Rebirth - The Beautiful Fallen (4 page)

             
I sat perfectly still, not quite believing my own ears.  The voice was very stern and commanding, a deep echo seemingly coming from within my glowing pendant.  Suddenly feeling very scared, I quickly threw the stuff back into the box and grabbed it up as I hurried out of the room.  But as I came back into the den, I stopped dead in my tracks.  The glass doors were once again shut tight.  It felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest at the mere sight of it.  Something was very wrong here.  In fact, the whole house now felt a lot heavier.  Listening closely, I made out a strange sound coming from the very back room as the door began creaking open.  It sounded like snapping and cracking.  I wasn’t alone in there….

             
I stood very still, feeling like I was bolted to the floor.  The weird sounds moved closer and closer, and I could now feel a slight breeze as something reached for the back of my neck.  A low, painful moan filled the air.  It was right behind me now.  Summoning all of my will power, I managed to take off running.  I didn’t know where I’d go.  All I really knew was that I had to get away from whatever this was after me now.

             
I ended up running to the far door in the kitchen.  Somehow, I managed to wrench it open.  Getting myself inside the next room, I quickly slammed it closed behind me, then looked around in the semi darkness and tried to catch my breath.  It looked like I’d made it into the garage.  At a quick glance, I could see that it was lined with old rotting boxes and even more furniture that had apparently just been stored there.  Hurrying over to the side door that lead outside, I tried to open it.  But it too was stuck hard.  All at once, I heard the sound of creaking again.  The door to the kitchen was slowly opening.  I quickly ducked myself back behind some boxes to hide, praying that I wouldn’t be seen.

             
As I forced myself to stay as quiet as I could, I heard the door creak all the way open.  The cracking sounds continued as something moved itself in there.  I curled up tight in my hidden corner, closing my eyes and trying my best not to be seen or heard.  I should’ve at least tried for the patio doors, I thought.  But I’d panicked in those moments of terror.  And now, I was trapped with whatever this thing was.  I heard it move around the garage, and right past my hiding place.  Apparently, it was searching now.  Carefully, I forced myself to open my eyes and slightly peeked out from my hiding place to get at good look at it.

             
What I saw was nothing short of the most horrifying thing I’d ever seen in my life.  It looked like a woman limping around the garage and fading in and out of the light.  She looked like she’d been badly burned.  Her hair was hanging in long patches on her head, and the strands fell down her burned back.  She wore a stained old looking hospital gown that was torn and tattered looking, and her body was contorting horribly with every move she made, her bones cracking in unison to the movements.  She looked solid, yet seemed flowing as well.  I held my mouth tight to stop myself from screaming.  What is this?  I wondered in terror.  Is this a ghost?  What would happen if she caught me?

             
I knew now that I had to get out of there.  And I reasoned that maybe I could outrun her to the door.  Slowly, I stood myself back up as her back was turned to me on the other side of the garage.  All I needed was to get out of there.  If I ran fast enough, that’s all I'd have to do….

             
I don’t think I’d ever run so fast in my life.  But I was more scared then I’d ever been too.  I heard her turn quickly, the snapping sounds coming up hot on my heels as I got out of that door.  I slammed it closed as hard as I could, and managed to snap the old lock back into place.  Backing up, I stared at the door as she screamed in anger and pounded on it.  I could actually see it moving with each pound.  Quickly, I ran over to the patio doors and pulled on them as hard as I could.  But they wouldn’t budge.  This is so not good! I thought frantically.  I’ve got to find a way out of here!

             
I screamed as I suddenly felt something very hot grab my wrist and toss me back.  The landing on the hard floor knocked the wind out of me.  I could feel my skin burning on my left wrist, and it was the most horrible pain I’d ever experienced up until then.  Looking up as I tried to hard move myself, I found myself stopping and staring as that horrible burned woman limped in front of me.  She looked very stunned and angry as our eyes met.  “Why?” she hissed at me.  Her voice was thick and course, like smoke had damaged her vocal cords. 

“Why his face?!”

              I felt my eyes widen as it suddenly dawned on me that she must have been talking about the one man that I’d seen in one of those pictures earlier.  In fact, I was still holding the small box tight against my chest with my other hand.  Somehow, I just couldn’t seem to let go of it.  Could this woman have had some connection to the people in those pictures?  Looking at her, I really didn’t think that she could have been the woman with the name of Faith Evans.  This horribly burned woman apparently had darker features and hair from what I could tell as she leaned closer to me.  I cringed as she did.  The burnt smell was horrible now, and I could hear her spine making snapping sounds as she leaned down.  They were ringing through my ears.  I could hardly hear myself over them as I screamed again.

             
“Why?  Why do you look like that monster?  Why do you have his eyes?” she hissed again.

             
I closed my eyes, preparing myself for her to grab me again.  I just knew that this was going to be it.  I was going to die in this house, and this horrible ghostly woman was going to be the one to kill me.  But all at once, the woman just stopped.  I opened my eyes, and was surprised to see her looking back over towards the entrance that I’d come in from.   It looked like the glass doors had been forced open again, and a tall figure stood in the bright light streaming in from behind him.  For a moment, I just stared in complete shock.  Had an angel just come to save me?  But as my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized that maybe that wasn’t the case.  Instead of an angel, it was that same familiar face that I just couldn’t seem to escape anymore.

             
“Let her go.  That’s an order.” Chris said in a commanding tone. He stood tall and strong looking in that doorway, and was holding up a rusty old pipe in his hand, pointing it towards the ghostly woman.

             
The woman lurched away from me, slowly moving closer to him.  “Why?  Why are you monsters here?” she demanded.

             
“I said get back.  Go back to the hole you crawled out of.” Chris ordered.  He didn’t seem to have the slightest bit of fear of her.

             
I somehow pulled myself back up onto my feet, moving to the other side of the room to put more distance between me and that monstrous woman.  She snapped her head back at me, then back at him.  “Monsters, monsters!  Demons with human faces!  She did this to me!  She damned us all!” she howled, moving backwards now towards the hallway.

             
Chris didn’t seem moved.  “I’m tired of seeing you.  Go back to the hell you’re trapped in.” he said, swinging the pipe in one swift movement.  In an instant, the woman was pushed back screaming into the very back room, and the door slammed shut.  The heaviness immediately lifted, and the house became calm and silent once again.  I couldn’t help but stare towards that back room though as all of this happened.  What in the world had that thing been?  And just how had Chris been able to drive her back to wherever she had come from?

             
By then, he was walking over to me.  “I’d ask if you were okay, but it would be a stupid question right now.” He said, holding up my left hand.  To my surprise, there was indeed a bad burn where that woman had grabbed me before.  And it was in a shape of fingers that would’ve been wrapped around my wrist.

             
I’ll be the first to admit that I was in complete shock by then.  But somehow, I managed to gain enough sense back to speak.  “Okay, so either I’m having a really vivid hallucination now, or…. what the hell just happened?”

             
“Well, I think it might take a little bit longer to explain that then what we have right now.  It would be better for us just to get out of this house before something else shows up.  It’s definitely not safe for you to be here.  But I think you’ve already figured that one out.” Chris said, taking my arm and helping me back out through the glass doors.

             
“Noooo kidding.” I said flatly.

             
I’ll be the first to admit that I was in a lot of shock then.  I couldn’t believe what had just happened to me.  If I hadn’t been, I probably would’ve been demanding answers right away out of him.  But at that moment, the only thing I could think of was that woman’s words.  I had the monster’s face and eyes.  Again, I thought of the pictures in the box I was still holding close to me.  Just what had happened in that house?  Could that man in that picture have done something to her?

             
The two of us headed back out to the main path before I finally forced us to stop.  “Alright, look.  I get that I’m not hallucinating now.  Or, at least I hope I’m not.  But what the hell is going on?!” I demanded.  By then, I was finally getting my head back on straight.  The shock had finally worn off.  And for the first time, I realized that I was looking at the same guy once again that I’d seen days earlier.  The same one who looked like the child in my nightmares.  And apparently, he’d just come back and saved my life, even if I couldn’t exactly understand what in the world had just happened back there….

             
Chris just stopped and looked at me for a moment, no real expression playing on his handsome face.  “Well, I guess I was kind of expecting this one.” he admitted.

             
“Expecting what?  For me to be freaking out right now because I just let myself think that some dead woman was about to kill me in an abandoned house?  Cause I’m telling you, I am thoroughly freaked out!” I fumed.  Really, now was not the time for him to just be brushing me off again.  I’d had enough.

             
“Will you cut that out?  You’re not hallucinating, so stop saying that.  Everything you just saw back there was real, and you’re still holding his box.” Chris reminded me.

             
I looked down, realizing once again that the box was still in my hands.  Yes, it was real.  And the man standing in front of me was too.  I kind of wished that I had something to lean back on then.  Reality was a little more than I could handle right now.  “Okay, so seriously, what just happened back there?  And who's box is this?” I managed to ask.  He had to have known that answer.  He certainly spoke like he did.

             
Chris looked around for a moment.  I followed his gaze, but didn’t see anything different about the woods around us.  Everything remained calm and quiet, with only the sound of the birds occasionally singing.  “This might not be the best place to talk.  Trees can have ears sometimes.  So let’s go somewhere a little more private.  We can take care of that wrist too when we get there.” he suggested.

             
Well, he did have a point about my wrist.  By then, the pain was really beginning to set in.  When that woman had grabbed me, she’d burned me pretty badly.  I would’ve imagined that her entire body must have been made of fire.  Maybe that was why she looked like she was fading in and out and billowing in appearance.  It was like watching fire burn.  Shaking the thoughts away though, I followed him back out of the woods.  I could dwell more on my near death experience later.  Right now, I needed answers from him.

             
We ended up going back to a small house about a block from my own.  Actually, when I say small, I mean really small.  Even walking up to it, I couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would want to live in a house like this.  It was one story, and if it had more than one room, they had to be tiny.  Stepping inside, I saw that it was designed more like a studio apartment.  There wasn’t a lot of furniture, although what was there was nice looking.  A futon was in there for a fold out bed against a far wall, and there was a dresser and flat screen TV on a small stand.  An armchair sat in one corner with a small end table that had magazines sitting on it.  Sitting down on the futon, I looked around and took it all in.  There wasn’t a whole lot to this place.  I suppose you could say it was just enough for someone to live comfortably.  “So is this really where you live?” I had to ask as he went into the bathroom to get something to take care of my wrist.

             
“Yeah.  It’s small, but it's all I need.  I’ve never really liked big places anyways.  Too much to take care of.” Chris replied.

             
“So how old are you?  You don’t look like you’re that much older than me.” I commented.  It wouldn’t have been that unheard of for a nineteen year old to be living out on their own like this, although Chris would’ve been the first I’d ever seen myself.  But also, something told me that he might be a lot older then I was thinking too.

             
“There’s an old saying to never tell one’s true age, and I’m sticking with that for now.  It might be better in the long run for me to do that too, considering everything that’s going on right now.” Chris replied.  I watched as he came back with some medicine to clean my wrist and a bandage to wrap it up.