Date and time not noted
Entry continues in order
Good Mother Karrah, Father Gorro, help me now. Guide me now. Forgive my ego and my pride and my stupid, young mind. I thought I was capable, I thought I was ready. I thought there was no choice, and I wanted my friend back. I wanted Carly, my beautiful Carly, back in my life again. She was stolen—stolen.…
But I know the concerns of a mortal are nothing to you. And I should have gone to Seanmhair. I should have told Haji everything. And now it is too late. Seanmhair is coming in two weeks, but that is too far away. If I could write to her, tell her what’s happened—
Holding the word is too difficult. Especially now…
Something…
Something is inside me. I felt it like a mother might feel her baby move in her belly. Except this was a movement in my mind. And there are the dreams. I’ve been having dreams.
Of the house.
Of the Dead House.
Not Kaitlyn’s… but mine.
And just like it was with her, there is something else in here with me. Could I have been fooled so easily? Could it have entered me when I was weakest? Or have I exposed myself to some other kind of evil? Some other parasite that saw the foolish way I opened myself up, inviting anything watching inside?
I am a foolish girl.
Karrah, Gorro, forgive me.
Save me.
There was a doorway, but it wasn’t solid. It was like a veil thrown over an arch, not a material veil—more like mist, or the thing just in the moment that water becomes air. It swirled and warped and curled, and I was drawn to it. Beyond, someone was calling my name. The white veil grew darker with every step I took, until I was right at the event horizon, and it was a black nothingness that had no end.
NAIDA.
Haji. His voice. I was certain of it.
But this might have been a trick. It might have been a trickster trying to lure me away. Out of my house and into the Other. That place where anything can happen and you can get so lost you never find yourself again. The place that Carly went.
NAIDA, PLEASE.
His voice, so genuine, so desperate. I took a step forward.
“Come out!” I called, and found that my mouth was whole and I could speak. Sudden tears and a knock to my heart at the sound of my own words had me collapsed on my knees, sobbing.
“Haji… Haji, come out!” I cried, my tears blurring the darkness.
A shape began to move in the depths. A shape that became a man, a man I knew. My brother, whom I failed, who died for me and my friends.
“Haji… I’m so sorry.”
YOU KILLED ME.
The words came from his soul, not his mouth.
“I am the reason you’re gone. I’m… I can’t ever…”
THIEF.
I sobbed.
And then another voice came out of the dark, and another figure.
YOU SAID YOU WERE MY FRIEND.
I couldn’t breathe. “C-C—”
FORGOTTEN ME SO SOON.
“No, Carly!”
And she was there, standing next to Haji, both of them staring at me with their lost expressions. But it wasn’t over yet. Another figure came toward me.
I WASN’T IMPORTANT.
“Brett, please—you were, I just didn’t—”
LIAR.
And another figure.
WAS I REALLY TO BLAME?
Ari. Wearing his bowler hat.
“You stole her… You did all this.”
He frowned, his head tilting left. ARE YOU SURE?
…BECAUSE I BELIEVE THAT WAS YOU.
“No… No!”
AND WHAT ABOUT ME?
I couldn’t do it anymore. It was too hard. But this… This was the worst part.
Kaitlyn.
My friend.
Standing there.
So real.
Burned up.
Her whole body bleeding and blistering, bubbling and red.
YOU SAID YOU WOULD HELP ME.
“I tried—”
YOU LET ME GO.
“I couldn’t stop you—”
TO THE SCHOOL.
“Please, Kaitie—”
WHERE I POURED OIL
“Stop… stop, please.”
ON MYSELF
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
AND YOU LET
I couldn’t. I couldn’t hear any more. I blocked my ears, but her voice was in my head.
ME BURN.
I shut my eyes, blocked my ears, shook my head over and over, and the only word I knew was no, so I said it over and over and I waited for their voices to stop, because they were all in my head, all talking at once, and I could feel the weight of their deaths on my soul, like a noose around my neck, and I was suffocating.
And then there was laughter. Not theirs. But deep, dark, and heavy laughter.
I opened my eyes and all my friends were still standing in the blackness, but they were all laughing and the voice was one voice.
Now I saw. I stood up.
And their faces blinked away, to be replaced with a menacing serpent face, mouth wide with mirth, and it struck out at me, biting me in my throat so I could no longer speak, and then it was in my mouth, forcing its way down my throat, choking me. I ripped at it, but I had no arms. I screamed, but I had no air.
I stood as my body swallowed down.
And then I woke.
And it was still laughing
deep inside my mind.