The Final Chapter Chapter Forty Two

The shadow of something. As the flashlight shined on what I was looking at a sigh of relief instantly came over me. I was still a nervous wreck, but at least nothing jumped out at me. I kept shining the light back and forth all over the room, but it was empty. I stood there not really even seeing what was before me, but rather what I had seen earlier.  I went over to the corner where the old woman had been sitting. It was if in my mind I could still see her. Oh my God! What was going on here?  I shined the light in to every corner but the only thing that was in the room was some old shelves and a couple of wooden crates. I walked over and shined the light at the crates. The only thing that was in them was some old newspapers and what looked like a old jacket. I reached down and pulled out one of the newspapers and looked at it. At first I didn’t really think anything about it, but then I noticed on the headline of one of the articles it said, Another man comes up missing in a small town in north Pennsylvania. I read about how there were fourteen people missing from Sather county and that they believed that there was someone murdering these people, but no bodies had been found.

I looked at the date on the front page. It said Tuesday, Jan 25th, 1963. I looked at the date again figuring I must have read it wrong, but I had read it right.  I laid the paper back in the old crate then shined the light around the room. I was getting to a point that it seemed like I was in a dream. I mean from what I had seen earlier and what I saw now is crazy. Where the hell did all those bodies go? And not only that; there was blood from one end of the room to the next and now nothing. I mean it looked as if no one had been in this room for years!!. After a couple more minutes I walked out of that room and headed back upstairs.  I really didn’t know what else to do.

I opened the front door and looked out at my truck. My trailer was still backed up to the front steps and the doors were open. I had to still unload a few smaller things out of it, but then I started thinking about everything that seemed to have happened to me. I sat down on the steps and tried to focus.  I mean, from the time I met Red to the moment Earl died,everything seemed surreal. I had tears in my eyes because of everything that I had seen in the past few days/ It seemed like it hadn't even happened. I looked down at my arm where I had those bite marks, and there wasn’t even a slight scratch or anything.
I turned around and looked back into the house, then I got up and walked around and looked at the little building that sat off toward the back of the property.  I wondered if any of this had even happened. My mind was scrambling things in a million directions! I walked back over to the house then slowly made my way from room to room. I was looking for anything that would help me believe in what I had seen.  But the more I looked the more I knew that there must have been something wrong with me.

I went back outside and sat on the steps again.  I couldn’t stop crying. What was wrong with me? I felt a pain in my chest. As I put my hand on it to rub where the pain was, I felt a sharper pain.  It felt as if there was something poking me so I pulled my tee shirt up and looked to see if I had a splinter and thought maybe I had gotten it when I was lying on the floor.  When I looked I just about fell over!! I had a huge cut on my chest. It was about one inch across and it looked like it had burn marks all around it. What the hell? I just stared at it.  I mean where the hell did that come from?  I thought back at when I stabbed the old man.  I remembered when I was pushing the knife into his chest I thought I saw sparks.  I looked down at my chest again, then tried to remember exactly what happened.  Oh my God! I remembered.  Just after I had stabbed the old man I had a horrible pain in my chest. It was if I had been stabbed at the same time as the old man was! What the hell was going on here?  I stood up and started pacing back and forth. I couldn’t think of a rational reason for anything. This was just to much for me to even comprehend. I knew I needed to get the hell out of this place, and this area.
I looked at my trailer, then over at my truck. Without even thinking it over I jumped in my truck and backed over to my trailer and hooked it up. Over the next four hours I loaded everything that I could in my trailer.  I knew what I was going to do next.  I went upstairs and got those old matches, then went down to the cellar.  I stood down there thinking for a second, then I struck the match and threw it into the crates with the old newspapers in them.  I didn’t care what happened next. All I knew is when I walked out the front door and closed it behind me it was as if I had never even been there. On my way out of the driveway I looked back in the mirror and looked at the house one last time, and then drove away.

After moving back home, life finally seemed to be getting back to normal.  I got a job with a construction firm in a nearby town. I loved my new job. Several weeks later I had been contacted by the realtors office about the house. Samuel asked me if I wanted him set up an appointment to see the house.  I paused for a second, then asked him, what house? He said the one Victorian house that we had talked about. Again I was bewildered.  I cleared my throat, then asked him if he meant the one up on Shallow Pine Ridge? "Yes, that’s the one, are you still interested?", he asked.  Not believing what I was hearing I couldn‘t think of anything to say. I told him I had found a new job and wouldn’t be moving there. After a few more minutes on the phone with Samuel I started to really think I must be crazy. I wanted to ask him if the house had caught on fire but if I would have done that, then maybe I would have opened up a hornets nest.  I figure I should just forget that part of my life, or my dreams, or wha ever it was.

Several years went by when one day I woke up in the middle of the night.  I don’t know what it was. but I felt like every muscle in my body was sore. The next morning I walked in to the bathroom to take a shower and that’s when I noticed my hands were full of dirt. I looked in the mirror and my tee shirt was ripped to shreds and I had blood spots all over it. Then everything went dark………

Then End.

Chapter Forty One

When I opened my eyes everything seemed blurry.  I closed them and slowly opened them again.  It felt like I had been out all night drinking. Once my vision started to clear I noticed I was still lying on the floor in the upstairs bedroom and I seemed to be in the same spot where I had confronted the old man.  I started to get up, but my body felt weak. As I got to my feet I just about passed out again.  I had to kneel down to the floor for a minute. As I sat there, I thought about what had happened prior to me waking up.  I turned around and looked toward the door where the hidden room was.  It was wide open. I glanced down at where I had burned the boar's hair and pieces of it were still there. It must have worked, I thought.

I finally got enough strength to stand up. I walked into the little room and looked around some. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing at the time. I guess I wasn’t really thinking clearly at all. I thought about the old man and what had happened to him after I stabbed that knife into his heart. My mind started to buzz.  I looked on the floor where the knife should have been laying, but it wasn’t there. There wasn’t even a drop of blood or anything.  I went back into the hidden room and opened the book to see if the knife was in there but it wasn’t.  I quickly looked at the floor where I had put the little jar down after dipping the point of the knife into it and that too was gone! I knew someone had to of taken it, but why and who? I remembered that just before I blacked out the old man said they're coming for you. The last thing I had heard were footsteps entering the room.

Why didn’t they kill me? What did they do with the old man or the knife? Again my mind was hitting overdrive. I went down the stairs to find the hidden drawer in the steps. Maybe they had put the knife back in there? It was empty.  What the hell was going on. I kept thinking of the old man's eyes, and how they seemed to turn color. It was if something was leaving his body. What happened to him? Why would someone take him and not me?

I was starting to really get jumpy and  thought I heard noises everywhere. My eyes circled the room non stop and I was at a point that I was getting sick. I walked into the living room and looked at where all the blood was from before, but it had been cleaned up. I checked the hallway and by the front door, but again everything had been cleaned. Then I noticed something strange. As I was looking at the floor where all the blood had been cleaned up, I saw that it wasn't really clean. I mean, if you were to wipe something up, the spot you cleaned should be somewhat shiny or glowing, but this wasn’t. I knelt down and ran my hand across the floor, then looked at my fingers. The tips of them were filthy. What the heck? I turned and walked over to the cellar door. I hated to do it but I knew I had to go down to that room and look.

As I made my way down the darkened steps every fiber of my body told me to just get the hell out of there and forget this place ever existed, but something else drove me.  I had to know. I had to see just what the hell had happened there. Once I got to the bottom of the stairs I reached over and pulled the string for the light. A amber glow filled the room and at that point I could smell the musty cold smell of what laid before me. I looked over at where the sheriff had shot that man.  I remember the blood that was oozing from his head, but when I walked over to where he was laying there wasn’t anything there! I mean nothing, and again like upstairs the floor was dirty. It was as if there hadn't been anyone laying there, let alone bleeding all over the floor.
My hair stood on end as I looked in disbelief.  I turned toward the hidden room, then walked over to it. The shelf part was already open but the door part was shut, and it had been locked.  Oh My GOD!!! My heart pounded so hard I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to hear anything.  I reached up and touched the first lock, it was cold as ice.  I mean it burned the tips of my fingers as if it was frozen. As I slid  it open I listened. I paused for a minute then reached for the second lock and slid it open, then listened again. I wasn’t sure but I thought I heard something move.  I waited longer this time, even though it was cold down there my body was sweating like mad. My eyes focused so hard on what was before me it was if I couldn’t even see. I reached for the last lock and slid it open, then backed away about two feet and kicked it the rest of the way open. A horrible smell filled the room and I could only imagine what horror awaited me. I tried to see but it was too dark. Then I remembered the flash light that was sitting on top of the old well. I backed my way over to it, keeping my eyes glued on the dark silhouette of the door way. I grabbed the light and turned it on. Again it wasn’t the best light in the world, but at least it was something. As I walked closer to the door, my eyes became glued to...

Chapter Forty

I wasn’t sure what the heck burning boar hair was all about but I figured it was worth the chance.  I took out one of the flints and struck it against the stone. Oh crap, it made a loud noise so I looked back out the key hole to see If the old man had heard it but he didn’t seem too.  I really didn’t understand what he was doing out there anyway. All he seemed to be doing is looking at the door. Anyway, I struck the stone again. Sparks flew against the hair but all it did was smother itself out.  I looked around the room to see if there was something else that I could use to start the fire with. I thought about the candle, but was worried that if not lit by the flint the spell or whatever the smoke did wouldn’t work. Then I thought maybe it was just the smell of the hair that did it. My mind was going crazy. I hit against the stone with the flint several times. When I finally had smoke, I crouched down close to the smoldering pile of hair and blew gently against it.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.... it actually worked.  The hair was burning, the tiny room was filling fast up with smoke.  I grabbed the knife, then poked the end of it in the little jar, hoping and praying, that this was the blood of one of those freaky demon things.

I peeked again through the key hole. The old man had come closer to the door. He must have heard me hitting the stone with the flint. I stood up and took the key out of my pocket and slowly unlocked the door. I used my foot to move the boar's hair off to the side, then pulled the door open.  The smoke billowed out of the room and toward the old man. I waited to see what would happen next. I didn’t even know what he had meant by saying the smoke froze them once it touched them. The old man looked me in the eyes with a almost terror in them, then he looked down at the knife I was holding and smiled. It was as if he wanted this. He looked back up at me and said do it as fast as you can. I asked him what he was talking about. What he said next made my body shake.  He said, "I see you found the knife." Then he told me that I had to act quickly before the smoke is no more. If that happened he would kill me.
I took a few steps forward. His eyes seemed blackened.  My throat closed tighter with every second that went by. I didn’t understand what was happening. He said, "You have to hurry before you can’t."  "What do you mean?", I asked. He told me that I was too infected by the curse, and that the smoke from the boar's hair will stop me and it will be too late.  He went on to say,  "It’s because of the stage in which you are in that the smoke can’t get you, but in time it will. You have to strike now!"

I knew that according to the book or whatever that was I read, I had to pierce the heart before he changed, and I’ve seen him change and it’s not a good thing. I also was thinking that I felt weird; maybe the old man was telling me the truth. If I didn't end this now it might never end.
I raised the knife and placed it against the old mans chest. His eyes frozen onto mine. He whispered, "Do it now!"  Then I heard something coming up the stairs. I told him, "Someone's coming!"   He said, "Do it now, NOW!! That’s the others, and they will kill you before you can end this."  I looked over his shoulder, and that’s when I knew what I had to do.  I looked him straight in the eye, and pushed the knife into his chest. Blood trickled from his chest.  I heard his breath leaving his body in a low steady hum, or I guess it was more of a vibration.  His face went blank and I swear to this day his eyes flashed from black to blue, then he collapsed on the floor in front of me.

About a second later I felt a horrible pain in my chest.  I fell to the floor next to the old man.  I remember hearing foot steps coming into the room, then all went black.

Chapter Thirty Nine

I stood there thinking of how awful that must have been for him, and what the little girl must have gone through. I turned the page and kept reading. I needed to find out more on how to end this.


The next part of the book, well I guess it’s more of a diary than a book as far as I can tell said that he had found out how to capture the demon and to kill it. But, he needed to find the one that had the mark of the carrier. He said it’s the same symbol that is on the knife and will be on the hand of the carrier.

"I have seen him, but have yet to get close enough to capture him. He lives in the blood of whomever he has encountered."
I turned the page and found that there was blood on this page.  It looked like he was writing and something had happened because he had stopped in the middle of a word and it looked like the pen had been pulled away as if someone had grabbed his hand and tried to stop him from writing. I turned to the next page but it was blank.  I then flipped through the last part of the diary but it was blank.  Oh great, now what the hell am I going to do? I sat there thinking about what he had said. After about a hour went by I thought I heard something. I walked over by the door and listened. There was definitely someone or something outside the door. I knelt down and peeked out through the key hole.  I could see a silhouette of what looked like a person coming down the hallway toward me. Once they had entered the room I could see it was the old man from earlier.   He took a few steps into the room, then just stood there staring toward the door which I was behind.  I took a hard deep breath thinking that he was about to change into that damn monster looking thing, then rip the door off its hinges and kill me.
I looked back over my shoulder and looked at the book.  I thought about what the man had said about the knife and the burning of that boar's hair. I slowly stood up and crept back over to the book and grabbed the knife and the little bottle.  Then I grabbed the box with the flint and the boar's hair. I laid the bundle of hair on the floor just in front of the door, then I took the lid off the little jar and stuck the knife into the dried stuff that was in the bottom of the jar.  I was hoping that it was the blood of one of those monster things and that it didn’t have to be fresh blood.
As I looked back out through the key hole the old man was still there. At that moment I remembered the book said something about a symbol on the arm of the one who carried the curse, or what ever the hell it had said.  I squinted my eyes and looked close at his arms. Oh, My,God!! It was him!! I could see it on his right arm. I knew this was my chance.