"N-n-no," Nathan muttered and moved slightly to the right, eyes shut in deep sleep. He continued to mutter under his breath as he tossed and turned, eventually getting his legs in a tangled mess with the brown duvet.
Suddenly, he began to jerk fiercely in his sleep, gripping the pillow hard.
"No! Leave me alone!" He screamed and jumped from the bed, dashing for the far corner of his sparsely furnished room.
"Nathan!" James rushed in, eyes darting around in fear.
"She was here," Nathan said in a hoarse whisper, "I heard her, felt her," he hugged his arms to his chest as goosebumps broke out on his skin.
"She'll be back," he looked at his best friend and brother from another mother whose facial expression mirrored his.
"This will be the last time," James sat on the cold cement floor beside Nathan.
"I'm beginning to doubt that," Nathan muttered.
"It has to be, as long as we haven't seen her face then it's still all good," James said.
"For how long?" Nathan asked, frustrated.
"How long will we keep running for something we did innocently?" He flung his arms out angrily.
"There's nothing innocent about murder and though we were quite young when we did it, we were also old enough to get cursed." James said quietly.
"I mean, who in his right state of mind would curse little children over one silly mistake?" Nathan retorted.
"Silly mistake? Nathan, we killed her son!" James looked at his friend in disbelief.
Nathan shook his head furiously, "No, we pushed him, that's all,"
"And he died," James added.
"We were twelve bro! We deserve a break already! We can't keep running from something we can't even see for the rest of our lives," Nathan roared.
"We were twelve, yes. But we're also responsible for our actions. Her son did nothing to us and yet all we did was bully him till his death. I think we deserve the curse on our heads," James retorted angrily, frustrated as well.
This could have been prevented if he hadn't gone ahead with Nathan's plan in the past.
Nathan shook his head in disbelief, "I can't believe you right now. Get out," he ordered.
James only shook his head and shrugged.
"We'll go see a priest tomorrow, hopefully this will work," he said and shut the door behind him.
Having nothing to do to dissipate his rising temper, Nathan began to arrange the bed while muttering under his breath.
"How dare he say that I deserve to be cursed?" He tucked in the bed sheets fiercely.
"You don't think so?"
"No!" Nathan grunted as he arranged the pillows, "I did nothing wrong, I was young and innocent,"
"Were you?"
"All I did was push him a little. It's not my fault he stumbled and fell off the cliff," he gave the pillows a punch, his breath coming in rapid pants.
"But it is your fault, it is entirely your fault!" It roared, sending Nathan stumbling backwards in terror as he realized that he hadn't been soliloquizing all the while.
His heart beat hard in his chest as he stared at the corner of the room where the voice had come from.
"Who are you?" Nathan asked, his voice shaky.
No reply came.
"What do you want?" He raised the tone of his voice a little.
Still no reply.
"Show yourself!" He ordered and moved farther into the wall, if he could pass through the wall, he would.
Seconds passed before he began to hear a dull scratching sound, like someone was trying to claw their way out of the wall only that the sound got louder and it went closer to Nathan who was beginning to shake and soon he heard the voice he had always heard in the nightmares he had been experiencing since he was thirteen.
The voice that made his blood run cold and sent shivers down his spine.
"Nathan," it whispered over the scratching noises that filled the room.
"No! James!" Nathan shouted.
"I have come to take you," a woman's voice said and immediately, the lights overhead came on and Nathan saw the most hideous creature that he had ever seen in his life.
Steinar Engleland From Unsplash
It took the form of an extremely old woman, so old it was as if the flesh on its bones was peeling off. Its face looked hideous with sunken eyes, so deep it was difficult to ascertain if it had eyes at all, it had no nose and no lips but teeth that looked so white and sharp.
Nathan stood frozen as the creature dragged its feet towards him, it made scratching sounds on the cold, cement floor.
"Don't you remember me?" The creature asked, smiling broadly.
"No! Leave me alone! James!" Nathan screamed.
"Let me show you," the creature chuckled and wrapped bony fingers around Nathan's shirt, dragging him towards the wall.
"James! James!" Nathan called as he fought to get out of the creature's tight grip which was proving impossible with each passing second.
"You'll see now, you'll see soon," with that, the creature dragged Nathan through the wall cutting off his screams at once, leaving the room ringing with echoes of his screams.
Suddenly James rushed in, "Nathan!" he called.
"Nathan?" He called again and walked into the room slowly, already dreading what he might find.
"Bro, where–" he stopped short in front of the wall where the imprint of Nathan being dragged by the creature was carved into the wall, on his face was nothing but fear and his mouth was open in a perpetual silent scream.
James only stared and stared, his fingers trembling.
He could hear echoes of Nathan's screams as he stared at the horrifying imprint of his best friend on the wall.
"No," James fell to his knees and sobbed bitterly.
He was never going to see his best friend again.