Consumite Furore: Take A Stand
Part 5/5
By cancerw0man (Jean)
5:10pm
Sunday Of Thanksgiving Long Weekend, 2012
17 Years After Don's Death
Carnovasch Estate
Massachusetts
Karen moaned and lifted her head from where it rested on the soft, carpeted floor. She rubbed her eyes and looked around everything was blury at first then it all came into focus, she was lying in the hallway on the third floor and she saw peices of glass and wood lying all over the ground. For a moment she didn't remember anything, then it all came back in a rush and she sagged against the wall. How long had she been asleep?? She checked her watch and almost fell over when she realised it had been almost seven hours!!! Running a hand through her oily hair she decended the stairs down to the second floor and then proceeded to go down to the first, she glanced around the empty main hall, trying to find someone, she didn't want to be alone. Karen opened the front door with a creak and was welcomed by a chorus of birds singing. For a brief moment, she forgot all the hell she was in.
Sighing she walked down the steps, the sun would be setting soon and she hoped desperatly that she would be able to survive until morning. She suddenly gasped and smiled broadly in surprise. The bridge was completely dry, the water level now rested far bellow the roadway and Karen felt an over powering sense of joy. She'd done it, she'd survived. She turned and quickly ran through the gate into the other part of the grounds, trying to find Brenna, she had to tell her, and then the two had to get off the island.
"Brenna!! Breeeeenaaaaa!!" She called, then stopped short when she nearly fell in the small pond, she bit her lip to prevent herself from screaming at the sight. Brenna was floating face up in the pool, her eyes closed, her face dead and the words of death scratched into her forhead, Comsumite Furore. Karen cuped a hand over her mouth and she backed away from the pond, completely forgetting about the bridge, only thinking of an over powering sense of loneliness, she was all alone with a killer.
She raced in the door to the dining hall and in through to the main foyer, where she very nearly crashed into Krystal. Karen jerked away at the near contact.
"You!" She said, angrily. Krystal smiled and laughed.
"I see you found my handiwork. Wonderful, wasn't it?! You should have seen the state she was in when I found her, quite mad, I assure you! She didn't suffer, not the way you will!" Karen backed away from her, a little.
"You monster! You sick fuck! You killed them all!! BITCH!!" Karen spat, angrily at Krystal.
"Come on! There's no need to be calling names! We can be friends!! At least until you die!" Krystal growled. Karen made a dash backwards, hearing Krystal only feet behind her, she ran through the kitchen and then desperatly threw the door to the pantry open, she slamed the door closed behind her, pitching herself into utter darkness. She fumbled for the lights, then after she did, quickly bolted the door, it wouldn't hold for long, a few minutes if she was lucky. She looked desperatly around, and finally pushed the rug away, surprised when she found a trapped door. She quickly pulled it open and made her way, down into the darkness. She finally made it to the bottom and felt along the wall for some sort of light sorce. She touched the cold metal of a lantern and she pulled back at first, but then grabbed it. Now if only she had a match . . . wait a minute! She did! She quickly reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the two matches, quickly striking it against the wall and touching it to the wick, which caught immediatly, filling the room with light.
Karen heard the door above her shatter and fall in, and she looked around desperatly for somewhere to hide atleast, but there was nothing but kegs of years old alchohol and a large tub, which Karen assumed was full of some sort of liquir.
"Thought you could get away from me, eh?! Well, there's no where to run, no where to hide! You're all alone!" Karen backed away from Krystal who was quickly desending the steps, and large butcher knife in her hand. "Don't you just love cellars??"
"Like hell!" Karen shot back. Krystal merely shrugged.
"Too bad, I'd hate to kill you somewhere you don't like, but then, you did run here after all!" Krystal threw her head back and laughed hysterically. "Killing is so much fun!!" She came down and stood a few feet away from Karen. "Now, which of your body parts would you like to be removed first?" Karen suddenly noticed the small gold cross that was on a chain around Krystal's neck, Karen recognised it immediatly as Vicky's, she filled with rage and instinctively pulled it from Krystal's neck, kicking her backwards at the same time. She flew back and flipped into the large vat of alchohol. Karen was surprised, she thought Krystal would have been prepared for that, but it was only a temporary handicap for Krystal and she quickly began to climb out, but Karen stepped forward, grabbing the last match in her pocket and striking it against the wall.
"Don't move!" She said coldly, holding the match ready to drop in the vat. Krystal sunk back and a fear entered her eyes.
"Karen! Karen! It's okay! It's me! It left me! I felt it, right as I fell in! It must be afraid of alchohol or something! I don't know! But it's gone! Please, Karen, please believe me!" Krystal pleaded, her eye's full of sorrow. Karen stopped and then smiled, and shook the match, the flame disapeared. The pleas seemed innocent enough.
"Krystal!" She said, rushing forward and taking one of her hands to help her out of the tub.
'Don't!' Her fathers warning came just as Krystal let go of Karen's hands and stabbed the butcher knife into the right side of her stomach, then promplty pulled it out again. Karen gasped and took a few steps back in surprise. She gingerly touched the broken flesh and pulled her hand back, to reveal the scarlet of blood. Krystal threw her head back and laughed. She smelled the sent of her father and realised that it was him who had called out to her. His pressence filled Karen with a new hope and she almost smiled.
"You are so pathetic! You're weak! You're terrified! You're pathetic!" Krystal repeated. "Just like the others, all of Carno's wives, begging to be let live, but Adrienne, Adrienne was different." Karen looked desperately around the room, trying to find something with which she could fend off Krystal, but saw nothing. The pain in her stomach was beginning to make her loose strength and she sagged against one of the posts, pressing one hand to the wound. "You see, Adrienne never understood, she could never accept that I, always, win!" Krystal spaced out the words. "She may have won the battle, but she lost the war! 'Cause now I have you! And I'm going to kill you and that will tear her appart. She already lost her husband to me and now her daughter's going to mine as well." Krystal threw her head back and began laughing hysterically, like a crazed maniac. She finally calmed down and looked at Karen with surprise.
"What? No pleading, no bribary, you're just going to stand there like a mute dog and wait for me to finish you off??!!" Krystal waited expectantly for an answer, beginning to pull herself from the vat. Then Karen's eye fell on something, the lantern. She rushed over and grabbed it. "What are you doing?!" Krystal demanded. Karen moved toward the vat, with the lantern held, ready to throw as she glared agnrily at the killer who had murdered four of her friends.
"Consumite furore asshole!!" She said throwing the lantern into the vat with Krystal. The surface was immediatly consumed in flames and Karen could hear the curses and screams as Krystal splashed around in the burning liquid. Again she sagged against the wall, glad for it to be over, a feeling that didn't last.
'It's not over.' Her father said simply and Karen cought on, seeing the green form slowly emerging from Krystal's now still body. 'Run.' She did as she was told and turned, quickly dashed from the room, trying to ignore the pain that shot through her as she did so. She wasn't entirely sure where she was going, but she just ran. As she entered the main hall, she stopped suddenly, it was completely full of people! All of them waltzing to an ancient tune, all dressed in clothes more then a hundred years old. One man cought her eye, he was the man from all the paintings, wearing a large top hat and a cape, with a woman, smiling, by his side.
But there were also two other people, her parents, standing near the fire Don was sitting with his head in his hands on the couch and Adrienne was kneeling next to him, saying something, exactly what she couldn't hear, but it was all suddenly interupted by a loud roar from somewhere behind her. She immediatly took up a run and dashed down a long hall, she threw the door open and desperatly looked around, there was a long table that occupied most of the room and the walls were lined with books, a library?? Karen didn't have time to think about it and she dashed through the open fireplace, only to find herself in a chapel.
"Damn! Trapped!" She said in frustration.
'No, go to the far right corner, there's a secret passage there.' Karen was relieved that her father was still with her and she did as she was told, finding the latch easily and hurrying through the now open passage. She moved along quickly, and very nearly went crashing down a gaping hole in the staircase, had her father not held her back.
"SHIT!" She said in surprise. Then she noticed that someone had conveniently placed a board accross the hole. She assumed it had been her friends and she slowly got onto the wobbly board, one wrong move and it would be a long fall down! Finally she made it across and hurried along down the stairs, the whole way, hearing the roars of frustration not far behind. She ran through the open doorway ahead of her, dodging the rubble, of what was once probably a door. Karen was quickly growing dizzy and she was aware that she'd lost a lot of blood. She stopped when she came to a large circle, an alter sitting in the center of it. She saw the book laying open on top of it and ran to it, flipping it to a page with a strange circular design on it.
'There! That's the instructions to banish it!' Her father said.
"But it's all in Latin!" Karen said desperatly.
'I think I can translate it . . . first, stand in a magical circle.' Karen looked around.
"I am in a circle."
'Okay, next, you need a talisman.'
"TALISMAN!! Bloody hell! I don't have a talisman!" Karen said with despair.
'It should be close by, it will have appeared when the demon was summoned and this is definatly where it happened.' Karen looked around quickly, suddenly catching sight of a strange shaped green object lying on the floor. She ran to it. 'Yes! That's it! Now, place it on the open -' There was a loud roar and Karen turned around, there was a large, snarling monster standing in the doorway. She let out an ear peircing scream and the beast began to lunge at her, but it suddenly bounced off something, and Karen realised it was her father!
"DAD!!! What else?!" She yelled, watching the demon try to battle the invisible force.
'Place it on the open page!' Karen ran back to the book and placed it in the circle.
"Okay! Now what!" She tried not to look at the hideous creature that was meters away.
'Drip the blood of a live human on the talisman!' *That's easy enough!* Karen thought, letting some of the blood that soaked the fingers of her left hand, fall on the green talisman, they shimered and disapeared.
"OKAY!! WHAT ELSE??!!" She shouted, trying to be heard over the demon's cries of anger.
'Hold a . . . . a . . . . holy . . . object . . . over the talisman!' He said straining to be heard. Karen momentarily panicked, before remembering the cross she'd pulled from Krystal's neck, she took it in her relatively clean hand and held it over the said talisman, which was beginning to shimmer. 'Say the words on the page!' He said, with great difficulty. Karen looked down at the page and began to say the words, complete gibberish to her, hoping she was getting the pronounciation right. The demon's cries were beginning to get softer but more and more desperate. She had one last line to go, when she felt it's cold pressence directly behind her. She dropped the cross onto the page in shock and whirled around as she said the last line.
The beast cried and shimmered as lightning flickered across it's now black surface. Karen backed against the alter and watched, terrified as the beast disapeared and a green whirlwind circled the room, finally disapearing into the book as it closed with a slam. She gasped for air and sagged to the floor, she'd grown incredibly tired, from both her lose of blood, and the great battle that had just taken place.
"DAD??!!" She asked, fearing the worst. "Dad, are you there?" There was a moan and she let out a sigh of relief. "Talk to me! Tell me you're okay!" There was a long silence, before he finally spoke.
'You have to get out of here, the fire.' Karen had completely forgotten about the fire that she'd started, the fire that had consumed the evil force that had killed everyone else on the island . . . and had consumed the person she had loved as a friend.
"Are you alright?!" She asked.
'I'm fine, just go!' She felt his arms pulling her to her feet and she stumbled, before regaining her balance. She blinked a few times, trying to get the world to stop spinning, and it finally did. She forced her feet to move, to carry her numb body out of the room. When she reached the hole, she had to focus hard, to prevent her feet from stepping right off the edge. She would not give into death after what she'd just been through. As she passed through the main room, where their sleepingbags still lay, she stopped and looked around at the room that was slowly being consumed by flames. The people still waltzed about, her parents were still standing in one corner, completely oblivious to the hot flames that flickered around them.
Karen sighed, would this fire also consume the evil that the house signified?? She shook her head and moved to the door, quickly jumping out, when she was a safe distance away, she collapsed, panting. The lure of sleep was growing quickly and she fought to stay awake.
"Dad . . . " She whispered weakly.
'I'm here.' She smiled.
"Good." She lay there for a long time, catching her breath. "I love you." She finally said, watching the house as the flames quickly consumed it.
'I love you too,' he said, and she closed her eyes as she felt his hand stroke her cheek. 'I can't stay with you anymore.' Karen's eyes flew open and she sat up, immediatly being overcome with dizziness.
"Why the hell not??!!!" She demanded, tears welling in her eyes.
'I must go on. There's nothing left you need my help with, you will do fine on your own.' Karen sunk back down to the ground, too weak to hold herself up.
"I don't wanna be alone!"
'You wont be! Adrienne will always be there for you and your friends.'
"My friends . . . which ones? The ones that were murdered by a demon? Or the one I burned!" She shook her head sobbing, not merely because Don was leaving, but also for everything else that had happened. "Mom doesn't understand me at all! She never will! We're too different."
'No, Karen, you and your mother are a lot more alike then you realise, she may be the best friend you will ever have.' Karen sniffled as the realisation of it sunk in.
"I'll miss you and I'll always remember you for the man you really were, not for the man that demon made you become."
'I'll miss you too, Karen. Don't worry about anything, you'll make it through, you're strong, like your mother. I love you." As he said this, Don's voice began to fade and Karen's tears reasserted themselves. She lay there crying for a long time, the tears stinging her flushed face as she thought about it all, her friends, her parents, the demon. When the soft warmth of sleep, finally took her over, she accepted it openly and delved into the deep comfort of sleep.
1:43am
Monday Of Thanksgiving Long Weekend, 2012
17 Years After Don's Death
Carnovasch Estate
Massachusetts
BEEP!! BEEP!! BEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!! Tash hit the horn hard as she drove up into the parking lot of the Carnovasch Estate. The headlights illuminated a large portion of the dark road infront of them, it was all they could see, except for a strange glow, coming from the house. They pulled up into the parking lot and the four people, (Tash, Sherry), hopped out.
"WE'RE BAAAACK!!!" Tash shouted, approaching the steps.
"STOP!!" Shery yelled and Tash froze where she was. Tash whirled on her.
"What?" Tash demanded returning to where her short friend stood, staring up at the house. "What is i . . . " she faded out as she saw what Sherry had. The roof had completely collapsed and all that was left of the house was a stone shell.
"Oh, shit! Karen!" Sherry called to her. "Come here!" Tash ran over to where she stood and flicked on a flashlight shining it down on the spot. Karen was lying there, pale and motionless, there was a large gash in her stomach and her clothes were covered in dirt and blood.
"Is she dead?" Sherry asked. Tash bent over and checked her pulse, then, much to their relief, she shook her head.
"What the hell is going on??!!" Tash demanded. All was silent.
"Where's everybody else??" Sherry asked softly.
"I'm going to look," Tash said.
"I'll stay with Karen," Sherry said. Tash nodded.
"Kay," Tash was gone a full hour before she returned, alone and empty handed, with a look of shock and agony on her faces.
"What??! What is it?!" Sherry demanded, walking over to meet her. Tash took a deep breath before answering, refusing to make eye contact.
"I found Brenna, floating in . . . in the pond out back. The others . . . the others . . . . I found four skeletons in the house, one of them had a broken neck, one of them's head was shattered open . . . and . . . and the other . . . had the marks of a knife on the bones, she was probably killed and then . . . possibly . . . eaten." Tash said. "All but one were dead long before the fire." They were shocked.
"What could have possibly happened?!" Sherry whispered.
"I don't know, but we should get Karen to a hospital, before we loose her too, she's the only one who can tell us." They quickly loaded Karen into the backseat and then drove across the bridge, eager to get away from that dreadful house . . .
Twenty Years Later . . .
"Oh, this place is beautiful!" Anna said to her husband, Andrew as the two stepped out of the car. She looked up at the remains of what had once been the Estate of the great Zoltan Carnovasch. Peter, their five year old son dashed off to explore the ruins that seemed ancient to him.
"I knew you'd like it. What do you think?! We could build a house right there and a play structure for Peter-"
"And a green house??!!" Anna asked with excitment, Andrew shook his head and Anna frowned.
"There already is a green house! It's over one hundred years old, but it's sturdy and it will make a fine place for your plants." Anna put an arm around Andrew's waist, smiling up at him.
"It's times like this, I remember why I married you." He leaned in for a kiss, but they were interupted by their son's calls as he ran towards them full of excitement.
"Mommy!! Mommy!! Look what I found!" He shoved a large book into her hands.
"What is it?" Andrew asked and Anna opened it to the first page, where she read the two dreaded words.
Consumite Furore
THE END
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