Nightmare (30 page)

I rubbed my cold hands together as I carefully walked up to
the ancient little building and thought about how much I didn't
want to go inside. Jordin or no Jordin, this just wasn't a place a
person in their right mind would go. The faded wood siding was
rotten. Every window and door had been covered over and sealed
tight with plywood. There were no electrical lines running to the building, and there was a sign over the door warning people to
stay out.

I climbed the cement stairs-which looked like they might
crack and fall away from the building at any time-and shivered
involuntarily as I examined the front door.

There was a small space in the sealed-up entrance where Jordin had pried open the plywood just enough to crawl through.

Abandoning all sense of self-preservation, I held my tiny
flashlight in my mouth and crawled through the open space on
my hands and knees. The ground was filthy and I was none too
happy about whatever grime was getting all over me.

Inside, I stood and looked around the tiny sanctuary. It was
a cold night outside, but the interior of the church was like a
freezer. The kind of biting cold that cut through your skin down
to the bone. Not only that, but I was immediately overcome with
a sensation of dread. Every hair on my skin stood at attention,
and the air felt thick and heavy.

What could have happened in the spirit realm to cause a onetime place ofworship to become a haven for something evil? Was
this considered a victory by the forces of darkness? A "gaining
of ground" in the never-ending war between angels and demons
that no human eye could see?

The place was not much bigger than a modest living room,
with only one or two small, ancient-looking pews still standing
and not much else. There was no light in the room at all, with
the windows boarded up, and the sound of my feet creaking on
the old wood floor was enough to creep me out. There was no
sign ofJordin, but I spotted another door at the back of the room
that was propped open.

Inside the door I found some wooden stairs leading down.

She's cracked, I decided. She actually went down into the
basement.

As I studied the stairs for a moment, I heard a voice emanating from the silence below. It was Jordin's voice, but it was barely
above a whisper. She sounded like she was talking on her phone.
I almost thought I heard her ask a question, but I couldn't make
out what it was.

I descended the stairs as fast as I dared and entered the basement, which had the same basic square footprint as the sanctuary above. I spotted Jordin sitting alone in a far corner with a
small flashlight in her hands, and no sign of a phone. Her audio
recorder and video camera were on the floor nearby, both with
their red recording lights on.

"Did you miss the signs outside that forbid trespassing?" I
said. "You're breaking the law by being here."

"No I'm not, though technically, you are," Jordin replied.
"I bought the property from the city this morning. Those were
your footsteps I heard upstairs, weren't they?" she asked, looking
disappointed. "Why are you here?"

"I'm rescuing you!" I shot back, furious. "There's evil in this
place. Don't you feel it?"

"Do I look like I need rescuing?" she said, incredulous. "I'm
totally fine."

I studied her surroundings. The building looked so old that
it could fall apart around us at any moment. The corner she sat
in had been cleared of the rat feces that peppered the rest of the
floor. The cement was cracked and splattered with red streaks
of either paint or blood. The wooden planks that made up the
sanctuary decking over our heads were rotted, with the wear of
time beginning the process of crumbling.

"Who were you talking to?" I asked.

Jordin grinned. "I think it's the spirit of a former parishioner,
possibly a deacon or a minister."

I looked around the room again, my skin crawling. I wanted
to be absolutely anywhere else in the world. "You actually heard
it speaking to you? The voice was audible?"

She nodded enthusiastically and grinned again. "I knew coming here was a good idea-I've made direct contact with the other
side!"

"But contact with what?" I said under my breath, though it
wasn't really a question. I walked out into the middle of the room,
grounding and steeling myself. I wasn't very good at what I was
about to attempt-I'd watched my mother do it several timesbut there was no telling what kind of door Jordin had opened
here and one of us had to close it. Once I was in the center of the
basement, I spoke louder and with as much authority as I could
muster. "Whatever is in this place, in the name ofJesus Christ, I
order you to reveal yourself."

I may not have been a very good believer, but I believed nonetheless. Mostly because the command I just uttered always produced results. Nothing in the spirit realm was powerful enough
to disobey it.

The room was silent, but a harsh wind whipped up outside,
battering the plywood that covered the old windows in the sanctuary above. A chill brushed across my arms and I was very aware
that the basement's temperature had dropped by at least ten
degrees in a matter of seconds.

"Reveal yourself!" I challenged it again.

"No need to shout," a voice said in my ear. "I'm right here."

I jumped back, stumbling onto my rear end as my blood
turned to ice.

The voice that replied had spoken in my voice. This thing
was using my own voice to answer me.

In all my years of investigating, I'd never encountered anything like this before. But even a rookie would have to know that
hearing your own voice come from something outside of you
couldn't possibly be a good thing.

I glanced back at Jordin. She was watching me with interest,
but showed no sign of alarm. I assumed this meant she hadn't
heard my voice emanating from the dark room around us.

"Why are you here?" I asked it.

"I like it here," it replied in a soothing, playful tone.

I stood up again and steeled myself. Demon or no demon, I
was a professional and this thing would not get the best of me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Who are you talking to?" Jordin whispered.

"Shut up!" I whispered back. I was so mad at her, I didn't
even want to look at her.

"Mafia, Maia, Maia..." was the entity's reply, only now it
spoke using my mother's voice, and I could hear it smiling. "You
already know what I want, mija."

"I do?"

The force of a gunshot or a sledgehammer slammed into my
chest, knocking me off my feet. I landed hard on my back, and
my heart skipped a few beats as I lay there in shock.

Jordin screamed.

"Sweet pea," said my father's voice from somewhere close by,
"I just want to have fun."

Jordin screamed a second time as a tremendous crash came
from upstairs, as if a part of the roof had caved in.

"Maia ... ?" she cried out.

"Sweet pea..." I felt hot breath on my face but saw nothing
as the voice of my father spoke again, though this time it was
only a whisper. "I'm going to play with you. I'm going to rape you
until you're dead. I'm going to burn you. And when I'm done,
I'm going to carry your soul to hell in my arms."

My heart was no longer beating in my chest. Every part of
me was frozen in fear as I lay on my back.

"MAIA!" Jordin shouted.

I spun my head in her direction. She had backed away from
her corner and was pointing at the walls.

Now I screamed.

Streaks of dark red blood ran down the basement walls. I
swiveled my head all around. The blood streaks weren't covering
the walls, they were scattered about, a batch of them here and
there. Very, very slowly they oozed down the cement and pooled
on the ground beneath. Based on the way Jordin was wiping at
her clothes, I guessed that some of it must've gotten on her.

I wanted to jump up and flee for my life, but it was as if some
terrible weight was pressing on my chest. I don't know if it was the
creature playing with me or if it was my heart condition rendering
me numb, but I was pinned solidly to the ground.

Jordin sprang from the floor. She was quivering as she
grabbed me by the hand and dragged me to my feet with all the
strength she could gather. Once I was standing, the sensation
upon my chest disappeared, but I was still in pain and felt sick
all over, like I was in the worst throes of the flu.

We both heard a deep, rumbling growl from the perimeter of the room, like a wild predator was about to pounce on us. I
knewJordin heard it this time because her already huge eyes grew
even bigger as she turned slowly to look at me.

"Run," I whispered, and she took my hand. Leaning on her
for support, I was able to make it to the stairs.

I took one last weary glance back at the room as I mounted
the stairwell. The blood on the basement walls had vanished as
if it had never been there. I wondered if it had ever really been on
Jordin's clothes or if it had disappeared there, as well.

When we reached the sanctuary up top, the growling and
snarling came again, but it sounded no farther away from us
than before.

I heardJordin gasp right before I looked across the room and
saw it for myself. one of the old pews I'd seen on my way in had
been flung up against the double doors, barring the building's
only exit. It was suspended more than two feet off the ground.

This had to be the source of the terrible crash we'd heard
only minutes ago. Our jaws hung open for just a moment as we
took in the terrifying sight.

Jordin whimpered in fright, but the sound barely registered.
My mind was spinning and my heart racing as we stared down
the barricade before us.

"If we don't die, I'm going to kill you," I whispered.

The wind whipped up again outside and howled against the
old church.

"In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to let us out
of here!" I shouted over the wind.

The wind only blew harder, and we heard the growling again.
It was deep and powerful.

"You're a Christian. Now might be a good time to start praying for a little help," I remarked to Jordin.

Not amused, she closed her eyes and began to pray, moving
her mouth, though only her breath came out. Still she held my
hand tight and squeezed it hard as she prayed.

Since her eyes were shut, I was the only one to see the hand
and arm-type shapes that protruded from the decayed wooden
walls, reaching for us. It was like the walls had turned to fabric
sheets and people were pressing against them from behind, trying to tear through them to get to us.

It was the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen, and I thought
I might pass out from the horror that gripped me.

I tried to compartmentalize the fear, looking all around the
room for some kind of solution. A boarded-up window we might
break through. A loose plank we might rip free and use to pry
the pew away from the doors. Something. Anything.

Jordin was still praying when I smelled it: the scent of burning wood and smoke.

I looked back toward the basement and could see the flickering light of orange flames reflecting off of the wooden steps. I
put aside thoughts of how such a thing could even be possible
and decided to focus on finding a way out, while Jordin kept
praying. She was at it so hard she was sweating.

The fire reached the planks beneath our feet and began to
burn quickly, unnaturally through them. I Jerked Jordin out of
her reverie, and when she saw what was happening, she pulled
me toward the double front doors, moving fast. There was little
time until the floor burned away beneath us, and when that
happened, we would surely fall back down into the basement
and be trapped there.

I wondered if anyone would ever even find our ashes in this
accursed place.

We pulled on the pew blocking the doors, but it was held
firmly in place by some supernatural force. We couldn't make
it budge.

I spotted a loose plank nearby and saw that one end of it was
on fire. An idea forming, I yanked it free and held it up to the
bottom of the pew blocking the door. The flame caught right in
the middle of the pew and I knelt down to blow on it, trying to
coax it to burn through a cross-section of the pew.

We heard the growling again, this time right in our ears, and
it was louder than ever. It was like a massive lion was breathing
down our necks, about to take a bite. We both screamed at the
sound, and I saw tears were streaming down Jordin's face. It was
only then that I realized my cheeks were wet, as well.

Cinders rained down on our heads as the pew caught fully
on fire, and I pointed Jordin to one end of the pew as I moved
to the other. The floor beneath our feet crunching and sagging
with every step, we heaved on either end of the pew and with a
great spewing of fiery ash, it split in half.

I could hear pieces of the floor crashing behind us as we
crawled to Jordin's makeshift opening and pushed ourselves
frantically through.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!!" Jordin screamed
and cried as we fled together.

I put a hand over my chest to try and force my heart not to palpitate, and wiped the moisture away from my face as we ran.

I heard a throaty, cackling laugh from somewhere deep inside
the church as we ran into the night.