Of course she heard noises. They were sounds she’d heard before but now they’d taken on a different vibe, now she believed it was Jenny moving around her home, interfering in her life.
Lavinia tried to tell herself that she could handle it, that it was all part of life’s rich tapestry but the truth was she was becoming frightened. If Jenny was a friendly spirit, Lavinia thought she could live with that, but she suspected her friend was out for revenge and that was making her nervous. Jenny blamed her for her demise and for not going to the funeral and of course she was right. Lavinia should have paid more attention when Jenny said she felt ill but how could she possibly have known it would lead to her friend’s death?
She remembered the old Ouija board her grandmother had kept hidden away in her closet. “You don’t get to mess with that,” her grandmother had warned her. “You don’t know what evil you might be inviting into your life.” And there was something else she’d said that Lavinia wished she hadn’t remembered; “Once you let spirits into your house you can’t get rid of them.” Of course the young Lavinia had laughed behind her grandmother’s back, what did she know?
Now she wasn’t so sure, it seemed Grandmother might have been right after all. She’d invited Jenny into her home and now she didn’t know how to get rid of her. Lavinia shivered.
She stood in the doorway leading into the living room. It seemed quiet but the curtains were moving and there was no window open. She watched mesmerised as they began to sway from side to side. A small vase slid across the sideboard and the pendant light on the ceiling began to swing slowly around. Frozen to the spot Lavinia could only watch as the huge piles of books began to separate and shoot into the air, flinging themselves across the room, some of them smashing into ornaments and breaking them.
“Stop it!” Lavinia screamed into the room.
The mayhem continued. The curtains tore themselves away from the window and floated down onto the floor. Her beautiful set of six bone china cups and saucers clattered together in the display cabinet. The glass door unlatched itself and they flew out heading straight for Lavinia.
She ducked and put her hands over her head. One of the cups broke in mid air and hurtled towards her, the jagged side slashing into her cheek. She felt the hot blood spurt out and she turned and slammed the door shut tears streaming down her face.
The noise stopped.
I can’t stay here, Lavinia thought hysterically. She put her hand to her face and when she looked her fingers were covered in blood.
She needed to pack but it meant going through the living room to get to the stairs and she didn’t think she could do that. She was amazed how frightened she was, her usual cool demeanour had all but disappeared leaving her a quivering wreck. Her whole body trembled and she leaned against the door.
It was one thing believing in spirits, enjoying a good ghost story but when it was happening to you it was terrifying. And to think she resented not being physic, thought it would be fun, well, it wasn’t and she’d had enough. She’d forgotten that Jenny hadn’t been the nicest of girls when she was alive, selfish and demanding, wanting everyone to run round doing her bidding. Why had she imagined she would be any better in death? Lavinia thought that whatever evil she’d unleashed with her wish could stay here and rot; it was time for her to leave. The house was rented thank God, she’d never have to return to it.
Lavinia grabbed her handbag and keys off the kitchen table. She’d use her front door key to get into the hall and go to her bedroom to pack, avoiding the living room, and then she’d be off.
She’d always believed she’d embrace the idea of living in a haunted house now she knew different. She wasn’t brave after all, just foolish. A silly woman who thought it would be funny to wish her dead friend back into her life. She was trying hard not to blame Beth, the girl couldn’t have known she was messing with powerful spirits.
She threw her suitcases on the back seat of the car and drove off. As she reached the top of the road her car suddenly stalled and came to a halt.
“Oh, Vin,” Jenny, sitting next to her in the passenger seat, mocked, “There’s no point running away, I’m not going anywhere, you’ve got it all wrong, you’re house isn’t haunted,” She began to laugh, “You are.”
Beth stared at the television, terror coursing through her body. “Oh, no,” She gasped. The local news was showing the coffee shop going up in flames, reporting that four people had been rescued from the premises. Beth caught sight of Geoffrey, wrapped in a blanket being helped into an ambulance. Two women had been taken to hospital with serious injuries and an elderly man, Arthur Canton had perished in the fire. There were no details how the fire started but Beth could take a good guess.
You stupid, stupid, man, Beth screamed in her head. What were you thinking? Did Shandra put you up to it? Because Beth had no doubt that the fire was down to the old woman. Another wish gone bad, but there would be no more lives lost, it was coming to the end.
She continued to watch the news item, the firemen working together to put out the flames. There goes my job, Beth thought, but somehow it didn’t hurt as much as she imagined it would. There was no shortage of waitress jobs. And what was Geoffrey doing after hours in the shop with two women? Of course she knew the answer to that; using the stock room to have sex with them, foolish women.
She turned the television set off and sat in silence waiting for the phone to ring. Three minutes to go. Beth was on edge, sitting upright knowing what was coming. Any moment now Shandra would demand to know where her Gemini was. But the phone remained silent and the clock ticked on relentlessly.
Two minutes. Beth could hear Jason moving about upstairs and then her eyes caught a moving shadow outside her window.
She ran to the door and flung it open.
Standing in front of her was a tall man with a walking stick. He was grinning and when he spoke Beth felt her knees go weak.
“Hello, my dear,” he said in Shandra’s crackly old woman’s voice. “You’ve let me down.”
Beth couldn’t find her voice; it was hiding from her somewhere in the back of her throat. She stared into the milky white face looming in front of her and shuddered.
“I don’t understand,” she whimpered.
“Oh, I think you do, my dear. Have you any idea what you’ve done?” The man suddenly stepped forward through the door, pushing her out of his way. He stood in the living room staring at the clock. “One minute to go.” He shook his head. “I suppose you thought you were being clever?”
“I did everything you asked.”
“That’s not true is it?” He turned his head and his mouth opened wide as Jason stepped into the room.
“Gemini,” he breathed.
Beth’s stomach wrenched and she thought she was going to be sick. Her son, born June 6th, Gemini. Her mouth opened and a gut wrenching noise escaped from her lips, “Oh, God, Jason, what have you done?” she knew she was screaming but she couldn’t seem to help herself.
Strangely Jason was smiling, his eyes bright. He said, looking at Shandra, “It’s seven o’clock, don’t you have somewhere to be?”
Shockingly the man laughed. “You poor foolish child thinking you could outwit me.” He turned to Beth. “Do you know what your son wished for, my dear?” His voice changed and eerily became Jason’s. “I wish that you go to hell and never come back.” He laughed harder, and in Shandra’s crackly voice said, “and yet I’m still here, do you know why?”
Beth shook her head, unable to speak. The appalling man standing in front of her kept fading in and out; his features contorting and melting into a white blob. At first she’d thought it was tears blurring her eyes then she realised he was beginning to slowly fade. Strangely he didn’t seem to notice, he was too busy talking.
“Because Gemini is the catalyst, the glue that binds the other signs together. Your son’s wish is no more than a smokescreen, useless, empty words floating around the universe. The amusing thing is, if he hadn’t interfered a
nd completed the cycle then I would have gone to Hell and never come back.” He chuckled with satisfaction. “You look appalled, my dear, and so you should. Because of you and Jason’s actions your world is going to be a very different place from now on. The moment your son made the last phone call he changed everything. The stars are aligning now to make way for Ophiuchus; a great black hole is forming as we speak, if you don’t believe me, look outside.”
Strangely Shandra wasn’t fading any more, now he appeared to be almost too vivid as if he was sucking up the energy from around him, using it to reform into something larger than life.
Beth stared out of the window. She couldn’t see anything. There was no moon, no stars just a huge darkness that covered everything, not even her driveway was visible.
“Mum,” Jason’s voice seemed to be coming from a long way away. “I’m sorry, I thought I was helping.”
“It’s all right, it’s not your fault, it’s mine and I’m going to make it right.” Beth heard the words she’d spoken though she knew she hadn’t opened her mouth. Her hands folded over the large dressmaking scissors she kept by her chair. She didn’t stop to think, just spun round and lunged forward plunging the sharp blades into Shandra’s stomach.
For a moment the man flinched in shock and then his face changed. He put his hand over his stomach and gasped. Beth hadn’t been sure Shandra was human until she saw the bright red blood spurting out of the wound. But it wasn’t enough. The man was still standing, swaying, already taking a step towards her raising his cane. His milk white face wore an expression of such fury Beth cowered back waving the scissors uselessly in front of her.
The room was darkening, the lights flickering on an off and Beth felt like she was playing a part in an old black and white silent movie. Her eyes ached as she tried to follow the jerky movements as Shandra advanced on her.
I’m going to die, she thought, and then in the flickering darkness she saw Jason come up behind him. One of his hands grabbed the walking stick and the other went round Shandra’s neck. He began jerking him backwards. The bloodstain was spreading now soaking through the man’s clothes as he thrashed around trying to free himself from Jason’s hold on him. Beth watched in amazement as her son shot his foot out and clipped it around Shandra’s leg causing the man to topple forward onto the floor. Jason swung the walking stick up and bought it down on Shandra’s head. His teeth were bared and sweat was running down his face as he continued to beat the writhing creature on the floor. And he was snarling; her dozy sullen teenager had turned into a terrifying warrior before her eyes.
Beth stared at the scissors, the shiny blood dripping from the blades and without a second thought she threw herself on the floor, lifted her arm and rammed the sharp point of the long scissors into Shandra’s eye.
She heard his eyeball pop, heard him scream in his old woman’s crackly voice and she watched as he bought his legs up in a defensive gesture, his hands beating the floor, the blood from his wound leaking out.
I’ll need a new carpet, Beth thought wildly, the bastard’s ruined this one, there goes my five hundred pound win on the scratch card. Someone was screaming and she thought it must be Jason, still in the throes of his murderous spree.
So much blood, so much noise. Where was it coming from? It wasn’t thunder but the vibrations were trembling in the air all around her. Beth put her hands over her ears as the shattering booming sounds throbbed in her brain.
She was still kneeling beside Shandra, the scissors poised in her hand. Jason was shaking her shoulders. “Mum, we have to get out of here,” he was yelling.
Beth stood up, her legs shaking so much she didn’t think they’d support her. Something strange seemed to be happening to the man writhing on the floor, he was disintegrating; bit by bit he was disappearing.
The ceiling light was cracking away from the plaster, some of the white flakes drifting down sticking to her sweating face. The noise was deafening and Beth allowed Jason to pull her out of the door. He almost dragged her outside.
Looking up Beth could see lightning flashing across the black sky, long streaks that met and sizzled together. The loud booming of thunder beat into her eardrums. The smell was awful, acrid choking smoke that was so hot Beth could hardly breathe.
“What’s happening?” She gasped.
“The cup, mum,” Jason seemed to be saying.
The cup? What was he talking about?
“I worked it out. The cusp, Mum, don’t you remember? You told me I was born less than one minute after midnight June 17th” Jason’s eyes shone, “Gemini on the cusp of Cancer is the star sign of magic. It’s the only one that can influence all the others, and I wished on it, that Ophiuchus would be destroyed by its own powers, and it granted me my wish.”
Beth stared at her son. “Magic?” It seemed like that was the only word that penetrated but it was too soon to try and make sense of it. What mattered was her son was safe; he’d taken care of things.
Through streaming eyes Beth could see that her house looked normal, untouched by the sudden raging storm. “It’s over,” she said in wonder.
“The idea just wasn’t strong enough to be viable.” Jason seemed to want to explain. “Ophiuchus needed disciples on earth to carry out his plan to dominate and take control over the other planets, each star sign had to be wished upon so their power would be used up and it would create the opening he was looking for.”
The noise was ebbing away and Beth sank down on the grass. She looked up and stared at the full moon surrounded by twinkling stars in the clear night sky.
“So who was he, Jason, who was Shandra?” Beth didn’t question why she was asking her son, he seemed to know what was going on. She’d thought he was just a teenage boy, moody and irresponsible, only interested in himself but he’d turned out to be a man who she could rely on, who’d been watching out for her. She wanted to smile but couldn’t quite make it and she didn’t think she’d ever be able to laugh again.
“I saw the leaflet,” he was saying. “I went on the internet. Shandra was part of an organisation who believed they could change the world. They formed a secret pact and joined together believing their leader, Ophiuchus would grant them immortality if they did as he asked. Ophiuchus was from another dimension, another realm, so he was able to pass onto them special physic powers so they could make things happen but they didn’t have total control over the wishes and sometimes things went wrong.”
Yes, things had gone wrong, Beth thought, and unwittingly she’d played her part in it, but for now at least, the storm was over.
She stood up and walked over to her front window and peered inside, sure she’d see Shandra lying on the carpet in a bloody heap, the room destroyed, but there was nothing there, nothing to show her living room had been touched by evil. There would be no frantic phone call to make to the police, no explanations, Shandra had disappeared as if she’d never been.
Beth dug into her jeans pocket, pulled out the scratch card and tore it into tiny pieces.
She watched her five hundred pounds flutter to the ground. Jason came and stood beside her, a look of concern on his face. Beth shrugged her shoulders.
“I’m okay,” She told him, “why don’t you go and find Liam; I’ve got work to catch up on.”
“I’ll check the house first.” Jason said.
“No need, Shandra’s gone. We’re not going to worry about it anymore, Jase, it’s over, we’re okay and the house is fine, back to normal. Just...” She hesitated for a second, “Just don’t tell anyone.” She smiled reassuringly at him.
“They wouldn’t believe me anyway, would they, mum?” He searched her face and then nodded satisfied.
Beth watched her tall gangly son lope off feeling proud of him. He was halfway down the road when her mobile rang.
“Hello?”
“Hello my dear.”
Beth’s heart stopped. It wasn’t possible. She’d watched Shandra die, disintegrate in her living room.
“No”
she whispered. She could still see her son; he’d stopped at the pavement because a large lorry was rattling up the road.
“You’ve let me down,” the hateful crackly voice told her. “Now we’ve got to start all over again.”
The lorry was getting closer and Jason had one foot in the road.
“You have seconds to make a decision, Bethany. Do you see the sheet of metal slipping from the top of the lorry?”
And Beth gasped. The open back lorry was carrying large square sheets of thin metal stacked high in a pile and the top sheet was sliding across. Jason had taken another step into the road.
Beth couldn’t breathe, could barely take in what Shandra was saying.
“So, my dear, do we have a bargain?”
The sheet of metal slid further across the top of the pile as if it was getting into position. The lorry was opposite Jason now, the sheet almost quivering. In a few seconds it would fly off and its sharp edges would decapitate her son.
“YES!” Beth screamed.
The lorry bounded onwards, the metal sheet sliding back into place on the top of the pile.
“Very good, my dear. Now, the important question, the one you’ve been waiting for; what is your dearest wish?”
THE END
About the Author
Author Roger David Francis from North Wales had always been fascinated by the supernatural. Whilst researching his great love the infamous Loch Ness monster, Roger discovered Teggie another sea creature, and thus the story begins and Roger wrote his first horror book.
Having grown up in the Midlands, Roger's childhood was dominated by Sci fi and Fantasy. Stories of haunted houses and mystical monsters inspired Roger to begin writing and put his talents on paper.
He supports several local animal charities and regularly sends donations to help with the upkeep of abandoned donkeys and horses.
Over the years, Roger has worked as a radio presenter and even done some live theatre.
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