interesting!”

The girls went back up the stairs and broke into groups. Leah, Daijah, Nedra and Kalene cleaned up the masters’ bedroom and reorganized the furniture to make as much sleeping space as possible. “I’d think everyone would want to stay as close as possible in this place,” Leah chirped as she tossed a mildewing rug into a trash bin and sat it in the corner. “I know I don’t want to sleep alone.”

“Well we can fit as many as we can in this room. It’s the largest of the three and if you’d feel more comfortable, we can leave the door open.”

Holley, Quiana, Jill and Lizzy were busy in the room next door. Jill grabbed a broom and swept away the dirt and dust that lay thick coating the wooden planks as Holley and Quiana removed the linens from the old mattresses and tossed them. Lizzy busied herself with the clearing out the Spiderwebs and old rotting pieces of paper and magazines that lay scattered around the floor.

“Check this out,” she said lifting a newspaper from the top of the pile. “It’s one from around JFK’s assassination!” She began reading the first half of the article amazed at the historical discovery.

“Dai did say this place had a bit of history. It might be fun to find out what exactly that meant. She seemed to think it was exciting…though she likes dark things so that might not be so good for the rest of us,” Jill said stepping closer. “That’s a pretty cool finding though; too bad it’s so rotten.”

Karima, Nancy and Freedom took the room with the chalk outlining, neither were too eager to step near it. Nancy pulled a rug further on top of it to hide the white powder and carefully stepped around it. “We don’t really have to sleep in this room right? I mean there are 2 other rooms and each one was considerably larger than this one.”

“Not to mention there are the couches downstairs,” Freedom chimed in. “We could sleep on one of those as well.”

“WHOA!” Karima jumped back from the window.

“What?” Nancy asked stepping closer towards her.

“There’s something outside.”

“Something?”

“Someone just walked past the window!”

“Right, we're on the second floor, Karima. Are you sure it’s not more of your overactive imagination?” Freedom asked raising a doubting brow in her direction.

“Yes I’m sure, why won’t anyone believe me?”

“Because this house has been rigged for scares, it’s hard to believe that anyone or ‘thing’ would be out there to intentionally scare us unless they were asked to by Daijah,” Quiana said stepping into the room. “We were going to read one more story for Holley and Lizzy so they know what we’re doing here. Everyone is downstairs waiting.”

The girls followed her out just as Daijah was pulling another couch into the room and rearranging the chairs once more to accommodate the new arrivals. “Since we have two new comers, one of you shall give us the pleasure of the last read!” she said pointing to the book on the table. “Choose wisely!”

Lizzy looked at Holley and she shrugged before taking a seat and grabbing the book. “I just open it to a page and read?”

“Well the book might decide for you,” Leah laughed. “It’s been doing that.”

Without another the word, the pages began floating around in her hand. “How…there’s no breeze,” Lizzy said watching the page land on another selection.

“Magic?”

She took a deep breath and starting reading from the page:

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“Devilish whispers fill the air
shouting omens to beware
shadows dance in the candlelight
and wake the dead to stalk the night

Demons hunt within these walls
Spirits lurk these unsacred halls
Cursed to haunt this dark domain
Bringing sorrow and endless pain.”

“They always come when you’re unaware

preying on your innocence without a care
Combat the darkness if you will
for evil shadows never still

In the night the monsters raid
your body their temple, providing shade
Open the windows and make it bright
make the shadows disappear with light.”


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