Vengeance part 2

A story of the dangers of revenge

The house looked empty. No music could be heard from the windows, not even the drone of a daytime TV was playing. Sarah knocked on the front door which rattled at the hinges on each strike. How many times have drunken kids slammed this door over the years? Before Paul lived in this house another student lived here. In the living room there was a post with carved names and dates of past tenants. Paul carved his name beneath someone named Donald, who was there for five years, about the normal length of time for a degree nowadays.

No one came to the door, but Sarah had to know the truth. Whether anyone was here or not she had to get into that basement and see proof that what that paper said was real. The door wasn't locked. Snack bags and beer bottles still littered the front room floor, remnants from the last party; at least there was proof of drunken stupid college students. This was part of what led her to this situation. She used to attend these loose gatherings filled with hormone raged students. How did things with Cory last as long as they did? But even then, was Sarah not good enough for him? Of course I am. I look good and I'm good company. “How could he!” Sarah caught her balance on the arm of a stained couch. “That's it.”

The stairs into the basement were much easier to manage without a night's worth of liquor. But it was darker than the previous visit. Carefully she reached along the wall for a light switch at the bottom of the stairs. The light from upstairs did not shine more than halfway down, and her eyes were not adjusting to the dark. She tried to look around the room hoping some splinter of light was breaking through a window. She saw nothing, but there was a sound. It sounded like small taps moving across the floor. Like the ticking of a clock, but moving.

She backed towards the staircase trying not to be afraid. It was probably a mouse or even a rat. The patter continued and seemed to be getting closer, each pat a little to the left or to the right, but still closer. The pats came in short bursts; it had to be some rat, curious who was down in the basement. But something was not right. The pats were starting to come from the air around her and still getting closer.

Sarah stopped to try to pinpoint the sound, but the sound stopped with her. She took one step back, the patter started again, then stopped. She took another, the pats came closer still. Sweat began to roll down her face as her heart raced harder and harder. These pats were too loud to be a rat. Another step and something hit her in the back of the head. Sarah screamed and reached above her grabbing and yelling. The room flashed red and above the couch the head of a large dog floated with it mouth open. Sarah screamed every curse word she knew within ten seconds, even repeated a few of them as the screech of glass on glass rattled the blacked out windows of the basement, piercing Sarah's ears. In her panic she pulled down on what hit her head and a light came on; forty watts of safe light.

Immediately the sound stopped and the head was nowhere to be seen. Her ears still rang as she stumbled over to the couch. “Well... at least now I know that weird crap like this is real. The hanging bulb and pull string swayed after her panicked tug, throwing dancing shadows on the basement walls. The shadows came to rest much faster than Sarah's breathing. After some time trying to calm herself she saw that the book still sat open on the table as it did last Friday; must be a common read for Kenneth. Sarah wondered what page of this book would summon what she saw just moments ago. What set of unutterable language from this book would bring the screaming head of a dog? It didn't matter though, for that was not what Sarah was looking for. She wanted the pages that would bring her vengeance. Cory needed to feel what he has done to her. He must hurt for touching that tramp. Sarah laid the paper next to the book and set to try and match it to symbols in the book.

Page after page of meaningless symbols flipped by; each one being some other infernal enchantment. Some pages contained notes in the margins. Handwritten script read “the dog head.” More meaningless pages went by when the book easily fell open to a section towards the back. Both of these open pages had been scrawled upon heavily with a number two pencil. Next to what looked to be the heading in the ancient script, Ken had written “vengeance demon.” Different parts of the text were underlined. Handwriting at the bottom of the page gave instruction: “for this to work it must be read in the presence of life older than the last great one.”

“Something older than the last great one? What does that mean?” Then one of the basement windows burst open letting in a strong wind, Sarah jerked with surprise. Papers began to flutter about the room and her hair was flying about her head. She closed the window, the papers settled, and the she returned to the couch to continue her study. The room was now a mess of loose paper, but that didn't matter to her. What did she care if Ken found his room a mess, all that mattered was revenge. The driving force of her life at that moment was to exact vengeance on the boy who shamed her, the boy who went to another girl looking for something she could not satiate. She had to get back at the insignificant boy who demonstrated that she could not be enough for him when she clearly was more than enough for anyone. He must be punished and shown to be lacking. He must...

The sight of a Polaroid picture now on the table caught her in mid thought. It was a picture of the old hanging tree just off campus. According to the locals that tree was here long before Columbus ever landed; and some claim longer. In the 1860s there were many hangings performed from that tree by lynch mobs, and many more performed before then. This was a tree surrounded by death, and according to the note written on the bottom edge, it first sprouted around 1500 years ago.

“I don't know who the last great one is, but that is the oldest thing I know.” As a reply to the correctness of her answer, the applause of gravel crunching under tires caught Sarah's attention. Someone had gotten home, and she needed to be out of there. Not only would Ken be upset with her being down there, he would see the mess; and after seeing what he has summoned she did not want to know what he would do to her. She grabbed the book, found her original paper among the mess, and climbed out of the window.

Getting back to her room was no real problem. No one noticed her at all; she was just another student carrying a heavy book across campus. With the book and paper tucked beneath her mattress, Sarah decided to go to class. If she didn't, people would start to wonder about her. She did not want to look weak in the eyes of her friends. She must stand and face the world which condemns her for her insufficiency. Judith stopped her at the door to their comparative religion course.

“Where were you? I went by the gym after bio lab looking for you, and the attendant said you were never there.” Judith tried to lock onto Sarah's eyes but was unable. “Look, if you need to talk about something, I'm always here for you. You know that right?”

Sarah let a moment pass before she tried to just push around her into class without answering. Judith stepped in front of her “You do know I can help you through this?”

“Help me through what? The fact that you and everyone else here think I'm worthless? The fact that without my daddy's money I would have no place at this college? The fact that I don't need this degree anyways because daddy will just give me an unimportant job on his payroll? Well, too damned late! I'm over it. And I don't need your petty help. I am not a helpless child in need of charity. Find someone else to be inferior to you; I will never be beneath you.”

Sarah ran off leaving the hall in confused silence. Everyone watched her leave then turned their attention to Judith, still standing there unable to react to the verbal attack. The professor stepped out of the classroom, “Class will begin now. Please take your seats.” Quietly everyone sat down, still focused on Judith. She could feel he pressure of all the eyes on her. She had never felt superior to anyone in her life. In fact she looked up to Sarah. Sarah used to be the popular and outgoing girl everyone knew and loved on campus; but this was changing. “Well, it looks like Sarah won't be joining us today; so let's pick up where we left off last week. I believe we were speaking of avatars.

“Hindus believe that their god, Vishnu, returns to the earth every so often in different human forms. In the Mahabharata, which we spoke of last week, Krishna helped Arunja to regain his throne and save his society. Krishna was an avatar of Vishnu. It is also believed that he came back as other important figures. Some even believe Jesus was one of these avatars...”

Author's Note

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