The Haunted Inheritance

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same, she swallowed hard as she stared at the old, dilapidated house. You would think that after all this time they would have done something with it but then again, her uncle was never one to pick up a hammer or anything really. Jesse could not believe this mess was all that he had left her, so much for being his favorite niece. She remembered fondly how her uncle would tell her ghost stories at first, she thought that her uncle was trying to scare her but then when she was thirteen, she had her first paranormal experience. Jesse had been reading in the sunroom when she saw the apparition out of the corner eye. It was a girl about her age, she had long dark hair and piercing green eyes. Her dress was soiled and her head bleeding, at first Jesse was terrified at what she had seen but after the girl began to visit her on a daily basis her fear subsided and the two had become great friends. Her little ghost friends name was Oliva, she never talked about what happened to her, but they talked about many other interesting things. Jesse introduced Oliva to the world of television and horror movies, she would also read to Oliva her favorite book was The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. When Jesse finally told her uncle about Oliva, he told her never to tell her parents about her supernatural friend because they would never let come back and visit him again. She remembered him telling her that one day this house would hers, Jesse wasn’t sure if she should thank him or cry and now twenty-four years she was standing in front of her new home thinking of ways to improve it. After a few deep breaths Jesse finally ascended the front steps and walked into the house, even the interior looked the same with its outdated floral wallpaper and lime green curtains. ‘This will the very first thing to go.’ She thought to herself as a piece of the wallpaper fell off the wall. As she started to explore the rest of her house her cell phone went off, she rolled her eyes as the phone was pulled from her pocket. 

“Hi mom, yes I made it safe and sound. How does the house look? Well the same as when I was a kid.” She could her mom grumble something on the other and told Jesse she was coming right over.

“No mom really you don’t have to come, listen I have a lot to do and the moving van just pulled up. I love you but I have to go.” That woman was going to the death of her, Jesse knew that her mom was not happy that her Uncle Rob had left her this old house, even though the truth of the matter was this old house was beginning grow on her, Jesse looked out the window and watched in excitement as the men began unpacking the truck and immediately started unpackaging as the men brought in the boxes, Jesse could tell the men where not comfortable in the house she too could feel a presence. She knew that it much be Oliva unless other spirits had moved in since she had visited last. The hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up and the smell of rotten meat had filled the air, this was something else something more sinister. The air in the room became very heavy, the moving men refused to move the rest of my boxes in and left everything out on my lawn. Jesse knew that to get everything before dark she was going to need help and unfortunately everyone, she knew was at least an hour away. By time Jesse was done moving in the rest of the boxes she was absolutely exhausted there was no way Jesse was going to climb all those stairs. She grabbed a blanket from the box market bedding and curdled up on the couch the smell of rotten meat still filled the air, but she was too tired to even care. 

When Jesse woke up the next morning there was a dark menacing figure standing over her. She was paralyzed with fear, the dark apparition just stared at her with terrifying yellow eyes. Suddenly, the room smelt like lavender and the evil entity was gone and Oliva was standing in front or her. 

“Jesse what are you doing here? Its not safe for you, your uncle did not die of a heart attack. Please leave I am bagging you.” And just like that she was gone but the lavender smell remained. Jenny picked up the phone and called her brother, just like her Ricky had experiences in the house as well. She thought about calling her mother, but she would not believe her and would try to talk her into selling ‘that pile of crap’. Three hours later Ricky showed up with his buddy Mark and a hole bunch of equipment. 

“Ricky what the hell is all of this, I told you that in good confidence and you show up with all these people. Mom is going to be pissed if she finds out.” Jesse was beyond angry and ready to kick her brother and his friend out.

“What do you mean all these people, Mark is just one person and he is one of the leading experts in the field. Don’t worry about mom I will deal with her if she happens to find out. Now help us get set up before it gets dark, we have a lot of equipment and extraordinarily little time to set up. Can you show Mark where your experiencing the most activity?”

“I literally just moved in; I haven’t even been up stairs yet. The movers put my bed up there and a few boxes after that they refused to move anything else in, all the rest of my stuff was left on the lawn. It was very strange the atmosphere got really depressing and the whole room smelt like rancid meat, it was like I told you on the phone when I woke up this morning the smell was still there and the dark figure was standing over me.”

Jesse followed Mark and Ricky up the stairs, the old stairs squeaked and moaned as we made our way to the second floor. Once again Jesse got a whiff of something, the putrid smell filled her noise as she was picked up at tossed five feet in the air, something or one caught her before she hit the ground, the whole room was filled my the sent of lavender. Mark and Ricky ran to Jesse’s aid, but something stopped them in their tracks. Why was this thing targeting her, the only ghost she remembered as a child was Oliva, there had to be something she was unfortunately missing the only person that could give her any insight was gone. The smell had finally gone, and Ricky was able to help to his sister. 

“Ricky why did you stop coming here? Every time I asked you to come with me you acted like there was something here out to get you.” 

He just dropped his head like he was ashamed of something. “Do you remember when Uncle Rick got me that Ouija board for my birthday, Well Jason and brought it over here to see if it would work. It did but what we contact was not human, why do you think I was against you moving in here? We need to get this thing out of here and you can’t stay here, go stay with mom for a few days until we can figure out what to do.”

“I am not leaving, Oliva will protect me she has done it before, if you can’t help me, I find someone else who will.” Jesse picked herself up off the floor she was beyond angry, no parasite was going to attack her in her own home. 

“Your brother is right, you can’t stay here, this entity is very powerful what ever it is that being said if it wants you it doesn’t matter is your are here or your mothers house it will find you. We have to find someway to get of it maybe then your friend will be free.”

Jesse was confused why would it wait until all this time to show itself; she came here to visit her uncle years after her brother stopped coming. She did however notice that Oliva seemed more tense after Ricky stopped coming to visit. Amongst all the commotion Jesse never stopped to access her injuries, her hole body felt like it had been hit by a train. To everyone’s’ surprise Jesse other than being very sore she suffered no major injuries, her dear friend had come to her rescue once again. 

“Oliva saved me, don’t you see whatever is here can’t hurt me along as she is here, I understand now why she was on edge she was protecting me from the evil entity that you and your friend conjured up.”

“What do you mean Oliva saved you, we saw you hit the ground. I can’t believe you are actually up and walking around.”

Jesse could not believe what was happening, how could they not see that her body didn’t even touch the ground. 

“I have a good friend who deals with this kind of infestation, his name is Frankie Smalls. If you want, I can give him a call.”

“Yes please.” Jesse was willing to try anything at this point she meant what she said about not running away, she was however sightly annoyed that her brother had kept a very vital piece of information from her. It could have killed her last night if it really wanted to which lead her to believe that it had other plans for her. 

Minutes later Mark returned with some great news, his buddy was on his way and would arrive incredibly early the next morning. He gave Mark some pointers to help us survive the night like putting salt by all the windows and doors. Which would be a great help if they where trying to prevent anything from entering the home, the second thing that was suggested was that we form a protection circle using salt, that way if we happened to fall asleep nothing can harm us. 

That whole night Jesse laid awake, even though she new that the dark entity could not reach her, she knew that he was watching he was watching and waiting. Mark was wide awake as well while her bother was sawing logs right beside them. 

“I know your mad at your brother right now, you need to understand that he was just a child and had no idea what he was doing.”

“Be that as it may, he should have told me for all we know this thing is what caused my uncles heat attack. You even said this thing is much stronger than you had thought. Are we just supposed to sit here and wait for your friend to show up? As soon as he walks through the door that thing is going to attack him.”

Mark pulled Jesse closer to him, even though she just met her brothers’ friend some how she felt completely safe in his arms.

“Please try to get some sleep, you are going to need to conserve your energy, that thing is going to try to leach onto you and if your are not well rested you won’t be able to fight it off. I will stay awake all night if I have to.” 

Jesse laid her head on Marks chest and drifted off to sleep, her dreams were plagued with horrible images and when she awoke the next morning, she felt like she had barely slept at all. Rick and Mark were talking to someone at the front door she hoped that I was the friend that Mark had called to help them. The man was tall and incredibly good looking, he was carrying a big black bag that contained what Jesse could only assume the materials needed to complete the job at hand. Franky had noticed Jesse standing in the protection circle and went over to introduce himself and ask her a few questions about the history of the house. Ricky had filled him in on what had happened last night, but he needed to know more. After about an hour he felt like he knew enough about the house to access the situation. He also scolded Ricky about the dangers of using a spirit board especially in house that was highly active. He also told us that entity was indeed demonic and to get ride of it we would have to flood the house with positive energy and white light. The best way to do it would be to create a trap for the demon, someone would have to be the bait once then we would trap the demon in a circle of salt, you see salt is not just used to keep a dark apparition from harming the living it is also great for tapping them. He warned that the ritual would not destroy the demon but merely drive it from Jesse’s home, once it was gone religious relics would have to placed around the house and one Jesses person to make sure it doesn’t return. 

Against my better judgement and the objection of the others I volunteered to be the bait, as scared as I was, I knew that Oliva would be there to watch over me. I knew it was not going to be easy, I could feel it watching us the whole time. Frankie handed me a little cross and told me to put it in my pocket, it would keep me from harm. 

“Okay If you want me come and get me!” Jesse screamed, taunting the demon, but nothing happened she knew that to really draw its attention she would have to up her game.

“I knew you where weak, pathetic, you couldn’t even toss me down the stairs last night. I was saved by a little girl who is much stronger than you will ever be. Prove me wrong, come and get me.” She taunted the demon once, that got its attention. Before Jesse could brace herself, she was knocked right off her feet. Jesse felt hands around her throat she knew she had to either fight back or die, the relic itself was not strong enough to keep the demon at bay. As she was struggling with the unseen force the boys trapped the demon in a circle of salt, Jesse could feel it get weaker the combination of the salt and the religious relic she had in her pocket was wearing it down. She could see Franky he was holding a book, as she closed her eyes, she could hear the words being spoken of course they where in a foreign language so she could not understand what was being said. The whole room filled with a bright light and the smell of lavender filled the air, the entity let a scream of pain and defeat, it finally had let go of her and when it tried to harm her again it could not. Jesse opened her eyes and saw her dear friend smothering the demon in white light and just like that they were both gone. Jesse throat was sore, there was bruising and scratches on her neck and shoulders. The air felt much lighter and the only thing remained was the beautiful floral smell.

 Over the next few weeks Jesse finished unpacking her things and started doing so much needed home repairs. She even had here mother over for dinner a few times, they talked about how the renovation’s where going, When Jesse was asked about the religious trinkets that where spread out in certain areas of the house Jesse told her mother a white lie about how she was going to church again, her mother had bought it and that was the end of the conversation. 

Even though the dark energy was gone, Jesse her good friend Oliva visited quite often as well as a number of other spirits her brother was still not happy about Jesse remaining in the home, but she was happy […..] and that is all that mattered.