The world around me went dark, deep rich dark. Not a sound could be heard no matter how hard my ears stretch to grasp at any sound near or far. My family and best friend had just been burned to death in a house overtaken by licking flames and heavy smothering smoke. Nothing was left to see, the house rested in a pile of what used to be and in it, my allies rested.
The demon boy had vanished from the roof when it collapsed and seemingly decided to rest his case with this nightmare he left me stuck in. I had never experienced screams like those that had come from the inside of that house. The panic on their faces, the pain, agony, it was nauseating.
Trapped in that universe of despair had left me still unconscious in the corner of my room with an even tighter grip around the letter opener that I clutched thinking this would be my weapon, the weapon that would rescue me from all this horrifying damnation.
A loud, rapid knocking resonated through the house, I heard it in my nightmare. Slowly opening my eyes, heavy with tears, my room was empty. Jennifer and Jackson were gone, off to God knows where. My walls were still wildly graffitied with the blood of Jennifer from the wounds she had suffered after back-talking the ghost boy.
I could faintly hear voices downstairs; one of which was panicked and frantic. It was my English teacher, Mrs. Tannell. She had acted quickly and rushed over after my tearful call. My mother was speaking with her, offering drinks and food and television and all the other things a good host would offer to a visitor. Tannell declined, I think, and the sounds of people climbing the stairs slowly increased in volume as they became closer in proximity to me.
Rising to my feet, dazed and confused, Mrs. Tannell made one final request. To any normal parents this request would have seemed odd, perhaps even creepy, considering she had sped up to our house and slid to a stop leaving a plume of smoke enveloping her as she exited her car.
She said, “May I go in alone? She is working on a very special project and I want to make sure it is up to educational standards, plus, she wants to surprise you all.”
My mother obliged and tattered her way back downstairs making sure she offered everything we had to my English teacher, again. She was the hostess of all hostess’s and really did enjoy bringing enjoyment to others a great deal.
The settling of feet at my door was followed by the gentlest rapping upon it. My voice was hollow and empty, I tried to acknowledge Mrs. Tannell’s call to me, but nothing would flow from my throat.
After knocking on my door once again, she entered and immediately shut the door behind her. She seemed dumbfounded as her head swiveled, dissecting every inch of my room. For a woman as educated as Mrs. Tannell, a powerful intelligent teacher that demanded respect and always knew what to say, she sure did seem awestruck by her surroundings.
She said, “Naomi, where did all this blood come from? What has happened here?”
Her hand was pointing to the walls, my walls that had been painted with the blood of my best friend. She could see it, all of it. I dropped the letter opener and rose to my feet, uneasy and off balance.
“You...you can see all that? No one else batted an eye. It was awful Mrs. Tannell, absolutely horrible,” I said.
She grabbed my hands and flipped them palms up. Mrs. Tunnel had brought a rather large bag with her and dropped it on the floor searching for something. After a few seconds, she pulled out some gauze and rubbing alcohol. After she wrapped my wounds, she told me to close my eyes and count to three. There was nothing I was afraid of more than closing my eyes again. What if I became trapped in the nightmare again?
My eyes fluttered shut and I slowly began counting to three. As I was counting, I could hear Mrs. Tannell rummaging through her bag. A lite tapping danced over my palms and before I knew it, I had gotten to the number three. The entire instance really went by rather quickly so when I did not feel the rubbing alcohol burning my palms it really had not registered in my head that something may have been happening.
“Open your eyes Naomi,” she said.
Baffled but amazed, my eyes met my palms only to see that my deep lacerations had been completely erased and replaced with healthy looking flesh. My mind lost its ability to form coherent thoughts, so I just reached out and hugged Mrs. Tannell with all my might. She wasn’t a terror; she was a savior. That moniker just did not have the same ring as her common nickname.
Not only had she healed my accidental self-inflicted wounds, but she had also brought reality back to the supernaturally doomed room. All the blood, Jennifer’s blood, had vanished from the landscape. It was as if Mrs. Tannell had given me a set of glasses that only let me see what was real and blocked out the paranormal.
I said, “What will happen to Jennifer and Jackson? My mother and father? The gray eyes and changed behaviors, will they be okay?”
Mrs. Tannell looked down towards her overstuffed bag and frowned. I knew what this meant even though she had not said anything in response. Maybe this was beyond her capabilities. She was obviously gifted with some supernatural abilities and maybe this inquiry would require someone with more advanced skills.
“Naomi, once a demon has attacked and taken a life in his world, there isn’t much that I can do about it. I will have to make some calls and see if we can figure out a plan. It does seem though, that you and I are the only ones that can see the scars and eyes for what they are. No one else can see it unless they too have some sort of ability,” she said.
As my mind began to settle slightly, Mrs. Tannell flinched at something. It was the faintest of sounds, but it seemed as if it had grabbed her by a sore tooth and yanked back. The room darkened and grew into a tunnel of hatred.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Tannell the Terror. Here to save the day old woman? Sorry to tell you this but you’ve never met someone as powerful and determined as me,” it said.
Mrs. Tannell smiled and turned around to face the direction the voice was coming from. Fear did not fill her body, it fueled her. Apparently, she had a reputation in the ghost world like how most people felt about her in the real world.
She said, “Oh little boy, an invisible bully. Too scared to show yourself in my presence? You have to pick on vulnerable children and then hide in the shadows when a more powerful being comes along.”
The room began to rumble, not like an earthquake but like when your music is turned up loud and the bass is at full capacity. An energy was brewing, good or evil, I had no idea. Mrs. Tannell did not react in any sort of retreating or regretful way, so I assumed we were safe, regardless of what was happening.
Suddenly, the image of a small boy manifested itself standing in the middle of my small room. Face to face with Mrs. Tannell, she laughed at him. That did not seem like the smartest idea, but she was the professional apparently and I was merely the victim.
She said, “You’re a very small little boy. Look at you, what a cute little turtleneck you have on. Did your mom pick it out for you?”
The demon began to glow a hot red, sparks outlined his body and gave him a deep ominous look about him. Mrs. Tannell still did not flinch at this. She looked as if she were watching an action movie, enjoying every second of it.
“You can’t protect this family forever Tannell. Trust me. This is my house, and this is my family to torment now,” it said.
She reached down into her bag as the demon boy jumped and barked at her. From it, she pulled out a small pendant that hung from a thin silver necklace. The demon boy recoiled back into the far wall and hissed like a rattlesnake warning potential predators away.
“With this, this necklace, Naomi will never have to fear you. Her world will remain the way it was before you made your unwelcome visit. You may still live here, as long as I allow it, but you’ll never be able to harm this family again,” she said.
Mrs. Tannell turned and wrapped her arms around my neck. She whispered words of confidence in my ear and finalized the clasping of the necklace. The pendant hung heavy on my neck, way heavier than it appeared. The power that was stored in this piece of jewelry was magnanimous. The world felt as if it were a small puppy dog and all it wanted to do was play, eat, and sleep. This was a very wild transformation from the dragon it had felt like previously.
“I’ve seen that before Tannell. We are developing methods for artifacts like that. Guess you’ll find out when we are ready to strike,” it said.
The demon boy disappeared quickly with a frustrated roar. There was nothing he could do now with Mrs. Tannell here. She was his kryptonite, the thorn in his side.
Now, how would things go without Mrs. Tannell here to protect me?
“For whom dream in darkness dwells before eternal death.”
― D.L. Lewis
Mrs. Tannell worked her way out of my bedroom, reminding me to call her again if I needed anything. She was going to send the Paranormal Specialists over this weekend when my parents went to the Yankee Gifted School football game.That would buy them a three-hour window.As she bounced down the stairs with the youthful exuberance of a teenager, Mrs. Tannell locked eyes with Jennifer and then Jackson. She recoiled ever so slightly as to not frighten anyone. The dual set of gray eyes peered questioningly back at my English teacher. She hugged Jennifer and whispered something in her ear. Next, she high fived Jackson and carefully examined him, careful not to draw attention but she did note the offset his tongue now had. Shivering and in pain, I took my slumber on the cold concrete floor of the garage. For some reason, the demon boy did not pursue me down here. All night long I awoke every few minutes to hear the same thumping that started all of this. It was far quieter than when I was in my room, but the noise was still present.There was not a peep from any of my family or Jennifer through the night. I had no idea what was happening inside the house or how I would explain myself if someone were to find me sleeping on the garage floor.As the sun rose, I stood tall and straight. Every bone in my body seemed to crack at once. An orchestra of pops and cracks bounced off the garage walls and back to my ears. Walking like an old woman with arthritis, I grabbed the door hHaunting Naomi Chapter 9
The release bell howled angrier than before, at least it sounded like that. The ferocity of it hurt my ears and caused me to flinch. I would normally allow myself to get annoyed or distracted by that but I needed to know what Mrs. Tannell was smiling about. She was the key to helping me resolve my ghost problem and get back on track to normal teenager issues.Jennifer trudged out of class not even looking to see if I was following. Her body was going through the motions, but it was just an empty vessel, she was gone, at least until I could get things worked out and back in the proper order. Death looked like it really sucked especially because no one could tell except for me and Mrs. Tannell. The other kids just assumed she was having teenage problems or on drugs like the rest of the cool The remainder of the day was demon free. Except for my Spanish teacher but he is ruthless when it comes to Spanish grammar. Jennifer disappeared right before the bell, took all her stuff with her and everything. To ensure I was not going to get another unwanted surprise, I let her walk it out and do as her non beating heart desired.Jackson waited at the archway for me. His little head was bouncing from left to right, left to right, left to right but in a very loose and relaxed way. It was as if he had no control at all of his body or its actions. I just want my little brother back, even with all his annoying burps and farts, barging into my room, eavesdropping on me, all of it. I want it all back.We began our walk home without Jennifer, she was nowhere to be found. She could have been flying a rocketHaunting Naomi Chapter 11
The demon boy had now taken my best friend’s body hostage and was using it against me. The level of contortion this demon placed Jennifer’s body through was unsurvivable by any human on Earth. My room went from glowing orange to the faintest hint of light being emitted from my pendant. All went quiet except for the popping and cracking of ligaments and bones from Jennifer’s twisted body.Without warning, my mind entered a dizzying speed that I had never experienced before. My eyes widened as their pupils dilated the size of soup bowls. I looked down at my hands, the fingers on them had been replaced with webbed claws, talons if you will. My voice vacated my body as a soul grabbing growl took its place.Disregarding Jennifer and the demon boy, the two of them joined together in a twisted disturbed
It turns out that the migraine and the immense disorientation it came with was the least of my problems. Because of the light sensitivity, I left the lights off in the bathroom, only moonlight came through the small window adjacent to the shower. Barely able to see, I cranked the hot knob to maximum heat and waited the brief seconds it took for the water to turn into clear lava. Entering slowly, careful not to slip, I lowered my body to the ground, sitting on my knees allowing the molten hot water to batter my head and neck. The pain from the migraine was replaced with rushes of air flowing through my sinuses allowing me to breath and put out the internal fire consuming my skull. At this moment, I was at peace. No pain, no trauma, just pure relaxation. The moon continued to gently illuminate my surroundings as the steam from show
Oddly enough, the evening went well after my attempted murder by the demon boy. Jennifer and I compared notes for our Pre-Cal homework and talked about normal everyday teenage girl stuff. She asked me if I had a crush on anyone, I asked her if she had really kissed Jimmy Stills back in fifth grade. Normal 'transforming into young adults' type of talk."How's your neck feeling?" I asked.Jennifer looked at me as if I had just asked her to drop out of high-school and live on the streets with me. My attempt to judge her recollection regarding her death and the horrifying way she died had come and gone. She did not remember a thing, as if that time in her life did not ever click off her life clock.She said, "what are you talking about Naomi?" Considering how the start of my stealthy sneak attack began, my hopes for a full-on successful mission were as low as the dog poop I squished into the ground. Almost certainly, I had tweaked every muscle in my upper body in my fruitless attempt to regain my balance and maintain my secretive movements. All that aside, the fat bald man was still in a coma of sleep that one could only dream of; pure blissful sleep.You must keep in mind, my dear reader, that I was purely taking this stranger for his word or at least for the word he had scribbled on that sheet of paper, TANNELL. Most of the population knew of Mrs. Tannell, her reputation did not precede her. Any whack job with a sharpie could make a sketchy sign trying to lure a child into his windowless van.My life had been a rollercoaster of fear and despair for the last week, so I was willing to risk it all to see if this sleeping slob was able to help or protect me. If things went horriblHaunting Naomi Chapter 15
Todd was back amongst the living, standing with Jennifer and Jackson, as all three of them stared at me with the fire of one thousand suns. I am certain that not one of them had any idea why I was motivated to trade my life for Todd’s but it was not their concern. The main concern now was to stay alive just long enough to eliminate Mrs. Tannell and destroy the portal to hell that resided in her living room. Through all of this, the killing, the death, the pain, the suffering, it had come to me out of the blue that Mrs. Tannell must be provoking these attacks, especially if she knew I had killed Sarah Macly, her lone granddaughter, she would have all the motivation in the world to make my life a living hell. The end was drawing near, not only for me, but for Mrs. Tannell as well. It was time to end this, once and for all. On
Todd, the backbone of our alliance, the mini one and the real one, was now lying on his back showing no signs of life at all. His eyes rested still and gray. They were wide open, as stoic as they had ever been in his entire life. His stomach stopped rising with life, he was not breathing at all now. Death had one hand around him, holding on for his dear life, waiting to take his soul away into the ether, never to be seen again. In your last moments, death has a way of making you look as peaceful and calm as you have ever been before. It is the darndest thing, being in the worst position of your life, your soul is floating away, and the lights are beginning to dim, you are dying but from the outside, you look as calm, cool, and collected as you have ever in the history of your breathing days. This generally applies to any and all deaths, except for the horrified ones. Those will make you sick to your stomach. Jesus Christ hims
Todd was in very severe pain, whatever was attacking him was clearly making sure this event was filled with pure pain and horrific suffering. With his pant leg ripped from its seam, Todd’s burn wound throbbed and pulsed with an alerting rhythm. His body was being manipulated by something, some sort of demon that we could not put our eyes on. This put the three of us at a severe disadvantage. It had become very obvious that we needed to act fast, but we had to act efficiently. Flying off the hinges would almost certainly result in a catastrophic failure, that was absolutely unacceptable. All we came here to do was secure demon Sarah where no one would think to find her and we ended up being attacked by an old demon woman, demon wolves, a huge mimicking demon, and I killed a man. This could not have gone any worse, except for some sort of death on our end. Now was not the time for reflection though, Todd needed us, and it was looking
Todd, with his leg wound, would have to wait just a bit longer while we investigated what we thought was the man I killed as he ran into the light. Obviously, if I killed him, he would not be able to make moaning noises or anything like that, so it was fairly easy to discern that the dead man had been turned into a demon and he would certainly be looking for some sweet, delicious revenge. I mean, who would be alright with getting killed out of the blue? Jennifer and Jackson had taken the lead as I made a fine attempt at catching up to them as we headed towards the corner of the abandoned K-Mart. The moaning was like a mating call, this was not the typical ‘I am in pain’ moan. It resonated incessantly, calling us to come and see what was happening. Judging by previous experience, I had no clue about what may be around the corner, all I knew was that we were walking towards danger, and we had to be ready. I said, “Slow down, guys. Le
I could not hold my curiosity back from taking a peek at the filthy, old three-ringed binder. I sincerely wish I had; I was not in the right mental space to read what I had just read. Gaining the knowledge that was hidden away inside of that binder was more of a curse than it was a blessing. The way I thought about life, in general, changed dramatically from that point on, nothing would ever be the same again. Written in ink on a hardened piece of lined notebook paper, I read the following: ‘Today, September 23rd, 1976, I met a few young women that claimed they had been in an accident. Linda Ericson, approximately eighteen years old, Sandra Tannell, approximately twenty-four years old, and Wanda Williams, approximately twenty-eight years old, were in the old Sander’s coffee shop talking amongst themselves. I was studying up on my favorite subject, which will remain nameless because it is so obvious, especially if someone other than m
The slaughtered body of the homeless drug addict that I split in two with a hellacious laser beam from my inscripted hand before we entered the darkness had disappeared. It was clearly splayed out for all to see and showed no obvious logical signs of going anywhere anytime soon. How it had magically disappeared was beyond me, there was not even a sign of blood or fragments of flesh lying about. It truly baffled my mind as to how a body that had been split into two distinct halves could have disappeared along with all the splattered pieces that went along with it. We had finally broken free from the darkness of the abandoned, decrepit K-Mart and had made our way into the light of the outside world. Todd’s van was still where we had left it, everything was still in place just as it was before we entered the darkness to save Todd and defeat the Haunting Naomi
There is a time that comes in every single person’s life, no one is immune from it, that you see someone you love as the worst being on the face of the planet. It happens to all of us, it does not last long, but it does happen. None of us want this to happen, who wants to hate someone they love so dearly? At this moment in time, after what Jackson did, after I tell you what he did, you will understand how I had this feeling.It all happened so fast, to be honest. There was no time for any of us to respond to what he thought was the right thing to do. Telling the story now, even as dead as I am, my heart still hurts from that moment. More than how horrible I felt when I found out my mom hit a child with a car, killed him, and left the scene. It is the worst I have ever felt. Jackson made a decision and performed an action, he was scared, and he acted out, it was a mistake, but he did not see it as that in the heat of the moChapter 151
The giant wolf had been struck one time by the now deceased mimicking demon that had taken Todd into the darkness of the abandoned K-Mart. Shining the spotlight on the wolf’s body, the attack by the demon had contacted its torso. Ribs and blood, internal organs and shredded flash all filled my line of sight when inspecting the giant wolf that had saved the day and eliminated the mimicking demon. As usual, our mission’s objective had been modified on the fly. We had to get to Todd, he was hunched over in the corner, we were still not sure if he was alright or if he was in need of some rejuvenation. Now, I felt we were obligated to take care of the giant wolf, the one that formerly was possessed and under control of demon Mrs. Williams. It was the least we could do considering the fact that the wolf had single handedly taken care of the demon and saved us a lot of heartache and potential damages. I said, “Jennifer, go to Todd. Make s
Navigating as effectively and efficiently around the poor homeless man that I had just split in half after he came running out of the darkness, the three of us walked briskly into the abandoned K-Mart ready for a fight to save Todd. On my way in, I snatched up the spotlight and made sure it illuminated every square inch of real estate in front of us, ensuring our path was clear or we would be able to see anything dangerous in our way so that we could work our way around it. Shining the light back and forth, covering my two counterparts from any attacks from drunks or druggies, we pushed in as fast as possible without risking any chance of injury or worse. Jennifer and Jackson led the charge, side by side, ready to get into the action and accomplish our goal of getting Todd back in one piece. I took up the rear, providing the light needed and also making sure nothing snuck up behind us as the darkness chased behind our feet. In the distance, as we ru