Beyond Reflections (In Writing)

Chapter 2 - Meeting Gydan

Penny gasped and stumbled backwards. Her heart was pounding so hard that it hurt when she realized it wasn’t Mrs. Rocus who answered the door. She could hardly describe what the creature was. It had a long snout like a fox except it curved upward like some sort of a beak. It had tiny, beady black eyes that were hidden behind the thick, oily strands of golden brown fur covering its body. It had no ears and its body was like that of a tail-less cat that could stand on its hind legs. It also had twisted, sharp, raven black claws that dug into the cracked floor. It looked intently at both Penny and Bane and then tilted its head. It briefly licked around its muzzle before turning around and galloping away.

“Ye habeo hospes!” it barked with a strong accent to another person from across the room, Penny assumed the person was Mrs. Rocus. Penny could hear her scold the creature. She screamed furiously at it in the same unrecognizable language, whacking the monster with a broom. The creature whimpered but bowed to its master and locked itself inside of the iron cage concealed behind a mountain of card board boxes stacked up in the dusty kitchen. She stomped up to the door, fuming. Her expression lightened when she saw that it was Bane and Penny and Mrs. Rocus greeted them politely before turning back around again.

“Ye fortunatus iste id ecce id vel meum utinam manduco ye pro caesna!” she growled at the creature. The creature’s eyes brightened and it unlocked itself from its cage once more. It scuttled forward and sniffed Penny and Bane. Bane recoiled, scowling, but Penny dared petting the creature on the head and it began making a strange rumbling noise. She jumped back and pulled her hand away, thinking it was growling but she then realized it was actually purring. Penny began petting it again and Bane gave her one of his classic "what-the-heck-are-you-doing?" looks before Mrs. Rocus appeared back from the hallway and spoke to them. She was wearing a long, bright violet robe and mint green slippers. She had a head dress with a big star sapphire in the middle and the green material surrounding the gem perfectly matched her minty green shoes. She also had huge ruby rings on each finger and a dangly gold necklace covered in emeralds; her jewelry must have cost a fortune! She was a very pretty lady with mocha skin and big, hazel eyes. She had long black eyelashes the same color of her curly, shiny hair. “You must forgive Gydan. He doesn’t realize that not everyone... well … is okay with creatures like him,” she murmured apologetically, patting Gydan on the head, “But I’m sure you kids will understand. I’ll explain it all to you in a moment.” She scurried into her library, which was a very cramped closet-like formation to the left of Penny and Bane, and began rifling through her shelves. Mrs. Rocus’ words confused Penny, Creatures like him?... Understand what? She thought, incredibly confused. Maybe they should just get the Goofa Dust somewhere else….

Bane took advantage of the moment to speak softly into her ear, “They were speaking Latin, or something similar,” he whispered, “I couldn’t understand Gydan very well over top of his strange accent but he was saying something about visitors. Mrs. Rocus then started yelling at him to go in his cage but when she saw us, she told him if it had been anyone else, she would have eaten him for supper. And she was serious.” This made Penny think even more; why would it matter if it was her and Bane or not? She hastily pushed away the thoughts and looked around the entrance. The floor was a dark mahogany wood and the floor boards were missing in some places, while in others they were poking up. The olive green wallpaper was slowly peeling off, revealing pasty-grey cement walls covered from top to bottom in cobwebs. The entrance didn’t have much for furniture except for a few metal chairs and a kennel that she guessed belonged to Gydan.

“What do you think Gydan is?” she asked Bane with worry, keeping her eyes on the strange creature.

Bane shrugged and backed away slowly as Gydan approached Penny, “Master be doing explaining,” he barked in his strange accent. It took Penny all the time until he crawled to go get Mrs. Rocus for her to actually process what he was trying to say; his accent almost completely masked the words he was using. Bane grabbed Penny’s hand and the young woman glared at him faintly but didn't pull away. She hated how he seemed to have no personal space whatsoever but she realized that now was not a good time to argue. She would give Bane another one of those "Just friends" talks when she had the time.

“Let’s get out of here,” he whispered, pulling her towards the door, “Who knows what that creature thing will do to us… I doubt Mrs. Rocus even knows why we’re here in the first place, anyway. We’ll leave on the count of 3. 1… 2… 3!” Penny nodded and hastily followed Bane towards the door, but when they reached the door, Gydan was blocking it, foaming at the mouth.

“Frequento eccere quaestus abeo!” he growled to Mrs. Rocus in fury, baring his sharp, smoky grey fangs. She didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded like he notified Mrs. Rocus of their attempt to escape. Penny squeezed Bane’s hand tighter, grateful for once that she had someone to comfort her as her heart raced in panic. What will we do? She thought with utter horror. Bane shoved Gydan into the wall and the creature fell to the floor, whimpering uncontrollably. Penny and Bane whipped open the door and broke into a run, aware of Mrs. Rocus rushing out of the door and chasing after them. They ran towards Bane’s apartment because it was the closest place to go. Penny had never sprinted as fast as she was going now. Once they reached the building, Bane fumbled for the key and wedged it anxiously through the golden lock. He swung open the door and hastily shut it the second they were inside, locking it firmly behind them. Penny panted heavily and her heart beat faster and faster with both fear and adrenaline. She flopped on to Bane’s bed, tired from the run.

Chapter 3 - Flying Stones

Penny opened her heavy eyelids and realized she had fallen asleep. She pushed off the covers of the bed and realized she was still wearing the same clothes from before: faded black capris and a cotton violet tank top. She sighed and checked to see where Bane was. She saw that he was sleeping on the couch but he was surprisingly not snoring; he was just breathing heavily. She smirked and walked into the bathroom to get ready. She had a quick shower, letting the warm water relax her muscles and breathing in the invigorating citrus shampoo. Once she was out, she thought about doing her makeup and curling her hair but realized that Bane probably didn’t have a curler, or makeup for that matter. She scowled when she noticed all he had was a straightener. She just settled for a black hair elastic she found in the pocket of her dirty capris, pulling her hair back into a messy ponytail. She wrapped the fluffy, cotton white towel around her body and quickly stepped out of the bathroom. To her surprise, Bane was awake, reading. “’Morning… do you by chance have any girl clothes I could borrow?” she asked him, “I need to go to school,”

She had caught him off guard. For a second, his eyes went wide when he saw her standing there with just a towel but then he gulped and went back to normal, as if he hadn't noticed. “Do I look like I have any girl clothes?” Bane murmured with a smirk. Penny grunted in response and rustled through his rather neat closet. She picked out a black polo shirt with white, turquoise and lime green stripes. “Can I borrow this?” she asked Bane, holding up the shirt.

“Uh… sure,” Bane replied, confused, “Why don’t you just wear the clothes you were wearing before?”

Penny shrugged and grabbed a pair of khaki shorts from the bottom shelf. She went to the bathroom and slipped on her outfit before hastily making her way towards the door. Bane quickly jumped in front of her, his deep brown eyes flashing in alarm, “Have you forgotten what happened last night?” he asked her with worry.

Penny’s memory came flooding back to her in a flash. She groaned, “Oh, come on. You aren’t going to make me stay here, are you?” she asked with a sigh.

“I don’t know… That thing still might be out there,” he muttered, “But I’ll just walk you to the university.”

Penny nodded, a little annoyed but thankful. Bane quickly got dressed into a blood red hooded sweater and faded gray jeans. They walked out of the door together and strolled down the sidewalk, taking a different path than usual to avoid Mrs. Rocus’ house. “Are you really going to school like that?” Bane asked, looking at her outfit with a sneer. Penny sighed, “Bane, honestly. Do you think I actually want to go to my parents’ house when it’s like a block away from Rocus’ just so I can change? Besides, there’s nothing wrong with this, they are your clothes, you hypocrite.” She grumbled. Bane was about to object but Penny simply ignored him.

“Don’t you atleast need your tote? I thought you left it there,” he asked.

“No, Bane. All my books and stuff are in Veronica and my dorm. Give it a rest, will ya?” she growled.

Bane sighed and they continued strolling to the university, turning into a gloomy, grimy alley. Penny shuddered; she hated alleys. She saw through the corner of her eye that Bane smirked. She cast him a glare that shot daggers before they continued. “Scared?” Bane asked tauntingly with a grin. As if on cue, they heard a huge crash and one of the silver garbage cans fell over, smashing against the cement and cracking open. Penny gasped in surprise and backed up into a wall. Bane looked over at the garbage can and saw nothing but a huge, black bumpy rock the size of his fist.

He shrugged and laughed, “The garbage can just fell over, you wimp,” He teased motioning for her to follow, “Come on.” Penny felt her face grow hot, embarrassed for being so easily scared. But as they kept on walking, they heard more bangs and every time they’d walk by a garbage can, it’d fall over. At first Penny thought that someone was just knocking the cans over to scare them, but she then realized that they weren’t getting knocked over on purpose; someone was throwing rocks at Bane and her. Their pursuer would miss, causing the stone to hit the dozens of garbage cans surrounding them. She felt her stomach twist into a knot as they quickened their pace until they were running through the alley as fast as they could. Penny had to duck to prevent a flying rock from hitting her skull. They raced through the alley and dove into the university, slamming the wooden doors behind them. Penny panted and exchanged a glance with Bane. They peeked out of the window to see two, cold black eyes glaring back at them.

“Gydan!” they both whispered at the same time, horrified.

Chapter 4 - The Voice

Eyes wide with shock and fear, Bane and Penny fell roughly against the side of the stone wall with exhaustion. “What was Gydan trying to do?” Penny wondered aloud, her voice a quavering gasp.

“Kill us, maybe?” Bane guessed with a sarcastic snort.
She shrugged uneasily. Why would Gydan want to kill them? Didn’t Mrs. Rocus want to see them? She wasn’t sure what that creature was after, but she was definitely staying far away from him- very far away.

Penny suddenly heard clunking footsteps approach the two of them and her head snapped up alertly, her pine green eyes flashing with alarm. She relaxed her hunched muscles slightly when she saw that it was only Dean Clowick making his way towards them. He was wearing a charcoal tweed jacket with dressy suit pants and an olive bowtie. When he stepped closer, Penny saw that his mousy hair was tidily slicked back with gel and his face was nicely shaven. “What are you kids doing here? You should be in class, should you not?” he asked suspiciously, adjusting his little round glasses so that he could stare at Bane and her over top of the golden frames. Just as Penny was about to answer, the Dean looked Bane over and his grey eyes flared with yet more suspicion, “And, you! You don’t even go to this university!” he discovered, acting like he had just solved a mystery that saved mankind.

“Yes sir, you’re right,” Bane replied quickly before Penny could say a word, “I was just walking Penny to the university, but I’ll be going now,” Bane pulled her into a quick hug before scrambling out of the university doors and briskly making his way towards his apartment. Penny was relieved to see that he didn’t take a short cut through the alley, for Gydan could still be waiting.

Dean Clowick raised a brow, “Now, Ms. Falls, why are you so late for class?” he asked Penny in a harsh, critical tone, “Your class would have started at least half an hour ago, correct?”

She nodded, her bright cherry curls bouncing as she did so. “My car wouldn’t start, so my friend had to walk me to the school,” Penny lied. It was quite easy for her, since her and Bane had lied their way out of all kinds of trouble when getting caught exploring haunted houses. She could think up a lie as quickly as she could find the sum of 1 and 2 after all of that practice. “We were just going to take his car, but we needed the exercise anyway… And why drive one of those gassy machines when we’re perfectly capable of walking on our own? ” she added, knowing that the old fashioned Dean would easily buy that part of the lie if it had anything to do with helping the environment or saving energy.

Clowick looked for a moment like he might have protested, but he simply squinted his eyes and replied in his British accent, “Alright, Penelope. But I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” He wagged his finger at her, slightly jokingly, and trotted in the direction of his office.

Penny sighed in relief and checking her shoulder, she dashed through the polished oak halls of the university. Watching the flashing bronze numbers on each door, she skidded to a halt in her ballet flats once she had spotted dorm “3623”. She dug into her pants pocket, feeling for the key. Grasping her fingers around the cold metal, she wiggled it out of the khaki material and slipped it into the lock, opening wide the door to her room.

The room was fairly untidy, as usual. The pale teal dresser was scattered with compact, mascara, eye shadow, lipstick, picture frames, Kleenexes, and the odd ‘Oh Henry’ chocolate bar wrapper. The two beds weren’t made either, and both were scattered with a series of CDs and DVDs. Dirty clothes also littered the floor, which made it very hard for Penny to step through the sea of items and get to her bed. Once she flopped down onto the bed sheets, she turned onto her side to see if Veronica was in the room. She didn’t spot the peroxide blond 23 year-old anywhere, but she could still smell the scent of her rose and nectarine body spray hanging in the air.

After tiredly staring at the plain white ceiling for 10 minutes or so, she rose back up from her bed and brushed away her quilt. She winced as she heard the clatter of CDs tumbling off of the quilt and falling to the ground, most likely scratching their once shiny, silver undersides. Penny shrugged lazily and pushed the CDs aside before grabbing a hold of her text books and heading to her math class.

Entering the classroom, she was happy to notice that all of the other students were too busy doing their work to notice her late entrance. Unfortunately for Penny though, the teacher, Mrs. Yarrick, definitely noticed. Her powder blue eyes were narrowed and her bronze hair was in a messy bun on the top of her head as she glided over to Penny in her shape-less salmon dress. “What’s your excuse?” she asked simply with a flicker of anger to her tone, though her face remained expressionless. The teacher always had a very monotonous expression but Penny could tell she was angry by the bright red colour of her cheeks and her flaring nostrils.

She shuffled her feet uneasily, “Well, my car wouldn’t start, so-" Penny began to say before she was interrupted by her math teacher.

“Did you tell this to the Dean?” she asked without waiting for the student to finish her sentence.

Penny nodded, relieved to not have to lie anymore, “Yes, I did,” she told her confidently.

Mrs. Yarrick frowned slightly, “Okay, well, I’ll talk to Mr. Clowick after class. If I find out you’re lying, you will be in huge trouble, young lady,” she replied calmly but coolly before turning on her heels and striding to her desk at the head of the classroom.

Penny glanced back at the teacher reluctantly before slipping into her seat in the third row from the back. She furrowed her brow in concentration as she tried to decipher the complicated problems typed on the crisp pages of the math text that she would be studying all morning.


She had been so lost in the world of numbers and equations that she hardly noticed the time fly by so quickly. Before she knew it, class was dismissed and it was lunch time. Checking her shoulder briefly to see if there were any teachers around (An old habit from high school), Penny pulled out her cell phone to check her missed messages. There was one from Bane received an hour or so ago, saying that he just got to work. He works in the big city a few towns over. It takes him around two hours to drive there but really, that’s his only choice. There are a few jobs in Orchard Town like working at the university, working at the flower shop, or even working at the corner store. The problem is that you’d need a part time job before you started to get a degree to work in the university, the owner of the flower shop doesn’t pay well, and the corner store has more workers than they can handle. Most Orchard Towners did work in the big city because it was just leaking with good jobs and it was also a good excuse to escape the dull little town that they all live in.

Done reading her messages, she shut off her silver phone and plopped it into her tote before heading to the cafeteria. She glanced over the crowd of people, searching for a table, before spotting Veronica and Vanilly. The couple was sitting closely together, talking quietly, at the far end of the room. Penny bought a shiny, ruby red apple and a fizzy ginger ale before making her way towards them. “Hey guys,” she greeted them, “Mind if I sit here?”

Vanilly shrugged. “Go for it,” he muttered indifferently, still gazing at Veronica.

He was one of Bane’s closest friends, but Penny didn’t really like him. Vanilly was a trouble maker, and he always hung around the university although he didn’t ever go to any classes. He had short, spiky dark brown hair a shade or two darker than Bane’s that had light blonde colouring the tips. His skin was rough, tanned, and rippling with muscles and he had a very structured, intimidating face. Penny wasn’t sure how he got his odd nickname, but his real name was Edwardo. She didn’t dare call him that though, for he might be angry and from what she’s heard, Vanilly had a history of violence. The only time she’s heard anyone come close to saying his real name was when she heard Veronica call him “Eddy”. He wasn’t angry with Veronica of course, but Penny figured that she was an exception.

She didn’t really like the way he dressed, either. Today he was wearing baggy jungle camo pants and a ripped black muscle shirt draped with steel chains falling from his neck. He also had a red bandana tied around his head and a diamond-studded triple ring the same colour as his chains on his right hand.

Penny shuddered slightly when he caught her looking at him and he glared at her with his cold, hazel eyes. Veronica followed the direction of his glare, but her look was friendly and not hostile like his. A wide grin spreading across her orange, powdery face, “Hiya, Pens,” she greeted her in her sugary voice, “What were you up to last night?” She raised an eyebrow, and her deep blue eyes were glinting with mischief.

Penny sighed in annoyance, “Oh, nothing. Bane and I went shopping for… supplies,” she explained quickly to Veronica with a nod.

For a moment the valley girl looked like she might have been about to make a sarcastic remark, but instead she nodded simply, “Huh. For your little ghost hunt thing, right?” she asked, uninterested.

“Yeah. It didn’t go so well, though,” Penny told her uneasily, not adding any details.

“Oh, what a shame,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes. She wasn’t the best listener, or even close to one. The only time Veronica would pay attention to her is if Penny was telling her something about her love life, which was currently non-existent so for the time being, their friendship was on hold.


Penny burned with frustration on the inside- she hated it when people didn’t listen. But although she was angry, she didn’t really show it. “Yeah, well I better go. See you guys later,” she said with a fake smile before turning away

“But you haven’t even eaten yet!” Veronica protested, despite her disinterest in what Penny had to say only moments ago.

She shrugged, “I’m actually just going to go finish up some homework in the dorm; I can’t concentrate with all of this noise,” she half-lied. It was true that she couldn’t concentrate in the overwhelming noise of the cafeteria, but the reason she was leaving was because she realized how she really wasn’t in the mood to put up with Veronica’s constant blabbering.

Her friend looked like she might have again protested but Vanilly interrupted before she had the chance, “Fine by me. Adios,” he grumbled, turning back to Veronica and starting the conversation back up.

Penny sighed and made her way towards the dorm. Why did Vanilly hate her so much?
Maybe it’s because you don’t like him. He doesn’t appreciate that, you know, a high, creaky voice in her head whispered that was not her own. Heavily breathing, she jumped in shock and glanced around quickly in fright, seeing if anyone was around. But it was just her…

Awesome! I love it! I remember this from WI.

You wrote French? OMG! You need to right something in French for me Komo! xD And I think you have good grammer for only knowing English 2 years.

Awesome!

OOh, I remember this too! Awesome job.

I think I read this one on WI before... I like it - interesting idea, and interesting characters.

Thank you so much, everyone!

Okay, I'll write something in French...

Une petite fille a voyager a un plage et puis elle etait manger par un gros requin. La fin.

Haha! OMG! I love it!!! What does it mean though. . . . xP

It means:
A little girl traveled to a beach and then got eaten by a shark. The End.

Haha! Nice! xD

Yeah. XD

I love your avvie, by the way. My friends think I'm crazy for thinking that reeds taste good. XP

Ya LOL! Write something else!!! xD

In French? XD Or do you mean write more of my story?

I might have chapter 5 up pretty soon... Right now I have the Town Hall part about half way done but it's scaring me so much that its making my eyes water... So it could take a while. XP The way I'm doing it is writing the Town Hall part first (which will basically be the ending of the chapter) and then filling in the middle so yeah.

Okay, Chappie 5 is up! This one is a lot longer than my other ones, and it's going to have its own separate rating.

Maturity: A lot of blood, and some flesh eating. XP Also a bit of scariness.

Fantasy: Some messed up demonic thing that's gross and somewhat based on the Grudge. I don't know if it's scary or not because I was the one who wrote it, so just let me know if it scared you and I'll throw in a warning. Sorry.

Oh, also sorry if it's kind of crappy. I'll edit it later when I'm not alone because... Yeah, just don't want to edit it when I'm alone in a basement. XP It's not scary, I'm just a wimp. I think.

Chapter 5 – Prints on the Walls

Her thoughts jumbled together in bewilderment, Penny had to pause for several moments to make sure it was just her in the hallway. Once her breathing had slowed down to normal, she heaved another great sigh and leaned against the wall. Get a grip, girl, she told herself reassuringly, there’s absolutely no one else in the hallway but you. And there’s no one in your head, either. It’s all your imagination… All this Gydan and Poltergeist stuff has gotten to you, that’s all. Besides, telepathy doesn’t exist. Only you can see what’s in your mind. She then closed her eyes, continuing to mumble things in an attempt to calm herself down. She had been hunting down creepy things with Bane ever since middle school and nothing has driven her crazy yet. She wouldn’t let a little thing like Gydan break her now. To distract herself, Penny returned to her messy little abode to do some research on Goofa Dust. It was likely that Bane would want to go to the Town Hall to track the poltergeist that night seeing how he didn’t have much for patience. Consequently, Penny would have to find instructions online to make Goofa Dust since they have had no luck finding a supplier in town so far. Checking her watch, Penny realized that she only had half an hour left before her next class.

Better do this quick, she thought to herself, yanking out her laptop from underneath a discarded and moldy KFC meal. She drummed her unpainted fingernails against the edge of the computer as the screen flickered to life. Since visiting Mrs. Rocus was no longer an option, finding a recipe on the internet was really her only choice… If there was a recipe, that is. She hated to do things online because they weren’t always reliable but it didn’t matter because when the woman typed the word on the search bar, all she could find were reviews of a TV series called “Supernatural”. She continued to scroll down the webpage but still nothing except for reviews and episode summaries.

Looks like he only heard about this from a show, she thought, throwing the laptop onto her mattress in fury. “I can’t believe he put us through all of this when he didn’t even know it actually existed!” she roared, this time out loud. She immediately dialed his cell phone number, using the phone in her dorm.

“Hello?” Came the voice from the other line, utterly innocent.

“Bane! I cannot believe you!” she snarled, “All because of you, Gydan will be following us until he sees us dead!”

“Whoa, whoa,” Bane exclaimed in surprise, “You’re being way too over dramatic right now. What brought this on?”

“I’m guessing that little Hoodoo book of yours was really a guide book for Supernatural fans, eh?” she stormed on, “Considering Goofa Dust isn’t even real! Never has been, never will be! And now we have some sort of messed up… God-knows-what stalking us! Augh!”

She could hear him gulp from the other end of the phone. “Okay, okay. I may have heard it from TV, and you may be right about the guide book thing, but-”

Penny felt more rage build inside of her. “What!?” she screamed, cutting him off.

Bane was growing more panicky. “Penny, please will you calm d-”

She tried to interrupt him once again, but he spoke over her voice.

“-own,” he finished before continuing, “Most of the material we use to hunt ghosts, or whatever it is we do, is all based on TV shows and books. It’s not easy to find legitimate books around here and even if we did, it would likely be in Hebrew or Latin or some other language that I couldn’t translate. So for now-“

“You know Latin quite well,” Penny threw in, crossing her arms as she held the phone between her head and shoulder.

“That’s not the point! Would you stop interrupting me?” he growled, pausing to see if she would say anything. When she didn’t, he went on, “All we can do is base our supplies on old superstitions or seemingly valid elements of movies or books. So sor-ry if I messed up once. Most of the things I’ve found have proven to work so far. Like how long have we been using salt?”

“Salt’s pretty basic, Bane,” she snorted stubbornly, though he was beginning to persuade her into forgiving him.

“Okay, fine. Then what about...” he paused for a moment, “What about the time when we actually had to send a troubled soul to heaven?”

Penny struggled to remember the time, and then she smiled once the memory came to her. “Yeah, it was an old lady. The one who haunted the bistro?”

“Yeah, that one,” he said. “The other customers were terrified of her but the owner turned to us because we seemed to be the only ones unafraid of the paranormal in this town. We ended up sending her on her way with the help of a few ceremonial words, a Ouiji board and a bit of white magic.”

“That was cool,” she recalled, “And didn’t you watch some sort of a slumber party movie where they made their own Ouiji board? And all the ingredients for the white magic spell were from some documentary about Wiccans…”
She chuckled, feeling stupid. “Okay, I see your point.”

Bane sighed in relief, glad to be forgiven. “So screw the Goofa Dust. Why don’t we just haul along some salt, just in case? We can just do a bit of exploring and if the thing gets violent, we’ll leave. So we’ll meet at the Town Hall at 9:30 sharp?”

She agreed with him and threw on a knee-length dress that was fake, cream-coloured silk and had floral lace along the bottom. She then swung her tote over her shoulder and headed off to her next two classes.



Before she knew it, 9:00 rolled around and Penny had to prepare for her outing with Bane. She dumped out all of the texts books from her tote onto the floor of her dorm. She then took a box of salt that was hidden underneath the mattress of her bed and put it inside of the sac. She also tossed in two flashlights and a book of matches. That should be enough. It’s only a ghost, she figured as she looked over the supplies she was going to bring.

Just as she was about to leave the dorm, she spotted a bottle of holy water lying hidden where the salt used to be. She wasn’t sure if she would take it. Like I’ll need it, she thought lethargically. It was only at the last minute that she decided to throw it in her bag just in case. Penny double checked that she had everything she’d need before heading to the Town Hall to meet up with Bane.

It only took a short 10 minute walk before she reached their meeting place and greeted her old friend.

“Ladies first,” he insisted with a sly grin.

Penny entered the run-down structure cautiously, her body half in and half out of the door. Bane squeezed past her to get a better look with a scowl of disgust at all of the filth surrounding them. The room they were in was a spacious size, though not as big as some of the halls that were found in larger cities. It was about 20 feet high and 15 feet in width and length. There were five rows of rusty chairs lined up on the hardwood floor. They were facing a pedestal which sat on a platform only two steps higher than the surface Penny was now standing on. The entire scene was coated with layers of dust and cobwebs, making it quite obvious that it hadn’t been used in years. The building also smelled of mold and decaying wood, which wasn’t a very pleasant scent, especially when mingled with all the dust. When Penny shined her flashlight against the walls, her heart stuttered. There was what seemed to be footprints and hand prints that stood out between all of the grime. “Bane, I really want to get out of here,” she murmured to him as he made his way to the pedestal.

Taking no notice of Penny’s plea, Bane examined the pedestal. “I bet this is where the old mayor used to make speeches,” he mused.

“Genius,” she mumbled sarcastically, “Now let’s get the heck out of here!”

She didn’t like this place at all. Not only was it grubby, but the prints on the walls creeped her out and there was a feeling about this place she didn’t like. It was hard to describe… The air felt heavy, like something was watching them. She kept on hearing scuffling sounds from the ceiling too, and although they were definitely just mice, she hated the way the noises made her so jumpy. But maybe her being so tense wasn’t such of a bad thing because they had to be prepared if the poltergeist was around.

“Oh, come on... I guess we don’t have to stay for the poltergeist if you don’t want to, but why don’t we look around for just a second?” he proposed but once he saw the look on Penny’s face he asked her what was wrong.

“Get over here,” she told him. As she waited for him to make his way, she pulled a box of salt from her bag. She poured the white crystals around her, forming a perfect circle. She motioned for Bane to step inside, but he shook his head.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he told her with a shake of his head, “Poltergeists can’t hurt us that bad. They’re not solid life forms. The most they could do to us is throwing a chair.”

Penny glared at his recklessness and yanked him inside of the circle, pointing the glowing circle of light that came from the flashlight to the wall once again.

Bane inspected the prints, something in his chocolate eyes beginning to flare. But if it scared him at all, he didn’t show it. “It’s nothing, Penny,” he reassured her, though he didn’t sound so convincing. “It’s probably just… Like… Tarantula prints or something.”

She almost laughed, “Tarantula prints? Yeah, of co-” she began to say sarcastically, before she felt a drip hit her face. “Oh, there must be a leak in the roof,” she murmured, wiping it away. Bane was staring at her in shock.
“What?” Penny asked him, but he didn’t answer. “Bane! You’re scaring me!”

Bane touched her face, picking up more of the liquid that fell on her before. When he opened his hand, there were bright scarlet beads of fluid on his palm.
Penny gasped and both of their heads immediately snapped to the ceiling. All they saw were two green-grey legs scampering along the roof before disappearing in the shadows.

She began hyperventilating, her eyes stretched out wide. All she could hear now was the thumping of her heart and the shallow wheezes coming from both her and her friend.

She glanced around the room nervously, squinting through the shadows. The peculiar thing they had seen before seemed to have disappeared. She carefully stepped towards the door, hand shaking as she tried to open it. But it appeared to be locked from the inside. Her heart beat accelerated to an even faster pace than before.

“What… The… F-” Bane began to say, but his sentence was cut short by his own terrified howl. Penny froze to the ground, paralyzed in fear as she saw two decomposing arms wrap around Bane. Dropping the flashlight she was holding, she let out a screech of her own. Whatever it was, it had long, chipped nails and veiny, grey skin. Just like the thing they saw crawling on the ceiling. Its neck was crooked as if broken and it made strange moaning noises. It looked at Penny through oily strands of charcoal hair, only one of its eerie white eyes visible as it stared at her with loathing. It looked like it was human at one point but now, whatever it was, the only word Penny could describe it as was revolting. It rolled its deranged neck on its shoulders then bit into Bane’s throat, its chalky face seeming to become more coloured as it tore away at his flesh. Bane cried out in pain, trying to throw the creature off of him as it covetously gulped down his blood. Unfortunately for Bane, what appeared to be a weak creature was too strong for him to fight off.

The whole situation felt like a nightmare to Penny. Her legs were too heavy to run; her voice was too dry to scream. The only thing she could think of was the horrible thing facing her… The long, shark-like teeth that protruded from its lipless mouth, the scars that criss-crossed the human-like face, the way it was limp like a marionette yet managed to hold itself up. And worst of all… Those milky eyes. The eyes that held behind them so much malevolence… So much hatred. There was no way it was a poltergeist. Whatever it was, the thing was pure evil. It was a demon; it had to be. And the only thing she could do to stop was pull the glass bottle out of her pocket, the little trinket that she almost didn’t bring out of pure laziness. It was holy water; just like any other water to humans but lethal to any creature of the dark. Gripping it in her right hand, she waited for the right time to strike.

When Bane seemed be near reaching the state of unconsciousness, Penny smashed the bottle against the creature’s face, quick as lighting. It shrieked as its features began to melt away like they were being sizzled by acid. Immediately, it dropped Bane and flung itself into the darkness.

The vision of that terrifying being with shards of glass jutting from its dissolving visage would be burned into the woman’s memory forever, but there would be time to dwell on that later because right now, Bane needed saving. He was rapidly losing blood and Penny was sure that she hadn’t gotten rid of the beast for good.

She collapsed to the floor, beginning to crawl over to wear Bane lay. His white collared shirt was now splattered with ruby and his eyes were blank with astonishment.

“Bane,” she worded softly, retrieving her fallen flashlight and inching towards him.

There was no response, though his breath seemed to quicken as his life slowly drained from his collar, pooling onto the floor. His fingers twitched slightly as if to tell Penny to creep nearer to him, for his voice must not have been strong enough to talk. Once she reached him, she saw the graveness of his gash. It seemed that it would never heal.

Ripping off the lace detail from her dress so that it was now above her knees, she placed the torn material on his neck in attempt to stop the wound from bleeding. When it didn’t work, she continued to desperately tear pieces and pieces from her dress until his wound was bandaged with a heap of fabric and she was wearing what merely appeared to be a rag. When he the flowing didn’t stop, she broke down into tears. She didn’t want him to die; he was her best friend.

“Penny…” he croaked, raising weak a hand to silence her tears. “I d-didn’t… Want you over h-here… To help m-me… I need… To t-tell… You something…”

His voice to her was very faint, so she leaned closer to hear him. When she was so close that their foreheads were touching, he whispered ever so gently, “Penelope… I…”

Ack! You stopped! Moremoremoremoremore!

Haha, I wanted it to be suspenseful.

I'll be working like crazy tonight on Chapter 6, I promise. Because now that the fam is home, I will not be alone so I can go all out without having to worry about scaring myself too much. XP

Yay!

Lol, maybe I shouldn't be reading this one anymore . . . my mom would kill me if she caught me reading "demonic" stuff. xD

No!! Don't stop reading!!

It just may not be what you think it is... Hee hee.

I dunno. XD I want to, but with the Hoodoo stuff, too - or black magic or whatever - . . . I know my mom really doesn't like this stuff, so I'd get in huge trouble if she ever found out.

I guess, but it just mentions it. There's not going to be any black magic in this story. White magic, perhaps, and just shapeshifters. But no black magic.

Like, I know that in the beginning I put that Bane was reading a "Hoodoo" book or whatever but it was really just a Supernatural Fan Guide (as mentioned in chapter 5). *nod*