Haunted House

 

Candles flickered in the darkness of the old house. The floorboards creaked beneath the footfalls of a handful of humans, each moving about with a sense of fear and knowing, as though the answers were right before them if they could only just see them. They put up strings and bells, burned herbs, sprinkled salt and holy water, and swept the floors with old brooms. It was a stunning mixture of religious and spiritual practice.

I sat in an old chair, watching the fireplace crackle and spit at the damp wood they had found. The chair rocked softly, creaking faintly with each movement. A man sat beside me, hand on a blade, watching my face and shoulders for signs of rebellion. Upstairs a door creaked and he froze, slowly turning his eyes heavenward only to sigh in relief when his companion came down the stairs.

“Nothing upstairs,” he reported. 

“Circles are laid in two of the rooms. We’ll do another down here.”

“And what about her?” One man nodded towards me, irritation in his voice. 

The loot of them paused and turned to look at me in unison. “Tie her up.”

“That’s not necessary,” I replied. “And you’re doing that wrong.” My chin nodded at the circle the one had begun to lay down. “Nor do they work if you can’t use magic.”

The three looked at one another again. “What d’you know about it?”

“Enough.”

“Suppose you’re gonna say they’re not real.”

I shrugged and looked back at the fire. “Most things are real. Most methods of capturing them are just torture, or at worst, designed to kill them.”

“They’re just ghosts,” one replied. “They’re dead.”

“They’re different than your understanding of life. So you come here to what? Poke them? Then wonder why they poke back?”

Our eyes met and one man looked away, flushed and irritated. He stood, walking away from the group to continue his salt circle. 

“Who are you?”

“I help creatures survive people like you,” I said tersely. “So set your traps. I’m sure you’ll make them so happy by being here.”

“They were tormenting the family that lived here!” the one man snarled, gesturing angrily around the house.

“Yes. Perhaps. Did you ever stop to ask why?”

The angered man stood, waving a hand at me in dismissal. He moved to help his friend, lighting the fennel on fire to let the smoke waft into the air. It smelled of bitter greens and human ignorance. 

I turned my eyes towards the last man. “You need to find out why. Why are they trapped here? Tormented to live this same way every fucking day. You’d be angry too. You know it. Locked in a place where you can’t leave and others are coming and going, taking over where you are forced to exist-”

“You don’t know that,” he muttered.

“People trap spirits all the time, friend. Talismans, curses, magic scriptures, symbols,” I nodded towards the circle on the ground. “They get stuck here. You need to stop, let them go.”

“This will bind them. This will stop them,” he said, gesturing to the symbol in salt and ash on the ground. The man stood, grabbing soapstone to inscribe more symbols. 

I shook my head and leaned back in the chair. “You’re an idiot and you deserve what happens to you.”

His dark eyes stared at me. “Are you cursing me?”

“I don’t need to.”

Upstairs a bell dinged as a door creaked open. All three men paused and looked at each other. One plucked a lantern from the floor and strode up the stairs. I watched them from the ground, shivering as the air grew cold enough my breath showed with each exhale. The men strode into the darkness, disappearing from my view.

I stood, moving from the chair to the symbol on the ground and using my foot to disrupt the ritual. “Fucking humans,” I muttered under my breath, grabbing the broom to push the salt away. 

Beside me, a candle flickered and went out, leaving me cast in shadows. I turned my head, glancing into the darkness, seeing only the vague outline of something. Heavy breathing broke the silence, raspy and wet. It grew louder as I stared at the lurking figure, tall and imposing, the light from the other room barely showing me its outline.

The fire crackled and then sizzled, growing dimmer and dimmer, until the figure was barely visible in the low dark. I shivered as the cold air intensified, chilling me to the bone. 

“Why are you here?” I asked in a faint whisper.

The darkness didn’t answer. It stared back, glowing eyes suddenly visible. They were penetrating and blue. I felt the cold breath of its mouth on my neck, bringing my hair to stand on end as the panting breathing grew ever louder.

You’re all going to die…

From the railway, a body flew back, breaking the wood and landing with a sickening thud on the ground below. I turned, looking at the man who screamed in agony at the angle of his leg. Bone stuck out from the flesh, blood oozing from the new opening. His hands trembled as he grasped at the wound, unable to move. 

Fingers slid up my neck and into my hair, grasping at the shorter strands and pulling my head backward. One down…

I pulled away, stepping into the foyer with the screaming man, turning to look behind me. Nothing stared back and only emptiness remained. Pounding footsteps echoed on the stairs as the two men came running down, kneeling beside their fallen companion. 

Each had holy symbols in their hands, brandying them as though they would protect them. “You look like idiots,” I snapped.

“It was us dead.”

“I would too.” I knelt and grabbed the man’s leg, nodding to his friends. They blinked, staring at me in abject horror before holding him down. With a sickening jerk, I righted the leg and then grabbed wood from the banisters to lash to the leg. His scream was deafening before he passed out from the pain.

Fabric tore easily as I bound the leg. “Now take him and get out. You’re useless.”

Silence greeted me as they stared above where the stairs met the upper floor. I turned, looking up at the darkness that hung there, deep and unnatural. It stared at us, a new eerie silence blanketing the house. 

Doors slammed around us, locks clicking as it closed us within the walls. Books flew off of the shelf, slamming against walls and mirrors and furniture, knocking candles and lanterns over until the remaining light was sputtering. Paintings were pulled from the wall, nails clattering to the ground. 

I stood over the wounded man, covering him with my body, arm up to protect my head. A groan escaped me as the house attacked, books and ornaments crashing against me. The noise rose and grew to a crescendo.

“Enough!” one man yelled, hurling his religious item at the specter above us. Everything stopped and fell to the ground, thudding on the wooden floor. 

II turned, looking up to see that the figure had disappeared. There was nothing, just the strange darkness that lingered as a mold would. I rose, moving to the front door and trying to unlock it. It wouldn’t budge, keeping all of us locked within. 

One of the men grabbed a fire iron and smashed the window of the room. A rush of air came inward as the glass clattered to the ground. He turned, signaling us to bring the wounded man. A knife flew through the air, discarded upstairs, and slammed into his hand, driving hilt deep. 

He screamed, staring in disbelief at the blade sticking out of his flesh that secured him to the wall. His eyes widened, his mind running wild as he tried to comprehend what he was seeing while reckoning with the pain that flooded through him. 

“You brought knives?” I asked in disbelief.

The remaining uninjured man ran to his companion, trying to pull the blade free. They wrestled over it, the injured man screaming deliriously. 

“Just in case!” the final man shouted. 

“In case of what?! Brigands!?” I shook my head and walked towards them, grabbing the knife and pulling it from the wall and his hand with one motion. I turned to look at the stairs and started towards them, grabbing a flickering lantern from the floor. The knife was tossed to the floor, left amongst the refuse. 

“Where are you going?” He asked as he wound a rag around his friend’s hand. 

“To do what you can’t,” I sneered, stepping onto the first landing. 

He moved forward, pulling his leg-injured friend from the circle he had been originally drawing. The smears made him swear beneath his breath. “You stupid bitch,” he called after me. “I need-” he stopped, shaking his head when I didn’t listen.

The ash was pulled from his coat and spread, forming the patterns he had memorized. With the final symbol, the circle glowed. Words in a language he didn’t understand were uttered under his breath and then louder.

I hit the top of the stairs and felt the encroaching darkness begin to pull me in, the sensation of eyes watching and hands nearly touching sent a chill up my spine. Eyes stared back at me as I walked forward, one hand outstretched. 

“I will hear you. Show me what I need to see.”

The entity watched, studying before it shrieked in rage as the final words of a spell were cast. Claws sank into my back and thigh, ripping through the clothing I wore and through my skin. Teeth dug into my shoulder, crushing my collarbone and ripping the skin open. I grit my teeth, falling to my knees as the thing lashed out, cutting my chin and neck with thick claws.

Help us. Stop. Help us. Let us go.

I stumbled to the edge of the landing, looking down at the human as he finished his ancient spell. The being was pulled forward, grasping at me and the walls and the wood. “Stop it!” I called down to him, but he glared at me and uttered the final word.

The circle ignited in fire and within it, something dark and forbidden stirred. I groaned, feeling my wounds more than I had a moment ago. It swirled within its confines, shrieking and slamming on the barrier.

He stood back, smug. “See. Now it’s captured.”

“Sure is, idiot. Now, what are you going to do with it?” I stood up, grasping the banister. 

The man produced a book, flipping pages. “Banish it.”

Anger showed on my face. “You mean kill it.”

“Not at all, just send it back to where it’s from.”

“It’s from here!” 

The man chuckled and flipped another page, stabbing it with his finger in determination. I shook my head, and jumped from the second floor, following the way the broken-legged man had fallen, directly into the swirling darkness.

I crashed into the entity, never reaching the ground. It engulfed me, claws and teeth and fear and anguish. I cried out, barely hearing the man calling to me as pain ripped through my focus. It crashed around the tiny space, away from me and back again, bringing new wounds with each moment.

“Come into me,” I murmured. “I invite you inside.”

The air sucked out of the room as the entity barrelled into me, igniting every cell in my body with their presence. It was cold and hot at once, sending vibrations of awareness through me, unlike anything I had felt before. My breath was gone and yet felt wonderful when I breathed, a newness and memory in one action.

They slid within, filling my mind and body, exploring every crevice in an intimate invasion. I moaned and they moaned, feeling each other deeply. A thousand memories of their lives, of their stories, of their deaths, and every moment in between flashed in my mind. I felt it all, living their fantasies and desires, their fears and anxieties, and having them intensify the sense of identity I shared with them.

The entity dove into my own memories, witnessing my hundred lives and moments of pleasure, pain, joy, and defeat. It felt every loss and every win, every mouth and tongue, and length that had invaded me and pleasured me and stretched me. It pulled each moment through to my mind so that I felt each of the sensations one after another until my body throbbed.

Words that I had never heard before were instantly understandable as we melded, merging our souls so that everything became whole. I cried out as they did, voices becoming one, as I saw them, truly saw them, and they me. It was an infinite understanding that brought a cry of release from us both, to be so known and understood, and connected as through a force unknown.

Time and being passed between us. My body felt full, as did my heart, and it poured over into a sensation that filled me everywhere. I gasped and shuddered, as did they, as our bodies became one and I knew, truly, what it was to be loved. Moans and shivers passed between us as we made love with nothing more than trust and openness. There were no secrets, no lies, no mysteries besides endless truth and profound knowing.

We collapsed to the ground, slumping to our knees panting the breath of life that was both marvelous and familiar. Our head lifted, staring with glowing eyes at the man who stared back, utterly human and terrified. 

“Ar… are you?” he stammered.

We sighed and nodded. “It’s fine. I’ve got it contained. I know what needs to happen.”

“I have… I have a spell… for possession…”

We shook her head, impatient. “No. That won’t work. It’s not… like that.” A strange panic curled in our stomach, the fear of being separated from what was now home. 

Our lips pursed together as our foot touched the edge of the barrier, and stuck out of it. It didn’t work against the living, possessed or not. A small smile touched our lips before we turned back to him. 

He was oblivious to our revelation. “Just… sit for a moment,” he murmured and turned the page. We grabbed his book, threw it into the fire where it ignited to life, and caught the sacred text. His eyes widened in sudden understanding as we grabbed his coat, pulling him forward and lifting. 

“You are as despicable as any hunter. Go!” The door flew open at our whim, and he flew out of it as we desired. With a flick of our eyes, the door closed again, locking behind him, leaving him to scramble or try to save those he left behind.

We turned, sighing, and looked at our hands, knowing they were ours and more. A thousand creatures we had touched and loved and embraced. A thousand wounds we had gotten and healed and remembered. Multiple lifetimes lived in those hands as we closed them, feeling the preternatural strength of our grip.

The stairs groaned beneath our weight as we half walked, half glided, knowing that with these hands we could undo it all. Our steps carried us to the back room, a knife flying to the hand with but a thought. Our head turned, glancing behind at the familiar power and yet wonder at its ability.

With a quick and powerful movement, the knife was jammed into the floorboards. Moments passed as wood splintered and went flying, joining a vortex of power around our body. The thing beneath squirmed and howled as it became revealed, ancient magic wrought by modern humans unknowing what they summoned. 

Knife cast aside, we dug our hands into the sigil and ripped. It tore apart, screeching in agony as the magic was rendered and shattered. The house trembled, built on the sacred evil finalized in this hideous room. We shuddered, feeling the opening to a world beyond glow brilliantly in the crack we had made.

Love and trust blossomed within, gratefulness and understanding as two souls began to render, one slipping away into the light whilst the other stayed pinned in an earthly body. Tears slid down our face as it pulled us apart, leaving behind shared memories and knowing. 

I fell to my knees, gasping at the sudden grief that filled my heart and the hollowness of my body I was suddenly aware of. My hands opened and closed, entirely my own, and weaker than they had been. I gave a loud moaning sob, wrapping my arms around myself, exposed and yet more complete than I had ever been. I had not known I had been so empty, only when I had been so full. 

The light extinguished and I sat in the dark, alone.