Her Home (Haunted Places)

by Boris Bacic

  “Cheryl!” she heard Jill’s voice, distantly.

  She saw the window at the far end of the corridor getting closer to her, and just in front of it, she stopped moving. The ice-like grip on her ankle that she hadn’t even been fully aware of disappeared, and Cheryl lay on the floor motionless. The beam of the torch appeared somewhere above her, and at the same time, at the window through which she could see the sky disappeared, covered in blackness.

  “Cheryl, watch o—” Jill’s shout got cut off mid-sentence, and a familiar shriek echoed in the corridor.

  Cheryl propped herself up on her elbows, but before she could do anything else, she realized why the window had disappeared.

  Chapter 41

  It took Jill a moment to orient herself. Something crashed into her and knocked her down. She pulled herself up with her hands and looked around the permeating darkness. She couldn’t see anything because the flashlight was no longer in her hands, and that realization immediately caused a wave of panic to surge through her.

  “Cheryl?” Jill called out frantically to her sister.

  She then saw a sliver of light on the floor woefully pointing towards a nearby wall. She scrambled over to it and grabbed the flashlight more firmly in her grip this time.

  “Cheryl!” she screamed and swiveled the light down the corridor.

  Cheryl’s screaming had stopped by then, and Jill feared for the worst. But then she saw Cheryl lying still on her back at the far end of the corridor, just in front of the window.

  Just then, Jill saw the black figure creeping up from the corner in front of Cheryl. For a split second, she saw its demonic features, and even with the torch pointed directly at it, it was still abyss-black.

  “Cheryl, watch o—” Jill’s sentence abruptly got cut off when she felt something powerful collide with her on her left, sending her tumbling towards the wall, losing her balance, and falling down.

  A shrill cry boomed in her ear, and she barely had enough time to point the light at the source of the sound when her mother jumped on top of her. More screaming ensued from Jill, Annette, Cheryl, and the trickster spirit, whose shriek drowned out all the others.

  “Mom, stop!” Jill shouted as she held her arms in front of herself defensively.

  Annette flailed and bashed at her like a rabid animal. Her face was contorted into an anger Jill had never seen before.

  “Stop!” Jill shouted again, but Annette gave no indication that she heard her.

  The flashlight got knocked out of Jill’s hand once more, plunging her and her attacker into complete darkness. In a moment of confusion, Jill lowered her arms to defend herself, and that was all Annette needed.

  Her mother wrapped her cold, bony hands around Jill’s throat and squeezed. Jill immediately felt her throat closing up, and she was unable to inhale or exhale. Annette’s strength was out of this world, Jill thought, as she futilely tried to pry the fingers off her neck.

  That proved to be useless because she couldn’t budge them even a tiny bit. The pressure on her throat intensified so much that she expected to hear a snap of a bone any moment. Her vision started getting darker, and her strength began to wane.

  ***

  The trickster spirit lunged at Cheryl. Cheryl screamed and instinctively put her hands in front of her face. She couldn’t see anything and only focused on one thing at that moment—blindly protecting herself.

  She felt herself getting tugged and yanked by the arms while the creature screamed loudly, making Cheryl deaf to every other sound. Realizing that this wasn’t going to work, Cheryl brought her knees up to her stomach and kicked. Her feet connected with something, and the creature shrieked somewhat differently this time—a shriek of pain, Cheryl hoped.

  She flopped back down into a prone position and began scrambling forward. She saw Jill on the floor and Mom on top of her, the two of them locked in a wrestling contest. On the floor beside them, right next to the flashlight, was the doll.

  Gotta get to it!

  Cheryl planted her palms on the floor and propelled herself forward with her foot to save her sister. As she lunged forward, her other foot continued to dangle in the air, and she fell down on the floor, smashing her chin against the carpet.

  She didn’t have time to react before the grip on her ankle tightened.

  ***

  “Cheryl!” Lee heard Jill shouting once more.

  There was a commotion upstairs. Shouts, screams, something getting dragged, Jill shouting Cheryl’s name. It sent a wave of panic through Lee.

  “Shit, I need to go help them!” he said as he took a step towards the living room.

  He was stopped by the African woman’s hand on his chest. She looked far too calm, given the situation they were in.

  “Out of the way, lady!” he said, but she wouldn’t budge.

  “Non! You cannot go there!”

  “My wife is in danger!”

  He tried to push past her again, but she was faster. She stepped in front of him with a stern look on her face.

  “If you go up there, you will die! And then your son will be next!”

  That made Lee stop and think. He definitely didn’t want to leave Charlie alone in here, even in the presence of a Vodou expert. The woman calmly spoke, “You must understand. Jill and Cheryl are in no mortal danger. The spirit simply wants to latch onto them, not kill them. Why would it kill something that keeps it alive?”

  Lee sighed in a defeated tone. He intermittently stared at the woman and the entrance to the living room.

  He was about to shove the woman out of the way and bolt upstairs when he felt a small, soft hand touching his. Immediately, the adrenaline started leaving him.

  “Dad? Are Mom and Aunt Cheryl okay?” Charlie asked.

  Lee looked down at Charlie. He had a concerned look on his face, like the first time he went to baseball practice—only this time, the uncertainty on his face was amplified.

  “Yeah, they’re okay, buddy,” Lee tried to give Charlie a reassuring smile.

  Charlie didn’t seem to believe him because he, too, glanced at the living room.

  “They’ll be back in no time, okay?” Lee put both hands on Charlie’s shoulders. “When they do, we will need someone brave to lead us out of the house, and it will have to be you. Think you can do that for us?”

  Charlie’s look of concern was immediately replaced by one of readiness and determination.

  “Yeah!” he said.

  “Good. But I need you to stay right here and remain quiet until they return, okay? Can you do that?”

  Charlie nodded.

  “Good. We’ll all be home safely in no time,” Lee lied through gritted teeth.

  ***

  Jill wanted to plead with her mom to stop, but she couldn’t utter a single word. Even through the dark, she could see her vision becoming blurry. She didn’t have long until she lost consciousness.

  But hitting Annette proved to be futile. She didn’t even budge, even when struck in the face. She barely flinched and then continued to choke Jill with that same crazed look in her eye. Jill felt the floor with her left hand, hoping to find something—anything—that would help her defend herself against Annette. She didn’t care if she had to kill her mother right there, but she was not going to die.

  Not like this.

  Jill frantically felt around the floor, but there was noth—

  She felt something different under her fingers, something hard, cold, and sharp. She clutched it in her hand and immediately realized that she was holding a piece of the broken vase.

  No other choice.

  Jill swung her hand towards Annette, and it connected with something. At first, she thought she didn’t do any damage to her, but then Annette screamed and grabbed at her shoulder.

  Immediately, the pressure on Jill’s throat eased up, but she didn’t waste any time recovering. She brought her knee to her face and then kicked out with her heel, as hard as she could.

  The kick connected with Ann
ette’s jaw, sending her toppling backward.

  Jill put a hand on her painful throat and wheezed, coughing and gasping, relieved to be able to breathe in even a whiff of the stale house air. She knew she had no time to waste; Cheryl was in danger. As Jill grabbed the flashlight from the floor and pointed it at Annette, she realized that her mother was motionless.

  Unconscious, hopefully, she thought to herself with little concern.

  When she pointed the light down the corridor, she saw Cheryl on her stomach, a terrified look on her face, and the black thing standing above her.

  No, not standing. It was crouching, the knees on its elongated legs almost going above its shoulders. It held Cheryl under the chin with both hands as if ready to snap her neck. Even when Jill pointed the light directly at it, it didn’t react. Jill saw a triumphant look on the creature’s face as it stared down at Cheryl, even though she couldn’t see its eyes—only the white grin. Perhaps it was savoring the moment before it decided to dig into its next meal. Cheryl’s face was ghastly, drained of all color, and her eyes were wide with terror.

  “Jill!” Cheryl reached out towards her sister with one hand. “The doll!”

  Jill realized that Cheryl’s eyes were transfixed somewhere on the floor. She looked down and saw Lola laying there, face down. She shot down and snapped it up.

  “Hey!” she shouted as she victoriously raised the doll above her head.

  The black thing jerked its head towards Jill. Its snarl left its face, perhaps in a moment of desperate realization that it had messed up.

  “I got your thing!” Jill taunted the creature.

  “We had a deal!” a horrid, guttural sentence left the creature’s mouth.

  It dropped Cheryl on the floor and caterwauled. With nimble motions, it began dashing towards Jill. Jill turned around to shield Lola, closing her eyes firmly and bracing herself for impact.

  But the impact never came.

  Instead, the creature shrieked even louder, and then Jill heard someone else hasty speaking. She opened her eyes and glanced at the white-clothed person standing beside her.

  Fabiola!

  The mambo was chanting something in her language with one hand in front of herself. The black creature cowered and shrank under the mambo’s words. It no longer screamed but rather growled and hissed. It still looked threatening, although it no longer glared like a hungry wolf ready to pounce on its prey, but instead like a wounded and cornered fox.

  Fabiola continued speaking the words, and slowly advanced towards the monster, causing it, in turn, to retreat further back. It screeched at Fabiola before running off into the darkness and disappearing.

  Silence ensued, and it was the most pleasant sound Jill had ever heard.

  “Cheryl!” she shouted, breaking the silence.

  She was about to rush to her sister’s side when she saw Cheryl running towards them instead. Fabiola touched Jill’s shoulder.

  “We do not have much time until it returns! We have to destroy the doll!” Fabiola said.

  “Right!” Cheryl interjected and stepped in front of Jill. “Jill, give me the doll! I’ll take care of it!”

  Jill nodded and handed the doll to Cheryl. She snatched it away quickly and took a step back. She looked around and knelt down to grab the nearest shard of the broken vase. She pinned the doll on the ground and raised the shard above her head. With one swift motion, she stabbed the pointy end of the shard into the head of the doll with a cry.

  Jill saw blood trickling between Cheryl’s fingers, and she heard a ripping sound as she dragged the shard from Lola’s head all the way down to her torso, leaving a big rip with the wool sticking out.

  A blood-curdling cry resounded from somewhere in the house, and this time, it sounded painful and long. It must have lasted for at least ten seconds before it finally died down.

  “We had a deal!” it repeated before silence took over.

  And then, just like that, the lights came back on, bathing the room in the dim, sickly light.

  “Jill?! What’s going on up there?!” It was Lee.

  “They are okay, cheri!” Fabiola answered.

  Jill felt relief overwhelming her. She rushed to Cheryl, who was sitting on the floor, holding her wounded hand. Blood trickled abundantly from her palm where the vase had cut her. Jill ran into the bathroom and retrieved a white towel. She ran back to her sister and wrapped Cheryl’s hand into it, pressing hard against the wound.

  Cheryl winced, but didn’t complain. The towel almost immediately turned red, which worried Jill. Cheryl took over pressing the towel against her own and nodded at Jill reassuringly. The sisters hugged in a fleeting moment of respite and held each other tightly. Jill started to feel the adrenaline subsiding, and with it, the knowledge that she was so very close to losing her sister intensified, instilling astronomical fear in her.

  “We’re okay. We’re okay. We’re okay,” Cheryl whispered over and over.

  They were both trembling violently. An eternity later, they stood up with Fabiola’s help.

  “Let’s go, wi?” the mambo grinned fondly.

  Cheryl glanced over at Mom’s unconscious body before nodding. Fabiola ushered the girls downstairs to the front door. Charlie and Lee were already there. The foyer lights were not working from when they blew out the day prior, but the light coming from the rest of the rooms was enough to illuminate the foyer.

  Jill rushed over to hug her son and husband, no longer caring about hiding her fear. Lee inspected her to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

  She had to first confirm to him that the blood was from Cheryl’s hand, not from her, and Lee sighed in relief and held her close. He, too, was trembling—not as violently as Jill, but still, visibly so.

  Fabiola tried the knob. The door opened, letting in a squall of the fresh night air.

  “Everybody outside! Now! Prese!” she implored, and swung the door wide open.

  She ushered Jill and Charlie out first and then waited until Lee and Cheryl were out of there before she, too, stepped out and closed the door behind her. The crickets chirped jovially, and the cold breeze has never felt so wonderful.

  Jill stepped off the porch and took a moment to breathe in the fresh air.

  “Cheryl, we need to get you to an amb—” when Jill turned around, she saw Cheryl standing on the porch.

  Everyone else was in the driveway, staring at her in confusion. She no longer had a terrified look on her face, but a sorrowful one. She locked eyes with Jill and smiled forlornly.

  “It’s not over yet,” she said.

  Chapter 42

  Cheryl suppressed the tears welling up in her eyes. She saw the flabbergasted looks on everybody’s faces, silently demanding an explanation. Even Fabiola looked confused.

  “Cheryl?” Jill asked as she stepped forward.

  She was visibly getting anxious and ready to start berating Cheryl with a flurry of questions.

  “The spirit has been chased away. For now. But it will come back soon,” Cheryl said.

  Jill looked nowhere in particular. She suddenly felt every bit as exhausted as she probably looked.

  “Then we gotta… we gotta stop it. We gotta—”

  “We can’t,” Cheryl shook her head. “The spirit always latches onto a member of the family like a parasite. When the final member of the family dies, the spirit dies with it.”

  “No, no, no, no, we vanquished it. We destroyed the doll!” Jill refused to agree.

  “The doll was only an object used to transfer the spirit from one family member to another.”

  “Wait…” Jill raised a hand, her face contorting into a look of confusion.

  “When Mom learned that the spirit latched onto her, she knew that there was no way to get rid of it. So, she had to choose which one of us would inherit it,” Cheryl’s voice started cracking.

  “And that’s why she gave me Lola,” Jill’s face looked like she just got slapped. “And that’s why she was so mean to me my entire life. And that�
��s why the bitch gave the house to me! Because she wanted me to stay so that I could expose myself to the spirit while you—”

  Her furious tone cracked and turned into a whimper, and she failed to finish her sentence. Cheryl stepped off the porch and approached Jill.

  “Whatever happened in the past is all over now, Jill,” Cheryl said. “You protected me when we were kids. And now it’s my turn to protect you.”

  “Wh-what are you t-talking ab-about?” Jill asked, trembling through sniffles.

  “When I took the doll from you, I accepted the spirit latching onto me.”

  “No, Cherry, no, no, no…”

  “It had to be this way. It was either you or me. And if it latched onto you, then Charlie would be next,” Cheryl was sobbing now, as well. “And I couldn’t let that happen.”

  Jill rushed to Cheryl and embraced her tightly.

  The two sisters spent a long moment holding each other tightly and sobbing, not caring that Lee, Charlie, and Fabiola were staring at them silently on the side.

  Despite knowing the hardships that awaited her in the future, Cheryl couldn’t help but feel happy. She brought some evil upon herself, yes, but she had also saved the lives of her mother, sister, and nephew.

  Not to mention that she had finally reconnected with Jill.

  And that was a pretty good tradeoff.

  Epilogue

  “There, you’re all set,” Fabiola said with a smile, victoriously spreading her arms wide. “Now, remember what I told you, cheri.”

  “I know, I know,” Cheryl sardonically rolled her eyes. “Purify the apartment once every couple of months, recite the prayers, and always have sage nearby…”

  “And?” Fabiola waited patiently for a response, like a teacher waiting for the student to give an answer.

  “And… and that’s it?” Cheryl shrugged in confusion, wondering what else she forgot.

  “And eat more healthy foods!” Fabiola added.

  “How is that going to help with the protection?”