Hide & Seek
Page 8
Everyone was looking down at me. The paintings began to fall off the remaining wall and onto the floor next to me, burning alongside everything else. My skin burned but, before it got to my face, I looked up at everyone. "I pledge my loyalty to my friends and family."
The book exploded in my hands. The last thing I remembered seeing was the bodies of humans standing all around me. Some scary looking, some with faces, some distorted, some headless, all of the sort there were. I felt my eyes melting and my face burning away.
I saw eyes surround me for a second then heard something before my fate.
"And we pledge loyalty to you," the voices said.
My face then returned to its normal state. I took a deep breath and looked around. No one was around me. The mansion wasn't on fire. In fact, it was completely perfect again. There wasn't much light, just the moonlight.
A figure stepped forward in front of me. It was Mrs. Harmon. She smiled then hugged me.
"You saved us!" she said. Sadly, I pushed her away.
"You called her! You knew about Abby didn't you?" I asked. I was still a bit dizzy and trying to take in everything that was happening.
"Of course, I knew. But I also knew you'd do what you did. I had so much faith in you. You set us free," she said.
I placed my hand on my chest. There was a heartbeat. "My heart! I'm alive?"
She nodded. "The dead gave you that and that's something that's never been done."
"What about my parents and friends?" I asked.
"You'll see them very soon," she said. "Everything I did, all the times I may act weird, I'm sorry. I tried my best to not break the pledge because if I did I wouldn't have stopped this."
I looked at her for a second. "I had a dream about Violet. I saw a woman being dragged out into the garden then stabbed by your husband. Was that you?" I asked.
She nodded. "Yes, it was. After I realized what I'd become for not pledging, I took the offer. It wasn't easy. Those who don't pledge become... well... different. That woman with the body, you know the weird one who chased you in the garden? That was Violet. Mr. Harmon said I'd become that. All he needed to do was paint it and I'd become it. It was another power given from the books, art work coming to life."
"But she said she didn't die," I told her. "Before I hit her with the axe she said she didn't die." That felt awkward to say.
"What she meant was that her life was stolen," Mrs. Harmon said. "My husband would paint pictures of our daughter, nice and calm one second, then evil the next. The box of ashes were all fake. There was no mix up in the ashes; it was my husband's doing that turned everyone so scary and sinister. Even Jasper was controlled. He would never have done that you know? Attack you."
I nodded. "I guess."
There was a light that shone outside of the house. "They want to see you now."
Mrs. Harmon opened the front door and I saw my family and friends and everyone. Their faces were full of light and all of them looked so happy. Violet stepped into the house, followed by everyone else who played the game. They looked so normal. Even the masked children, they weren't masked, they were beautiful. Everyone shone like the moon.
"We're safe now, Emily. We can rest," she said. She then waved goodbye to me and walked outside into the light. Her body then lightly rose into the air. Everyone else waved goodbye and followed her. Caleb took our parents' hands and they left into the light too. Only Mrs. Harmon and I were left.
"What happened to Mr. Harmon and Abby?" I asked.
"Look behind you," she said.
The book was there. It looked like a normal black book now. As I walked toward it, Mrs. Harmon stopped me.
"Don't open it; once you read it, you'll develop an obsession. An unhealthy obsession." She winked at me.
I gave her a smile as I picked it up. "This needs to be hidden from the rest of the world."
"Yes, it does. Hopefully, you do better than the person who tried to hide it last," she said.
"I wonder who that was," I said.
The light outside began to fade.
"May we meet again," she said before running off into the last bit of light.
I was there, left alone in the dark with the book before I saw a car pull up in front of the house. The headlights shone in my eyes. I walked outside. The person ran out of the car then toward me for a hug. I hugged her back, almost wanting to cry my eyes out.
"It's okay. I know everything," my grandma said.
We walked to the car. Once I was sitting in the front seat of the car, the mansion was nothing but a pile of rubble, as if it had been burned to the ground, much like I had tried to do. Nothing remained but wood, glass, and ashes from the stuff in the house. I looked at the house once more before we took off. My grandma explained to me that she had a dream that I was in trouble. That she contacted the police and they told her everything. I guess when she said that she knew everything she only meant about my parents. She knew nothing about what happened here. She even asked about Caleb. I had a long story to tell her.
But before I told her I asked her if we can stop somewhere. By the lake.
***
"Dear reader, if you have found this book then I advise you to contact this number: 803-667-2323. There will be a 10,000 dollar reward if you return the book unread to me. I will know if you read it. Trust me."
That was the best that my fourteen-year-old mind could do. I placed the letter in the front of the book while closing my eyes. I then closed the book, wrapped it tight with duck-tape, wrapped it in many bags, and threw in a huge stone. When we got to the lake, I stepped into the water and tossed the book as far as I could. I hoped that years from now, no one would find that book because if someone found it, all hell will be unleashed once again.