The Legend - Watty Awards 2012

Chapter Twenty Two

      Jenna watched in horror as the scene unfolded in front of her. There was fire everywhere but she couldn't do anything. The flames licked at the edges of her bed dangerously. She could see her father's face through the fire.. Twisted in agony, eyes beckoning for help. His face blurred and turned into her mother's. Her mother's mouth was open as if screaming for Jenna but there was nothing she could do. Jenna helplessly stared on as her mother's face soon became Paul's. Paul just stared back at her in sadness.

     A beam fell from the top and crashed into the floor. Suddenly, it was as if all three of them were alive again. They held hands and walked from the middle of the fire straight towards Jenna - Pat in the middle and Richard and Paul on either side of her. Jenna smiled with happiness.

They were alive!

Everything was alright once again!

Just as she tried to reach out her hand to touch them, the three of them morphed into one being. Their faces merged and twisted and melted and a new face emerged.

     Jenna screamed in fright. Staring back at her was the face of the old woman that she had seen at her window weeks ago. The woman glared at her with hatred. Her hair hung matted around her hollow, colourless face while her eyes were filled with pure hatred and evil.

   The woman started moving forward towards Jenna.

   "Stop! Please don't hurt me," Jenna yelled in despair.

   The woman just emitted an eerie laugh and continued to move forward with her arms stretched out reaching for Jenna's neck.

    "Stop!" Jenna sobbed again.

   "Your time will come little Jenna," the woman suddenly cackled and with that she and the fire just vanished abruptly.

      Jenna woke up sweating. The nightmare had seemed almost life like. She stared around at her room. The balcony door was hanging open on one of its hinges and sunlight streamed through. There were blood marks on the wall in front of her and a pile of ashes on the floor.

Paul!

     The events of the previous night hit her with full force and she began screaming and yelling and crying out as loud as she could. She thrashed around, hitting everything in sight. She smashed her bedside lamp onto the floor, remembering the smiling face of her father. She let out a throaty scream and threw the pillows of her bed, missing the warmth and love of her mother. She punched and punched her fist into the wall, imagining the last look on Paul's face.

    Exhausted and completely void, Jenna fell back on to her bed and curled up into a foetal position, sobbing and hoping that she would just die then and there.

    When Jenna awoke for the second time that day, the sun was sinking low. She slowly pulled herself of her bed and headed towards the bathroom. She could feel a lump at the back of her head and her hair was clumped with blood. Her eyes burned and her entire body ached. Not willing to look at herself in the mirror, she dragged herself towards the shower and turned it on with full force. She quickly stripped off her soiled and tattered clothes and jumped in. She emptied the entire contents of her shampoo bottle onto her head and began scrubbing like a maniac not caring whether she hurt herself in the process or not. She then took a bar of soap and rubbed away at her body trying to force all the horror and memories away.

   Once she was done, she changed into a fresh pair of clothes, not bothering what she was wearing. She headed down to the kitchen and made herself a bowl of cereal. Sitting at the table, mindlessly chewing her food, Jenna began to think back to the day they arrived. Everything had seemed so perfect then. The house had been just so beautiful. She remembered going into town and meeting Tom and Kate and even her first encounter with Tyler. She then thought about the bookshop and about how she had initially thought that Betty was so wonderful until she had gone all crazy. She then remembered.. Wait a minute! Jenna back tracked her thought process quickly.

   After chatting with Betty the first time, she had begun exploring the library. She remembered she had heard weird music which no one else seemed to have. It was the music that had dragged her to the back of the library and that was when the book had fallen on her. She also realised that Betty had still been very nice to her until she had noticed the book! Even after she had come home, it was only after she had started reading the book that all the weird occurrences had begun.

 The book! Jenna smacked her forehead hard wondering how could she have been so stupid as to not realise this earlier. Pushing her bowl aside, she jumped off her stool and rushed up to her room. She ignored the carnage around her and began rummaging around for the book. She couldn't remember where she had last put it. After searching for almost half an hour, she was about to give up hope when she noticed something stuck between her bed and the wall. She quickly picked it and sure enough it was the book. She dusted the cover and stared at it again. 

The Legend

   She took it downstairs with her and sat down on the couch. Pulling the book open, she muttered " Let us see what you have in store for me this time."

   And with that she began reading the book all over again, more carefully this time, hoping that it would give her some sort of clue.

A/N: Holla everyone!! Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Don't forget to comment and Vote since the Legend has been entered into Watty  Awards!!!!