Mansion of Horror

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Josh had tripped and fallen on the stairs. He wobbled to his feet and started to run away from Anna, who was leaving a trail of blood through the halls. Josh ran and swiftly picked Jenna up and started to run back to Mary’s room.

“Jenna,” he said, “don’t leave this room okay?” he had Jenna sit in a small closet in the corner of the room.

“What’s going on out there?” asked Jenna. Josh looked at the door.

Josh sighed, “I-I don’t know but I think it’s best if we stay in here for a while, okay honey?” Jenna nodded her head and wrapped her arms around her knees and her face in between her knees. Josh walked over to the door and held his back against it to try and keep Anna out.

“JOSH!” yelled Naomi in a very screechy voice. Josh winced at the screaming and covered his ears. He was glad that Jenna was blind so she couldn’t see him like this. Josh decided to check if Anna was okay. He didn’t want his friend to be hurt by Naomi’s horrible possession. Josh slid his back up the door, turned around, and opened the door a crack to look out. Outside to room he saw Anna trip over a crack in the floor. She fell on her knees and heard the door creak open. She jerked her head and looked at the door and saw Josh.

“Oh Joshy, you don’t remember me darling?” her voice was scratchy and she sounded like an old woman.

“Anna! Anna please! I know you’re there!” shouted Josh hoping that maybe if Anna could try and control what she was saying or doing, but inside, Anna was there, actually, Naomi was the one inside. Anna felt like she was trapped. She couldn’t talk or move herself, it was all Naomi. Anna could hear and see though, she felt bad for poor Josh, trapped in that room with the little blind girl. Anna would tear out of herself  if she could, just to see and talk to Josh again.

“Oh Josh! Why don’t you remember me? It’s me darling, Naomi, your sweet Naomi!” Josh slammed the door shut and kept his back against the door. He noticed that Anna’s backpack was left on the floor in the room. Josh kept his hand, now dirty and scraped, on the door and with the other, he grabbed Anna’s backpack. He slid back to the door and opened the backpack. He flipped to an Early entry.

He read it in his head.  It read:

Dear Journal,

            I have been trying for a week  now to contact Marcus but I just don’t know what to do. He won’t even write to me anymore. I am feeling sad and I would try to ask my mother, Naomi, what she thinks I can do to talk to him but she would kill me. And my dad, Joshua, is never home. He’s always at work and only comes home for two hours and he spends them sleeping, then he goes back to work. It’s like I don’t remember what he looks like. But I did ask him about Marcus once. He said that he would talk to mother about it and if she didn’t agree, he would still try and help but he still hasn’t come home from work. Tonight I’m going to stay up late and wait for my father for him to help me with finding Marcus, Wish me luck, Mary Lou

Josh looked up in shock. He realized now why Naomi had remembered the name Josh. She had been married to and had a child – who she hated – with a man named Josh. Even though Josh wasn’t the same as Naomi’s beloved, Naomi must have still remembered that name. Josh also thought that Naomi couldn’t see because of the empty eyes she carried now. Josh stuffed the journal back into Anna’s pack and got up, still trying to slide his back against the door to keep Naomi out. Josh turned around and burst out the door.

“Anna! Anna, if you can hear me, I just need to tell you something!” Josh hesitated, “Naomi remembers her husband, his name was Josh! I found it in Mary’s journal!” The name Mary made Naomi frown.

She gritted her teeth and screeched, “MARY? OH THAT FOOL KEPT A STUPID JOURNAL ABOUT HER BOFRIEND MARCUS! HE DOESN’T EXCIST JOSHUA SO DON’T EVEN TRY TO HELP HER FIND HIM!” Naomi suddenly fell on her hands and knees and said in a quiet voice, “Like you don’t exist. And I would never see you when you got that job promotion. When you were home, I was asleep and I didn’t get to see you. I miss you Joshy.” Naomi had a cry in her voice. She must not remember what her husband looked like because as she said, she never really saw him.

Josh looked at her. He wanted to know more so he pretended to be Naomi’s husband, Josh. “I didn’t exist?” he asked.

Naomi looked at him with confusion, “Darling you should know! You tried to tell me how to get you back in your body.” Naomi had question in her voice, wondering why Josh would ask such a strange question.

“Well if you knew I didn’t exist but then did later on, why didn’t you help Mary with Marcus? Maybe it was the same situation!” Josh changed from questioning to angry at this stupid woman who could have killed her daughter for believing in something non existing when her herself, married something non existing.

Naomi grumbled in her throat, “GRAAAH! THIS IS WHY I LEFT IN THE FIRST PLACE!” She pulled herself off the ground and started to walk towards Josh.

“Aah no!” yelled Josh, as he stumbled back into Mary’s room, slamming the door shut behind him so the evil woman who had possessed Anna couldn’t get in. Suddenly, Josh heard sniffling out the door. He got down on his stomach and looked through the crack underneath the door and saw Anna crying.

“Anna! Are you okay Anna?” Anna looked up. Her eyes were still empty and Naomi was still in there somewhere. Josh realized that she was still Naomi and put his back up against the door again. He heard footsteps walking away going to the kitchen and then he heard a huge crash. “ANNA!” Josh panicked. Even if Anna wasn’t the one talking, It was still Anna’s body and she would be getting hurt. He flung the door open and ran into the kitchen. In the kitchen, Anna was lying on the floor covered in old rusty pots and skillets and her knees and elbows were scraped. She sat up and rubbed her head. Then she looked at Josh. Her eye holes were still bleeding and her lip was scarred from falling over and over again with Naomi’s clumsy blind-like ways of seeming like she was un able to see anything.

Josh was enraged with anger that his friend’s body had been hurt so much because of this woman that he had already hated so much. “You see what you’ve done!?” yelled Josh, “You’ve hurt my friend and now she’ll probably suffer when I get you out! You just don’t care about anyone in your life. You could have killed poor Jenna’s brother, and you could have killed her mother too. You tried to kill me, your husband in a past life and you hated your daughter, Mary even though she was JUST like you! You’re the foolish woman!” Josh felt complete that he finally got those words out. He looked at her eyes in discust. He couldn’t look at the rest of her because it was still Anna. He led his way back to Mary’s room and again sat with his back to the door.

Now, Naomi was furious. She got up and ran the best she could all the way to Mary’s room and through herself at the door, over and over trying to budge the door open and get to Josh inside. Finally, Josh couldn’t bear her tryings and got out of the way so she could get in. When she got in, her teeth had turned sharp like a shark, gross and yellow.

Josh jumped back, “What have you done to my friend?!” screamed Josh as he saw the horrible creature enter the room. Naomi looked at him and smiled.

“Didn’t you know?” she started, “When you posses someone in the afterlife, they become you’re old body! And when the transformation is complete, you can no longer exit. And she’s slowly changing into what I looked like when I was alive.” Her voice was now taken by a mouth full of teeth. Naomi smiled happily at the thought of having her body back again.

“You’re such a sick woman!” shouted Josh as he held on to Jenna as an attempt to keep her safe. Naomi looked at the bed next to her. She frowned as she remembered the room she was in.