My fingers unfolded the last piece of chit from the stack of hand-painted papers in the antique wooden, hinged box. 

"The receptacle of the dark will wed the crown of evil,
Thus, gods and goddesses' wildfires foretell serenity,
Once the handprints are smithereened - that of the primeval,
Restored will be their liberty."

Another dunce-like message which made the least sense among the rest of the writings in the other tiny sheets of paper. I crumpled the paper furiously and threw it away on the dimmed floor of my storage room.

My heart was filled with anger, rage, and animosity, and the recent occurrences only exacerbated the situation.

" Leave these rubbish pronto!" My stepdad's shout pierced through my ears, and my lips curled inwards in irritation but he wouldn't just shut the hell up, "Just because I'm dead doesn't change the fact that I will still be on the fence about your problems. Life is short honey, chase your stars. And for the last time, you will not even take a glance at this box of rubbish. It's none of your business right now, so you might as well _"

"So what do you think is my business? What do you think dad? Like, just tell me. You being dead after years of living is far better. But me, being a teen of just 16 years, facing legends and spirits? How would I be able to focus on anything else when my beloved stepdad dies- just after my biological dad, but comes to haunt me in my dreams, and newsflash- I'm not even dreaming! This is real and normality doesn't even add up to it! Dead-alive spirits, huh." I scoffed, "I never even dreamt about unicorns and rainbows, and the gods lend me buffy pieces of cartoons. Nightmares are far better but these...these stupid, non-human-eating ghosts who-"

"Who the hell are you even yelling at, Jo?" My mom screamed from upstairs and I sighed, rolling my eyes, "Ghosts and spirits." I stated nonchalantly even though mom took it as my sarcasm.

"Your friend's here to meet you! Come up at once!" She demanded but I got rather curious. Where on earth did I have a friend?

I shut down the box immediately and climbed upstairs to see that so-called friend of mine.

I saw my mother's welcoming smile but I still acted impassively and just went past through her to see a pale blonde-haired girl standing with a forced smile.

"Rebecca? What are you doing here? What the hell do you want?"

"Joey, is this how you talk to your friends?"

"If you would just refrain from referring to her as my friend, then maybe you would understand why I responded rudely, for goodness' sake!"
"May God grant you some understanding. I apologize, Rebecca dear. Please ignore her."

"She should. Otherwise, there ain't gonna be any reason for her to be here."

"Oh, I'm not her friend. Just to work for our assignment, you know." Finally, she spoke up in her dulcet voice and I didn't waste anymore time bickering introduction nonsense, instead took her up to my room.

The walls were colored Prussian blue with an ebony black ceiling while the room looked filthy with clothes strewn all over the floor along with food crumbs all over my desktop. But well that was the least that bothered me.

"Spill," I demanded her words that were so important she had to come to my house for it and plunged myself into the bean bag.

"Uh, what?"

"God, you pathetic tiny girls pretending. That's exasperating and I might as well kick you out of my house if you don't move your lips pronto."

"Uh...I just wanted to inform you that we figured there are 6 spirits of us which means there are 3 more of us who are aware of these."

"So?"

She lowered her gaze and seemed to move her eyes aimlessly here and there before speaking up, "Well if we find them, they might know more information than us. And that might help us get rid of these...these slaughtering confusions."

"And what if we do  none of those and simply get used to what we have been 'granted' with?" I  said, using quotation marks specifically.

She seemed loss at words and a question bugged me, "How did you get my address, stalker?"

"I didn't stalk you! I- my spirit mentioned that. The who-knows-all." And for the first time, I witnessed her being frustratedly sarcastic with talking about these. I chuckled a bit cause I could actually relate to her words.

"What's there to laugh?" She shortly smiled, but I decided to neglect her.

"Oh and another thing- do you...erm do you hear these bizarre voices, whispers of...people, or is it just me?"

"Nah, but why don't you ask your who-knows-all teach?"

"He does not really understand that. I mean he says it must be my hallucination because there's no such way things like that could occur."

"No one would distinguish between hallucinations, dreams, nightmares, or even reality, now that all of them thought to enjoy giving us a hard time, all mixed in a blender. What say?"

"Affirmative." she mumbled quietly, but seemed to lost her bearings in some other reverie, "It doesn't really feel good. Saying it was horrendously injustice would not be sufficient either," she trailed off, "I mean wasn't one outlandish distinct spirit enough to haunt me? But then again haunt would be too harsh for all the time we spent. Guilt, regret, and miserable thoughts are just consuming my insides. And these new voices since the last week are...are..."

The inner corners of my eyebrows angled up as I found relevant meaning within her words including the sentiments that I, myself could not express. I had the reluctant urge to go comfort her but my public face stopped me.

"Well, that's spot on. Can't deny it. But um...what do these voices say?"

"I wish I could answer that. But it's all cluttered. Like they speak all together for which my migraines worsen and I can't figure out the meaning. But...but some parts of the sentences which I understood were like...about some prophecies. Not the prophecy themselves but it seems like they are talking about some prophecies- which might come true. So having them would technically aid us in this turmoil. Do you- do you think you might have 'em?"

I parted my lips to answer positive but I recalled my promise to dad about concealing that fact. I went back to my casual self and denied her question.

"I- uh, I'll leave."

I nodded quietly and watched her stomp and stumble through the untidy pile of whatsit in my room to the door. 

After reflecting on my own thoughts, I nonchalantly shrugged and decided to go out to my balcony, a place I hadn't visited in the recent days. As soon as I opened my eyes and focused, I was immediately filled with shock and fear. I couldn't help but let out a shriek, although I was also strangely fascinated by the repulsive sight before me—a creature that resembled a boy but had a body covered in lime-colored scales, with an unnaturally shaped face featuring protruding razor-sharp teeth that obscured the lower lip.

I looked down at its hand, which contained a wooden piece and twining ivy plants carved its sides. He placed it on my desktop and slowly tottered in my way whilst I backed. At first, I was blank, but gradually I got icy with panic. 

"Wha-what do you want?" I stuttered.

"Killeth the lighteth of spirits, and shall cometh the l'rd of Tartarus in the dark." He kept reciting those words all the way he came up to me. 

"Oh no, you don't get to killeth me!" I exclaimed before turning aside and grabbing my skateboard. I slammed it against his face and dropped it prior to running away from my room. Before my legs could hit the staircase, I bumped into someone and hit my forehead.

"Ouch. Damn it!" I held my forehead in my palm and lashed out at that blind person, "What are you, Restupidbeca? I get that you hear stuff, but you do have your eyes stock-still, right?"

"Yeah...I'm so sorry."

"Right. Now I thought you were gone?"

"Yeah...well, I dropped my phone in your room. So I'll just get it." She trudged on but I stopped her, clutching her elbow, and with a last glance at my room, I dragged her to the storeroom beside the stairs, where I basically told her everything.

"WHAT?" She gaped at me weirdly but I just shrugged.

"What are we gonna do?" I inquired.

"How do I know?" 

"I had assumed that you were the one with a greater level of professionalism here!"

I saw her message her temples and turned the other side, sighing.

"The way you described it, I guess I have fought- well defeated that kind of creature 4 years ago, wi-with Clay." She stated in a low tune and I raised my eyebrows, questioning her the obvious, "Well?"

"Uh...it was noise...clamour that burst him into pieces. Clay used my old violin to make a horrible noise and perfect coincidence: it defeated him."

"Awesome!" 
After what she said, the fear that pulsed little through my veins altered to enthusiasm. 

"I do have an electric guitar!"

"Where? I mean, oh, of course in your room." And she, mentioning its location sank my mood,  "Haha, about that," I nervously scratched my forehead, "It's in my attic. Probably_"

"Don't tell me."

"But we can check, you know?" She calmly nodded and slightly opened the door to peek through, "The coast is...clear."

"Yeah, I think that knob-head went dow- holy shit! Mum is downstairs! What if-" I pushed Rebecca and past through her, rushing downstairs. I was almost right.

I picked up my fluffed sandal from my foot and threw it over at his head before he could gobble up mum. She was baking and humming to the music with earphones stuck to her ears. Phew. 

He immediately prowled towards me and I widened my eyes. I jumped up the railing and forwarded to the living room, hoping the window to be open. Just kidding; I wouldn't leave those two alone.

While I frantically paced around the room, he closely followed my every move. Just as Beca approached me to see how I was doing, she was startled by the creature's presence, although her reaction seemed less intense. Ignoring her, he hobbled towards her instead, causing her to jump in further surprise. I couldn't help but burst into laughter, finding the situation amusing. I mean, let's be honest, it was quite funny!

Once more, in an effort to protect her, I hurled two vases. His gaze shifted steadily towards me, conveying a sense of exasperation. Not again, man.

I hopped up the couch and already broke one glass from the sidetable. It was quite surprising he didn't shoot any sort of power rays. 

As I approached the corner of the room and prepared to make a turn, I suddenly found myself confronted by him from the front, completely surrounding me. My heart raced and I struggled to catch my breath, feeling my heartbeat momentarily falter.

His squamous hand with nasty and lanky fingernails proceeded to my face.

But all of a sudden those hands backed off and pressed against it's ears whilst a deafening noise was played in the background. I tilted my head to view the TV on and Rebecca standing beside it with a remote, forming a sense of wonder in my head. 

"Why, I could've thought that." I groaned in disappointment and Rebecca nodded reluctantly, as if she heard only bits of what I said due to the extreme clamour from inside the TV.

Since I was nearing the unlatched door, I was able to hear footsteps outside. Oh shit.

The couch was just right beside me with that monster barely resisting the sound music and the last thing I would want is my mum to find out everything I'd been trying to conceal for the last 4 years. With no option, I squeezed my eyes and jumped on top of that monster, forcing him down, and without sufficient strength, he couldn't fight me back.

"Oh lord! Rebecca darling? What was going on here? Oh my, the furniture is...what on earth happened here? And why is the volume so high? Where's Jo?"

I thrusted my hand on top of his head, while using my legs to restrain his . Without hesitation, I swiftly stood up,
knowing very well Rebecca wouldn't have be able to utter a proper without stammering.

Sweatdrops dripped down my forehead and I was panting to a great extent, but I made sure I had a convincing smile and flattering words.

"Oh mo-mom! What's up?"

"Oh no, don't you 'what's up' me! Did you just pick up a fight with her? Why do you always have to-"

"Oh my beloved mo-mother. That's not true. We were just playing a little too fun game, you know? Right, my dearest friend Rebecca?"

"Sure sure. Smashing down vases, muck up my furniture and listen to TV in 98% volume- what type of game do you call it?" She gritted her teeth and yelled at me but I simply rolled my eyes.

"Uh mom, trust me, I will complete cleaning up...whatever I did here, you just-" I felt a continuous poke on my belly and looking down, it was a spike from his head which went up due to his movements to flee. I  pushed him down harder but he was far more obstinate than I thought, and due to the lack of intense clamour, he could easily attack any moment now. Oh my luck.

"What...what on earth are you doing?" Mum questioned firmly before coming to me and I looked up at once with a dropped down jaw, wishing for anyone to come and lend me a hand to hell.

Suddenly the backdrop TV static noise intensified much more than the last time which worked good as a divertion for mom, who then glared at Rebecca; poor us.

 Nevertheless it was the perfect volume to defeat that monster but definitely not the perfect place.

It blasted with a booming shriek and I got thrown backwards, hitting the wall. Damn, it was painful.

I slowly opened my closed eyes and widened my gaze, observing a scene of scattered debris that was coated in a slimy, viscous substance ranging in color from olive to yellow ochre. This damp and unpleasant material covered the area beneath my abdomen and extended all the way down to my feet.

Mom pivoted her head and leered at me weirdly with an questioning frown.

"Bloody nora! What is that? That isn't your poop blasting out right?"

"MOM THAT'S SO CHEAP OF YOU! GROSS! THA-THAT'S AWFULLY OUTRAGIOUS!"