Through the Eyes of the Innocent

Through the Eyes of the Innocent

I

           It was a lovely late spring afternoon when 11 year old Casey Johnson was walking home from school. Every day on her walk through her hard working blue collar community, she would pass through her local downtown area. It wasn’t a bustling town in the least, with many storefronts having empty windows. Businesses had a hard time staying afloat there. It was a community that focused on the essentials of living rather than the finery that most stores attempted to offer.

   As she was walking, something caught her eye down one of the alleys. It looked like a gray box, but there were a few spots of what looked to be orange or red. It was sitting next to one of the trash cans that were outside of Robert’s Resale, one of the few businesses hanging on in town. Curiosity got the better of her and she just had to get a closer look. She headed down the alley to see what the mystery box was. After looking at it for a minute or two a voice came from behind her.

“That’s a Nintendo Entertainment System, NES for short, it’s an old video game system.” The voice said.

She turned to find Robert Silver, the owner of the resale shop, to be the source of the voice. He was an average looking man of around 50 years old and everyone knew him.

“It’s been for sale for a while and no one is buying it, not even an offer. It works, do you want to come in the store and try it out? If you like it, you can have it.” Robert offered.

“I want to, but I’m supposed to go straight home after school.” Casey replied.

“Oh, it will only take a couple of minutes, come on.” He said persuasively.

“Well, if it will be fast, I guess so. I really would like to have it.” She said.

“Alright then, come on in, I have an old TV in the basement for you to test it out on.” He said enthusiastically. Robert grabbed the Nintendo and showed Casey into the store.

“Here, let me lock the front door so no one comes in and steals anything while we are away testing the Nintendo.” He said as he walked quickly towards the front door.

   After locking the door and switching the door sign to closed, he went to unlock the basement door.

“Head on downstairs and I’ll be down in a minute, I’m going to grab a rag to clean it off.” He told her.

  Once she made it to the basement, she sat down and waited eagerly to see what the machine was like. It was so interesting.

“Let me clean that up a bit for you.” He said, as he wiped off the Nintendo and plugged the wires into the back of the old TV. “Alright, let’s fire it up!”

He popped in Super Mario Bros. and sat Casey down with the controller. She was in total awe of the old graphics and how simple the controls were. She was having a blast. Suddenly, Casey had the rag pressed over her face forcefully from behind her. Everything went black.

II

           Linda Cooper was waiting at home between jobs for her little girl Casey to arrive home. Linda and Casey’s father didn’t work out and he had simply vanished, leaving her to raise and take care of Casey on her own. Linda would wait for her to come home from school and get her settled in before the sitter arrived to watch Casey while Linda worked her second job. Casey was already 30 minutes late and Linda was starting to panic.

  Linda called the school, Casey wasn’t there. Next, she called the police to report that her daughter hadn’t arrived home when expected and that she hadn’t heard from her either. The person on the phone told her that she should come down to the police station and speak with one of the detectives. Right after the call the sitter, Kelly Arnold, arrived.

“Casey didn’t come home!” Linda yelled loudly.

“What?!” Kelly replied, just as shocked.

“I’m going to talk to the police right now. Please come with me, I need someone there to keep me together.” Linda said, practically begging her.

“Of course I’ll go.” Kelly assured her.

“Thank you. I’m going to leave the door unlocked just in case she comes home. Let’s go.” Linda said, grabbing her car keys.

At the police station Linda was escorted back to speak with Detective Joe Robbins. He was a slightly heavyset man with a moustache and an old brown suit. His desk was cluttered with case files that seemed to be a jumbled mess that no one person could possibly track of.

“This type of thing doesn’t happen around here. The few times this has happened were just runaways that eventually made their way back home.” Robbins attempted to comfort her.

“My daughter wouldn’t do something like that, she’s very happy at home!” Linda fired back.

“I’ll make some calls to the school and a few places that are along her walk home. Which way does she walk home?” He asked.

“She takes Main Street through downtown, then she takes a left onto Walnut to the house. It’s not a very long walk.” She replied.

“Okay, I’ll try to retrace her steps. In the meantime, try to remain calm ma’am. I’ll get your little girl back to you.” He assured her.

  After leaving the police station Linda and Kelly decided to search the town on their own. Hours of driving around the town resulted in nothing. They looked everywhere they could think of. Exhausted, they returned to the house. After Kelly left, Linda was awake all night waiting for a phone call with some kind of news of the search by police. The phone never rang.

Days had gone by and there was still no progress in the search for her daughter. There had been a story on the news about it, and the community had spent a day in an organized search, but still there was no sign of Casey anywhere. Linda was starting to lose hope that she would ever see her daughter again.

On the seventh day after Casey’s disappearance Linda’s mother Maria called. She also expressed her frustration with the lack of results. During the call she offered up a wild suggestion.

“Well now, since the law is failing you perhaps you would like to take a different approach dear.” Maria said.

“What do you have in mind?” Linda asked.

“Come to my place, there is an ancient spirit named Moroth that is a protector of children.” Maria responded.

“Oh mom, you know that I don’t believe in any of that nonsense.” She replied.

“You’re running out of options. Honestly, what do you have to lose?” Maria asked.

“Fine, let’s do your silly séance tonight then.” Linda agreed, irritated.

 That evening Linda arrived at her mother’s house to find it completely dark except for a single candle burning on the middle of the dining room table, which was covered with a black tablecloth.

“Hi Linda. Please sit down at the table. There is a knife there on the table. I need a few drops of blood in the bowl before we begin.” Maria said.

“Are you insane?” Linda replied.

“Do it!” Her mother said forcefully.

“Fine.” Linda said, grabbing the knife and bowl.

 After supplying the blood, the séance started. Linda joined hands with her mother and was asked to chant some words in a language that she didn’t know, Latin, maybe? After the chanting was finished, Maria poured the drops of blood onto the candle. The candle flickered a bit but didn’t go out because there was such a small amount of blood.

“Nice work child.” Maria said.

“So, what did that do?” Linda asked.

“We summoned an entity named Moroth.” Maria answered her.

“Who is that?” Linda asked.

“Millennia ago, it is said that Moroth had five children taken from him by the royal council, unbeknownst to him. Their remains were found scattered throughout the countryside. Moroth, in an attempt to free himself from the torment of seeing his children’s decayed remains, removed both of his eyes. Blind, but still afflicted, he organized some local warriors from the community to attempt to find who did this. They consulted a seer, who informed them it was the King and his advisors, who saw Moroth as a heretic for his conflicting religious views. With his team of warriors and despite being blind, he stormed the castle in an attempt to avenge Moroth’s children. An effort that ended in all of the warriors, and Moroth losing their lives. Before he was fatally slain, Moroth said that he would not stop punishing those that would do harm to his or anyone else’s children even after death.” She said.

“Wow! What a crock.” Linda said, believing none of it.

III

           Casey had been chained to a bed in the dark basement for what seemed to be an eternity. She had only been given morsels of food during her imprisonment, she was hungry, and her body ached all over. Robert would come down and every time he did, she would black out, awaking to find that he was gone and having no recollection of anything that happened.

  She could hear the door to the basement being unlocked and soon she heard him walking down the stairs. Her anxiety grew as every step he took became louder the closer he got to her. When Robert made it all the way to the basement he turned on a dim light that hung overhead. His hands were barely illuminated, but Casey could see that instead of the cloth he brought down with him to knock her out, he had a rope instead.

“I hope you’re ready. You don’t get to sleep through it this time.” He said, with a sick smile on his face.

 Casey thought that she was about to die.

   Linda woke from a dead sleep. She hadn’t slept for over a week now. She recalled the dream she just had. In it, Casey was trapped inside Robert’s Resale. It was very vivid, feeling as though she was actually there. It was almost like she was being guided there by someone, but she didn’t see who. Even though it was late she called her mother. Maria answered and Linda told her what had happened in the dream.

“You must go there. You were meant to see that, it means something.” Maria said.

 Linda was skeptical, but she had never had a dream that seemed so real. She got in her car and started driving to the resale shop.

 Robert approached Casey slowly, every step bringing with it more terror for Casey. When he was steps away, Casey closed her eyes. This was it, her eyes squeezed together tightly, she couldn’t watch this. Just then she heard a voice, it felt like it was coming from within her. It spoke in a whisper with a raspy voice.

“Listen child, we will make him pay for this. I know that you’re scared but open your eyes. I can’t see him without your eyes. Don’t close them again until I tell you. He must suffer, he must feel the pain.” The voice instructed.

 As Robert was about to grab her, Casey opened her eyes. He was bathed in a blinding white light that made him unable to move. It felt as though he had thousands of volts coursing through his body, a pain he could never have imagined. Casey, with her eyes still open, heard the voice tell her that it was almost over. After three minute of unbearable pain, Robert burst into flames. Standing there burning and unable to move, all he could do was scream.

“Close your eyes child.” The voice said.

           When she reopened her eyes all that remained of Robert was a pile of charred bones and ash smoldering on the concrete floor of the basement.

Linda had just broken the window of the resale shop after hearing the most blood curdling scream she’d ever heard. She entered the store and called for her daughter. Casey yelled up from the basement and Linda rushed downstairs. There she saw Casey, chained to a bed and shaking with fear. There was a pile of bones on the floor near her and the basement was filled with the smell of barbequed meat. She ran over and freed Casey from her restraints. All Linda could do was cry as she hugged her daughter, relieved to find her alive.

“What happened?” Linda asked.

“A voice told me to open my eyes and then to close them. Then Mr. Silver was gone.” Casey said, pointing to the bones. “How did you find me?”

Linda sighed…”Moroth”.

*