Takers of Revenge (A Short story)

I am sorry but i had to discontinue Neil Akins for a while but in return I am posting this short story, and don't worry this one is complete... Hope you will enjoy...

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‘Run!’ screamed her instincts and that exactly what she was doing but she was trapped, in her own house, running for her life. He has returned just like he promised, but she didn’t want to keep her promise, so she ran.

The door was just at the end of the corridor, but it was locked. She was cornered. The he stepped in. A boy, almost her age, was a bit dwarfed but it was his face that drew attention. There was blood poured over it which was clearly not his and a knife sticking out of his eyes. His eyes at first looked completely black but when he stepped closer she realized it wasn’t his eyes, just the cavity of his eye sockets.

“Who are you? What do you want?” she screamed.

“You don’t remember me? Perhaps this will help.” He said and morphed into a familiar figure that she knew. He was the same strange boy she had met ten years ago.

“As to what I want? I thought we are friends. Aren’t friends allowed to visit?” He said stepping closer. Then he ripped her stomach open.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!” screamed Amber as she woke up gasping for breath. She has been having this nightmare for a week now. Her gaze fell on a picture of her father standing there, smiling, as if mocking her and saying you had it coming, sweetheart. She slammed down the frame and got out of her bed. “Mom, what’s in…” she shouted but then stopped midway, sat down on the bed as grief took over her again and broke down into sobs. Her mom had died two weeks ago getting hit by car.

She heard footsteps coming towards her bedroom, must be her butler. She composed herself and then left for college.

#

College had always been her favourite place. House had always been too lonely and pubs were too crowded, but college was perfect, calming, but today even college couldn’t calm down her nerves. She was feeling uneasy and anxiety was all over her brain. She closed her eyes and took a breath to calm herself when she suddenly bumped into someone.

“I am sorry.” He said. She raised her vision to say its okay was but only a gasp escaped her mouth. The boy in front of her had blank sockets for eyes.

“Are you alright?” He said again breaking her trance. His eyes were back in place. She was just hallucinating. “I am sorry, tough night.” She said leaving as quickly as she could.

The bell rang and the class started. Amber was sitting at the back bench scribbling away at her note book when the professor entered. “Good morning class.” He said.

Amber raised her head from the note book to reply but a scream came out instead. Standing in place of the professor was the boy from his dreams, complete with the eyeless socket and blood. She thought she was hallucinating again, and then the whole class turned towards her. This time Amber was too scared to scream, every student of her class lacked one thing; their eyeballs. She ran towards the exit of the class, leaving behind a confused class.

She reached the bathroom, her breath heaving. She looked at herself in the mirror, she looked like a mess. Emotions filled her; first fear, then sadness, then guilt and tears filled her eyes. Then the tears started changing their color, they were becoming red. She tried to scream but her voice was trapped.

“It’s no use; you will just get a sore throat.” The boy said. He had appeared right behind her.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Correct me if I am wrong, but I think it is called karma”

“Please just kill me.”

“All in good time, love, all in good time.” He said and vanished. She washed off the blood and then decided to skip college today.

#

The street was crowded, and that was the reason she had choose it, thinking that if she was with people the ghost wouldn’t harm her. The plan had backfired; she was seeing eyeless people everywhere. The ghost was driving her crazy, but then his eyes fell on him. He was the guy she had bumped into today, and now he seemed to be following her. She took a cut into an alley, taking an entirely different route but he was already there.

“Who are you?” she asked confronting him.

“Bet you asked that question to it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Seeing any ghosts lately, maybe even hallucinations.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“It’s not going to go away.” He said. “It will kill you.”

“You are crazy.” She protested and started walking away but he grabbed her hand. “Listen mister, if you don’t let go of my arm this instant, I will call the cops.”

“Okay just take my card. Call me if you change your mind.” She took the card and walked away. She knew what he was saying was right, but she was denying it. She didn’t want him to get involved; she didn’t want him to know of her secret.

#

The rest of the walk to her home had been strangely normal, no eyeless face, nothing. She opened the door but the light was off. She wondered where her butler had gone, he never leave the light closed. She steps inside the house and drops her bag on the floor. This was weird; no light in the entire house was switched on. She went towards her kitchen looking for her butler. Fear of the dreaded was crawling over her but as she reached the kitchen relief washed over. There was the old bastard, sitting beside a cupboard his back towards her and a bottle of bourbon lying beside him. She went to talk to him about what is going on? But when she reached near enough all she did was to scream. The eyes of the butler had been carved out of their sockets.

“Did I scare you?” The dead body of the butler spoke; she ran towards the living room, picked up her bag and ran outside as fast as she could. She reached towards her car struggling with keys, but he was already there. “You can’t run from your problems.”

She ran towards the house, banging the door shut, running. Then she stopped dead in her tracks. Standing in front of her was her father. “Dad?”

“Why did you kill me?”

“I didn’t mean to, it was an accident.”

“No it wasn’t, you asked him to do it.” His dad said pointing towards the boy. She pushed him away, running up to her room and closed the door. She didn’t see any way out and it wouldn’t take them long to come here. She picked up her phone and called the boy she had met in the alley. After two rings he picked up.

“Hello, this is Charles.” The boy said from the other side.

“I am Amber, I need your help. It’s after me.” She said.

“Okay, describe the ghost.”

“It is like a normal boy, but he lacks eyes and has a knife has blood on his face.”

“What? What did you do?” Charles said, panic rising in his voice. “It hasn’t killed you yet, it means that your date hasn’t come yet. You need to carve the David’s star on the floor and say its inside. David’s star its like…”

“I know what it is.”

“Fine do it and no matter what don’t step out of the circle I am coming.” He said and cut the call.

#

Amber threw out the contents of her bag and picked up what she was looking, a cutter. She took it and carved the symbol when the door kicked open. It was her dad, drunk as he used to be, screaming on the top of his lungs, calling out for her mom. Suddenly her mom comes running down. He shouted at her, “Who were you talking”

“A friend.”

“Who?”

“Robert.”

“You stinking, cheating bitch.” He screamed and broke the bottle of rum on the wall.

“No it’s not like that, he is just a friend.” Her mom cried as he got hold of her hair and slammed it on the wall. She stammered back, and then when he reached he slipped, a shard of glass shredding his heart. His dad was dead. “Noooooo!!” Amber screamed.

That’s when Amber realizes that she was witnessing the death of her father over again.

That’s when the scene changed; it was her mom, walking down the street. Her hands filled with grocery that’s when her phone buzzed, it was Amber. In the attempt of picking up the phone one of her grocery bags fell on the road and she bent to pick it up when a there is noise of bang and a car hits her. She falls on the floor, phone still clutched to her hand. She looked towards Amber, blood pouring down her face and her mouth uttering, “Amber, help me. Please, Amber, help me. I don’t want to die.”

Amber couldn’t take it anymore. Eyes filled with tears, she ran towards her mother to save her, realizing her mistake too late. The scene disappeared and the boy appeared in front of her. “Don’t worry, I will take it away. I will kill you”

“I am sorry to interrupt your plans, but maybe another day.” Charles said as he stepped in the room.

The boy said with shock in his voice “You? You are a…”

“Practitioner of occult?” Charles asked. “Yeah.”

“You can’t kill me.”

“That’s not my intention.” Charles said and closed his eyes, focusing and started chanting in Latin “ego præcipio tibi retro ad inferos.” The wind around the room started to swirling, the eerie feeling of the room fading, but the ghost was unfazed. Charles focused harder, beads of sweat forming from on his head and blood started pouring down his nose. Then all of a sudden the ghost got caught in an invisible whirlpool finally disappearing into the shadows.

“What part of don’t step out of the circle, escapes your understanding?”

#

They were sitting in his car, the house passing through in a blur. “Where are we going?” “To my hotel.” Charles replied with a tone of finality. He was submerged in thoughts of his own. Thinking how it all started, how the hell did he get himself landed in this mess? He was twelve when all this started. His parents were hardcore Catholics, so they obviously didn’t take it in a good sense when he told them he can cast the occult spells and believed that he was from a lineage of witches and warlocks. They accused him of being possessed by the devil and threw him out of the house. He made his living by playing poker using his skills until one day he faced a ghost.

It was an old man, around the age of fifty and to any normal person he would look like a beggar on the street, but since when was he normal. When he laid his eyes at the boy, he staggered back in surprise. His face was upside down, Charles dashed back in the hotel but it was already there. He was cornered, surrounded, the man reaching for face to turn it upside down when suddenly he started chanting a chant he had never heard before in his life. Since that night the hunted became the hunter.

“So what did you do?” Charles asked her. They were sitting in the hotel room.

“I did not do anything.” She said.

Charles got up with a sigh and picked up a picture. It was the boy that was haunting her. “This is the ghost you saw?” he asked and she nodded.

“Do you know what they call these types of ghost? Venatores cautissimi vindicate which is Latin for takers of revenge. They take your deep dark revenge fantasies and make them true” Charles said. “So tell me on whom did you take revenge on?”

Amber sat down on the bed, a tear rolling down her cheek and the she told him something she hadn’t shared with anyone.

It was almost mid night and Amber was sitting in her bedroom, pillow over her ears, trying to sleep. Her father was back home and was drunk again. He was shouting at her mom again. There was banging of vessels and her mom was crying loudly. Thinking that it was all usual she tried to close her eyes but what happened next wasn’t usual even for her.

The door of her room banged open and her father came in, stumbling. Her mom was beside him, her head was bleeding and her eyes were too tired to cry. He came towards her grabbed her by the collar of her night suit.

“You.” He said, scent of rum almost bursting out of his mouth. “You are the cause of my misery.”  And then he did something she could never forget. With a jerk of his hand he tore apart her top. The shock of it was so strong that she felt she was paralyzed. Her mom was crying to him, pleading, begging but he didn’t even flinch. He continued what he had started. By the time he was finished, she had lost her consciousness and the bed sheet had turned red.

Her eyes opened and she found herself dressed up again and her mom was there. She hugged her, apologizing and tears took over their eyes. After a while her mom got up and left to make her some food. That’s when he stepped him, a boy around her age but there was a knife poking out of his neck. He studied her, but somehow she was too numb to react.

“He is the reason of your misery. He doesn’t deserve to live. I will take your revenge.” he stated. There was sympathy in his voice as if he shared her pain and really wanted revenge. Somehow she overlooked the fact that he was a stranger and he had appeared suddenly out of nowhere and gave him a nod after which he disappeared.

Next day his father slipped over the piece of glass.

#

“I swear Charles I didn’t know he would kill him.” She said after finishing her story.

“You don’t have to justify yourself.” Charles said. “The man deserved it, but you got yourself in a terrible mess. He has come back and now he will do anything to kill you and tomorrow he would be stronger the whole new moon thing, I wouldn’t be able to fight him again and the David’s star will only slow him down.”

“What do we do?”

“I will try to find a way of killing him and you can go and take some rest and you are not allowed to go out as this is the safest place you can be right now.”

#

It was two minutes before midnight and Charles was still sitting on his chair by the desk pouring over the screen of his laptop. Amber was lying on her bed, moving from one side to another.

Damn she is a messy sleeper Charles thought a smile crossing his face. Then she started mumbling, “Help me Charles. He will kill me.” At first he thought she was having a nightmare, so he went over to her trying to wake her up. He shook her up but didn’t budge and then blood started coming from her wrist as if someone cut it from a knife.

#

The scream ringed through her ears, it was her own. The boy standing in front of her just gave her a satisfied smile and then went back to work. He moved the knife from her wrist to her breast, cutting her arm in the process. He lingered the knife at her breast and said, “Does this make you remember something?” And burst into a fit of laughter. Then he moved his knife toward the eyes but before he could cut them out, flame covered his body and she woke up screaming covered in blood and a green color paste on the edge of her lips. Charles was standing beside her with a sigh of relief on his face.

#

“I am sorry. I didn’t know it could use dreams to attack you.” He said.

“What is this?” she asked wiping off the paste form her face.

“It is a mixture of holly plant leave with holy water. It wards off evil spirits.” Charles explained. “Now, listen I am going out to see if I can find something in the neighbourhood. This paste will stop him from harming you in your dreams, but he can take your location from your brain if he enters your dream and then it won’t take him long to reach you, and then this place won’t be safe anymore. So no matter what, don’t sleep because if you do I will kill you.”

“Don’t you think that would be a bit redundant?” she replied with a sad grin.

#

He closed the hardcover shut in frustration. He has almost read through the entire library section belonging to the supernatural but there was nothing on how to stop a Revenge Taker. He was now checking the newspapers ten to twenty years old to see any of its other attacks. But here too obviously nothing was there as if this was the first time it has ever strike the town.

Keeping the newspaper stack down, he buried his head in his hands.

#

She put down the coffee mug; she had drunk five of them till now. Her eyes felt tired and it took a lot of effort to keep them open. She took a look out of the window and then stumbled back. She thought she saw the boy standing there but when she looked again he was gone. A sigh of relief escaped her but it was stopped midway as she heard a voice coming from outside the gate.

“Looking for me Amber?” the boy said as the door swung open.

“I am dreaming. Am I not?” Amber asked.

“No, but you were when you saw out of the window. That’s what gave you away.”

“You can’t come close; I am inside the David’s star.”

“Not yet but when the star is broken I can enter.” He said and then the room started to rumble cracks appearing on the floor where the star was made. “Till then let’s chat.”

#

He put down the last newspaper with irritation. Nothing here and time was running out. Then his eyes fell on a death which he has already read. A boy had been murdered by his father who then killed himself ten years ago. He had neglected that story because it seemed like a normal murder. But now something clicked in his mind. What if he wasn’t dealing with a revenge taker?

He read the story in detail and found out the boy was murdered by first pouring acid in his eyes and then stabbing a knife in his neck. He stood up from his seat and ran towards the librarian. “Do you know who this is?” he asked.

The librarian looked up. When he saw the picture, tears filled his eyes. “I do unfortunately. This is my brother’s son.”

“I am sorry for your loss but can you tell me what happened?”

“My brother was a nice man, but he had one flaw. When he got drunk he used to lose all his senses. One fateful night, he had lost a lot in shares and had gotten himself drunk. He came to the house, I was not present there then, only my nephew who was still awake, waiting for his father. He got angry when he saw his son awake so late, so he started beating him up. Then the anger took over and he poured acid in his eyes. Then he stabbed him in his neck putting him out of his misery. The next day he hung himself from the ceiling, leaving a note in which he pleaded guilty.” The man said who was now embraced in sobs.

“I am sorry sir, but do you have something that is of your brother.”

“Yes I have a picture of him.” The old man said and took out a picture of his brother.

“Can I take it?” Charles asked and the librarian just gave him a nod.

#

“He killed you because you were awake late?” Amber asked the boy who had told his story to her, trying to stall him.

“Actually I think he killed me because he was ashamed that I had seen him so venerable.” The old boy replied. “Don’t worry I will soon get you back with your family. I killed your dad, then your mom, now it’s your turn. After that I can go and ‘help’ someone else.”

Then there was a huge crack in the room and the line connecting the star broke. The boy stepped in. Amber tried to dash outside but the door didn’t budge. She was cornered.

#

He took the picture and went to the nearest cemetery he could go to. He went there and sat down on the floor lighting four candles and keeping then at each corner of the picture and started chanting ‘Invocavero tibi ostende te.’

#

“Please don’t kill me.” She begged as he took out his knife from his neck and started working his way towards her neck. He slit open her wrist and blood poured from them. Taking the blood in his hand he applied it to his face. “It’s Showtime.” He said and raised the knife to drive it through her neck when a voice stopped him.

“Stop it, Alan.” Said a figure that had just materialized besides him.

“You? How dare you come in front of me after all that you have done?” the boy asked.

“I am sorry, son” his father replied. “I cannot explain why I did what I did. But I want you to know that I never hated you.”

“Wow father why didn’t you tell me that before you killed me?” the boy asked, anger pouring from his voice.

“I am sorry. I don’t deserve to be forgiven. I am ready to accept any punishment.” The father said in a guilty, sad tone. “I always loved you son, it was my drinking that resulted in your death and I know that is not an excuse. That is why I killed myself after I realized what I have done.”

The boys expression was of shock as if he wasn’t aware of the fact that his father was dead. “I know your fitting punishment for you. You will get the same fate I got.” He said and then snapped his finger which made his father’s eyes to melt out of there socket like they were dissolved in acid. Then he took the knife and stabbed him in the neck. As soon as he did, both the spirits disappeared as if their unfinished business was over.

#

She opened her eyes in a hospital bed. Her wrists were bandaged and blood was being dripped in her body. Charles was standing at the corner of the room and as he saw her open her eyes the expression of concern was replaced with a sigh of relief. “What happened to him?” she asked.

“It wasn’t a revenge taker, just a trapped spirit. Hate for his father was what was keeping him here. So I just summoned his father and gave him the face off he wanted.” Charles said.

“How did I get here?”

“When I reached the room he had slit open your wrist and there was a lot of blood. So I took you here, fortunately there was no lasting damage.” Charles said and then started to walk out. “Where are you going?”

“To save another town. There are many more people to save.” He replied.

“Thank you.” Amber said.

“Anytime Amber, just take care of yourself.” He said. “See you around.”

#THE END#