Dwellings On The Past ~ (Lorraine's daughter)

Thank you, Mavka

"It's me! Stop screaming." he says while grabbing my shoulders. I look at the man holding me. "David!" I say, smiling. He looks at me like I'm crazy. And if I think about it, maybe I am a tiny bit. Who would do all this voluntarily? Excluding my parents, they're heroes.

"Congrats, that's my name. What's yours?"

"David." I repeat, because he's been in here all along. I'm not mad, but I am mad. I was so scared that thing had him. And he was just in here, doing whatever.

"No, that's my name already. Choose another one." he jokes, a smirk on his lips.

"Oh, I hate you." I laugh, boxing his shoulder lighty. I wrap my arms around him after, relief flooding my body. With it I can feel the adrenaline slowly fade and it's making me more dizzy than I already was before. "What were you doing in here anyway?"

His smile drops and he goes silent. I stare at him, his face to be exact, to figure out why. "David. What were you doing in here anyway?" I repeat skeptically. "What's going on?"

He doesn't answer. But instead he goes a few, very slow steps back. I can see a flicker of the demon and I take a very quick step back, my back hitting the closed door. Since when is it even closed again?

Instead of actually telling me what's going on he takes a step to the side and shows me. I gasp, my hand quickly covering my mouth. There are uncountable bells on the little table Jullie usually plays tea parties at. Some look newer than others, but most of them look old. The material is a bit rusted and daker, less shiny.

While this is really scaring the shit out of me, David shouldn't know too much about them. It's not like he had a vision about a stupid bell. Except- "David, you need to tell me what's going on. Right now!" I demand, my voice raised. He doesn't react, he just keeps looking at me. "I found a knife in your room. Do you want to explain that?" I ask, my voice raised.

He shakes his head. And suddenly something in him changes. He still looks the same, but his posture changes and his eyes are different. "Linn, that's really not important right now."

My blood runs cold and my breath gets stuck in my throat. What did he call me? Only Judy uses that name. And apparently Jullie. But David doesn't know that and there's no way he just came up with that name, in a situation like this.

"Oh, I think it is." I argue. My voice is thin even though I do my best to make it sound threatening. It's not that big of a surprise it's not working. "Tell me how you know about the nickname and the clocks." I demand. "Right now!" I yell, even though I'm not quite the yelling type.

My gaze switches to his lips as he presses them in a thin line. His chest rises and falls in a deep breath and he looks at the bells. Only now I see an alarm clock on the table along with all the bells. The time reads 3:13AM. "I had a dream. A very real one. I saw Jullie's room and she was in it, along with a whole lot of bells," he glances at the table. "And I went in it with the knife in my hand. When I looked at the mirror I saw the woman you've been describing the whole week. When I woke up the knife was there and I panicked." he explains.

"Let me guess." I interrupt. "You went in here and Jullie wasn't here." I say dryly.

"Yes! And the door slammed behind me, I couldn't open it until you came."

No matter how hard I want to believe him, I can't. This story is just way too convincing. "David, come on now." I say. Suddenly he holds his hand up and there's a knife in it. What's happening is a blur. I think I'm screaming, but I feel like I'm not in my body anymore. He walks towards me in determined steps and I can't think. It seems impossible to form a single thought. All I know is that my heart is still beating way too fast and my breathing is racing with it.

The sudden pain from my stomach makes me wince and snap back to reality. My eyes are wide when I reach for the door handle and push myself to the right. I goran due to the movement which hurts my stomach more. What seemed to be impossible isn't now so anymore. I quickly step back and close the door again. I hold it closed, but on the other side there's no struggle. What if he's standing right behind me?

I turn as quickly as my brain allows it and sigh, extremely relieved to see nobody's there. The pain from my stomach is still present and I press my hand against it. Blood is soaking the white nightgown. My own, very red blood. "God, are you kidding me right now?" I ask out loud. I'm sure he doesn't hear me, because God must be very, very far away from this house. I slide down against the door, my hand still pressed against my stomach.

I freeze when I see a single clock placed in front of me. The light in the hallway is unfortunately very dim, but it's enough I can see the engraving in the bell. I groan, throwing my head back against the door. Of course it's the bell from home with the writing "Mavka hic habitat." Yes, thank you, Mavka. I'm awfully aware you dwell in this house.

I hear steps, walking up the stairs. I groan in pain and annoyance and fear and tiredness. Why can't I catch a break? "There you are!" George exclaims. I look up and see him staring at me. Hey, at least he's not the demon.

Tears sting my eyes and instead of better the pain from my stomach gets worse. "Don't open that door behind me. Your son got possessed and stabbed me." I say, not being able to help the smile forming on my mouth. All of this is so horrible, it's almost funny. By the expression on George's face, he doesn't think it's funny.

"Lorraine told me to get you." he says, urgency in his voice. "She said only you can do this." he adds.

It's amazing to me how the man ignores my winces and groans when he helps me up and wraps my arm around his shoulders. I get he's very concerned about his wife and child, but I'm hurt here. Also, my mind keeps wandering back to what JJ said to me earlier. He's the one who runs to hide us when mama and papa fight.