Chapter 3- And so it begins

UNKNOWN

DIARYYY,

Just her mere presence in my vicinity, and I can already feel myself becoming strongerrr.

I saw her naked body today, Diary… she was taking a shower, wanted to get rid of all the dirt she had on her from packing or so she said.

I could see her through the walls, Diary —lots of demons like me do this to unsuspecting girls all over the world who manage to catch our attention, you know? — And you have no idea how I wished she could sense my presence, but I’m not that strong yet!

Soon Diary, soon!

She’s even more impressive in person.

It was definitely not the same as looking at her through the broken mirror, why the hell did I think it would be?

It was even better!

Oh, that reminds me. I found out something very thrilling today…

Her parents are very pathetic liars, especially her father. He needs to go first, Diary,

And I know just the perfect way!!!

********

“Mum? Don’t you think dad’s been gone for too long? I’m starting to get worried.”

“Me too baby, me too.” Lynn told her daughter anxiously, her gaze flicking to her phone. “I should give him a call.”

Natalie nodded. “Yeah, you should I guess.”

Lynn reached for the phone, going straight to the call log area. “Oh, crap.” She cursed desperately. “There’s no signal, and my battery’s almost dead.”

The older woman couldn’t believe it, she could have sworn she had about 87 percent of battery power not too long ago, perhaps she had been mistaken?

Perhaps she had.

“I should use the remaining power to go get my phone from upstairs mum, so we have backup in case yours goes off and dad’s still not back. I’m pretty sure he’s in at the neighbor’s asking for help even though you told him not to walk through the rain.” Natalie reasoned, her conviction assuaging her mother’s worry somewhat.

Lynn knew Phil, and she wasn’t going to put it past him doing exactly as his daughter had described.

Stubborn man.

“Think you can handle being in the dark for a few minutes?” The young girl asked her mother.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine.” The older woman assured her daughter.

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

Lynn stood there in the dark, contemplating how eerie the whole situation was. The storm wasn’t even that strong enough to cause a power outage for crying out loud.

Lynn’s mind flitted back to all the mystery that had been behind great aunt Martha’s death,

What if it had not all been just coincidence?

What if evil was lurking somewhere in this huge, magnificent and yet, very creepy house?

What if Natalie wasn’t lying?

What if the house truly was haunted?

Before Lynn could follow that line of thought, she heard two synchronized screams of terror; one from her husband, one from her daughter.

Her body started moving before she could even realise, her breathing quickly becoming frantic. “NATALIEE!!! PHILLLL!!!” The woman groped around in the dark, trying to find her way out of the kitchen. “NATALIEEEE!!! SAY SOMETHING, HONEY ARE YOU OKAY?!”

Still, nothing.

“PHILLLLL!!!!”

By now, she was almost out of the kitchen, still floundering around in the shadows. It was pitch dark, and the poor woman couldn’t see a single thing. Terrified to the bone and worried to hell for her daughter and husband, she began to pray the Hail Mary.

“Hail Mary, full of grace,” She stumbled crotch-first into a chair her grappling didn’t quite catch and paused to curse silently, “The Lord is with thee,”

This time Lynn slipped.

It was almost… almost as if some force was reacting negatively to her prayer… only, just when she thought she’d tumble to the floor in a heap, she felt something —no, someone—grab her by the collar, preventing her union with the cold hard ground.

Lynn shrieked, turning abruptly to reach for whomever that could have possibly been, but all she grasped was air. “WHO’S THERE?!” She screamed in fear.

“Natalie, if this is your idea of a joke, it sure as hell isn’t funny!” She scolded angrily, but there was nothing. The woman closed her eyes, clasped her hands and said the rest of the prayer in a rush, hoping against all hope that something divine will come to their aid, and boy did something divine happen alright!

The lights came back on in a flash, its brightness and suddenness blinding Lynn for a moment. The woman wasted no time going in search of her daughter.

She found the 18 year old sprawled out at the bottom on the stairs, her leg bent at an abnormal angle, the poor girl had passed out from the pain.

“OH, MY GOD! NATALIE!!!” She rushed to her daughter’s side.

Thankfully, Lynn saw the two phones lying near and reached for Natalie’s, quickly dialing 911 to report the emergencies. She knew first aid, so grabbing some smelling salts from the bathroom cabinet, she revived her daughter, applied some ice to her wound to manage the pain and then, assuring her that help would arrive any minute, she dashed outside in search for her husband.

Natalie was still trying to make sense of everything, but her memories were quite hazy. She remembered going upstairs for her phone, but that was pretty much it, she couldn’t recall anything else.

No, wait.

The diary!

She remembered seeing a diary wrapped in a bow on her dresser, and even remembered wondering how her parents had been able to sneak the diary into her room when they had been downstairs with her the whole time.

Natalie recalled seeing something else, something that had made her freak out and dash out of the room in a haste, but she couldn’t remember exactly what that had been.

The letter!

Yes, it had been a letter. Written in a blood red creepy penmanship –whether from blood or dark red paint she couldn’t really tell— with the words, ‘YOUR PARENTS ARE PATHETIC LIARS.’

She had been frightened as hell, and had probably missed a step in a rush to get back to her mum and tell her what she had just seen, because she remembered nothing after that.

The wounded girl could hear the faint sound of a siren approaching their house, and she briefly wondered if her father was okay, because her mum had been gone for quite some time now.

Phil and Lynn Sanders made their way to their daughter, a handful of paramedics right on their heels.

Natalie noticed how weird her father’s hair looked. It had risen on all sides like he had gone through a very nasty shock… hell, he even had ash on his face, and the young woman could have sworn some parts of his clothes had been burnt.

“Dad, what happened?” She managed to whisper softly as he scooped her carefully into his arms in a hug. “Long story, honey. How did you fall down the stairs?”

Phil Sanders feared what could have happened to his daughter. Looking at the winding weirdness of the staircase, he knew she had been so lucky to get out of the accident with just a broken leg, and he was grateful. His own ordeal had been just as weird, but for now the focus was on his daughter and nothing else.

The paramedic lifted Natalie onto a stretcher, but just before the girl was wheeled away, she grabbed onto her father’s arm, “Dad, I-I think there’s someone else in the house.” She told him shakily.