“Where’s
Marty?” Melissa asks while Amanda tries to regain her composure.
“I don’t
know, I don’t know! One minute we were searching the kitchen, the next some big…
thing came out of nowhere with a
knife.” I lie, extending two tendrils of ethereal energy to caress their
warmth.
They
both shiver, probably thinking it’s due to the circumstances. “What do you mean
thing?”
“I don’t
know!” I reiterate, shaking my fists at my side. “It was big and dark, and it
used a steak knife to stab Marty before dragging him in the basement.”
“We
have to go after him,” Amanda said after a moment of breathing heavily into her
cupped hands.
“What?”
Both Melissa and I say, her out of fear, I out of amazement that these girls
were showing an ounce of bravery.
“We
need to go down there now and stop whatever has him from killing him, before it’s
too late.” Amanda reasoned.
“And
how are we going to do that? We don’t have any weapons!” I say, trying to act
panicked.
“And
what about Carlos?” Melissa asked gently, reminding Amanda of their other
injured friend. “We still need to find a med kit.”
“What
we need to do is call the police and get them to come here with an ambulance.”
Amber said, pulling a cell phone from her pocket.
I
close my eyes and roll a tendril of energy over the device, doing myh best not
to smile when she gulps loudly, “No bars… try yours girls.”
I
panic for a moment, turning inward to hammer on Jessica’s soul to find out
where her cell phone is. I tighten my coils of darkness around her, pulling
more heat from her soul as she tries to resist me. After a second or two, she
tells me it’s in the room with Carlos, in her purse.
“Mine’s
in the living room with my purse, come on. Let’s go there.” I say, motioning
for them to follow me. I see Melissa pulling her cell phone and likewise wrap
it in a tendril, forcing it to disconnect from the network.
As we
enter the living room, I smile as Carlos is right where we left him, looking a
little paler than before. One lash of ethereal energy and I drain a gulp of
steaming energy from him, causing him to shiver on the floor uncontrollably.
“He’s
getting cold,” I say aloud, moving to grab a folded blanket from the couch and
pressing it into Melissa’s hands. “Throw it over him and warm him up. He needs
to stay warm if he wants to live.”
“How
do I warm him up?” Melissa asks, nearly sobbing as she looks at her boyfriend.
“Move
him closer to the fire for one thing, but be careful with his head. I’m going
to check for my phone.”
I rush
over to the couch where Jessica had been sitting and begin sorting through “my”
purse. Make-up, a bottle of pills, two condoms… aha! A phone. I lift it up to
my ear and listen to the static coming from it as my general aura of unnaturalness
causes it to go on the fritz. I press a few buttons, knowing it will do
nothing. I look up, lip quivering.
“No
bars…”
“How
can all three of us have no signal? I mean I know we’re in a pretty remote
place, but it’s not that remote.”
Amanda says, looking between Melissa and I.
“I don’t
know, but we just don’t. We’re going to have to solve this on our own.”
“Come
on Carlos, closer to the fire baby…” Melissa coos, helping to scoot him closer
to the bristling fire. He groans, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. I
leech more heat from him, smiling internally as I feel his innards begin to
freeze over. The blanket and fire will help, but only for so long.
A loud
thump echoes up from the basement, shaking the floor beneath us. All three of
us scream out of fear, Melissa jumping back from Carlos as I leap into the air
like a cat whose tail just got stepped on.
“What
was that?” Melissa asks, looking up at Amanda and I.
“No
clue… listen, we need to find out what is in this house and what it wants to do
with us, or else we’re going to just end up an urban legend.” Amanda says,
pulling from her pocket a switchblade, which she snaps open.
“Oh my
god, are you suggesting we go down into the basement?” I ask, dreading the
thought. Marty might not be dead yet, though the chances of him surviving me
freezing his blood are slim to none. Still, something made that crash in the
basement.
I
stand up, straining as the ice running through my veins is starting to make my
body difficult to move. I’ll need a new host soon… probably Melissa. I siphon
off enough heat from Carlos to have him lapse into a coma and to melt the cold
blood within me.
“Well
let’s go, just let me grab a knife before we go down there.” I say, looking at
Amanda.
“You?
You want to help me?” Amanda asks, somewhat incredulously.
Shit.
I look inward to find a smiling Jessica, shivering beneath my tendrils. You messed up ghost, Jessica thinks at
me, Amanda and I hate each other.
I grit
my teeth and look at Amanda. “Look, all past differences aside, something is
down in the basement and we need to find out what it is and deal with it. Now
we can go on hating each other or whatever, but for now we just have to trust
each other.”
Amanda
stares at me before nodding minutely, motioning for me to lead the way. I make
my way to the kitchen, drawing another steak knife from the open drawer, before
marching up to the door leading down. I look at Amanda, “you ready?”
She
hops from foot to foot, her switchblade held lightly ion her hand. “Let’s do
this!”
I open
the door and stare down into the basement. It’s dark, but my senses are telling
me there’s only one source of heat down here… and it’s massive. A tad unsure, I
move down the steps one at a time, looking over the banister as I reach the
light, pulling on the cord to light up the basement. I hear shuffling and
grunting from down below.
As I
reach a certain point to where I can look over the basement, I see the remains
of Marty, beheaded in a pool of dark blood.
There
really is something else in this god forsaken house.
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