Jane smiled and walked to the stairs. Annabelle screeched and some of the stairs fell from their wooden pedestals. Jane stepped on the wooden supports which held the stairs and slowly climbed out of the cellar. She searched her pockets for the key to the small lock on the cage. It was nowhere on her. She ran to what used to be the office, avoiding the plants and broken objects that lay scattered on the floor. She looked down at the body of Lucy. The moonlight was glinting off of the key that still hung around her neck.
Jane struggled to open the window before the shattered it with the broken office chair and ripped the wood off of its hinges. She leaned out the broken window and reached down towards Lucy's eroding bones. She touched the water and snatched back her hands. The piranhas had formed a small nest underneath of Lucy's body. Jane sighed and rested her head on her hands.
She felt a tap on her shoulder and slowly turned her head to the side. Lucy was standing behind her. She was smiling and her long black hair up in a ponytail. She stood there silently and floated towards the wall. She went through it and stared at her mortal bones. Her smile transformed into a thin line with no expression. She reached into the water and grasped the key. She pulled it from her own neck and handed it to Jane.
"Thank you." Jane said. Lucy smiled and floated back into the room across the hall. Jane turned and stared at the lifeless body of Allen, the gaping hole through his heart and the lifeless stare plastered to his face. She started to walk out of the room when she saw movement from the corner of her sight.
She turned and saw Annabelle smiling with her head tilted. "You're not the only one who can summon the dead, Jane." Her voice had an eerie echo to it and she raised her hand towards the lifeless body of Allen.
His hand twitched. Jane's eyes widened a little and he stood up. He glowed red and his eyes were white and lifeless, just like he should be. Jane took a step back and fled from the room. Allen's large footsteps tromped after her slowly, not unlike the steps of the undead.
She entered Lucy's room. She saw what had become of it and searched the room for the doll. The sword in her hand twitched slightly. Jane turned around and shut the door behind her. She looked around and saw the doll, untouched by the effects of the plants and mold.
Jane walked over to it and grasped the cage bars. They were warm. With the key in hand, she opened the lock. The door creaked open slowly and the doll's ceramic eyes stared at her. She reached for the doll to put it on the floor and its eyes went from blue to a deep red.
The doll lunged at Jane and she threw it across the room. The doll hit the wall and Annabelle's voice arose from it. Her laugh echoed throughout the room. Jane walked to the doll and raised the sword over its head.
She brought her arms up above her head as the doll laughed. She was about to bring the sword down when Allen's possessed body broke through the door. His flat mouth formed a wicked grin and he charged for her. He raised his hands in front of him and pushed Jane against the wall. The force he created against Jane's neck was too much and she began to gasp for air almost immediately.
He smiled and Jane dropped the sword. Her eyelids fluttered and her empty eye sockets felt full of pressure. Her head began to feel heavy and she went limp. She gasped for her last breath as she fell to the floor. Allen's large hands had completely crushed her windpipe and she couldn't get any oxygen to her lungs.
She sat there gasping with Allen watching her struggle for whatever was left of her life. Her hand grazed over the sword and her throat felt restored. The sword was healing her. She pretended to continue to gasp for air as she gripped the sword.
She took a large inward breath and shoved the sword up between Allen's legs, splitting his genitals in half. No blood poured from him, but his shocked gaping face stayed there as she pulled the sword from him. He collapsed in a mound of flesh and would not rise again.
Jane stood up and glared at his lifeless body and looked over to where the doll lay. It was silent now and unmoving. She walked over to it and, once again, raised the sword above it. This time she decapitated the dolls head without interruption. Annabelle shrieked and the house rocked, sending Jane onto her side. The house began to fall apart, the walls caving in and turning to piles of aged wood.
Downstairs, the old woman smiled and her body turned to dust. All that was left of the cellar was a mound of dust, cracked cement, and piles upon piles of destroyed wood.
Jane retreated into the fetal position and whimpered as the house fell apart around her. The once strong Jane had been reduced to fear at last. As the house fell apart, the stone from the other room began to break and all the spirits were lifted up and out of the house.
As Jane sat there, wood falling atop and around her, scraping her skin, tears of blood flowed down her cheeks. At that very moment, she realized that the death that had been threatening to claim her all day, that she was willing to accept. Death was what she had become afraid of. She did not want to die.
All of a sudden, Jane shot upwards, and sat up in her bed. She looked around and she was still in her room. The darkness of the paint and sheets, the light slipping through the edges of the shades, and her redneck boyfriend in the shower singing old country songs.
She got up from the bed, wearing her lilac shorts and black tank top, and walked into the bathroom. She looked to the shower and pulled back the curtains. There he was; water streaming on his skin, his farmers tan was almost gone. She stared at John, standing in the hot water and he looked at her. "Hey, you're awake. Good morning."
All she could do was stare. She turned towards the mirror and her eyes were still there in her head. She stared into her azure eyes and wondered. Did she dream it all? "Hey, baby? Are you alright?" John's deep voice calmed her and she turned around. She stepped into the shower with him and held him tight.
"Baby, you're going to get all wet." She sat there in silence and said quietly, "I know, just give me a minute." He wrapped his warm arms around her and she felt safer, knowing that she was home. She looked up and her smile disappeared. Her eyes widened. "What's wrong, Jane?" Allen was there instead of John.
She tried to pull away, but he held her to tight. Annabelle stepped out from behind the folded curtain with a scalpel. "Goodbye, Jane" she said. She laughed as she stabbed the knife through Jane's neck. She screamed and the blood poured onto Allen's white skin and the water washed it away. As the blood swirled into the drain, they both began to laugh and Jane went limp.
Jane fell off of the bed and hit the white carpet with a thud. She heard a groan from on the bed and a sleepy voice came from above her. "Hey, baby, what's wrong?" She looked around. She was in her room. She looked up on the bed and John lay there, nude under the sheets. His eyes were half open and he yawned. A tear fell down Jane's cheek as she climbed back into the bed.
"Baby, what's wrong." His sleepy voice made reality clear and she embraced him. She kept a tight grip on his torso. "Did you have a bad dream, baby?" Jane nodded against his chest and he stroked her hair. His heartbeat calmed her and she fell silently back into sleep.
