-The Conclusion to The Rind Around the Moon Trilogy Series-
By J.C. Gonzalez
To the Reader:
In case you're lost and confused, hopefully this last one should clear things up. There is also a short explanation for the entire trilogy after Vol. 3 ends. Hope you enjoy!
Resurrection:
So, finally, the shocking end that will explain the past confusions. Samara's plans are almost complete. Rachel and Aidan have disappeared, and Rebecca is dead. Kelly must suffer a few months more, before Samara unleashes a new wave of horror and suffering.
THE RING AROUND THE MOONVOL. 3:
ResurrectionThe phone rang in the Rachel's apartment. It echoed throughout the walls, the wet floors, and empty rooms. Kelly opened her eyes. She was awake from her unconsciousness. She turned her head to the left; everything was moving in slow motion. The dizziness seemed to be controlling her body. She saw Rebecca's body, lying on the floor, dead.
"Rebecca," Kelly whispered before she fell back asleep.
*
"Pick up, damn it!" Aidan's teacher screamed into the phone. It continued to ring. The answering machine came on.
"Shit!" She pressed 1 to leave a message on Rachel's home phone.
*
Kelly opened her eyes again. She groaned as she felt hands under her body… the hands were lifting her. Men were lifting her.
She felt softness beneath her body; she had been laid down on a bed.
She heard the squeaking of wheels as she was rolled into the living room, heading for the doorway.
She heard voices; the men were talking to each other.
"Hey, there's a message on the answering machine. Should I play it?" One of them said.
"Yeah," Another replied.
Kelly recognized the voice; it was her daughter's teacher.
The answering machine played the message, "Hello, Rachel, you've gone way too far. This is kidnapping! I don't car what your excuse is this time. Kelly's on her way to pick up her daughter, oh, and she phone the cops too. They'll be on their way as well," the message ended.
Kelly then realized who the men were. They were the police. They've come to rescue her. She began to cry again, tears spilled onto the gurney.
"Hey! She's awake! Can you hear me?" the man asked. She could see him standing above her.
"Can you hear me?"
"Y-yes…" she took in a deep breath.
"What is your name?"
"K-Ke-Kelly… Flanagan," she stuttered. Then she went back to sleep again.
*
½ a month later… The First Moon
*
Kelly Flanagan walked into her house that Saturday morning. She had just come back from the doctor's office. She was a month and a half pregnant. Her ex-husband, Rick, was the child's father.
The phone rang.
She ran to the phone and answered it.
"Hello?" Kelly said.
"Hello, Kelly," it was Rick.
"What do you want?" She said sternly and annoyed.
"To see you…" Rick said.
"To see me? You want to see me? Oh, how nice!" Kelly said sarcastically. "Listen you asshole, you haven't said a word to me since the day I told you that I might be pregnant. Why the hell should I even let you near me now, huh?"
"Because I'm the father… and I want to apologize. I've realized that I need to take care of this baby."
"Uh-huh, well, what'd you call for?" Kelly asked.
"I want to see you, today. Please… just give me a chance," Rick pleaded.
"A chance? And why should I give you a chance?"
"Because I love you."
"Really," Kelly laughed. "Well, listen Rick, I haven't slept for days and—"
"I do love you, and I need to talk to you, you need to give me a chance," Rick begged. "You have to let me talk to you."
"And why is that?" Kelly became angrier and even more annoyed.
"Because I love you and Rebecca. I need to talk with you and Rebecca."
Kelly remained silent. She hadn't told him yet.
"Alright, fine. When and where?" she said quietly.
*
Kelly sat in the chair at the café, waiting for Rick to come. She quietly sipped her coffee. Then she saw Rick's car pull up. He got out, he was in his late twenties and was younger than her, and he hadn't changed one bit Kelly noticed.
A tear escaped from Kelly's eye.
Rick opened the glass-paneled door and stepped inside. He scanned the café with his eyes. He found her sitting in the table in the far corner. She was looking at him, crying. It had been two weeks since their eyes had met. He walked toward her quickly. He patted her back and hugged her.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "Where's Rebecca."
"Sit down… sit down, Rick," Kelly whispered to him, wiping the tears away.
He sat down in the empty seat, still holding her hand.
"What's wrong? Why are you—?"
"Rebecca's dead," Kelly blurted out.
"Wh-what?" he was shocked and confused.
Kelly looked at him, stared into his eyes, and then she grabbed her purse and ran across the café towards the door.
"Hey!" Rick called out and followed her.
She went out the door and ran to her car. He called her again, standing at the sidewalk.
"Kelly. Kelly, what do you mean she's dead? What are you—?"
"The doctor's aren't sure why…" Kelly opened her car door and got inside. She put the key in the ignition.
"Rebecca's dead?" Rick said again. Kelly could see his shocked face, and then she drove away, leaving him standing in the sidewalk.
*
Kelly didn't stop crying as she drove home. She looked in her rearview mirror and noticed Rick's car right behind her. She then knew how to explain this to him. She suddenly made a right at the next turn, Rick followed.
She was headed for the cemetery.
*
She parked her car and got out. She walked across the vast field of tombstones, dead bodies rotting six feet under her. She walked to Rebecca's grave and collapsed in front of it, crying. She heard Rick's car pull up near by. She waited for him, crying.
He came up behind her and knelt down next to her. He was crying also. They both looked at Rebecca's grave for a few moments, and then held each other, comforting each other. Later, they stood up and walked to their cars. Each of them quiet, and Kelly knowing that she was going to have to explain everything to him once she got home.
*
"The doctors don't know how she died," Kelly said, teary-eyed.
"What do you mean?" Rick asked, confused, but still emotional. They were sitting at the dining room table, Kelly on one end, Rick on the other.
"A few weeks ago, a woman and Rebecca's teacher came over. The woman was the mother of one of Rebecca's friends. The mother was Rachel and her son was Aidan. They wanted to know why Rebecca was drawing strange pictures at school, and Aidan had drawn simular one's before. Rebecca said it was because of a tape. And she gave it to Rachel. I didn't hear of Rachel the rest of that day. Then, the next day I went to the doctor to have more proof that I was pregnant and how far along I was and… and when I got back she was gone," Kelly wiped away more tears.
"Gone?"
"There was a note on the floor, explaining that Rachel took Rebecca to the hospital. I don't know what Rachel was doing here, or exactly what happened. But it seems like Rebecca fell from something. I think she tried to get something from the bookshelf by putting the stool on top of a chair. But she fell I guess and hurt her head. So I went to the hospital but she was already gone with Rachel. I got Rachel's address by asking Rebecca's teacher… and… and…" Kelly cried harder.
"And went to Rachel's house," Kelly continued. "Rebecca was dead… on the floor. Her face…" she continued to sob. Her cries drowned out her words. Rick cried with her.
"What about that woman and her son?"
"They disappeared. Rachel and Aidan were never found or seen after that night."
Then, she screamed in pain.
"Ahhhhh! SHIT!" Kelly grabbed her stomach.
"Wh-what's—?" Rick scrambled to the other side of the table to comfort his wife.
"Ah! Cramping… it's just cramping— AHH! DAMN IT" Kelly screamed. "It hurts like shit!"
"You need to go to the doct—"
"No! AH! It's hurts! No, I kept on telling him but…" she took in a deep breath, tears were pouring out of her face. She screamed again.
"I'm taking you to a different doctor, now," Rick tried to move her from the table. But she slumped back in her chair, quiet and unmoving. Then she collapsed onto the ground beside her.
"Kelly!"
*
"Hello, Kelly," a little girl's voice crept into Kelly's ears.
"I-I can't see!" Everything was black for Kelly.
"Don't worry, you're unconscious, you'll awake soon, just wait," the little girl whispered.
"This is… a… a…dream? Or is it a… what is this?" Kelly asked.
"I understand your confusion. I am with you right now and always… always, Kelly. Just remember that. As I said before, you are unconscious. Your cramps overwhelmed you so much that you fainted. This will happen more often, so get used to it, Kelly. No, this is not a dream. This is real. Quite real. I am speaking with you now while you are unconscious."
"You're her aren't you? You're the little girl… the little girl who…" Kelly became more frightened.
"I am Samara," the little girl replied.
"You're the little girl who… who was there and…" Kelly trailed off.
"You remember me, don't you? Yes, Kelly, it was me who was there. But you don't know exactly what happened there, do you?"
"N-no… I don't," Kelly said.
"Well, Kelly, let me explain. You see, I killed your daughter."
"What?" Kelly's terror increased.
"I killed your daughter, and Rachel, and Aidan," Samara giggled.
"What? What are you talking about?" Kelly became frantic. "Why are you in my head? WHY ARE YOU IN MY HEAD? This is just a dream!"
"No, Kelly, this is not a dream. Here I am trying to help you understand and you think that this is merely a dream."
"It has to be!"
"It isn't."
"Then what the hell's going on?" Kelly tried to move, but she couldn't.
"You already know, don't you, Kelly? You already know what's going on, you've almost figured it out," Samara said.
"What do you mean? I don't know anything!"
"But you do. You know a lot more than you think," Samara laughed.
"Like what?"
"Isn't that a question you should be answering yourself? You know so many things about that night but you're just not telling anyone. You've told your psychologist about some things about me. But there's more you're keeping secret from him."
"What do I know?"
"You know that what you see is what you see," Samara said quietly.
"You mean that everything that happened that night was real? That you are real and tried to hurt me?"
"I didn't try to hurt you, I did."
*
Kelly gasped in air and sat up in a flash. She looked around her. She was in a hospital room.
"Kelly! Kelly!" Rick was sitting in a chair beside her; he stood up and ran to hug her. "Kelly! You're awake! Thank God!"
Kelly was panting, frightened, "It was a dream, so it was just a dream" she whispered.
"What?"
"Nothing, it's nothing Rick," Kelly hugged him back.
*
"Listen, Dr. Kirigoe, I've been needing to tell you something I should've told you a long time ago," Kelly said as she sat in the large black leather seat. She was in her psychologist's office; she was receiving treatment to deal with her daughter's death. Dr. Kirigoe sat behind a large oak desk with a large window behind him.
"Please continue," he said, watching her intently.
"That little girl I told you about… well, I don't know what's wrong with me. I agree that I was delusion because I had just seen my daughter dead, but… but these delusions have continued."
"What? Explain, please," he leaned forward in his seat.
"My pregnancy is going awfully, doctor. I haven't slept since that night I found Rebecca dead. I've been having these images flashing at me. I've been having nightmares… in those few hours that I sleep," she smiled and tried to feel relaxed, but she was shaking, nervous of what he would say.
"I never sleep, I sleep like three hours since that night I found my daughter dead. But in those few hours that I do, I have these horrible nightmares…" she trailed off, wiping away a single tear that escaped from her eye.
"Nightmares that contain what?" Dr. Kirigoe asked.
"Images similar to those I had when I saw Samara," she gasped for a moment, "I mean the little girl."
"Samara?"
"Look, when I passed out yesterday because of the cramps I had this… this dream sort of thing. And the same little girl was talking to me. She told me her name was Samara, and that she killed Rebecca, and Aidan, and Rachel. She also told me that what I see is what I see."
"Hmmm," Dr. Kirigoe jotted some notes down on his notepad. "Your delusions have continued, obviously you are still disturbed over your daughter's death."
"Well no shit, doctor! My daughter died only a month ago! What do you expect?"
"You're having hallucinations about a little girl who claims she killed your daughter! It seems to me that this Samara is giving you answers to the many questions you have."
Kelly became angry.
Dr. Kirigoe continued, "Questions about your daughter's death and Rachel and Aidan's disappearances, perhaps? No one is certain why your daughter died, but it is presumed that it had something to do with her head injury earlier that day. Rebecca did go to the hospital for a head injury, and was taken out of there without the doctor's consent, right?"
"Yes."
"So therefore the best explanation would be because of her head injury," Dr. Kirigoe said.
"But you didn't see those photos of Rebecca's face! You didn't see the distortion, it's like that Rachel bitch stabbed a knife in her face and twisted it around over and over!"
"Which is precisely what could have happened. We do not know what happened inside that apartment that night."
"I was! I was there and I saw her face!" Kelly yelled.
"But you aren't even sure of what happened that night yourself! It was pure delusion and hallucination, Kelly. You found out that some stranger took your daughter to a hospital; you went there only to find out that she had been taken out of the hospital! You went to Rachel's apartment to get your daughter back, but find her dead and tortured body on the floor! Then you go into the bedroom, a little girl named Samara attacks you and you see images of a ring around the moon, her eye, and feel pain throughout your body!"
"How you do explain the pain I felt! That's physical!"
"You were found lying on the floor unconscious, the floor was wet, you fell backwards and hit your head. That is all! We've made no progress whatsoever! In fact you've gotten worse! You've not only to have these hallucinations, but you kept them secret from me since we started earlier this month! Recovery not only takes effort from me, but from you too!"
"That's it! THAT'S ENOUGH! I know what I saw! I'm leaving!" Kelly grabbed her purse and ran towards the door.
"Kelly!" Dr. Kirigoe called out. Kelly slammed the door behind her.
*
Second Moon
*
Dear diary, I don't know why the hell I'm writing in these useless pages. 'Therapy' that asshole son-of-a-bitch doctor calls it. I don't know why I'm writing in this, but I think I'm trying to see if I can find answers to some of my questions. I'm not crazy, no, defiantly not. I know what is real and what is not, Samara is real. I hate being pregnant with this child. I'm going on my second month now. It sucks so much. It's a pain in the ass. I haven't had sleep in a month and the cramps are so bad I pass out. I think it's growing rapidly, whatever it is. I don't want to find out whether it's a boy or girl yet. All of this torture is really pissing me off. Yet Dr. Richardson seems to find all of these things normal. Idiot, what does he know? He's not experiencing the cramps or the insomnia. Is it insomnia? Another thing I don't quite understand is that I'm seeing Rick again. I guess I do love him. He's changed and has become more mature. I wonder if this is because of Rebecca's death. –K. F.
*
Third Moon
*
"NO! Rebecca!" Kelly shot up from bed, screaming. Rick sat up next to her, awaked by the outburst. It was 4:56 am.
"Kelly… another dream?" Rick said, yawning.
Kelly nodded, frozen in terror. She began to cry.
"SHIT! DAMN IT!" she cursed. "I finally get to sleep more than three hours and I wake up again because of that bitch!"
"Kelly! What are you talking about? Who is this—"
"Nothing!" Kelly screamed furiously.
"It's that little girl in your dreams isn't it?" Rick asked, annoyed. "You need to see Dr. Kirigoe again! He said he would take you back as long as you started to care more about your recovery."
"Leave me alone," Kelly said sternly. Angry.
*
Fourth Moon
*
The ring around the moon…
The tongue… stretching to infinity…
The closing well… the half-moon shape dies…
Her eye…
Her whispers…
…Everyone will suffer…
Kelly opened her eyes. The dark ceiling looked as if it was closing in on her.
"Just five more months," Rick said, it was 4:56 am and he was getting ready for work. Kelly ignored him and started at the ceiling.
"No…" she groaned and turned over in her bed. "Please, stop."
*
Fifth Moon
*
Kelly watched the monitor inside the hospital room. Rick was holding her hand and sitting in a chair beside her. The technician held the rod, providing the images for the monitor. She was watching the baby by sonogram. Her baby was not moving.
"Wow, that's a huge baby for only five months. You've only been five months pregnant! My God!" cried Dr. Richardson.
"Why," Kelly asked bitterly.
"We don't know," he said.
"Why is the baby not moving?" Kelly asked. Depressed.
"Hmmm, I think the baby is asleep right now. She'll be awake in no time," the doctor explained.
"She never is awake, Dr, Richardson. It's like she's dead," Kelly said quietly.
"Well, you seem to have a point but her vital signs are all there. She's alive and perfectly well. Are you sure that the baby doesn't move," Dr. Richardson asked.
"I am very damn sure!" she screamed. "And she's heavy too. Like a rock."
"Let me go ask some other doctors," he left the room.
"He's not coming back. He doesn't know what the hell he's talking about," Kelly said to Rick. Rick was silent, holding her hand.
Kelly began to cry again. The technician simply stayed there, holding the rod. Kelly's tears poured off her face onto her gown.
"Rick…" she said.
"Yes," he answered.
"What's wrong with my baby?"
*
Sixth Moon
*
The ring around the moon…
Her eye…
Her whispers…
…Everyone will suffer…
"Why?" Kelly whispered in her dream, talking to Samara. "Why did you kill them?"
…Because they needed to die…
"WHY? WHY DID YOU KILL THEM, SAMARA? WHY?" Kelly screamed at her in the dream.
The ring around the moon…
The millipede crawling from beneath the table…
Bloody water…
Then… her answer…
…Rachel and Aidan caused trouble… …They were causing trouble, Kelly… …I couldn't let them stop it…
"Stop what?" Kelly asked.
…My cycle… …My final phase… …My plan… … Rachel and Aidan were in the way…
Kelly flashed open her eyes that morning. She turned over to see what time it was. 4:56 am.
*
Seventh Moon
*
The ring around the moon…
Her eye…
Hey whispers…
…Everyone will suffer…
Kelly opened her eyes; she had slept only thirty minutes that night. Rick stirred in his sleep and awoke to find his wife crying.
"I don't understand," she said. Kelly screamed. She threw herself down on the bed and trashed, shrieking in pain.
"RICK! RICK! PLEASE!" Kelly trashed and yelled, Rick tried to comfort her but wasn't able to get a hold of her body.
"RICK! HOSPITAL! AH!" She screamed louder.
*
Kelly's screams could be heard throughout the hospital. She trashed in the bed inside the white room. Doctors and nurses surrounded her. Rick was desperately trying to help. Kelly couldn't hear what was going on because of her own screams. All she could hear were shouts of: "I think she's going into labor!" and "That's impossible! This isn't right!"
The pain grew and grew and it never decreased.
Then, suddenly, a fierce pain ripped through her with such intensity that she lost her breath. She couldn't breath. It was as if she was being strangled.
Then she was able to breath again. Chants of "push" and "breath" echoed through her ears. She couldn't scream as this psychotic pain was shredding her apart, inside and out.
She coughed in her hand, she was able to open her eyes and glance at her hand for she felt warm liquid spray onto it. It was blood. Her terror increased, and so did the agony.
"Oh God! Its blood!" yelled on of the nurses.
Before they could do anything, Kelly had her final contraction. She cried once more.
The ring around the moon…
Her eye…
Her smile…
The well, she's crawling out…
The ring…
Her whispers…
…Everyone will suffer…
The baby came out of Kelly in that final scream. Kelly sucked in air, breathing heavily and weeping. She could hear distant cries and shouts.
"It's a girl! It's a girl!" it was Rick shouting.
"Female, time of birth: 4:56 am," Dr. Richard said and droned on into more details.
The world around her began to fade and blur together. Time passed. She wasn't sure whether it was hours or minutes or seconds. It didn't matter. The hell was over. The slow motion began to go away. She was Rick sit next to her, carrying the baby in his arms, happy and joyful with tears in his eyes. He handed the baby to her. She didn't want to touch it, but she forced herself to.
Kelly held the baby and brought to her chest to cradle it. But something was different. Odd. She could feel something different about this baby. It was lacking something that Rebecca had had, or any other person. The baby felt strange and disconnected. Not human, soulless and heavy as if it were dead in her arms. The weight was the same, like a rock. Dead inside. As Kelly held this soulless creature, she tried to look in her eyes. The baby looked up at her. Those eyes. The eyes were the same. Kelly looked out the hospital room window, trying not to scream in terror. Outside was the bright shinning full moon, with a ring around it. Kelly looked back at the baby's eyes.
Her eye…
Her whispers…
…Everyone will suffer…
*
THE END OF
THE RING AROUND THE MOON
VOL. 3:
Resurrection
*
Special Thanks to:
CidOtaku: thanks so much for they help with fanficion.net and with the trilogy!!
And, of course, to all my readers and reviewers!
Explanations:
Incase you're still lost; here's a little help. Rachel and Aidan discovered that Rebecca—another little girl from school—had seen the tape. Rachel took it and watched it, the tape contained new images though, the ring around the moon and her whispers. They try to save Rebecca by having her make a copy but Rebecca dies anyways. A tape mysteriously appears inside Rachel's apartment, one of the most puzzling things in the trilogy. Let me explain: In the movie The Ring, at the end where Rachel finds Noah's dead body, she hides from Noah's "girlfriend" when she's going on the elevator. Why? Well, my assumption would be because Samara would take this physical power and energy from living people in order to get out of the television into the real world. This would explain the reason why Becca never died in the movie, and witnessed the death of her friend. So, in The Ring Around the Moon Vol. 2, Becca has a horrible nightmare about Samara, and immediately afterwards the tape magically appears in Rachel's VCR, so Samara might have used Becca's physical energy through the dream. Then, Rebecca eventually dies, Rachel tries to revive her but fails, and during all this time Aidan goes into the bedroom and discovers the tape. Wanting to know why Rebecca died despite the fact that she made a copy, he watches it and Samara "takes" him away. Rachel tries to find him in the bedroom but results to watching the tape as well and disappears too. Kelly, Rebecca's mother, is furious that Rachel took her daughter and shows up at Rachel's apartment, only to find Rebecca dead. Then, Kelly wonders off into the bedroom to discover Samara waiting. Samara attacks Kelly and possesses her fetus at this time. Aidan and Rachel never are found. Kelly then suffers for seven months of a freakishly rapid growth of the baby. She suffers sleepless nights and horrific cramping. Finally, she gives birth. She has the flashing of images as before as she is giving birth. Once she holds the baby, she realizes that it is Samara's soul that has been resurrected through her baby's body. If you are wondering why Rachel and Aidan were killed, they were causing problems and trying to prevent Samara from succeeding in her plan. Samara explains this. Here are some things that were not explained on purpose: the time 4:56 am, it keeps on popping up. Well, it's supposed to signify the exact time that Samara died while being locked up in the well. It is also the exact time that Samara was resurrected and reborn. Also, the months in the story are called "Moons" (for example: First Moon, Second Moon, etc.) this is because I am referring to the full moon of the month.