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𝐓𝐄𝐍 : 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌

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When we finally left the car and went inside, it felt empty. Even with Pandora and Ace at my sides, it still felt lonely.

It would never be the same without her.

Her constant come and go personality, her smile, the smell of a home cooked meal or fresh coffee. Instead, she was about to start rotting in a coffin that a stranger and murderer would pick out for me.

They killed her and you'll kill them, seems fitting, doesn't it? An eye for an eye?

Taint yourself for revenge, ruin yourself for her.

I didn't quite understand the true severity of my little mission, I didn't know how I was going to stop Crow and his little group of so-called killers. But he had to be stopped, or at least be put in jail. Either of the two would make it easier for me to sleep at night.

But will you sleep when you know she's dead? That your life has been built upon lies and secrets and an unfathomable darkness?

No, I thought to myself. I won't be able to sleep at all.

Inside, I had the urge to plop down on the couch and let myself sink into the cushions, but the goo still clung to me, stiff and cool. It was hard to explain how it felt, sticking to me like a sickness, like something rotten. You are not the one rotting. Not yet. How easily it had been for me to be dunked into the warmth, as if I was just merely jumping into a pool. A warm, sticky, red pool.

"Take a shower," Pandora murmured from next to me, one hand on my elbow to reassure me she was going to be here when I was done. "I'll heat up pizza for us, okay?"

I nodded and looked past her shoulder and at Ace, who stood out of place in the kitchen. It seemed weird, that everything he had told me was slowly becoming true. I knew he had a bigger part to play and I wasn't quite sure what, but it wasn't just because his family had sought out help from the wrong people. It was something much more than that, or at least it seemed that way.

He was right about something living inside the church, an evil that lived and breathed and had a taste for killing. 

"We'll be here when you come back down," Pandora told me before leaving my side and wandering into the kitchen.

Heading up to my room, I took hesitant steps over where the trap door had been found, wondering where my familiar ghost was tonight. It was so strange, how quickly my life had changed from one so mundane to one suddenly filled with evil and death.

And how it was so normal. 

I knew it would only get worse as I clung to the small bag of my mother's belongings. The last few minutes of her life were inside this bag and the idea of it made me feel sick that I didn't spend much time going inside her room to put her jewelry back where I knew she liked it. I took her small cross necklace into my hands, the cross was small, simple.

I undid the clasp and slide the cool metal chain around my neck before fastening it in the front. I moved the cross against the chain until it rested against my chest, right below my neck. Silver against red. Metal against blood. Delicacy against angry flesh. 

I felt calmer with it on, safer.

I left her room but not before closing the door behind me softly. I prayed I wouldn't have to ever go back inside, I wanted her smell and her feeling to stay encased inside forever. So that, one day along the line, I would go back inside and feel her all around me again. In my nose, on my fingers, in my hair. I wanted to feel like she was hugging me, just one last time.

Once inside my bedroom, I took my time peeling my clothes off and tossing them into a bloodied pile in my bathroom. The fabric was stiff and left my skin feeling raw, all pink and red and new. It was frightening, to see my body after all that had happened. To stand there, to see how the blood had run down my face and had stayed there like glue. How my hair was flat atop my head and stuck to the sides of my face and neck. I was red all over.

Carrie incarnate.

It didn't take long for the shower to heat up once turned on and I happily embraced the warmth as I got in. The water was hot, burning my hands first before my whole body. It was so hot that I could already see the steam pooling out from behind the shower curtain. I let this burning water cleanse even my troubled heart.

The water at my feet was already turning pink before I began to scrub. My skin ached under the rag I had gripped in my hand, but I needed it off of me before I stepped out. I needed everything from tonight to be washed from me, especially the news from Cage.

Cage, Cage, Cage. You are no true father of mine, with your lies, with your deceit. 

I was furious at him for not telling me the truth, furious that he had left me with his mess and with moms. So furious in fact that even calling him my father left a sour taste in my mouth. He had this whole secret life away from me, probably away from mom, too, and look where it got him, where it got her? They were both dead and I was left to pick up the pieces and clean the mess, like I was their lap dog. Well, more specifically, his lap dog.

What was I supposed to do when one of Crow's men came for me? Would they try to kill me? Would I try to kill them?

Or would I never get the chance? I'd be dead before I even got the chance to defend myself.

I shook my head, ringing the rag out and watching the red water run down my stomach and legs. I wasn't ready for any of this and yet, it was thrust into my hands like a dying wish. A wish that I had to fulfill or I'd be the next body in the morgue.

I turned the water off and stepped out, grabbing a towel. I felt clean and for the first time that evening I was in control of something, of myself. I had scrubbed the death and decay from my body but I knew that I'd swim in it all over again.

When I went downstairs, hair still wet and with clean pajamas on, I was surprised to find Pandora and Ace sitting on the couch wrapped in blankets. They seemed completely at home, feet propped up on the coffee table that had the leftover pizza on plates with a few cans of soda.

Pandora smiled when she saw me, throwing me one of the blankets as I sat down in one of the lounge chairs. "So," she said before taking a bite of the slice she had in her hands. "How do we do this? Like, how are we going to find a bunch of killers and expose them, you know?"

I nodded. "More like, what do we do if one tries to kill us?"

"You don't think they'll actually kill us, right?" Her smile faltered. "Right?"

Of course they will, they won't stop until all of us are dead. Until they're the last ones standing.

"They are a group of trained killers, Panda," Ace muttered, reaching for one of the sodas. "What else would you expect? For them to just leave us be if we found them?"

She frowned, dropping her pizza on her plate. "What do we do if they come here looking for you, Blaire? Because it's not like we can call the police." She was sounding panicky now and who could blame her, hell, even I was. I didn't know the first thing of what to do. Pandora's face fell even more, a strangled breath escaping her as she said, "They already know where you live, they've probably been in here! Snooping and probably planting bugs everywhere--"

Ace held up a hand, quieting the other girl. "We can't think like that and besides, you think they'll come in with the two of us here? More witnesses the better, at least for us."

"But how do we even stop them? We all know just locking the doors won't do much."

"Too bad they aren't all ghosts," I sighed, suddenly not very hungry with the impending doom pressing down on my shoulders. "Because we've all seen the movies, just put salt in the windows and doorways and we'd be safe."

"Are you afraid of them?" Ace suddenly asked, the room going quiet except for the sound of the low rumble of the refrigerator. "The ghosts?"

I thought for a moment because I wasn't quite sure. I'd only met a few and none of them seemed threatening, at least not yet. "I don't think they can hurt me," I said back with a shake of my head. "I mean, they can touch me, but I don't think they'd actively try to hurt me."

Pandora spoke next, placing her plate on the table. "What are you supposed to do with them? Because it seemed like this was your dad's job for the church, so what are you supposed to be doing with all of this?"

"Sending them back, I guess." I shrugged, picking at the tasseled ends of the blanket across my lap. "I help them cross over and I send them back, heaven or hell."

"Do you get to choose?"

I shrugged, again.

"Have you even tried to send one back yet?" Ace asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know the first thing about that."

"Didn't your dad tell you anything about that when you saw him? I feel like he should've at least explained some of this to you," he said, crossing his arms and sinking further into the couch.

Cage was never a good father, he wasn't even a good man. Not anymore.

I studied Ace for a moment, taking in how his hair swooped across his forehead and into his eyes. He wasn't pale, which was surprising because we rarely ever got a sunny day here, but there was a slight color to his skin. He had a freckle under one eye, small but big enough for people to notice. He wore a simple faded gray shirt, a small hole stretched across the neckline, but smeared across his middle was the unmistakable red of dried blood. His hands were big, fingers long, and four out of his ten fingers had rings. Thick, silver rings, all of different shapes and sizes. He met my gaze, his lips slightly pursed as if he was about to question why I was staring at him. His eyes were bright in the dim lighting of the house, they were vibrant and something someone wouldn't forget.

"He didn't explain much, just that when the ghosts appear and everything goes gray, we're in the astral. Limbo, the halfway point between us and them," I explained. "Not much else, just that he was a necromancer." I shook my head. "Well, he didn't exactly say he was but every ghost I've seen has called me that and my mom told me he was one--"

"What the hell is a necromancer?" Pandora stopped me, holding up her hand to shush me. "I've heard the name before, like in old video games my younger cousin plays, but I thought it wasn't a real thing?"

Ace pulled out his phone, typing before reading what he'd found, "Necromancy, the practice of communicating with the dead. Can be used as a form of witchcraft or black magic, is even used in conjuring spirits and raising the dead."

"Okay, whoa," Pandora breathed, looking over his shoulder and at his search results before meeting my eyes. There was awe creased in her brow, in her eyes. "Can you do all that? Raise the dead?"

I shrugged, because honestly, I didn't know what all I could do. I just knew that when everything turned gray, I was more than likely talking to a ghost and that was it. I wasn't give a guidebook of a necromancer manual. "No clue, but not really looking to try that right about now."

There was a ghost (no pun intended) of a smile on her lips and she said, "How creepy."

"I do know that not any necromancer can raise the dead," I said, thinking back to what I had found when I had searched the term. "Not many have been able to just have that skill, just a lucky few here and there."

Ace nodded, pointing at his screen for only him and Pandora to see. "Says here there hasn't been a necromancer who's been successful in raising the dead for decades, they have to be either born into the gift or have it 'bestowed' upon them."

"Like what? Some magic man can just grant them that power?" I laughed.

"No, more like a prophecy," he said in an unsure voice. "They'd have to have a purpose for their gift, something in a long line of tradition and--" He paused, squinting at the screen. "--a specific bloodline, dating back to the early years of creation and so on."

"But what type of prophecy?" I asked, my laughter instantly dying on my tongue. I knew I wasn't part of all of this bloodline tradition bullshit, because I think I would've noticed if Cage was raising the dead, even if he was secretly doing it for the church. It wouldn't be hard to miss, and I think the town would notice if someone died and magically came back and as far as I knew? We hadn't had a strange case about zombies here, ever.

"Not sure," he told me. "Just says there's a mystery about some necromancer that would come and rid the earth of evil, one that could specifically raise the dead." He looked up from the phone and with a smile said sarcastically, "Why? Think it might be you?"

I shook my head, "No way, but I wouldn't be surprised if me being one had some deeper meaning because the ghosts I've seen have all said things like 'you're the one we've been waiting for' and 'you're the necromancer!' As if they knew I was coming."

They have known, they've known since the second they died, the haunting thought ran over me. 

"Maybe it's because they knew your dad?" Pandora offered, but the tone of her voice sounded like she didn't believe her words, much how I didn't. It would never have been that simple.

Instead, I answered with a small smile and a soft, "Yeah, maybe that's it."

~

I was glad they decided to spend the night, wrapped up on the couch that pulled out into a bed. I had gotten them enough blankets and pillows to stay warm throughout the night from the upstairs closet, and although I was sad I couldn't curl up with them like a Pandora sandwich, I slept in one of the recliners.

I didn't think I would've fallen asleep as easily as I had, because I was surprised to find myself jolted awake by the sound of something falling. I bursted awake, sitting up and eyeing the dark living room.

Pandora and Ace didn't stir, both sleeping contentedly as if I hadn't just heard something heavy fall somewhere near the kitchen and stairs. I wasn't eager to get up and find the source of the noise but I wasn't as eased into the idea of going back to sleep knowing something was in here.

It took a lot out of me to stand and cross the threshold into the kitchen with the small flashlight on my phone, seeing nothing knocked over or spilled across the floor. I walked around the island, half expecting to find pots and pans littering the floor but, yet again, I found nothing.

I definitely heard something, I thought to myself. Sounded way too close to be upstairs or even in the tunnel.

It was like it had read my mind because I heard another small crash and I turned in my spot, flashlight up and ready. I knew where the sound had come from and I had a feeling I wouldn't like what I found.

I left the kitchen, heading towards the closed double doors by the stairs. I hadn't been inside this room since Cage died, my mother used it from time to time but it had mostly become a small storage area for everything he had owned. Who knew his old office would've been the perfect hiding place for all his secrets, because when I threw open the doors ready to strike whatever was inside, it wasn't exactly what I expected.

The room was clean.

Surprisingly so.

There was one box sitting in the middle of the floor with my name sprawled across the side in black ink. The dark oak bookshelves were still full of books and old photographs, even his desk was clean. I wanted to go to the box but, funny enough, that wasn't what took hold of my attention.

It was the computer screen that was lit up like a goddamn Christmas tree, bright and alive and beckoning me towards it.

I wasn't too surprised to just see the old lock screen pulled up, the text cursor flashing at me, waiting. I hunched over the desk, eyeing the post it notes that ran up the sides of the old Mac. I smiled, Cage wasn't as smart as I thought.

His password was scribbled in his messy handwriting against the single pink note. I quickly typed it in and when the screen slowly loaded, I took in the dark room. I finally saw what had fallen, two old picture frames laid side by side facing up. The glass on each was broken, almost strategically.

The cracks tore through the faces of both my parents in each, leaving me unscathed from the breakage. I bent down to pick them up, careful not to cut my fingers before placing them back on one of the shelves. I'd had to deal with those in a moment. I'd have to deal with a lot of things inside the room, but the computer was almost done loading and I had a feeling I needed to see what was on the screen when it did.

crying over the fact that this book used to b so bad b4 i actually changed...everything. it was so ugly, im sorry yall had to read it like that

very much hoping u guys like this (it's a lil short oopsie)

vote/comment and ill kiss every single of you who does. on the mouth!!!