Chapter 105: Last Straw

All I could do was just stand there in complete silence.

Aaron's hand was on my shoulder. Ashley, Diana, Jay and Billy were all gathered around us. I faintly heard a car start up before pulling out of the driveway, and I felt like a part of me had been taken away.

The next thing I knew, Gracie came into the game room after having walked down the stairs – her ears were back, and her tail was down. She clearly knew something was wrong.

I could feel my entire body starting to tighten – both in pain, and in anger – and Aaron broke the intense silence, his hand gripping my shoulder a bit more tightly.

"Just give her-" Aaron started, but I couldn't listen to this, not now.

I had something I needed to do.

"Can all of you go upstairs? Take Gracie too...and don't let her come back down," I said, emotionless, as I stepped out of Aaron's grip and headed toward the bookcase leading to the dungeon.

"Bro...maybe you should come upstairs with us," Billy said, concern in his tone.

"Go upstairs," I said, not turning to look back at any of them.

"Come on," Ashley said softly, and shortly after I heard a series of footsteps begin walking up the stairs.

"Come on Grace..." Aaron said softly, but I could still hear the reluctance in his voice.

I heard a small whimper escape from Gracie's throat and I felt horrible, but I needed to know she was safe - as well as the others – before I called this spirit, or entity, out.

After a few moments of silence, I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure everyone was gone. Once I was satisfied that I was alone, I turned back to face the partially open bookcase, and took a few steps forward to enter the dungeon.

"What do you want from me?" I asked quietly, glancing around in the mostly darkened room. "Why are you so possessive of me?" I added.

I've known for years now that I had a very possessive spirit, or potentially a demon, residing in this part of the house. After bringing in a real life human skull and setting it on display, I had started having crazy amounts of activity. One night I woke up to find myself being violently pulled out of bed. And then activity started "spreading" to my past girlfriends over a period of two years. It came to the point where I was afraid to have anyone over to my house. But then Alicia came into my life, and against my better judgement, I had let her inside the house. After the first few times she had been over and nothing had happened, I thought maybe I was finally rid of this spirit or demon.

But I had been horribly wrong.

And now, only after a week of having started to date, Alicia experienced God knows what in here. Whatever she saw or experienced was enough to scare her out of my house. Make her scared of me, and probably scared her enough that she would never come back.

My anger began rising by the second.

"What did you fucking do to her?!" I yelled, walking over to the glass case that contained the human skull I believed to be the source of all this.

As more minutes passed, I continued lashing out at everything in the dungeon. Throwing objects across the room, upending furniture, even destroying objects that had been precious to me for years. My knuckles were red and bloody from punching out glass display cases, and from punching randomly at the walls. Despite the ridiculousness of how I must look, I focused all my anger on the skull.

"You've tormented me for years! I let you beat me down to the point of shutting people out of my life!" I yelled. "Then I meet someone that I couldn't shut out if my life depended on it, and you made me believe she was safe! And now you've chased her away!" I yelled angrily, lashing out at the fake skulls lined across the top of the fireplace – sending them crashing loudly to the floor.

I could feel my entire body shaking with anger, and I knew this was probably one of the worst ideas I've had in a long time. Letting my anger come out in a room potentially haunted by a demon was definitely a bad idea, but I couldn't take it anymore.

I grabbed one of the stained glass windows and ripped it off the wall and threw it across the room, letting out a yell of pure anger as I did so. I watched as the glass hit the wall across from me - shattering into pieces - before falling to the floor.

I looked over at the skull, as if expecting to see some sort of reaction come from it, but I heard and felt nothing.

"So what? You're okay with picking on innocent people but you won't do or say anything to me! Come on!" I yelled, walking over to a nearby table that had some books on it, and threw it across the room.

"Zak..." I heard a voice call my name from out in the game room – Aaron's voice – but I ignored him.

"Do something! Come on! Or are you to scared!?" I yelled.

Silence.

"You piece of shit! Does picking on women get you off?! Pick on me instead!" I yelled.

"Zak!" I heard Aaron call again, his voice closer to the dungeon.

Once again, I ignored him.

"Come on! Scratch me! Burn me! Hurt ME, you fucking piece of shit!" I yelled, feeling my eyes well up from both anger, and from the realization that this spirit or demon had already hurt me more than anything else could.

Silence.

Letting out a near animalistic growl, I charged at the glass case displaying the skull. I punched through the glass and grabbed the skull, ripping it from the display case.

"No more!" I growled, lifting the skull up over my head, about to throw the skull to the ground and watch it crumble into many, satisfying, pieces. But before I could even begin to move my arm to throw the skull to the floor, I felt something grab my arm firmly.

"Zak!" Aaron yelled, holding my forearm tightly.

I turned my head to look at him, about ready to tell him to fuck off, but he spoke again.

"If you smash this skull bro, it'll only get worse! And you know it!" Aaron yelled at me.

"Worse? Worse?! How could it possibly get any worse bro?! She's gone!" I yelled in anguish.

"You don't know that for sure! I was just talking to Cheryl!" Aaron replied.

I felt my body relax, only slightly, at the speculation from Aaron's response that Alicia wasn't leaving for good.

"She said Alicia is a mess...Cheryl's trying to get details out of her about what happened. She's not saying much right now, but one of the first things she did when they got home, is go to her room and put on that cross you gave her..." Aaron said, having lowered his voice back to normal.

As all the anger and tension suddenly left my body, I felt like my knees were going to give out. I quickly, but carefully, set the skull back in its case, and grabbed onto Aaron's arms with both hands, to keep myself steady. I felt Aaron's hands grab onto me to help support me.

"I need to get rid of it...the skull...this house...I need to start fresh..." I mumbled, while trying to calm myself down.

"Whatever you need bro...but let's get you out of this dungeon first..." Aaron suggested softly, as if afraid of my reaction.

I simply nodded, and let him lead me out of the dungeon – firmly closing the bookcase behind us - before we started up the stairs, where I saw all of the others anxiously watching us from over the railing.

I had collected weird and haunted objects for years now, and never once I had ever considered getting rid of any of them, no matter what havoc they might cause, but this was the last straw.

I couldn't make sense of it. Alicia and I had only known each other for five months, but those five months had given me more happier moments than I've had in a very long time. The thought of losing that...of losing her...I couldn't even think about it.

It was time to start a new chapter in my life. Get rid of that skull, and get rid of my so called "bachelor pad" and get a place that was more "me" as I am now, and not the man I was years ago.

For the first time – in as far back as I can remember - I was more excited about my future than ever before.

Authors Note: I'm sorry the update is only short, but I wanted to get these chapters up before I put my iPad in for service. Hope you enjoyed them, and keep the reviews coming! Love you all!