Above the Surface

Chapter 3

Katie was fine. Maddie was fine. Both went to the doctor over a course of two weeks and they were perfectly fine. Piper was starting to relax, starting to think the letter was old, when all the shit hit the fan the night before Nikki's appointment.

It was the little's girl's screams that woke them up that night, that sent them tumbling out of bed and down the hallway faster than they could have thought possible. As Piper entered her daughter's room after throwing open the door, Jason and her two other daughters were right behind her.

"Nightmare." Piper ran to her daughter and pulled the young girl into her arms. "Katie, Maddie, go back to bed." She sung to Nicole, tried shaking her awake, tried anything she could think of. But the poor girl didn't wake. All she could do was scream.

"Here, here." Jason came back into the room, having left with the two teenagers. With a cup in one hand, he walked over to Piper and kneeled next to her, his hand shaking. "Should I pour it on her?"

Piper looked at him for a minute before nodding. "We need to wake her up."

Jason poured the freezing water onto his daughter's head, soaking her hair and her pajamas. Her screams stopped for a second before she started to sob, her eyes opening to find herself in her mother's arms. She gasped for a minute before burying her head in her mother's chest, her small arms wrapping around the woman's torso. "I'm scared!"

"Shhh, shhh." Piper kept her close and began to rub her back. "I've got you, Nikki. I've got you. Momma's got you."

"Nikki, what happened?" Jason set the cup down and sat beside his wife. "What was the nightmare about? I bet I can make you feel all better about it."

"A bad man! A really bad man!" her arms couldn't stop shaking and her lips began to tremble. "He scared me!"

"Shh, shh baby... Tell us what he looked like, okay? Tell us what he did." Piper kept her close. "We're here now. We won't let anyone hurt you."

Nicole closed her eyes. "He...he said he's buried in the woods...he said his body's out there...he said that he lives six feet underground and that it's freezing down there and that one day I'll be down there, too. He said he's going to come from the woods and come in here and take me down there." Her sobs turned to labored breaths. "I don't wanna! I don't wanna, momma!"

Piper's pale face looked to Jason's, her arms started to tremble almost as much as Nicole's. In the dark of night, they sat in a dimly lit room and stared at each other, stared because they didn't want to speak the words that needed to be said. Once they were out in the open, they couldn't be taken back.

"Piper, why would he even...?"

"I don't know, Jason. Just help me calm her." Piper kissed her daughter's head. "Nikki, it was just a bad dream. That's it. It wasn't real."

"It looked real..." Nicole whispered, her tired eyes fighting to stay open. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Course, Nikki." Piper stood up and carried Nicole to their bedroom. "Let's go lay down. Jason, come on."

Jason sighed but followed them, knowing they needed to talk soon. As Piper laid down and began to put Nicole back to bed, Jason mumbled that he was going to get a drink before going downstairs. He turned lights on as he went, illuminating his path in the dark house. Shadows moved around him and his eyes played tricks on him as he entered the kitchen. A drink of water, a cold sensation down his spine.

He wasn't alone.

"Who's there?" Jason turned around, froze when he saw the basement door wide open. "Maddie? Katie? This isn't funny."

A creek on the steps, the basement light turning on.

"Maddie!" Jason grabbed a knife from the block on the cupboard before going to the basement door. He looked down the steps, frowned when he didn't see anyone. "If you don't come out right now you're grounded. From your phone and your boyfriend and everything."

The wind blew up, carried a chuckle and a silent scream. As Jason stepped onto the staircase, the door slammed behind him with another gust of wind. The lights stayed on but flickered, causing Jason's heart to skip a beat.

"I'm serious." he walked downstairs and looked around, hoping to see one of his children hiding. Instead, he saw something that made his heart stop and his blood run cold. The rug in the middle of the room was pulled up, revealing the floor underneath. Drawn on the floor in red, a large pentagram stood out like a sore thumb.

"Oh god, oh god..." Jason ran upstairs as if a bear was chasing him. Once at the top, he threw the door open and ran for the safety of his room. Only when he was in his room with the door closed and barricaded did he allow himself to breathe, deep breaths and hard heartbeats.

"Pipes, it's worse than we thought."