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A Following of Demons

By Jessica Cambrook

Copyright © Jessica Cambrook 2012

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Childhood

All my life, I got called Smiler. Always looking on the bright side of life, giving great advice and never feeling down, that was me. Someone once said to me that they didn’t know how I did it. Of course a few people didn’t like me, they didn’t know if I was a fake or maybe I just made them a bit jealous because of my apparent happiness. Then there were the few very intuitive people who didn’t like me because I made them feel uneasy. They saw through my care-free mask for what it was, as a way of coping. A blanket to cover my dark secret that I’d harboured for my entire life.

My grandfather helped me a lot during childhood. My parents never really listened, but when I told him about the people I saw, the nasty men with angry faces, he would clasp a protective arm around my shoulders and without fail would think of something to say to lift my spirits. Never did he patronise me or tell me the people were imaginary. I saw them but I also had imaginary friends, a huge dinosaur and a loud, barking dog that would save me from them if they got too close. They were my protective subconscious, defending me from them while I was young enough for them to steal away without me having to even think about it.

My grandfather once gave me some advice I never forgot, patting my head and smiling with watery, pale eyes. “Smile, and don’t let them see otherwise until you’re tucked up into bed.” By “them” I assumed he meant humans but to me it had a double meaning, eventually. But I followed his advice even with just my small amount of faith that it would work. All my life I’ve had more faith in love and family than a God who let me be plagued with such ungodly, cruel beings. I smiled all day every day and gained the nickname Smiler. We stayed at my Grandfather’s every Friday night, and that was the only time I shared a room with my brother Sebastian. After a few weeks, he began crying whenever we had to go to Grandfather’s house, and when mum asked him what was wrong he said his room didn’t like him. I explained to Seb about what I could see, and so we pinkie hard-boiled promised each other that no matter how scared we felt, we’d always have each other’s backs. Seb couldn’t see them like me, but he could sense them, and sleep came with great difficulty for us both.

During the day while I smiled and felt carefree they would leave me alone and it didn’t take long for me to adore daytime. Any fake happiness I pretended to have during sunlight hours turned into genuine feelings of content at being alone and not feeling threatened. Then, at night, they would come back stronger than ever after having the day to wait and rest, just in the boundaries of my peripheral vision as I stared at the ceiling wishing I was anyone else but me or anywhere else but in that house. At night, my dog and dinosaur would come and sit beside my bed as I slept lightly and uneasily at the prospect of being taken with them as I knew they could.

As a teenager I knew the people weren’t imaginary anymore but I wondered if everyone else could see them too. I wasn’t sure if it was just me making a big deal out of them when everyone else just got on with it. I asked my grandfather and he said “No, Smiler, son. No one else sees them. But don’t be disheartened because the best of us are different to everyone else somehow. Just remember you’re alive and breathing and that’s all that counts.” His words sounded strong to my ears and it made me even more determined to live by my grandfather’s motto about smiling, but to live it in such a way that I didn’t need night time to let out the bad feelings.

Joe

Of course they made this impossible, making it their mission after sunset to terrify me and unfortunately they did. It almost got to the point where I would hope to live no more, so death’s endless dreams would allow me to be protected and alone, away from the brutal souls that surrounded me every night.

Throughout my childhood, before I began stopping at other people’s houses, I suspected it might be my grandfather’s home that was haunted. That was until I became an adolescent, and I stopped at my friend Joe’s. It was the first time I’d ever stopped at a non-family member’s house, and we had a great time playing computer games and talking about the pretty girls in school we fancied, and what was on television the previous week. His mother made us go to bed at eleven, and immediately after the lights were turned out I felt safe for a minute or so. But then they came gradually forward, trying to come closer to me and Joe. I tried to ignore them and closed my eyes for sleep rebelliously. In his small bedroom they were nearer than they had ever gotten before and the smell of their half rotten flesh made me retch quietly before I eventually gave up on the idea on sleep and stayed awake listening to the sounds of their raspy breathing and hissed threats in a language I didn’t understand. I didn’t know if they were just focused on me, or if they would settle with Joe so I forced my eyes to stay open all night, at times using my fingers to literally pin my eyelids open.

The next day we both woke up looking terrible and I guessed he’d had no sleep either for whatever reason, so I began to feel guilty. I hoped I hadn’t moved around a lot during the night to keep him awake. But without saying anything, he went to breakfast without me. He seemed to avoid me all morning, sitting away from me at the breakfast table without it seeming as if he even realised and I couldn’t wait for my grandfather to pick me up at lunchtime. The atmosphere was horrible, he had changed overnight and it didn’t appear like he wanted anything more to do with me. He wasn’t Joe anymore. Before I left, I saw him get one of the CDs out of my bag and start scratching onto it nonsensically with an empty biro as if in a daze. I saw something that reminded me of their dead, hollow eyes in his that day and after that I didn’t ever stop out at a friend’s home ever again. I didn’t think the demons would be able to haunt anyone else but me; however after the Joe incident of how he changed so suddenly towards me, I didn’t ever want to risk it again.

Through a lengthy article in the local newspaper I heard Joe had been admitted into a mental institution after a car crash he caused while drunk and he hanged himself with bed sheets just a few months later. After that I didn’t feel like getting involved with people too closely was a safe idea, except family who already knew about them.

Gwen

That all changed when I met Gwen. Gwen became the light in my life that kept the nightmares at bay. She made me so happy that the shadows in the edges of my vision at night time began to fade, although not disappear entirely. I met her at university when we were sat together in Maths and Accountancy class, and immediately her sunshine personality appealed to me and all along, she made my life better in every way just by being in it. Her immense smile was contagious, her sweet and selfless nature so easy to fall in love with. Her long, wavy brunette hair was full of life, always perfectly immaculate and well groomed, just like her. It took me about three months for me to realise I was in love with her, and two years for me to propose. I knew we’d be together for the rest of our lives.

I’ll never forget the day I asked her to marry me. It was winter time, and I took her to her father’s grave in the city graveyard on his birthday. I was boiling in my t-shirt as usual and she was wearing her furry thick woollen coat with my waterproof on top. Her small, heart-shaped face looked innocent and cute surrounded by all the layers of clothing. She smiled with ruddy cheeks bitter from the cold. I held her smooth hands tightly. “Gwen, I asked your father yesterday if it was okay if I took responsibility for his little girl. I don’t know if he said yes but a small, white feather landed on my shoulder. If that’s enough consent for you, I’d be honoured if you would be my wife.” I bent on my knee and held out the ring my mother and grandmother had helped me choose. Gwen burst into loud, blissful sobs as she nodded wordlessly and slipped the ring onto her long, elegant finger.

“I love you, Rick!”

“I’ll never let you be alone. I love you so much, Gwen, and I promise to you and your father that I will try to be the best husband I can be every minute of every day of every decade we’re together.”

We were so wonderfully happy after that day, sure in the knowledge of our deep love represented with unbreakable silver rings. She kept me joyful, calm and safe from them and she said I kept her intrigued. Her reason was that I never let anyone in and she felt that even though we were going to be together for the rest of our lives, she said there would always be more she didn’t know. She also said that I always seemed like I owed people for something, and that made me chivalrous and kind.

Them

About a year after we began dating when we moved into my flat together, she noticed from the start that I hated going to bed, and asked me why. There was no point lying, she could always see through me.
“I’ve got to be honest, I’m going to sound crazy and you probably won’t believe me. I didn’t want you to move in before I thought you’d be able to take it, I knew you’d notice.” I cleared my throat and took her hand. “It’s gotten a lot better since you’ve been with me, and I’m so grateful to you for that. Since I can remember I always saw... things.” She looked concerned but didn’t say anything as I continued. “They’re almost human, but not quite. They want me, to take me with them to wherever they come from. There’s always a small crowd watching me, waiting for me to slip up somehow or to let them in. They always stay in the edges of my sight and I kind of leave them alone, but before I met you they were starting to get worse, starting to reel me in. I could feel myself going and I didn’t really care. They were beginning to get ever so slightly closer. Then you came into my life and they were forced back by your...” I searched for the right word.

“My what?” she asked, smiling slightly. Her soft Welsh accent sang to me merrily.

“I don’t know what it is! But they moved back because of something about you and haven’t even tried to come forward.” I grinned sheepishly back.

“So they stand there and watch you? And they want to take you? Where do they want to take you?” she didn’t sound disbelieving, just confused. It made me feel better that even someone outside of my family who hadn’t seen me when I had woken up so often during the night, sweating and shaking with fear that I was going to be stolen from my family and tortured for the rest of eternity believed what I was saying.

“I don’t know where it is exactly. I’ve seen it in my dreams; they can get to me more when I’m asleep. They come into my head during the night and show me things in my dreams, show me what will happen if they manage to take me. In one of the dreams it’s dark, very dark. There’s masses blood everywhere, probably the foul blood from those who stand around me at night. There are intestines and hearts that look like they’re still beating, bits of people’s faces like ripped out eyes and tongues, dead people with no limbs that are still pumping out blood onto the floor. It’s a slaughterhouse, the evidence of their brutality smeared across the place. When smell of the freshly cut flesh and warm blood hits me, it makes me vomit on myself, and when I try to wipe it away, that’s when I realise I’m tied up to the wall surrounded by corpses.

When I try to move, something’s holding me back and I see blood and some kind of slime run down my arm. I can’t turn my head. They all stand around me, waiting for me to look in their eyes. For a while, I don’t. But then I’m compelled to, if I don’t look in their eyes that are dragging mine to theirs I’ll probably die anyway. So I look up, and meet the eyes of the tallest one with all of the tattoos and long, black matted hair. Except in my dreams I’ve never seen them in any detail. Then he comes and opens my stomach with his long fingernails, and I watch as everything spills out onto the floor with a heavy, sloppy thud. Blood drips loudly, and I don’t feel like I’m dying. I’m just as alive, but in excruciating pain. I know it’s never going to end, for as long as anyone will live. I scream and scream but no one comes to help, they all just watch as the black haired guy rips me slowly, limb from limb.” I stopped, and bit my lip. Gwen cried silently, face puckered in sympathy.

“Oh, Rick. Why didn’t you tell me before?” She said before throwing her arms around me and engulfing me in a reassuring hug. “Don’t worry, I would never let them take you there.” She grasped my hand with shining eyes. “I’ll never let you be alone, remember?”

“I’ll never let you be alone, either.” I smiled with a tight throat, glad in the knowledge that she wasn’t going to leave me for being weird or haunted, that I would always have her behind me. She leaned forward to kiss me and we sat hugging for a while before she suddenly pulled back. My heart sank as I realised she was probably about to leave, but with wide eyes she said, “Rick, does that mean they watch you in the shower?”

Her words took me by surprise and as I struggled to find a response to that random question, a laugh burst out of me. It began quietly but when Gwen joined in too, it echoed loudly around the room, the reverberations mingling together until all we could hear was one two-toned noise of elation.

The Downfall

When my parents died, a year before we entered the house where it all began, the damned place where demons were free to roam, I let them back into my life. I hadn’t seen them in over a year and I’d gotten used to it being just me and Gwen. Depressed and feeling alone even with Gwen firmly by my side, my feelings were made worse by the hurt I saw in my grandparent’s eyes at losing their son and daughter-in-law. They were broken, and it ruined me too. They had raised me almost as much as my busy, career focused parents who only ever wanted the best for me and Seb. The car crash they died in didn’t have particularly suspicious circumstances, just a drunk driver at night three times above the legal limit who also died in the crash; but I knew that somehow, the demons were involved in it. I think they got tired of waiting for my protective happiness to lessen and took action themselves by controlling the drunk driver. The papers never named the other party in the accident until after he hung himself in the mental asylum he lived in for a few years, but I knew it was Joe. It was entirely my fault for my parent’s deaths for allowing him in, for my part in ruining his life with insanity.

I stopped all contact with my family including my grandparents, Seb and Gwen, scared of letting them get possessed by my demons which weren’t their problem to deal with. A few days after my parents died I realised sharing the bed with Gwen was extremely dangerous for her, and I moved out into a nearby cheap hotel where I drank all day and night to numb the pain of having no one. I didn’t let anyone know where I was, and I didn’t leave the hotel for anything other than a new bottle of vodka. I had savings for our wedding to live on but I hoped the booze would kill me sooner than I could spend all my money.

Every night after a day of watching bad quality television programs and listening to upbeat radio presenters, I would sit with a bottle of vodka and a pile of prescription pills. I knew what needed to be done, to save everyone from my demons. I never found the courage to actually do it in the hope Gwen would find and save me.

After a few weeks of chronic depression and alcoholism, Gwen finally found me.

“Oh my lord, I’m so happy to have found you! I missed you so much; you scared the hell out of me!” She scattered little kisses all over my unshaven face and neck. I felt ashamed, like I’d failed her. If I’d had more motivation I’d have moved to a different city or country. But secretly I’d wanted to be found. I couldn’t live without Gwen but I didn’t want to harm her in any way.

“I can’t be near you. I passed them onto Joe when we were younger when I slept at his house and he killed my parents so if we share the same bed when I’m in a crazy emotional state they’ll get you too.” I slurred. “You have to go and leave me forever.” I began to wail loudly.

“Think logically, you’re good at that. We’ve shared a bed for about a year or more now. I’ve never been possessed by any crazy demons so far, and I’d much rather risk having you with me and sharing the spirits than not having you in my life. I can’t live without you now. You know I’m scared of the dark, you can’t let me be alone.” She sat next to me and rested her head tenderly on my swaying shoulder.

“I’ll never let you be alone, I said that didn’t I?” I looked at her blearily.

“You did say that, and you’re currently leaving me alone. How could you?” She joked gently.

“I’m so sorry! So sorry! Please, please take me back. I don’t want you to have them too, but they can’t take you away from me, never ever!” I began crying drunkenly again; sure she’d walk out and leave like I’d done to her.

“I forgave you the moment I saw you. I knew why you walked but I just wanted you back. Come home, now.” She took my hand, threw the vodka bottle into the wardrobe with a loud clatter and she helped me stumble out, paying my final bill on the way. The hotel manager moodily threw a receipt at her as she led his best customer for years out the front door. She drove me home and ran me a bath with a cup of tea, and that night was the best of my life. I have never felt so loved or cared for.

Although I was in a better state of mind and I apologised to all of my family and Gwen for the next few weeks, the angry souls who so desperately wanted to torture me were closer than ever, almost within arm’s reach. Sometimes in enclosed spaces I could smell their rancid flesh and hear the mixture of pus and blood dripping steadily to the floor. I heard them scratching their crusty scabs and the small ripping noise as they came free. The licking of their grey lips and the spit dropping audibly to the floor as they realised they could get me soon.

I recognized that as soon as they learnt how to get close enough to be able to touch me, they would drag me with them and my nightmare would become reality. That’s when I asked Gwen to help me find a psychic that could help exorcise me of the spirits, whatever they turned out to be. We found Esther.

Esther

Listed in the phone directory as Esther H. P. Lovett who claimed to be the best psychic in the field of “unexplained entities”, I rang her and got her answer phone. Although she seemed like the best and most relevant psychic, I didn’t think anything of it and continued to look for more. As I was about to press the button to ring Madame De Mona, medium extraordinaire, she rang back. The shrill blearing of the phone shocked me, and they all crept forwards. She greeted me formally as Mr Lightwater, and talked about my situation with a deep understanding that I’d never known before. I warmed to her immediately, as someone who understood. We arranged for Gwen and I to go to her home, west of ours in a bad area. We arrived early at her small, shack like hose and knocked on the thin wooden door. She opened it immediately and the rickety door swung inwards to reveal a living room still in a seventies devastation of a florally patterned hurricane. Pendulums with different coloured stones swung gently from a fan blasting in the corner, even though it was a generally warm day outside.

“You must be Mr and Mrs Lightwater?” Esther said with a peaceful smile, gesturing us indoors. Before we stepped in, I saw them recoil. I hurried Gwen in before they could change their minds. Esther shut the door and locked it saying a little chant as she did so. She touched the door seven times before hanging a silver locket on the handle.

“Almost!” Gwen giggled. “We’re engaged to be married as soon as we can afford it.”

“Ah, marriage is but a ceremony. The will to be married is the deed done. Please, come in. Make yourselves at home.” We smiled at each other excitedly as Esther floated inside with a grace that can only come with years of practice.

“Tea, my dears?” We both thanked her but said no. Esther had a curious way of making you feel welcome, like she had known you for years. I felt so relaxed in this little house. They hadn’t followed us inside of this protective abode where I knew no badness could seep in. “I have many protective charms and amulets here, they won’t follow you in.” She sat down in the deep flowery armchair beside the red, horrifically patterned sofa where Gwen and I were.

“It’s boiling in here.” I panted, wafting my face with an old spiritualist magazine from the table next to me.

“Rick, you’re so strange.” Gwen giggled, wrapping her coat more tightly around her. “It’s got to be about minus eighty in here.”

Esther smiled indulgently at us like we were ignorant children, “You’re boiling because of “them”. That’s what you call the spirits, isn’t it? I had my fan ready for you.”

“What have they got to do with my body temperature?” I asked, not knowing if she was joking with me.

“They use their body heat to keep you warm, unintentionally. They are about two hundred degrees by nature, so even being near to you is enough to keep you warm.” She flicked the fan higher. “If you were in a small, empty room, chances are you would be cold. If you were in a small room full of people, however, you would be rather warm, don’t you think?” She winked lightly, letting me in on the joke. “So! These... dark entities. You say they are getting closer?” she peered at me closely.

“Well yes, they are. My parents died less than a year ago...” I cleared the thick emotion from my throat. “After that, I sort of invited them closer. Now they’re just an arm’s reach away and honestly I’m scared they’re going to get Gwen, or me.”

“I see.” Her eyes looked strangely sad. “How long have you been dealing with these demon spirits?”

I thought about it and the first memory I had of them was when I was four, but it was very vague memories I couldn’t quite recollect. My grandfather had also told me I was about four when it began, when I started being suspicious of everything and constantly looking over my shoulder, more mature than just my few years of age. My grandparents took the approach that they would shower me with love and commitment; if I knew people were there for me it wouldn’t be so difficult. It definitely made things easier to cope with, and along with my parents and Seb, I had a strong backing behind me that kept me going, that stopped me from ever giving up.

“I was probably around four years old.” I finally said.

“Okay that’s fine. Also, you said you were almost twenty four? So you’ve dealt with these entities for almost twenty years now?” She looked as if she was taking mental notes, concentrating hard and listening carefully.

“Yeah, I’d probably say so.” I raised an eyebrow, wondering where this was going.

“This is probably worse than I imagined, I’m sorry to say. Twenty years is, to be frank, the limit for these entities before they become strong enough to break through your barrier and into the world.” She licked her lips nervously, it looked like she was choosing her words very carefully now. “How long is it exactly until your twenty-fourth birthday?”

“One week. What exactly do you mean, twenty years is the limit? And what barrier?” I asked, leaning forward. Gwen’s eyes were wide with fear.

“We’ll have to act quickly, time isn’t on our side. I must delve straight in, I apologise for my bluntness. After twenty years of resting, building strength, learning about human life, the spirits are ready to come forward onto Earth from their other dwelling, from another dimension. No one knows why twenty years, some say it’s because of a certain equinox in their dimension, others speculate that’s how long they can last in their realm, a lifetime.”

I gritted my jaw and stared her straight in the eyes. “What do we do?”

“We have to go to wherever it all began. Wait here.” She glided upstairs gracefully.

“Oh my gosh, Rick. This is serious. I... I don’t know what...” Gwen’s eyes filled up. I hated seeing her like that, so upset. Especially when I knew she was distressed because of me.

“I know. At best I was hoping for some therapy sessions, at worst a sacrifice.” I said, smiling feebly. She coughed laughter and choked, and cried harder. After a few minutes, she calmed down and looked intensely at me.

“I love you, we’re going to be married and have a family. I’ll be with you until the end and I’ll never let you be alone.”

“Thank you.” I kissed her, forgetting where we were until Esther walked back in. She cleared her throat loudly and we parted, embarrassed like teenagers. I noticed Esther held in her hands a map, and she sat down in the next room with it at the table and rolled it out properly. Flowers almost filled the dining room and even under the circumstances I couldn’t help but think that surely having flowers and pollen surrounding where she ate couldn’t be good for her, and in the summer bees and wasps would swarm. I swiped the banal thought from my mind before Gwen took my hand and we joined her at the table.

“I’ve got this map of the local area I use for historical predictions. I feel from your aura that you were born here. Am I correct?” she pointed to the city’s hospital.

“Yes, completely correct.” I wasn’t too impressed; anyone could have gotten that information from Google.

“You said your parents aren’t with us anymore?” I nodded and chewed the inside of my cheek. “Yes, but I can feel them around you. They watch over you, Rick. It’s a good sign; you’ll never be alone, even at your darkest hour when you think there’s no light left in the world. Sally and Lawrence were there names?” I nodded. “I can feel they died in a car accident quite recently. They didn’t leave the world in the right way, they can’t quite move on yet. They’ll be with you for a while, but they’re together and happy.”

For a while, Esther didn’t say anything. She got out a creamy white stone on a silver chain and swung it slightly over different parts of the map. After a few seconds, I realised something. “I’ve got that exact pendulum. I can’t remember where from, but I have one too! I got it for one of my birthdays and I’ve counted it a lucky charm ever since.” I pulled out my wallet and slid the pendulum out. Esther smiled maternally.

“It’s more than a lucky charm, dear.” She closed her eyes and puckered her lips in concentration, so I didn’t dare ask what she meant. Eventually she opened her eyes, pointed and said resolutely, “Here. We need to go here.”

To me, it just looked like a small, residential estate in the posh area of the city. “What is it?”

“It’s where the demons first clung to you. Where they first got a smell of your blood, where they decided you were to be their next victim.”

“Their next victim? It’s been twenty years, why haven’t they moved on?” I asked, flabbergasted and frustrated.

“As I said, twenty years is a lifetime to them. Twenty years in our realm is probably only a few weeks to them.” She paused dramatically. “We need to go back to the old, ruined house there. It’s been abandoned almost ever since you adopted these demons. It’s the only place they’ll properly be rid of, but only if we do it properly. I’ll have to carry out the ritual, I’m the only one in the country experienced enough to know what to do.”

“How so?” Esther’s familiarity was really bugging me now.

“I’ve just done it before, that’s all. It’s not every day you meet someone with demons surrounding them, clouding their aura.” She flashed her yellowing teeth at me in a gesture I understood was meant to be pleasant. Gwen looked at the clock and realised we were late for a family meal, which seemed so unimportant under the current circumstances that I didn’t want to leave, but we said our goodbyes anyway and promised to be in touch as soon as the meal was over.

During the meal, while almost everyone but me got drunk I rang Esther from the men’s toilets. After my running away episode and the fact drinking made me more susceptible to their macabre advances, I refused to touch a drop. So as everyone had a merry time, I thought about my possible impending death in two weeks time. Even thinking of the word “death” made my guts churn, my brain hurt and my throat tighten. Esther suggested the spirits were getting worse by the minute and she could feel the constant atmosphere around me was cold and full of hatred. I told her how isolated I felt, cut off from the rest of the normal world and she paused in a thoughtful silence. She told me the ritual would take place the next Saturday, and she would need a family member related by blood and someone else who I loved to be present to help carry it out.

Later, I reluctantly asked Seb and Gwen to help but they agreed wholeheartedly, and my regret was deepened when I went back to Esther’s house and informed her of this. She told me I wouldn’t actually be required at the house, due to the extreme levels of danger of what was about to happen.

“If I’m placing my brother and fiancée in peril the least I can do is be there, too! I’m not leaving them to pick up the pieces of my fragmented mental state!” I scowled, not angry at Esther but at the situation.

“Rick, my dear, you really don’t understand. Please listen to me when I say it won’t just be you in danger if you decide to come. I can’t stop you, but I highly recommend you do not come!” Esther, even though she was so small, seemed to tower over me. I almost backed down, but then Gwen entered the room after going for a glass of water and seeing her bright green eyes gave me the confidence I needed to say, “No, Esther. I’m sorry, but I’m going. That’s final.”

After another heated discussion, I was allowed to wait in the car outside. How I wish I had never visited that damned house in the first place.

The Beginning of the End

“Rick, I don’t like this. What do I do? They’re getting worse!” Gwen started hyperventilating behind me.
“Calm down, if they sense your fear or any weaknesses they’ll play on that.” I tried to sound reassuring but even I could hear the shake in my voice. I stared at the iron candlestick and took in every detail so I wouldn’t look away. It had what looked like a hand carved swirling pattern all over its thin, straight frame, with small smatterings of brightly coloured stones. The glittering stones looked striking in this dull, dusty house and appeared to sparkle brightly in rebellion of their unsightly habitat.

The room we were in was a dusty mess. The fireplace was a vintage, ornate masterpiece that seemed to be wasted in the abandoned house. This particular room smelt of a musky kind of smell although there didn’t seem to be any sign of animal invasion. There wasn’t even a cobweb to be seen, even though no one had lived here for over fifteen years. The surrounding area contained similarly grand houses and I wondered why the building hadn’t been demolished to upkeep the posh estate’s good reputation. It was a stain in the neighbourhood, an obviously decaying corpse in the midst of a family-friendly city. Driving up to the house on either side of the winding road were small mansions with their perfectly groomed gardens and happy, flushed faced gnomes waving us through. The sense of unease that built in the car as we got closer clogged my lungs like smog and I could hardly breathe knowing what a dangerous task lay ahead. I didn’t know if anyone would make it out alive. I hoped with all my heart if anyone would die it would be me and not Seb, my loyal brother and best friend or Gwen my trusting and loving girlfriend or Esther, the selfless psychic who had agreed to help knowing that if she didn’t, they would take everyone I loved before they took me too.

Keeping my eyes fixed on the candlestick, it became glaringly obvious that I had never been in such a risky situation. Working as one of the accountants for a popular television network, I had been in tough circumstances before where millions of pounds had ridden on my choices and logic. Here, nothing mattered but my determination to win. The odds were low on us all coming out of this alive but I had to win, or we would all die. If I let them in, we would never get out.

“Stay strong Gwen, if you don’t concentrate properly none of us will get out of here.” Behind my back so she would see, I curled my thumb and forefinger together and flicked my other three fingers out to make an “okay” sign to her. I knew she’d be smiling, and while she giggled her throat caught, making a choking sound that I knew was the start of her tears. When we’d first started going out, she’d asked me how I was and I’d responded with the typical okay sign known by most people. But she had never seen such a thing before, and assumed I was swearing at her, like a smart fingers up. She almost dumped me before I had the chance to explain things, but since then it only took for one of us to do the hand signal and we’d both be devoured by fits of laughter.

“I don’t feel anything other than weak. We failed you. If I hadn’t tried to run away...” I heard her sniff away tears.
“I don’t blame you for running away; it’s what anyone would have done. You were scared, and you’re doing this for reasons even I don’t properly understand. Just try to stay calm because it’s all going to be okay.” I paused, seeing a rush of movement to the left of me. Although all my instincts told me to look and make sure it wasn’t anything dangerous, I knew it was and if I tried to see, the consequences would be fatal. “Esther may not be dead. Or, not entirely. We might still be able to save her, but it’s going to take a lot of guts and concentration and you’ll have to do exactly as I say and don’t look anywhere that can be manipulated by them. From what you’ve told me, that’s what happened to Seb.” A lump caught in my throat. “They tricked him by creating an illusion of our dead parents in that room. Once he let himself in, and his emotions went haywire with seeing them again, it was easy for them to trap him inside.”
“But that’s what they did with Esther. Why are we only trying to save her? She’s about eighty, and she’s not even family like Sebastian.” Gwen whispered, as if the house had ears. In a way, I suppose it did.

“Esther was more prepared. She said she’d experienced the same kind of thing in her youth, but I’m not sure to what extent. She had on her a Xenite pendulum, and as far as I could tell from our family’s history, noobody in Lightwater history has survived this house. It’s just me and Esther and we’ve both got Xenite pendulums. So we need to go for Seb first, then Esther.” I tried to think about what to do next, attempting to ignore the people I could see all around me, staring with hate at us. I saw one of them wearing a white robe. It took a step forward and I began to silently panic, not wanting to make Gwen worse.

“Gwen, you need to take me to where Sebastian disappeared. I have a feeling that he’s alive, his body will be fine, but it will be empty. We need to save him before he’s too far gone and they don’t let him back.” I quickly spun and locked my eyes with her, careful not to look at anything in between the candlestick and her scared face. She whimpered, and I thought for a second she might try to run again, but she nodded bravely and took my hand. As she led me forward, they followed us. Their quiet, angry murmuring bubbled around. I felt like I was trapped in a dream as I was taken up the creaking wooden stairs into the unlit and dank upstairs corridor. On either side were unused, Victorian style light holders and wallpaper darkened with dust and muck. The carpets, scruffy and visibly damp from the leaking roof, led the way forward. Gwen silently pulled me forward, hand clammy with fear, and stopped suddenly outside of a solid, thick door, red paint peeling from every inch. Very faint screams could be heard as if from miles away seeping through the doorframe.

I shuddered knowing Seb, my only family left, could be one of the lost souls within contributing to that noise. The pain he was in was probably unimaginable and I suddenly felt incapable of dealing with the task of ridding this house and myself of all the evilness that had decided to stick with me. I didn’t know how I was going to save my brother and Esther, but I knew I had to even if it killed me. Taking a deep breath to steady my dizzy mind, I slowly reached forward and grasped the door handle. Slowly, with every ounce of courage I possibly muster, I turned the rusty handle clockwise until it clicked harshly into place, echoing around the ‘empty’ corridor. I could see them all standing there though, watching and waiting for me to slip up and try to look at them, or close my eyes which were currently stinging madly from lack of sleep or blinking.

Sebastian

I gave a slight push and the door swung inwards with a screeching creak to reveal a completely black room whose atmosphere seemed impenetrable and dangerous. I took a careful step forward, not knowing what to expect, and ducked as a fist came pummelling from the side of the doorway aimed for my head. Heaving myself away from the hand, I lost my balance with the shock and fell to the floor with a yell. Gwen’s concentration broke and she bent to help me up. Her head snapped to the end of the room, her eyes growing scarily wide and making me think her eyeballs might pop straight out.
“Gwen?” I stood up shakily and brushed myself down. She didn’t move an inch.

“Dad?” Gwen whispered hopefully. She glanced blankly just past my right shoulder, into the depths of the opaque blackness. “Dad!” shuffling towards the pitch black corner of the old bedroom I knew something had happened when I had fallen, and I grabbed her wrist. “Gwen! Snap out of it!” she tried to tug herself away from me. The longer I took to bring her back to normality the closer they were getting with their expressionless, greying faces and outstretched hands. She pulled herself away from me. She almost began to run away, to the version of her dad they wanted her to see in the corner, away from me and towards them. She tried to surge forwards. Gwen was quite weak but managed to slip from my grasp. She stormed forwards determinedly.

I shouted her name again. She ignored me. I spun her around and slapped her hard. Straight across her face. I turned away from her afterwards with regret.
“Rick?” she blinked a few times like a child awaking from a deep sleep. “Oh my... What happened?”
“I don’t know.” I said carefully, glad to have her back. She still seemed dazed but time was running out and the room, apart from having the constant noise of distant screams and a lot of violence, didn’t appear to have anything that could help us save Seb. If he could be saved at all. A light bulb, decades out of use, flickered on weakly.
“There’s no electricity in this building, it’s been derelict for years.” Gwen said, as if stating that fact would stop the bulb being any less real. She strode over to the light bulb, unscrewed it carelessly and threw it to the floor, face contorted in mutinous resentment.

Rick...

“I just heard him, Gwen. I heard Seb’s voice.” I whispered.

Can...

“Can what? Can I do something?” I shouted at the unpopulated room, circling it impatiently. As I did my second route, the in-built cupboard caught my eye. Walking over, I pulled out my Xenite pendulum for protection. I still wasn’t sure how it came into my possession; I only knew it had always been mine. It hadn’t been a proven item for protection anyway, but like a child carries a comfort blanket, I carried my milky white Xenite rock on its fine, silver chain. I had a feeling they didn’t like it, it had immense powers that overwhelmed them; my lucky charm. A small glow emanated from the fingernail sized stone, and I opened the cupboard doors full of determination to find Seb and end this nightmare. His limp body lay against a chest of drawers, face drawn and beset with terror.

My eyes saw his body with life clearly gone forever, but my mind wouldn’t believe. Breath came in short, shallow bursts. I perched next to him and touched his cheek. “Seb, come on. Wake up.” His cheek was already turning pale and cold. “You can’t be... dead. Remember when we were little and you said you’d have my back, always? You double pinky hard-boiled promised. We spat and shook on it. We pricked our fingertips and shared blood so we could be more like twins!” he lay, eyes open and staring at the stained ceiling above. I imagined he could see the bright stars beyond, one shining emblem in the sky for every loved one we’d ever known to pass on to the next life. I hoped he had joined them.

“He’s not dead because... because you just need to bring him back. You told me that before we even came up here.” Gwen reminded me gently, as if reading my thoughts.

“They’ve stabbed him in the heart, Gwen.” I gestured weakly to the pool of blood I was squatting in that was growing slowly. “There’s no getting him back now, they’ve done the job properly, it seems.” My throat felt constricted and my eyes became awash with tears. “Seb, come back...” I murmured to him, shaking his shoulder tenderly. “They haven’t ripped him up to take with them; they’ve killed him outright and left him here to rot.” Anger reared its ugly head suddenly in the pit of my stomach; the force of it scared me. I didn’t want to be like them, filled with hate until that was all that drove me onwards surviving.
“That means nothing! Come on, you told me it would look like he was dead but that he wouldn’t be, that we just need to rescue him before he’s lost forever! We just need to... To go and get him?” her nervous excitement fizzled out with the realisation that we had nowhere to go from here, no plan B in place for when everything we hoped for plummeted to the ground and smashed into pieces. Gwen’s face slowly evolved from hopeless to cautiously excited. “Esther.” She murmured, clearly in the middle of a train of thought.

“Esther?” I asked with a hollow voice.

“We should find Esther, I have a feeling she’ll know what to do.” Her smile brightened the dark room, and I even felt a small, temporary tug of hope building in my stomach.

I shook my head. “Esther’s probably dead. Seb’s dead. I want to get you out of here first then I’ll look for them. You can’t help anymore than you have already, there’s no point risking both of our lives. I’ll take you to the car and you can wait there.”

“What are you talking about? You know fine well there’s no way of escaping. There’s only two ways of getting out of this place. Either we need to find out how to get rid of all these... things. Or...” A sad look passed by her face.

“At this minute in time, I really couldn’t care less about what happens to me.” I stated frankly, meaning every word. “What’s most important to me is that you get out of here alive even if I don’t.”

“No, Rick, you don’t understand. You don’t know everything, please remember that. This is more than just me and you, it’s not about who can be the bravest and most chivalrous. This is about survival, and saving humanity.”

“What?” Humanity didn’t come in to it, just a troubled man who saw things.
“I can’t explain, I’m sorry. Just trust me, if you don’t get out of here, there’s no point in anyone leaving. I’ll explain everything later, when it’s all over.” She kissed me lightly.

After a pause I finally took a deep breath and told Gwen, “Okay, take me to Esther. I don’t know what’s going on but I’ll do whatever I need to save Seb. He was more than a brother and he risked his life for me, as did you and Esther. But, I won’t leave here tonight unless I know all of you are coming with me.” I vowed, tasting hot, salty tears in my dust filled mouth. She smiled, almost a fully genuine smile and then tensed, her entire body stiffening sharply.

“Why haven’t we been taken? I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen any of them, and I haven’t been careful with where I’ve been looking. We’ve been emotional and careless, and they haven’t come for us.” Gwen panicked.

“I honestly don’t know. Let’s just go and get Esther, and get the hell out of here as soon as we can. I’m sick of this goddamned house.” Sullenly, I glanced back at Seb one last time, and tried to remember the good times and when he’d been happy and alive. I remembered when we were younger before our parents died, at the natural little river we used to love in the garden of our holiday cottage. I’d been standing on the rocks, peering in at a fish that had gotten caught between a rock and a section of a log that had floated downstream. The doomed fish, head above water, had fascinated me for a good thirty seconds, blocking out the everyday noises and distractions of life. I was concentrated so hard on this shiny, green fish that I didn’t notice Sebastian approaching. As a joke he’d shouted “Rick the pri-” but before he could finish his usual taunt, I had been so surprised I lost my already clumsy footing and slipped head first into the river. My legs tangled and brain numb with shock I’d done nothing but lay there panicking insanely until Seb had sprinted over and yanked me out, feet first. I’d survived with just shallow scratches and bruising, and since then Seb had given me many reasons to owe him my life. This was my time to repay him for everything, and I wasn’t going to let him down no matter what.

I took her hand firmly, letting her know I’d be there until the end. Before I let her take me to the last place she’d seen Esther, I looked into her emerald green eyes, without saying a word, told her everything would be okay for us both in the end. She seemed to understand and squeezed my hand lovingly.

We crept through the corridor carefully, trying not to make a sound. I knew they would find us no matter how much noise we made, but it made us both feel better. I felt the room we were just in was sacred or protected somehow, but now we had left it, they were starting to come back. Reaching for us and groaning with anger and greed, I kept my eyes fixed on random pieces of furniture to not get caught within their grasp.

From my dreams I gathered that if they managed to get me, they would take me somewhere that agony would replace life and sanity, and I would slowly become one of them. I would forget everything I ever loved, and who I was before. My mind would be history, taken over by thoughts of causing pain and death. I would eternally reach for my next victim to torture. Outside of the house, Gwen had never been able to see them, experience the horror of constantly being watched and silently threatened. However inside this house filled with hell she could now see what I’d lived with for most of my life. Usually they kept their distance and I felt a kind of boundary between us, but that seemed blurred or non-existent now. Even in the grounds of the house, the radiating sense of pure evil was hard to ignore.

“Here, this was the room. She began her chanting, swinging that glittery white rock and saying words in a language I didn’t recognise. She told me no matter what, I had to keep my arms circled around her. She said that if Seb hadn’t... well, that it would be a lot stronger, having two of us to circle her and keep her protected. But they began getting... angry. Roaring and screaming and trying to rush forwards to us. The further in the chant she got, the closer they managed to surge forwards. There were hundreds of them. I stared one of them in the eyes, her mouth just stretched so wide open that I could see her black tongue and dark yellow teeth. I could smell her hot, rancid breath. Then another one of them came closer and grabbed me. It was the same one from your dream, the tattooed man.”

She began sobbing quietly as she talked but I couldn’t see her face as I concentrated on keeping my gaze on a cracked vase next to the door. I could tell they were listening. “When it touched my arm, it sizzled and I could smell my own flesh burning. I could tell Esther was almost done with her chant but I couldn’t hold on any longer. I screamed and clenched my eyes shut and suddenly they were all grabbing me, pulling out hair and scratching my body. I ran, and l-I left her. I didn’t know what to do! I thought I was going to die!” Her sobs echoed around us, fuelling their excitement.

“It’s not your fault. Anyone would have done the same. I’ll protect you now, Gwen.” I said reassuringly, trying to keep her calm. “I’ll never let you be alone.” I knew if I had been in the same place, with a practical stranger with wicked beings trying to take me with them, I would consider it too. Gwen was gaining nothing from being here, apart from a normal boyfriend at the end of it. She had already done so much by even coming here, I couldn’t be angry. I didn’t really know Esther either, only that she had promised she could help and had been through something similar to me, and if I managed to do nothing but trust her, we would all come out of this alive.

House of Lies

When the four of us had sat outside the house, each with dread in our stomachs, Esther had turned to look me in the eye and said, “Under no circumstances do you enter the house. We are going in, doing the ritual, and leaving. The ritual will lock the demons in that damned house, and then we shall burn that house to the ground so they can’t affect anyone ever again. For reasons you can’t comprehend, you mustn’t go inside. If any of us die, it wouldn’t be a tragedy. If you die tonight, the world will suffer.” I had nodded, knowing her words were overly dramatic to try and convince me not to come. If I’d had my way I would have been part of the ritual too, to help, but we had come to a compromise I could wait outside in the car. After twenty minutes, I had heard Gwen’s screams of absolute terror and without even thinking I’d rushed inside and got us both trapped. At first we had tried smashing windows with chairs and lamps, then the front door. But everything was solid, unbreakable. We knew we had to do something, and that was when we instinctively knew to watch where we looked and, from Gwen’s experience upstairs, not to shut our eyes.

I’d lived my entire life seeing dark, shadowy people pass by the outer edges of my sight and not really paid much attention, deciding everyone must see like I do. Until one day after my parents died and I was in that lonely hotel room and I tried to stare at one, hoping it would take me. He had stopped walking. I kept focusing on him. I saw his shadowy profile change and turn until I knew he was facing me. I willed him forward so I could see who he was. Closer and closer he had come. Then when he was just an arm’s reach away, I could see his grey skin covered with deep red scars When I went to stare him in the eyes, I gasped. The bare eye sockets had purple veins bulging and pulsing like worms, the inner flesh looked moist and bloody. I reached into my pocket for the Xenith pendulum I knew would be there. It smirked, and started pacing backwards, face always pointing to me so I could see its disfigured form until it reached the fuzzy outer limits of my sight.

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