1163 words (4 minute read)

Excerpt from "Eleven: Hodie Mihi, Cras Tibi"

“You know why you’re here.” I don’t know if it’s just her voice, which sounds like an old attic door grinding on it’s hinges, but that sounded like a statement.

“I’m sorry ma’am, is that a question?” I ask, because I genuinely don’t know. She had stared at me like she expected an answer, but I still couldn’t tell.

“Questions, questions. Always questions. So inquisitive aren’t we? Can’t just leave well enough alone.”

“Okay. Ms. Pipkin…” I start. That’s as far as I got before she came right over top of me.

“You want my rock, don’t you?” she hollered. I look back, and sure enough, there it is. The rock itself looks like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s got an odd shimmer to it that manages to show up through what looks like scratches or tick marks all over it. I can’t tell if it’s a souvenir or it fell from the sky, but it doesn’t look natural.

I turn back to face her, and she’s closer. Frighteningly close. “You can’t have it. Not yet. One day, I’ll give it to you. After I’m dead, you can inherit it. I’ll leave it to you.”

“That’s really not necessary,” I say.

“YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS NECESSARY!” she screams, and I feel like never speaking again. Every muscle in my body has tightened, and I’m clenching my jaw hard enough to hurt my teeth. “You can have the rock someday, and when you’re done, you give it back.”

She’s all over the place. I talked to people like this all the time at Sandy Shores. I knew not to agitate her, and to play along. And then the oddest thing happens. The light bulb in the lamp gets really bright and explodes. I react as anyone would; I let out a tiny startled scream. Abigail, however, completely loses it.

“NO! Not yet!” She starts flailing, her eyes dashing around the room. “Emily!” she screams, as if she can’t see me.

“I’m right here. It’s okay,” I say.

“You don’t talk. I talk. You understand?” I just nod, not speaking. “You know why you’re here. That’s not a question. Not yet. No questions yet. No answers yet. Not until later. A lot later. You listen now. You were called. The little girl, you followed her here. Tell me now you understand.”

“How did you..”

“NO QUESTIONS YET! TELL ME YOU UNDERSTAND.” There’s something wrong. It’s getting hotter. The room itself seems to be steaming up. It’s making the smell that much worse. I feel a trickle from my hairline over my temple drip to my jaw, and I realize I’m sweating.

“I understand,” I say.

She continues. “You want to know about Riverview. I was there. You have to find your own way. It’s there, Emily. It’s all there. I can’t tell you more! I can’t!”

“Why can’t you…” and in a flash, a plate from the china cabinet comes flying over my head, smashing into the wall she threw it at. I’m out of the chair and standing in a defensive position before I realize what happened.

“NO WHY! NO HOW! NO WHEN! NO QUESTIONS!” Abigail is panicking. Another light flickers from the kitchen, and it’s noticeably hotter now. Something is really wrong. My sense of dread has gone through the roof. I don’t think we’re alone.

“It chose you. It needs you. It called me, I know. I know what it feels like. You have to listen. You have no choice. Listen to it.”

“Riverview called me?” and apparently this question was okay because I didn’t get anything thrown at me this time.

“It needs you. I don’t know why it called you, or me. They need you. They all do.” She seems scared now, not aggressive anymore. Like she’s begging. “Save them, Emily. Save us all.”

A stack of junk falls over in the middle of the floor, seemingly untouched. Beneath everything, a high pitched ringing begins, like feedback, and more lights flicker and pop. It’s getting darker in here with every breaking light bulb, making the lighting spookier and spookier. Dust unsettles from the ceiling, like someone is walking hard upstairs. Only, there’s no upstairs.

“There isn’t time,” she says, “They’re coming. All of them, the girl, everyone. They know. You shouldn’t be here. You have to go soon. Not yet. Not yet.” She moves close again, and makes direct eye contact. Her eyes burn into mine. “Listen. I got close. Albert died. Oh god. There’s a reason. For all of this, there’s a reason.” There’s guilt in her voice now. I don’t ask, I know I’m not supposed to.

The ceiling cracks, the plaster splitting in a straight line from the north to south wall. Now I hear people talking. Voices from everywhere, like there are a dozen radios on but turned down and left all over the house. I can’t pinpoint where one is coming from. They might be moving.

“You Emily. You hold it all. It’s up to you now. I can’t help anymore. Save us. God save us all.” My heart is beating hard enough to break my ribs. The voices around me are getting louder, angrier. There’s yelling, screaming, arguing as the lights continue to surge and pop, and more piles of garbage fall. The house… is it shaking? Then I hear it, and I can tell Abigail hears it too.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“Now!” she says, “Ask. Ask one question, then leave. Hurry.”

Twenty thousand questions flash through my mind as I try to narrow it down to one in what seems like the most chaotic environment I’ve ever imagined. “What are those voices?”

“NO!” she screams. “Wrong question. Ask again.” A pane of glass explodes into the room from the window. She doesn’t even flinch. Abigail’s hair is beginning to stand up, like she’s full of static. I feel mine doing it too.

It’s the end of the world in this little goddamn house.

“ASK! ASK!” she yells into my face.

“What is happening?”

“NO!”

“I don’t know what you want!” I yell, fully panicking now too. “What killed Albert?”

“NO!”

“What were you close to?”

“NO!”

The house is definitely shaking now as the pulsing is getting faster and louder.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

“What is CONIR?”

The mask, previously observing the devastation around her darts back to me. Her eyes are hidden in the dark now that almost every bulb in the house is in pieces on the floor. And although I can’t see it though the grotesque mask, I can tell, and every hair on the back of my neck stands up as if trying to escape my body.

She is smiling.