The white light comes closer and Gabriel pulls the creature off of me and his blue eyes widen at the horrific sight of the doll.
He snaps himself out of shock and pulls out the bat.
However, just as he is about to swing it, his phone turns off...
Oh my God.
It's completely blacked out. I hear what seems to be violent thumps and shuffling along the old, wood, floor.
The noise comes to a stop.
"Gabriel, where are you? Are you okay?" I shakily call, the eerieness of the silence creeping me out.
The harsh shuffling then continues.
"Gabe!" I called again as I start to feel around my surroundings. I needed to hurry and find the exit.
Suddenly, I hear a loud, gruesome scratch sounding from my left side. "Agh! Damnit!" Gabe yells.
"Gabriel! What happened?" I yelled for him until I feel a hand grab mine and pull it forward.
I screamed in fear and tried to break away quickly. "Jacqueline, stop! It's me." I hear a familiar voice say.
"Oh thank gosh I was so sc-" I sighed in relief. "It's still alive, we have to hurry and get outta here." Gabe interrupts.
"What! Where is it?" I turned around to look for it, but of course it's so dark so there's no luck in seeing anything.
"Not sure." He replied. "I kicked it into a wall I think. That damn thing is still going to be alive. "
"How can you see where the way out is?" I ask as he leads us. "I remembered where we were standing before my light went out. We weren't too far from the exit." He quickly answers.
I stay quiet until Gabe finally finds the stairs that lead back out of the attic. I felt as it was light shining at the end of a dark tunnel. A feeling of relief came upon me. Now that the staircase was fully opened, a dim light was shining on us from downstairs.
"C'mon." He jumps on the first step and turns to help me out.
I begin to step down until I feel myself being powerfully thrown back. My back harshly hitting the wood floor with a loud thud. The creature was yanking me by my shirt as I was being dragged further into that dark, dreadful attic.
"No!" I heard Gabe yell from the stairs. "Let go of me!" I screamed as I constantly swung my arms above my head in order to reach the monster.
Gabe quickly ran to me and threw himself on the large 5'6 doll, instantly punching it's wicked face.
I felt drops of liquid fall onto my forehead and cheeks. I decided to ignore it since I couldn't really see what it was anyways.
I stood up and grabbed Gabe's shoulder. "Forget it, we need to get out now!" I stopped and pulled him away from what I could see, a severly beaten body of a demonic doll.
Gabe took charge and started to run for the exit with me again.
We reached the fully lighted part of the old staircase when I decided to turn around one last time.
There, laying in the darkest part of the attic, was the creature. It was lying face up. I noticed the newly broken, black, eye socket located on the right side. It had large crack starting from the middle of it all the way up to the end of it's scratched up forehead.
It's once, bright yellow dress was fully covered in dust and blood.
Wait.. blood?
My eyes roamed back up to the doll's face and noticed something..
There was blood spouting from it's widely grinning, black, mouth.
My eyes widened as I continued to stare at the bloody, lifeless looking body.
"What are you doing? C'mon!" Gabe urged. "G-Gabe. Do y-you see that?" I pointed at the creature.
How is it bleeding. How on Earth is that possible! Maybe it really is 'dying'.
He looked back up to the sight and his eyes widened as well. "Oh hell no." He shivers. "Hell no!"He repeats and leads me down the stairs.
I quickly follow and Gabriel pulls the string back up, closing the staircase. I can finally take a real breath of relief.
Until we suddenly hear giggling.
It starts off as a low, slow sounding kind of laugh. Gabe and I both stare at each other, examining the sound.
Then, the slow laughing starts to quickly fade and turn into loud, high pitched uncontrollable giggling.
It sounded as if it was coming from a child.
Except I knew it wasn't a child.
The sound of the laughter is so haunting it scares me and my eyes begin to water.
"It's coming from up there.. isn't it." Gabe whispers and points up to the attic above us.
I slowly nod my head yes.
The giggling continues and Gabe runs a hand through his black hair.
I notice he has a large, bloody, scratch across his cheek, leading to his sharp jawline.
"Oh gosh Gabe." I gasp and walk closer to view the intensity of the scratch. "It's nothing." He blurts out, making his Australian accent clearly heard. He then heads for the front doorway.
"I hate dolls." He shrugged as he took his keys out and walked out of the house. I stood there, not sure of what to do.
"Aren't you coming?" He called out from the front yard. "You can't stay here with that thing." He added, emphasizing the word 'thing'.
He was right.
I hurried out, locking the door behind me and jumping into his car.
----
Within a couple of minutes, we arrived at the next stop. I looked out the tinted car window and saw we were parked in a large, brick, driveway.
Gabe turned off the car and climbed out. I did the same as we walked up the driveway. I looked around and noticed the large fountain located in the middle of the curved driveway.
The elegant driveway and large fountain were nothing compared to the mansion though.
It was an extremely large mansion, with it's decorative white, Greek inspired columns in the front. The entire house looked like it was covered in glossy white marble.
"Woah! Where are we?" I gasped in delight at the beautiful sight.
Gabe chuckled, placing his keys in his pocket. "My house."
"This is your house!?" I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah, it's not a big deal, really." He shrugged as he entered a passcode to open the large font door.
As we entered the grand hallway, my eyes widened at how elegant everything was. There were paintings adorning the walls. Small palm trees in exotic looking vases, and a large picture of a family.
I stopped in front of the picture. There was a a woman with light blonde hair and crystal blue eyes standing next to a tall man with black hair. Standing in front of them in the middle, was a little boy, smiling as big as ever, dimples in full view.
"Is that you?" I asked Gabe. I looked from the picture to where he was standing.
"Yes." He replied without any emotion and started walking down the wide hallway. "You look so happy. I didn't know you have dimples." I replied, looking back to the portrait.
"Yeah. Well that was a long time ago." He simply said. "The bathroom is the third door on your left."
"That's great to know." I sarcastically responded. I didn't need to use the bathroom. "Oh, you're not going to clean up?" Gabe stopped at the end of the hallway and raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" I nervously asked. "Do I have something in my treeth?"
He chuckled in response. "Just go look in the mirror."
Was he calling me ugly or something!
I followed his intructions on how to get to the bathroom and gasped when I looked in the mirror.
There was dark red, almost black colored blood all over my face. It looked like I had a mask of blood on.
The thing was though, it wasn't my blood.
I quickly looked through large white cabinets and found a small, fluffy towel. As I rinsed my face with soap and water I recalled the events that occured in the attic.
I remembered the drops of liquid falling on me as Gabe tried to beat the doll to death.
This was the creature's blood I was wiping off of my face. I cringed at the thought and continued to clean myself up.
I threw my long, blonde hair in a high, cheerleader ponytail so it was out of my face.
After I finished, I walked out of the elegant bathroom and continued down the long hallway.
I ended standing in front of a grand staircase. Where was Gabriel?
"Gabriel?" I called out in empty house.
There was no answer.
I wasn't sure where he went and this house was so large. My curiousity was trying to get the better of me as I wanted to look around and see what was up the stairs, but my conscious kicked in and I decided to just sit on the expensive looking couch.
I took out my phone and checked the time, seeing that it was already 4:25 in the afternoon. I didn't realize how fast time went by.
All of a sudden I hear the front door open from the other end of the hallway. I can't really see who entered but I hear the sound of high heels hitting the floor.
As if within seconds the sound of heels becomes louder until I see a woman stop when she sees me. Her medium length blonde hair is straightened and worn down. She is wearing a black pencil skirt, complete with a white blouse and finished with a black blazer.
"Oh hello." She cheerfully greets with an Australian accent and a bright smile. "Hi, I'm Jacqueline." I stand up and greet.
"That's such a beautiful name. Are you one of Gabriel's friends?" She asks as she sets her designer purse down on a coffee table.
Am I one of Gabe's friends?
"Thank you. And um I think so." I let out a nervous laugh. "He is on the student council with me." I added.
She raised her perfectly trimmed eyebrows and smiled. "I didn't know Gabriel was on the student council."
"Oh! Well yes m'am he's been on the council for a little while now." I replied.
The front door opens again. "Ah, that must be my husband." She says and walks down the hallway. I look around the room for Gabriel but he is still no where to be found.
The blonde woman greets and lightly kisses the man with dark hair. "Gabriel has a guest over." She tells him.
"Do we?" He asks and continues to walk down the hallway. "Hi there, I'm Robert Swintek. Gabriel's father." He says with a white smile, he has a thick Australian accent.
"Hello, I'm Jacqueline." I say with a big smile. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Olivia Swintek, Gabriel's mother. Why don't you make yourself comfortable over here." She says and walks into the stainless steel kitchen.
"It's nice to meet you both." I add and follow them. "Would you like anything to drink?" Robert asks and points towards the gigantic, glass refridgerator.
"No thank you. I'm okay." I reply and sit in a white chair. "Robert, Jacqueline was just informing me that Gabriel has been in the student council." She says with a smile. "Oh really? That's great. I had no idea. Is Gabriel a good student?" He turns from the fridge and looks to me. Olivia does the same.
Are they not aware of all the trouble he has gotten into?
Should I lie and say he cares about school.
Or that we both skipped today.
"Gabriel is a -"
"It doesn't matter." I hear a familiar voice interupt. Speak of the devil.
"Hi son, we were getting to know your friend here." Robert says as Gabriel walks down the large staircase. Gabe's black hair is wet and is not in it's usual spikey format but more in a messy, 'boy-next-door" look, covering his forehead.
He walks down the stairs in dark jeans as he is throwing on a white t-shirt. "Why are you two home so early?" He barks.
"I finished some paperwork early." Olivia answers. "Would you like to stay for dinner Jacqueline?" She politely asks.
"Oh I couldn't intrude. I just came by real quick. I was about to leave soon anyways, thank you though." I reply and look to Gabriel.
He is glaring at his parents. "Gabe, why didn't you tell us you were in the student council?" Robert asks.
"Why do you care?" He snaps.
"You told them?" Gabe turns to me.
"W-what! No I only told them about student council. That's all." I narrow my eyebrows.
"Why didn't you wan't her to tell us?" Olivia looks to Gabe.
He sighs. "Nevermind. I'm taking Jacqueline home." He announces and starts to walk towards the entrance. I quickly follow.
"Again, it was nice meeting you two." I tell his parents again. I didn't want them to think I was rude like how their son was being.
"What was that about?" I ask Gabriel as we jump in his car. "Nothing." He replies as he turns on the car. "What did they tell you?" He demands.
"Nothing, gosh." I reply and cross my arms. "Why were you so mean to them? They seem really nice." I questioned him.
"You don't know them." He snaps. "Well I don't need to know them to see how rude you were being." I argue.
"They suck as parents and I have my reasons for being like that. That's all you need to know." He says.
My phone suddenly rings. "Hi, mom." I answer with no emotion. I was still not on the best terms with my family.
"Jacqueline, we have news." I hear her say on the other end. "Well what is it?" I urge.
"The hospital called and it turns out Grace is going to be able to come home tomorrow." She replies.
My eyes lit up, my little sister is finally coming home.
Hi there readers! I'm so excited to announce that "Demented" has some official trailers! The videos are on the right! There are two trailers so far. One is made by my best friend Mizz Lexis and the other is made by myself! Be sure to check those out and thanks for reading/voting/commenting. If you would like to submit a drawing, video, etc. please message me. I would love to post it and give you credit of course! :) Thanks again!
-Christina