Chapter 16

Medium: The Origins finds a young man setting out to avenge the death of a beloved family member and to recover forgotten memories, only to find himself with a new case and a unknown assailant on him.

Chapter 16

 

          The house doesn’t have any changes when I left. It’s still the same creepy house as I found it. I reach my hand inside my leather jacket, and here it is. The book with the answers to solve the sole problem with this house. When I first took a look at it, the text says to first enter the cursed environment in order to banish the curse. It was the very first step, and I was already in front of that environment. I waste no time, and walk inside the environment of life or death.

          I settle down in the living room, and I don’t have a lot to work with. As far as I’m concerned I just need the book. I flip through the pages, and skim through every passage until I can find the one I need. As I continue from one page to another, stress rises within me. I flip through a lot of pages only to be left with nothing of use to me. It’s only about time the curse reacts to my presence and strike. There’s got to be something on this page that can help me get rid of the curse. I pause my hand movement at the sound of footsteps coming from upstairs, the sound of kitchen utensils possible flying in the air or shaking within drawers. I could almost hear some doors moving. I got to find it fast or I’m good as dead.

          Ashley stands in front of her home. The lights are not on, as if nobody’s home or the resident is sleeping. Either way, Ashley hope to sneak past her sleeping parents and into her room. She also has to worry about an explanation she needs for her disappearance tonight. As she opens the door, the sight she saw tells her she no longer needs an explanation, as the blood streaming on the floor serves as a sign. There was no way she could erase it out of her head, the image was already burned inside her head. Her parents lie on the floor with no life remaining in them. Ashley can’t help herself. She can’t take her eyes off. All she can do is gaze with horror on the sight in front of her, and tremble to her knees. Ring! She gets a phone call. She grabs her phone, but doesn’t check who it is.

          “Ashley?” Why is he calling me? She wonders. “It’s Marcus.”

          “Why are you calling me at this time?”

          “Back at the house, while we locked you inside the room, there were things we took from the house.”

          “What things, what are you talking about?”

          “I don’t want to get into that, but all I know is that I’m hearing things, things we’ve heard at that house before. I think it was the reason why it showed up at my house.”

“The curse?”

“Yeah, I tried to go back to return it, but I was scared.”

“Can’t you put it away somewhere that’s abandoned?”

“Yes, but like I said, I’m too scared to put it anywhere, but I brought it to your house.”

“You’ve WHAT!?” She has too much to worry about, this was the last needle sting she receives.

“I brought it to your house, it’s a ring I was going to give to Theresa, it’s under your indoor mat.”

“Why would you bring it to my place?”

“I thought if I bring it to you, then you’ll take it back to the house. Can you do this for me Ash, we are friends, aren’t we?”

When it comes to Ashley and friends, she can’t trust anyone, not now. She was still horrified of death at the hands of the curse, but is now pissed off at the words coming from the people who intentionally exposed her to the danger in the first place. “Don’t use that card with me. Ever since I first met you guys, I’ve been nothing but ridiculed, humiliated, and threatened by you. I don’t even feel like a friend to you, and now you’re telling me you’ve risked my life to death?”

“Come on Ashley, you wouldn’t let me die, would you?”

“You’re the one who would let me die. You’re the one who’s safe now. You knew the curse was following you, and you brought the item to my place, knowing fully well it would kill me! You know my parents died because of what you just did!”

“Come on…”

“No more.” She interrupted. “From now on I’m done with you. I’ll return it to save my a*s, after that I won’t ever think back about you guys!

“I just also want to say that I wanted to return it, but there was a man inside, a man dressed in black. I just wanted to say watch out for him if he’s still there.”

She was about to cuss him out again, but realizes who he was talking about. She thinks out of all the people, he was the one who has the intent to keep her safe while other would put her in danger to save themselves. Ashley then resolves to go back to the house not only to save herself, but to return the favor as well. “Don’t call me ever again.” She wasn’t going to let him play with her again, not after tonight. “What is Chester doing there? He told me to protect myself and he’s putting himself in danger.” Though oblivious to the in-depth knowledge of the curse, she nevertheless makes haste towards the house.

A soul may maketh contact, in which the user should achieve the mind, corpse, and spirit. In doing so wilt those gents beest able to maketh communication with the dead, linguistically, physically, and spiritually.

          Reading this makes sense with my recent experience. Even when the ghost has no one to possess I could still shove it aside. I may want to look more into it, but right now I need to stay alive. It doesn’t specify whether this communication can help banish the curse. It turns out that part is on the other page.

          One with a sacred symbol, who can submit to spirit, can cast hence spirits into the afterlife.

          So I have to get in touch with my soul and become one with the symbol in order to banish the curse. The noises begin to get louder. I quickly check below and I have the ancient necklace the old lady gave me. One of the items I need to banish this curse. Alright, I seem to have everything, and all I do know is glaring at the shadows, waiting for veined eyes to show. Leslie, Scott. Show yourselves. Two walls grow a black hole the size of a round oval. From each wall, veined eyes emerge into the room, and as they float out of the hole, it gets smaller. Alright, they’re here. I close my eyes for a few minutes to get in touch with my spirit. At first I can’t help but feel they are getting close to me. Soon, I forget my thoughts and lose myself. I feel a punch right through my stomach, but it doesn’t feel like a normal punch. Once the punch makes contact with me, I was flying in the air with uncontrollable vibrations in my stomach. I feel like my stomach was about to burst. What was that about? Their first attack wakes me up, but it isn’t enough to keep me down for a second. I push myself back up, and find myself towered by both of them. I grab them by their neck and throw them away from me to create some space. Once I let go my hands are shaking inside. It’s like my hands touched a broken circuit. I look in closely, but I realize they disappeared. Where are you now? I run towards the kitchen, and flying cups and utensils make their way towards me. I manage to block them hastily with my palms. Both reappeared again, and this time I aim for the big one, or Scott, with the punch. As I deliver my punch, I notice it goes through. What? I was able to make contact a few minutes ago, how am I...AAHH! What the hell? My punch just went through, but I just made contact with my biceps, my bones. It hurts really badly, and the vibration on that pain lasts really long. It was vibrating everywhere, and I can feel it affecting my veins inside me. It feels as though a bee is inside my body stinging my biceps, veins and bones, and it feels like I can’t throw a punch anymore. This was a new level of pain that I’m not used to. Leslie makes her way forward, so I deliver a high round kick, but it goes through her instead. I turn around, and I feel a hit on my back arm. Oh god! The pain and vibration extends to my triceps directly. If I keep this up I’ll end up disabling myself rendering me defenseless against the curse, and I’ll be done for. It’ll be all for nothing.

          I notice that a light came from the front entrance room. The light is shining from there. I slowly walk, and lean my head in. There are two people who look like they have their eyes on me. As I take a few steps inside, I find them to be Max and Marlene. My own parents. They’re making me go up against my parents, what kind of craziness is this? Well, everyone in my family is dead, and now I could only see illusions. I subdue them and put them down. The illusions disappear.

          “Hey you!” I hear the voice of a child behind me. I turn around, and I find a young Wallace banging on my leg. “You brought this on us, I’ll make you pay, take that, and that, and that.” As much as I know what I must do, it was never in me to harm a child, especially one that resembles my brother. I breathe heavily, and knock him on his head to the ground. I sallow some guilt inside, but in the end it was an illusion. God hope I don’t do this in real life.

I was back in the present. Or was I? There was a sound coming from the living room. As I walk inside the living room, the sound increases, but the source is not visible or in my sight. It’s coming from the door in front of me. I open it a little bit, and the ground looks like it’s made of solid rock. I see two silhouettes. Who do these silhouettes belong to? I see a girl that matches the description of Leslie inside the T.V recording, and a boy that matches the description of Scott strapped in some sort of chair. There was also someone else, but his identity is vague as I can only see the shadow. I am still in an illusion. Wait, one of Skinner’s very last clue was chair.

“Uh…” Scott wakes up from unconsciousness. “Where am I?”

“Hello Scott.” Leslie said.

“Babe, what’s the meaning of this?!”

“Nothing that anyone should be afraid of, I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions.”

He was really terrified. “Couldn’t we sit down on a sofa and talk this out?!”

“Nah, I just feel this is more efficient, now where were you when I told you to meet me yesterday?!” She starts to become aggressive.

“I told you I was busy with stuff!” It doesn’t look good for Scott, and his constant sweating proves that he’s scared.

“What stuff?”

“Shopping, checking out books, stuff like that!”

“And what took you so long?”

“I told you, the line was long.”

Things start to escalate between the two. “LIES! I saw you talking to Janice, what the hell were you two talking about?!”

“How much did you see?!”

“To the part where your lips touched hers.”

“Look, I didn’t do anything to her, she kissed me!”

“Why would a girl suddenly kiss a guy? I don’t believe it!”

“You just said you saw the whole thing!”

“And I also saw you pulling her in! What have you got to say to that?!”

“D****t, why can’t you just listen to me?!”

“I’m done listening to you, I hope you burn in hell!”

          Leslie had some sort of wireless button on her hands. Before her thumb can press against the button, Scott breaks free from one of the restraints. He then firmly grabs Leslie’s hand.

“Fine then, if I’m going down then you’re going down with me.” The electricity zaps from Scott, and it extends to Leslie. Both uncontrollably shake and their skin start to erupt. It was like watching a severe rash spreading throughout the body in a matter of seconds. It looks terrifying and ugly. So this is what torture looks like. I can’t help what I just saw, the whole scenario burned my eyes completely.

A hand reach from behind me to open the door. Oh no. I think, but it doesn’t look like he’s after me. He has some snacks on a tray, but immediately drop the trey all together. Wait a minute, is that my father?

“What! Why! What the hell went on here?” He can’t control his shock.

“Glad you’re here Max. You’ve done your part in helping us get to Scott.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We wanted to make Scott pay for cheating on her.”

“You mean she never broke up with him! I thought she did! She never mentioned doing this to him!” Break up, so a promise of a new relationship was established. This makes my father’s experience with love harder than mines.

“Oh, I guess that’s it, but like I said, you’ve done your part.”

“Oh no, I’m not staying here with you guys, I’m out of here!” Having enough, he runs out the door, and most likely never came back. Their friend turn around and his face shows a younger Roger Skinner. So this is why he want me here, so he could let me see how he mess up in his past. Even with his involvement it doesn’t make a difference, as his life was taken away by his own friends. This is what happens when you associate with the wrong people, you end up with something drastic on your life record. He shoots at me, and I hide behind the walls. He comes out of the garage, giving me an opportunity to strike from behind. After I subdue him, I walk inside the garage to examine the corpse and the electric chair. If there was one thing I don’t get, what is an electric chair doing at a normal home? It doesn’t look like I’ll get an answer, but all I know now is that my dad came back to this house with a family, deconstructed the chair, and constructed a new invention out of those pieces. Either way, it caused my mother’s demise and eventually spread their curse throughout the world.

The atmosphere dims back to the present. I reach my hand inside my jacket. The book! Where is…The living room! I make my way back to the living room, and my book is still on the table. I grab it, flip through some pages, and I eventually find a passage that that follows up being one within the symbol.

Clap thy hands together with a sacred symbol in between, and focus thy mind and soul only on that symbol, and lodging it on the forehead of the spirit.

I grab my necklace, flatten my palms, and put them together to close the necklace inside. I close my eyes and think of nothing and let myself loose. I could feel its presence emerging from the walls, coming closer as I was in another world. I open my eyes and place my necklace on Scott’s forehead. A loud shriek comes out of him as his spirit shrinks into a small visible air and floats into the sky. So this is how you do it, I better find Leslie. Suddenly, something grabs and restrains me from behind. Looks like I didn’t need to find her, she found me. She later spins me around, and I end up in her backyard. So the curse gives her strength, only when she was alive the body limits her, but her soul is free, and so are her capabilities. I take my necklace out and attempt to place it on her forehead, but she grabs my arm and twists it to make sure I lose it. I grab both of her arms and kick her on the ground. She gets back up and lunges in towards. We both exchange blows, but with each blow I direct Leslie switches from one direction to another in an instant. She manages to throw her punches at me and I can’t land one. The more we fight, the more dangerous her powers become. She grabs me, and I can feel the electricity coming onto me from her. She keeps me at bay so I couldn’t gain enough energy to break free from her grab. She throws me around the house. She continues to do so, and the house ends up with cracks and holes. I hit multiple walls which results in multiple broken bones. The last thing I hit is a chair, which restrains me. She caught me in an electric chair. Her illusion emerges from the shadows and holds up a wireless button in her hands.

“I hope you burn in hell!” Before she can press the button, I have enough energy to lift my leg and kick the button off of her hand. The button flies away, and I use this chance to break free from the restraints. My luck doesn’t last long, and Leslie throws me into the sky and I eventually slam onto an unknown floor. I notice my necklace was there. I move my hand in forward, I try to grab my necklace, but I stop moving.

Author's Note

Medium: The Origins finds a young man setting out to avenge the death of a beloved family member and to recover forgotten memories. He shuns himself from having a normal social life for the sake of vengeance. Just when he thought he ran out of leads, he was involved in an incident which leads him to start a new case. This particular investigation changes him greatly while he is being hunted by an unknown assailant whose victims never got to see before they met their doom.

Note: This is my first book and I plan to write more. Criticism, praise, or any feedback of some sorts are welcome.
Read more at http://www.booksie.com/action_and_adventure/novel/mamatters/meduim:-the-origins/chapter/17#x9y94EBLIK0vrY1F.99