Precious Anathema (15 page)

“
Come on Delilah, just do
it before the fucking spiders come back it can’t be worse than
that.” I picked up my left hand and placed it in the opening on the
right; I could always come back in the morning if I hadn’t gotten
out by then. Making my way into the manmade hall I noticed dim
light ahead, I started to run, I could get out of this hell. I
rounded a small corner to find a lit torch, but no one had been
down here in decades, how could a torch be lit. I turned around in
a circle suddenly fearful I was not alone in this maze. I took the
torch from the wall and held it in my hand, I could see so much
better now and somehow wished I could go back to the dark. The
rocks I had been kicking as I made my way through the hall were not
rocks at all. Bones, all sizes and shapes littered the hall floor.
Some I recognized from crime shows as human, but others seemed much
too small to be close to human, what the hell lived down here? I
closed my eyes again chanting that it was all in my head to make
them go away, but as I opened my eyes they were still there and I
had to move them out of the way to keep walking. I knew the trick
was keeping track of what my fears and insecurities were so I could
stay ahead of the curse, the list was long though and I knew any
one of them could seem real in a second. Everything from spiders
that had already given a splendid performance, to the size of my
thighs, my flaming red hair, heights, blood and death just to name
a few. Some of these things make me twitch at the thought of them,
not just sight or feeling but I kept them in my head to try
avoiding the element of surprise. I wouldn’t look down at my feet,
I knew that was a skull I had kicked but as long as I told myself
it was a rock I could keep moving forward without passing out. I
walked for what seemed like an hour in the same direction, noticing
piles of rocks throughout. Wondering if Cora made these halls or
the men she sent in here, I had to fight not to imagine what she
put them through, all these men died at the hands of my family and
a cold chill shot up my back as I was spooked by a shadow, I waved
the torch and pun around. Nothing around me, my imagination was
really getting away from me, then I saw it again and stopped cold,
this time there was no denying that I saw the figure of a man’s
shadow pass in front of me. A cold blast of air crept up my back
and I spun around in time to see a shadow once more, then another.
I was letting the curse get to me again, there were no shadows
lurking around me, I closed my eyes took a deep breath and turned
to keep walking, only when I turned I was face to face with a wall
that had not been here before, the hall now went right instead of
straight. I jumped back as I came face to face with the reality
that this was much more than a simple spell, I looked to the right
and the hall seemed to branch off into three different directions,
I began to make my way down the new hall with one hand holding my
torch and the other holding my knife.

The smell was really getting to me
too; it was unlike anything I had ever smelled. Not a musty smell,
but more like rich iron mixed with rotten eggs and ammonia. At
times it seemed thicker in the air than others, but it was always
there as I breathed in. The walls seemed to leak liquid from
between the rocks, it might have been that, but the liquid seemed
much thicker than water so I hadn’t dared to touch it or check it
out, the trickling sound just followed my steps. I felt the cold
rush through me again and stopped walking, waiting to see an image
but nothing past in front of me, then I heard it creeping up from
behind me.

“
Have you come to finish?”
I whipped around and the wind was suddenly knocked out of my like
someone punched me in the gut. I fell to my knees, unable to
respond. I saw no one, no shadow near me but heard him as clear as
any man.

“
You are too late, we took
care of it and now it’s your turn sweet Cora.” I coughed and shook
my head, catching my breath I screamed into the
darkness.

“
I am not Cora, my name is
Delilah, and I didn’t do this to you!” The fear of what could
happen to me made my hands start to shake and my lips quivered as I
held back tears.

“
We have all been waiting
for you Cora; it’s our turn to play.” I picked up the torch and ran
as fast as I could, clumsily slipping on skeletal remains, crying
and screaming in fear as I ran, I took a left turn and didn’t look
back. This hall was wider, and a strange light made it very easy to
see where I walked. I couldn’t see the end but something made me
feel safer here, I walked faster to find out where this came out,
as I walked I couldn’t help but keep looking behind me afraid that
I was still being followed, and from the bones scattered through
the hall floors I had no idea just how many were looking for me
either and knew one thing, I didn’t want to find out. The hall
turned a corner and I stood in shock at what was before me. I stood
on the doorway to an old room, littered with mismatched furniture
and a fireplace in the middle that still had some wood inside it.
On the walls I saw markings where someone or many someone’s had
made calendars to mark their day’s here. The markings were on
everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of marks. Above the fireplace
they had written dates, going back to 1804 all the way up to 1944,
I leaned against the side of the hall realizing two things, this
basement was not part of the family curse, it was more of the
family secret going back a hundred years before the curse, and that
women in the family as close as my great grandmother had still used
this as a torture device. Realizing that’s why Freya knew so much
about it, she didn’t hear about it she lived it as a child,
watching her mother torture men in this very house.

THIRTEEN

Walking into the room I could almost
feel the pain and hell these men had endured while in this game of
cat and mouse women in my family had played with them. They were
always the mouse, until now. They were the cat and as I picked up
an old torn shirt I realized that I was the mouse, and the mouse
never really wins. A voice took me out of the daze, it wasn’t the
same voice I had heard before but still a man’s eerie voice spoke
from the hall.

“
Feeling guilty are you? I
know who you are, I know why you are here but I don’t know how long
the others will let you stay.” I dropped the shirt and ran to the
hall.

“
Please, I am begging you
to help me I am sorry they did this to you but I am not them, I
have come to help you, please!” I fell to the floor crying and
screamed as loud as my body would allow. “Please help me!” The hall
was silent over the sounds of my sobbing; I looked back into the
room realizing that not one of these men ever made it out, knowing
that I probably would suffer the same fate. Taking a deep breath a
looked at my surroundings once more, nothing added up, the dates
were decades before the curse and it seemed as though this was used
decades after as well. Till this point I thought I had just been
inside an elaborate spell put on the basement, but looking through
this room it became very clear that I was no longer in the basement
of the family home. Where I had been transported too was a mystery
but I had to keep a clear head and not lose sight of what I knew I
had to do. Getting out of here was my first thought, my second was
something that the legend spoke of, and I wasn’t sure how to free
souls that wanted me dead. I stood up and picked up a piece of
charred wood from the fire place, on the mantel I wrote –DG 2013,
and walked back into the hall. I decided not to turn back and
continued down the hall, doorways appearing before my very eyes,
some rooms looking familiar to me but I wouldn’t walk in, just
stood in the hall looking through the doorways in fear, until one
room froze my feet from moving. A beautifully lit room, big fluffy
pillows across the bed a down comforter and a gorgeous blue dress
on the end of the bed. It was my Mothers room, the blue dress she
wore to my High School Graduation looked like it had been perfectly
ironed, and every picture frame was in its right place, every
trinket set just as my memories thought they should be. My feet
began to move into the room and as I passed the threshold it even
smelled like her beautiful perfume. I closed my eyes and made
myself take a deep breath, tears welt up and began to stream across
my face, I sat on the bed and fell back looking at the ceiling. I
let myself get lost in the incredible feeling of going back to that
day, the day my mother was still with me, proud and loving. I threw
my hands on my face and howled as my cries turned into pure shrieks
of anger.

“
I
need
you and you
left
me when the aunts could have
saved
you
!
You
left
me! How
could you
leave
me?” I punched the pillows, threw the comforter and began
taking down pictures as I screamed, all the smiles and happy faces
seemed like a lie, she left me and I didn’t want to see her fake
love anymore.

“
You
lied
to me, you said you
would
always
be
here and you
left
me,
you
just left and
lied
, it was all a
lie
!” I walked by the
broken glass on the floor, the feathers from the pillows and sat
back on the bed. I took a deep breath and felt better, the room was
supposed to break me, but I felt better. I didn’t hate my mother, I
was angry at death not her. I looked around the room one last time
and stood up when I felt a chill blast through me, I spun around
and was face to face with a gorgeous man staring back at
me.

“
Are you Delilah?” I took a
step back realizing he was no man I had ever seen before but his
eyes were so familiar to me.

“
Yes, I am Delilah who are
you?” The spirit smiled and looked around the room.

“
I always knew she would be
ok, I always knew you would be amazing.” I was curious and afraid
to ask but he answered my question before I had time to reply.
“When your Great Grandmother sent me away I knew she was pregnant
with you Delilah, no one knew she had told me yet. I knew you were
coming before I was cast away.” I thought I would throw up a little
as he spoke, was he saying that he was my Father, and that my Great
Grandmother sent him down here to die? I had so many questions, the
first was more obvious.

“
What is your name?” He
walked to the front of the bed, closer to me and I felt afraid at
first, then he smiled and I relaxed, he smiled like I
did.

“
My name is Justin, and I
am your father.” I started shaking, this was another trick it had
to be, I watched as he made his way to my side of the bed and sat
down, I couldn’t move and found myself staring at him without as
much as a blink.

“
Are you, I mean are you a
ghost?” He put his head down and nodded.

“
I am a ghost honey, I died
down here and now I am trapped. I am stuck here with all the other
men that died, all the other men but one man who happened to be in
here when the curse was put on the family, he is still here.”
Another man was down here with me, and he knew about the
curse?

“
I don’t understand, first
of all how could you know about the curse it’s such a secret I
didn’t know about it for eighteen years, and secondly how in the
hell is anyone supposed to survive down here without food or
water?” He laughed and shook his head.

“
Delilah, you have not been
down here very long have you?” I shrugged my shoulders and looked
around the trashed room feeling a bit embarrassed by my reaction to
seeing it. “You will be fine down here once you learn to overcome
the somewhat creepy images and tricks because that’s all they are.
The souls are a different story, and it really is a little
unsettling how much you look like the pictures of Cora and Emma
honey so you have to watch your back with them, most of these men
were put here by women who looked like you and not like your
mother, the man that is still alive down here for example, I
wouldn’t try looking for him.” I knew in my heart that this was
just another way for the curse to mess with me, he kept talking
without giving me very much information, and the longer he talked
the more I noticed his mannerisms matched my own, but I couldn’t
figure out how he could know so much about the curse if my mother
had nothing to do with witchcraft or her gifts.

“
Tell me how to get out of
here please I am begging you, tell me what to do and I will do it.”
I heard a crash in the hall outside and jumped while screaming, I
looked back to the bed and he had vanished; guess he wasn’t as
brave as he made himself out to be. I turned back around and slowly
made my way to the door, I held my breath as I placed one hand on
the door case, and the other on my knife as I leaned my head out
into the hallway, the shadowy figure of a human being dashed around
a corner. I forgot the warning from my cursed father and started
yelling as I ran after him, every turn he seemed to get a little
farther away from me, I kept running and begging him to stop but
with each word he ran faster, and so did I.

“
Please, I need help.
Please stop running!” I was severely out of shape compared to the
Olympic athlete I was chasing, and I couldn’t stop tripping over
every bit of debris that littered the dark halls. I couldn’t help
but feel distracted by each door I passed as I ran as well, one
looked strangely like my high school home room, one even looked
like a soup kitchen I once volunteered at, and I almost stopped
just to get some food, but I kept my eye on the shadow and ran
until my legs almost gave out. We had been running so long, and
taken so many turns I knew I was lost, not that I ever thought I
really knew where I was but I stopped and screamed in
defeat.