The Mansion on Degriest Hill

Chapter 17- Lindsay

I felt a slight tug on my hair. I shook it off, figuring I must be dragging my head around the pillow too much. I was in the daze stage of sleep. Y’know? When you’re half asleep, half awake and you don’t really know what’s going on. I suddenly felt a gust of cold air on my leg, then a tugging at my foot. I opened my tired eyes and rubbed the leftover eyeliner from yesterday off with my finger. I looked around the room confused. Where was I? Why am I on the floor? My eyes trailed from the grape-purple and lemon-yellow walls to Natalie standing above me laughing in her pink pajamas. That’s where I was..Natalie’s. I giggled at myself as I realized she’d pulled me off the bed to wake me.

    “Wake up, loser.” She joked.

    “Why? It’s 9:00 in the morning..” I whined at my friend, brushing my messy black hair away from my face.

    “Cause your phone’s been going off like crazy, and It just about started driving me insane when it rang for the 40th time! And we have to get ready for the homecoming game anyways.” I lazily reached over to my phone sitting on the windowsill. I pulled the charger out and pressed the little, black button on the top to turn it on.

    ’19 missed calls; 14 new text messages; 3 new voicemails’ 

    “Who’s calling you then?” Natalie laughed.

    “You’re freak of a boyfriend!” I told her. Natalie’s eyes widened and she looked away from her mirror where she was applying her makeup, and looked at me.

    “Haha, what?”

    “Well, Damian and Cameron.. They’ve tried to call 19 times in the past hour!”

    “What’d they want?” She asked as I played the voicemails, holding my phone to my ear. The first and second were from Cameron. His nerdy voice cracked through the message.

     “Call me as soon as you get this.” One said. The next spoke “Come over, soon, I need to talk to you and Nat.”

    I looked at my best friend, confused. Natalie stood there, leaning on her dresser while biting her nails impatiently. She waited for an answer, but I only looked down and clicked the ‘next message’ button on my phone. It was from Damian.. Who would’ve guessed?

    “Call me! And tell Natalie to charge her phone!” Damian instructed, his husky, Irish accent heavier than usual.

    “So, what’d they want?” She asked as she thrust my bag onto her bed and unzipped it. I shrugged and she went on searching through my purple duffle bag, tossing my things out of it one by one. She finally picked up my cheerleading uniform and threw it onto the floor for me. I reached for it and then got dressed quickly.

    An hour later, after we’d applied our makeup and fixed our hair into the curliest and tightest ponytail we could manage, eaten breakfast and brushed our teeth, we drove over to Cameron’s house, where Damian was also. He lived on West Elm Street in the very center of Lima. I hopped out of the car in Cameron’s driveway. Natalie shivered at the cold gust of wind from the beach next to his house. Cameron greeted us outside. He walked over to me, and swiped his blondish-red hair away from his glasses. I hugged him with one arm and he kissed my cheek. A smile wiped across my face uncontrollably.

    “It’s freezing out here!” I said, which was unusual for early fall in Ohio. Cameron shrugged.

    “I’m use to it, I guess. You ready for the ga---” He started, but was interrupted by Damian, running down the steps of the house and over to us, matching Cameron in his red football jersey and jeans.

    “Oh, hey!” Damian exclaimed to us all as he motioned for us to come inside the olive-green house.

    Natalie rushed to his side and hugged him. We followed them to Cameron’s living room where his Mom greeted us with spaghetti and meat sauce, which is what Mckinley high’s football players and cheerleaders eat before their games to give them more energy.

    “Thanks Mrs.Mitchell!” Echoed three of us. Cameron nodded at his Mom. She flicked on the tv, tossed the remote to Cameron, and went back to her cooking and cleaning in the kitchen.

    Once we were positive she wasn’t listening, we brought up the phone calls.

    “So, what did you guys want to talk to us about?” Natalie asked. Damian stood up from where he was sitting.

    “I’ll be right back.” He yelled to us, walking up the long staircase near the front of the house. I looked towards Cameron, his eyes were to his feet, kicking his red converse against each other.

    Damian came back about a minute later with a piece of paper folded in his hand. He sat on the couch next to Natalie and held the paper in front of her. I saw her look the paper up and down. It looked like it’d been taped together. Cameron and I stood up and walked over to behind the couch where Damian was holding the paper. I leaned over and scanned the paper. It was the letters we’d found in our lockers. He’d taped them together to form three words.

    ‘It’s Never Over.’ I read.

    I didn’t comprehend what it meant. What’s never over?

     Natalie and I looked up from the paper at Damian. Natalie had a blank look on her face that I couldn’t quite understand, though I’m sure I have the same, or similar expression. She squinted in a confused way at Damian for a few seconds until she spoke.

    “Wh..What is that supposed to mean?” She stuttered, pulling her feet up onto the couch.

    “And why were those in our lockers, is it a joke?” I added. Damian shrugged.

    “I.. Cam and I think they have something to do with Degriest Hill.”

My heart stopped at that moment as I remembered what happened at Degriest Hill. I watched Natalie’s eyes get wide. That was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever  witnessed

 in my entire life. I was finally starting to relax, and now I find out that it’s possibly not over.

    “You guys killed Terrence’s spirit though! She’s the only one who was tormenting us! I don’t see how it could possibly not be over, if her soul is completely gone forever!” I explained, trying to clear the fear of everyone. Cameron suddenly clutched onto Damian’s arm and gave him the most worried look.

    “What? Cam, what’s wrong?” Said Damian.

    “What if we didn’t kill Terrence?”

    “What? No. We killed her, we did the spell and then she was gone!” Natalie explained, stuttering through her words.

    “Unless her soul left Marissa’s body before we did the spell..” Cameron said.

Damian raised an eyebrow at him and he continued. “ I was looking it up to make sure it’s for real. All the websites I saw said if the demon has switched through bodies within two minutes of the spell, only the person’s soul will die, and the demon will inherit their body. Forever.” I bit my lip nervously.

    “But, we’ve talked to everyone who was there with us since. Right? No one is possessed.” I told my friends and went on naming everyone. “Marissa, Bryce, Sam, McKynleigh, and then there’s us, Cam, Me, Damian, and Natalie. Everyone’s fine.”

    Everyone stared at the ground, recalling what I’d just said. Their heads rose up one by one and we stared at one other, petrified..terrified..confused. We all knew what each other was thinking. Lexi.