Hell

by Tom Lewis

  The building was evil made manifest. Every stone and block in its immense build was born of evil, and it would exist through all eternity in that state.

  A deep gong rang from its great bell, and the dead summoned forth from the surrounding forest. They came bloodied, and burnt, with torn shreds of flesh hanging from skeletal bodies.

  These were the damned — those miserable souls doomed to an eternity of torment and despair. They shambled forth across that vast plain, with ghostly moans and wails that stirred the night.

  As Cassie watched them pass, flashes of déjà vu flinched her memories. Despite the burns and rot, there was something familiar in their faces. She felt like she had seen them before but couldn’t quite place it.

  “You see their faces, Cass?” said Seth, who now stood on her right. “It’s your fault they’re here.”

  The manor’s heavy iron door groaned open, and screams of unimaginable terror and pain echoed from deep within its haunted bowels.

  “How’s it my fault?” said Cassie, still unsettled at the familiarity in those faces.

  The procession flowed past Cassie and through that door to their fate. Theirs would be an eternity of horrific suffering, unmitigated by any hope of escape or repose.

  “You brought Him to the rave with you,” said Trish, who now stood on her left.

  Cassie shook her head. “I haven’t been there since the night we crashed.”

  “You were there the night of the fire,” said Silvia, who now stood beside Trish. “That’s the night these people died.”

  Cassie again shook her head. “It wasn’t me. I wasn’t there.”

  Cassie felt a strong traction grip her, and she stumbled several steps toward that door.

  “You were there, Cass,” said Trish. “And you brought Him there.”

  “And they died because of you,” said Silvia.

  A powerful force now held Cassie in its grip and was pulling her along with the procession. “You guys, help me,” she pleaded. “It’s pulling me inside.”

  “We can’t help you, Cass,” said Seth. “This is your fate.”

  “You chose this, Cass,” said Trish.

  “It’s your destiny,” said Silvia.

  Cassie struggled to break free but the force was too strong. She was inching ever closer to that door.

  “Just accept it, Cass,” said Seth. “Stop fighting it.”

  Those faces of the damned turned to Cassie, and recognition flickered in their dead eyes. They reached out with skeletal hands and tore the flesh from her arms.

  Cassie screamed!

  “This is where you belong,” said Silvia.

  Cassie was now within feet of the door, and its sickening aura filled her senses with bile.

  “Time to abandon hope, Cass,” Seth’s voice called out above the screams and shrieks from inside. “Welcome to your eternity.”

  Cassie let out a horrific scream as the shadow of the doorway fell over her. She screamed! And screamed! And from somewhere in the night, a distant voice called —

  “Cassie! Cassie!”

  “Now!”

  ****

  Cassie awoke from the hypnotic trance on Dr. Switzer’s couch. He hovered over her while she panted for breath, and laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

  “That’s it, Cassie. That’s it. You’re okay now. You’re in my office.”

  Cassie’s forearm was bandaged to protect the wound that had been stitched together. Her screams that night had awakened her mom, who had raced into Cassie’s bathroom just as Cassie fainted from blood loss and fatigue. She rushed her to the hospital, where Cassie had spent the rest of the night hooked to IVs.

  Switzer was the first call Alison made the next day. He scheduled an emergency appointment and arranged for Cassie to stay at Hillview where he could closely monitor her.

  When Switzer saw that Cassie had calmed down after awaking from the trance, he sat back down in his chair next to the couch.

  “What just happened, Cassie?” he asked. “You were screaming with considerable alarm.”

  “It was that place. The one I keep dreaming about. I was outside it again, and it was trying to pull me inside it. And there were all these dead people going inside it too. They were all burnt and rotted.”

  She shivered at the vividness the memory still held.

  “Go on,” Switzer said calmly. “You were saying they were burnt.”

  “They were. And Seth, Trish, and Silvia were also there. They said it was my fault all those people were dead.”

  “Did they say how it was your fault?”

  “They said it was because I brought that spirit to the rave party where the fire happened.”

  “Are you talking about the fire at the old Swanson mill two nights ago?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Were you there that night?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I might have been. That was when I woke up in the forest and kept having these... flashbacks or something of the fire.”

  “But you don’t know for certain if you were there?”

  “No. It’s only because of those flashbacks that I think maybe I was.”

  “I need to ask you a question, Cassie, and whatever you tell me is protected by patient confidentiality. It won’t leave this room.”

  “Okay.”

  “Did you use drugs on that day? I know we had discussed this before, and you mentioned you had used ecstasy in the past. Did you on that day?”

  She shook her head. “No. I haven’t used anything since the crash.”

  “Good. It was just something I needed to clarify. Now your friends said you brought that spirit to the rave. Did they say how you did this?”

  Cassie shook her head. “No. But I think it was inside me. It was inside me later that night when I went to that other party, and... you know... did all that stuff.”

  “What happens when this spirit is inside you?”

  She thought about it. “Is it okay if I cuss?”

  He smiled and nodded.

  “It hurts like fuck. I mean really, really, really like fuck. And it won’t let me think, and I can’t control what it makes me say or do. It’s like I know it’s happening, but it doesn’t feel like it’s me doing it.”

  “Is it inside you right now?”

  She shook her head and almost laughed at the absurdity of the question. “You’ll know when it’s inside me. ’Cause it’ll scare the shit out of you.”

  ****

  “She’s still refusing to accept that it was a suicide attempt,” Switzer said to Alison as they sat at a picnic table beneath a large oak on the Hillview grounds.

  “But it was, wasn’t it?” Alison asked. “I mean, she cut her arm open, for Christ’s sake.”

  “Yes. Quite obviously it was a suicide attempt,” Switzer said. “But Cassie’s convinced herself that she did it to take her mind off a noise she felt in her head.”

  “What noise? Is this something new?”

  “Apparently so. This is the first time she’s mentioned it.”

  Alison shook her head in frustration and dismay. “Do you have any idea what’s wrong with my daughter, doctor? I mean, have you figured out at least that much?”

  Switzer took a breath. He could appreciate her frustration. “Possibly. Are you familiar with the term dissociative identity disorder?”

  Alison shook her head. “No. What is that?”

  “It’s when two or more distinct personalities reside within the same person. Actual cases are quite rare, but I believe Cassie may be experiencing episodes of this. Have you ever known her to experience memory loss?”

  Alison thought about it and shook her head. “No. Not that I’m aware of. Is that happening to her now?”

  Switzer nodded. “It would appear so. She’s been experiencing these periods where she has no recollection of what happened, or where she believes this spirit has taken control of her.”

  “I know for a while before her accident, there were time
s I didn’t even recognize her. But she’s been better since then. I mean... well, she’s been Cassie.”

  Again, Switzer nodded knowingly. “Those moments you mention were quite possibly times when this other personality had taken control.”

  “Is this something you can cure?”

  Switzer sat back and seemed to be choosing his words carefully. “I’m always hesitant to use the term cure in the context of anything this complex, but I do believe we may be able to help her integrate these personalities into a whole.”

  “So, she wouldn’t have these splits anymore?”

  “That would be our goal.”

  Alison glanced around the dreary grounds, where several orderlies walked with patients. Then she took in the building itself, with its lifeless windows that seemed to watch her. It was a horrible place to look at. “I really hate to leave her here. Do you really feel it’s necessary?”

  He nodded. “It’s for her own protection. At least until we’re reasonably certain she’s no longer a danger to herself.”

  Alison took a deep breath and nodded. “Just, please, help her.”

  ****

  Cassie lay on the bed in her small room at Hillview. It was cold and drab, with gray cinder block walls and a small window that looked out on the hallway. Aside from the bed, there was also a chair, dresser, and adjoining bathroom with a shower. They also let her keep her laptop.

  Conspicuously missing was anything a patient could use to harm themselves. That meant no knives, electric cords, or sharp objects.

  Her mood at the moment was dour and frustrated. She hated this place and hated even more being locked up in it. If it looked scary in the daytime, she could only imagine how scary it was going to look at night.

  And she knew there were real things that went bump in the night.

  There was a knock at the door. Probably another nurse with more pills for her to choke down. “It’s open.”

  The door eased open, and Justin poked his head in. His eyes made a quick scan of the room before they settled on her. “Hey,” he said, opening the door a little wider. “Is it okay if I come in?”

  She scooted up in bed and nodded. “Yeah... Hey.”

  How did he know I was here?

  He walked over to her bed and set down his backpack. He pulled out some books from inside it and set them on her bed. “I picked up some of your assignments from school. I didn’t know how long you’d be here, so I figured this way you could keep up.”

  “How did you know I was here?”

  “I saw your mom at Mass on Sunday. She told me... you know... about what happened.”

  “That her crazy daughter tried to kill herself?”

  “I don’t think she used the word ‘crazy.’”

  “Psycho?”

  Justin smiled and scooted a chair over to sit down.

  “Maybe nutso,” he added. And at that she actually smiled. But it didn’t last long.

  “So, is that why you came? My mom laid a guilt trip on you?”

  “No,” he said with a shake of his head. “I did enough of that to myself. I came because one of my oldest friends tried to kill herself, and it made me realize what a complete dick I’ve been to her.” He paused a moment to swallow a lump that had built in his throat. “I’m so sorry, Cass.”

  In all the time she’d known him, she’d never seen him get choked up before. And it reached like a bridge across the loneliness and isolation she’d felt for so long.

  “Thank you,” she said softly as a lump built in her own throat. Then she looked him in the eye. “I didn’t try to kill myself, Justin. I know that’s what it looks like, but I didn’t.”

  Now he looked puzzled. There was obviously a lot more to this than he had thought. “Do you want to talk about any of it?” he asked. “We don’t have to, if you’d rather not.”

  “No. I do. It’s just, every time I tell it to someone, they don’t believe me.”

  “Even your doctor?”

  “It’s not something a doctor can help me with.”

  “What is it?”

  She hesitated a moment before finally saying it. “Demons.”

  ****

  Justin headed down the hallway after school. Most of the students had already left for the day, but he had someone he needed to talk to.

  He had spent the entire afternoon with Cassie the day before, while she told him everything that had happened to her over the years since her dad died. And she had left out no grisly or profane detail. She needed him to know everything — from the séances and Black Mass to the extreme torment and compelled behavior when it was inside her. She told him about the Shadow that haunted her from the corner of her eye, and the Presence she felt when it was around. She told him about Rex, and her encounter with him, and the whispered threats she heard in her mind. She also told him about Kyle and his warnings about the Shrill — and its mind-shattering ferocity when it hit her that night. “I’m trying to use words to describe it,” she had said, “but it’s a level way beyond any words.”

  He had caught only the tail end of what had happened to her at the party, and that was after she had already regained much of her lucidity, but he had seen something in her eyes. And it had been more than simply confusion and humiliation — it had been the look of an innocent girl, pleading helplessly for her life as she was strapped down to the electric chair.

  He had also heard talk for several months prior about the Disturbances, and while he had dismissed most of it at the time as exaggerations, in the context of what she was telling him it all made sense now.

  He came away from their meeting convinced that everything she told him was real. Cassie had never been one for drama, and she had never sought people’s pity, but he saw her utter hopelessness and despair as she described these torments.

  Justin had been raised in a Catholic family, so the notion of demons didn’t present the challenge it might for others. He more or less had always accepted the idea of their existence, just as he did the other spiritual beings that populated his religion. It wasn’t that he was pious or anything; these were just things he had been raised to believe.

  He also knew, as much from horror movies as he did from his religious education classes, that if Cassie was being plagued by a demon, then a doctor wouldn’t be able to help her. But someone else might.

  Justin found Father Sean in his classroom, where he was grading a stack of papers. He knocked on the inside of the doorway to get his attention. Sean looked up.

  “Hey, Father,” Justin said, “you got a second?”

  “Sure, Justin. What’s up?”

  “I need to talk to you about Cassie Stevens.”

  ****

  “I’ve known Cassie since we were kids,” Justin said, as he and Sean strolled down the breezeway, “and I’ve never seen her this scared.”

  “And she’s had these visions ever since the accident?” Sean asked.

  Justin nodded. “And they’re always in the corner of her eye. You know, like that old saying.”

  Sean was familiar with it. “Evil hides in the periphery.”

  “Yeah. And it’s not just the visions,” Justin added, “it’s all those other things too.”

  Sean gave a nod.

  “So, you believe her, right?” Justin asked. “That all this stuff is really happening?”

  “I’m sure something is happening with her, Justin,” Sean said, approaching the topic gingerly, “but I think we owe it to her to let her doctor determine what that something is.”

  “But he doesn’t believe in demons, or spirits, or any of that stuff. He thinks it’s all in her head.”

  “In all likelihood, he’s probably right.”

  The two stopped as they reached the end of the breezeway. Sean turned to Justin. “Look, Justin, I know you’re just trying to help her, but everything you’ve told me can be explained by medical causes. There’s split personalities, or bipolar disorder, or things along those lines. We don’t need to go looking for demons
.”

  “But what if it is demons? Then she’s totally screwed.”

  Sean just shook his head. “I’m sorry, Justin, but I have to side with her doctor. Let’s just give him time to find the right treatment.”

  “She doesn’t have time,” Justin shot back. “This thing is getting worse, and he’s not gonna be able to help her. But you could.”

  Justin stormed off down the breezeway in disgust. But halfway down he turned and fired a parting shot. “You know, being a priest is supposed to be more than just handing out food at soup kitchens. You’re supposed to be there to help people like her, when science can’t.”

  Then he stormed off. And a small itch scratched at the back of Sean’s mind — it was the resistance he had felt before and that Jenkins had somehow sensed in him. Yet simultaneously with that came Jenkins’ words of caution — And you, my friend, are in the process of being disarmed.

  Was he?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Awakening

  With the coming of night, Cassie’s room at Hillview became bathed in moonlight from a narrow window in the back wall. It was inlaid with a screen mesh, so nothing could get in or out that way. At least nothing that doors and windows could keep out.

  Cassie rose groggily from bed and walked over to the small bathroom across the room. She pulled a paper cup from the dispenser and filled it with water from the faucet. As she drank it, something dark dripped into the sink. It was followed by another drop... and then another. It looked like blood.

  She saw that it was coming from her forearm, where the blood had soaked through her bandage. She must have torn her stitches in her sleep. She was reaching for a paper towel when her eyes caught something in the stainless steel mirror...

  Something moved in the shower behind her.

  A shadow drifted behind the filmy shower curtains. It was barely visible in the dim moonlight.

  “He’s coming for you, Cassie...” a low voice spoke from her right. Cassie looked over, and a dead teenage girl stood beside her. She was pale and emotionless, and her eyes stared like lifeless marbles. “He won’t stop...”

  “Give in, Cassie...” came a male voice from the shower. A gnarled hand slid aside the shower curtains, and behind them stood the dead heavy metal rocker she’d seen in the online obituary. Dark circles surrounded his glazed eyes, and like the girl, his expression and speech were emotionless. “You can’t fight him,” the rocker said, “he’s already won.”