Summer's Journal: Twelth Entry

Last night I received a voice mail. It was from my cousin and it seemed panicked. My cousin scarcely ever calls me because we see each other so much, and more then anything he never, ever loses his cool. “Summer… I… I took the wrong dare and now I’m stuck with it. Please, please, please come here and help me out. 827 Main Street.’

827 Main Street. I don’t remember much of anything about the building. No stories of it being haunted, and I would know. I am the one who everyone walks up to and says, “Hey, creepy goth girl. You hear about that haunted house down on fifth?” or “Last night I saw this light in my closet, it swept through my door and laid over me like a mist, what was it?”

I made my way to my Aunt’s house. When I arrived, Aunt Page was there to greet me, “He called me… Told me not to come, what’s going on Summer?” I shrugged, and I reached into my side satchel. I was missing wolfsbane and salt. I calmly went to Aunt Page’s cupboard and grabbed out a carton of salt, “Wolfsbane?” I asked.

She tapped her foot impatiently, “I’m sorry. I was just asking. I’m a frail little girl remember?” She responded with, “Your mother lets you carry around poison?” I looked around the cupboard again. “Where is it?” I asked impatiently.

“He keeps it downstairs; you have to tell me if my son is okay.” I hugged her tightly, “He’s fine. Just scared. You have to remember, Brendan can’t be hurt physically. Which is why I am hurrying over. He’s not going to leave, and if you go over, you’ll break him.”

I went downstairs and grabbed two vials of holy water. Aunt Page looked at me in tears in her eyes. “Aunt Page, calm down,” I responded, “I think it’s just a spirit. So calm down. If it is, it’s an easy in out. I’m not going to keep him waiting any longer.”

October evenings were always cold, and this one seem colder. With my hurried pace and quickened puff of air escaping my lips, it was surreal as I went softly into that good night.

I arrived at Main Street and I began to descend in numbers, 859. A couple blocks passed by. At the end of the third one, I saw what would be 827. It was a building surrounded by black grate fence. Standing in front there were three boys laughing, pointing at the building. I ducked into the alley, and went behind the building. There was a break in the grate, and I entered the grounds.

The window that was broken was boarded up with a piece of particle board. I shoved forward. Pushing harder and harder and it gave out. I landed with a thud on the other side avoiding the nails with some degree of luck. I rose.

This place was dusty, dank, and there were black beetles. I hate when there are black beetles. I reached into my pouch, grabbed out my flashlight and began to search around. My batteries died. I quickly grabbed my cell, and I dialed Brendan’s number. Then my phone shut off.

“Help me…” A voice said in my ear, when I turned I saw the edge of a white dress. I live with ghosts. Over fifty, to be exact, only four are intelligent. The rest are full body repeaters. The one is simply called Stomper. He lives a floor above me, and once in awhile he’ll stomp down the halls at night. There are two others, the twins, I call them. They leave toys on the stairs. I’ve had a few bloody noses because I forgot to look and they tripped me up on a car or anything. The last is Ol’Drunky, and he’s in the basement. He throws bottles at people who drink.

So some white lady ghost isn’t going to freak me out, and I don’t know why Brendan was having such a hard time with it. I had no choice but to go up the stairs. The next floor was far more decrepit then the first. I began to walk down the hall, and behind me I heard echoes of my footsteps.

I turned and standing there was a shade. He was mostly skeletal, and he had shining red eyes, he growled at me. I reached into my bag, and went for the salt. Then he vanished and I felt a blade against my skin. It pushed in on my arm pain went through it. The black beetles began to crawl up my legs. I leapt backwards and went into a full run to the stairwell at the other end of hall. I felt the footsteps following me.

When I got to the end I grabbed the salt and made a line. I ran up the stairs. Not frantic, but because this shade but because this shade could cut me. He began to beat at the line, and when I arrived at the top of that staircase, I saw Bredan. He was sitting curled into a ball.

“Brendan?” When he looked up I saw rotten flesh, and decay. It wasn’t Brendan. The spirit went back to sulking. I called his name louder, “Brendan!” I felt a tap and there was a loud “Boo!”

I slapped his arm, five or six times.

“Brendan! What’s wrong?!”

“I’ve got to go up two other floors, and the next floor up there is a flag.”

“A flag?” I asked impatiently.

“Yes. Look, Summer, I know you can’t understand this, but they dared me to, I can’t not do it.”

“Why did you call me?”

“Because you thought that shade the next floor down was bad, wait until you see the next floor up.”

“What is it Brendan?”

“The Psych ward.”

“Brendan. This was a hospital?”

“Yes…”

I walked down the hall slowly, and he was following me. I began to walk up the stairs. Step by step. Inch by Inch. That’s when I saw them. The whole floor was hopping with activity. The walls were covered in blood. Dripping from the ceiling.

“Nice place Brendan.”

He responded with, “You’re a necromancer, get the ghosts to listen to you.”

“Go in against a spirit who may be a lot older and smarter than me and suffer a possession. Good plan Brendan. You know how to run, right?”

“I’m on track.”

“Brendan, what is it really?

He sucked in a deep breath, “I’m just really freaked out Summer, I don’t deal with these things as well as you do, okay?”

I took his hand in mine and began to walk. The floor began to move up and down like a wave, and I kept walking. It passed through my legs, as things began to be thrown at me. I gritted my teeth as an object smashed into the side of my face. As I walked, I began to see what was causing it. There was a little girl at the end of the hallway. I grabbed out the vial of holy water… But now it was a grenade and the pin had been pulled.

I took a deep breath. Brendan began to try and get away from me. I began to shake the grenade at her, and acid splashed out of it, and struck not only her, but Brendan and I. I watched my skin melt and felt the pain, but kept splashing it towards her.

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”

All this time the whole world seemed to rise up against me, the floor, the rugs, everything became some twisted form of reality and seemed to want to end my existence. The most violent was a blanket that became a pile of goo and covered my whole body. I found it hard to breath even though I knew it was just an illusion.

Once I had finished the prayer, and anointed the spirit with holy water, it vanished with a scream. I tugged on Brendan, but he didn’t move. I slapped him, and pulled him as hard as I could. I had to drag him. Once I arrived at the stairs it was clear the ghost had gotten to him more than me. I may be able to deal with psychotic attacks and mental stranglings, but my cousin could not.

“Brendan,” I asked, “Brendan are you there?”

His breaths became deep and he tried to get away from me, “Its Summer. Your cousin.”

His voice came out deep seated and hateful, “I’m fine!” He opened his eyes and they were red.

I reached into my bag and I grabbed my silver cross, “Here hold onto this for a moment.”

When I put it in his hand he began to yell, scream and roar. I ran up the stairs, and grabbed his damn flag. He had better appreciate that. I grabbed the cross from his hand. I laid him down on the floor, and I made a circle of salt around us.

“Take a nap,” I said as I pushed a piece of holy-wafer into his forehead.

I opened his mouth and I spoke, “What is your name?” I pushed on his chest, and what escaped was a roar of sorts, but it was clearly words, “Jacob Ericson.” This wasn’t going to be as bad as I thought it would. Thankfully it wasn’t a demon.

I straddled my cousin’s waist… I knew it was going to be disgusting before I even did it. I opened his mouth, and naturally his breath stunk, I put my open mouth near his and I slammed my hands on his chest screaming, “Enter me!” When it struck the back of my mouth I fell backwards on the ground, and physically that was all I remembered. Mentally however, this was far from over.

In the black realm of my mind, a man stood, he was much bigger than I was, and we were staring at each other. He swung his fist and connected with my jaw, and I went spinning and falling to the vivid fog that was my mind, and I felt tired.

I looked at him. I shoved on him and it scarcely moved him. Somehow I knew it was going to be terrible. When he shoved me to the ground and began to kick me, I figured it was over. The things I do for my cousin. I concentrated on the strongest person I could think of. My father. What would he do.

He’d hit the spirit. A sword appeared in my hand, and the spirit took a step back. This was my mind after all. I brought the sword around and removed his head. From the body exploded light.

“Be gone!” I yelled. I had vocalized it. I was lying on the couch at my aunt’s house. Brendan had a damp rag on my forehead.

“Summer is that you?”

“Who else would it be?”

“I thought he had gotten you.”

“He did Brendan, but apparently, my will was stronger.”

-Dawn