“Idon’t know. Demons? Lost souls with nothing better to do? I don’tthink we’ll ever find out and we have no family left to tell usanyway.” I’d lived with them for as long as I could remember,always just outside of my reach but I was almost used to them. Butrecently they began haunting my dreams and I woke Gwen up almostevery morning howling in fear, seeing the disgusting and twistedthings to come if they managed to grab me. I hearda stampeding noise from behind us and we both broke into a sprint,jumping down the stairs two at a time. They creaked with the effortof our weight. They</I>were gaining on us. I knew we wouldn’t make it. I wanted to stop,let them take me. I knew if I did humanity would be in danger. It wasa hard position to be in, choosing whether to let my brother dieagain or let the entire world perish. Quickly, I pushed him hard inthe direction of the door and whirled around brandishing to them mypendulum in one hand and candlestick in the other. I knew thisstupid, spontaneous action would either be the reason we died or howwe triumphed. Now they were in plain sight, in my direct view likethey never had before. I could see all the details of theircorpse-like bodies and black eyes, revolting and inhuman. Theirrotten stench wafted over as they cowered from my talismans. Irealised they were probably sending it to me to distract me and makeme more vulnerable. Iwouldn’t let them win though, so with my throat on the verge ofgagging I kept my eyes directly on them and swung the pendulum. Ifelt in control of them for the first time in my life. Thecandlestick which held Gwen’s sacrifice felt the most powerful, soas I nudged Seb out of the front door with me, I carefully stooped toplace the silver candlestick just inside of the doorframe. I lookedas many of them as I could in their blank eyes, knowing if this wentwrong I would be damning Earth to an eternity of torture at the handsof furious, ruthless spirits that wanted blood and pain.
As Ibegan to shut the door slowly and carefully, chanting with the wordsthat slipped so easily from my mouth, I watched them and from myright a hand gave one last ditch attempt to touch me. Its fingerstretched out, almost touching my face. Then the arm lashed outwildly and just managed to graze Sebastian’s face so lightly hebarely noticed it, trying to stand up from being pushed and hassledout. A loud bang erupted as the door met its frame and I wrapped thependulum around the door handle, hoping it would give us a few moreminutes to finish the job. Still chanting, I touched the door seventimes as I had watched Esther do the first time I ever met her, tokeep the bad spirits in the house. I ran to the car, Seb hot on myheels, and we grabbed the gallons of petrol that had been waiting inthe car for us. Sprinting back and panting hard we began spraying andpouring on the walls carelessly.“Seb,set fire to the damn house!” They had already managed to get to thedoor somehow, rattling it with inhuman strength but restricted by thepowerful talisman I had placed at the door. If I was correct, theywere trapped in that room by the candlestick. If we lit the house,like Esther said, they should be trapped there for eternity.Sebastian reached into his pocket and flicked open the large lighterhe had brought from his mechanics garage for us to use. He ignited itand got ready to throw it. He stood frozen for a few seconds.“R-Rick!Help me, I can’t... can’t do it. They’re stopping me somehow!”I hurried over to him, sweat running down my pallid cheeks. The doornow looked riskily close to coming off its hinges. Grabbing thelighter with some resistance from Seb, I lobbed it to a particularlywet part of the house, and it struck with a metallic ring. It lit upimmediately, spreading like waves to the shore. I looked into theliving room window as the house became a bonfire, and I saw a tall,angry spirit with tattoos and long, messy black hair. He growled andsnarled and his tongue licked his cracked lips at me. He was one ofthem that I had already seen in my dreams, cutting me up as Iwatched. As more of the house burned, the souls inside began wailingand hissing. I had a bad feeling about it, and Seb’s blank andshocked face only added to that.
“Sebwe need to go, come on.” I grabbed his arm and pulled hard, but hedidn’t budge an inch. “Sebastian!</I>Don’tforget who you are! You are my little brother and I am asking you toplease come with me. We need to leave.” I was debating whether torun while I still had the chance but I couldn’t face losing himagain. As I had done plenty of times growing up, I swung a nastypunch across his cheek. His dazed eyes seemed to focus, and for thefirst time he saw the emblazoned house. “What’s going on?”He asked dumbly. I took the chance and silently half-dragged him tothe car, and threw him into the passenger’s seat. Jumping in, Irevved the car up and furiously set off trying to make as muchdistance as possible between myself and the damned house. It wasobvious being anywhere near a place full of evil spirits while itburnt to the ground probably wouldn’t be a good idea. We sped awayand as I took one last look into the rear view mirror, I began tofeel more at ease. There was still the tight squeezing pain in my gutthat reminded me I wasn’t going home with everyone I thought Iwould be celebrating with.GoingHomeInsteadof cheers and jubilation, there was a sullen silence as we made ourway back to my house. We both sat and although I couldn’t guesswhat Seb was thinking after having been stolen by demons, killed,resurrected and then burning down a building full of murderous souls,I knew he wouldn’t be thinking as intensely as me about thesacrifices that had been made that night. I hoped the nightmare wasover, and soon as we got home safely I would be able to grieve for agrandmother I never knew and a fiancée I wanted to spend my lifewith. As I drove, I filled Seb in on everything that had happenedwhile he hadn’t been with us, starting from when I’d realisedsomething was wrong and I entered the house though I wasn’tsupposed to then ending when I got into the bedroom he’d beenmurdered in and resurrected him. Silence fell in the car for a fewseconds before he broke it with a hesitant voice.
“WhenI was dead, stuck in that room, I could sense them wanting to killyou. It was horrible, I knew I wasn’t one of them yet but I feltthis urge to go to them and join them. I couldn’t remember who Iwas before, I was just a ball of energy. I guess if I’d been left,I probably would have developed into a full demon spirit. I don’tknow how much time passed while I was in the darkness, but the onlything I remember is how strong their will was to kill you. It was sooverwhelming I almost followed their voices, to help them find you.In this dark place, after a while I saw this glowing light so I kindof floated over and realised it was you. I was drawn instinctivelytowards the light cast by something you had on you.”“Probablymy Xenite pendulum.” I offered.“Maybe,I’m still not sure what that even is. When you were in the room forthe first time I tried my best to talk to you and flicker that oldlight bulb. You didn’t get it though. I’d heard Esther talking,and I knew about the candlestick. Then I saw them there, in thedarkness, waiting to touch you as soon as you stepped into the room.I got the feeling if they touched you, you’d turn into somethinglike me so I managed to make my hand visible, tried to push you andmake you fall over out of the way. I managed to get you out the waybut I... I didn’t see Gwen behind you. One of them grabbed herwhile you fell, and obviously it was permanent. It just makes mewonder, why didn’t they rip me up and take me with them, likeEsther? They just stabbed me in the heart and left me alone.” hesounded tired. “They didn’t do the job properly, and if they hadthey could have used me as their plaything for the rest of eternity.”He shivered and his lip began to quiver. “I didn’t realise howquite so close I was to actual death. I wonder if I was in limbo?”“Youhad some of my blood in you so you couldn’t properly die or go withthem while you were still connected with me.”“So why didn’tyou give Gwen some of your blood before you killed her?” He askeddrowsily, yawning noisily. I knew his words weren’t meant asharshly as they sounded, but a stabbing pain that seemed to bedirectly connected with Gwen twisted in my stomach.
“Ididn’t kill her, I took away the badness that was infecting herwhich meant there wasn’t enough left of Gwen</I>to survive.” I tried to reassure myself. “Even if I’d given herblood all that would have happened was I would have been infectedtoo. Blood seems to be a really big part of everything.”“Sonow we’re linked? If I die, I won’t really because we’re oneand the same?”“Idon’t know how it works, or if you only die in supernaturalcircumstances. I just don’t know. ” I couldn’t handle thinkinglogically about anything other than sleeping away the rest of mylife. “MaybeI’ll test that theory out later.” He joked, laughing feebly. Icouldn’t stand thinking about life or death anymore, all I wantedto do was sleep so I could join Gwen in my dreams. I shifted up agear and forced the gas pedal down to get to the flat quickly. Afterabout thirty seconds of quiet, Seb fell asleep from the stress of theday. I wished I could do the same, but I hoped he had found peace inhis mind for the time being before he had to wake up to realityagain. Myemotions were kept in check until we got to my flat, where Ideposited Seb who was still half asleep in the living room andretired to my bedroom. I looked around at all the evidence that Gwenhad lived there, sat on the unmade bed and wept until my eyes stungand my stomach ached. The pain felt like it would last forever, and Ididn’t know how to heal. My precious, sweet and irreplaceablegirlfriend had made me sacrifice her to save myself, and I knew foras long as I lived I would feel guilty. I wondered where her soul hadgone. I had a blind moment of panic as I realised I could havetrapped it in the house with Esther and all the evil spirits, but Ihad a feeling it definitely wasn’t, that she was at peace. I had aflush of anger at myself that I could even consider that her soul hadgone anywhere other than upwards.