Chapter 1
Bury Me Alive
Jessica was running in a forest, running though the thick array of trees. It was dark and a slight frost was in the air. What was she doing out here? Who was chasing her out here? No, there was something out here that she wanted, something that she needed. She heard a voice. It was faint and as soft as a whisper like wind moving through the trees. “Jessica,” the voice seemed to echo through the entire forest. She could hear something just ahead of her. It seemed to be calling her, beckoning her on. “Jessica”. She continued to run deeper into the forest, no matter how fast she ran. She couldn’t catch up to it. Jessica kept running until finally she crashed into something. She fell to the ground sending up a small shower of dead leaves. Standing before her was a man in the same outfit as hers, the tired sky blue hospital uniform.
She just laid there on the ground staring at the man unable to see his face. Jessica stood up slowly, and then walked closer, “Do you know why I am here?” The mysterious person did not respond standing motionless in his place. He just continued to stare into the forest. Jessica inched closer and closer to the mystery person. She put her hand on their shoulder, “Hey I am talking to you”! She spun the person around to reveal her brother Chris, whose eyes were gone from his skull. Jessica let out a scream that rattled the very trees. He opened up his mouth to speak, but the absence of it would make talking near impossible. “No . . . no, Chris you can’t be here. I thought fixed everything. I know about the forest but I don’t know what it all means”! Chris sat their open mouthed, as his face began to droop his mouth growing wider, more oval shaped. “No, Chris I fixed everything you should be at rest. The curse can’t control you anymore.” He began to advance towards her, his mouth still wide open, eyeless sockets, and a rotting hand beginning to outstretch towards her.
Jessica fell again, but this time she fell into a giant hole. The hole was wide and long, and fit her body snuggly. It as almost like it was designed specifically for her like “A grave” she said to herself. Her eyes shot open as she began to claw at the sides of her grave, “Please no, let me out.” Coming up to the side of the grave, she began to claw more frantically “Chris please let me out of here.” He stared coldly down at her as he bent down and picked something up, it was “a shovel”? Chris began to shovel the cold dirt onto her. Chris began to fill up her grave, “no please Chris stop! I am still alive!” The dirt began to shower over Jessica and filled at an alarming rate. She clawed at the sides wildly and began to jump up and down. Trying to reach the side of the grave to pull herself out when a big patch of dirt hit her square in the face, she began to cough, and wipe it franticly. The dirt filled the grave as she continued to plead “no, no please Chris stop,” but he only started to go faster and faster. The dirt was filling her grave quicker, she grasped the edge of it, but Chris swiped at her with the shovel. She dropped into the grave, but when she looked up she saw the shovel colliding with the side of her face.
Jessica fell to the ground, the cold earth felt relaxing, but the side of her face was throbbing with pain. Her vision became blurry as she watched her brother resume shoveling more dirt into the grave. She could not move, whether paralyzed by the shovel or fear she couldn’t decide. She whispered one more time, “please . . . Chris . . . I’m not dead . . . I’m still . . .”
“Alive!” Jessica woke up screaming at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t move her arms and legs due to her being strapped down to her bed. Beginning to shriek and shake violently on the bed like she was having a seizure, she felt hands all over her as if trying to restrain her. She heard a man say, “What the hell is all that?” She felt a small prick in her right arm and soon her thrashing began to simmer and then even cease. She just laid there feeling the drugs pushing through her veins. A man leaned in to Jessica and asked, “Jessica how did all this dirt get here? How are you covered in dirt?” Jessica could only move her eyes as she saw a thin layer of dirt over the pearl white sheets. She began to drift off to sleep and seeing the security guards staring at the dirt that seemed to be scattering over the floor.
“Jessica that is not possible,” Jessica was once again lying on a couch, while a doctor examined her. The doctor was Dr. Keating, and he was worse than the last doctor that she had. She hated this doctor and it seemed like everything that she ever said was a lie. “I tell you Chris tried to bury me alive”! Dr. Keating began to write, “Jessica that is not possible, because you are here talking with me, your living and breathing before me.” “I KNOW THAT,” Dr. Keating was calm as he said, “listen Jessica you need to calm down.” Jessica sat up on the couch, “Look Chris won’t leave me alone.” Dr. Keating replied softly, “Jessica, Chris is dead. Your family is missing and you feel guilty about not being there when they left. These dreams or visions of them are just hallucinations.” This doctor started to sound like everybody else that she had ever known. The doctor continued to talk, but Jessica had gone quiet having already heard these arguments before. As he spoke his voice seemed to echo around the room. The words reverberated in her head as if it had turned into a giant cavern.
“Jessica, you can’t always go quiet when we find flaws in your story.” Jessica still didn’t talk or make any sort of movement. She figured that the meeting was over when she felt her body being hoisted into the air and the doctor was leaving the room. The guards walked her over to a chair and sat her down in it. They walked away looking upset she heard them say, “She is very pretty,” they other guard replied, “was pretty, poor girl.” Returning to her body Jessica put her hand through her hair knowing that her looks had been gone. What did they expect especially what she had been through?
Jessica noticed that everything in the room was growing quiet and dull. It’s like her hearing was going. However she heard a soft whispering like in her dream, “Jessica.” She could feel here heart beginning to race and water forming in her eyes. “No, not again,” she whimpered as she began to look around, she seemed glued to her chair. “Jessica,” it called as she leaned back in her seats. Staring around the room she noticed that all the patients had ceased their activities. They all stood like statues frozen in time, everybody literally frozen in their spot. Nobody moved in their absolute stillness, her fellow patients didn’t even blink. Something had caught her eye and it was moving within the patients, “Chris,” Jessica whispered. Chris was walking behind a couple of the patients as if he was stalking her. “Chris,” Jessica whispered again, “you can’t be here, I saved you, and I set your soul free. The whole family should be free, you, mom, dad, and Haylie”. He walked right behind a particular old looking patient and then disappeared. Jessica expected him to walk around, but he never reappeared, “Chris . . . Chris are you still here”? She whispered in a terrified moan feeling water in her eyes, and her body beginning to shake. Chris finally came around the corner, but he was now crawling on the ground towards her.
She wanted to run, but she seemed to be cemented to the chair still, she tried to move her arms but she couldn’t. Chris continued to crawl towards her twitching on the ground nails digging into the cement like it was warm butter. He crawled up to her knees, “please Chris, your free, don’t you understand that?” Chris crawled up to her face his breath permeated living death “I will never be free unless you do what needs to be done. No matter if the house stands or not . . . and it still stands”. Chris had no teeth, tongue or eyes and his skin was marble white. “That’s impossible I burnt down the house, look at these scars” Chris howled in a horrid shriek. “You know what needs to be done,” Jessica began to shake her head. “I don’t . . . how do I set you free,” he began to move his head side to side, “who ever said I want to be free.”
Jessica said, “I should be dead though. I shouldn’t even be here. You shouldn’t even be here. We should all be together. I sacrificed myself to free you all.” Chris shrieked, “no one has ever escaped. I have been sent to bring you back.” “Bring me back where,” Chris leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Back to the house.” Jessica screamed, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”!