A demons playground

A demonic force lurks in a house and kills any person who lives in it

Chanel Morgan had heard the rumors of the double story house on Elm Street that was reputed to be possessed by a demonic force, haunted by ghosts, the murders of previous residents and unexplained sightings, the stories just kept getting weirder and stranger. But she didn't believe it, she didn't believe in ghosts nor demons, for her philosophy she said the only thing that killed people were people. Not ghosts or demons or any supernatural being for that matter. So when her agent warned her about the lovely house all she did was scoff at the idea.
A few days after moving in and settling down, Chanel was sitting in her room sorting through her photos of her family and friends. The move was a big step for her, leaving behind her parents in Randburg while she moved to Edenvale, leaving her old friends in the area but they all said to her they would visit her as soon as she settled in, all she had to do was shout to let them know. When she went through the photos it brought tears to her eyes and her heart ached. She seriously missed her parents and friends.
She felt that she needed a break quickly and make herself another cup of coffee, nothing coffee can't fix she always thought. She put the photos one side and jumped off the bed and made her way down to the kitchen. The hallway was dark from her bedroom door, the only light she had was the outside lamp post in her garden, put there by the previous resident and even with that the hallway was still dark and to her, mysterious. She slowly walked across the hallway with the wood groaning and moaning under her feet as if the house held some life. She hadn't gotten used to the house, being so big and her being the only person staying in the big household so at eleven o'clock at night walking the dark hallways to have a cup of coffee put her on edge.
She passed the window where she could overlook her magnificent green garden that was filled with different kinds of plants and flowers. She stopped and looked down on the garden. At night she didn't see much even with the light shinning on the small area of the garden but somehow as she looked at it a smile formed on her face. That was here garden and this house was hers. All this was hers, her life and she was a free woman to do what she wanted. After a moment of looking out of the window down on her garden the light started to flicker, diminishing and illuminating. Chanel squinted her eyes and leaned forward to get a better look at what was causing the light to diminish. Suddenly something so horrific flashed before her eyes.
A grotesque and hideous demonic face suddenly flashed before her eyes. Chanel shrieked and clasped her hand across her mouth in fright and terror. Her eyes bubbled double the size and she walked back, almost tripping, before slamming herself against the wall. She moaned and groaned but her hand was still hooked over her mouth in terror of what she saw. She looked at the window and all she saw was her reflection staring back at her, all bug eyed and scared just like she was. She wondered if the face at the bottom of the garden was still there. She eased forward from the wall, breaking her frozen state and with every step her heart raced and her breathing got harder.
She looked down on her garden once more and saw everything was as it should be, normal and if she could say so herself, magnificent. A magnificent garden that belonged to a magnificent woman. The light post was not flickering or shimmering anymore but as it was, shinning and shedding light on the garden. She darted her eyes across the garden but she couldn't see the face. It vanished as soon as it appeared. After a few more glances and coming to the point of satisfaction that it was really gone, she removed her hand from her mouth and tried to calm herself down.
Was it real or did she imagine it? She hadn't gotten the sufficient amount of sleep that she usually did and she knew that the mind could turn on a person in an instant and play the nastiest and cruelest tricks on a person's mind. Was that it, too little sleep? No matter what questions swirled in her mind she just couldn't answer them. She decided after a long moment that all it was was her imagination playing tricks on her and left the issue of the demonic grotesque face in her garden at that.
She was rattled and knew that only a strong cup of coffee would calm her down. She hurried down the staircase and into the kitchen. She switched on the kitchen light and stood against her kitchen counter. She couldn't help but wonder if maybe somebody was there and if there was she had to call the police. She wanted to but something stopped her. It's just my imagination she told herself and she made her cup of coffee. Once she was done with her coffee she walked back up to her room. She passed the window in the hallway, not daring to look out down into her garden.
She slammed her door and locked it then went to her bed, putting her coffee on her bedside table. No matter how hard she tried the image of the demonic face was etched into her mind and she found herself tossing and turning on the bed, unable to sleep. She focused and let her mind wonder, to her family, her friends, her childhood. It was happy memories with her mom helping her draw, her friends and her seeing movies and having one of the greatest times of her life with her best friends. She took a sip of her coffee and laid down on her pillow finally calmed down and relaxed. Within a few seconds she drifted from life to dream.
She dreamt of a figure, completely black with jagged and torn taloned wings spurting forth from its back and eyes a dark piercing yellow, standing in the hallway of her bedroom watching her. The figure said nothing but remained silent through his observation. Chanel was suddenly and instantly overcome by a sickening smell of that of sulphur. She wanted to hurl but no matter how much she tried she just couldn't do it. She looked back up and saw the figure start to walk toward her, wings flapping and scratching the wooden floor which sent shivers through her. She was about to scream when there was the sound of doors slamming and she shrieked.
Chanel shot out of her bed and fell onto the wooden floor at the sound of doors being slammed repeatedly. It felt like the house was going to collapse but as the doors slammed harder and faster She knew it wasn't. She pulled herself up and carefully walked to her bedroom door that was slamming open and closed, open and closed repeatedly. With every slam Chanel tensed up and flinched. She needed help and ran back to her bedside table to grab her phone. She dialed 911 and waited for the operator to answer.
"911! What's your emergency?" came a gentle woman's voice through the speaker.
"Yes" Chanel gasped in fright as the doors started to slam continuously. "I think somebody is playing a creepy trick on me. I think.." and for a moment she lost her voice. She calmed herself down and took a deep breathe before finding her voice. "Somebody is in my house".
"Somebody is in your house? Who is in your house ma'am?"
"I don't know! Please I'm so scared please send somebody for help!!" Chanel screamed.
"Okay ma'am. I need you to calm down and tell me your address? Can you do that?" The operator asked calmly and proceeded to type in the background.
"O-okay" Chanel said stuttering. "1435 Elm Street" she said in a hurry, rambling all the words together in a hurry.
"Thank you. We will send someone over right away".
After the operator said those final words Chanel slammed the phone down, not even bothered to reply or thank the operator. When she put down the phone something was oddly different or just different. It was silence, there was silence. No doors banging. They stopped. She got up off the floor, leaving the phone off the hook on the ground. The place was back in darkness and silent. She walked over to her bedroom door and opened it. It creaked and just that creak sent a shiver down her spine. Her nerves were shot. She was greeted with a darkened fainted illuminated hallway. Maybe I should wait till the police arrive she thought. She could but if there wasn't anybody then she would have sat there for no reason but....but maybe there was somebody. Lying in wait. To kill her. The more she thought about that crazed idea the more it seemed real.
She walked down the hallway and looked at her bathroom. The door was cracked, probably from the door slamming. It had to have been. But how could every door in the household rattle and slam when there was only one burglar the question in her head asked her. She looked at the bathroom but nothing out of the ordinary indicated that somebody was in it. Her toiletries were in the same place as usual where she left them, nothing on the floor. A cold sensation swept over her body and for the first time since living in her new house she felt afraid, alone and vulnerable.
She eased out of her bathroom and walked away. She checked the other two rooms down the hall. They were fine, nothing changed except the doors weren't closed like she closed them. They were open. She took a quick glimpse but nothing told her that there was somebody was in the room or had been. She closed both doors and walked down the staircase. Downstairs there was just like upstairs, nothing unusual or out of place. She couldn't figure out how this was possible but it was. Maybe it was a terrible and selfish prank. But why her? What did she do?
She scanned the lounge area when she heard a loud knock on her front door. She shot around and looked at the direction where her front door stood and saw blue and red lights twirling and reflecting off her window.
She walked over in a quick rush to open the front door. She saw two police officers standing on her porch, flashlights in hand. Chanel thought they didn't look any younger than thirty years of age. The first officer turned to Chanel when she opened the door.
"Good evening ma'am. I'm officer Lewis and this is officer Dignam. We received an emergency call about a break in?" He asked her, introducing himself and his colleague.
Chanel swiped her long brown hair out of her face and smiled to reassure herself and to reassure the officers that she was calm. "Hello. Yes uhm I woke up to doors slamming everywhere in my house. I think someone or more than one person broke in. Could you check?" She asked.
"Sure" officer Lewis said.
Chanel moved aside and the officers walked into the house. She switched her lounge light on and the officers thanked her and switched off their flashlights. She followed pursuit of the two officers as they walked around the lounge making sure it was safe then went to the kitchen and the rest of the rooms on the ground floor.
"Oh and maybe if you officers could check the garden" she mumbled from behind them as they finished inspecting the bathroom.
"You saw someone in the garden?" Officer Dignam asked.
Chanel thought for a moment of telling them that she saw a demonic face at the bottom of the garden but would they believe that? Even a bit? She wondered. Supernatural was definitely not in their job description. She decided after a quick thinking that it was best to spin a small lie and not tell them the truth of the demonic figure. "No I..I just heard something" she said after her long pause of thought.
Officer Dignam regarded her for a second then asked, "What did you hear?"
"Like heavy footsteps as if someone were running away from something".
"We'll take a look. Could you wait here for us while we go?" He asked her and tapped officer Lewis to go to the garden in the meantime.
"No problem. The door is unlocked" she said and stood frozen in the middle of the lounge and dinning room area. She watched the officers disappear through the garden door. It was again silent, dark and she was alone. She walked in a clockwise rotation, looking at everything around her. Her home that she felt was her safe heaven was now becoming a nightmare. Unexplained occurrences of doors slamming shut, demonic faces in the bottom of the garden and a dream of somebody, a demon, watching her sleep. That was a dream, wasn't it? Yes she told herself but she had a doubt in her mind that it wasn't just that or that at all.
She wasn't a religious person and even thinking that she could be made her want to laugh out loud. And the officers would definitely think something was up. She had gone to church when she was a young girl, believed the word and so forth but during her teenage years she rebelled and never stepped foot back into a church. But that could not be the reason why this supernatural occurrences were terrorizing her tonight. She had to figure out what was going on but she held onto the hope it was a prank but a couple of punks and that they'd catch him or they.
After a moment the two police officers, Lewis and Dignam, came back and with no person in handcuffs so her hope slowly diminished. She stood still and waited till they stood in front of her. "Did you find anyone?" she asked. It was probably the most stupidest question she could ask because she knew the answer to it. It was too late now to take it back now though.
"Unfortunately not ma'am. I'm sorry" officer Lewis said and waited for a reply but after a moment of silence he carried on. "Could we check out the rest of the house?"
Chanel nodded her head and they looked at one another and proceeded up the staircase to the different rooms upstairs. Their flashlights bounced off the walls and within seconds the two police officers and the flashlights disappeared. She stood there, shaking and frightened. How could she defend herself from a supernatural entity, a demon? Police officers can't protect her and that's why they are there for, to serve and protect. Now could she defend herself and protect herself. It scared her. She suddenly felt a certain uncomfortable eerie feeling overcome her.
She dashed for the kitchen and grabbed the first knife she could get her hands on, a butcher knife. She held the handle tight in her hand, almost letting it mould into her skin. She looked out to the spot where she was standing a second ago and pointed the knife in the direction. She realized after the moment of fear passed her that she looked ridiculous standing in her kitchen with a knife pointed on a empty spot. There was nobody just her down here. She lowered her knife but didn't let it go. She held onto it until the officers came back down the stairs and then eased the knife into her pocket and threw her top over to cover the handle and the blade which partially stuck out.
"It's empty upstairs. No signs of forced entry or any evidence of a robbery. Except...was the bathroom door upstairs, the one by your bedroom, cracked before tonight?" Officer Lewis asked putting away his flashlight.
"Oh...yes!" she exclaimed. "Before I moved in. Apparently the owners that lived here before were quite the violent type. Always boxing doors and walls" she lied and immediately broke eye contact and looked down at her pocket where the knife was sheathed. She hoped they wouldn't suspect the lie and instead buy it.
Officer Lewis nodded his head, "Might want to get it fixed".
"Yes".
"Well there seems to be nobody in your house. No proof of forced entry or a robbery. Everything is okay. Is there anything else?" Officer Lewis asked and made his way to the front door, along with officer Dignam in pursuit.
"Thank you so much officer. But no that is all" Chanel said and followed them out onto the porch.
"If you hear anything or see anything..especially out of the ordinary then please call the police and we will come immediately" officer Lewis offered while he stood on the porch.
Chanel relaxed herself against the door banister. "I will do officer...Lewis. Thank you once again".
"No problem. Enjoy the rest of your evening" he said and tipped his head at Chanel.
"The same to you officers".
With that said Lewis and Dignam made their way down the patio and into their patrol car. Chanel watched them enter their vehicle and reserve out of their parking spot and disappear within seconds down the road leaving her alone on her patio by her front door. She went back inside and closed the door and locked it.
She went around the kitchen and locked all the windows and her back door at the kitchen then went to the lounge and made sure every window was closed and locked including her back sliding door to her garden. She saw her garden and darted her eyes back and forth and saw nothing moving. It was still. She closed the curtains to the sliding door and went back into her lounge. As she passed her television it suddenly turned on. The screen was snowy, black and white dots with static blaring into Chanel's ears. She looked at the television and cocked her head in confusion. She looked at it and then saw the remote on top of the television cabinet. What the hell she thought to herself.
The static from the television suddenly stopped and for a moment the television was silent until a voice broke the silence, it came from the television.
"Chanel Morgan. Female. Twenty four years of age. House number 1435 Elm Street....exterminate!" Came a voice from the television speakers.
Chanel screamed and darted back and fell over her couch. She landed on the ground with a hard thud and turned to look at her television. The screen was still snowy but the voice continued to speak. But only one word.
".... Exterminate.... Exterminate...."
Chanel threw herself up from the floor and grabbed the tv remote from atop of the television cabinet and flicked the switch and the television went silent and screen was black. She felt her heart racing a thousand miles a second, her breathing was heavy and sore and every time she tried to catch a breather she felt like her body was going to explode. She didn't know what was going on or how a voice could talk to her from a television and know every detail of hers but she was terrified beyond control. She heard nothing for a few moments and thought, maybe but just maybe she heard things that weren't actually there. She put the remote back on her glass table and walked off. She was barely a few feet away from the television set when she heard the voice again.
"Chanel Morgan. Demon behind. Death" it said.
Chanel spun around but got the shock of her life. The television was off. The screen was black but....the voice spoke. It spoke again and she realized it was coming from the speakers of the television. She stared in shock while the voice continued to threaten her. She instantly smelled something, a familiar smell of sulphur and thick blood. She went white and collapsed against the couch almost passing out. She opened her mouth to talk, to say something, a scream for help, but she couldn't. She looked on at the television alas the voice rose and became more demonic. Scared for her life she ran away from her from the lounge, away from the television from which a demonic voice roared from it and up the staircase.
She tripped and stumbled upon each step as she tried to make it up. Tears streamed down her face and smudged her eyeliner. She cried and for the first time in her stay at the house she realized that she needed her family. "Got to get to the phone. Dad will know" she said out loud to herself before finally reaching the final step.
She kneeled down to catch her breath before looking down the hall at her bedroom which she last saw her phone. She darted down the hall to her bedroom. Half way down the lights throughout the house went out and put Chanel in pitch darkness. She stopped and looked around her. She couldn't see anything not even her own hand in front of her. She tried to hear something, anything but it was complete silent. Not even the television had the demonic voice roaring out if it. It must have been power she thought.
She remembered what the police officers said that we're at her house just merely twenty minutes ago. 'If you hear anything or see anything..especially out of the ordinary then please call the police and we will come immediately' that's what they said. Well from what she heard from the television she knew that classified as definitely 'Out of the ordinary'. She had to call them back she thought and then she'd call her parents. They would come out she knew that. With her mind made up she walked to her room when the attic stairs suddenly burst down and hit the ground unfolding.
Chanel turned and saw the attic stairs all laid out for her to climb. She'd never been up there and so far she knew staircases never just opened up by themselves. The thought of someone in her house suddenly made her go all cold with fear. She stood frozen and watched the entrance to the attic and she saw a dim light illuminating inside. That can't be she thought because the power went out. Everything was out.....except the light in the attic. She moved and walked up to the stairs and held the wooden stair in her hand in a position to start climbing up. There was definitely a mystery and maybe, just a smidgen, the attic held all the answers to her questions.
She started to climb up the stairs. With every step she took it felt like each stair was going to crack and break underneath her weight. The stairs had not been climbed on in a long time or the wood was not strong at all. Probably both she thought. She reached the top of the stairs and peered in. The room was empty, no windows for light but a single lightbulb which shone down on a single box in the middle of the room. Chanel thought for a moment if it was wise to go and see what it was or if she should rather get out of the house. She needed answers though. She then heard a cracking sound and looked down to see each step being broken and snapped in half and it was escalating up to the step Chanel was standing on.
"Oh God!!" She screamed and ran up the last few steps before she pushed herself into the attic room. The last step cracked and snapped and then there was silence. She looked back and saw pieces of wood all scattered across the hallway floor. She now could not change her mind. She had to find out what was in her house and why it was doing this to her.
She walked over to the box and saw no name written on it, no address or any signs of it being in any previous owners possession. She knelt down and slithered her hands around the square box. It felt soft like it was dunked in water and the cardboard was starting to feel like it was tearing away at her fingertips. She flipped open the box and saw a small square laying neatly in the middle of the box. It was a book. She swallowed hard and reached in to grab the book. Her fingers gripped the book and she took it out. It was heavy, like a concrete slab, and she felt the need to dump it and jump down out of the attic and run for her life but she stayed, with the book in hand.
The book was black and brown like brown leather sowed into it. On the front she read the name that was carved into the book cover, Delomelanicon. She opened the book and on the first page she read a terrifying warning:
Reader,
If you are reading this warning then your life is in extreme danger. I know by now that you probably thinking what is going on in your house. In this old house resides a terrible, terrifying and demonic evil. It will haunt you, hunt you and it will kill you. It kills anybody and anything that resides and lives in this house. There is no way to stop it. You have to get out, GET OUT!!!!!
Chanel shivered all over and the book tumbled to the ground and fell onto a page that had a picture of a demon in it. Chanel widened her eyes and cried out loud upon looking at the picture of the demon. It was the same grotesquery and hideous demonic face she saw at the bottom of her garden. She leaned down and saw the name, Nergal written at the bottom. She repeated the demon name in her head, Nergal, Nergal, Nergal, Nergal over and over again. Having had taken more than a good look she left the book on the floor and ran to the opening of the attic. As she neared the opening it suddenly started to diminish and sighing seconds it was gone and Chanel was trapped. She spun around and looked around the small attic room in fright. She was trapped and she knew it. She began to cry. There was no way to ask anybody for help, not her family or the police. She was going to die up here. She had to find a way out. She ran across the room, checking for any openings to skid herself through but there was. It even a slightest crack up in the attic and it was like a prison cell.
A sudden noise perked at her ears and she looked back. She saw a black substance start to ooze out and around the book of the Delomelanicon. It formed a pool around the book and from the middle of the page of the drawing of the demon a hand arose out of it. Chanel stared unable to take her eyes off the horror scene. A second hand arose up and slowly a fully fledged demon came up out of the page until it was standing on top of the book covered in what Chanel could see was blood. And a lot of it. The demon was Nergal.
The demon was muscular and stood well over 6ft, probably way over seven foot she thought. He had huge taloned wings arched at his back and was about a meter long from top to bottom. She saw his eyes were pitch yellow with black Irises, ears pointy like a goblin and even had the face like that of the goblin monsters from Lord Of The Rings with long fang like teeth and long pointed fingernails.
Chanel stared in shock and silence for a memento before screaming in horror. After resenting her faith she finally saw evidence of the supernatural, a demon. And she knew if demons existed then so did...
"God?" A demonic and deep voice said breaking her thought.
Chanel heard the demon speak and it was the exact voice she had heard from the television and its face was the face she saw in the garden. She kicked herself for not running before when she heard the voice from the television or even seeing the demon face in the garden. "Leave me alone!!!" She screamed in desperation.
Nergal, the demon, laughed in a deep hoarse like laughter and shook his head. "Uh-uh. God is not here today and you have no escape" he said and started to walk over to Chanel.
She turned to run, anywhere even if there was no way out, she just wanted to get far away from this demon and far from its reach. But her hope was short lived. She felt a sharp object penetrate her soft olive skin and she screamed. The demon Nergal had sliced the sharp end of his wing into Chanel's shoulder to stop her from moving. Chanel gasped for air as the blood ran out of her system, out of her body, by the second. Her eyesight blurred and she dropped to the floor within mere seconds. Nergal dragged her back to where he stood, leaving a trail of blood behind. He picked her up with the sharp end of his wing still buried in her skin of her shoulder. He looked at her and smiled.
He walked over to the book and stood in the spot he emerged a few minutes ago. He brought his other free wing up and brought it down at Chanel. It split her skin and tore through her coming out, slicing right through her. Chanel screamed before blood coughed out of her mouth and her eyes went dead as the life disappeared out of her soul. Her blood dripped onto the book and made a pool of blood around the demon. Nergal then slowly disappeared through the pool of blood with Chanel still in his hooks until there was nothing left of either of them.
In the picture was now the demon Nergal with Chanel in his grasp, held by the demon's wings in a contorted expression with Nergal smiling devilishly as fire burned behind them. The book flipped closed and it was followed by an eerie silence....no trace left of Chanel Morgan...nothing but the dark book of the Delomelanicon.......

Six months later.....

1435 Elm Street was inspected with the disappearance of Chanel Morgan but after months of investigating the case was closed with no evidence to her whereabouts. The house was cleaned and fixed up by the CSI and within six months was on the market again. Barely a week on the market a man by the name of Anton Cross brought the house on Elm street.
The first night he sat in his study going through important papers of a case for court he was working on with no noise but the silence when suddenly he heard ghostly whispers coming from the darkness of the hallway........

Reviews

[Reviewlady]

Your story has depth and I got into it quickly. The ending is NOT what I expected... I thought there was going to be a "happy" ending so I really loved the twist it took. My only criticism is that your story is set in South Africa and your character called 911 - the devil is in the details, and I'm pointing it out for your next story. I believe you have a great imagination and some dark corners to your soul... And I like it a lot. Pay attention to small details and I think your writing is going to take you places!

[Stan Lee]

Freeeeeak!!! This is insanely horrifying! And I actually read the whole thing - had me hooked!
There was only one part that threw me... "She walked over to the box" ... What box?? I read back to make sure i hadn't missed anything... but I don't think I did... A box appeared from nowhere... :D
Apart from that, no criticism whatsoever. Very well done.