The Realmare (completed)

Day ?

I wasn't sure how long it had been since we had moved into Mr. Richards' house, but things had only gotten worse. Where to begin? We buried Mr. Richards. The next day, I could see a shadow across the place where we buried him. When I got the others, they were gone. My hallucinations had become daily. I saw people. Sometimes they were random strangers, other times it was the being in the being in the Realmare that was talking to Mr. Richards. "You think you can defeat me?" Those words... that voice... they haunted me. It scared me.

Rainy's nightmares got worse each night. She wakes up several times now, screaming and crying. Her body would shake with fear. Each night was something different. She would be alone, others around her would die, her parents would drag her away from us. She was scared to fall asleep. She bought coffee to keep herself up at night but eventually, that failed. She ended up passing out for almost a whole day.

Casey had constantly awoke with cuts. They were always along his waists, but they would also be on his chest or arms.

I heard the door to the shop open.

"Hello?" I asked.
"Aaron!" My moms voice rang at the door. I sprinted to the little shop on the other side of the house. Sure enough, she was there. I stared for a moment.
"What's wrong baby? Aren't you happy to see me?" My eyes filled with tears. I ran and hugged her. I cried so hard.
"You wanna come home with me Aaron?" She asked.
"What about Casey and Rainy?"
" You don't need them, do you?" I stared at her quizzically. This want like my mom. She welcomed Casey and Rainy into her home. She took care of them.
"Mom... this isn't like you." I looked at the door, debating if I should call Casey or not. Rainy was at work. When I looked back at her, I saw something else. I saw my mother in the form she had died in. Her eyes were gone. Empty holes took they're place. Her hair was ragged and snarled. Her jaw was broken. The long scratches along her body were bleeding. I jumped back. She lifted her hand and I was shoved to the back shelf.
"You dare betray me Aaron?" The voice of the Realmare spike through my mother's mouth. "I am your mother!"
"You're a bitch." I replied. I saw nothing I could use as a weapon. However, I heard a voice call my name.
"Aaron?" Casey's voice rang out. "Aaron, where are you." The shops side door opened and I saw Casey walk in. Suddenly, the Realmare was gone.
"What happened?!" He asked as he ran over to me. As he helped me up, I relayed the entire story to him. He was in shock.
"We need to look at the translation." He said. My phone dinged from within my pants pocket. I looked at it. The screen was cracked but it wasn't serious.
"We need to get Rainy." I said.
"She worked late today." Casey observed.
"She had to work a double."

***
When Rainy got in the car, she immediately closed her eyes.
"Tired?" I asked. Silently, she nodded.
"Boss asked me to... work a... double..." she slowly responded.
"At least you have tomorrow off!" I tried to make myself sound as encouraging as possible.
"Yep..."
"Hey..." Casey started. "before you go to bed, we need to look at the translation." The car was silent.
"Casey," I replied. "Rainy needs sleep. Can't we look at it in the morning?"
"After what happened today? No. We have to look at this tonight." Rainy perked up.
"What happened?"
"Nothi-" I started.
"Your boyfriend got a visitor." Casey interrupted. "The Realmare attacked him."
"What!" Rainy exclaimed.
"Babe," I said flatly. "Don't worry about it. You need sleep."
"Until I wake up at three a.m. screaming." She said sarcastically. "This is getting serious. I'll take a nap in the car, wake me up when we're home."

"Home." What was home anymore? I thought we had found home when Casey and Rainy were staying with me. I thought home was where you could be safe. I thought home was where you had a fully belly, safety, comfort, a warm bed. We had beds. We barely had food. Rainy and I ate food that was at our jobs and we brought food home for Casey.

I carried Rainy inside. Once we got into the store, I set Rainy down. Her eyes widened upon seeing the mess from me crashing into the wall. Casey ran into the house.

"Are you okay?" She asked.
"As fine as I can be for seeing my dead mother and having her throw me into the wall." I said jokingly.

"How about you? Any more fainting spells?" She shook her head. We haven't been able to eat as much. I wasn't sure how long it had been since we started living like this, but Rainy had started losing weight. We all had. But it was especially prevalent in her. She was already skinny enough as it was, my poor tiny sweetheart, but now her ribs were visible. But... despite all of the things we had been through, despite what her name implies, she was a ball of sunshine. "It's better than where I was before." She would say. "At least I'm not being beaten." "Casey and I aren't in abusive homes." It was something we needed during this time.

Casey came back. He had a book and a bunch of papers. He set the book aside and began sifting through the papers. Eventually, he found the paper he was looking for.
"What are the other papers?" I asked.
"Bills, theories, essays, so on and so forth." He explained. We all sat at the front desk. The door to the house opened. I saw Elaine come out with a plate of cookies. She offered us some, saying that we must have been hungry. My eyes watered. She never got to be with her husband during his last moments. She never got to be with us after my mom died. She wasn't here. She can't help us. These thoughts ran through my brain. Suddenly, Casey called my name. I looked up at him. He asked if I was ready. I nodded.

"The Realmare," he read. "is a demonic entity that can be controlled. It is nearly impossible to control it, but it can be done. If summoned, it will take over the minds of those who summoned it. Some say it causes hallucinations," they both looked at me "others, nightmares." Casey and I looked at Rainy. "Whoever summons it is either extremely brave, or extremely stupid.

"Guys, there's an arrow pointing to this saying that what I just read wasn't the actual curse. It was something scrawled in black light over the pages."

"Is there a real translation?" Rainy asked.
He looked down at the papers and began reading. "The demon is upon you. Summon him and face the consequences. Suffer the punishment for angering the god Rackmashka. Suffer for believing you can control a being ever so powerful as him. He is the ruler of both Heaven and Hell. He is the one who separates the weak and the strong. He separates those who can from those who can not. Those who can will be his army. Those who can not will perish. Anyone who opposes will suffer the worst consequence of all. Death."

We stared at each other. All three of us stared in speechless wonder.
"Well..." Casey began. "That was something."
"We should do some research in the morning." Rainy said. We nodded in agreement. "Aaron," she said after a brief pause. "Stay with me tonight."
"Of course." I told her. "After what we just read, I'm not leaving you alone at night."

Yay! Another early update! I know it's shorter than usual, but the longer episodes are harder to write. However, as easy as this episode was, the next episode will be jam packed with info! Hope you enjoy!