Demon in Ruins

Chapter 2

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering…fearing…doubting…”-Edgar Allan Poe.

Chapter 2

“What kind of an impact can be made by drifting in a house like this?” I asked moving around. “It’s not like we’re going to find a very priceless artefact and become billionaires overnight.” I started walking backward while Jon kept the light on me. I could get used to the spotlight. “Do you think there are any artefacts here?”

“You ask a lot of questions and do nothing,” Jon said. “Watch out!”

Before I could figure out why he had said that, I ran into something with a bang. Pain shot through my leg and tears welled up in my eyes instantly. I put a hand on my mouth to avoid screaming. It hurt like hell. I’m not even exaggerating.

Jon came running to me. “Are you okay?” He placed his hand on my shoulder. “Stop biting on your hand for God’s sake. Is it that bad?” He was concerned.

I inhaled deeply and removed my hand. “I’m okay. I was just caught by surprise.” That could explain the scenario of covering my mouth. “What is it?” Trying to calm myself down, I patted the piece of furniture furiously, making sure Jon didn’t notice the edge in my voice.

“Let me check.”

He moved the light here and there on the covered furniture. I could tell what it was. Now, this was something exciting. Jon pulled off the white sheet covering it, revealing a grand piano. My favourite musical instrument. I wanted to forget about my aching leg, sit there and play the only song I could play on a piano. It looked so wonderful. The piano didn’t look any older than a year or two. It was hard to believe it was so old, that too, from another century. The black color reflected the light coming from the flashlight.

I rubbed my hands together.

“No,” Jon stopped me. “You’re not going to play that stupid song.”

Having a best friend had its disadvantages. “There’s no one in the world who would call Beethoven’s Fur Elise stupid.”

“It is stupid when you play it with your terrible skills.”

No point of argument there. My third grade piano lessons were such a waste.

“How come no one took this out and sell it?” I asked. “Anyone can get a great deal for this.”

“The townspeople are scared to death of this mansion and this goes down from generations to generations. Not a soul tries to steal or get anything out of this cursed place,” Jon explained. “Do you think anyone would risk their lives?”

“For this piano? I would.”

“Yeah, because we don’t believe in any curse.”

“Has anything happened to show if the curse was really true?” I asked rolling my eyes.

“Nothing that I know of, but,” He continued to inspect the piano, “There is a story I heard from dad.” Then I heard him mutter, “Or was it mom?”

“No more stories please.”

I was tired of remembering different facts and stories about this mansion. Nothing seemed to connect whatsoever. It was harder to remember them than to remember the elements in the periodic table. Although I know all the elements on tips by now, when I was told to memorize them for the first time, I was sort of dumbstruck for a moment. Like, all of them?

“No, listen. I promise you, this one is interesting. There was a thief who entered here by mistake.” Jon began his story. “He stole a small statue from here.”

Oh, no, here we go.

“What is that?” I tried to distract him by pointing at the piano.

The flashlight had landed on some shiny engraved words on the piano.

“A.S.E.” Jon read out loud.

“What does that mean?” I shrugged, hoping it wasn’t an old slang I didn’t know about.

“Adeline Escoffier!” Jon squealed like he had solved some mystery. “S stands for her middle name. Adeline Simon Escoffier. Great stuff!”

I shook my head smiling for achieving the plan to make him forget to tell the story. He acted actual crazy when it came to stories. There was no way to stop him if he started a story once. It’s not like I hate stories but blood and gore wasn’t really my cup of tea. Most of his stories had a lot of them. He could make his own horror version of Disney movies.

We walked into the other room. The more we went in, the colder it got. I hugged myself to stop feeling the coolness.

“Look, there are some portraits hanging on the wall.” Jon threw light over a frame. “Turn on the camera. We gotta capture these.”

I wasn’t interested. Anyway, I took out the camera from my pocket and turned it on. I focused it on the portraits Jon was facing to. It was a young lady. Her face was so cute, she had long eyebrows and her thin lips were drawn into a smile. Her hair was made into a bun and some of her hair fell on her forehead. She had an elegant look to her. Her clothes were funny though. People in sixteenth-century probably did not have a fashion sense. I could fit in that century easily.

“She is a beauty,” Jon said admiring her. “Adeline, I’m in love with you. Please accept my proposal.”

The portrait hanging next to it made me giggle. “Not when her husband is around,” I said.

And God was he handsome?

Any girl from any century could fall for this handsome guy whose portrait was hanging on the wall. His big eyes looked at us from the frame like they were alive. He had an angular face and a perfect nose. His smile held thousands of mysteries. It was an unnoticeable smile. Like he was enjoying some kind of private joke to himself. I chose to ignore his clothing style.

I wish I could know what colour their eyes were.

“Are you finished checking him out and drooling?” Jon asked. “We have other rooms to go.”

“Who was proposing to a picture some time ago?”

“I wasn’t drooling.” He said back. “Let’s go.”

“I think it’s enough for today. I have this English homework to do, Jon.” I said. “It has to be submitted tomorrow.”

“Homework?” Jon repeated like it was a new word for him. “What does it taste like?”

“You won’t like it, Jon.” I made a face. “Can we go?”

“Only because it’s the special occasion of your birthday, I’m letting you go.” He said. “Next time when we come here I will not leave until we meet the ghosts.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” He laughed. His laugh echoed the room. “Are you flirting with me, Hazel Grace?”

“Jon, stop quoting one of my favourite movies. You’ll ruin it completely.”

“You have to admit I’m more charming than Augustus Waters.”

I felt like bursting into laughter.

“Fine, whatever helps you sleep,” I said finally. “Time to go.”

Just when we reached the broken window, there was a loud thundering after a blinding lightning. It was storming and raining outside. The raindrops were falling on the ground with loud thudding noise. The wind was howling. It was surprising we had not heard anything when we were inside the mansion.

We were stuck inside.

“Uh-oh! How come we didn’t know it was raining?” Jon asked. He was as confused as I was. “We can’t go out in this kind of meteorological conditions, Karen.”

“Argh!!!” I yelled in annoyance. “This is entirely your fault. Now we don’t know when this storm will stop and when we’ll be able to go back.” My mind had already started picturing my parents finding my room empty.

Jon’s face shone in the lightning. He had this tensed look on his face that told me he was considering this serious at last. “I’m so sorry, Karen.” He sounded apologetic. “If I’d known this would happen, I would never have brought you here. I didn’t know it was gonna rain tonight. I’m sure I had checked the weather for tonight.” He paused. “I’m really sorry.”

It was funny how when people said sorry to me could make me feel sorry for them. Only if the apology was honest. What I knew of Jon, told me he was honestly sorry for this mess.

“It’s okay but how are we getting outta here?” I asked.

“I know what to do.” Jon grinned. “My smartness says we’ll have to wait until the storm calms down.”

I just stared at him. Wow! I wanted to kick him, punch him and kill him right then. I wanted to do all the cruel things to him that he would’ve liked to add in his horror stories. If my parents would find my bed empty and the window opened, they’d probably think I’m kidnapped.

I silently prayed for the storm to stop.

Suddenly I heard something. Like someone was knocking at a door. I gulped my saliva and stopped breathing.

“Karen, you heard that?”

“No, I’m deaf.” I sarcastically remarked.

“It must be coming from inside that room.” He moved from his place holding the flashlight. “You can stay here if you want. I’m going to check.”

Stay alone? No way. This is exactly how people in those dumb horror movies ended up dead or worse; dismantled. The only way to avoid being shred into pieces was; sticking together.

Not the right time for puns, Karen.

Jon grabbed my shoulder and I jumped with a shriek.

“Geez calm down. I’m not Freddy Krueger.” Jon said amused. “You can come with me if you want.”

I thanked God for Jon’s sudden insight and followed him. I knew it wasn’t the best idea but I didn’t want to be left alone. And Jon had the flashlight as an advantage which I didn’t.

The knock was coming from the farthest room in the mansion. It grew louder as we got near.

“I think it is the noise made by raindrops falling on the other floor or something.”

“How many floors are there?” I asked following him closely.

“It’s a three storey building.”

I didn’t say anything and kept myself close to him. So close that I could smell his cologne. It was good. Comforting even.

Jon came to a sudden halt.

“W—what?” I stammered.

“There is a door.” He said.

I walked beside him and looked at the door he had mentioned. His flashlight showed the scratch marks on the door. The scratches were short and deep. What could have made these scratches on this door?

“Do you think a dog wanted to go into this room?” I asked.

Jon didn’t answer.

“I think we should open it.” He said instead.

“And then what?”

“That might reduce your fear of the great unknown.” He laughed.

I felt embarrassed. He thought I was scared. I was scared but that didn’t mean he could tease me forever. A girl can be scared. In this condition, anyone would be scared. Fear is an emotion, and I wasn’t emotionless.

The knock came again. I was sure it wasn’t caused by raindrops.

I glanced back at Jon. He was still grinning.

“Open it, Jon.”

And he did.

He opened the door quickly. It was so dark inside. We entered the room and a cold wave washed over us. Using Jon as a human shield, I stayed close to him as we walked. The dust particles were the only thing visible in the flashlight that pierced the darkness. We walked some more steps ahead. The flashlight wasn’t landing on anything, not even walls. Suddenly, there was a thud and the door closed behind us.

As if on cue, the flashlight flickered and went off.

“What the hell!” Jon started tapping on it angrily.

The darkness had enveloped us. I trembled with fear and cold. Most of it was fear. My heart pounded so loudly I could hear it. How many steps had we taken into this room? I couldn’t remember anything except walking in here.

“We are in deep trouble, Karen,” Jon said. “Where’s the way back?”

“I can’t see a thing, i***t,” I said through my gritted teeth.

“This is creepy,” He murmured.

Finally, he felt creepy. We were in a room filled with darkness where one hand couldn’t find another. The door was closed. We didn’t even know where the door was exactly. My heart was racing crazily in my chest. I imagined the worst things that could happen to us. We could die of suffocation or hypothermia. I could have a heart attack. Every possibility was there.

We both cried out in a high pitch as the floor titled underneath our feet and we began to slide inside what it was supposed to be the floor.

We fell down and down.

“Jon,” I shouted. My voice echoed.

“Karen, what’s going on?” I heard his voice above me.

I felt like we were in the scene of Alice in the Wonderland where Alice falls into the rabbit hole.

I screamed and cried until my throat hurt. We didn’t stop falling. I waved my hands on both sides, waiting for some object to hold on to. I tried moving my legs to feel the ground that would appear under our feet. Nothing. We were in a freefall.

Jon had stopped screaming but I could hear his clothes flapping in the cold air. My whole body was numb with coldness now. I couldn’t move my hands or legs anymore. My body had given up already.

“Are you alive, Karen?” Jon yelled. “Because I sure am freezing to death.”

I forced words out of my mouth.

“It’s…cold.”

I closed my eyes and took a long breath, inhaling nothing but cold air. If I had wings I could fly upwards.

“This has to be a nightmare.”

Every scary movie I had seen, every scary book I had read came back to me, hitting on the walls of my mind. This has to be a nightmare. A nightmare that would be over when I wake up. A nightmare that felt so real. Even if it felt real, it didn’t mean it had to be real.

If this was the rabbit hole, it had to end somewhere. Every beginning has an ending. This fall had to stop. I knew we would fall to our deaths but the nightmare would be over with it. I would wake up on my cosy bed, and the next day was going to be a school day.

I kept thinking, hoping we would stop.

We did not.

We were falling.

To a never-ending fall.

To oblivion.