The Red Candle

Chapter Eight

Suddenly, I was awakened. I opened my eyes, the three of us; Simoune, Lucy, and I sat together as we were holding each other's hands. By then, the candles around us had turned red. Lucy's face was traced by many emotions; fear, confusion, and sadness. I knew that she witnessed everything that I saw, as well as everything the queen and I talked about. Simoune yanked her hands from us and stood. She smiled, walking towards the door behind us. "Now, we heard everything we needed."
We needed? What does she have to do with us? Then I remembered what Dolora said about her. Lucy and I stood away from her. "Who are you? What was Dolora talking about you?"
Simoune grinned hideously and locked the door. "After many years, I finally have found another of Al'Dor's descendants. And now, is the time for a sweet revenge. Her tone turned shrill. The room got colder with winds swirling around us. "The name is Simoune Windister, the long lost sister of Dolora." She turned to us with her face turned withered. Her bloody red  eyes gazed at me with fury. Her frizzy hair was blown by the wind and her body levitated in the air. "I was the very first victim of Henrick. After decades, my soul linger in the world of the living, arousing my enviousness to live again." She grinned, her teeth were yellowish and sharp. "Day by day, I crave for the life that your great-grandfather has taken. I cannot do any harm against him, yet here you are, standing before me. You have no escape."
Fear flushed through my face. All along, I've been sensing something bizarre about Lady Simoune. No wonder why she suddenly disappeared earlier in the museum, and why her hand was very cold when I touched her. It made sense that she was a ghost, after all and not a spiritualist. I quickly glanced at Lucy and we ran away. All we heard was her malice laughter. We ran as fast as we could with only the lights of the moonlight outside shone its light across the dark corridors of her house, with only the small hanging lanterns on the walls lighted our way. Her laughter echoed behind us, and soon we reached an enormous circular room with three different doors. On our left was a stairway leading to the bedroom from where I slept. In the middle was nothing but a circle of lighted red candles, standing over the surface of a carpet. We both stopped and hesitated on where we would go. I glanced behind and Simoune was no longer seen from the shadows.
"Come with me." I pulled Lucy's hand as we were heading to a door on the left. Yet, all the other doors shook as something slammed against it from inside. We froze and watched the doors creak open, slowly revealing the darkness inside.
"You must all die..."
"No blood of Al'Dor may live long enough..."
My heart was beating fast as ever. There were hands jutting out from the doors. Hands that were withered and bruised. I already knew what they would look like. My mind had flashes of this memory, from when grandma and I were having dinner. I shook and turned Lucy, who was stunned in terror. "Let's go, Lucy! We don't have enough time!"
With her hands shaking, she pointed at the doors and I looked at it. I gasped and took a step back. There were three bald people, staring at us. Their enraged red eyes, yellowish frenzy teeth, tattered clothes, and withered body. They slowly crawled out of the door with their whispers of me to die. I did not know what they were, perhaps a ghoul? But I was certain that they were not friendly to us. I ran and yanked Lucy. "Let's go!" My friend came to her senses and we sprinted towards the staircase. From behind, I heard them scream and ran to catch us. We ran, step by step, and I could feel that they were nearly behind us. The stairway wasn't big enough like in mansions, so we reached the second floor quickly. Lucy went ahead of me and as soon as I stepped on the floor, I stumbled and my feet were scratched by one of the ghouls. It nearly grasped my foot down the stairs. I yanked off, pulling my leg and groaning in pain. I managed to kick the ghoul's head and they were all pushed down to the stairs, like a bowling ball hitting down multiple pins at once. I heard them grunting when they fell and. thudded on the floor. Lucy knelt beside me and helped me to get on my foot as quickly. "Sandra! Are you alright?"
I nodded. There was no time left, so I forced my body to run even though one of the feet was bleeding. We ran again since the ghouls were rushing their way on the stairs. We ran through the corridors with multiple doors side by side. Lucy and I had no idea where we would go but then all the doors shook restlessly. We had no other option but to run straight ahead. Some portions of the wooden ceiling were shaking, as if someone was crawling over it. "We have to go faster!" I exclaimed, seeing that the only way out of here was to run straight ahead, down the stairway. When we were a few feet away from the stairs, the ceiling ahead of us collapsed and a corpse fell, lying down before us along with dust and debris. We screamed and stepped back. It was a corpse of a man, his body looked alike with the ghouls. He just laid on the floor, his eyes closed and arms crossed. Lucy and I ran across it but with us noticing, the corpse opened its eyes and groaned. It rose and  held Lucy's foot. She screamed and was trying to pull away.
"Get off!" I stomped my feet to the ghoul until it released her. The ghoul grunted in pain and we ran down the stairs as fast as we could. We reached the kitchen, where many more red candles scattered on the table. As we walked through, all the glasses broke, booming high-pitch sounds.
"You must all die..."
"No blood of Al'Dor may live long enough..."
Their whispers echoed through the thin and dark air of the house along with Simoune's laughter. All the windows opened and closed themselves repetitively. A gentle blow of wind brushed our hair. I glanced back and saw that all the candles' light had been dying. We ran ahead until we halted before a closed door. Our quivering hands attempted to twist its knob open, but it was locked. Lucy and I froze.
"What are we gonna do?" Lucy's terrified eyes glanced at me.
I saw a large bat standing behind the door and grabbed it. With swirling mixed emotions in my mind, I beat the door with all my strength. However, the door's material was made in a solid and firm structure of wood. The door remained standing and undamaged, as my bat easily bounced off. I dropped the bat on the floor and panted as I was catching my breath. There was a sudden silence behind us. The laughter and the whispers have vanished. The glasses were no longer breaking itself, the windows remained closed this time.
I turned around and found Simoune standing right before my face. She grasped my throat with her cold and withered hand. Her dreadful eyes gazed at me with anger. She grinned, blood dripped from her mouth towards down her chin. Simoune was too strong as she lifted me higher, her cold fingers choking my throat. My breaths have shortened and I cannot move away. Lucy picked up the bat and was about to whack Simoune. In response, the ghost glanced at her and Lucy was pushed by an invisible force coming out of nowhere, pinning her body against the wall, her body stumbled on the floor. Simoune laughed. "Finally, the blood of an Al'Dor. If my sister has forgiven you, well I don't. You all deserved to die..." I felt her fingers grasping me stronger. My eyesight started to fade, as well as my breath. "No one must escape death, a law of nature which your blood has violated, that even he took the lives of your father and your grandfather just to extend his own life." She pulled a dagger from behind her. "But no matter where Henrick hides, I will always follow him up to the corners of the world. I will follow him until the end of time." My vision blacked out yet I can still hear her laughter that echoed through my mind. She laughed and laughed. I felt that my life was about to end. I wasn't prepared to die, not until I freed them from the curse of the Immortality ring.
Suddenly, I heard the door behind slammed open. Simoune gasped in surprise. "Wait..." then there was a gunshot coming from behind me. At the same time, my body was dropped from the floor. Even though the fall was painful, at least I can breathe again, and my eyesight was becoming clear once more. "Lourna Al'Dor, I know you." Simoune hissed. She stood a few feet away from us, with more wounds on her chests. I heard her pants, as she felt the pain of my grandma's gunshot. I looked behind me and she stood, her gun aiming at the ghost.
"Get away from us." My grandma told Simoune.
The ghost shook her head. "And how is it possible that a simple gun could hurt an invincible spirit such as I?"
Grandma pulled a small bottle of water from her pocket. It has a symbol of cross in it, so I already knew what it was. "A weapon blessed by holy water. It helps to keep any evil spirits away."
"Foolish methods of Catholics." Simoune said in disgust. "I am certain that your father only chose to be a priest only for the purpose of a sacred protection from evil spirits, even all along, it was his own soul who perished the lives of both the living and the dead."
My grandma replied no words to her, and uncapped the bottle. "You speak too much." In a sudden, she spilled the holy water towards Simoune. The ghost screamed in pain, her body steaming in heat as the waters splashed onto her. She screamed so loud that we covered our ears until her figure vanished in the air.
I turned to grandma and gave her a hug.
"Are you alright, dear." She was in her black leather coat, and hat which I had only seen by then.
I nodded, although I still felt that my heart was pounding in fear, my legs shaking in the coldness of the air. I faced Lucy, who was lying collapsed on the floor. I stood up and dashed towards her. She was out of consciousness.
"We have to get her out of here." Grandma said. "Come on, let's go to the car. I think it's time for you to know everything about your great-grandfather."