1
She woke up in the morning and disregarded last night's events as some crazy dream. Her mind argued, but she finally won.
It was a dream until she sat up and looked at Kelsey.
She was sitting on her bed rocking back and forth, knees clutched tightly to her chest. She looked tired like she hadn't gotten much sleep.
"Kelsey…" Nicole pulled herself up from the floor and walked cautiously toward her.
"Kelsey…" she repeated. She twitched her head in her direction and looked at her. She stopped rocking and stared at Nicole. Her eyes were filled with an emotion that she couldn't detect. It seemed to be filled with fear, or want. They were pleading to be saved.
"It wants me," she whimpered. Her eyes filled with frightened tears. "It won't leave me alone, Nicole, make it stop. Nicole please-" She hugged her knees tighter into her chest. "You have to help me, Nicole. We have to-to stop it. It won't stop until it's satisfied. I don't know what to do; it's driving me crazy. I'm going crazy, all these thoughts, they won't stop-"
"What thought's Kelsey?" Nicole interrupted.
"Of Him." She shuddered. "The dark…He like's the dark…the darkness…"
"Kelsey calm down." Nicole touched her arm and quickly drew back. She was so cold. Kelsey swallowed and looked at Nicole. Her big brown eyes were wet with tears and pleading for her to make it stop.
"He's going to kill me." She took a deep, shaky breath. "You know what He does?" She asked.
Nicole swallowed hard. She didn't want to know. "What?"
"He came from somewhere dark, somewhere horrible. His-his master or whatever you call it, he-he wants Him to kill us. Humans. I-I think it's the battle of two worlds. Heaven and Hell. I might not be right, but that's as close to an explanation I can get to. I saw him. Your-your boyfriend-" I gasped. I couldn't help it."- He-he was rotting on one side, but completely whole on the other.
"I walked up to him and said, "What happened?" He turned toward me and pointed to an opening. Nicole, it was so dark, but it was so hot.
"Get away," he said to me. "Tell her to stop it." I think he was talking about you Nicole. He told me to get away and for you to stop it. I won't leave you, though. Never." She paused to swallow then began again:
"I told him this. I said I wouldn't leave you. He grabbed me by the arm.
"You don't want this," he said. You should have seen the look in his eyes. I almost considered leaving, but I changed my mind.
"No," I said firmly, "I'm sticking with Nicole." He shook my arm then led me into the entrance. It was dark, but I could see everything. It was like a cave, it was so hot, so very hot. There were these-these things that were running around. Some were, I don't know, but they seemed to be working. It was so horrible, Nicole, there were humans there, Nicole, live humans. Some were rotting away; there-there-there limbs were falling off. They were crying out in pain. Some were scared. The-the demon things, some were working, but others were taunting. They would laugh and-and some would touch them, the humans. Nicole, once they touched them their skin would peel away…fall off. It was so horrible.
"Do you want this? Do you want to be here?" he asked me. I shook my head.
"Then get away."
"I'm not leaving her," I said. He lead me back out. It got cold again." And as to confirm this Kelsey gave a small shiver.
"He looked at me again. And I could see his skin rotting. Peeling away and falling off. He pulled me close to his face and I could smell him. Oh God, it was so disgusting. He pulled me close and said:
"She is the only one that can stop this. Everything will be ok, but you won't survive. Believe me Kelsey," he shook my shoulder and more of his skin fell with a grotesque splat. "Don't follow her. She will know what to do. Don't end up like me."
She looked at me.
"You're the one, Nicole. But I won't let anything hurt you, so I'm sticking by you, no matter what." She trembled and began to cry, hugging her knees tighter.
"How-how did you see him?" I asked, tentatively. She looked at me, as if it were plain and simple.
"Outside your house," she said.
2
Kelsey fell back asleep sometime later. She curled into a ball in the corner of Nicole's bed, blankets over her head. Just like Nicole's dead boyfriend.
Nicole, meanwhile, stayed awake. She was in no mood to sleep. She picked up her phone and dialed Logan's number. It rang and rang.
"Hello?" A groggy voice answered from the other line. Nicole let out a sigh of relief.
"Logan, hey it's Nicole. Listen…I need your help," her voice sounded far away. As if it didn't belong to her.
"With what?" He asked. He was still tired and a little aggravated at the thought of getting a call this early in the morning. Especially on the weekend.
"With Kelsey. Listen I need you to come over here. Don't worry, my mom and my brother are at work, so we have the house to our-" she stopped and realized what she was about to say. No one was here. Anything could just come out and eat them up.
"Nicole?" Logan's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Nicole, are you still there?"
"Uh, yeah, just come over here. Ok?" There was an annoyed sigh from the other line.
"Yeah, I'll be right over." She turned the phone off and looked at Kelsey.
She was sleeping soundly.
What she said made perfect sense to her, but she didn't want to accept it.
Did he really come to her? She wondered. She felt a sickening pain in her chest. She missed him for the first time since he was gone. She sighed and held back whatever tears were trying to surface.
She stood up and put the phone back on its charger. Then it rang. She picked it up.
"Hello?" She asked into the receiver.
"Nicole, open your door, I'm outside," Logan's breaths were coming in short gasping intervals, as if he were running.
"Really you're already here?" I said as I walked to the door. I unlocked it and opened it.
3
Logan and Kelsey started dating after a memorable get together. A camping trip in fact. There was excessive flirting until it came to a point where they realized they loved each other. Exstactic Kelsey cornered me into the bathroom.
"He likes me, Nicole! He asked me out!" she squealed.
"That's great," I said. She sighed and looked up at the sky.
"God, he's great." I smiled.
They continued to cuddle with each other, giving each other warm smiles from across the table.
Alyssa didn't like it. After all, one of her friends was already going out with her brother. Her brother for God sakes! It disgusted her. She was growing to hate her friends with their foolish acts.
She watched from afar as she seen her best friend talking with her brother and her other best friend snuggling close to her brother's friend. Her malice welled in her chest and spread through her body like some sick form of cancer. It deteriorated her body and ate whatever it could feed on. It infested itself upon her whole being and turned her into something viscous. Hate itself.
She cried the first night she seen them together. How they excluded her. They didn't even ask her if she wanted to come and join, they just left.
"How could they do that to me?" she thought. "Why would they do that?"
They don't care about you a voice answered for her, one not at all like her own. But it didn't answer in her head. It answered in her ear. She opened her eyes and sat bolt right up.
"Who are you?" she asked.
No one in particular. But believe me, I know they don't care. I listen to them. They talk about you. They don't like you; they want to rid of you. Don't let them. Don't let them get what they want….
The voice faded. That's where it all started. That's when she snapped. She was lost.
5
No one was there. Nicole stepped outside and looked around. Logan liked to do stupid stuff like this.
"Where are you?" She asked. Something laughed from the other line. It wasn't Logan. Hot panic ran through her veins at the realization of this. She dropped the phone and closed the door, knowing that nothing would stop whatever it was from getting in.
Him, she referred to it as Him," She thought absently. Heart beating she stood against the door for sometime, hoping nothing would pop out and scare. Then she remembered Kelsey. Alone in the room, unprotected. At this thought she ran into my room. She burst through the door and seen what Kelsey had been talking about except in a different form. It was a ghastly figure. It hovered over her body. She lay on her back, stiff as a board. She wasn't breathing and her eyes her rolled back so far the only thing you could see were the whites. She saw Kelsey struggle and take in a deep breath, but then go back to her original state. She was fighting it.
"Hey! Hey, you!" Nicole yelled. She was surprised to hear her own voice. "Hey!" The figure turned it's head and Nicole seen it's evil eyes. It glared at her, torn between finishing the work it had begun and killing this new girl. Nicole smiled and it gave up a bit. Kelsey struggled more and took in three more breaths.
"Get off," Nicole said. She took a step forward and seen something in it's eyes. A look of uncertainty. She smiled again. Kelsey continued to struggle, getting more and more air.
With a look of hate it completely let off and hovered a few feet away from Nicole. Kelsey sat upright and gulped in as much air as she could get until she began to get lightheaded. She looked at Him and Nicole. Nicole looked confident, not at all scared, but so did He.
"Go away," Nicole said.
"No," it growled. That was the first time Nicole heard it speak and she hoped never to hear that wretched voice again.
"Go away!" she bellowed. Something emitted from her body, it wasn't human. Kelsey watched in awe and realized there was something black forming on her wall just behind Him. She watched as the anger began to rise in Nicole and the fears in her dissipate.
Nicole took another step forward. That's when He retreated into the black hole that had fully formed on Nicole's wall.