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
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
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
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
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
Emmy was first to wake up. She immediately regretted moving. She groaned with every move. Every inch of her body complained. Once she was able to sit herself up, the first thing she noticed were the splinters, fine splinters. A quick look told her why. The chairs in Gina’s bedroom appeared to have been ripped apart. Chunks of the wood on the side of Gina’s bed were missing. Half of a cabinet door lay in pieces on the floor. It looked like it was hacked by a blunt axe. The rest of the doors to Gina’s cabinets hung by the hinges. Another thing that caught her attention and caused her to gasp was that everyone was in different states of undress. Matt was lying on his stomach. His shirt was torn all the way down, the only thing holding it was the stitching on the neckline. His shorts were cut to ribbons. Emmy could see the inside of his thighs. She too, was missing parts of her clothes. The pajama she had on looked like it had been ripped in different parts. The top element was torn fro
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
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
Emmy went straight to the master’s bedroom and fished a suitcase and several bags from their destroyed cabinet. She stuffed half of the suitcase with Matt’s and her clothes then went to Jean’s room. The relative tidiness of the child’s room compared to anywhere else in the house only served to make her more anxious. Emmy stuffed Jean’s clothes in the suitcase too. She almost wanted to lie down on her daughter’s bed. Everything was where it should be, nothing was out of place. She shook herself out of it and looked around to find the child’s toys and coloring books. These, she stuffed into one of the bags. Lastly, she found Jean a set of clothes to change to then called her. “Jean honey? Can you come over here please?” She called again when Jean did not answer. Seconds later, she heard her approaching footsteps. “Jean, let’s get you changed, we’re going out.” “Where?” Jean asked, standing in the doorway. “Oh, nowhere, and everywhere. We’re having a day out!” Emmy said, making st