Consumite Furore: Take A Stand
Part 4/5
By cancerw0man (Jean)
7:07am
Sunday Of Thanksgiving Long Weekend, 2012
17 Years After Don's Death
Carnovasch Estate
Massachusetts
Karen closed the door quietly behind her as she walked out into the parking lot of the Carnovasch Estate. She pulled her light spring coat tightly around her, to fend off the cool morning air. The other two, (Vicky and Brenna), had already gone out to the barn half an hour ago, but she'd remained in the house to help Krystal wrap Laura's body in a sheet and lay her on the bed in one of the three bedrooms. She didn't want Krystal to mistreat the body anymore then she already had.
Her hands were red, whether from Laura's blood or from the desperation with which she'd scrubbed them to get the blood out, Karen wasn't sure. Sighing, she pushed a peice of stray golden hair from her face and made her way into the barn, closing the doors there too.
"Finally!" Vicky complained, from where she sat high in one of the hay lofts. Brenna poked her head out from under some hay and smiled sadly.
"Shhh!" Karen said climbing the ladder and joining them.
"What did you want to see us about?" Brenna asked quietly.
"I havn't been completely honest with you two." Vicky looked at her.
"Honest?? How?" Karen paused.
"I know who killed Laura and Christine, and who would, and could kill US just as easily," she stated.
"What??!! Who?!" Brenna demanded.
"Krystal."
"That's not funny Karen!!" Vicky complained, angrily.
"It's not supposed to be." Karen looked at her with pleading eyes. "I couldn't tell you with her there, she'll kill whoever she sees as a threat."
"Hypathetically speaking, why would she do that?" Vicky asked, still not believing Karen.
"Because she's posessed." She held up a hand to stop them from arguing back. "No, wait, let me explain! You're going to think I'm crazy for all this, but it's the truth! The book you found, the seance you did, it summoned a demon," she then reluctantly finished. "the same demon that posessed my father seventeen years ago."
"WHAT???!!!" Karen shook her head.
"I didn't know it before, but my parents lived here for a short time before I was born. My dad was taken over by the demon, he tried to murder mom, so she killed him and banished the demon that had posessed him! Danmit! That seance released it again."
"Tell me again how you know this?!" Vicky said, skeptically. Karen closed her eyes, she was hoping she wouldn't have to tell them.
"Since I was a four, I've been able to communicate with my father, I can talk to him, hear him, sense his presence, he's a gaurdian angel to me. He told me right after I woke up yesterday, but he didn't know who'd been posessed and I had to figure it out. But it was Krystal, it had to be, she was the only one not with us when Laura was murdered. And she killed Christine, that's what that meat in the soup was." The two starred at her blankly.
"You're right," Brenna finally said. "You are crazy." Karen gave her a look.
"Come on! You have to believe me! I-"
"For all we know YOU could be the murderer!! Telling us this to mislead us, then you'll kill us when we least expect it." Karen shook her head, a tear running down her cheek.
"NO! Don't you remember?! I was with you when everyone was murdered! Vicky, we were out, exploring the grounds when Christine was killed, only Brenna and Krystal were here, but it couldn't have been Brenna, 'cause you were with us when Laura was killed! It had to have been Krystal!!" The reality of it finally sunk in to the two and they starred into the air in horror.
"We ate . . . . " Vicky stopped and quickly went to the edge of the hay loft where she puked her breakfast off the side. Karen was crying now, she didn't want to die, she didn't want any of her friends to die, but against this demon she had next to no defence. Where was her father when she needed him?? Whenever she'd been upset and had been crying before, he'd always come and comforted her, and now she needed him more then she probably ever would. Brenna went over to were Vicky sat, and tried to comfort her.
"What are we supposed to do?" Vicky asked.
"I don't know. There is some way to banish the demon, but I don't know how."
"Why don't you ask your father?" Brenna said softly. Karen shook her head.
"He isn't talking, I don't know where he is, ever since Christine's death he hasn't spoken to me, I don't know what's happened." The three sat in silence.
"Why don't we check the spell book, it'll probably say in there?!" Brenna suggested.
"It's all in Latin, but we could try," Vicky agreed.
"Okay, where is it?" Karen said, getting ready to decend from the loft.
"I'll get it." Vicky said climbing down the ladder. "I know where we left it."
"You're not going out there alone!" Brenna said, following Vicky down the ladder from the hayloft. "We're coming with you!" Karen nodded, then went down the ladder after them.
"Yeah, kay." The three of them silently headed outside, each one pondering what had happened, and wondering what they could do about it.
"Oh, shit!" Vicky said, reaching up to her neck, just as they reached the door.
"What is it?" Karen asked, concerned.
"My cross-"
"You're cross?" Karen asked a little confused. Vicky nodded.
"A necklace, my grandma gave it to me, it must have fallen off in the barn, I'll be right back." She turned and jogged the short distance to the barn, then disapeared through the large, wooden doors. Vicky glanced around the barn and the glint of gold, which she assumed was her necklace partially covered in the hay, where she'd been sitting in the loft. Her eyes then fell on a tall figure that stood directly beside the glint, a grin on her face. It was Krystal.
�Oh!� Vicky let out a little gasp of surprise. �Krystal, you scared me.
�Good,� she said staring Vicky down with hate filled eyes. Vicky wasn't entirely sure what she should do. Her instincts told her to run, but her logical mind said, that it would give her away.
�There�s something I need to show you,� Krystal said. Vicky hesitated, but then complied, trying not give any sign of suspicion. Krystal flashed a little wicked smile, then turned and disappeared from Vicky's line of vision. Vicky sighed and started to climb the ladder, when she saw the words carved into the soft wood, the words that had predicted Christine and Laura�s deaths, �Consumite Furore.� She stopped climbing and looked up at where Krystal waited expectantly. Vicky tried desperately to return to the ground, but she could do nothing but climb up. When she finally reached the loft where Krystal was waiting.
There was a sudden crash behind her and Vicky whirled around, only to see that the barn door had close, and the wooden slab, used as a primative lock, had fallen into place. Vicky turned back around and pulled out a small knife she liked to carry with her. Krystal saw it and laughed.
�You are soooo useless!!! You think THAT can stop me?! You�re pathetic!!� And with a flash, Krystal had kicked the blade from her hand, it flew through the air and landed a meter away in the soft dirt that covered the floor. Vicky looked at Krystal again, with panic evident on her face and her assailant laughed again. �I really have missed this!� She said in-between giggles.
"Vicky!!" They heard the faint voices of Karen and Brenna as they tried to open the barn door, but it was no use, and Krystal laughed again.
�What are you-� Krystal interrupted Vicky by grabbed her hair and forcing her head back. Krystal took a ball of thick fabric and stuffed it into Vicky�s mouth, who tried to push her away, then finally gave up. Krystal tied her hands together as well, before reaching up and pulling down a large noose, which she fitted around Vicky's neck and hung tightly from the rafters above. Not tight enough to kill, but one little push . . . Vicky tried to scream, but she nearly chocked on the piece of fabric that stuck from her mouth. Krystal put her head to one side and smiled at Vicky.
�How does it feel to be on the edge of death, ready at any moment for me to push you into it?!� She laughed again. Vicky started to cry and spit the cloth out, then tried to yell, but to no avail.
�Just like Leonora!! Never shut up do you?!� Krystal frowned and stuffed the cloth back into Vicky�s mouth, muffling her crying. Krystal smiled evilly and went over to where she had a bundle of things partially conceiled in the hay and pulled something out that Vicky couldn�t see. As Krystal got closer, Vicky saw it was a stapler.
�You reeeeally shouldn�t have done that!� Krystal warned, pinching Vicky�s lips together and pressing the stapler against them. Vicky let out a muffled little scream and started to cry hysterically as Krystal continued to staple her mouth shut until there was no way she was going to get the cloth out. Blood flowed from the wounds over Vicky�s chin and were soaked up into her plain, white shirt. Krystal dipped her finger in the red fluid and stuck her finger in her mouth, then smiled at Vicky.
�And now, like Leonora, and Hortencia, and Marie, you die!� Krystal gave Vicky a shove and she fell from the loft, letting out what was supposed to be a scream, then there was a large crack and Vicky was still. Krystal calmly returned down the ladder and gave Vicky a little push as she passed.
�They never shut up, do they??!!� She said, laughing, then returned to a conceiled corner of the barn, to wait for Brenna and Karen to make the discovery.
Karen pounded on the door one last time in a desperate attempt to get in the barn. To her surprise the doors swung open and revealed the completely calm barn. For a moment everything was completely silent, then Brenna let out a shriek at the sight before them.
She stopped short when she saw what had cause Brenna to scream. Vicky was hanging from the rafters, her neck thoroughly cought up in a noose. Her head was thrown at a weird angle, suggesting that it was broken, her mouth appeared to be full of something and Karen got closer to take a look and saw that her lips had been stappled shut a thick dirty fabric could be seen in her mouth. Vicky's dead eyes stared forward into nothingness, wide with shock and pain. Brenna started crying again.
"I don't wanna die!" She said in despair. Karen went over and gave the girl a reasuring hug. Brenna pulled away from Karen, and looked at her with the fear of a hunted animal. She then turned and ran, Karen went to go after her, but Krystal's voice stopped her.
"Don't bother, she can't get far," she stated coldly. Karen turned and looked Krystal in the eyes, there was nothing but hatred in her once kind eyes.
"What happened to her?!" Karen demanded. Krystal shrugged.
"How the hell should I know?!" Krystal said defiantly. Karen had to hold herself back from attacking Krystal, but it would be no use, she would probably just end up dead too. Karen went over to the ladder.
"Will you help me get her down??" Karen asked. She turned to start climbing, when suddenly something cought her eye, scratched into the wood were two frightening words. Consumite Furore. A shiver ran up and down Karen's spin and she wondered what it ment, then decided that maybe she didn't want to know. She ran her fingers over the letters, over the omen of death and shuddered before continuing to climb the ladder and get Vicky down.
***
Brenna stumbled around in the thick underbrush, trying to find a place to hide from her, from IT. She looked up and came to the stark realisation that she'd gone in a complete circle, she was right back where she'd started, infront of the barn, but Krystal, Karen and what was left of Vicky were nowhere to be seen. Cautiously, she climbed the steps to the house and opened the door. She slipped inside and closed it securely behind her. She turned and jumped at what she saw. There was a man in his early twenties kneeling by a phone, obviously trying to hook it up.
"Excuse me, sir, what are you doing??" She asked approaching him. He didn't seem to hear her and she tried again. "HELLO???!!!" With frustration she went to tap him on the shoulder, but her hand passed right through him. He shimmered and disapeared. Brenna blinked. Was she going crazy?! Had all this fear and death pushed her off the edge into madness?! She shook her head and looked around the empty room. She really was loosing it.
***
Karen sat beside her two dead friends where they lay, wrapped in white sheets on a large canopy bed. The room was richly decorated, with the painting of a young, beautiful woman over a fireplace which was now crackling. Karen pocketed the remaining two matches and said a prayer for her friends. She wasn't a religious person, but it just seemed fitting and at the moment.
She stood quickly as she heard the sound of people arguing somewhere in the house. Karen's heart sank, if Brenna and Krystal were arguing then there would surely be another body lying on that bed soon, and she'd be all alone, with IT. That's what she feared the most, she didn't want to be left alone. Quickly she headed down the hall and the sounds got louder, but just when she thought she'd found the source, it disapeared. She looked around in confussion, then headed up the stairs, trying to find whoever it had been who was arguing. She heard nothing as she wandered through the rooms on the third floor and thoroughly searched nearly all of them, before she reached the washroom where it had happened. Where Laura had been murdered.
Cautiously, she peeked into the room, fearing the worst, but there was nothing unusual about the place. Her eyes held the spot on the floor where the ground was still stained red with blood. She held her breath and turned away, not wanting to look at the spot. But as she turned she saw something else. There was a woman, standing infront of the mirror, brushing her long blond hair slowly. Karen gasped as she recognised the woman as her mother! But a lot younger. Then suddenly there was a man with her there too, she recognised him immediatly as her father. But how could they be here??!! Mom was still in Boston and dad was, well . . . . she didn't really know where he was.
Her father began to tenderly kiss Adrienne and she roughly pushed him away at first, but then she accepted his advances and kissed him back. Suddenly it got violent and he forced her against the wall, Karen tore her eyes from the scene, not wanting to watch, but she could still hear the sounds as the demon raped Adrienne. Karen knew this was a glimpse into the past and this was what her father had ment when he said. 'Made me do horrible things to her.' Karen finally looked back and saw her young mother sitting in the corner tears running down her cheeks. Karen bit her lip and began to cry too, even after the woman sitting in the corner faded from existance, Karen sat there crying. All the pent up emotions, fear, frustration, despair, anger, it all came out as she pounded her fist angrily agianst the wall.
"Why did they have to die?!" She demanded, even though there was no one there to hear her. "Why did she kill them??!!" Then she let out a scream of frustration and kicked the wall hard. She kicked the wall again and again and again, until she spotted a table that was covered in small ornaments. She went over to the table and picked up each peice in turn smashing them against the wall or the floor, when they were all gone, she picked up the small table and threw it accross the room where it broke in several peices as it hit the wall. She went over to another one of the tables and began to smash the small ornaments there too, until they were gone. Again she went to pick up the table but stopped short before she threw it. Krystal was standing there, staring coldly at her. Karen put the table down and stood there sobbing, her face red and wet with tears, she stared at the girl who she had once proudly called her friend.
"Why did they have to die?!" Karen demanded softly. Krystal smiled and began to laugh as Karen backed against the wall and sunk down to the floor. "It wasn't their time! They had their whole lives . . . . they're whole lives! They shouldn't have died!" She whispered the words, more for the sake of saying, rather then of anyone hearing. She saw Krystal, still laughing turn and go down the stairs. In a way, Karen had hoped that she'd come there to kill her, to get it over with, not prolong her misery like she was doing now.
"They didn't deserve to die!" She whispered again, lying down on the carpet, she sniffled, but felt the warm embrace of sleep approaching and she eagerly succumbed to the darkness, the nothingness that followed.
***
"All around the merigold bush, the monkey chased the weasel, the monkey thought it was all in good fun, POP! Goes the weasel!!" Brenna sang the childhood tune to herself softly as she splashed the water in the small pond a few times with her bare feet.
"All around the merigold bush, the monkey chased the weasel, the monkey thought it was all in good fun, POP! Goes the weasel!" She began to laugh hysterically and splashed the water, the way a small child would. She continued to sing, repeating the words over and over again, laughing after every completion and splashing the whole time.
"Shut up about the fucking weasel!" Someone behind her yelled. Brenna turned and saw Krystal whom she smiled up at. While Krystal's eyes were full of hate, Brenna's had an emptiness to them, a distance and the demon laughed as she recognised it as insanity. Brenna had gone crazy.
"Hello, my wonderful demon infested friend!" Brenna laughed. "Don't be such a bitch! Come on, losen up! Sing a little song with me!" Brenna said as she started up another round of 'All Around The Marigold Bush.' Krystal smiled to herself as she turned around and stalked back towards the house. She calmly picked up one of the peices of wood, that sat in the wood pile, and walked naturally back towards Brenna. She came up behind her as she sang, splashing the water.
" . . . the monkey thought it was all in good fun!" Krystal lifted the wood and brought it crashing down onto Brenna's head.
"Pop goes the weasel."
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