Chapter 44
Author: W.B. Merlin
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

Yawning, Emmy did not want to get up yet. Looking over to the window on the side, she saw that the sun’s rays barely lit up the sky yet. Beside her was Jean, sprawled over the mats. Feeling refreshed, she opted to just get up and start the morning. She liked it when she was first to wake up. She could finish more things than when her family was already awake. She was not the first. Matt was not where he was, and he was not in the room

His garments however, were. All of his clothes. It was unlike Matt to even walk around without a shirt on. Emmy suspected immediately that something was wrong. Emmy went for the door. It was already open.

She gathered all of his clothes. Then, she checked up on both the children, making sure they were both asleep, just in case, and left the room. Emmy checked both their room and Gina’s to see if Matt had somehow just transferred there. He wasn’t. Emmy hesitated going down. It was still somewhat dark below. She did not ha

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    After breakfast, Matt went to review the feeds from the two cheap cameras. He found nothing. There were no orbs or smoky hazes in any of them. Even at double speed, Matt took more than an hour reviewing them. Not even a mote showed up onscreen. He decided to continue his research instead.Picking up where he left off, Matt was disheartened. There was nothing new. It was all variations of the same things he has already found and none of them offered any explanation or any real help. The closest thing that he could attribute to everything that has been happening to the house, to his family, were demonic entities. By the way the articles were phrased, if he was to believe them, the said entity or entities were out to destroy them.Why though?There was only one problem with this argument. It was something Matt has been considering since the possibility crossed his mind after the first day he went online looking for answers. There needed to be a target. The

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    Her facial expressions varied to the extremes as Matt was telling the story. She listened with bated breath as Matt told her about the almost impossible level of detail a child could create from her imagination alone when it came to her interaction with the so-called princess. He told her what he was really trying to do when she popped out and called him. Matt also told her why he was itching for a smoke after that, and why he insisted she take Jean with her. Emmy remained silent, especially when Matt haltingly told her about why he passed out. She was shivering by the time he finished. Matt’s goosebumps never left as he told the stories. He was aching for a smoke but felt it was better if he told her everything. So, he decided to tell her about that time Emmy, Gina, and Jean all went into a trance. He told her about finding Gina just blankly staring into the laptop. About Emmy hacking away in the kitchen like she was in a trance. He told her everything, no detail spared. He could se

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    The trip to the wooded areas around their property was more than the couple hoped for. Gina, to their surprise, proved to be a competent enough teacher that Jean’s attention was focused to a degree that she rarely spoke to her parents. She listened carefully to her older sister and Gina always answered as best she could. Matt thanked Emmy for her foresight. The stroll around their property, and even outside their property line, took longer than he forecasted. The snacks and the late lunch with the light meal Emmy had prepared took care of their hunger. The children were given freedom to go wherever they fancied, so long as they remained within sight. The walk back to the house worked up everybody’s appetite. Matt could not stop himself from sneaking a taste from the dishes he and Emmy cooked. Gina and Jean were still at it, talking about insects and animals. There was still light out but as soon as the last dish was off the stove, the family devoured it. There were no leftovers. The

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    Without regard for anything else, Matt bolted and ran upstairs as fast as his feet would take him. It took less than a quarter of a minute for him to get to where his family were. Emmy’s and Jean’s screams was deafening. The question that was forming in his head was immediately answered when he reached the door. Aside from Emmy and Jean being petrified, the image of Gina floating in midair, moving towards Emmy sent him to panic. For a split second, Matt thought about running away. He trembled, his breathing became rapid, his knees threatened to buckle, his hands shook, and cold sweat began to pour in torrents from every pore. “Matt! Do something!” Emmy yelled. The call was enough to rouse him from his trance. Terror remained. His ears picked up the creaking the bed gave off and his eyes instinctively followed. He squinted and had to wait a few moments but once he was able to make out what it was, all doubts left his mind. Something was on the bed. Emmy started calling out to her da

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    There were days he was thankful for his habits, then there were days he absolutely hated them. Today was such a day. He only had roughly four hours of sleep, but his body already woke him up at seven. He knew it was pointless to try and go back to sleep so he got up. Thankfully, he had another habit – coffee. He yawned as he waited for the coffeemaker to finish, thoughts scattered. As if on command, his thoughts started to gather as he got a whiff of the strong aroma. With his trusty mug on hand and filled to the brim, Cain Delamain entered his to study to make good on his promise to the goodly priest. Today, he was going to finish his report on the outcome of the last venture the church sent him to investigate. A four by six meter room is by no means small, but in his case, it felt like so. He had a desk flanked by stacks of folders tied off with ribbons or elastic bands. The desk itself hosted a six year old computer. The walls on two sides were lined with shelves of books on a myr

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    Matt, after finding Jean peacefully asleep in her room, remembered his phone. He went back to Gina’s room to find Emmy slowly trying to clean off the debris on the bed in order to make her daughter more comfortable. “She’s in her room. Asleep.” “Is she okay? Is she hurt?” “No, I don’t think so. She has some scratches on her arm. Nothing serious.” “Oh, thank god!” Emmy exclaimed. Matt looked around the thrashed room for his phone. He found it facedown, further back on the top of the cabinet he placed it in. He immediately noticed the cracks. The screen had the most of it, both thick and thin. The plastic on the sides had crack too. It was off. Matt pressed the power button on top to see if it would work. He was glad when the screen came on, only for it to die while booting. He tried again. This time the screen just flickered. Matt pocketed the phone and helped Emmy clean up the bed. He carried his daughter while Emmy removed the bedsheet and gently placed her back. His muscles sc

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    While Emmy was cleaning up upstairs, Matt busied himself downstairs. He planned to clean up as well but his thoughts kept going back to the phone. Matt kept checking on it but it was drained. His constant attempt at turning it on wasn’t helping. He finally gave up on any pretense about cleaning up and sat in front of the laptop to review the feeds from the cameras instead. He jumped the last time he remembered which was shortly after dinner and started looking at all the video feeds, both normal and enhanced. Half an hour later, Matt had found nothing. He tried the phone again. It had charged enough this time that it was able to at least power on and make it to the home screen. He was a mixture of dread and curiosity as the device sluggishly loaded up. Matt immediately tapped the gallery app and played the first video. The sluggishness of the phone and the cracks on the screen were enough to make him frustrated. Thinking that the phone might die again, Matt went ahead and copied the

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    Her exertions soon reached its peak and Emmy stopped and plopped onto her dead husband’s carcass. Her knuckles were covered in blood, his and hers. She laughed as she felt the last of his blood spurt out of his neck, grazing hers. Her screaming had made her voice hoarse but that did not matter anymore.She pushed herself up and regarded her handiwork. She burst out laughing hysterically. Her madness had taken over completely that she did not even dare question what that shadow was, that shadow that was tall and thick and wide that stood before her. A shadow that went against the light.“The children are ours! OURS!” The demons hissed.The shadow reached out a massive arm for her to grab on. She took it, still laughing. As she stood up, the shadow started to come into view. She was intrigued at how majestic and powerful it looked with its thick arms and legs that were muscled and huge as tree trunks. She laughed and laughed. A laughing that was interrupted by the demons declaring owner

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    Emmy felt a burst of anger fill her, a fury of such strength it made her forget pain. Her eyes smoldered with hate. Just moments ago, she felt like dirt but that didn’t matter now. She would have ignored what the demons were saying. It might have been true for her, or not. But, the expression on her husband’s face said it all.“Tell me I’m wrong Matt. TELL ME!” She demanded as she crawled on the debris, hands feeling, looking for something.Matt did not reply. He did not even look at her. She could see it in his eyes. How he struggled, how he could not hide it, how ashamed he was. It didn’t matter that his cheeks glistened with the torrent of tears streaming down his face. He was guilty. Her hands found something pointy. She got up as he screamed.“You… YOU FUCKED YOUR DAUGHTER?”She could tell. The demon’s words were not just insinuations. This was more unforgivable than coupling with an entity she could not even put a face to. Her mind raced, trying to give him the benefit of the do

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    His skin was a literal field of goosebumps. The creatures seemed to have already delivered and still wasn’t done yet. While he heard the otherworldly voices above everyone else’s, it wasn’t the demonic voices that drew his attention but the emotions that flooded the whole house.Confusion was the overwhelming feeling that he got but that was just the surface. Underneath was denial, disgust, and fear. It flared off in varying degrees on all the humans present. And he was harvesting it all.Despite the large number of anchors he had, the ring which glowed in many different colors, now felt cooler in his finger. He chuckled to himself, forgetting the real threat that the hulking creature, or the ones who sought his help, posed.True to their agreement, he let go of the young child. There was not much to her anyway. She was afraid, and disoriented, but not in levels that the adults were giving off.The one he labeled as a priest of some kind had been trying to get up but could only manage

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    It was not the voice, or how they came to him. It was not even how they knew to do something only one has been able to do until days ago. It was the request.“What… what do you mean?” He asked.It’s too strong. For me. For us. He’s too strong.He paced back and forth, not taking his eyes of the figures that stood before him, touching his anchors. The large creature did not need to touch his anchors to tell him to leave, then again, it was just standing there, like a ghost, among all the anchors.How the fuck do these things know about things I didn’t even know I had?“I don’t understand,” he finally spoke, “but what I understand is, that motherfucker is too strong. I don’t-” He paused, he sensed amusement when he said the last phrase. “You find that funny? At a time like this?”Yes. But still, help.“Like I was saying, that one is strong. And you’re obviously many and stronger than I am. If you can’t stop it, what the hell do you think I can do against it?”We know what you want. You

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    Matt was getting frustrated with everything. Every bone in his body ached, every uncovered part of his skin was either bruised or scratched, or both. While the words came out automatically in prayer, he found himself drifting. They were not getting anywhere. Cain was not getting anywhere. When the demons answered his wife, he was quite relieved.A start! An opening!Intending to hear more, Matt focused on the exchange not noticing that he had already dropped his prayers in exchange for the tidbits he was hearing.“I did not fail my Gina!” Emmy answered, defending against the insinuation.“OH! SHE DIDN’T, SHE SAYS.”Cain, being the closest to the possessed child, had to cover his ears in fear of rupturing his eardrums.“But you did. You allowed your child to be defiled! IN YOUR OWN HOME!”It could not have been clearer that the demons wanted to emphasize the last phrase. The many voices sounded like they were about to go berserk. More debris rose from the ground, this time mainly from

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    “Holy fucking shit!” He remarked aloud as his anchors completely swarmed the entire first floor of the house.With Vein Sight, he clearly saw the full picture. There were other unseen figures moving about in the space. He counted a little over two dozen, the bulk of them standing by the child that everybody seemed to be facing.That unnerved him. One entity was powerful enough to have made him run away. Over two dozen was a disaster.This doesn’t make any fucking sense!The other demons who were mostly clustered around the child, whom he thought was the one who was possessed, were of a different build. While the one that had confronted him twice was tall, muscular, and impossibly wide, the other creatures were tall and wiry. Based on the power and hostility he was getting, he assumed that the creature who confronted him twice now, was the reason everything was as it was in that house.I’m out of my fucking depth here, he admitted to himself.He could not hear everything, but based on