One after Another

Chapter 5: It is a curse!

"I'm back!" Joyce's father yelled merrily. Under normal circumstances, Joyce would run to him and welcome him home. "Hmm? Is Joyce not home?"

"She had locked herself in her room for three hours already. I hope she is fine," her mother worried as she informed her husband.

"Did you call her out? Could she be asleep?"

"I tried, but there was no answer. Joyce also took the only key away. We cannot enter. Besides, she never sleeps around this time."

"Calling her friends may help. They may know what she is going through right now."

The moment her mother called them, the gang of four bolted to her house. After all, they would not want another companion to leave them, would they?

They all gathered in their garden, below Joyce's window.

"Thanks so much for coming. Joyce had locked herself up. No matter how hard I called her, there was no reply. At first, I thought she consumed some sleeping pills. I am still worried. Her room is on the third floor, so I cannot check her window," her mother sputtered.

"We will see what we can do," Kenneth assured her, the bush next to him tickling him slightly.

They searched around for something to climb, determined to check on Joyce. They tried different methods to reach the window that lead to her room. But all were in vain and the attempts failed. Scratches were visible all over their bodies.

On their last attempt, they went to the terrace next to Joyce's room. They saw the four-metre gap between the two balconies. They gulped in fear. They all knew it was a stupid desicion, but they were dedicated to find Joyce.

They tied two rocks on both ends of a climbing rope and threw one end to Joyce's balcony. Ali, with her shaking limbs, sat on the rope. With her arms outstretched, she began sliding the roping underneath her. The others were rocking from side to side, praying for Ali's life with their hands clasped. As the wind blew, the rope swung from side to side. Ali stopped moving. She squeezed her eyes tight, clutched her hands onto the rope and waited for the string to be still. Ali knew that if anything went wrong, she would die without doubt. After a tremendous amount of sliding and shaking from fear, she arrived on the other side of the terrace. The group breathed a sigh of relief and cheered for Ali, who managed to not die. Ali grabbed the bars of the balcony and pulled herself up. She strode over the armrest and jumped down, landing with a crunch.

She winced in pain and staggered over to the window with curtains. Ali peeked into the room, seeing a dark shadow lying on the ground motionless. She knew something was wrong and hurried to open the window. Who knew that Joyce locked up the windows as well? Ali was obviously unable to open the windows. She picked up a stone that was tied to the rope, and started smashing at the window. At last, after several tries, she broke the window. But the nightmare had come true.

Joyce was lying on the ground, not moving one bit. Tears streamed down Ali's cheeks, falling down every time it reached her neck. She held up her trembling finger to Joyce's nose, feeling for her breath. She realised that Joyce had already breathed her last, but just to make sure, she brought a hand to Joyce's hand, feeling her pulse. It had happened. So she unlocked the door to let her companions in.

The police came and cordoned off the area. The cops inspected the scene and found a couple of matters. One, Joyce locked the windows and doors from the inside. It was a complete chamber, no one could get in nor get out. Two, the autopsy showed that Joyce died of heart failure. There were no exterior wounds or anything else that could cause her death.

"One question, can a human kill her by stopping her heart beat?" Natalie questioned.

"If an electric current passes through the heart, it will cause a cardiac arrest. But there will be burn marks caused by the electric current which we found none on Joyce's body," the officer replied.

Though they were expecting it, the gang of four gaped nonetheless.

There is no way that this is an accident now. Is there?

"No way, this has to be a curse! Or else there is no way that Joyce could have died from heart failure!" Ali exclaimed, shaking horribly.

"Curse? How is that possible?" Kenneth questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"We will find out," Natalie replied, ignoring the confused officer.

After the event that had just occurred, the remaining people who were alive went to the public library to learn more about curses, which was a weird idea. They flipped through all the books, which they found nothing useful. Everyone had started to lose hope, and were about to give up when Patrick found that book called "Grim Reaper and Everything You Have to Know".

He flipped the book open, and a powerful description of the Grim Reaper caught his attention. "Grim Reaper is a skeletal figure, who is often shrouded in a dark, hooded robe. He also carries a scythe to reap human souls. He was the symbolism of death." He read. It reminded him of the skeleton they saw in the hallway, the origin of all their nightmares. Thinking this might be useful, he called the others over. And they crowded around him like last time, except without Joyce and Max.

"Although the Grim Reaper may look solid after he extracts the soul, he can vanish in mid-air. He does not need any door or window to escape." They read. "His usual practice is to knock the head of the victim once before he takes his soul. He may even burn the place if the victim is a sinner."

By the end of the reading, their faces were already pale, sweat dripping from their faces.

Why would the school keep something so treacherous?

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Author's note:  Do you agree that it is a curse? Thanks so much for reading! Please vote and comment 🙏🏻to let me know what you think! See you next time!