The Riser Saga

by Becca C. Smith

  Bill gently pushed me off, eyes sparkling, still smiling. “Hug me after we pull this off.”

  “Right,” I said and took a deep breath, head back in the game.

  I made Jill’s dad walk up the long cobblestone footpath that led to the front door. I followed next with Bill behind hiding his stun club. As far as I knew our plan was to stun the crap out of everyone until we found Ryan. The more I thought about it, the more nervous I became. This house was HUGE! Too many people, too many rooms. I put out my feelers for any corpses inside.

  One.

  Okay. Not ideal, but workable. I quickly popped into the dead person’s eyes.

  My heart skipped about a million beats.

  Ryan was sitting in front of me, chained to a metal chair that was bolted to the floor. The room was a small square of white, walls, linoleum floor and ceiling. No windows and just one single white door. I nearly crumbled when I could see how beat up Ryan was. I thought Nancy’s parents and Bill looked bad, Ryan apparently didn’t stop fighting the entire time. Two black eyes, bloody nose, swollen lip, bruises and cuts all over his arms and who knew where else. His worst nightmare came true, he was back with my grandparents and this time it was for keeps.

  The body I was in slapped him hard across the face. So much for treating him like a King!

  Ryan spit out blood and refused to make eye contact with his tormentor.

  And then it occurred to me.

  When I connected to this dead person, Turner’s usual barrier hadn’t been in place. This particular corpse didn’t have any defenses against me.

  Odd.

  Why?

  A trick most likely. But what kind of trick?

  I immediately took control of the rest of the dead person’s limbs. I looked down at the body. A woman. Clothes and skin ragged and dirty. Who was this person?

  I made her bend down and whisper in Ryan’s ear. “Ryan, it’s me, Chelsan, Bill and I are at the house. Sit tight and we’ll be up in a few.”

  Ryan’s head whirled around so fast to look in the corpse’s eyes it frightened me. “Chelsan, don’t! Leave me here, please!”

  WHAM!

  I was bumped out of the dead woman’s body.

  “Roberta knows we’re here. We have to hurry,” I said as my head was spiraling. Why didn’t Ryan want us to rescue him? He couldn’t possibly want to stay. Maybe they were brainwashing him. I didn’t care. I was going after him whether he liked it or not.

  Taking full control of Mr. Forester we opened the front door without waiting to knock.

  It was empty. The foyer was all dark wood paneling and polished flooring. From the brightness emanating in front of us, I saw the glints of gold from the living room. It was hard to forget the gold gaudiness from my mother’s vision and apparently Roberta and Turner hadn’t changed their décor in the last twenty years.

  The eerie stillness made my mind scream the word trap over and over. I finally understood why people in horror movies always investigated when every instinct in their bodies told them to run. It was like someone was controlling me and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  Roberta stepped in front of us out of nowhere with five guards behind her. She smiled her stiff, stretched smile. “Chelsan.”

  “Roberta.” I said wondering where on earth this was going. She wasn’t having the guards attack. She didn’t even look like she was mad that I was there. What was going on?

  “Come with me. All of you.” Roberta turned and walked up a flight of stairs, her guards following dutifully. “You’re out numbered, dears, please,” she called over her shoulder.

  “Should we?” Bill asked. I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was.

  “Ryan told me to leave,” I confided in Bill.

  “Maybe we should.” Bill was a smart guy. He knew something was wrong, too.

  “I just can’t, Bill. I can’t leave Ryan here. They’ll never let him go.” Even though I knew I was most likely being an idiot and walking straight into the lion’s den. I just couldn’t abandon Ryan. I’d never be able to live with myself.

  “Okay. I’m with you.” Bill leveled his stun club, ready to use it despite the odds.

  “And besides, there’s a dead bee hive on the west wing,” I whispered to Bill sensing it as we followed Roberta and her men up the stairs. I didn’t know what I’d do with a bunch of bees, but at least it was something. Other than that, Roberta appeared to have had the house cleansed of anything dead aside from a fly here or there. A rush cleansing job. Which meant Turner must have informed her of my escape and they knew I’d be coming here for Ryan. I kept Mr. Forester with us as well, he was more of a shield now than anything else. Somehow, I didn’t think I’d be able to keep Jill’s dad safe, but my choices were slim and living was way more important than dying to keep my enemy’s dead dad in good shape.

  Bill and I kept a good distance from the guards just in case they tried anything funny, but they seemed very disinterested in us. Their main concern was my feline grandmother who was striding down a long hallway with a slight bounce to her step. The flight of stairs was as tacky as the rest of the house with its gold-inlaid carvings of lion heads on the top and bottom of the railings to the silver and gold Chinese-style runner on the steps. But deep dark brown wood was the main attraction of the upstairs, just like the foyer the walls and floor were the same color. The few pieces of artwork hanging from the walls did little to lighten up the space. There wasn’t a window in sight, the only light source being the inset bulbs evenly spaced out on the ceiling.

  Roberta stopped at a white door at the end of the hallway and turned to me with a large grin. “Here we are,” she practically purred.

  I was sure that this was the door Ryan was behind. Sure, because of seeing through the dead woman’s eyes and sure, because I knew I was walking into the snappy part of her mousetrap. I looked over at Bill and the expression on his face matched what I was feeling.

  Roberta’s guards stood next to her like statues, void of showing any emotion whatsoever.

  “Shall we go in and see your lover?” Roberta cackled. Like a kid who had a surprise that they couldn’t wait to reveal.

  “Keys, please. I know he’s in chains.” I decided that whatever she had planned for me I could handle, I only wanted to free Ryan and get out of there.

  Suddenly we heard Ryan scream from behind the door. “CHELSAN! DON’T COME IN! GET OUT OF HERE! PLEASE!”

  Hearing his desperate plea made me want to help him even more. I knew this was a mistake, but my heart was stronger than my head at this point. She handed me the keys a little too happily for my taste, but I took them anyway.

  I shoved past Roberta and her guards, Mr. Forester in tow, and swung the door open.

  There was Ryan just as I had seen him through the corpse’s eyes, chained to the metal chair. There were tears streaming down his bruised face as he looked at me. He was devastated to see me, as if I had sprung the trap and it was too late. All I saw was him, nothing here that could hurt me.

  One step at a time. I ran over to his chains and started to unlock him.

  “Chelsan,” came a woman’s voice from behind me.

  Chills ran down my spine and I froze in place. It couldn’t be. No. No. No. No.

  I looked up at Ryan and his eyes confirmed my worst fear.

  “You should have left me here.” His face was wracked with sympathy.

  I slowly turned my head.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  I couldn’t think.

  I couldn’t react.

  Standing in front of me was the corpse I had controlled.

  Mommy.

  I started to shake violently, dropping the keys to the floor.

  Roberta’s cackle of delight was the only sound that reverberated off the walls.

  Mom.

  Mom.

  Mom.

  No.

  She was barely recognizable, she was beaten to pulp, her eyes freshly gouged, her skin left to rot. She lo
oked like a zombie out of horror film. Her black swirling hole was invisible to me. Somehow Roberta had found a way to block me from even seeing if a body was dead or not. This was her trick. This was her plan. She brought my mother here to torture me. To punish me. To watch with utter happiness as I suffered. And it was working like a charm.

  I couldn’t even cry. I was frozen. Literally frozen.

  I hardly noticed Bill as he picked up the keys and continued to unchain Ryan.

  My mother walked forward and looked at me with her empty sockets. “Such a failure.”

  I tried to rationalize this wasn’t my mom, this was Roberta making my mom talk, move, function, but the words were coming out of her mouth, with her voice… even with her torn-out eyes and her rotted skin, she was still Mom.

  “Stop,” I whispered.

  “Stop what? Stop telling you the truth? I can finally tell you what I really thought of you,” my mother laughed. And it was her laugh. Tears flowed freely. My body was shaking so badly I could barely stand.

  I tried to find her black hole. To disconnect Roberta from my mother’s body. To make her stop myself, but it was as if a real live person was standing in front of me. If it weren’t for her condition I might think she was actually alive…

  “Please,” I sputtered.

  Mom walked up to me and placed her hand against my cheek lovingly. “You were nothing but a burden to me. You killed your father and forced me to marry Bruce. I’ll hate you forever, little one.”

  Roberta and my mom laughed hysterically at the anguish on my face.

  Ryan and Bill were both by my side now.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Ryan tried to lead me out of the room.

  Roberta nodded to her guards.

  Her men quickly grabbed Ryan and Bill before they could even react. They were both so focused on me they didn’t have their defenses up. They both struggled to break free, but they weren’t strong enough for the…

  …wait a minute…

  I could sense something in the guards, something off.

  Like flashes of light, it was flashes of dark. They were dead, and their swirling holes were hidden like the one in my mother. My emotions clouded me from seeing it in her, but the guards were another story. Just when I started to gain some kind of stability my mom smiled down at me.

  “Every second of my life, I wished you were dead instead of your father. Maybe now I can get my wish.” She laughed again.

  And then she started to dance. It was grotesque and humiliating.

  Roberta stepped forward simply thrilled with the events taking place. “I can make her dance some more.” She grinned, looking like the cat she was.

  That’s when I noticed Roberta’s eyes were bright solid green.

  “Chelsan, she’s not your mother! Your mother died! Don’t listen to her!” Ryan screamed.

  And I suddenly realized he had been screaming this whole time.

  I had blocked him out, I was so focused on my mom and Roberta.

  I was starting to break out of the spell.

  Roberta made my mother dance and jerk and slam herself against the wall. How long had she been torturing my mother’s body like this? How long had she gotten her kicks out of degrading her and beating her up? Roberta used her corpse as a form a therapy to satisfy her thirst for vengeance on my family.

  My mom started to scratch and tear flesh off her arms, laughing manically the entire time, continuing to slam herself into the wall.

  It was making me enraged beyond anything I had ever felt before. All I could see was red. How dare she? How dare she?

  I closed my eyes from the fury. In the depths of my soul a scream started to rumble from the very core of my being. A scream so powerful, I could feel my whole body arch backwards from the force. It poured out of my mouth and filled the room with deafening impact.

  I could see then.

  Even with my eyes closed, I could see everything.

  All the things that Roberta kept hidden.

  All the corpses roaming the hallways of this giant mansion.

  All of their black raging chasms, welcoming me like their true master.

  No more.

  I connected to each and every one of them.

  I felt their last force of life left to them in this world.

  And I obliterated it.

  BOOM!!!

  The whole house shook from the force.

  I opened my eyes and I was covered in blood and chunks of flesh.

  What had I done?

  Rather than see my mother tortured, I had annihilated her entire body. There was nothing left of her. Nothing. Just blood and pieces of rotted flesh splattered everywhere. I didn’t know if I could live with myself after that. It felt like I killed her, even though I knew that wasn’t the truth, it felt true and it was consuming me like a wave of guilt I had no way of surviving.

  That’s when I realized the guards had also exploded.

  No more black holes.

  No more bodies.

  I had destroyed them all.

  Roberta’s eyes were clear as they stared into mine. She was shocked and scared at first, but when she recognized the shame I felt, it was like I had given her the best prize of all. She started to laugh in triumph again, even covered in her own guards’ blood, even knowing she was completely alone against me.

  She had won.

  And I couldn’t take it.

  I couldn’t take that look of victory in her eyes.

  I wanted to rip them out myself.

  I wanted her to die.

  “See how you like this!” I screamed at her.

  I connected to the hundreds of dead bees in their fumigated hive and made them fly through an opened window.

  Ryan and Bill were now standing next to me, holding each of my arms.

  “Chelsan. Let’s get out of here,” Ryan pleaded.

  But I didn’t want to listen to him.

  I wanted to see Roberta suffer.

  We heard the buzzing before we saw them.

  Roberta’s face fell slightly as she recognized the sound.

  “Let’s see how you handles bees, Grams!” I smiled myself.

  The swarm of dead bees entered the room like the cavalry. I made them sting her over and over, just to wipe that triumphant smirk off her face. She screamed in anguish and tried to cover her feline face from the bee blitz.

  At that point, Ryan and Bill physically dragged me away.

  “Chelsan, come on.” Bill’s voice was laced with concern.

  I followed willingly, but I kept the bees attacking Roberta while we headed toward the front door. With each sting it took away some of my guilt and hatred of myself. It felt like the more I hurt her, the better I would be.

  I knew it was wrong.

  And yet I didn’t stop.

  We slipped and slid our way through the blood soaked house. Every servant, guard and maid all appeared to have been dead people that couldn’t escape my attack. It made me sick to my stomach. I, literally, made all of these people blow up into a million pieces and now Ryan, Bill and me were covered in it and slipping on all that was left of them. What was I?

  The more my head spun with the terror of who I was the more I wanted to punish Roberta. It was her fault! Her fault I was the way I was! They performed the ritual to kill me! They had been trying to kill me non-stop for the last two weeks! They had murdered my mother and my neighbors! They had tried to kill my friends! Neither one of them deserved to breathe! Making each bee sting every part of her I could reach was a small penance to pay for what she’d done.

  That woman made the last image of my mother a nightmare! She knew I’d never be able to erase that from my mind. And that’s precisely why she did it. She wanted me to remember the rotted, beaten, puppet of my mom forever. And I would. And I hated her for it.

  She had fallen to the floor now, the bees too much for her.

  I didn’t care.

  Jill’s father.

  He had exploded like the
rest of them.

  I pushed it from my brain. He was already dead. I didn’t kill him. But why did it feel like I killed everyone in there?! Roberta made me feel like I murdered my own mother! The hate that seethed through my blood was like an addictive poison I couldn’t get rid of and a part of me didn’t want to. The hate felt right.