The creature let out a hideous scream that ripped through Alex’s body. He flung his hands to his ears, but nothing could block the sound or the pain.
Faster than Alex could blink, the creature descended upon Reid. It draped over him, covering him in shadow, and melted into his body, seeping its shadowy form through his skin. After it disappeared inside him, there was silence.
Then Reid began to writhe, clawing at his stomach, and bellowed. The sound shook the room, and Alex couldn’t tell if it came from Reid or the Shadow.
Alex scrambled to get to his feet, aghast at the sight in front of him.
Reid clawed holes through his pajamas, then his skin. Red streaks dripped from his flesh. Then something poured out from Reid’s stomach wounds and face lacerations. Dark gray trails of smoke. The Shadow was burning him from the inside. The sounds of sizzling flesh filled the air, followed by a horrid smell. Alex pulled his hand over his nose and fought the urge to vomit.
He couldn’t watch any more. Couldn’t bear to see yet another friend in a pile of ashes. He had to get out.
As Alex headed for the door, flames shot up and covered the walls, licking up to the ceiling.
Unmistakable chanting emanated from the evil little creatures that appeared, dancing within the flames.
“Watching…”
“Waiting…”
They clapped and flapped their wings, jumping and spinning around Alex.
“Watching…”
Reid’s screams began to die down and the flames enveloped his body, leaving Alex alone.
He lurched for the door, but there was no handle. It had never been replaced after they were rescued. Boards were nailed over his exit. He turned around to search for something to break through with. Where Reid had lain just minutes before, the flames pushed back, revealing Reid’s burned body. Charred ashes were all that remained.
“No!”
Where Reid’s remains were, the flames shot back up, hiding the evidence. Alex followed a trail of flames that moved about the floor like a serpent. From the where Reid was to a spot in front of the fireplace, the serpentine flame slithered, then pushed back once again.
Lying to the right of the fireplace, Clint’s body was preserved in ash.
“No!”
Alex tried to look away once again, but the flame darted to the left of the fireplace, and pushed back a spot that revealed Danny’s burned body.
“No!”
The sound of a baby crying filled the air and swept around Alex in waves. Each breath he took pulled the sound closer, each cry sicklier and more desperate.
The little winged creatures leapt and curled through the flames as if in anticipation or celebration. Welcome to the party.
Alex went back to the door and began to kick frantically. Just boards. Surely he could bust through if he kept kicking. With all his strength, he kicked and pounded hands the boards, yet nothing would give. He might as well have been slamming his head into concrete, for all it got him.
A familiar voice whispered, “Shadow puppets.”
“No,” Alex whispered back.
He clawed his fingernails into the wooden boards, but it wasn’t making any difference. He kicked and punched and scraped until his fingernails bled, but nothing would budge the stubborn boards. He knew it wasn’t the boards that were strong, it was the cursed house.
Broken and bloody, he finally stopped banging and kicking, and pressed his forehead to the boards.
“Look, birds.”
Alex knew Heather’s voice anywhere. His heart wrenched in pain. He didn’t want to turn around, but he had to.
“Hey, dickweed,” she whispered.
Alex wanted to laugh. She was such a smart-ass. But he didn’t laugh, didn’t have time to.
“Run!” she screamed.
Alex turned around, wanting so badly to see Heather’s face, her curls bouncing as she walked toward him, but it wasn’t Heather.
The Shadow was there, its smoky shape looming over Alex.
Heather’s voice was gone and all he could hear was Reid’s voice as the shadow closed in.
“None of us were ever meant to leave this house.”
The heat was overwhelming. Alex could feel his blood heating like liquid fire.
He stepped back and felt the boards behind him. Nowhere to go.
“And now I know we never will,” said Reid’s voice.
The house swelled in flames which burned higher up the walls and covered the ceiling. The little creatures swam in the flames, watching as the Shadow closed in on Alex. It reached its long-fingered claws out to him and he froze. There was nowhere for him to go. Never had been.
The Shadow was now back where it belonged—home. It locked its eyes on his, empty black voids pulling him inside, hypnotizing him, paralyzing him. Locked in its gaze, Alex had no will of his own. His jaws jerked open, mouth wide. The Shadow reached those hands out and tenderly grasped his cheeks, and Alex tried hard to picture his sister once more. The demon shifted its head to the side, sizing him up, then sprang forth and forced its form into Alex’s mouth, down his throat, into every part of his body. Along the way, it lit a fire, burning everything it touched, coursing through his veins like molten lava and setting his blood aflame. Alex tried to scream but instead choked on the Shadow, the smoke, the fire burning inside his body. He squeezed his eyes shut and imagined Heather’s smiling face as the Shadow pushed deeper inside. He opened his eyes and pretended to see Heather’s curly dark hair instead of the smoky tendrils hanging from his mouth. His vision shut down, shrouded by an inky, weighty mass that oozed all around him. The world was becoming smoke and fire and ash. There was nothing to do but burn. Part of Alex was relieved. The fight had been too hard. The burden he’d lived with too great. If nothing else, he’d be with his friends once again.
His fiery gut cramped and twisted, and he buckled to the floor. The heat inside was too intense, melting away everything that was Alex. The hairs on his head began to eat into his skull, making them feel like hot, squirming worms. His skin cracked open all over and the fire leapt out of every crevice it had created. It burned and burned until there was nothing left of Alex to burn.
The house sat alone, deep in the woods, dark and quiet. Its old wooden door and window boarded up once more.
Invisible from the old dirt path, the house was hidden from view. But everyone knew where it was. Everyone knew what it was.
Invisible footsteps paced the floor. Darkness shifted. A crackle from a dead fire sounded from the fireplace, though no spark danced within it.
Tiny wings flapped from somewhere inside the house, slowed, and settled in.
The house was at rest once more.
And waiting…