Eldona heard a scamper outside of her room that night, She was expecting to see two unsightly pale eyes that belonged to her dog Plaza.

Plaza was a flat coat retriever, a distant cousin of the black lab retriever, however, what unsettled her the most was she didn't see plaza anywhere in sight.

"Come heeeere".

The whisper was now a childish but raspy voice that was followed by a mischievous giggle.

"Wait? Who are you?"

She Saw the flash of a white gown, the kind of gown you would wear to bed however, what was strange was half the gown was engulfed in straight black hair.

It was a woman and whoever this woman was, she was humming and the humming was that of a child who was up playing on the sidewalk.

"Who am I?

Would you like to guess?

I bet you're good at riddles aren't you.

So I'll tell you a riddle, the riddle is, 20 moons ago, I escaped this realm to an unholy one. I slipped from this reality to the next one.

I Lost a world and then I gained another one.

Some call me human others hell maiden, however, I am an angel to some but a demon to others, I give life and I take it away, I bring blessings but I also bring curses.

Where I walk no mortal has walked before and though I walked upon his earth there is no trace of me.

You know who I am?

The answer should be simple than ever. So easy for a smart girl like you".

"Zerina".

" Oh you are ever so clever and for that I will reward you.

Come with me and I can show you great wonders, wonders beyond anything that you've ever seen and anything you've ever imagined".

Zerina hair hung in front of her face shielding Eldona from whatever horror resided on her face.

" That sounds nice but I'd rather not.

Look Zerina, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I have a feeling that you're not being entirely honest with me. I think you might be holding back something, something important.

You have a good heart and I hope we could be friends, I certainly don't want us to be strangers, I very much would like to get to know you, in fact I'd love it.

It's just I don't think I'm ready to follow you wherever you're going right now".

"Hmm...not ready... He won't be happy about this.

They won't be happy with this.

I suppose I could give you some time to think it over.

how does 7 days sound to you?"

" Well that sounds fine. but what happens if I say no the next time you see me?"

" I see you all the time. I've watched you a lot. actually, I've seen you go on your walks. I've seen you go to Amela's house all those times house Why you left your poor aunt to fend for herself.

Of course she's never alone, there are others, There's the dog, My sisters. oh yes and then there's him.

You'd like him and I know I shouldn't be saying this, in fact he told me not to but he likes you, a little too much I'm afraid.

He's rather desperate to meet with you so he keeps sending me but you know I don't always come bearing gifts, although not very often but sometimes I come back empty handed which is something I'm trying to very much avoid right now. I don't want him to be angry.

He's rather scary when he's angry.

You see he is ever so merciful and kind but my sisters, They are a bit different.

They don't take kindly to humans especially for their pets.

Oh where is that charming little dog of yours?"

Zerina sounded as if she was going to laugh but instead Eldona heard some painful crackles that sounded like bone breaking against bone and she saw Zerina's hands twist and convulse and her neck flexed downwards at such a angle that it appeared that head was about to slide off sideways onto the floor.

" No you didn't do anything to her did you?"

"Who me?

No, never but my sister's might.

They have far less control than I do, let's just say they never really socialized like I have amongst the human world."

"If I find that dog is hurt in any way, I assure you there will be hell to pay".

" Oh indeed, there will be.

Relax, my sisters aren't here with me. They are resting, in fact, if you turn away, right down that hallway to your room, you'll find that the dog has found her way to your bed.

I'm just giving you a warning and that warning is this, don't test me, I might have all the time in the world but my time is not something that should be taken for granted. Time is a privilege don't waste it.

So is after 7 days if you have not decided to take up my offer to escape from this hell that you hate so much, My sister and I will just take the Liberty of removing,whatever obstacles that are holding you back which in layman's terms, that would mean you're great aunt and her little dog.

I mean they are both rather old. Your aunt isn't getting any younger and that dog is over 11 if I'm not mistaken.

So if something unfortunate in the night would happen to them nothing too messy, I assure you then people would simply think that it was old age. I believe they call that natural causes."

" So you're saying if I refuse you'll kill my great aunt and my dog".

" Oh I'm sorry I said me and my sisters. I meant just my sisters and as I said they have less control than I do and I have the ability to reason with them. but if they come here and they dispose of everyone in this house besides you I will make sure that I am not there to stop them and if I am there I won't interfere.

I'll just Stand here in this house and watch, Oh yes, I'll most likely oversee the whole entire thing but I won't do anything to stop it.

when people find them they'll see it as an accident. not even that, just a natural incident, the neighbors will say it is a inevitable death. Two inevitable deaths to be exact.

So yes you either follow me or there will be consequences".

" Yes, but either way I'll be abandoning her and the dog as well."

" Oh abandonment This sounds familiar. I think I've experienced this before. it was a really long time ago.

back when I was on the ranch I was abandoned a lot. I lived out in the barn because my parents didn't know how to talk to me and they left me alone the most of the time and I just lived with the horses talked with them. it was nice for a time but nothing replaces two loving parents."

" look, I'm sorry that happened to you and from what I've heard you've been hurt a lot, but you don't have to have that hurt affect other people in your life or the people that you used to have in your life.

The hurt you've experienced, it probably will never go away, those ones will always burn and sting but what There's something that can help heal those wounds and that's getting support and love of people who've experienced things similar to you.

I've experienced these things myself and I carry around that hurt with me everywhere but I don't allow that anger to hurt other people.

I can be your friend. look I've been hearing these voices and I don't know if they're you or not but they keep telling me to free them and that they're stuck in hell and they need to get out. if that's what's going on here I can help you".

" I don't need any help. I am exactly where I need to be to be. so no whoever these voices were I can assure you they weren't me. perhaps you're hearing things, auditory hallucinations you know. perhaps this environment is just so stressful that you are seeing and hearing things that you shouldn't".

" Yes, maybe I shouldn't be seeing and hearing these things but that's who I am. that's part of who I am. they're not hallucinations, They're real just like you are."

" Whatever you say you know just came to my attention you kind of resembles me in a way except your hair has a lot more volume than mine does.

You're prettier than I am. I don't know if I like that. You seem to be smarter than I am as well.

You shine like an angel.

You're all glossy and your hair is so glossy it sparkles.

You look like an angel but your eyes are cruel like a witch."

Eldona indeed did have cruel midnight blue eyes and her brow seemed to be forever unimpressed and raven black. Her hair was so thick and wavy that it engulfed her head like a fluffy umbrella.

She had a long, thin snobby nose that pointed up slightly at the end that also seemed unimpressed by the world and she seemed to always look like she had a problem with something or someone but as judgmental she appeared, she was possibly the most non judgmental person within that town.

Eldona however, was not someone you could describe as thin or slim.

She was built a bit like a gymnast broad shouldered, she had a wide shapely waist and she had a well endowed bosom and her thighs seemed to have a certain attitude that often got unwanted attention yet Even though she was no size zero when it came to her figure she took care of herself, she ate well, she exercised but nothing ever seemed to get rid of her curves and the voluptuous nature of her womanly figure.

However, she was very disappointed that she had not grown to be very tall and at 5"4 and awaiting her 25th birthday in a few months. she knew there was not much hope for her getting any taller.

She wasn't really complaining in fact she'd rather gotten used to the way looked and it wasn't uncommon for her too kindly admire herself in the mirror.

It was little things at first, but eventually she grew to be comfortable in her own skin and she remembered that she had indeed look this way since she was 8 years old which had been very confusing for her because in her head she was a little girl but her body had decided that it was going to become a woman.

She was well developed even as a little girl, other girls her age developed more slowly than she did, which was not a comfortable situation, especially when she was in the locker room with the other girls After PE.

"He'll soon grow tired of me and then he'll grow tired of you. It is a cycle in the world which I come from. He has little proteges he takes on but none of them really last.

I mean you are rather easy on your eyes So I'm sure he'll take quite a liking to you."

" Who is this person you keep referring to as he?

Who is he?

He's the one that sent you right?

He's your boss and he's the one giving you your orders".

" Yes he is. he is a bit like a boss, although I like to call him master.

I'm a bit like his pet really much like that dog is to you. anyhow I'm giving you 7 days to decide your fate and the fate of your sad little family you have here. oh another thing is if you try to tell anybody I wouldn't recommend that because well let's just say no one will believe you.

in fact, I've put a little enchantment of my own and woven it into this reality that if my name is spoken or anything about me my boss or my sisters, there will be absolute silence. you will hear the words but nobody else will, This will ensure that no one will ever know about me and you won't have any way of getting help.

I'm clever, aren't I? I know I am. I like you Have not only the ability to change people's minds but to change the very fabric of reality that you live in.

You shouldn't underestimate me.

I was able to punch a hole in this realm and enter the next one and all those wonderful stories about cursed objects cursed homes, the terrified faces, white pale and in terror much like your own right now. that was all me.

Oh you probably thought I had some help so I have minimal help at most sometimes my sister will join in but most of the time I do everything by myself. which means I won't have any problem with disposing of any obstacles that you might have in this world myself.

Believe me, it will be a pleasure for me to do that for you because you want us to be best friends forever, don't you? You know what I'd love to be your friend. I mean friends are so scarce these days and Oh how quaint I see you don't have any friends. at least none that I can see right now unless they're hiding of course."

" I have friends."

" Oh I forgot the women.

You don't know much about them, do you?

Don't you think that it's rather sinister what Amela does what those dolls?

I mean she tells you that the souls That inhabits those dolls are the souls of those that were lost during the great massacre long ago.

The broken jaws, the lips sewn shut, those are all stories. Those things never happened and there's no record of any women dying in this town.

All the women here are unusually strong if you've noticed.

another thing, I'd like to add that creepy little graveyard that a Amela talks about, there are tombstones there but I went there one night with a shovel and I dug one up and you know what I found :nothing.

Oh there was a coffin but no body.

So you know what I did?

I went to that graveyard every night and I dug up every plot within that graveyard and not one of those coffins had a single corpse in it.

The real question is where did they go?"

" I don't know what you're saying. What are you implying?"

"Oh what I'm implying is those women are not telling you the truth.

I thought they were telling me the truth but when I found what the truth really was I had to leave because everything they had told me and I mean everything, was a lie.

They lied to me, They told me tall tales about how they were protecting people with these wonderful powers and unique abilities.

They told me there were few of these organizations that went rogue that was a lie as well. nobody went rogue. they all work together and it is not for the good of humanity.

They hate humanity as much as I do."

" Those are my friends You're talking about and they are my only friends.

I don't want to lose them".

" friends tell each other the truth, which is something they haven't given you. The truth about your gifts and your abilities might be the only thing that was truly honest the rest of the time they lie.

You want to know the truth?

I know you don't but I'm going to tell you anyway.

long ago. well over a 100 years ago. it was well after the founding of this town. the town had been there for well over a thousand years.

these women came to power and they were fueled by the rage that they had built up for centuries, they've been mistreated, isolated shunned and thrown out to the streets because of their abilities and they had every right to be angry, but they took it to beyond the normal realms of anger.

So that graveyard up there. oh it wasn't full of poor souls of people like us No I was full of people that challenged them.

however, the most valuable souls, the souls that they cherish the most are those that have the gift. those are the souls that inhabit the dolls.

You see in the past they tried to gather up as many recruits as they could. those that had the same kind of power, but there were those with the power that didn't want to use it the way they wanted to.

some of them just wanted to live normal lives. others just flat out. refused to become these world vigilantes so to speak.

these women would send young girls to commit horrible atrocities and there were kind enough souls ,souls that were pure and good that refused to commit such terrible acts and that made them even more angry. so the souls that refused to obey those are the souls that inhabit every one of those dolls.

So yes you can refuse me but if you stay here and you get to the point where you have to refuse them, that's going to be it for you.

You see, I'm not here to terrify you even though I know I am quite terrifying. I'm here to save you from an even worse fate.

You will find if you refuse them the price will be your soul.

The only way to stop someone of your ability is to rip out your soul and they have been doing that for century after century.

You do not want to live long enough here to find that out".

Zerina's hair parted by unseen force to reveal the washed out face of a young girl but she wasn't terrifying At least not as terrifying as a Amella had said.

Her eyes were black but they weren't zombified or undead they were almost normal.

" You don't look very terrifying. You look almost normal".

" So do you but then again your eyes change color too don't they.

whenever you're mad or you're upset whenever you're scared, sometimes those midnight eyes will turn blood red."

" We all have a dark side and there's no shame in that. Even angels have a shadow.

We can push that shadow away or we can embrace it and become one with it.

I find it easier to embrace, the darker parts of myself. that way I won't scare myself or anybody else".

" You know you aren't just clever, You're very wise, Probably far wiser than any of those women you call your friends".

"So If these women are stealing the souls of people like me or just anybody that challenges them, where are the bodies?"

" What is the one place you've never been in that cottage?"

" I don't know. I guess the boiler room also known as the basement".

"Bingo. What better place to dispose a body then a basement.

I'm going to leave you with all this information stirring around in your head and I'll let you digest it. but in the meantime why don't you go see for yourself.

Oh by the way, before I go I'd like to mention, don't get caught.

They don't take kindly to people that snoop around."

" I don't think anybody does then again, not everybody has a basement or digs up bodies from graves like you do".

" Oh that was just a hobby. I wasn't really going to take the bodies anywhere unlike your so called friends.

Go there and I assure you everything that I've said to you will be proven true".

" I hope you're wrong"

" I wish I was too but I'm not sweetheart.

I might look like an innocent little girl but I have some very dark secrets but those women have secrets that are even darker than my own. I promise you you'll find everything you're looking for down there, but be careful, be very careful and make sure that none of those women know that you were down there. don't even leave a trace of yourself, a fingerprint a hair, nothing.

if needs be erase every memory that you were ever there in the first place.

You have the power, use it"

She laughed but that laugh shifted into a ring wraith type shriek.

there was a massive hole that tore open underneath her like a mouth and that black hole then swallowed her then there was not a single trace of her to be found.