I heard the sound of glass shattering from outside the closet. I was sitting there, holding my hand around my sister’s mouth to silence her screams, my father, Walter, was having another drunken rampage. Within seconds of the glass shattering, something was thrown and busted a hole into the closet door, causing Kelsie, my sister, to let out a soul shrieking scream. I felt the door swings open and my sister and I were immediately ripped to the ground. My father had tried to grab my sister and I could only assume the worst. So in an attempt to save her skin, I grabbed my fathers boot. Before I could realize I had messed up, Walter had raised his leg and stomped on my fingers, and all I could hear was the crunching of my bones. Kelsie had already ran to her room, so I felt a little better that I was taking the beating for her. Walter began to unbuckle his belt and started slamming it into my back, each swing creating welts on my body. After five minutes, Walter walked away and sat on the couch in silence. He ended up falling asleep because I couldn’t even manage to get up and go to my room. I just sat there, crying as I felt bruises being created from where I was hit. I finally managed to pass out, but not before muttering several death threats to myself.
“May Apollyn handle your soul…” I said, before passing out.
July 16th 9:51 AM
I awoke the next morning in my bed, the excruciating pain rushing through my body. My father had left for work, and my sister was drawing at the kitchen table. I walked in there and grabbed a cup of water.
“Whatcha drawing toots?” I asked, inquisitively looking at Kelsie.
She glanced at me and responded, “Nothing…” She closed her notebook and went to her room, coming back out to watch TV five minutes later. We sat and watched cartoons until our father had come home, unto which we sat in our rooms, minding our own business. The night ended well, other than the weird feeling of instability in the air, which had been there but seemed to be getting stronger. It was like something had a presence in the air and was creating a heavy feeling around me.
July 21st 3:42 AM
I awoke to the feeling of thirst. It had been a few days since their family had an encounter. Kelsie had been running a fever of 102 degrees but showed no signs of being sick. She said she felt fine and continued with her normal day-to-day life. I got up to walk to the kitchen before I was stopped by a horrific sight. Walter was hanging from a light fixture, the rough part was, that was the easy thing. The frightening thing was the name had been scrawled on the paper below his body.
“Apollyn”
It was colored in a deep red, and had been perfectly placed below his father’s body. Walter’s eyes had rolled into the back of his head, all the blood being stopped and stripped from his head. He appeared blue and looked as if he choked to death. I ran to the nearest phone and dialed the cops. They showed up twenty minutes later and had woken Kelsie up and escorted us outside.
August 2nd 2:12 PM
I sat there, staring at the lake in front of me, the perfect scenery. Even with such a beautiful sight, I still felt like my life had been stricken from me. The police concluded that his father’s death was a suicide, but Walter had tried to make it appear as a murder. I refused to believe it, but if it’s what they said, I guess it must be true. I just don’t understand how he would… wait.
Kelsie had been drawing with the same red only five days before. She had attempted to hide the drawing. I felt the same lifeless feeling in the air, except it was constantly getting worse. But I didn’t feel it until I had seen my sister drawing in the kitchen. I remember when I would promise that he would get his payback. He had abused her and the only thing he deserved, was to deal with the Devil himself, and he did.
I went to get up and walk out of the woods until I was stopped. I could see Kelsie across the lake, smiling mischievously and before anything, I turned around and began to sprint out of the woods. I could feel the air getting heavy around me, as I sprint past each and every tree, but after twenty minutes of running, I began to realize something was wrong. I wasn’t making any progress at all, in fact, I was running circles, but I didn’t make any turns. I stopped and stood there, looking around for some sort of exit, until I heard the rustle of leaves.
I turned around and noticed a bush moving, and felt my stomach drop. I moved closer, slowly walking and avoiding sticks. As soon as I got close, and deer took off from the brush and ran away. I followed and attempted to stay on his tail, but this time, I knew I was making progress because every tree was the same. Perfectly identical in every single form and possibility. I felt sick in my stomach and dropped down to my knees. I sat there, crying until I heard the sound of footsteps. I looked up and seen her, she was standing a few steps away. She walked over and hugged me, and I cried my eyes out.
“He made me do it…” she muttered.
“Who?!” I cried out. She pointed towards a patch of grass and I turned to look. As I turned around, I heard the click of a pocket knife locking in place and felt a sharp slash across my neck as I fell face forward and lay helplessly, hearing only one gunshot before darkness swallowed my vision.