Chapter 17: Chapter 17
Summer seemed to have arrived earlier this year, bringing with it its warmth and contentment. The glinting sun rose gradually over the unsurprisingly crowded street of Manhattan, illuminating the mundane scenario of the innumerable cars beeping amidst mass traffic and people commuting to work. The magnificently radiating ball flashed over Selina's face as I whooshed the curtains aside. She shuddered irritably and yanked the blanket over her face.
"Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you," I sang with glee, as I slowly removed the blanket and gave her a peck on the cheek while caressing her hair affectionately.
My little angel had turned eighteen today, successfully abandoning the bumpy teenage ride and arriving at the entrance of mature adulthood. Time had accelerated incredibly since the day I bore her as if it had only been yesterday. A desire of giving her ample felicity as well as luxury in life burnt deeply inside me since day one, however, being a single mother on a mediocre journalist salary, the most I could do was invite her friends home on the occasion.
"Mom, is breakfast ready?" shouted Selina rushing into the kitchen, fully dressed up for school. Her voice was quite shrilly, which had retained since the day she hit puberty.
"Don’t miss your bus darling, I am going to take a shower, and remember to invite Emma and all your other friends to today’s party," I instructed as she gobbled up her food ravenously and with a smack on my cheek she dashed out. I gawked through the window, which was a part of my daily routine, watching my not-so-little girl now, mount her bus, and go off to school.
Her father and I had shifted to the United States when she was eight. I had gotten divorced a year later and had landed a job as a journalist for the New York Times, however, the earnings were rather meager, barely sufficient for us to afford a two-bedroom flat.
It had almost been twenty years, since that horrendous day that had thoroughly transformed my life. The transition from a bubbly teen to a maturely gaunt and bereaved adult, which normally takes prolonged years had occurred in just a day. Years later, and miles away, the recollection of that spine-chilling day still petrified me.
After a refreshing shower, I had just begun to decorate the house, when the landline rang, distracting me from my work and I rushed to pick it up expecting a call from Selina providing me with a list of her mates arriving at the party.
“Hello,” I greeted hurriedly, anticipating Selina’s voice, but it was blank. There was no sound from the other side. I kept on calling loudly but no voice sounded. Then suddenly mysterious music began playing, a tune unlike any other I had ever heard. It possessed a hypnotizing essence, such that I sat there placing the phone on my ear and avidly listening to it. Suddenly, I regained my senses and banged the phone down. I was filled with apprehension at the situation. What on earth was that? Was it magic? Was it sorcery? Sorcery…the word itself terrorized my daylights. A word which I had never let loose in my mind for twenty years…
Later that evening, the home was prettified: with birthday banners and balloons, the same way my parents had done on the day I had reached adulthood, enlightening the walls for the notable occasion.
A hullabaloo was created by the mob of American high-schoolers, as the entire house was transfigured into a disco with a ball playing, and the pack rocked on the dance floor with Selina joining it jubilantly. Her exultation provided me with a sort of peace and tranquillity. It was a mother's mission to ensure her child's life to be completely isolated from all forms of iniquity, which appeared to be accomplished.....until my refutation.
As I busied myself in the kitchen, an unusually scratching sound struck my ears which seemed to be reverberating from the bathroom. With deep suspicion, I moved towards the bathroom with a very familiar palpitation from my heart, which hadn't occurred in twenty years. I creaked open the bathroom door, and instantaneously, there was a smash on my head from behind….and I knew no more.
Regaining consciousness, I discovered myself lying on the bathroom floor. My head was throbbing, with blood seeping out. I flinched as a result of intense pain, and I forced myself up, sweating profusely. On rising, I noticed the bathroom mirror scribbled with the words: I will crush your world, in dark red, with what appeared to be blood, presumably being mine. I was thunderstruck, my mouth swung open and my pupils dilated as I saw that deathly message. Deniability or disbelieve wasn't an option to consider at the sight of this murky sign, which was voicelessly screaming that my past had probably returned to haunt my daylights….again.
I moved out of the bathroom in horror, rushing towards the hall where the party was supposed to be. And what I viewed there... froze the blood in my veins. The hall was indeed crowded....but with slaughtered corpses of the teens, all lying gruesomely in a massive pool of blood. The disco ball was out, and the entire house was conquered by pitch-black darkness, only the shimmer of the moonlight falling in through the window illuminated the horrid scenario.
I nearly collapsed backward, looking at this sight of the school kids, either with their throats slit or their hands sliced with cannibalistic instincts. And the thought of Selina surged through my mind with utmost fear and apprehension as I began shrieking for her insanely but in absolute vain, as no response echoed from any corner of the house.
A ray of dim light appeared, apparently being emitted from Selina's room which was closed partially. I sprinted towards it, desperately expecting her to be present there unharmed. Slamming it open, I noticed my daughter standing with her back towards me in a corner, fiercely banging her head against the wall with an absolute abnormality. The room was oddly cold, and my insides began freezing profoundly. Hugging myself I called out to her, but she didn't reply. I moved closer, with an intuitively revolting feeling in my gut. There was something clasped in her left hand, which appeared to be a glossy object. Observing closely it seemed to be a sharp object coated with dark reddish liquid and realization hit me...... it was King Eric's dagger.
"Se...Selina," I stammered, trembling from head to toe. “Where... where did you get that dagger from?”
"Ellie.....hello Ellie.....here we meet again,” a silky voice echoed from Selina. A voice which hammered my ears with inexplicable terror, a voice which I couldn't, in my utmost power ever manage to wipe out from my memory.
Abruptly, with a ghastly twitch, Selina's neck twisted facing me, her forehead plastered in loads of fresh blood, the result of her intense blows against the wall. Her eyes were bloodshot and her mouth was like a hollow cave. In a fraction of a second, I screamed and darted out of the room, my heart exploding with dreadful terror, as the possessed and ghastly figure of my daughter followed me, moving backward on her hands and limbs with her back bent low and face twisted. It was a sight that could rip a person’s soul apart and pop the eyeballs. The creature cackled in the most repulsive manner, flaunting decayed ghostly teeth and a pitch-black hole. My eyes couldn’t spot anything in the umbra, and I stumbled on something that emerged as one of Selina’s mates’ repugnantly mutilated bodies, and I shrieked, which caught the creature’s attention as it spotted me. It marched towards me terrifyingly,
“You are about to encounter your doom,” she sang murderously, as her mouth with razor-sharp teeth opened wide, and with one final bellow from my throat......The world went pitch black.