The Realmare (completed)

Day 5

I stretched as I woke up on the bed of the hotel. Suddenly, all of the events of the past few days came rushing back to me. I jolted in the comfy bed. Why do other always feel better than your own?

I looked over. Aaron and Rainy were laying cozily in the bed next to mine. I smiled. I was happy for them. It was nice seeing them like this after everything that's  happened to us. I got up and out of bed and was instantly cold. I grabbed my suitcase and went to the bathroom. I looked by Aaron's case.
"A bag of snacks?" I said. That's when I saw them. "Condoms? Okay Aaron, someone's been busy."
I finished silently judging them and got to the bathroom and set my bag on the ground. I grabbed a shirt and some shorts, realizing that I was topless. I stood up. I screamed. All of my scars had opened back up, and new ones had occurred. They were all along my arms and across my pelvis and stomach. Aaron and Rainy came barreling into the room. I looked over.
"I thought you stopped!" Aaron exclaimed.
"I did!" I retorted.
"Both is you calm down!" Rainy said. "We saw Casey last night. He didn't have any of these cuts. They look fresh."
"He could have done them when we were at the gas station." Aaron said.
"Guys!" I finally said. "I made a promise to you! Why the hell would I break it now?"
"I don't know..." Rainy said.
"I'm sorry man," Aaron said. "But then what happened?"
"Maybe this is the same thing that's causing my hallucinations," Aaron began. "And your nightmares, Rainy."
"Hold up," I was thoroughly confused. "Hallucinations? Nightmares?"
They explained what happened at the gas station.
"Why didn't either of you tell me about this?" I asked.
"I just found out earlier this morning as well Casey." Rainy said.
"Aaron..." I glanced at him. We told each other everything. It's not like him to lie. "We don't keep secrets."
"I know man..." he said after a long pause. "I've just... been really scared. I know you guys must have been as well and I didn't want to show any weekends."
"Aaron..." I began. "This isn't your dads old place anymore. You don't need to be a brave little soldier boy anymore. You're not at war."
"Okay." He said. After a brief moment, he walked out of the room.
"You okay Casey?" Rainy asked.
"Yeah... just... let me change..." she blushed and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
I looked at the wounds. They didn't seem deep. I turned the water on, grabbed some toilet paper and tried my best to clean the wounds. Then, I quickly got dressed and brushed my hair and teeth.
"So..." I started, waking back into the main room. "Condoms!" Aaron bursted out laughing.
"It was Rainy!" He said through his laughs.
"No fucking way!" I said. "No way she bought those." Rainy looked thoroughly embarrassed. Her face was redder than a tomato.
"It was just... a joke." She mumbled.
"You want me to leave so I can continue the joke?" I asked. Rainy shook her head.
"Hey," Aaron said to her. "It's okay babe."
"Babe?" I thought. "When had that happened?" Last night Rainy had been too embarrassed to even kiss Aaron good night. Now she's accepting the pet name?
"Hey, Casey," Rainy began. "The other day... I went to Mr. Richards." She quickly filled me in on how she asked Old Man Richards to translate the Realmares curse. I wasn't surprised. With the way this situation has been happening, I'm not surprised if a demon has cursed us. I told her such. Suddenly, Rainy's phone rang. "Speak of the devil?" I asked. She nodded.
"Hello!" She said. She replied a few times to what Mr. Richards was saying. A series of "uh huh" "and "yeah" type responses were made.
"He thinks he has some answers." She said.
"Well..." I replied "what are we waiting for?"
"Breakfast." Aaron said.
We all agreed to get breakfast before we go to Old Man Richards place.

                                             ***

As we walked into the shop, we saw Mr. Richards sitting at his desk, his face buried in his hands.
"Mr. Richards," Rainy began once she saw him. "Are you okay?" He shook his head.
"Elaine is dead!" He exclaimed. We were all taken aback, especially poor Rainy. We all walked behind the desk in order to comfort him.
"How?" Rainy asked.
"Died in here sleep." He said, his voice frail and faltering.
"At least she didn't suffer." Aaron said. Mr. Richards looked up at him.
"You sound like you are speaking from experience."
"My mother... she just passed."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Are you staying with your father?" Aaron shook his head.
"We've been staying in a hotel."
"Well, that is no place for a bunch of teenagers."
"We have nowhere else to go."
"Nonsense! You could've come here! I would've let you stay free of charge. Why don't you kids do that huh? Grab your things and stay here? You could really make this old man happy." We all smiled at the nice gesture.
"Mr. Richards," Rainy began. She looked at Aaron, mumbled something in his ear, and he nodded in return. "We think that Aaron's moms death may be linked to the Realmare." We filled him in on everything, Aaron's moms death and his hallucinations, Rainy's nightmares, and the cuts I woke up to this morning.
"My my my," he said once we finished. "I wouldn't be surprised if it was, considering the translation."
"What did the translation say?" I asked.
"Let me for get it. It's upstairs in my bedroom." He left through a side door.
"Do you guys really think that this is real?" I asked.
"Casey," Aaron said slowly. "If you didn't cut yourself last night, then I think this may be our only explanation." Suddenly, we heard a scream and a large thump. We rushed through the side door and dashed up the stairs. After a little bit of searching, we found the room Mr. Richards was in.
"You think you can defeat me?" A deep voice was saying. It's voice sounded like there was multiple people saying it at the same time.

We barged into the room. There, standing over Mr. Richards was a black swirling mass. Inside of the mass was a man no older than 30. He looked exactly like Aaron. He was standing over Mr. Richards, his foot on his throat. He looked over and saw us. At seeing the visitors, he left. Mr. Richards got up and began coughing. We all rushed to his side.
"Are you alright?" Rainy asked him.
"What the devil was that?" He exclaimed. We got him onto his bed.
"The devil?" Aaron suggested.
"Not today Satan!" Mr. Richards exclaimed loudly.
Suddenly, he put his hand on his chest. His eyes widened in what looked like fear.
"Everything okay sir?" I asked.
"I think..." he started. "Get me the pill bottle in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom." I rushed over and grabbed them. He held up two fingers. I shook out two pills. There was a cup of water by the bed. Rainy grabbed it. Aaron steadied Mr. Richards as Rainy helped him get water into his mouth as I helped him get the pills into his mouth. He began couching and gagging. After a moment, he coughed up the pills.
"No!" Rainy yelled.
"Heart...attack." He said. "Take... translation... on... desk... find... answers." He grabbed onto Aaron's shirt. Aaron took hold of him.
"It's gonna be okay." He said.
"I'll tell... Elaine... that you said... hello..." with that, he laid himself on the bed as the light in his eyes went out.

Rainy screamed. Aaron had to pull her away from the body. "Grab the translation!" He yelled at me. I ran over to the desk. I couldn't tell what was what so I gathered up all of the papers on the desk and the book and followed Rainy and Aaron to the car.

                                          ***
"Rainy," I began once we got to the car. "Is there anything we can do?" Aaron started the car and we drove back to the hotel.
"Maybe we should take him up on the offer." She said.
"What offer?" I asked.
"He said we could stay with him, free of charge. We don't know when those cards will run out of money or freeze. We should stay at his place." I looked at the bundle of papers on my lap. They sat under the book.
"One or more of us should get a job." Aaron said.
"I'm not old enough." I said.
"Rainy and I are." He replied.
"I'll get a job to take care of the phone bills and Rainy can get a job for groceries." I looked back at her from the front seat.
"You cool with that?" I asked.
"It will get my mind off of everything that's been happening." She said.

We agreed to go back to the hotel, grab our stuff, and live at Mr. Richards' house.
"What about school?" I asked. There was a long pause.
"There aren't any adults around to tell us we should go." Aaron smirked. We all laughed a little. The funny comment and the relief of school felt nice. It would mean less stress for us once the fall came.

Hi everyone!!! I'm so sorry for the late update! I didn't get a whole lot of opportunities to update yesterday and I was really tired last night. I know this episode is shorter than usual and I apologize. The story has gotten a bit out of wack from where I initially wanted it to go. I'm gonna take the next few days to replan the rest of the story. Thank you for reading!