Bad Decisions

I see dead people

Kassie

Something was off. A presence lingered over me, a whisper echoed in my ear, urging me to wake up. My heart pounded and it was instinct to swing my fist out towards the intruder.

Whoever it was--I couldn’t make them out in the darkness of the room--ducked from my swing. More alert, I swung again. They weren’t so quick and couldn’t stop my fist from making contact. But…that was weird. Normally, my fist would feel the hardness of bone crunching under it. This was…soft.

“Ow! You punched me in my boob!” A voice hissed.

“Wha…? Crystal?” I sat all the way up, squinting into the dark, willing my sleepy eyes to make her out.

She stood holding her boob--I won’t comment on how gifted she was in that department because then I’d just sound like a jealous b.itch—looking baffled.

“What the f***k was that for?” I whisper-yelled.

“What do you mean?” she asked. “I should be asking you that. Who swings on people in their sleep?”

“Me! I do! Anyone who gets attacked in their sleep does!” Was this girl crazy? I would’ve taken her ass out if I hadn’t come to when I did. “And who the f***k towers over people, watching them while they sleep? It’s fuc.king creepy!”

She giggled. “I wasn’t watching, silly. I was trying to wake you up!”

“Why…?” I asked, skeptically.

Her face was lit up brilliantly, excitement oozing off of her.

“Let’s go summon your parents!”

I looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was 3 AM.

“Now?!” I didn’t know why I asked. I was already awake…Besides, I asked for this. I would do it whenever she was willing.

“Now is the best time! I already know both Heath and Micah wouldn’t approve of this--it’s best to do it while they're both asleep.”

I didn’t need an explanation—I had already decided to do this. I slid off the bed and onto my feet, wearing only Micah’s shirt—and no, he wasn’t getting it back. Call it finder’s keepers or whatever you wanted, but it was mine now. That was his payment for his weird fuc.king display of feelings and sh.it he had done earlier.

A grin was spread across my face. It was no secret I lived for trouble and danger and it seemed Crystal was going to aid and abet. I loved her for it.

“Alright, let’s do this sh.it.”

~

Crystal led me through the dark house until we stopped before a closed door. She opened it, and I had to squint to make out anything in the room through the pitch-black shadows—it almost seemed darker than the rest of the house. All I could see were the silhouettes of candles everywhere and a wall full of herb jars.

It was clearly her witchy den to cast all her spooky little spells.

I really fuc.king hated magic.

We barely cross the threshold of the room when, with a snap of her fingers, the candles ignited, basking the entire room in a nice orangey glow from the flickering flames.

I halted when I saw the ring of white crystalline powder that went around the room.

“What is this sh.it?”

“Don’t worry, Kassie, step over the salt line. It’s only to stop whatever that comes through from leaving.”

I put on a brave facade and stepped over the salt and a few more steps into the room—I didn’t like showing fear or hesitation, not even if I trusted Crystal thus far.

Crystal was unbothered and as emotionless as she usually acted as she stepped across the room to her herbs, but I couldn’t deny she had an air about her. Excitement bounced between us, even if I was having a bout of nervousness balling in the pit of my stomach.

We agreed to only call forth my father—it was easier for her and he had more of a connection to this place than my mother ever did. And plus, he was my daddy…a part of me that was still a scared little girl, who missed her father with all her being, craved seeing him and hearing his soothing voice.

It made the most sense. I just had to focus on him as she cast her spell, and it would help bring him forward somehow.

Biting my lip, I watched as Crystal pulled out some sort of plant that had an uncountable amount of delicate white little flowers clustered together and laid it on the center of the table, directly atop a pentagram carved expertly into the wood.

As if sensing my next question, Crystal explained it was called Queen Ann’s Lace as she motioned me forward with her hand. She kept her hand out and, unsure what she was waiting for exactly, I placed my hand in hers. Pain burst across my palm when she sliced a knife against it. I hadn’t even seen the knife in her hand.

I hissed out a curse. “You bit.ch! A little warning would be nice!”

She remained stoic. “All part of the process, Kassie. The sacrifice will be worth the reward.”

I sure fu.cking hoped so.

She held my hand over the flowers, palm down, letting my blood pour down and stain the flowers as she started chanting her spell.

“A trace of parental love so dear,

A drop of blood to track far and near,

Find our loved one, point the way,

Track their spirit, find them today.”

The normal milky look in her eyes changed, surprisingly, turning clear blue—as clear and blue as the cleanest parts of the ocean. Almost as if...a veil had been lifted. She didn’t falter, even as she saw the world clearly.

The room was quiet, and I couldn’t help but assume the spell failed.

“Did—?”

“Shh,” she cut me off, her eyes closing. Did I need to do the same thing?

My eyes closed, and I continued to picture my daddy’s face, visualizing pulling him towards me.

There was a burst of energy, followed by a humming sound, filling the room to the brim. My eyes immediately snapped open and only a millisecond later, a gust of strong cold wind blew around us, blowing out all the candles and encasing us in darkness once more.

“Sh.it.”

What happened next was my worst nightmare. My father never came forth, or at least I didn’t believe so. Instead, different voices whispered around us, in my ears. I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel them touching me with feather-light touches. Gentle, until they got more persistent. It felt like nails clawing into my skin. First on my forearm, next on my face, before venturing everywhere.

“Let us in,” they kept repeating.

My breath caught. f***k, f***k, fuckity f***k.

I threw an arm out, trying to knock whatever the f***k was clawing at my skin. I felt it connect but it did nothing to deter the spirits trying to dig their way into my body.

But I wouldn’t relent either. I continued to flail, kick, punch at the monsters, even as one grabbed my hair painfully, pulling and twisting. I fell to the floor as it dragged me along, while the others scratched even deeper into my flesh. Another wrapped its bony digits around my ankle, trying to pull me in the other direction. The pain from being pulled violently in two different directions was intense and a small scream ripped from my throat. It was as if they were fighting to be the one to have me, possess me. They were ravenous and my skin burned hot and cold from their touch.

I was breathing shallow breaths, panicking, as I continued to fight pointlessly. It wasn’t working. Nothing I could do was stopping these spirits. Somewhere, I thought I could make out Crystal saying something—it could’ve been mere gibberish or another language, I couldn’t tell.

“Fu.cking let go of me!” I shouted, the desperation in my voice indistinguishable.

I never considered I would go out like this, but now I was hysterical, thinking it was the end.

A weird probing sensation spread starting at my fingertips, and I knew they were winning. For once, I was powerless. More hands seemed to grab at me and I felt and heard my shirt rip from them.

And then it was over.

The lights kicked on. Not candles, but the overhead, artificial light that I didn’t think I had ever been so thankful for.

Sprawled out on the floor, I slowly, ever-so carefully turned my head towards where Crystal stood at the edge of the salt circle, broken from where she had kicked at it. It had somehow broken the spell.

“Kassie?!” She ran to me, pulling me into her arms in a shockingly tight embrace. She was worried about me.

I let my eyes close for a moment, snuggling into her warmth, but couldn’t stomach having it stay that way—the darkness behind my eyelids made me feel like they would come back for me.

She ran a hand over my hair over and over, soothing where my hair had been pulled, where my scalp burned unforgivingly. I was sure that I had lost at least a chunk but I didn’t want to know if I had.

She must’ve picked up on how freaked I was from my uneven breaths and the slight shake in my limbs because she murmured against me reassuringly. “It’s alright, honey, they’re gone. They can’t come back.”

“W-What were they?” I asked, hating how my voice trembled.

“Demon spirits. They were fighting to possess you. But it’s okay now. I sent them away.”

It took a few minutes of Crystal cooing and holding me that I felt my erratic heart beat slow to an almost normal level, my breathing deepening to get an entire lungs full, before she refused to let me go. When she was certain that I was fine, she stood and gently supported me as I stood as well.

I took in the damage to my body. Several deep claw marks littered my skin everywhere, reminding me of the day my parents were murdered, and my ankle was badly bruised, black and blue and swelling significantly. My shirt—what used to be Micah’s—was regretfully torn to shreds and barely clung to my lithe form. Evidence of their presence showed under my nails in the form of blood and debris from my own clawed attacks. I ached deeply down to my bones, and I wished for the burning sensation that remained to disappear.

I was in shock.

But underneath it all, I was disappointed. I didn’t know why it didn’t work and all I could do was fight back the tears that threatened to spill from our failure. Was it my fault?

“Crystal?”

“Yes?”

“We never speak of this again.”

“Never.”

She placed her hands on either of my arms, her pale blonde lashes resting against her cheeks as she closed her eyes, and in an instant I felt a sweet, cooling sensation flood my body. Not like the hot and cold burn that was flooding through me, but like a relief rushing through every part of me, touching every cell and blood vessel, cleansing me. I watched miraculously as the scratches sealed themselves, disappearing slowly. After a few minutes, they were all gone. My ankle was still a tad bruised, but it was barely noticeable and the swelling was completely gone. Only my spilled blood remained, sticky as it started to dry to my unblemished skin.

She had healed me.

“That…took a lot of me,” she stated, tiredly. “I’m going to go sleep next to my husband and try to will away that nightmare. I suggest you do the same.”

“You want me to sleep next to your husband?” I tried to joke lightheartedly.

“No, go sleep next to your man.”

I didn’t even grumble a protest that Micah wasn’t my man, nor complain about the slight discomfort of walking on the ankle, instead I silently walked with her until we parted ways, slipping into our separate rooms.

And yeah, I snuck into Micah’s room instead of my own, and slipped into bed with him after stealing another shirt to replace the ruined one. Once again, he didn’t notice much when I curled into him, basking in his manly smell and calming aura. And this time, I didn’t sleep—I couldn’t—so at the first sign of the light seeping through the blinds at daybreak, I slipped out of his unknowing embrace, grabbing the ruined evidence discarded on the floor and went back to my room.

Maybe with the light I could catch a few hours of sleep without fear of monsters crawling out from under my bed.