CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2

            She sat up in bed. Her heart was pressing painfully up against her ribs. Inhaling, her lungs burnt. It had all been a dream. So realistic, so raw, and yet it was all a dream.

            Sitting there for another moment, it took her that long to regain her breath.

            “Holy f**k,” she said beneath her breath, talking to no one but herself. It was only three in the morning yet, and she needed to return to her sleep, especially if it was nothing but a dream. Something egged her to sit up. A sense of paranoia perhaps.

            Elsie quietly cursed herself; her overactive imagination must have been working all night to think that up.

Suddenly her door flew open. Richard was in its prior space. His features all seemed to have changed. The grin she had found attractive now morphed into something else. His eyes, once beautiful, were now dark and beady.

He held a rope in his right hand, and his pace was slightly off as he moved closer. She let out a scream, and tried to back up. The room swarm. Her scream hurt her head.

She simply had crawled up against her headboard, now trapped. Richard snatched a handful of her hair and tore back on it, tossing it across the bed. Elsie suddenly found her hands bound, and he finished a knot with the ropes around her wrist.

“Get up,” he said. He didn’t ask a second time and instead grabbed her by her hair once again and began to drag her out of the room. The pain shot up her skull; it was almost unbearable, but the sight before her caused her to keep her position of standing.

Somehow, while she was passed out, he had rigged up four hooks, from which all hung her family. Creating a semi-circle around her couch, her siblings were suspended above each armrest, her two parents swinging behind the back.

Elsie, herself, was tossed down upon the couch. Her fear had her frozen in place; she wasn’t sure if she could move even if she wanted to.

Richard took a step back now, watching her with a gaze that made her want to hide.

“Now, now, Elsie, don’t be giving me that look,” he said.

“Don’t f*****g talk to my sister,” Brandon suddenly said. Elsie blinked and Richard turned his head quick enough to gain whiplash. Neither of them had known he was awake, though Brandon was only holding onto consciousness by a thread.

As Richard recovered, he made a small tut noise with his tongue. “Now, now, Big brother. You’re in no room to speak.”

Moving closer to Brandon, Elsie noticed the small glint of light reflecting off of a blade in Richard’s hand.

“No,” Elise started to say, and began to repeat it over and over.

“Do you hear her, Brandon?” Richard stepped onto the couch beside Elsie. He was tall enough to unhook Brandon from the hook, but let him drop arbitrarily onto the wooden floor. A grunt sounded from behind the shadow of the couch.

“Don’t talk about her; you’re sick,” Brandon said, his body coming out of the shadow and into their line of sight.

“I’m sick?” Richard stepped off of the armrest, landing gracefully.

“Who else?”

“You’re in no place to say that.” Somehow Richard’s voice had maintained its cool pitch.

“Don’t tell-” Brandon’s words were cut off as Richard kicked him in the stomach. Brandon rolled a couple feet.

Elsie’s repetition of the word ‘no’ suddenly increased in sound. Richard stalked the couple strides towards him again. Elsie thought he resembled a cougar. He was too graceful to be human

“You�"” His voice was once again stopped as Richard suddenly dropped a top of him, straddling him.

The blade appeared in her sight once again, causing Elsie to quiet her mumbles. Stroking Brandon’s cheek with the edge, Richard’s lips had twisted into a deranged grin. His attention was no longer focused near the unmoving girl on the couch, but instead placed pressure onto the flesh of that girl’s brother’s cheek.

Richard’s lips twitched with words unheard as Brandon hissed. He tried to twist free, forcing his head further back. None of it was of use. None of it freed him. The awakening parents behind the couch could do nothing. The parent’s pleads didn’t stop the beast within. The beast within instead continued. Carving red pictures under Brandon’s eyes.

He spoke a song of bloody Mary. The song held no true merry. Instead it held a fate of mercy, promising it to the dead instead of the living. The song spurred Elsie’s anger. The anger of which caused her to stand. It caused her standing to become walking. The walking to become a stalk. Where Brandon had been Richard’s prey, Elsie was now a predator.

She let out a scream and collapsed on the floor.

Reviews

[Enigma]

Interesting idea for a story. Although I'm curious to see how this turns out. It's slightly hard to follow but that's alright considering the whole plot itself seems to be heavily fast paced. It needs a bit more detail to really bring the madness to life and the real personality of Richard into light. It's extremely dark and disturbing... Kinda made my skin crawl in a way I didn't think I'd every get while reading a horror story.
Mostly because horror isn't usually my strong point.

I feel like this story is going to twist into something big. I'm certainly going to be waiting for it too.
I loved it nonetheless.

N.T. End. xo