It was storming dreadfully the next evening. Rain was pouring down rapidly, thunder clapped enough to shake the earth, and lighting cracked like fire. It was terrifying. Especially to the children. Aaron nervously watched it all from the window and couldn't shake the feeling that there was something unnatural the occurrence.
"Aaron don't stand so close to the window." Charlie said. "If the wind blows hard enough, you could get hit."
Aaron took a few steps back but his stare did not waver.
"Mom I don't like this." He said. "I think we should leave."
"It's alright Aaron." Charlie said. "As long as you stay inside and keep your distance from the window, nothing will happen. There's no need to be scared."
"I'm not scared!" He denied. "I just have a bad feeling that's all."
"Well there's no need for that bad feeling." She smiled.
"Charlie." Vaggie said. "If you need us we'll be down in the basement doing some more examinations."
"Do you need me or Alastor to come down there?"
"No. That's alright. You stay up here with your kids. But remember to avoid that closet in the hall."
The closet Vaggie was referring to was one at the very end of the hallway. It was so old and dusty that brooms couldn't even be kept in it. Charlie had tried to fix it up when they first moved in but it just seemed too dirty and broken up. So the closet was ignored until that night where Husk had heard something from the other side and got bit when he looked into it. Angel and Vaggie investigated it but they found nothing. Still it was declared off limits.
"You know I never liked that closet." Alastor told Charlie. "So dirty and musty, not to mention rats could have gotten in. Ugh! I think we should have had it boarded up or something."
"Do you actually believe something came out of there and bit Husk?" Charlie said.
"He has the bite mark to prove it."
"Could have come from a rat or a bug."
"A human sized rat or bug? Because according to them that bite was the exact same size as a human jaw line."
"I don't know. I just...I know this paranormal is actually happening but I...I...I-"
"You just can't help but try to convince yourself otherwise?"
"You know me so well."
"Charlie I know how scary this all is but you know pretending that it's not happening won't make it true."
"I know. I know. I just really, really wish this wasn't happening. I don't know why Alastor but I have strangest feeling that once we find out what this is all about, it'll destroy everything. Us, the kids, it's-"
"Stay calm. Don't get all worked up. Everything is going to be alright. Nothing in this world is ever going to destroy our family. I can promise you that."
She embraced him, he returned it.
"I hope you're right."
Alastor and Charlie were talking in the kitchen. Carrie was playing on the living room floor with her doll while Aaron still kept watching the storm nervously. Storms had never made him this anxious before but an instinct urged him be extra wary of this one in particular. After another crack of lightning he caught sight of nearby power line. For reasons he couldn't understand at the moment, to him that power line was more unnerving than the storm.
Suddenly the power line began to move on it's own and came crashing through the window. It morphed into something horrifying and it reached for the boy. Carrie screamed, Charlie and Alastor hurried into the living room and were mortified to see the atrocity grab their son and pulled him outside.
"Aaron!" The couple cried in horror.
They immediately ran outside after him.
"Carrie stay inside!" Charlie called to her daughter. "Vaggie! Angel! Husk! One of you watch her!"
But when they tried to go back up the basement door was slammed shut. Vaggie attempted to open it but it wouldn't budge an inch.
"What the hell?" She said twisting the knob. "It won't open!"
"Hey! Can anyone hear us?!" Angel called. "The door is stuck!"
Carrie could hear them and she made her way over to the basement door to let them out. But that door happened to be in the hallway and as soon as Carrie set foot in the hall, the closet at the end opened up. There was a flash and something like a strong wind seemed to be trying to pull her toward the closet.
"Mommy!" Carrie screamed.
But her mother couldn't hear her. She and her father were outside going after the power line that had taken Aaron. The wooden and electrical figure seemed to look like some sort of giant and it was slowly absorbing Aaron into something that appeared to be it's mouth.
"Mom! Dad! Help me! Help me!" He cried out.
"Aaron I'm coming!" The first time Alastor tried to climb up the thing it threw him back with electrical shocks. But he just picked himself up and tried again.
"Honey be careful!" Charlie warned.
Alastor managed to start going but he kept getting shocked and found wires clinging to him tightly, trying to pull him down. It hurt like hell.
"Help me Dad!" Aaron pleaded as he was being pulled further in.
"He's coming!" Charlie called.
"It's hurting me! I can't breathe!"
"Alastor hurry!"
Meanwhile inside, Carrie could feel the pull becoming stronger. She quickly grabbed hold of a door way edge when she felt her feet being lifted off the floor.
"Daddy! Mommy!"
"What's going on out there?!" Husk called from the other side of the basement door.
"Carrie are you alright?" Vaggie asked.
"Screw this! Let's just break the door down!" Angel declared.
All three of them proceed to bang and pound against the door in order to get through the entrance. Poor Carrie held on for as long as she could and continued to cry for her parents but they couldn't hear her over the storm.
"Mommy!"
Her last cry before she lost her grip and was sucked right into the closet.
...
Alastor willed himself to keep climbing. He struggled to ignore the painful shocks and to break free from the wires holding him, Aaron being his only target. He tried to get closer and reached his arm as far as he could. His fingers desperately trying to grasp the boy's hand. The poor frightened boy who was screaming and crying, looking to his father to save him.
"Dad help me! It's pulling me in!"
"Hold on Aaron! I'm almost there!"
But he wasn't. He just thought that if he kept saying it then it would be true. His body was so restrained at the moment that he couldn't go any further than where he was. His son just kept getting pulled deeper in until he was gone. Swallowed up. Out of sight.
Charlie screamed in bloody terror when her child vanished. She desperately cried out his name, panic stricken and unable to think of what to do. She felt so helpless.
Alastor however did not scream. He didn't shout, cry, curse, or even breathe. He was just quiet. His wife was about to say something to him when suddenly she saw a change in him. A familiar change in him that she hoped to God she'd never see again.
The man just couldn't help himself. The very minute he realized his son was gone and that he was powerless to save him it caused something to take over Alastor. He saw red again. Red over took the brown color of his eyes, a shadowy aura appeared around his body, and a twisted smile rose to his face.
He somehow manged to break the wires without struggle and start barreling up to where Aaron had vanished. He plunged his hands deep into the monster and started ripping and tearing his way inside.
"Shit! You're still as twisted as I remember!" A voice was said but no one heard him.
Charlie only heard twisted laughter. That same twisted laughter she heard the last time this had happened to Alastor. Also like last time he unleashed an unstoppable and violent fury. He viciously hacked the thing from the inside with his laughter getting louder. He was enjoying this. He had enjoyed back then too. He might have completely lost himself if not for...
"Daddy."
Aaron's voice was faint but Alastor heard it and it was enough to restore his senses. He vanished briefly and when he was seen again he jumped down with Aaron safe in his arms. Charlie rushed over to them and hugged the scared boy.
"It's alright Aaron!" She said kissing him repeatedly. "It's alright! You're safe now!"
Aaron just laid still against his father while letting the warmth of his mother's touch calm him down. He had never been so scared in his entire life. The same could be said for his parents. The sight of their child almost getting eaten alive was a nightmare come alive and for a moment all they could do was just hold Aaron and be grateful that he had been saved. But then they remembered their other child.
"Where's Carrie?" Alastor asked his wife.
"I left her inside. I told Vaggie and them to watch her."
The family went back into the house which was at the exact time the paranormal investigators managed to break down the basement door. Carrie was no where to be seen.
"Vaggie where's Carrie?" Charlie asked her.
"She wasn't with us. We tried to get to her but something had us trapped in the basement!"
"Oh my God!"
The hearts of Charlie and Alastor jumped right into their throats. At once all the adults started to scour the entire house and area for the little girl. Bedrooms, bathrooms, under sinks, behind curtains, under couches, outside in the yard, in closets, even in kitchen cupboards but there was no trace of her.
"Carrie!" They all called her name desperately but she didn't answer.
"Carrie where are you?!" Alastor shouted.
"Carrie please answer Mommy!" Charlie screamed.
Aaron just stood their in the living room trying to recover from his near death experience. He was stunned. Unable to move or speak. Nothing seemed to phase him. Though he eventually came out of it when the TV turned on by itself again and as before there was only static on the screen but a noise came from it.
"Mommy."
It was a little girl's voice. Carrie's voice. Carrie's voice which was coming from the TV.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"
Aaron's stunned fear was increased ten flod.
"M-M-Mom..." He stuttered. "Mom...Mom! Mom! Mom! Mommy! Mommy!"
"What?! What is it?" Charlie asked, racing over to answer her son.
"Mommy!" Carrie's voice said again.
"Oh Carrie thank God." Charlie smiled in relief and scanned the room for her daughter. Yet she still didn't see the child despite hearing her voice. "Baby where are you? Carrie?"
"Mommy come over here!" Aaron shouted while pulling on her arm and pointing to the TV.
"What? What is the matter?"
"Ca-Ca-Carrie! Carrie! Carrie!"
"What about Carrie? Do you know where she is?"
"Mommy!"
Charlie turned to look at the TV when she heard Carrie's voice that time.
"Mommy! I can't see you Mommy, where are you?"
Charlie's entire form lost all color and her body shook as if death was at her door. She slowly raised a trembling hand toward the TV screen.
"Carrie?" She inquired fearfully. "Carrie...Is that you?"
"Mommy I can hear you but I can't see you."
Charlie thought that she was going to faint.
"Why can't I see you Mommy? I'm scared! Where are you? Where's Daddy?"
Charlie couldn't remember when she was able to move again but when she could she grabbed Aaron out of fear he would disappear to and went to find her husband. Her living nightmare had only just begun.