It Comes To Take Us Away

The following story was constructed from the notes of Phil Derghan, a young high school boy who documented the tragic last days of his friends' lives. The journal was found in the closet of an abandoned house, right outside of town. Mr. Derghan’s whereabouts are unknown and the criminal case behind this story remains open. If you know any details about this case, please call the Amphipolis Police Department.









THURSDAY



My friends Howard, Victoria, Louis, my cousin Karla and her boyfriend Oscar, got together in the evening to go to the fairgrounds. On the west side of the city, there was a carnival happening that night. We all met up at Karla’s place to carpool our way there. I took the bus and was the last one to arrive. When I went inside, I saw the gang sitting at the table in the dining room. On the table I saw candles, matches, chalk, a journal, a dagger and a black mirror. My eyebrows raised as I asked aloud,
“What on Earth is going on here, Is this what I think it is?” Karla ignored my bewildered expression and grinned at me,
“It’s about time that you showed up! Do you remember when I was dating Joe Leopold? What happened the night he took that job as a night patrolman at the cemetery?” I was confused as to what that had to do with the objects on the table. I shook my head slightly as I said to her, “Not really but go on.”
“Well,” she replied while looking down at her hands massaging each other, “That morning after his shift, we broke up. Everything was fine until that first night he went to work there. He came back around 5 A.M. covered in blood and was completely erratic. He said something about the city being haunted, seeing a demon and being saved by a monstrous dog. He packed his stuff and said we had to leave immediately. It all sounded so crazy, so of course I had a difficult time believing him. I didn’t know what to do but he was unwilling to wait.”
Oscar added, “Babe I don’t think that explains why we’re sitting around the table here with this stuff.” I nodded with his comment as I looked at Karla. I witnessed a flash of realization in her eyes as she continued,
“Oh yes, that brings us to the question, ‘Are there such things as angels, demons, or spirit guides?’ Well I have been researching the occult for several months now and I have found something called ‘The Lesser Keys Of Solomon.’ It’s an old grimoire attributed to King Solomon, from the Old Testament. He was rumored to have summoned and bound 72 demons, to build his temple, as well as grant him whatever he desired.”

I was stunned that my own relative was alluding to conjuring spirits. I protested out of reflex, looking around at my other friends at the table
“Guys, you’re all on board with this? I know things have been really weird for the last five years, but this is crazy! Summoning demons!?” Victoria chimed in. I was hoping that she was feeling conflicted about it, “Chill out Phil, we were all skeptical at first, but Karla’s research is very compelling. she found that if you perform the ritual correctly, you could win favor with the spirits and obtain gifts!” I was at a total loss of words and just shook my head at her in silent disapproval. Howard, who I considered my best friend, got defensive,
“Don’t give us a lecture and try to make us feel bad. King Solomon is in the Bible. If he did it and was fine, then it’s good for us too.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was the only one against this idea. I had to restrain myself from shouting at them, yet I sort of did anyway,
“Guys, anyone can say things like that but the fact remains that there’s nothing logical about this. It’s insane!” Louis looked at me and said,
“I know that it’s ‘out there,’ but the more we thought about it, the more it made sense. We don’t have anything to lose trying it. Besides, aren’t there things that you want that are just plain impossible to get normally?”

I wanted to continue protesting, I really did, but my friends conveyed to me that evening that they really didn’t care about the moral ambiguity of it. They were so fervent about demon summoning, I couldn’t talk them out of it. Something so outrageous, wild, desperate and senseless. I didn’t know what to do, we had been planning to go to the carnival for several weeks and now they suddenly included sorcery. I didn’t want to abandon my friends. I really cared about them. Yet, I didn’t really want to participate. My mistake was giving in to what the group desired. I took a seat with them at the table as they brought me up to speed with what we were about to do.

We descended into the basement, taking the wooden stairs with a shoddy handrail that was also made of wood. As the view from below slowly came into view I noted the walls were made of rock and concrete. Great, more gray and gloominess, I thought. There was a palpable wetness, although not terribly so. It smelled kind of wet too. It occurred to me that I didn’t know if I had ever seen the basement of Karla’s house before. Her, Oscar and Victoria were carrying the materials that we would need to carry out this heinous performance. I attempted another protest, “You know guys, if we die for this it’s going to be really difficult not to say ‘I told you so’ when we’re in Hell.” Louis chuckled,
“Come on dude! You can’t be serious with that stuff. What did God ever do for us anyway?” I retaliated sarcastically, “Oh I don’t know… Warn us from doing stupid stuff like this. Maybe give Himself for us or something like that.” Karla extended her hand out, “Alright you two, I need the dagger and the chalk from you guys so we can begin.” Oscar and Victoria complied, then Karla slowly walked to the middle of the room, kneeled and laid her tools down. She picked up the box holding the chalk and extracted a piece from it. She hunched back down and flipped through her journal until she found the page she was looking for. She began drawing a large circle around her and stood up leaving the circle to draw a much smaller circle with a triangle in it. Then she placed the black mirror on a stand inside of the triangle, set two red candles flanking the mirror and lit them.

She returned to the larger circle and looked around at us in the room, “Okay, now you guys come stand with me here in the circle. It’s going to protect us.” I couldn’t help myself,
“Yes, but how do you actually know that?” She glared at me while furrowing her eyebrows. Maybe she had already been possessed by a demon. We all walked toward Karla and as soon as we were all in, she kneeled back down on the ground and started drawing symbols just outside the circle. One in front of us, one behind us, to the left and to the right. Next, she wrote words in another language, between each symbol and finished with drawing pentacles above them. She stood up, looked over her shoulder at us and smiled, saying,
“Now we all hold hands while looking at the mirror.” We stood side by side and linked hands. Karla closed her eyes for a moment. I hoped that she was praying and that this was an elaborate scheme to reach out to God. She didn’t hold that pose for long. She opened her eyes and looked at the mirror, making gestures with the dagger:

“As Solomon did, so do I. Spirits from the void, heed my call and send a powerful representative to make a pact, desire for desire. I call you forth Areyga, to manifest your presence for our will. Let it be a deal and let it be done!” Karla lowered the dagger and waited. It was quiet for a minute or two. We looked at each other and I wondered if we did something wrong. I hoped that was the case or that Karla was just pulling one over on us. The fog that had been in the city constantly for the last five years, seemed to flow into the basement and create a haze. The flame from the candles dimmed, nearly going out. I could sense something strange that set me on edge. It was the most uncomfortable chill running up and down my spine. No, something more than that, like an icy electrical shock. Howards’s voice and body was quivering as he spoke, “Guys… The mirror.” Our attention came back to the mirror and on the dark glass a grim face was appearing in a slow fade. Victoria gasped, “It’s real!” The face looking back at us, looked like a combination between a zombie and an alien. Decaying skin on a peanut shaped skull. He had giant black eyes with a red ring as his iris, encircling black pupils. Areyga was slowly looking at each of us, from one to the next. He was sizing us up. Then he turned to me directly, I felt a chill again at that moment. His voice was gravelly,
“What are you doing here when you have no desire for what I can do? I don’t take kindly to dabblers of this art.” I found the courage to answer, “I’m just as unhappy as you are about this. I’m here for them, my friends. I mean no disrespect and I have no business with --” Louis stepped forward, interrupting me. That’s when I noticed no one was holding hands any longer.
“Forgive him great Areyga, I am very much interested in this art and seek to receive divine knowledge and power.” Karla spoke up,
“Hey wait a minute Louis, I summoned him I should be the one speaking.” He quickly looked back and snapped,
“You’ll get your chance!” We were all taken aback by it. Then Louis returned to Areyga, “Can you do this for me?” The demon replied,
“What do you have to offer me?” Louis stammered and fumbled a response,
“Uh.. Uhm.. Well, what would you like?” a short silence, followed by the slow grin forming on the mouth of Areyga. He quietly laughed to himself as he said,
“How about you spill the blood of your friends here. Take that dagger and carve them up nice and slow. Pull out their innards if you’d like. Do that and I will grant you what you want. Deal?” We were silent and I was horrified. Our attention was turned to Louis who was magically holding the dagger in his hand. Karla, clearly freaked out, shouted “What!? I was just holding that, how did you get it?” Louis was shaking and looking at the dagger with wide eyes, in his trembling hands. He slowly raised his eyes up to us from the dagger and then the clanging sound of the knife hitting the concrete filled the room. He muttered,
“There has to be another way.” Areyga must’ve heard him too because he came back at him with,
“Perhaps, but you should have thought of this more decisively. This is a waste of time.” The flames from the candles grew for a second and then went out completely. The spirit and the fog left through the basement window and that was it.

An hour later we were finally at the carnival. We hadn’t really spoken much since the encounter. No one wanted to talk about it and yet I couldn’t stop thinking about it. We played a game where you shoot water guns at a target to push our avatars on a board to the finish line. Oscar beat us all and won a decent looking necklace for a carnival and gave it to Karla. She smiled and gave him a kiss; I could tell she was still a little bothered about the ritual. Everyone seemed like they were. I wanted to cheer my friends up a little so I asked them,
“I’m gonna go grab a pretzel from the snack bar, does anyone else want one?” They all nodded and gave a little “Yeah” answer. Howard must have remembered that I was his best friend because he offered an,
“I’ll go with you dude.” I held my hand up to signal a halt,
“It’s fine, you guys all relax at the picnic tables and I will bring them back to you.” Karla seemed a little chipper and distracted from the ritual and shouted to me as I walked towards the food stand,
“Don’t forget to bring cheese dip!” I gave a thumbs up as I continued ahead.

The snack bar was located on the outskirts of the carnival and had one little lamp post lighting it up and the immediate area around it. Darkness surrounded the little circle of light and refreshments. Luckily there wasn’t a line, so I went up to the window and ordered 6 pretzels, with cups of cheese on the side. As I was waiting, I could hear the faint sound of footsteps behind me. I halfway turned, just to see who it was, but they stopped right outside of the edge of light. I could only see the silhouette of a man wearing a top hat and a dark trench coat. He was smoking a cigarette and I could see the shape of a dog sitting right next to him. What a well-trained dog, I thought. The dogs that I had would wander about on their own.

“Hey you, boy. Lookin’ to make a little money?” I was the only one around so I said,
“Uh, maybe. Depends on the type of work.” He laughed a little and nodded,
“Smart boy, would make a great fit. I’m Sam Hilson, I own and manage the cemet’ries in this city. I need someone for night patrol at location number 4. You might know it as Deep Fog Cemet’ry. I’ll pay ya well for your time and in case you’re easily spooked, I’ll leave my dog Lucy with ya to make sure you are nice and safe.” I couldn’t tell if he was drunk or had an accent from the way he slurred his words. This couldn’t be a coincidence though. It sounded like Joe’s old job. This mysterious Sam character spoke in such a different way than what I was used to. I don’t think anyone else spoke like he did. It had an older feel to it. This was my chance to find out what happened to Joe and maybe that would make Karla feel better if she had some closure. I was going to make a deal with Sam to help my cousin.
“Okay,” I said to the man in the shadows. “I will work for you tomorrow on one condition: you must tell me what happened to Joe Leopold. He was dating my cousin at the time that he accepted the same job. After his first night, he came back home disheveled and covered in blood. He was talking crazy about ghoulish monsters and that he needed to leave town if he wanted to stay alive.” Sam was silent for a moment. He gave a quiet sigh and flicked his cigarette butt before telling me,
“Yeah, I ‘member ‘em. I hired him person’ly for the job and let Lucy here protect ‘em that night, like I just offered to ya. That was an unusually strange night and what happened to ‘em shouldn’t have gone down like that. Howev’r, I was also the one that warned ‘em about this town being cursed and how he should leave if he wants to live. I reck’n that I truly hope he took my advice.” I scoffed,
“You’re not clarifying the issue as much as I was hoping and Joe did leave early that morning and no one has seen or heard from him since.” Sam was becoming impatient,
“I know you want answers boy. Quite frankly I don’t have the time to get into it right now. Do ya want the job or not?” I needed the money, so I reluctantly nodded my head. He laughed, “I can’t hear your head rattle but I’ll take that as a yes. Be at the cemet’ry at 9pm t’morrow.” Like that he retreated further into the night and disappeared. The attendant for the snack bar came back and gave me the snacks and I went back to the others.

As I walked up, I noticed that an older couple was talking to my friends. I quietly sat down and laid out the snacks on the table for everyone without interrupting their conversation. Louis was the only person not present with the group. Whatever they were talking about ended and Victoria turned to me saying,
“Phil these two are Ed and Lorraine Warren. They’re paranormal investigators, how cool is that!” Things were feeling stranger and stranger ever since meeting with everyone at Karla’s house. I gave a nervous laugh as I joked,
“Maybe they’re here to bust you guys for playing with fire.” The Warrens exchanged silent glances to each other while Howard and Victoria laughed. Lorraine looked at me quizzically,
“Phil, is it? What exactly do you mean by that?” I threw my hands up, “My friends and I are stupid to put it simply. We thought it would be a great idea to try and summon demons because, ‘Reasons.’ I knew it was a bad idea and the evening has been getting weirder ever since.” Once again, the Warrens looked at each other as Lorraine mouthed to Ed,
“It’s them.” I’m not sure if I was the only one to catch that but I was bothered by it enough to inquire further,
“Mr. and Mrs. Warren, were you looking for us?” She laughed nervously,
“Well in a way, yes. You see, the whole reason Ed and I are in this line of work... We’re good at what we do. The only reason we do well is because I see visions.”

Karla fell backwards off the bench and went into a violent seizure. Lorraine groaned and held her hand to her temple, as if a massive migraine just hit her. Ed tended to her for a moment until Lorraine yelled at him, “Don’t worry about me Ed, help the girl!” I didn’t know what to do and I felt useless in the situation. Ed quickly jumped over to where Karla was, then he looked around at us as he gave commands,
“I need your guys’ help, we can carry her to our van and bring her to the hospital.” We circled around Karla who was convulsing non-stop on the ground, with her eyes rolled back and foaming from the mouth. We all kneeled down, then slowly and carefully picked her up and walked her over to the parking lot. Naturally, the bystanders were curious at what was happening so they were all watching and sort of followed us. Out of nowhere, Louis ran up with his right hand all bandaged up. He was out of breath as he asked,
“What happened to Karla?” We made it to the Warrens’ van then as Lorraine responded,
“She’s having a seizure but I suspect there’s something more than that happening.” She looked down at his hand, “What happened to you?” He was obviously uncomfortable about the question and was fidgety before finally saying,
“I was going to the bathroom and this crazy guy tried to rob me with a knife. He got my hand while I was trying to defend myself.” It looked bad so I told him,
“Well since we have to take Karla to the hospital you should go get it looked at there too.” Louis shook his head in refusal,
“No, it’s not as bad as it looks, I’ll be fine. I’m going to go home now, I will catch up with you guys tomorrow.” He ran off and we left for the hospital.
At some point during the ride Karla had calmed down but was unconscious, Ed turned his head towards Lorraine while keeping his eyes on the road,
“Did you see anything honey?” She leaned over to whisper and I could barely hear her say,
“It’s a big one Ed. It wants these kids.” Oscar had tears rolling down his face and sobbed quietly,
“Will she be okay?” The Warrens answered in unison,
“We don’t know.”









FRIDAY



When I woke up, it was noon. I was up late worrying about Karla after we had taken her to the hospital. The Warrens were nice enough to drive each of us home after. I explained to my parents what happened as soon as I got back. I even mentioned having a job offer but I left out how I met Mr. Hilson or really the details of the job other than it was night patrol. They were happy for me and even let me take the day off from school. They were at work already, so I sluggishly rose from my bed and went out into the kitchen. I grabbed a bag of cat food to feed my cat Buddy, when I heard the faint sound of something staticky. It was coming from the TV. I walked to the living room and sure enough it was on and making a horrible racket, while all the dots were dancing around the screen. My uncle would call it “Watching the maggots race.” I grabbed the remote from the couch and powered it off. Buddy walked up to me and brushed up against my leg and looked up at me. I opened the front door for him and he ran out. I closed the door and walked back to the kitchen and started making myself a bowl of cereal. It wasn’t the kind I like with all the sugar and marshmallows in them, just regular corn flakes. It was fine with me, I would just sprinkle a couple spoonfuls of sugar on it and call it a day.

Click. The static sound was back. I paused for a moment to listen and see if anyone else was in the house. The white noise was lashing out at the open air again. I began walking towards the living room once more. As I approached, the static switched over and it was on one of the news channels. I walked through the doorway and Karla was sitting on the couch watching the screen. I jumped when I first saw her,
“Geez! You scared me half to death. I didn’t think they would release you from the hospital already.” No response, she continued to stare at the screen. I noticed that the remote was still where I set it down on the table and wasn’t even close to her. My phone began to ring. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and glanced at the number before answering, it wasn’t anyone I knew, but it was a number from around the area. I turned as I answered, “Hello, this is Phil.” I hear a woman’s voice reply,
“Phil, it’s Lorraine. Where are you, did you go to school today?” She sounded frantic, like something was going on. I simply said,
“No, I stayed home. I was worried after last night so my parents let me skip today. Is something wrong?” She paused for a moment before answering, “Karla escaped. We got a call from the hospital letting us know that she was missing. I hope you’re not mad but I put my number down as the contact.” I chuckled,
“That’s weird because Karla’s here right now, she just showed up and started watching TV. Here you can talk to her if you want.” I turned to give the phone to Karla but she was no longer sitting on the couch. “Where did she go?” I said aloud. I barely heard Lorraine’s voice coming from the phone speaker,
“Hello, hello?” I put the phone back up to my ear while I felt footsteps coming towards the living room that were rumbling more and more,
“Uh, can I call you guys back? I have to check--” Karla came charging into the room at me, full sprint, holding a large kitchen knife and screaming. I dropped the phone and reflexively put my hands out to stop her as she tried to thrust the knife at me. Her running momentum knocked me on my back and she was on top of me, trying really hard to push the knife into me. Karla managed to cut me on the cheek as I tumbled. She was incredibly and unusually strong. Screaming and growling incoherently, as she tried to kill me. My own cousin was trying to take my life. Odd things had been happening that led up to this point. This wasn’t the Karla I knew and I remembered the events of the previous day. It finally hit me at that moment, that we messed up big time, by conjuring a demon. I really didn’t want to admit it then, but it was apparent that Karla had become possessed by the evil spirit. I couldn’t hold her off for much longer, I had to try and reason with her.
“Karla, I know you’re still in there. I know you can hear me! You don’t have to do this! You don’t have to give in to what this thing wants!” Finally she spoke. It was that gravelly voice again, “You are a foolish mortal that only deserves death.” My arms were about to give out from the strain. I took one of my hands and grabbed Karla by the hair,
“If that’s true, what does that make you?” I yanked back with what strength I had left and rolled her over. I quickly grabbed a pillow from the couch and smothered her hand holding the knife.

The front door slammed wide open. Ed kicked the door in and the Warrens rushed over to where we were and helped me hold Karla down. Ed looked at me and asked,
“Do you have anything to tie her hands and feet?” I took a couple gulps of air to help me recover,
“You know, the door wasn’t locked in the first place.” Ed grimaced,
“I didn’t really have time to check it and peek through the windows to see if you were okay.” I nodded in agreement,
“Yeah I think my dad keeps some rope in the garage.” I went out of the living room and down the hall, to the end and opened the door into the garage. My dad had a bundle of rope wrapped around a hook right above his tool chest. I grabbed it and ran back to the living room. Lorraine had grabbed one of the chairs from the dining room and Ed had moved Karla from the floor to the chair. I handed the bundle over to Ed and he tied her hands and feet to the arm rests and the legs. Karla continued to writhe and scream. It was a horrible mash of her voice with Areyga’s. Ed grabbed a vial out of his jacket pocket and a small book. He flipped through several pages and began speaking in what I assumed was Latin. Ed splashed holy water on Karla and smoke would form as the water hit her, as if she was burning from it. This went on for three hours until Karla finally relaxed and lost consciousness. The three of us took a seat. “Thank you,” I said to them appreciatively, “What should we do now?”
Ed was pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed, drenched in sweat. I understood, the whole situation was stressful and these two had to deal with it all the time. I’m sure it takes it’s toll after a while. He responded,
“We should take her back to the hospital, the staff will make sure she doesn’t escape again.”

We left the hospital after ensuring that they would be more vigilant. I got back into the Warrens van when I received a text from Howard, informing me that Victoria was having a party since her parents were out of town. Lorraine turned to look back at me and asked,
“Are we taking you home?” I looked up from my phone,
“No, take me to Victoria’s house please.”
The Warrens dropped me off at Victoria’s house and I thanked them. Lorraine was looking at me through the passenger side window,
“Take care of yourself and your friends. Ed and I will be gone for a while, we have other cases to tend to.” I answered,
“I understand. Hopefully it won’t be too long.” They both gave me a warm smile and Ed said,
“See ya soon.” I waved as they drove off, then I made my way into the house.

The gang were in the living room watching TV. Howard greeted me,
“Hey dude! It’s six o'clock and the party doesn’t start until 8.” I let him down gently,
“Yeah, I just thought I’d stop over a little early and say hi, maybe check on you guys. I won’t be here for the party, I got a job to do tonight for this guy Mr. Hilson.” I looked around at everyone and saw that someone was missing. “Where’s Oscar?” I inquired. Victoria answered,
“He’s been depressed since last night and worried about Karla. I told Howard he should just go over to Oscar’s house and pick him up anyways.” Then Louis,
“No need to, I imagine Phil here is going to need a ride to work; so I can take him there and then get Oscar after.” That was a reasonable plan.
We watched several YouTube videos before Louis and I headed out. We got into the car and buckled up, Louis turned to me, “Do you need to stop anywhere first, or are you ready?” I nodded,
“I’m ready.” Things were bothering me about his story at the carnival. “I was wondering Louis, what’s the deal with the ritual and the dagger? Is it somehow related to how you got cut?” He fidgeted slightly,
“I don’t know man… It’s like the thing teleported into my hand. It seriously freaked me out though. I see what you mean, it looks like it could be related to what happened at the carnival. I believe it was just a coincidence. The guy was probably hurting for money and thought he could make a quick buck off of me.” I gave a sigh of relief and then added,
“I see your hand is looking a bit better today” and He chuckled. I was glad that his situation wasn’t related to Areyga. Just thinking of it’s name made me shiver. I got my phone out and sent a text to Oscar, “Hey man, I know things are a little crazy and you’re worried about Karla. She’s in good hands at the hospital, but I think you should hang out with everyone at Victoria’s party tonight. It will be a good distraction from the last 24 hours.” Shortly after, we arrived at Deep Fog Cemetery and it was dark now which gave it a very haunting feel and aesthetic to it. The symbol on the gate looked like Mr. Hilson, a man with a trench coat and top hat. I got out of the car and thanked Louis for the ride. I walked towards the building and felt my phone vibrate. I pulled it out and saw a message from Oscar,
“You’re right, thank you for being a good friend and encouraging me to go. You’re a great cousin to Karla as well. She often tells me that.” I smiled and put my phone back in my pocket.

Before I reached the building I passed a large statue of someone with four arms thrown about, as if they were dancing. The plaque said Shiva The Destroyer. Sort of poor taste for a cemetery if you ask me, but I continued onward. I made my way to the doors of the building, which were locked, and suddenly I heard barking to my right. I saw a greyhound tied to a doghouse about forty feet away.
“Ahh, you must be Lucy. I can actually see you now.” She calmed down once she heard me say her name. I unhooked her from the leash, so she could run around, but she only wandered to sniff and stayed fairly close to me. Such a good dog. I realized that there was a note taped onto the door. Instructions to give Lucy her dinner, patrol the grounds and report any emergencies to both the police and to Mr. Hilson. What’s weird is that he spelled his own name wrong, or I must have misheard him the other night. He signed it as “Mr. Helsing.”

I checked the time on my phone, which said 2:30 in the morning, when I was walking the grounds for my patrol. Lucy kept to my side as I wandered the perimeter. Thickening fog veiled the scenes in the distance. The moonlight attempted to show the way. It had a certain sereneness to it. The only noise was the chirping of the insects and the occasional hoot from an owl.
Snap. A stick broke not too far away. I stopped in my tracks. It sounded like it was a little to my left. I didn’t see anything at first, but there were trees on the property as well so it could’ve happened behind one of them. There were three in that direction that were lined up diagonally. The middle one was massively wider than the two on either side of it. I creeped over slowly and Lucy did the same. Behind the tree was a small storage shed that held some tools for the groundskeepers. There was someone there. They slowly took a step or two and then looked around. In their hands were a shovel and an axe. My heart began to race and Lucy began to hum into a low growl. “Lucy, calm down girl,” I whispered to her but she didn’t want to back down. She began barking loud and aggressively. The mysterious stranger jolted from being so startled and booked it towards the fence. Lucy’s instincts kicked in and she was in hot pursuit. Barking her head off, she let the person know how far behind them she was. I couldn’t let anything happen to Lucy so I forced myself to run after her. I heard the man yell out of pain. Lucy must’ve gotten to him. When I finally caught up to Lucy she was at the fence growling and looking through the bars. I turned my phone’s flashlight on and saw many eyes and extra teeth that were formed around her mouth that slowly disappeared and turned Lucy back into looking like a normal dog again. I almost screamed. This was not a normal dog. She shook her head a couple of times and sat down quietly.

Was it a graverobber? I thought about it a little longer to distract myself from Lucy and sat down with my back against the gate. I thought about calling the police and my boss but I felt there was a slim chance they would take me seriously. Everything I thought I knew about life was proving to be misguided and quite frankly, it was exhausting. I convinced myself that I was just hallucinating and I let my eyes close to rest them for a minute, only to fall into a deep sleep.









TODAY



It was morning when I was woken up by someone,
“Hey, are you okay? Are you Phil?” I grumbled as I stumbled to my feet,
“Yeah, I’m Phil. I guess I dozed off last night, sorry about that. I’ve been having the weirdest couple of days, so I needed a rest from it.” the guy laughed,
“Well I’m glad you’re okay. I’m a groundskeeper here, you can call me Bob. Mr. Helsing stopped by not long ago to get Lucy and he left an envelope with your name on it. I didn’t see anyone around except for you sleeping over here” Oh yeah, Lucy. The not-so-dog kind of dog. I mumbled, “That ‘dog’ has eyes and teeth in places it shouldn’t.” The man snickered,
“Yeah you weren’t supposed to see that. Mr. Helsing and Lucy are very abnormal. Believe it or not, they’ve been alive for hundreds of years.” I wonder what kind of face I was making when he said that to me.
“Right,” was the only thing I managed in response. He extended the letter out to me and I graciously took it from him. I opened it slightly and saw a few hundred dollar bills inside. “Thank you. Now if you don’t mind, I should get going.”

I caught a bus and after an hour or so passed, I was walking back up the stairs to Victoria’s house. I walked in and noticed the place was kind of trashed. Crushed red plastic cups everywhere. Beer cans on all surfaces and empty liquor bottles. Only Howard, Victoria and Louis were left. Louis being the only one awake had begun cleaning already.
“Hey good morning Louis. How was the party?” I told him when we saw each other. He chuckled,
“You’re looking at the aftermath of it. How was your first night?” I sighed, “It was alright and then it got weird. Remember what Karla said about Joe? A monster dog saved him from a ghoulish creature. I think I met the same dog.” Joe let out a good laugh that rang throughout the house. Howard and Victoria began to stir awake. Louis realized he was too loud and quickly stopped himself. Then he said,
“Don’t tell me you’re going crazy too.” I shrugged and said,
“I might be, but it has everything to do with trying to summon a demon two days ago. As far as I know, Joe didn’t try anything like that. So if he went crazy then I’m doomed.” Howard lifted his head from his pillow, “Mm… Wait, what are you guys talking about?” Louis and I answered at the same time,
“Nothing.”

Howard and Victoria eventually woke up and helped Louis and I with picking up garbage, cans and bottles. After, Victoria cooked us all breakfast as thanks for cleaning her house. We were all in the kitchen rinsing off our plates, when it occurred to me,
“Oh yeah, did Oscar have a good time with you guys last night?” Howard and Victoria looked a little confused. Victoria replied,
“He didn’t want to come over.” I was confused,
“That can’t be, I was texting him as I got dropped off, he said he would go to the party. I don’t know why he would lie to me about something like that.” Howard chimed in,
“Well we’re going off of what Louis told us.” Then Louis jumped in,
“I went over there and he refused to come hang out. I tried to persuade him but he just didn’t want to.” Something was off to me. I felt that something was wrong and I might be missing the whole picture. Would Oscar really lie to me about that? I couldn’t make sense of it. Louis scratched his ankle where his socks were and I noticed there was blood and a bite mark on his leg. It had weird teeth marks and way more than usual. It hit me all at once and I felt a strong pulse of vertigo.
I felt a rage burn within me and started to see everything through a red filter. I rushed Louis and punched him so hard that it knocked him on his ass. Before he could react or try to weasel his way out, I lifted his pant leg and revealed the whole bite mark. I yelled at him with everything I could muster “You were there at the cemetery last night, weren’t you!? What are you up to Louis? You’ve been acting shady ever since Thursday!” Howard and Victoria were silent. Louis barely reacted, he slowly got up, brushed himself off and left. I couldn’t believe it, just no response. Nothing.

I told Howard and Victoria about the night before with Lucy biting Louis in the leg. I also told them that Areyga had possessed Karla earlier in the day. That the Warrens had to come save me from getting killed.
“Why didn’t you tell us before you went to work yesterday?” Victoria asked me.
“I didn’t want to make you guys depressed before your party. I’m sorry.” Then I told them, “I think Louis knows more about what’s going on than we do. We should go after him.” They looked at each other and reluctantly agreed to go.

We took a bus to Louis’ house but his car wasn’t there and nobody answered the door. He only lived there with Jack, his father. Jack was always away though, either at the casino or strip club. We decided to go to the fairgrounds, where the carnival was a couple nights ago, that’s when Victoria asked me,
“Why are we back here? Do you think this is where he went?” I shook my head,
“Not necessarily, I’m just looking to see if there are any clues to help us out.” Unfortunately we didn’t find anything or see Louis around. I eventually gave up and turned my attention to the breeze and the hillside, outside of the campgrounds. It was a forest covered hill and the longer I looked at it, the more I saw one object stand out from the rest of the scenery. It looked like a building hiding amongst the trees. I pointed at it, “Howie, Vick, that looks like a house or something up there. You want to go check it out?” Howard answered,
“I don’t know why he would be hiding in such a creepy place.” I retorted,
“Because he’s turning out to be a creepy guy with something to hide.”

It took us 30 minutes to hike up the hill to reach the building. It was an abandoned house. Sitting by it’s lonesome for who-knows-how-long. “Who wants to go first?” I asked them. Victoria replied,
“I think I should be in the middle, so you two decide who’s first and who’s last.” Howard sighed,
“I’ll go first then.” We formed our little line and Howard led us up the old creaky stairs and to the door. He pressed his head to the door to listen. He looked at us, “Someone’s in there, they are banging or slamming something. Hold on a second, I’m gonna grab a big stick before we go in.” Howard quickly ran over to the grass and scanned for a while until he found a stick he was satisfied with. He went back up to the door and tested to see if it was locked. It wasn’t. He slowly opened the door and instantly we were hit with a disgusting smell. We gagged, coughed and were about to throw up. It was a foul, deathly smell, that just turned the stomach. We were met with an equally atrocious sight to pair with the smell. We were watching Louis chop up an arm that was already severed from a body suspended by hooks. The head was still attached with no limbs and we recognized that it was Oscar. Victoria shrieked at the top of her lungs and Louis turned around to see that we were there. The front door slammed shut behind us. He barely resembled himself anymore.

“You bastard,” I said to him in a low growl. “How could you do this to someone, especially a friend!” Louis let out a creepy laugh,
“I had to Phil… I had to do it for Areyga. He can give me so much power. He can give me all the secrets of the universe. I had to prove myself to him, yes, that’s what it was. What he can do for me is remarkable. None of you could ever give me what he can. I broke into Karla’s home and stole her mirror to use magic and make her love me. Oscar was never a friend, he was just in the way. When the possession didn’t work, Areyga said he could give me anything I wanted if I killed you guys.” I shook my head and grimaced,
“Even if that thing wasn’t lying to you, how could you ever justify doing something so disgustingly evil?” Louis started to get angry,
“I need this to get ahead, or I will always be a nobody! That fate isn’t for me! I’ve always felt different and special. Well this will prove it. Areyga is going to make me strong and gifted!”

Louis began shaking. No, he was convulsing. He dropped to his knees and began uttering incoherent ramblings and his voice became deeper and deeper. His whole body swelled and grew. Louis cried in agony, “He lied to me!” He was getting bigger and bigger until finally all of his skin burst open and the giant demon arose out of Louis’ flesh as blood flew everywhere. Areyga was even scarier now that he was in the same realm as us. He must’ve been at least twelve feet tall. He had large swordlike fingers and made his way over to us as he stretched them. Howard grabbed Victoria’s hand and ran up the stairs to the next floor. Areyga was fast for a giant and he was right on their tail.
They were soon out of sight and I could hear Areyga shredding the walls, doors and frames as he chased them. Victoria screamed like she was being tortured. The dark side of my imagination produced horrific scenarios that could be happening. I turned and checked the front door but it wouldn’t budge. Each window was boarded up from the inside with dozens of boards. I checked another door nearby and it turned out to be a mostly empty closet. I ran inside, shut the door and cowered to the floor, being as silent as I could. I couldn’t hear anything anymore and it seemed all went quiet. I was too scared to leave and I still am. I found a notebook next to me and I’ve spent the last twelve hours or so writing this, in the event that I die too. Maybe they can learn about what happened here and find a way to defeat that beast. My phone died an hour ago, I couldn’t get a call to go through, even though it said I had reception here. Maybe enough time has passed and it’s safe for me to go out. I’m just afraid of what will happen if I am wrong. Maybe it would be better just to die slowly here in the closet.
Wait. I hear something. I feel the heavy steps again, Areyga is still here!
He’s on the other side of the door…
I’m a dead man.