Short Story - For An Halloween Night

Short Story

- Miriam, let’s go outside while there’s light. Pleaseeee – Sophia begged.
- Sophie, you know that I don’t like to go outside in the evening, near the sunset…
- Yeah, yeah, because of the veil and stuff, but it’s not like 3 am in the morning or that time of the year when the veil is more lifted.
“And here I am being interrupted again”, Miriam thinks to herself and then sighs like there’s nothing she can do to demotivate Sophia from doing whatever she wants, it’s always like that every single time.
- Ok, fine. But we need to be home before the light of the sun fades away. Something bad can happen if we are not careful. – Miriam is a person who sometimes has premonitions, so they should have trusted her guts.
Meanwhile across the city, someone is practicing a ritual, or to be more precise a ramification of witchcraft. Witchcraft can be a good thing or a bad thing, that just depends on the intentions we put it in, for example, if it is for protection of your beloved ones or for yourself it is a good thing. But these manifestations hadn’t good intentions…
“As the sun is setting down, the moon is rising up”
“As the moon is rising up, my intentions will be set up for tonight”
“Tonight, tonight, tonight”
“Full moon lend me your power on these day and curse my enemies”
As the spell was being said, Reah was also doing it with her own hands because this kind of bewitchment needed something material besides the oral manifestation. Reah was confident about it and was certain that everything would go according to her own plan.
When she finished, she didn’t feel anything as she thought she would, since Reah is crazy about magic, deities and oftenly trying to manifest the evil instead of the good.
But what is or who are the enemy or enemies of Reah?
Reah used to have a difficult childhood, where she was used to change families periodically because when the adoptive parents get to know her they would send her off back to the orphanage and this cycle would keep going on and on until someone came to claim her as one of their own, and that person was nothing more nothing less than the aunt of Miriam and Sophia Orhpeus and with a single glance at them she thought that they would never be on good terms.
Well, I wonder if you are now questioning why, right? In Reah’s memories there’s no answer for this matter, I tried the best I could, believe me. But it was her adoptive aunt who helped her to initiate witchcraft in a good way, but life had other plans for Reah.
Back to the Orpheus sisters, they ended up going out, ignoring Miriam’s guts, which were stronger than Sophia due to the fact that Miriam had awakened up as a medium and could sense these things with more clarity than her little sister who always had liked to drive her nuts overhills.
They were walking around the neighborhood when all of a sudden Miriam felt some change in the air and in the mood around the two of them.
- Sophie!!! We need to get out of here NOW!!! – Miriam was giving up to her own despair and started to lose control over her own body and afterwards her mind.
Without any warning, Miriam’s face starts to change and doing frictions as TV’s from the ’50 when they stopped working due to the weak signal. And all we heard was nothing for a moment since that had paralysed Sophia, when she came back to her senses she screamed so loud that I swear it could have been heard on another planet.
-“AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” – as she screams loudly she starts to run away as fast as she could to the nearest shelt she could think of.
So she ran down the street to the florest where she knew she could find Henry there and ask for help.
Henry could be described as an interesting person, intelligent and had a really quick thought for situations like these one; he wasn’t a person yet he wasn’t a deity or ghost because when he died he didn’t get the change to cross the limbo, so now he dedicates the time he is here to help everyone that needs him and knows where to find him.
When Sophie got to the florest, she started to look around for him, but there was nothing there besides the trees, birds or other insects that could be found there. So she tried to call him again:
- Henrryyyy. Henry, where are you? I need you, please.
Shophie immediately thought “I guess he got his chance to cross the limbo…, just don’t understand why now? Why, especially when we need him the most? Why?”. With this and with a tiny little voice as she starts to cry she tries another time, very low as if said it like that he would appear by magic.
- Henry… we need you… where are you? Henry…
Little does she know that in that exact moment her sister would appear with unkempt balck hair, pallid face, tiny mouth and big eyes. When they looked at each others eyes Sophie could see that the person in front of her wasn’t her sister, in spite of the possession, and she probably caught a glace by pity because Miriam was being forced to do that.
Without any notice, Miriam strikes violently as quick as flash runs around the Earth. Sophie tried to resist in vain because that just resulted in a bloody death for her. As Sophies’ soul fades away within the last breath, Miriam faints and the spirit or demon gets out of her body and fades away to their hiding-place.
After sometime Reah felt that the spell was being effective and started to laugh malevolently. Reah concluded that her plan was being a success and nothing could get in her way and no one would suspect that the real criminal was her.
As Reah is making her conclusions, Miriam is finally waking up, back to her original shape and bewildered because she didn’t know why the hell she was in the florest of her city, she starts to look around and sees her sister body cold as the ice in the North Pole, ok, I’m exaggerating, but it was very cold, I swear!
Miriam shouts:
- SHOPHIEEEEE -  as she notices her sister isn’t answering and breathing Miriam calls 911 bursting into tears and after that her parents.
When the paramedics arrive they confirm the death and Orpheus’ family, now incomplete, returns to their house. On the way back home no one dared to speak. They were shattered into pieces and no one was in the mood to talk about that, especially Miriam who strangely couldn’t remember anything.
Back to her room and after sometime reading, “Aquorea – Inspira”, to try calm down herself, she looks at the mirror and at the first glance the person she sees wasn’t her or her reflection, she thought it was the monster who possessed her, but then she blinks again and everything was back to the way it was, “normal”.
Despite the fact that everything is significantly back to normal, Miriams’ intuition kept telling her that something was wrong. So, she decides to try to connect to her spirit guides through meditation first, which doesn’t work.
As she tries to imagine how she is going to resolve the problem, since it’s late at night and there’s nothing open at this hour. The demon who was watching her through the mirror appears, all in black except for her features and arms which were pale, very pale, as Snow White is described in Snow White and the 7 dwarves or pale as snow could be described.
With a thin face, almost showing parts of bones and with big eyes, the spirit is right in front of Miriam, trying to decide whether she attacks or if she should say something.
The atmosphere was starting to be cold, creepy and frightening for the only one child of Orpheus' family. Miriam is shaking and the evil smile of the spirit gradually increases as she can sense and see the fear in Miriams’ face. Thanks to that, her power starts to increase more and more when suddenly the demon fades away as if it was never there to begin with.
In that very moment Miriam is astonished by what had happen there and when she realizes she is shaking from head to toes, her body was releasing all the panic and anxiety she felt over that horrible moment, without knowing whether they were going to hurt her or kill her in a similar way done to her sister, who was somewhere else.
While Miriam was having an anxiety attack, Reah was enjoying her life at the most.
Reah didn’t care about her cousins since the first glance, as I mentioned. They didn’t like each other, the feeling was mutual, as Reah decided to make them her enemies and patiently torture them with all the calm in the world to make them suffer longer and longer until they couldn’t have forces to resist and then give the final golpe by making them disapper as if they never existed in the first place and she could be in the limelight and feel she was finally there, receiving attention, love and affection, the basics things parents should give to their sons and daughters.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocks on the door and enters the room. The person who enters there is beautiful, elegant, has a defined shape of her body, brunette with highlights and she was dressed as someone dresses to go to conferences and reunions in their jobs.
- Reah, I would like to let you know that your aunt and uncle said that in the evening Sophia died, the causes are unknown yet. The paramedics sent her body to the lab to see if they could find precisely what caused the death besides the wounds in some vital points.
- Ok, when is the funeral?
- Don’t know yet, but I will tell you when I know.
With this cue Amanda, her adoptive mother, leaves the room and Reah doesn’t know if she should feel happy or sad about what happened. On one hand she would be happy because one of her proclaimed enemies to the world died, but on another hand Reah didn’t get that much pleasure to kill Sophia as she thought she would because she had other plans for their cousins.
She decides to undo the spell and breaks it, which coincides with the demon fading away from Miriam’s sight. And starts to search when the full moon will be at her peak. Full moons have the power to increase and strengthen the spells we do in witchcraft whether they are good or bad, as they also help in shifting into a new world or our dream reality as they can help with manifesting the things we desire the most with the help of the law of attraction.
- Ok, so the peak of the full moon is going to be tomorrow night, that doesn’t give much time to prepare it with perfect conditions but we will try it – Reah mumbles to herself while she keeps searching for her next step.
In Orpheus family house, Miriam felt a chill down her spine as if her intuition was trying to tell her that something was wrong and to try to protect herself, which she didn’t get it because she hadn’t fully develop her connections with her spirits guide and opened her third eye yet or how to read tarot or had premonitions dreams which in these situation would be very helpful to avoid another catastrophe in this upside down family tree since the arrival of Reah. I’m not blaming her, I was just stating what happened since different things affect all of us in different ways.
Miriam decided to make chamomile tea to help her feel more relaxed and to see if she could fall asleep faster after todays’ event. And Reah? She made her second coffee and kept searching for the best method to torture Miriam, which was making a voodoo doll and trying to summon another spirit to haunt her.
By the morning in the very next day Reah and Amanda decided to give condolences to her cousin, aunt and uncle. When they got there, Reah had a bouquet of white roses and white lilies to offer them. Reah gave a hug and mumbled a few words to each one of them, as her “mom” did. By the moment Reah got to Miriam, Reah rip out a few hairs, in order to do what she wanted to. In that very little moment, Miriam says:
- AUCH!!! – she seemed very uncomfortable since she was feeling a little bit of pain, which could be observed in the face she was doing.
- I got all I needed – Reah says in a very creepy way but very low, so Miriam would be the only one capable of hearing it. – I’m so, so sorry for your lost cousin – now, Reah is talking very loud and clear. Clearly she was showing off that she cared about them, which wasn’t entirely true.
As fast as she could, Miriam pushed Reah, since she wasn’t feeling safe around her, as usual, but this time the feeling was more intense as she could sense the creepy vibes coming from Reah.
Some time later, being in Orpheus house, Reah and Amanda decide it’s time to leave the house, leaving them alone since they had done everything they had to do there.
As they are arriving home, Reah is already taking off her seatbelt and when the car stops she runs like the wind to her room, slamming both doors and is having difficulty breathing.
After what seemed like years, Reah is finally calm and proceeds to do the spell and the voodoo doll. During the process she enchants:
“Full moon, full moon, lend me your power”
“Full moon, help me making my desires true”
“With this spell and our forces combined, our goals together will be fulfilled”
“Even though, everything has a cost, lend me your power once again”
“Once again, since you are at your peak”
“With my intentions setted for tonight this will be valid for every month, in the week of full moon until these doll is burnt or ripped out till shreds”
Reah blows out the candles who were placed around her, in order to make it come true.
- Finally, it’s done – she sighs. – Hope that works.
Some hours later, it’s pitch-black and it’s by this time the spell starts working, slowly but very efficiently.
At the dinner table, Miriam is sensing a bit of discomfort and thinks it’s all due to stress accumulated and all the things she is feeling that are so dense inside of her.
- Is everything alright, dear? – Miriams’ mom, Diana, asks while fondling her daughters’ hand.
- Yes, it is mom. I think it’s because I didn’t get the time to think thoroughly through all of these and didn’t have the time to process everything.
- If you need to talk you can do it. You know that, right?
- Yes, mom. Thanks – Miriam gives a fake smile and focuses on the rest of the food that there’s left in her plate.
Now in her room, Miriam allows herself to show a little bit of emotions and is releasing all of her compacted feelings when something starts pinching her out of nowhere.
- AUCH!!!
Another pinch.
-AUCH!!! What is going on? Why am I feeling this? I’m not even doing self-harming, so how?
Seconds later, Miriam starts to feel observated by something and is rooted to the spot, not profering any word or sound. She was so terrified that her first response was to cry about it, but then she remembered a series where the main character knew everything was going to be alright and if she calmed down as she thought she could deal with it.
As she calms herself down, she tries to concentrate on her surroundings to at least know what could be. She closes her eyes, but for a moment all she can sense is the breeze whistling and then a thunder rumbling, which indicated that a storm was coming. So, she focuses even more and now all she can see is a presence of a huge black ball with two red eyes observing her as if it was observing the ocean or the moon like we do. The stare was so threateningly creepy that she forces herself to run out of there to another place.
In the middle of her running, she starts feeling her wrist aching really bad. She was so terrified to die after what happened to Sophie that she couldn’t stop herself from running even though the pain she was feeling. Miriam felt the urge to keep running until she bumps so strongly into a light pole that she ends up fainting.
BAM.
A huge sound was made by accident.
A very kind old lady, Rose, hearing it, decides to take a look at it. When she got there, she saw Miriam there and decided to take care of her until the girl woke up. Rose, the old lady, isn’t a common citizen, she is the type of person who is there for someone who needs it, even if it’s across the country or across the world, is a medium or is trying to develop some area in the spiritual realm, we can say she is similar to the old lady in Brave.
Eventually, Miriam ends up waking up with a bag of ice in her head. When she tried to move her right wrist she felt something was wrong and recalled the moment she was running as if her life depended on it, for not being caught by the black shadow, who strangely wasn’t perturbing her anymore. But why?
- Oh! I see you are already awake, darling.
- Yes, ma’am. Thank you for the hospitality.
- No need to thank me, but more importantly, I can see that you are going through a rough time. – As Rose finished her sentence, Miriam started feeling pain again.
- AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!....
This time it is her left ankle.
In Miriams’ head it didn’t make any sense for her to be feeling any kind of pain since the shadow had disappeared.
- You were cursed by someone who really holds a grudge onto your family, especially you.
- WHAT? NO! That’s not possible.
- Do you usually do something to protect yourself?
- I just don’t go out when the evening starts.
- Then you aren’t, these young people are all the same in every corner around the world – Rose sighs. – Ok, so the presence you were feeling isn’t here, I think you noticed it, right?
- Yeah.
- It’s not here because salt has properties which blocks any kind of evil spirits. But it doesn’t work with curses, just works with a dense energy. Do you have any idea who could be the one who is doing these to you?
- Nop. AAAAGGGHHH – Miriam shouts again, it’s her left ankle again.
- Ok, so drink this to at least reduce the pain. Then take the bag on the table next to the sofa with you, which has some instructions there to help you. Oh, I was already forgetting about it, until you find the real culprit don’t go out of your house and take this necklace with you, for protection. Now you are ready to go.
As Miriam gets out of the old lady house, she thanks a lot and when turns back to go back home, the house now behind her disappears as if it wasn’t never there to begin with and vanishes like the old lady in Brave does.
“Ok, now, when I arrive home I will try to sleep and tomorrow I’ll do what the old lady gave me”. Miriam thinks this to herself and on the other side of the city her cousin was overjoyed and very excited because her plans were doing so well that she thought that there was nothing that could go wrong.
- Finally I will have them only for me and I’ll be in the spotlight. – seconds later Reah is laughing as villains laugh while petting their cat whe the plan is going well.
Everything was setted to be resolved by the morning, but Miriam forgot to do what the old lady had asked her since she remembered that she had to do things for school and extracurricular activities, so she added a mental note to do it later.
On the other side, Reah had already finished things for school and decided to play with the voodoo doll. Firstly in a gentle way, not to scare a lot her dear cousin, then Reah puts more pressure in the region of the uterus, so of course Miriam will think it’s cramps and does it for a few minutes before stopping and started doing another thing since she had to preserve the only cousin left alive. With this thoght in mind, Reah starts searching again for other ways she could torture and haunt Miriam.
Feeling the body in pain Miriam thinks she just needs to take medicine and it will be fine, however the pain disappears as fast as it appeared. Leaving without evidence. And even during the day Miriam is feeling the presence of her “follower”, as she called it, she knew it was there, weak in comparison to yesterday. So, she resolves to do what the old lady gave her before it gets worse than already is.
Miriam opens the bag and sees a lot of herbs, some fangs, legs of some bird and an eye. As she sees it, she almost ends up dropping it because of the fright.
In the beginning of the preparations, Miriam was feeling some pressure as nothing could go wrong with the spell. When all is setted up, Miriam starts:
“Soul, Earth and Universe”
“Soul, Earth and Universe”
“I call upon you to help me with something”
“Help me… bre-eaking this chain”
“With the things I offer I ask nicely for the help in breaking up these chain”
“Chain who controls me”
“Soul, Earth and Universe, help me break these chain and set me free of the thing who has been following me since yesterday”
“Please help me find my freedom that once again belonged to me and was taken away”
Miriam waits quietly for a moment before moving. In the moment she decided to move she felt a black energy go through her sometimes before fading away, this black energy can be compared to the Dementors, from Harry Potter, but the difference is that these black shape who was around Miriam didn’t suck happiness away. Than:
SLAM!!!
Everything is peaceful and back to normal.
Right this moment, Reah feels there is something wrong so she confirms that the doll had lost all the powers it had. Desperately she tries to think of what could reactivate it since she wasn't powerful enough to reactivate it and the full moon wouldn’t be enough since the peak was yesterday and Reah hadn’t any forces remaining to do it again this month. She reflects for a moment and realises the best way is to wait until the next month before trying it again.
But then, days went by days and turned into months and months into years. Memories and promises faded away by time.
Even though Reah still considers Miriam as her enemy, after some time she realised that she shouldn’t do these kind of things anymore, so she left the idea of torturing Miriam in the past as she moved on from it because in the meantime she found another target and another thing to focus on. However, Miriam gained some traumas and until today she can’t talk about it, but she learnt how to move on, traumatized and afraid of what could strike again at any time but moved on to the next page of her life as Reah did, without knowing who the person that did all of this was.
And me? I’m just Henry, the narrator of this story which was entrusted to me.