Torment

Chapter Thirteen

I stood still opposite the house on an empty sidewalk. The streets were still and colored orange by the streetlights. Then suddenly I re-emerged inside…

I sensed her in the kitchen, hurriedly cooking up a storm. It was eleven thirty at night, so I was curious to see who she'd be cooking for at that hour. Her ear was pressed to her shoulder listening in on a phone. "You'd better stay tonight." I heard her say, a smile creeping up on her face. "I said I won't take no for an answer. I'm making your favorite." She continued. And then she stopped, continued walking up and down the kitchen, the smell of the food finally coming together. "Okay, I love you, bye." She ended off.

I just stood there. Silent. Watching, as if waiting for the right time. I had no control, all I remember was how much I wanted to scream, or do something. I felt trapped inside my own body, er, well, soul. It was as if I was paralyzed and all I could do was let the events unfold right before my eyes, without doing anything. Without stopping anything…

Finally, she finished and headed up the stairs. Her footsteps made a loud thud with every step she took up. She made her way to her small room and prepared her sleepwear, before heading to the bathroom and washing up.

I re-emerged downstairs and waited in the hallway. The light quietly flickered off…

Within an hour she came downstairs and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me. Well, she saw what was a black figure standing at the exit of the hallway in the dark, blocking her only exit to the light and well, the only exit I assumed.

"Billy, is that you? I-uh, didn't even hear you come in?" She hesitantly smiled. But I didn't respond, I just stood as still as a statue and watched. Slowly her fear started creeping in. I could see her hands shaking and her voice started quaking. "Billy, aren't you going to say anything? I mean damn you're scaring me." She responded, and slowly walked towards me as if trying to fight off her fear.

She got close enough to see that I wasn't Billy, close enough to see that I wasn't some average teenage girl just lurking in her hallway like some sad lost soul. She got close enough to see the horror I had become.

"Ahhhhh!" She screamed and started running back to the stairway.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Before her room door slammed shut.

I waited.

And then I followed.

Instead of re-emerging I sprinted up the stairs, and with every thud I made she screamed and cried louder. "Get out of my house!" She cried. I could feel the agony in her voice as I desperately tried to break free from this spell. I stopped in front of her door and calmly knocked, pausing after each knock.

"Get out! Get out! Get out!" She wailed, both pleading and demanding. I was toying with her, this evil consuming me was toying with her. As if it liked to hear her scream…Then I heard her shakily talk over the phone on the other end. She was calling the police, and I let it happen.

Once she was finished I vulgarly forced the door open with my powers and it nearly flew off its hinges.

And then I paused.

I couldn't see her, she was deeper in the room, her rigged breathing music to my evil ears. She trembled, "why are you doing this to me? Who are you?"

And then I slowly walked in. Her eyes tore wider at the sight. I was taller, darker, as if a shadow was standing right before her. I was so dark that the light bounced right off me and created the effect of a monster.

And then I heard the door downstairs open, "Lori! Babe, it's Billy and I got good news-" "Billy! Billy!" Lori instantly yelled. Her tears dripped down her cheeks.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

And then he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of me in the room.

"Lori…" Billy instinctively called holding out his hand for her to reach it. They were a short distance apart. I was standing at the edge of the room, a distance from the door.

Billy kept his eyes on me. Like a deer on a hunter. Lori shakily reached out for his hand, but before she could grab it, I flung him across the room mid air against the wall.

His body slammed into the wall. "Billy!" Lori screamed. She couldn't go over to him. I blocked her.

"Stop! Get out! Whatever you want, just take it! Just take everything and leave!" She screamed. Her body trembled. "I. Want. You." The evil in me finally spoke, and with that Lori made a run for the door, but I lifted her off the ground, flew her across the room and made her float just over the bed.

"Please…" She quietly wailed. Genuinely pleading for her life. And that was the last straw. That is, before I closed my long scrawny fingers into a ball and her body crumpled under it.

Her neck cracked until her ear passed that of her shoulder, over her chest. Her arms twisted all the back until her shoulders themselfs no longer existed and her knees turned 360 degrees until her feet pointed backwards and her heels faced me. Her body made a sickening crunch before I let her fall onto the bed.

Her limbs were still twitching. Her eyes were wide open and then she was gone.

I stayed there, as if waiting. What more could I have waited for…

And then a loud banging came from the door. "Ms Olsen! It's the police, open up!" I heard. And with that Billy woke up.

I was no longer visible. He quickly got up and to his horror saw a tangled corpse on the bed. The twitching had died out.

"Lori?" He silently called, as if waiting for her response. As if begging for her to somehow be okay. He let out a tear before landing onto the bed and holding onto her corpse.

And the door down stairs made a loud crash, "we're coming in!" I heard a yell, and then thudding and then 2 men dressed in uniform emerged at the doorway.

"Jesus…" One gasped at the sight. Billy didn't look at them once as he rocked the corpse in sorrow.

Within the hour an ambulance had arrived, reporters and investigators. The corpse was hauled out as the house slowly started getting filled with people.

The 2 cops and Billy marched outside. I didn't follow, instead I looked out the bedroom window and stared at the commotion.

I saw them stop Billy from entering the ambulance. He looked shocked.
The events of the whole night unfolded before me so quickly. I didn't even remember why I was there, why I did what I had done, and as if on cue, the anger reminded me, that I had to relieve it, that Matt had to choose me over Hannah. That now Matt's life was going to be better because of me, and he'd love me for it.

Still outside, the cops and Billy spoke, until one of them cuffed Billy and put him in the backseat of the police car.

And then he was gone. And so was I…