Mirrors Part Four

Previous

“Where’s Marty?” Melissa asks while Amanda tries to regain her composure.

“I don’t know, I don’t know! One minute we were searching the kitchen, the next some big… thing came out of nowhere with a knife.” I lie, extending two tendrils of ethereal energy to caress their warmth.

They both shiver, probably thinking it’s due to the circumstances. “What do you mean thing?”

“I don’t know!” I reiterate, shaking my fists at my side. “It was big and dark, and it used a steak knife to stab Marty before dragging him in the basement.”

“We have to go after him,” Amanda said after a moment of breathing heavily into her cupped hands.

“What?” Both Melissa and I say, her out of fear, I out of amazement that these girls were showing an ounce of bravery.

“We need to go down there now and stop whatever has him from killing him, before it’s too late.” Amanda reasoned.

“And how are we going to do that? We don’t have any weapons!” I say, trying to act panicked.

“And what about Carlos?” Melissa asked gently, reminding Amanda of their other injured friend. “We still need to find a med kit.”

“What we need to do is call the police and get them to come here with an ambulance.” Amber said, pulling a cell phone from her pocket.

I close my eyes and roll a tendril of energy over the device, doing myh best not to smile when she gulps loudly, “No bars… try yours girls.”

I panic for a moment, turning inward to hammer on Jessica’s soul to find out where her cell phone is. I tighten my coils of darkness around her, pulling more heat from her soul as she tries to resist me. After a second or two, she tells me it’s in the room with Carlos, in her purse.

“Mine’s in the living room with my purse, come on. Let’s go there.” I say, motioning for them to follow me. I see Melissa pulling her cell phone and likewise wrap it in a tendril, forcing it to disconnect from the network.

As we enter the living room, I smile as Carlos is right where we left him, looking a little paler than before. One lash of ethereal energy and I drain a gulp of steaming energy from him, causing him to shiver on the floor uncontrollably.

“He’s getting cold,” I say aloud, moving to grab a folded blanket from the couch and pressing it into Melissa’s hands. “Throw it over him and warm him up. He needs to stay warm if he wants to live.”

“How do I warm him up?” Melissa asks, nearly sobbing as she looks at her boyfriend.

“Move him closer to the fire for one thing, but be careful with his head. I’m going to check for my phone.”

I rush over to the couch where Jessica had been sitting and begin sorting through “my” purse. Make-up, a bottle of pills, two condoms… aha! A phone. I lift it up to my ear and listen to the static coming from it as my general aura of unnaturalness causes it to go on the fritz. I press a few buttons, knowing it will do nothing. I look up, lip quivering.

“No bars…”

“How can all three of us have no signal? I mean I know we’re in a pretty remote place, but it’s not that remote.” Amanda says, looking between Melissa and I.

“I don’t know, but we just don’t. We’re going to have to solve this on our own.”

“Come on Carlos, closer to the fire baby…” Melissa coos, helping to scoot him closer to the bristling fire. He groans, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. I leech more heat from him, smiling internally as I feel his innards begin to freeze over. The blanket and fire will help, but only for so long.

A loud thump echoes up from the basement, shaking the floor beneath us. All three of us scream out of fear, Melissa jumping back from Carlos as I leap into the air like a cat whose tail just got stepped on.

“What was that?” Melissa asks, looking up at Amanda and I.

“No clue… listen, we need to find out what is in this house and what it wants to do with us, or else we’re going to just end up an urban legend.” Amanda says, pulling from her pocket a switchblade, which she snaps open.

“Oh my god, are you suggesting we go down into the basement?” I ask, dreading the thought. Marty might not be dead yet, though the chances of him surviving me freezing his blood are slim to none. Still, something made that crash in the basement.

I stand up, straining as the ice running through my veins is starting to make my body difficult to move. I’ll need a new host soon… probably Melissa. I siphon off enough heat from Carlos to have him lapse into a coma and to melt the cold blood within me.

“Well let’s go, just let me grab a knife before we go down there.” I say, looking at Amanda.

“You? You want to help me?” Amanda asks, somewhat incredulously.

Shit. I look inward to find a smiling Jessica, shivering beneath my tendrils. You messed up ghost, Jessica thinks at me, Amanda and I hate each other.

I grit my teeth and look at Amanda. “Look, all past differences aside, something is down in the basement and we need to find out what it is and deal with it. Now we can go on hating each other or whatever, but for now we just have to trust each other.”

Amanda stares at me before nodding minutely, motioning for me to lead the way. I make my way to the kitchen, drawing another steak knife from the open drawer, before marching up to the door leading down. I look at Amanda, “you ready?”

She hops from foot to foot, her switchblade held lightly ion her hand. “Let’s do this!”

I open the door and stare down into the basement. It’s dark, but my senses are telling me there’s only one source of heat down here… and it’s massive. A tad unsure, I move down the steps one at a time, looking over the banister as I reach the light, pulling on the cord to light up the basement. I hear shuffling and grunting from down below.

As I reach a certain point to where I can look over the basement, I see the remains of Marty, beheaded in a pool of dark blood.

There really is something else in this god forsaken house.