Chad's paranormal team wanted to do another investigation before my house was rid of the entity that was residing there, which I still thought was Henry, the man who'd built it. Putting a name to it made me less afraid, but only slightly. Henry was just a man, after all—a very dead, yet very strong, man.
As I sat in my living room, which felt like someone else's, I told them that was fine. I knew they wanted to gather more evidence, and what better house to do it in than mine. They also introduced me to the medium and the pastor who were going to work together to cleanse my house, giving me my home back.
"I just hope you don't mind if I don't participate this time," I said laughing, but not joking.
"No, that's fine. It seems to like messing with women in general, not just you."
"What about Mable, if that's who is following me? Will all of this get rid of her, too?" Chad had told them about what all had happened with me and the girl who caused my near amputation.
"It won't matter. Once he's gone I think she'll be free, too. I'm sure he's what's keeping her here. I wouldn't doubt it if. . . ." Rich didn't finish. Instead, he looked at Jeff kind of weird and in that look they shared a private conversation that the rest of us weren't a part of.
"Okay, so we'll set up again tomorrow night, investigate, and you two will be back here Sunday morning?" he asked, looking at the medium and pastor, who'd stayed silent this entire time.
"Yes," the medium spoke up. "However, there's more here."
"What do you mean?" Chad asked.
"Aside from the man and woman, there's something else. Either the man has let it in or he has somehow manifested it himself. We have to be careful here because whatever it is . . . it's sinister."
"Sinister? You mean a demon?" Rich asked.
She looked around a minute before she answered. "Not a demon, exactly, just sinister."
Great. I just wanted to leave. "Can you come with me to get some more of my things, since I'll be away for a few more nights?" I asked Chad. Whether I continued to stay with him or at a hotel, I was not coming back here until I knew my home was my home.
"Sure."
He followed me to my room and shut the door behind us, which he had came back and reattached, even though I had said he didn't have to. "Are you sure you're okay with all of this? I'll help you sell it if you just want to walk away." He gently grabbed my elbow. "You know you can stay with me as long as you need to."
"They can do whatever it is they're going to do and we can see what happens. It's going to break my bank if I have to sell and move again. And to be quite honest, I love this house . . . well, I did. I don't really know how I feel about it now. But I want to try what we can and go from there."
"Okay. Just so you know you've got options."
During all of this craziness, Chad had come to be a great friend and I was grateful that I'd met him. "Thanks, Chad. I really appreciate all you've done. You didn't have to, so thanks."
He nodded and smiled. "Any time."
I walked into my closet to get some extra clothes when the air suddenly changed, causing me to almost panic until I felt Chad's hand on my shoulder. When I turned to look at him, his expression had changed, too, which made me take a step back. When I did, he grabbed my good hand and pulled me out of the closet and toward my bed.
"What are you doing?" I asked, totally caught off guard.
"Something I've wanted to do for a long time."
He turned me around and backed me into the bed, causing me to sit down. When I did, he laid me back and slowly climbed on top of me. "Chad, what are you doing?" I asked again, but instead of getting an answer, he covered my lips with his. He was kissing me softly at first, but then he became rough, hurting my mouth. "Chad," I said against his mouth, which moved from my mouth down to my neck. "Chad, stop it." When he didn't, I said, "They are right down the hall. What if they come in?"
"They can watch," he replied.
"That's enough, Chad," I demanded, trying to push him off of me, which was impossible with just one arm.
Suddenly he covered my mouth and became really aggressive, pulling at my clothes. I tried to scream, which caused him to cover my mouth even harder. When I tasted blood, I looked around for something to fight him off with, but the only thing that was near my bed was my nightstand. I tried bringing my knee up, tried scratching him, something, but no matter what I did I couldn't fight him off.
He had me pinned to the edge of the bed, so I scanned my nightstand for a weapon, but all I saw was my lamp. Thinking about my arm, I reached for the lamp, only to have him grab my arm and stop me. I started to cry, but my tears didn't seem to faze him. I couldn't understand after all the times we were alone at his house why he chose now to assault me, when we were in a house full of people.
I felt defeated. I almost thought about just letting him do what he wanted to do so it'd be over with. And when it was over, I was going to kill him . . . slowly. When he sensed my surrender, he ripped my shirt, pulling it almost off of me. As he tugged at the sleeve on my bad arm, he let up on my other arm just enough for me to reach for my lamp one last time.
When my fingers finally grasped it and I planted a solid hit against his head, he fell over, losing his grip on me. I grabbed the chrome lamp with both hands, my bad one, too, as much as I could, and hit him again, and not just once. Even when blood started splattering my bed and my walls, I kept hitting him. When I knew for sure he wasn't moving, I stopped, dropping the lamp onto the bed. The sight of his bashed-in face made me turn and throw up over the side of my bed.
Oh, my God, no . . . no . . . no. I killed him.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. But instead, I just sat here, covered in Chad's blood. Killing him had killed a part of me, too, and I was frozen.
Before I realized what was happening, he lunged for me, pinning me to the bed again, his blood dripping onto my face and into my mouth. All I could do was cry. I was paralyzed with fear; paralyzed with shock. This can't be happening. I opened my mouth to scream, but more blood dripped into it, causing me to gag.
"Jacynda," he yelled, "what's wrong? Jacynda!" I could still feel his hands on me, holding me down.
"Please," I cried as I spat his blood from my mouth, "just kill me. Please kill me." Nausea overwhelmed me and I knew I was about to throw up again.
"Kill you? Why would I kill you? I need some help in here," I heard him yell. I opened my eyes, not understanding what was going on. "Jacynda, it's okay. It's me."
I heard the door fly open and was so relieved when I saw that I had help. "Help me! Get him off me!" I wiggled my way out from underneath Chad and fell to the floor, crawling as fast as I could with one arm across my room. When I turn to tell them that Chad had attacked me, I realized that his face wasn't bashed in. He didn't even look like we had struggled at all. I looked down at my ripped shirt, only to realize that it wasn't ripped at all. My lamp was still on my nightstand and there was no blood anywhere. If I wasn't crying hard before, I was now.
"What's going on?" I whispered.
Everybody stood back, clueless to the fact that I'd just killed Chad, or at least I thought I did, looking from me to Chad, but not saying anything. Chad slowly came towards me, not wanting to startle me any more than I already was.
"Jacynda . . . it's me, Hon, it's just me." When he bent down to put his arms around me, I flinched, still confused. "I don't know what happened, but you're okay now." He slowly wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight.
I hugged him back. "Oh, my gosh," I cried. "I killed you."
"What?"
"I went into my closet to get some clothes, and—"
"Yeah," he interrupted me. "That's when you freaked out on me."
"But you came into the closet and pulled me out and started. . . ." I didn't want to tell him in front of Jeff and everybody. "You attacked me and then I grabbed my lamp," I said, pointing to the one I'd bashed his head in with. Nausea overcame me again. "Can we go outside? I don't feel so good."
"Yeah, come on," he said as he helped me up and walked me out.
I finished telling them the gruesome details and they just looked at me, shocked. Even the medium, who should've sensed something was up, looked surprised.
"I'm sorry, Hon. I tried to pull you out of it, but you kept fighting me."
"Oh, Chad. What if I had really hurt you? I wouldn't have been able to live with myself."
"Well, you didn't and we're all okay now," he said as he wrapped his arm around me again. He had a way of calming me, making me feel safe, and I liked it. I leaned into him and wrapped my arms around his waist.
"Maybe we should forgo the investigation. I just don't think it's safe," Jeff said.
"I agree," Susan interjected. "If it can get inside our heads, then none of us are safe."
"Do you think that's what happened? It got inside my head and made me see those things?"
"It had to be. How else can you explain it?" she added.
"I agree," the medium said. "The house is not safe and it won't be until we rid it of the evil that is here."
As they finalized their plans regarding my house, Chad took me home—well, to his condo. "It really doesn't matter what they do or if it works," I told him. "I'm selling my house."
"Are you sure that's what you want to do?"
"Absolutely."