She had not heard anything else that night, but she had found herself unable to get to sleep. She just lay there in the darkness wondering what was happening to her. Was she losing her mind or was there something else going on?
Kira had started trying to spend as much time during the day out of the house as possible while Chuck was at work. She spent most of her days in the library reading and avoiding going anywhere else. She had always been an avid reader and she decided to check out some of the library’s offerings on the paranormal.
She was surprised that the library was still in use, but it was still there. She used the computers and tried to find as much information as she could, but surprisingly many of the sites she needed were blocked by the library and against their 'public use' policy.
She had better luck in the stacks; she ended up finding several books on the paranormal, but the more she read, the more things sounded like what she was dealing with, and the more frightened she became. She didn’t dare tell anyone about any of this and she prayed that none of her friends or family would find out what she was reading about. They were all devout Christians and they surely would have looked down on her for this.
Now with the image she had seen—or thought she had seen, she was becoming increasingly disturbed by it all. She was really feeling like she was starting to lose her mind. She had to get some help. With the pregnancy becoming more pronounced she was getting to the point that she couldn’t leave the house. She had to stay on the couch or the bed almost all the time. Her back pain and nausea had become chronic and severe. She was supposed to see the doctor at the end of the week for a checkup and she would tell him about it then. She didn’t know if it was normal to be in this much pain and discomfort all of the time.
She decided that she was going to call her sister Emily to come over this morning. It had been a while since the two of them had hung out. Emily was younger than her by two years and the two of them could not be more different. They were night and day. While Kira had always been very conservative and a little bit high strung—some would even say neurotic, Emily was a free spirit. Emily was a freelance writer and often travelled the world and explored foreign cultures. Emily had written for many major publications and had even written several books on an array of topics. Her sister had a thirst for knowledge and finding out everything that went on in the world. Kira had always been more of a homebody and she was content to let the world do its thing while she did hers.
She wondered if she should tell Emily about the way she had been feeling. Would Emily have any ideas? Should she tell her about the shaman she had been to see? Would Emily think she was crazy? If anyone would understand it would be her. She might even have some ideas.
Yeah, she was definitely going to tell her.
“Are you out of your flipping mind?”
Kira sipped her coffee and scooted back on the couch trying to comfort herself. She had watched Emily’s eyes widen and her demeanor change from friendly concern to angry criticism as she told her about the shaman and the way she had been feeling. Emily had been thrilled to find out that her sister was pregnant and now that she knew the details she was fuming.
“I thought it might help. I was desperate and didn’t know what else to do,” Kira said defending herself.
“That is never an option. Don’t you know what kind of mind butchers these people are?” Emily said. She stood up and started pacing.
“No. I figured that they were full of it, but if they weren’t then maybe they could perform a miracle. If it didn’t work then it didn’t work.”
“This isn’t a Tony Robbins seminar that these people are a part of. This so called ‘Miracle Man’ is a freak.”
“How do you know so much about him?” Kira asked.
“My latest book just happens to be on debunking mystics and sham psychics. The research has led me to some interesting things, most notably people like Clearwater. He uses a variation of old magic that is older than The Bible. It taps into powers and ancient darkness that predates humanity. It is nothing to mess with.”
Kira was now very intrigued and frightened.
“Wait, what are you talking about?”
“These people are dangerous. They are practitioners of really dark magic. You don’t want to mess with them. They have the ability to screw around with the natural order of things; this upsets the balance of nature. You can’t do that without causing a ripple effect of bad shit to happen to you.”
“What kind of bad things? Are you saying there is going to be something wrong with the baby?” Kira felt tears stinging her eyes.
“No, I’m not saying that. I don’t know; this has yet to be seen. But the eerie vibes you have been getting could be something dangerous. You might have become targeted by something evil.”
“I don’t believe in any of that stuff. I am a good Christian.”
“I didn’t used to believe in it either, but then I started really getting knee deep into different religions and practices while writing this new book and I’ve seen things that terrified me.”
“What sort of things? You think something bad is after me?”
“If you were just feeling strange I wouldn’t put too much into it, but you said that you saw something in the mirror.”
“I said I thought I saw something. It might have been nothing. I haven’t been sleeping.”
“If you felt it was nothing then you wouldn’t have called me to come over,” Emily said. She sat down and began to sip her now cold coffee. Kira could tell that Emily was really upset and upsetting her was not an easy thing to do. Kira could not remember when she had ever seen her sister scared or angry.
“I guess you are right. What can I do?”
Emily leaned back on the couch and thought for a second. She gulped down the rest of her coffee and leaned forward, closer to Kira.
“I’m going to call in a friend of mine. She is a paranormal researcher. She has worked on thousands of haunting cases. She has medium capabilities and is a clairvoyant—she can communicate with the dead.”
“You are being ridiculous. I can’t wrap my head around this stuff. Are you sure you aren’t way overreacting?” Kira said. She grabbed both mugs, walked to the kitchen and refilled them with fresh coffee.
“You have inadvertently reached out and invited something dark into your life. You can’t let this go.”
“You are basing all of this on a few feelings and a vision I had when I had just woken up and was still half asleep. I appreciate the concern sweetie, but I really think you are overreacting to this.”
Kira sat back down on the couch beside her sister who was now exasperated that Kira was denying her opinions. Emily had tears forming in her eyes and Kira took her hand in hers. She had not wanted to upset her sister. That was the last thing she would ever have wanted, but she just didn’t want to go overboard with this thing.
“Just let me bring her by to do a cleansing. It won’t take long and if it turns out that she doesn’t find anything then what have you lost? What will it hurt?” Emily asked.
Kira thought for a moment. Her sister wanted to help so badly and she was right that there couldn’t be any harm in having her friend come over. Besides, Kira didn’t want to be alone.
“OK. If you want to call her to come over then that is fine, but could you do me a favor and stay with me today? At least until Chuck gets home. I just don’t want to be alone,” Kira said.
“Sure, sis. I won’t leave you.”
Emily called her friend.
Chapter Four
Dr. Gail Woodyard was a bit eccentric to say the least. Kira had never seen someone who was so colorful in her whole life. The woman looked like a hippie from the sixties, who instead of growing up and becoming a mature adult, had decided that she needed to embrace the look and style of the times and never let it go. She was about sixty years old, with long hair that had once been black but had taken on several spots of silver. Her skin was olive colored with spots of pale white sprinkl
ed throughout where varying shades of melanin were present. Her style of dress included tie-died shirts and ripped jeans with all sorts of surfer jewelry—strange beads, caucus shells, and big bracelets. She was someone who you could not help but stare at.
She immediately began walking through the house as if in a trance, moving slowly from room to room with a burning stick of sage. Kira had to admit that the smell of the burning sage was rather comforting and she thought about using it as a permanent incense for the house. She doubted Chuck would approve if he knew why his house suddenly smelled like sage, though.
Thinking of Chuck put a pain of fear coursing through her body. She was not afraid of her husband; he was a good man and she knew that he would never do anything to hurt her physically, but if he was unhappy about something he would passive aggressively make her life much more difficult through never ending whining and the intermittent cold shoulder. She doubted that he even realized he was doing it most of the time, but it was nonetheless difficult to deal with.
She was also terrified that any little thing could be the final straw that convinced him to leave her altogether. But with her being pregnant she no longer thought that was a possibility as long as everything went smoothly. She was so scared of the unthinkable.
Emily followed along behind Gail, silent and watching. Kira watched as much as she could from the couch, but she didn’t dare try to get up to see. Every time she moved she was racked with pain in her lower back which would then spread to her legs and even the other way to her shoulders. It was a nightmare.
After Gail was done doing the cleanse she came back into the living room and sat down on the love seat across from the couch. She looked at Kira and smiled for the first time. Her face took on a strange and joyful quality that looked false and unnatural on her. It was kind of creepy.
“So, what did you find?” Emily asked.
“There is a darkness here that I have not seen in a while,” Gail began. She spoke slowly with a slight accent that Kira could not place. “Emily told me of the experience with the shaman who calls himself The Miracle Man.”
“What did he do to me?” Kira asked.
“He gave you what you really wanted, but of course there is a price. The child growing inside of you has been promised to a demon.”
“What?” Kira could hardly breathe after hearing the words that Gail had just spoken.
“The demon has been promised your child. It will possess the child as soon as it is able.”
“When will that be? How can we stop it?” Emily asked.
Gail turned to Kira.
“The demon does not have the strength to do this at will. It has to break you down first. It wants to destroy you, your marriage, and your faith. It has to break that tie and that bond between you and God. Otherwise it cannot have the child.”
“So, I just have to make sure that I don’t let it destroy that,” Kira said.
“It is not that simple. The more you resist the more pain you will be in. Eventually your body will give out and you will die. If you are dead then the bond between you and the child will be broken and the demon can possess it at will and claim what was given to it.”
“But, why was this promise made?” Emily asked.
“That is the thing with dark magic; when you ask dark forces for something they will deliver but at a huge price. The price is often something people can’t afford to pay, but they make the deal anyway. Either way the demon wins; it kills the person who made the deal and then it takes what it was promised anyway.”
“Why does it want to possess the baby? What will that give to the demon?” Kira asked. Her mind was racing a thousand miles an hour and she had no clue what was happening. She felt sick all over and as she listened to Gail her stomach continued to lurch trying to force her to vomit. She felt the baby stirring in her stomach, causing horrendous aftershocks of pain behind the nausea. Sweat beaded on her forehead and rolled slowly down her temple.
“Because by possessing the baby it will be able to damn the child’s soul forever. That is what the Devil wants; he wants to take as many souls as he can away from God.”
“This can’t be real. I can’t believe this is true,” Kira said, the tears rolling down her face. She was on the verge of a total panic induced nervous breakdown. She felt the surface of her sanity slipping away into darkness.
“It is real. That is what you have to get your head around to. If you keep ignoring the foe that is in front of you attacking you because you don’t want to believe he exists than you are doomed. Your baby is also doomed.”
Emily grabbed Kira’s hand and held it tightly. It was only a little bit comforting. Kira felt like the entire world was collapsing on her at that moment. What was she going to tell Chuck? Was she going to tell him that she had a shaman conjure up a baby for them with the promise that it be delivered to the Devil? There was no way he would ever believe that and he would curse her forever for suggesting such a thing.
“What do we do?” Kira asked.
“We must first communicate with the demon. That is the only way we will know who we are up against. We can’t fight what we do not know.”
A half hour later they were set up around the kitchen table with a Ouija board placed in the center. Kira felt the planchette beneath her fingertips. It almost felt like it was vibrating, but she was sure that was her own nervous energy. Emily and Gail had also placed their hands on it.
Kira felt a weird mix of stupidity and terror. What if this woman was a total charlatan? What if there was a logical explanation for everything and she was being duped by a con artist right now?
But she knew that it was real. She had tried to ignore it and block it out, but she had been the victim of some sort of paranormal abuse that she did not understand. She had been given a baby by a shaman’s perverted ritual and now there were consequences that she had to deal with. This had to be done. If there was any hope left to save her baby and her own life, she had to do this.
“I’ll be in control of the board, since I’ve done this before. But that means that only I am allowed to ask questions. If anyone else chimes in it will either anger the demon or it will break the connection altogether.”
“What if the demon attacks us? What do we do? I mean, isn’t it already here if it is doing all of these things to me?” Kira asked.
“The demon isn’t powerful enough to fully enter this dimension on its own without help. That is why it is slowly feeding on you to power itself. It can influence you and it can scare you, but right now it cannot physically do anything in this dimension.”
“But isn’t this opening the door and inviting it in? I’ve always heard horror stories about this type of thing with Ouija boards,” Emily said.
“In the inexperienced hands the Ouija can be vastly dangerous, as can anything. The novice usually does not know how to follow the proper initiating etiquette and they do not close the board when the session is through. That leaves the door wide open for anything to come through,” Gail said.
What she spoke made sense, or at least as much sense as it could make under the circumstances. Kira did not really care. She just wanted this all to be over. It was comforting to know that the demon was not able to hurt her yet, but she felt herself getting weaker by the day. Especially mentally, she was unable to focus or concentrate. She had even had thoughts of letting the baby go. If the demon wanted it then that was fine as long as she didn’t hurt anymore. She cursed herself for thinking such thoughts, but those moments of weakness were becoming more common for her. She knew that she was losing this battle. She had to do this.
“Let us begin,” Gail said.
She took a few deep breaths as if inhaling some special power or communicating with some higher Deity.
“Is there someone here who wishes to speak?” Gail asked.
Her voice sounded loud and echoed in the quiet home. It had been imperative that they turn off the air conditioning and anything else that made excessive noise. The spirits liked
peace and quiet or else they would not feel comfortable coming through, Gail said.
They waited a few minutes, but nothing happened. The planchette beneath their fingers did not move. Kira had played this game once as a child, but nothing had happened and she had dismissed it as a kid’s game. She had looked back on this, years later, and felt like a sinner for even attempting to mess with anything like that. It was the opposite of what a good Christian should be because it brought up questions of faith. She had never told her parents or anyone about that.
“Is there anyone here who wishes to speak? We would like to communicate with you. Announce yourself,” Gail said a bit more forcefully.
The planchette came to life suddenly and began to spin from one end of the board to the other doing a perfect circle, spinning large and then going to a smaller circle before starting over again. It was so strange. A part of Kira’s mind had to wonder if Gail or even Emily was moving it, but she didn’t think so. It just seemed too natural and she could feel something flowing through her. It was as if the spirit was communicating through them.
“Good. Who are you?” Gail asked.
The planchette began moving to different letters on the board.
No one.
“Who are you?” Gail asked again.
No one.
“What is your name? I demand to know.” Gail said.
Evil.
“Evil? Are you saying that you are an evil spirit?”
Yes.
“Were you promised Kira’s child?”
Yes. It will be mine.
“Why do you want the child?” Gail asked.
It belongs to me.
“It belongs to Kira. She is its mother.”
She is dead.
“Are you saying you want to kill her?”
Yes.
Kira’s heart thumped loudly in her chest as a pain rose up in the side of her head. She wasn’t sure if the demon was doing this or if it was just a panic attack, but she suddenly had to fight for air. She dared not break the circle though. She wanted to find out who or what this thing was that they were dealing with.
Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 3