Tamora Lee

Could this small town urban legend be true? It's impossible for someone to come back from the dead! Or atleast that's what Reality Kaye thought, before she saw Tamora Lee.

Tamora Lee

Tamora Lee

Sweet as can be

So unfortunate that living

Was not part of her destiny

She awoke that dreadful night

To a horribly gory sight

Her dad lay dead

His killer standing

Right above her bed

Her eyes fill with fear

Her blood he promises to smear

Her neck sliced in two

No one will have a clue

Tamora Lee

Sweet as can be

So unfortunate that living

Was not part of her destiny

Her house haunted on this dreadful night

You won’t make it to see the daylight

If you come near

Your blood she promises to smear

To show thee thy dreadful fear

That hides inside

From the night that she died

And they wonder, wonder why

This little girl deserved to die

Tamora Lee

Sweet as can be.

     Driving in my car and letting my mind drift to that day, it’s sad to see how I disregarded that poem so easily. I could have taken it as a warning… Maybe things would be different. No, there’s no “maybe” about it. I know for a fact things would be different.

     We were just coming back from messing around and making fires in the woods. The book of matches was still in the pocket of my jeans. Dante, Jason, and I were walking along the sidewalk in town. As we passed Mr. John’s store, we heard his raspy voice tell that poem, and the story of little Tamora Lee.

     Tamora Lee was a young girl, only about fourteen, that had lived back in the late 1800’s. She was said to have been the sweetest and most beautiful girl in our small town. One night, someone broke into their house. This man was there to molest and kill the young Tamora Lee. As he was getting into Tamora Lee’s house through a window, he happened to shatter the glass. Her father awoke and ran to Tamora Lee’s room to attempt to save his sweet little girl. As he ran into the room ready to fight for his daughter’s life, the murderer stabbed Tamora Lee’s father in his chest, over his heart. Poor Tamora Lee had awoke, only in time to see her father get stabbed. She had to watch as he died. The man had taken his now bloody knife out of her father and walked towards her; she was his next victim. Tamora Lee had begged and begged for the man to spare her and not hurt her or take her life. The killer only laughed at her pleas. This man had tortured young Tamora Lee, and did things to her that no girl should ever have to experience. She screamed and screamed til she couldn’t scream anymore. She was hoping by some miracle that someone would hear her. Unfortunately, that never happened. When she was beaten and bruised to no end, he killed her. He made sure that she died, slicing her neck and wrists wide open. He left her there alone to die.

Later that week, people started to worry; they had not seen Tamora Lee or her father in days. When some of the people from their town went in the house to look for Tamora Lee and her father, they only found their bloody remains.

     That was the tragedy of Tamora Lee. Of course, there’s another part to this little myth. It was said that this killer was feeling remorse for what he had done. So, he returned to their house to try to make amends. He decided to go on the one year anniversary of the night he had killed Tamora Lee and her father. This man went in their house alive, but was found dead. There were other stories of people entering that house on the anniversary of Tamora Lee and her father’s deaths, but all of these people were found dead. Everyone in our town believed that Tamora Lee was the cause of those peoples’ death, being as how they were killed the same was Tamora Lee and her father were - They were usually found with a stab wound over their hearts, with their neck and wrists cut. Then again, I shouldn’t say everyone believed it. Dante, Jason, and I sure didn’t. I mean, how could a dead person possibly kill someone else? It’s simply impossible! Whenever we brought this up, people looked at us as if we were dumb or slow then explained how Tamora Lee was supposedly “undead.” As many times as we heard it, we still never believed it. That day, after listening to Mr. John, we decided that we would prove it to the town.

     That night, we left and headed over to Tamora Lee’s house. The whole way there I had Dante picking on me saying stupid things like “Aw, why so quiet Reality Kaye? Scared of our little undead monster?” It was rather annoying, but I couldn’t help but laugh at him. Every now and then I’d say something like “Oh don’t worry Dante! You can hold my hand if you too get scared!” The blush he got was priceless, and trust me, it made him shut up rather quick.

     When we parked in the driveway to Tamora Lee’s house, we got out and headed up the steps to the large doors. I noticed Jason had grown more quiet than his usual self, and that Dante shook even though he tried to cover it up with his joking. I laughed to myself and started pushing on the doors. To my surprise, they opened with ease. The room ahead was depressing. It was dark, dusty, and everything about this place and an odd feeling to it. I heard a creaking noise upstairs, but kept telling myself that it was nothing. I’m just being paranoid.

     Dante took off running ahead of us and I looked at him a bit confused. Wasn’t he just shaking? Now, he seemed hyper as can be. He started running up the staircase and I hollered at him.

     “Dante, where the heck are you going?”

     “Chill out my short, Asian friend! I‘m tryin‘ to find a bathroom! I’ll be right back.” He looked back at Jason and I and gave us a sly smile, “Don’t miss me too much,” he added while laughing.

     I rolled my eyes and watched him run up the staircase. When he was out of sight Jason turned me around to face him. I could see the worry in his eyes.

     “What’s wrong, Jason?”

     “Reality Kaye,” his voice was barely above a whisper, “this place… Something’s not right here. I’m not being paranoid this time. I feel it.”

     I didn’t know how to respond to that. At the moment, I didn’t even know whether to be scared or think this whole thing was a waste of my time. I knew what he was talking about, though. This place gave me a bad feeling. It terrified me. It was quiet between us for the longest time, until I noticed my best friend never returned.

     “Jason, shouldn’t Dante be back by now?” My voice quivered when I spoke.

     “He should have been.” Jason started walking up the stairs and I followed after him.

     When we got to the top we split up and went down different hallways to find the bathroom. At the end of the hallway I was down, I noticed a dim light coming out from the last door on the hall. Perplexed by this, I walked to the door and slowly pushed it open. There was a small flashlight sitting on a sink.

     “This is weird,” I mumbled to myself. I picked it up and finally realized I was in the bathroom.

     “Hm…lucky me, but no-” I lost my voice. The floor by the bathroom was covered in blood. A cold chill went up my spine and this bad feeling was back in the pit of my stomach. How did I not notice this before? The curtains to the bathtub were drawn. Blood covered the blue fabric of the curtains and with shaky hands, I pulled them back.

     My scream pierced through the deafening silence. There was Dante in the tub. His mouth and eyes were wide open as if he had been surprised. Everywhere around him was covered in blood and the tub was filled with the scarlet liquid. His neck and wrists were cut open and right over his heart was a stab wound. ‘No! This can’t be happening!’ I thought.

     I fell to down to my knees beside the bath tub. My tears were spilling over my eyes and running down my cheeks. Jason ran in with a rather large knife. He saw Dante in the tub and froze. His eyes widened. Quickly, he started pulling me up and dragging me with him.

     “Jason,” I sobbed. “we can’t just leave him here!”

     “We have to Reality. We’re next, we need to get out now!”

     We ran down the stairs and started pulling on the door.

     “Hurry up!” I screamed.

     “I’m trying, Reality! The door is stuck! It won’t budge!” I started to panic.

     “Jason, let’s try to go see if there’s a back door!” I took off running before I heard him reply, but I heard his footsteps behind me. We ran through a large hallway and into a room that seemed to be a kitchen. I heard her voice behind me.

     “Wanting to leave, are we? Ha! Silly children.” Her voice was dry and scratchy, it reminded me of nails on a chalk board. I turned to look at her. Tamora Lee in the rotting flesh, standing right in front of me. What skin she had was a gray color, her eyes were dull and black, and her hair was just a tangled white mess. She was simply disgusting.

     I started hyperventilating. I never thought this would happen. She wasn’t supposed to be real! This isn’t what was supposed to happen! Jason grabbed my hand and held on tightly.

     “Let us leave. Now.” Jason said each word slowly and carefully as if he wasn’t sure she would understand.

     “I’m afraid I can’t do that, doll,” Tamora Lee said. ” It’s your turn to feel my fear, to see what it’s like to beg for your life, and to die.”

     Her eyes were set on me. I realized I was going to be the first to be killed. We had to find a way to distract her and get out. I let my eyes slide to where Jason held the knife tightly in his hands; Tamora Lee still hadn’t noticed it. I knew what I had to do now. She walked towards us slowly, her undead eyes still trained on me. It seemed as if she were trying to memorize my form. She got close to me, much too close for my liking. I looked her dead in the eye. I stopped hyperventilating and clenched my other hand that wasn’t holding Jason’s. Suddenly I wasn’t scared, I felt ready to fight. I wanted to kill her. I wanted revenge, revenge for my best friend. I glared back at her as she stared at me. I didn’t flinch as she let her hand touch my cheek or as she walked around me. She was standing behind me and letting strands of my hair run between her fingers.

     “So sad to see such a beauty go to waste,” Tamora Lee mumbled more to herself, “it’ll be just like my death, doll.” Tamora Lee started cackling, and as fast as I could, without even giving a second thought, I jerked the knife out of Jason’s hand and stabbed Tamora Lee. It was an adrenaline rush. It gave me the best feeling of satisfaction. Tamora Lee fell to her knees and looked up at me surprised, while Jason took off running out of the door. I pulled the knife out of Tamora Lee. A sickening blue liquid was on the blade. I closed my eyes as tightly as I could and slammed the knife into Tamora Lee’s head. When I opened my eyes, I didn’t even look at her, I just ran out of the door as fast as humanly possible.

     Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a small gas tank, and I remembered my matches. I quickly pulled them out and lit some of them. I threw the match book and the lit matches into the small opening of the gas tank. I ran faster than I ever had before to the car. We floored it out of the driveway just as we heard the explosion and saw the fire. It was then I finally grasped the reality of everything that had happened: I lost my best friend and I almost died along with him. When I thought about it, I couldn’t hold back the tears. They just started falling.

     To this day, Jason and I have never told anyone what happened to Dante, or what almost happened to us. Most people believe that Dante had lost it and decided to run away. Some days, I want to believe that too. It’s easier to think that, than think about what really happened. Other people, like Mr. John, well… Let’s just say I think they know what really happened that night.

     Right now, I see the house coming into my view. It’s the one year anniversary of Dante’s death, and the night I almost died. As I pass what is left of the house I can see the damage my fire did. I can see what it destroyed and what very little remained from it. When I look a bit closer, I see a tiny blue car, and I start to think about the one thing I was never sure about. The one thing I’ve thought about in my head and gone over in my mind a million times. Now I think of another question to go with it. Will those people in that car share the same fate as Dante, my beloved dead best friend, or did I finally kill the dreaded Tamora Lee?

Author's Note

Sorry if there are any errors.

Reviews

[D1218]

That was scary and suspenseful .... I loved it and if I hadn't already known you'd written it - I couldn't have guessed
That was great.
Write more. Nao! xD