Cell 4B3

The guard flipped the small cover shut after she looked in on Owen Price. The prisoner leaned back against the wall, adjusting his position while he waited for his execution. Between his fingers, a cigarette slowly burned, which he occasionally took a drag from. Surprisingly, his hands weren’t shaking yet. Owen expected that to happen as the last hour drew closer.

The metallic snap of the door caused the prisoner to look up. The solid door opened, showing his visitor.

“Owen,” the priest nodded.

“Hey padre! How’s it hanging? Find any boys to play with tonight?”

The priest frowned at the insult, but his words remained friendly.

“I’m here at your request. Are you ready to confess your sins?”

Owen laughed, then took an unconcerned drag on his cancer stick.

“I’m agnostic, so I’ll say no,” he replied. “We’ve had that talk. I’ve seen evil beyond your comprehension, so we’re way past talking about souls.”

He paused, observing the thin man on the other side of the bars. The priest wore a full collared black shirt and matching black pants.

“If I tell you the story everyone wants to hear, can you give me a Seal of Confession?” Owen finally asked.

The priest put his hands on the cell bars, only to be warned by the nearby guard not to touch them.

“I can only promise you that should you confess,” the man answered as he pulled his hands from the bars.

Owen considered the words for a moment, then let out a sigh.

“Well, you can call it a confession if it makes you feel better, but I want that promise from you. Plus, it will get the guard away from hearing it. Have her get you a seat. I have one waiting for me already.” Owen smirked at his ghoulish joke.

A few minutes later, the priest sat in front of Cell 4B3 to listen to the story of a condemned man. A man who refused to talk with police detectives, investigators or his lawyer after he killed his girlfriend, along with two other people. Instead, Owen remained silent to everyone but his lawyer. His only words to the lawyer were to expedite his execution faster. The condemned man pushed to get the wheels of justice moving quicker at every turn possible.

After checking his watch, the priest waited with growing anticipation while Owen lit another cigarette.

“Don’t be in such a hurry, padre. We have plenty of time. I hear the soul is eternal. Now, here is the story!”

~~~

Inside the darkened room, Price raised his head. The soothing chanting sound coming from the short and squat medium was putting him to sleep. A late-night seance he and his friends put together for fun started to weigh on him. Long weeks under the gun at work made him reconsider the wisdom of using a Friday night for something other than sleep.

Price glanced over at the fat woman when she finally ordered a spirit to appear. A thin light coming from a narrow crack in the curtain behind him gave him a partial view of Madame Célestine’s face. The flabby third chin of the medium flopped around as she spoke a mixture of Spanish and Creole. For Price, he considered it a part of the entertainment. His natural skepticism grew the longer the woman next to him played the role of entertainer.

Owen looked over the vague outlines of his girlfriend and their friends around the table. On his left was Alex Turner’s wife, Charlotte, who held his hand. She, in turn, held her husband’s hand as he sat next to the medium. Next to Owen, more hidden in the darkness, was his girlfriend, Luna Gardner. He didn’t need to see her face since he was sure Luna was smiling as the event progressed. One of her fingers occasionally tickled the palm of his hand, which she clasped. He recognized her playfulness would keep him up later tonight. But it wasn’t a complaint, he decided, as he suppressed a yawn.

Owen noticed the medium shift in her chair, and he caught movement out of the corner of his right eye. He turned his head slightly, assuming the movement came from his girlfriend. But, his eyes, wide in the darkness, focused on something between Luna and the medium.

A smoky haze lazily twisted in the air. Unformed, then moving convolutions of gray green showed a few feet behind Luna. It was almost invisible, almost unreal to him. Yet it was there, a ghostly mist that rolled idly in the darkness where only its own luminescent light showed.

And then from the mist came something more substantial. Formless at first, the fog-like structure stabilized to take on shape and substance. A partially humanoid face settled between the medium and Luna. He stared in disbelief, then glanced at Madame Célestine, who had her head turned, looking at the same spot.

“Owen, that hurts!” Luna’s voice finally broke through his trance.

He realized he was squeezing his girlfriend’s hand. Price dropped her hand and pointed at the face.

“Look there!” he hissed.

“Where?” Luna’s voice sounded irritated.

Owen realized she couldn’t see his pointing hand.

“To your right!”

He heard her gasp and caught the movement of Luna jerking back.

The face suddenly disappeared before reappearing in front of Price. Somehow, he kept from falling back in his chair. He felt his hand lifted by the icy fingers of another. He looked down and saw a disembodied hand holding his. The fingers appeared thin and delicate, similar to Luna’s.

“Christ, it touched me!” Price blurted out. He finally realized he wasn’t breathing during the encounter. “This is frigging crazy as hell!”

Charlotte’s voice broke through the silence filling the room.

“Alex, turn on the light! Now!”

Owen almost didn’t recognize the woman’s voice, which was much louder than he expected. He guessed the woman saw the apparition as well. A minute later, the light hanging over the dining table came on, causing those sitting to shield their eyes.

“Christ, that was wild,” Price jumped up from his seat and hurried to the other side of Luna.

As he inspected the area, Owen tried to debunk what he saw. He found no wires or anyway the medium might have projected the image.

“I’m not finding any scams going on here,” he announced.

“Let’s be sure,” Alex suddenly stated as he pulled the table away from the medium, who gasped at the action.

“Alex, stopped that!” Luna interceded. “Owen, you sit down. Madame Célestine, I’m sorry for their reaction.”

“It’s part of the job,” the fat woman replied while glaring at Alex. “Some people carry a great sense of spirits and others don’t.”

She looked over at Price.

“Would you like for your wife to search me for a projector?”

“No, no,” he insisted. “It’s just a natural reaction after seeing so many television programs with ghost hunting.” Owen looked around the table.

“Alright, who else saw the face?”

The look on his friend’s faces revealed they saw it.

“I’m going to be honest,” Luna’s voice trembled a little. “This bothers me. This house is only a year old.”

“Come on, Luna. You can’t be afraid,” laughed Price. “If it’s a genuine materialization, it’s pretty cool. It doesn’t mean it’s a ghost.”

She tried to smile in response but appeared to find it difficult.

“No,” she drawled, and her blue eyes remained troubled. “That’s what I’m worried about! How do we know it’s a human spirit?”

Price looked confused, and the medium spoke up.

“Luna is correct. There are more things out beyond our realm we call human. Some are not ghosts or souls. They never can be! And some—it’s not good to bring them inside.” Celestine’s eyes betrayed her concern, which Price found absurd, but he simply nodded. Still, the medium uttered a series of quick exclamations.

“These things, they are not dead; they’ve never lived—not like you and me.”

Madame Célestine shrugged her shoulders and patted Luna on her back.

“But nothing to fear,” she stated. “I protect myself; I protect you, always!”

Luna nodded at the statement as Charlotte joined the ladies. The medium started with an explanation about the face they witnessed. The fat woman told them she never witnessed materialization like that before. Alex caught Owen’s eye and nodded to the kitchen.

“Let’s get a beer to finish out the night,” Price said in agreement.

As the men drank in the kitchen, Alex asked his friend his thoughts.

“Well, I don’t think it’s a hoax. Not sure what we saw but I want to try it again. See if we get the same thing,” Owen said quietly as he glanced out at the women talking.

“Man, you really like to invite trouble in, don’t you? I don’t think Charlotte’s planning on doing that again. She’s pretty nervous right now. She wasn’t happy with me agreeing to do this.”

Price observed the stoic blonde woman standing by his girlfriend and shrugged.

“I don’t know how you can tell,” he admitted.

“It’s easy,” Alex smirked. “The quieter she gets, the more I’m in trouble.”

The two men laughed at the statement and went back into the dining room. They followed the medium to the front door. Madame Célestine suddenly turned back to Owen.

“I am a voice medium, which means I can let a spirit speak through me and use my voice,” she said. “Tonight, something else happened, and it’s not good. Someone else brought the materialization to the table.”

She pointed at Price.

“I think you have more power than you understand.”

Owen’s face lit up at the thought.

“Wow, just call me Owen Price, your star medium!” he announced. “I’ll give readings by appointment only. Luna, you just wait till you see me in my full regalia.”

“No, no, that’s not good,” the medium insisted. “You are inexperienced. You’ll become nothing but a gate for something we don’t want to walk through.”

“I’m sure it’s just a joke,” Luna swore while giving her boyfriend a glare.

“Yeah, just a joke,” Price repeated.

~~~

One week later, Luna Gardner screamed while her chair tipped over with a loud crash in the dark dining room. Then her terrified voice cut through the darkness.

“Somebody turn on the lights—it’s touching me! Oh God, help—what is this?”

Luna screamed again as Owen flipped on the lights after tripping over Luna’s chair.

She stood crouched over and trembling. Wiping something from one hand using her pant leg when the lights flashed on, Luna glanced up with wide eyes in panic. Her other hand she held outstretched, as if warding off something. And in that split second, everyone around the table saw flecks of white foam on her pant leg she wiped from her hand.

But Owen’s eyes focused on a dark mass in Luna’s outstretched hand—a clump of clotted black hair—and, hanging to it, a mass of what might have been flesh at some point. Luna suddenly realized the item was in her hand and she dropped it.

“What the hell is that?” Alex’s voice broke as he backed up from the creepy item.

“Fuck, that’s enough! Stop this gag!” Charlotte’s enraged voice filled the room.

Price hurried to Luna’s side as she stared down at the matted flesh on the floor.

“This isn’t a joke, Charlotte!” Owen announced. “I don’t know what the hell happened. But we didn’t trick you!”

“Christ, look!”

Price looked down at Alex’s words and he saw that hair and flesh undergoing a change. The pale flesh turned purple. Seconds later, the creepy skin transformed into iridescent brown ooze—until only a pool of the foul liquid showed. The black clot of hair was the last thing to go, slowly disappearing.

“No! It’s not real!” Luna backed away, still unconsciously wiping her hand on her pants.

A stench filled the air, causing everyone to leave the room.

Long after the Turners left, Owen went late into the night, researching their experience. He recognized heart-freezing, blood-congealing fear made people lose sight of rational thinking. Yet Own would admit laughingly and with all honesty that to him that the fear everyone else felt earlier was an unknown emotion for him. Instead, he overcame his fear by focusing on the rational, the scientific. What they experienced needed more study.

Price glanced over at his sleeping girlfriend, who lay on the nearby couch with sympathy. He never intended for things to go so far. However, he felt a buzz inside him from the opportunity he experienced earlier.

Something crossed into their realm!

In the hours since, Owen came away from their terror with more interest. Maybe even something beyond curiosity—he carried an insatiable desire to know more of the thing. As he held Luna in his arms for her to drift off to sleep, Price knew she could not deter him. He would just keep her away from his research. Despite the terror in the minds and hearts of the others in that room, the man felt an almost desperate need to discover more about the thing, as he called it.

Getting up from his chair, Price went over to the window and looked out at the lightening sky. A glance at the clock on the wall told him it was nearly five in the morning. His engineer’s mind kept going over the experiences and he came up with several ways to prove what they saw was real. He wanted to capture evidence of the thing with more than just video evidence. He yawned, then went back to his laptop to email his boss. Owen decided he would stay home today and focus on his upcoming experiments.

When the weekend came around, Price was alone in the apartment, sitting in the dining room again. Luna was staying with Charlotte for the evening as a girl’s night out since Alex had a conference trip for his job.

Owen sat in the dark, keeping his breathing calm. Around him on tripods were several devices he picked up from online shops specializing in ghost hunting. He turned on the infrared camera, which stood on a tripod facing him. Since it was his first time trying to bring the thing out, he could only sit in the dark with his thoughts.

At first, he considered the reasons behind his need to investigate. He kept going back to his need to know the truth. In a way, Price wanted to confront the unknown realm and whatever stood inside. The blackness surrounding him gave him a sense of comfort, but he also carried an underlying worry. It was inevitable since the night carried an inherent sense of danger for any human. He reminded himself to control fear was the act that pushed humanity beyond an animal surviving by instinct alone.

A prickling sensation that grew inside came after he waited. The feeling almost stung him as it moved swiftly up his spine. Owen recognized it. Also, there came a lethargy that swept quickly through him. An added sense swept over him when he noticed a ghostly glimmering appeared in the far corner of the room. However, it wasn’t by sight, since his eyes were of little use in the darkness. Yet, some inner vision made him turn his head to face the thing coming.

Straining to grasp a vision, he finally noticed a wispy cloud of gray green spread out over the floor, then it twirled upward to reach the ceiling. His memories of the woods where he beheld foxfire came back as he stared at the bioluminescence flickers weaving amid the cloud.

The cloud disappeared. He looked around as the damnable thing’s presence remained. He felt the pressure down in his bones. Price tried to overcome a feeling of helplessness as some strange power reached out to paralyze his muscles. Something that had become invisible still hovered around him. Its presence made known to him by that strange sense inside him.

He could not move. Still, he felt—no; he knew with certainty that something incredibly vile hovered near him. Owen’s sense tingled with dread as the thing drew closer—still, closer.

Finally, Price understood the full meaning of overwhelming fright. The understanding of its uttermost depths came out along with beads of cold perspiration chill his neck. He thought of the light switch on the other wall. The man turned to the barest stream of moonlight creeping into the room from behind the curtains. He considered running to the window to throw them open in the moonlight. Owen believed it was the only way the entity would leave. And then—he noticed a forming figure which caused Price’s breath to stop.

A blotchy green and brown head emerged in front of Owen Price. He froze, his gaze fixated on the thing. The front of the creature’s face held a flat and triangular elongated nasal and mouth, which reminded him of a venomous snake. But the humanoid lips were open to reveal curved yellow teeth. Thick mangy hair partially covered two soulless pockets where eyes should exist. The hair hung down along the sides of the head.

Powerless, Price could only look at the foulness exposed in front of him. Then he noticed two bands of silvery light suddenly come to life inside the eye sockets. They held a demoniac fury that Owen found an irresistible fascination for a moment. Then, his brain raced with a thousand instant thoughts, which led to one conclusion. The thing was nothing remotely of a human soul. It was something which came from the dark recesses of some ungodly realm.

As his mind scrambled for any solution to his paralyzing fear, Price noticed the beam of moonlight in the corner of his eye. The line of light caused his eyes to look away from the frightful visage. Instinctively, Price jumped out of his chair and ran to the window. He flung back the curtains, then turned. The moonlight flooded into the room. The only sound Owen heard as he watched a blue-white mist vanish from near his chair was his beating heart.

Still in fright, the man hurried to the wall and flipped on the light switch. The blinding glare of light filling the area made him feel safe. However, Owen felt a pain in his wrist. He looked down to find blood streaming from an open cut. Then, an intolerable scent of decay filled the room, and Price hurried to the bathroom.

Luna returned to the apartment with Charlotte the next morning. Both of them looked at Owen with concern when they discovered him in the kitchen. He looked over from the chair where he sat at the counter drinking coffee. The bags under his eyes and the strain of a night filled with terrible nightmares appeared obvious to the women.

“Owen, what happened?” Luna wrapped her arms around him as she pressed against his back.

He shook his head while still debating what to tell her. It was an argument he had with himself most of the night.

“Just awful nightmares,” he explained.

“You didn’t do anything, did you?” Her suspicious tone caused him to grimace.

“No, nothing like that,” Owen recovered quickly and gave her a grin. “Just didn’t get any sleep, so I’m dead tired. I have to quit watching those horror movies.”

~~~

When Luna asked about the bandage on his wrist, Owen just shrugged and told her he cut his arm accidentally while making his dinner just after she left.

“Just don’t ask me to cut vegetables for you,” he joked.

Price noticed by her look she remained skeptical of his answer, so he quickly changed the subject.

“So, what did you and Charlotte do last night?”

As the women regaled him with their bar crawl through the various establishments, Price put on a face he used at work. While his mind returned to the thing which entered his world, he feigned his interest in their exploits. When the conversation ebbed, he excused himself and went to the bedroom for a nap.

Luna’s tender lips woke Owen late in the afternoon. He smiled and hugged her tightly.

“I didn’t want to wake you,” she said. “But you’ll not get any sleep tonight if you don’t get up.”

Owen suppressed the sarcastic comment waiting on his lips. Instead, he nodded while he enjoyed her embrace. Besides, Price knew he wouldn’t get any sleep until he ensured the thing would not return.

“Charlotte took off right after you went to sleep,” Luna informed him with a grin. “I’m sure you can’t get her to stay in this place on her own.”

Her smile faded.

“You look worried. Is there something I can help with?”

He looked into her eyes, remembering the first moment he saw her.

“Nah, I’m just getting over that stuff with the seance. I’m sorry.”

She kissed him, then laid her head across his chest.

“Don’t put it on yourself. We all agreed.”

Luna paused; her eyes drifted toward the window and the sunlight pushing through the blinds.

“You know, I slept better at the Turners than I’ve done here since that night—when the medium was—do you think that means something?”

Owen tensed at the idea before he let out a breath and shrugged.

“Well, you had a terrible fright. We’re unsure of what happened, so I think it’s normal. On top of that, it happened in this apartment. I think there’s some psychology at work in the background.”

“Well, that’s not a pleasant thought,” she replied. “I mean about it happening a few feet away from this bed. But it does make sense, I guess. Everyone thinks dealing with the supernatural is fun at first. Then, I touched it.” She shivered, then lifted her head to look at him.

“When you get down to it, I don’t want to know what’s out there. It doesn’t matter as long as it stays on one side, and we stay here.”

“What about afterward?” he asked.

Luna gave him a puzzled look.

“I mean after we die. Don’t you want to know what lays beyond?”

She laid her head on his chest and remained quiet for a moment. Then Owen heard her sigh as he stroked her hair.

“No!” she finally declared. “I don’t think there’s a thing we can do about it. So why tempt fate?”

He chuckled at her statement.

“I suppose that’s as good a reason as any I’ve thought of,” Price agreed.

~~~

It was near midnight. True to Luna’s prediction, Owen found himself unable to sleep. After tossing and turning for an hour, plus the glare from his sleepy girlfriend, he finally left the bedroom.

Owen turned his attention to some of the work he’d let slip while he fixated on drawing the thing out again. After making love to Luna early in the evening, he promised himself to change his focus. Price was done with trying to bring the entity into their world. Now, he merely wanted to confirm it stayed away.

Looking over his delayed project, Owen found himself quickly immersed in the details. He swore softly under his breath as he went over various parts of the group’s design, which caused issues. As he tapped out emails to various colleagues involved, Price went over the budgets, estimates and timelines.

The lamp made a circle of light upon the table where he worked. Silence filled the room, but for the occasional squeak of his chair when he moved. Owen remained unaware of the darkness or his own solitude. Entirely engaged, the first sound went unnoticed.

Eventually, the sound repeated several times before Price realized the odd noise. It reminded him of the whistling intake from someone with a severe case of asthma. He cocked his head toward the sound. However, he could not make out the source.

“Stop it!” he mumbled, more to himself than whatever made the noise.

His gaze moved unconsciously toward that place where, one night earlier, he stared into the eyes of the thing. With a sense of relief, nothing appeared in his sight. Still, the same strange chill sensation along his spine had half prepared him to see a gray-green whirl of mist in the darkness. By sheer willpower, Owen scoffed aloud. He brought his gaze back to the computer inside his circle of light. Fortunately, the noise stopped, and he continued his work.

As he finally yawned, his ears picked up the labored breathing again. His growing unease told him something loathsome returned to the room. The thought made him instantly angry. He didn’t call for it. Owen didn’t want it here. Then, he partially recalled the medium’s statement to him before she left.

She called me a gateway or something!

Broken from his thoughts by the asthmatic sound, he realized a dim light came from the direction of the noise. Still, he refused to look at it. Before, the thing never came out except in the total darkness. Now, it came forth even with the partial light on the desk. His mind raced at the implication, which he did not want to accept. Price realized the danger could grow. However, he needed to prove the idea. Then, he could come back with an effective deterrent.

Still, he did not turn at once. His hand slowly gripped the base of the desk lamp while a deep chill gripped his body. Price felt himself split into two halves. The coward kept him from moving.

Come on, you fool! A damn spirit can’t hurt you!

The whistling intake of that terrible sound as the thing appeared to breathe kept coming with gruesome regularity. Still, Owen debated with himself. Finally, he heard the rasping breath grow perceptibly louder.

It’s coming! It will touch me again!

The thought of the matted hair and Luna’s own reaction finally gave the man the strength to turn.

He squinted as the bright light of the desk lamp kept him from seeing in the darkness. Half-way between Owen and the corner of the room, a dark shadow’s movement caught his notice. As Price’s eyes adjusted to themselves, he gripped the base of the lamp hard—every second seemed like a lagging hour.

At first, only the outline of a stooped, shrunken body revealed itself among the shadows. The shadow appeared different from what he witnessed before. Vaguely humanoid, it stood motionless. Just before Price started to move the desk lamp, the thing in the shadows took a halting, forward step. It wasn’t the same face he had seen before. Instead, he noticed the sunken cheeks of a skull-like appearance this time, along with the long gray hair that hung over half of the monstrous face.

Owen noticed one hand rose. However, the hand looked more like a claw. But the trembling hand brushed aside the hanging hair, and the creature cocked its head. For the first time that night, he saw the eyes. They were cavernous eyes, deeply sunken in their sockets. In that emaciated look, the two black openings blazed.

Instantly, Price knew the truth. It was the same thing! In one intuitive flash, he recognized the creature exposed him to one of its disguises. Whether intentional or not, the thing revealed intelligence. The fact alone sent a wave of anxiety through him.

The charnel-house odor struck his senses. Still, Price kept his position. His hand refused to leave the base of the lamp. He almost expected the entity to keep coming at him. Owen reasoned the thing intended to make a claim.

The creature showed him hatred in those eyes focused on Price. A visible display of the waxen pallor and the discoloration which spread across the cruel face coming toward him. One slow step; another as dreadful, as inexorable; He dimly he felt a shiver cover his skin. And some part of Price’s mind reached deep for phrases half forgotten. His lips whispered out words he did not believe.

“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night.”

One bony, claw-like hand rested upon the desk, just inches from him. He stared into the rotten thing’s malevolent eyes, which appeared to recognize Owen’s fear. But the creature did not expect the man to find his muscles at that moment. Price slammed the desk lamp into the thing’s face.

A scream erupted in the room as the light shattered. Owen could not say whether the shriek came from him or the nameless thing. He could only remember the stench and the sizzling sound of meat landing on a skillet. Somehow, he stumbled to the wall and turned on the light switch.

Near the desk, he saw a huddled heap of flesh and hair. To his horror, Owen realized the thing still maintained a semblance of wholeness for a few seconds. Finally, the creature lost all form. An ugly pool of black liquid melted into the floor and the thing disappeared. Only the vile smell remained as Luna entered the room. She took one look at Owen staring at the floor where the broken lamp rested.

“Owen, I’m not staying here another night!”

~~~

True to her word, Luna moved in with Alex and Charlotte for a few days. In a way, Price found himself happy about it. He saw no reason for her to be the target of the hideous thing that came into the dining room. Owen accepted the blame for his curiosity, and now he planned to set it right. He knew of only one person who might help him.

Price arrived at Madame Célestine home later in the afternoon of the next day. He didn’t bother to call her. Instead, he walked up to the weatherbeaten door of a small cottage style bungalow near downtown.

The medium’s fat, expressionless face looked him over as she stood in front of the door. In her hands was a cat. He could smell the odor of more inside, but he put on a fake smile.

“You did it, even when I told you not to,” she said before Price could get out any words.

“And now?” She shrugged her shoulders as distaste grew on her face.

“Christ, yes—I’m asking for your help,” began Price. “It’s coming out. Plus, it came at me last night.”

The woman sighed and turned back into the room. The door remained open.

“Close the door when you come in,” she said. “I don’t want the cats out. The damn cars run them over.”

A few minutes later, Price told her the story as he sat on a couch covered in cat hair. He kept moving his feet uncomfortably while a young kitten played with his shoelace.

“Like I told you, you’ve left the door open. From your description, it has walked in and that door, once open, it is difficult to close!” Madame leaned her head on her hand as she observed him.

“But it can be closed, right? I know it’s not afraid of the light like it was. Still, when I pushed the lamp into its face, it fell apart.”

“That’s the problem. You have little knowledge, so you can make it worse. You’re dealing with a dangerous thing,” she leaned back. “This entity is not of this world, but it wants to be here now. You’ve given it a reason to enter. It recognizes your spirit and now it wants your spirit for itself.”

“What do you mean? Are you telling me it collects souls? It must be from hell if you believe in such things,” Owen insisted.

The medium’s eyes widen with interest.

“Oh, so you know of the things in Hell even if you have no faith?” She shook her head. “Whether or not you believe it wants your spirit. It crosses from dimensions. Each religion has their view of such a place. But it wants your spirit or your soul if you like. The creature will target you and the others, since crossing over is no longer an obstacle. You provided it a path.”

“I don’t understand,” he replied. “Yes, I wanted it to come forth. I admit it. But why can’t I just close the door? Isn’t this like an exorcism?”

“What is the possessed?” The medium nearly choked on his statement. “An exorcism is to rid a possessed body of an evil entity who’s taken over. You’ve had manifestations. Therefore, I say you can make it worse.”

The woman stood, placing a cat on the seat. She paced; her expression grew serious.

“Let me explain this way,” Madame finally looked at him. “A gateway allows entities to travel into our realm. You’ve heard of spirit boards, like the Ouija, correct?”

She waited for his nod before she continued.

“There are thousands of paths open should the thing decide to take them. Otherworldly things don’t normally come into our realm unless invited, and you requested this one to seek you out even after I warned you. This means you’ve become the gateway. Now do you see?”

Owen nodded at the news.

“So, religion is no help here. That’s what you’re telling me.”

“No, I’m not telling you such foolish things. Faith can help dispel the darkness. However, there are people who specialize in sending such creature’s back. But they don’t just show up because you ask. We must seek them out and prove you have this problem first.”

The woman chuckled at his crestfallen expression.

“Don’t look so upset. I know someone. I’ll contact her today.” She explained. “With luck, she’ll come to help.”

Price stood up from the couch and thanked her.

“I guess I just have to wait until that happens. In the meantime, I just keep all the lights on in the apartment.”

He tried to make light of it and failed.

“That should help,” she replied. “Also, make sure you warn Luna and your friends. Keep away from them until I get help. This is important.”

His worry returned to his expression. As he walked to the front door, Madame Célestine stopped him with her warning.

“I will try to hurry my friend into action. However, you must be careful. This thing will continue to come for you. Like all from the other side, the creatures recognize your weakness, and they seek to exploit it.”

Owen turned back and looked at her with confidence.

“I’ll do that. You can count on me to keep the others safe even if I have to put garlic around the damn place. I’ll fix what I screwed up!”

Late that evening, Owen Price switched on every lamp in the room. Then he dropped into his big chair. He called Luna and told her a brief version of his conversation with the medium. Fortunately, their conversation shifted to things they wanted to do in the future. After he got off the call, almost immediately he got a series of texts from Luna, which helped ease his fear for her.

Eventually, he went to the desk where the bent lamp sat with a new light bulb in place. He caught up with emails, then looked at his phone. He hoped to hear something from Madame Célestine already. As he paced around the apartment, he picked up a book. But his interest in the story quickly faded.

Price went back to his desk and pulled out a notepad. He wrote some of his thoughts, growing tired of the silent room. He moved back to his computer, where he quickly brought up an online music app. As the music eased his anxiety, Owen went back to his notepad.

After a while, his mind went back to the events since the first night with Madame Célestine. His notes soon turned into meaningless marks and scribbles as he closed his eyes. Owen lost a sense of time as he stared off into space. Unconsciously, his hand drew geometrical figures. His pen occasionally moving the tip across other figures with a rhythmic, swinging pattern. The movement never broke him from his trance-like state. When Price finally felt the cramp in his hand, he looked down with shock from what he saw on the paper.

Black crisscrosses of confused marks covered part of the page. But in the area closest to his cramped hand, letters came into focus. They were the same words repeated over and over down the page in crowded, vertical letters of unfamiliar handwriting. The hairs on his neck stood when he comprehended the sentence.

I’ll

get

them!

Price stood up, sending the chair flipping back to the floor with a crash. The words of the medium’s warning came to him.

“You bastard!” he exploded.

Deep down, Owen realized what the lines told him. He picked up his phone and saw the time.

3 AM? No, it was impossible, he thought.

I’ve lost three hours of time!

Immediately, he called Luna. He waited, but it went to voicemail. He tried again and her voice gave the same message. But the call dropped before he could leave a message.

“Luna, pick up,” he yelled at the room.

He pushed the call button again as he hurried to the door. When he reached his car, the call dropped again.

On the drive over to the home of Alex and Charlotte, Owen called Alex’s number than as well. Again, no one picked up the phone. Only a disconnect tone screeched in his ear. While he considered calling the police, he hesitated. What would he tell them? A thing from another dimension might be after his friends.

When he finally reached the dark house, Price ran to the front door, where he found the door partially open. He immediately went inside and turned on the light. When he called out, only silence came back. Hurrying upstairs, he reached the first room where Luna slept.

Flipping on the hall light, he saw his girlfriend through her open door. Owen approached quietly. The window of the room let in a broad band of moonlight which lit the covers across the bed. He let out a silent breath when he noticed the regular rise and fall of her breast. The faintest ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Satisfied, he stepped away and turned the hall light off. Debating his next step, Price went to the stop of the stairs. For one frozen instant, he watched an irregular blur move in the full light of the living room below him. Stricken with a paralysis which forced him to grab the railing for support, he saw the blur shadow take form. On the floor before him, the shape turned into a type of strange hairy monkey. Despite the shape and the long and stringy hair, there was a familiar skull-like face turning upward to look at him. Price panicked.

Crap, I brought that fucking thing here!

The stupidity of his action caused a frantic rage to fill Owen’s body. He hurried down the stairs to confront the thing. However, when Price got halfway to the ground floor, the crouching monkey thing leaped to the floor with a motion so swift he nearly missed it. It was like the creature was in two positions at the same instant.

At the top of the stairs, the nameless thing looked squarely at the man. Price recognized something in the hateful creature’s eyes. A creature worthy of some smoldering pit of hell revealed an intelligent smugness with the ferocity of a wild beast. Fear of the thing caused the man to remain trapped in a dreadful paralysis.

Then the creature disappeared. Owen knew it entered the room where Luna slept. The knowledge forced him to move. As he rushed into the room, he saw the thing standing over Luna with one clawlike hand on her neck. He heard her give a feeble, gasping moan.

Instinct took over. Price found a side chair by the dresser, and he grabbed it. The enraged man flew towards the thing while swinging the chair. His attack hit the entity in the face. However, it picked up Luna by her neck and lifted her in the air like a trophy.

Screeching out his curses, Owen swung the chair into the body of the thing. Again and again he struck the unmoving creature, which appeared to mock him. Price heard noise coming from the hallway and he called out for help.

“Alex, get a weapon, a gun, anything!” He swung again.

His arms were already tiring, but the man ignored the knowledge that each strike felt like he was hitting stone. Finally, he used the chair as a battering ram and went directly at the monster. His push sent the thing back into the wall and Luna fell onto the bed. The curtain ripped from the wall as the entity moved toward Price. The horrible stench of putrefying flesh filled the room. He heard Alex calling out as he rushed into the room with a knife in hand.

“What the hell is going on?” Charlotte joined him at the room’s entrance. “Luna!”

The nameless thing immediately turned into a blur again. Price felt the putrid air pass him.

“It’s coming, kill it!” he yelled.

“What’s happ…” Alex didn’t get the words out.

Price watched as the thing appeared behind the couple. It lifted their bodies from the floor like it did with Luna. Their hands grabbed at the creature’s hands wrapped around their neck. Legs kicking out desperately, their eyes bulged from the pressure of the hand which strangled them. In his despair, Alex drove his knife into the creature’s hand. The nameless thing screeched when it lost two fingers. Unfortunately, the knife blade sliced into Alex’s neck.

The thing dropped him to the floor as Owen’s friend bled out. But Price saw the opening and he came at the creature with his chair again. This time, the nameless thing pulled Charlotte into Owen’s path. Just as Price slowed up his attack, he heard the sickening crunch of the entity when it broke the woman’s neck. Then, the monster threw the dead woman into Price. The impact sent him across the room.

When Price finally got out from under the body. He recognized he’d lost. The thing sat at the edge of the bed, staring in triumph in the moonlight. Owen stared down at Luna. Her open eyes were staring at nothing, and her waxen pale face told him the bitter truth.

A raging scream burst from Price’s throat. He launched himself in one spring at the thing. However, the look of contempt from the entity is the last occurrence Owen saw when it vanished. The man’s two outstretched, straining hands grabbed the bed sheet where the thing sat. He tore frenziedly at the bedding, howling and crying.

Price finally stopped after tearing apart the room. His heavy breathing overlapped as he kept mumbling over and over the same words in a broken, hollow voice. That’s how the police found him when they finally arrived at the house.

~~~

“There you go, padre!” Owen lit up another cigarette from the stub between his fingers. “That’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

He let out a long breath filled with smoke.

“The police never found my prints on the bodies. Nor could the medical examiner explain strangulation by hands much larger than mine. Plus several other items that made little sense. Still, I refused to reveal the truth. I didn’t say a word to anyone. My lawyer thought I was nuts. He told me he could get off with only a couple of years. I told him not to bother.”

“But why?” the priest finally got his question out.

A sneer came over Owen’s face.

“Why else? I deserve death, don’t I? I brought the damn thing into this place. Hell, the fucking bastard comes into the cell nearly every night. I figured it out. It’s waiting on me.” He took a long drag from the cigarette. “It painted a target on me to enter that place.”

He shrugged.

“Hell, maybe I’ll become the same thing. Now you understand why I kept my mouth shut. Nobody could believe it. Hell, I can tell by your expression you don’t believe me either.” Price shrugged.

The cell went quiet for a while.

“Yeah, many people would say I’m trying to get away with murder by claiming I’m a mental case.” Price paused, scratching his cheek thoughtfully. “Well, I suppose I could be mental if I didn’t know the truth. Still, it’ll be interesting in a few minutes to find out where I fit.”

“What do you mean?” the priest got up from his chair.

“Well, dah! I mean, if I left the door open while alive, will I go back through or not when I’m dead?” Owen shook his head at the man. “I told you it’s waiting on me. It’s not like I believe I’m going to your heaven. Not after what I’m tied to now. So, I’m curious if I turn into something like that thing that came through. You’re supposed to be a spiritual guy! Aren’t you interested in knowing that?”

“You’re not a demon!” the priest stated. “I’m afraid if you don’t confess your sins, you’ll never find…”

“Demon, shemon! I’d rather prove something to you,” Owen interrupted him. “Wait in your dining room tonight at midnight with the lights out. Don’t go to sleep. Just sit there in the dark and call for me.”

“What will that prove?” the priest let out a troubled breath at the idea. The clanging of doors caught their attention.

Two men in prison uniforms arrived behind the priest.

“Time to shave you for the chair,” one guard announced.

Owen Price nodded, then looked at the priest.

“It’s my last request. Will you do that for me?”

“But what will it prove?” the priest asked again.

“Nothing, unless I show up. Then it’ll be pretty damn interesting! Maybe I’ll chase you around for a while.”

Owen Price smirked as the guards opened his cell door.

FINIS