Little Touches | O. White | Escape the Night

XIV. Fear Factor

The very second that the group escaped from the priest, Joey immediately voiced the thoughts of the entire group in just a few words. "That was so frickin' weird!"

"Guys, I hope a demon doesn't touch me," Eva said, "I'm not trying to get touched."

Alexa nodded in agreement as the group returned upstairs. They were soon met but a collection of doors, each clearly leading into all too big rooms that they would have to investigate.

"Let's split up." Someone suggested.

Once Alexa heard those words, every alarm bell in her mind rang as loudly as possible. The number one rule of every horror movie was to never split up. That was how you got caught by the killer and an ax was put through your skull. But, there were at least a decent amount of people left and she knew they had to take some liberties if they wanted to finish before sunrise.

That was how Joey, Eva, Oli and her ended up wandering into a separate room looking for a rosary.

"What are we looking for?" Joey wondered as they waltzed in.

Alexa peered around the room for the item. The set of beads along with the cross would hopefully be unmistakable and recognizable in the large room.

Of course, instead of that they saw a large wardrobe with the word REVELATION stamped on it in bright white letters. Carvings of demons covered its wooden surface, yet on the far side of it one angel stood by itself. A 4-number lock kept the wardrobe shut and Al could already tell that they'd have to open the dumb thing in order to grab the rosary and head out.

"We're gonna need to find out what the code is," Eva said, clearly on the same page as Al. The two immediately started snooping about the room for clues and just a few seconds later Oli joined them.

And while that trio was being productive, Joey was very visibly panicking in the corner. "I don't wanna open these closet doors!" He whined, his voice in a pointed, high pitched tone. Soon enough he was hopping up and down like he was about to have a fit. "I think we need to open—"

"What's that?" Al muttered to herself, pulling out a small paper from the bedside table. Oli and Eva peered over her shoulders to read the note as she held it up to her gaze.

Joey, after giving himself some time to breathe once more, soon joined them. "Did you guys find something?"

Eva nodded, "Raum." Eva's face scrunched up at the mere utter of the name. "That seems like a demon name." Her assumption seemed right, especially with how unsettlingly scraggly and jagged the writing was on the paper.

"Sounds like ramen," Al joked, "Now I'm hungry." Her lips turned into a frown with her lips pointing out into an over dramatic pout. Joey opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, dark mist flew past the group, making them all go silent. Although, the voices circling around them were anything but.

"Oh, no." Eva began backing away, visibly shaken from the encounter. "Oh-no-oh-no-oh-no..."

It didn't take a genius to figure out what had just happened here. The icy cold, haunting mist that had passed them was the same as earlier during the ritual. This mist had only appeared once they did the ritual, meaning that the ritual had not helped them in any way, shape, or form. In fact, it hurt them.

The ritual was meant to bring them home and it did bring something home, just not them. It had brought evil spirits home and there wasn't exactly any easy way out of reversing a ritual that had only been done with the help of a four person body count.

Al let out a shaky breath at the thought, but instead focused on Joey who had recommended looking for Raum in the Bible. But he didn't say anything more. Instead he was focused on the banging behind the cabinet doors and the flickering lights. Hell, the walls were still shaking.