Let Me Take Your Place

...Jestool...

June. 25. 2016.

"Why won't you just give up!? Why do you insist on saving her!?"

"Becau-"

"AAAHHHHHGGG" Jestool roared before Alcie could answer.

"BECAUSE!!" Alcie's voice boomed with an unfamiliar authority. "No one else could. They might try, but the fact is, I am the only one who can." Alcie met Jestool's angry, blood-red snake eyes, and shoved her face inches away from his "and THAT, is important."

September. 2. 2013.

"I think Wyatt is safer where he is right now Tesha."

"What!?" Tesha snapped at her sister. "How could you say that? You and I both know what it was like living in that situation and NOW, Wyatt is alone."

Alcie shuffled uncomfortably looking out towards a line of pine trees swaying against snow covered mountains.

While they waited for their school bus to arrive, Tesha witnessed Alcie's discomfort. Irritated, she asked "Is this about your psychic crap again? What is it this time?" Tesha rolled her eyes.

"Well..." Alcie trailed off.

"Would you focus!" Tesha snapped again.

"Stop snapping at me like that Tesha! You know this is new to me. I don't just know what 'the psychic crap' means when it happens." Alcie looked past Tesha and saw their classmates' bored stares fixate on them. "Let's move a bit further away from the other kids..." Alcie whispered. Tesha turned around to see the onlookers and nodded. Alcie took a breath, "I've been seeing shadow people around the house. There are at least more than ten, but I don't know why they're there. I don't know anything about them. What I do know, is that their energy is negative. Also, I've been having dreams of... Things, and I'm wondering if they are the same..."

Tesha took a sharp breath. "Okay. Fine. Let's just get on the bus. We will continue this conversation after school."

Alcie and Tesha could hear the rumble of the school bus getting closer. When the bus rounded the corner they waved to their driver Berry. He didn't wave back. "He probably just didn't see us." Tesha suggested. He seemed okay, but his driving looked a bit off that morning. There was rust eating at the fenders, and dirt was caked on to the body of the bus. The girls looked at each other, and Tesha shrugged. "He probably couldn't get his regular bus today," she said. "You're right. No sense in worrying more." Alcie smiled.

Once Alcie took a step onto the bus she felt uneasy and nearly puked. Tesha looked back at her, and helped her finish getting to their seats. Alcie fell into their assigned bench with a thump, she was knocked out by a crushing energy that was present on the bus. Tesha snapped her fingers by Alcie's ears. She then grabbed her water bottle and splashed a small amount of liquid on Alcie's face. "Shit," Tesha said under her breath.

'Where am I?' Alcie heard her own question echo through her head. while surveying her surroundings. There were plains of dead grass that stretched as far as the eye could see. She heard a crunch under her feet and realized she was back in the desert. Back in a distant memory. She gasped. 'Not here. Why do my nightmares always start here?'

A house popped up in front of her, and she was pulled through it. 'This house,' Alcie thought. 'This one is unfamiliar... But I remember feeling a threat, feeling like I might have been in danger...' Alcie shut her eyes hard, as she could feel a migraine creeping towards her mind. She was yanked into a room in the house where she saw a four year old Alcie, five year old Tesha, and a friend they once had. They were asleep. 'This seems peaceful.' Alcie ventured, then a man entered the room. Alcie felt fear take over her. She was frozen in place with feet that felt like iron blocks. A shiver crawled through her body while she watched the man slip under the covers with her friend. The little version of her opened her eyes and rolled over in her sleeping bag that was neatly placed on the ground. She whispered, "are you okay?" The man rolled over the bed looking down at Alcie and raised a finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet. Alcie started to hear uncomfortable sounds coming from the bed, she covered her ears and tried desperately to get back to sleep.

Alcie felt searing tears welling up in her eyes as she was painfully ripped from the memory. After a moment, she was materialized in the next morning of the event. She watched as the little Alcie tried to tell her friend's mother about the man in the bedroom, and tried to explain what happened. The mother was infuriated and accused Alcie of lying and causing trouble. Their friend looked at Alcie with pleading tears.

Anger started bubbling from inside Alcie's stomach, she lunged forward but her mind blinked to darkness. She clenched her fist. 'Right,' Alcie echoed. 'We never saw her again after that.'

Tesha was trying to wake Alcie up on the bus, but she wasn't coming back. Tesha used what she could think of, she put cinnamon under Alcie's nose, used more water than before and tried clapping beside her ears to wake her up. Tesha didn't want to draw too much attention, as her sister had been going through some odd changes that were difficult for others to understand.

Tesha had one more trick to try. She hated the idea, but she felt it was necessary at this point. She bent down and whispered to her sister before she did it. "Alcie, I know this is really going to suck, but I am going to shake you to try and wake you up. I am not trying to hurt you. I repeat, I am not trying to hurt you." Tesha grabbed her sister's biceps. As she did she could see her hands phasing from hers to their father's. Tesha tightened her grip. She tried to keep from shaking her sister violently, the way she remembered being shaken as a child. To stop herself Tesha had to look away. Finally, she let go and looked to Alcie for a sign of consciousness. "Damn it. Still nothing."

Once they pulled up to the school parking lot, Tesha waited to be last, hoping to get Berry's help. There were five other girls left on the bus, Tesha scanned the atmosphere. She noticed a nervous energy that suffocated the remaining air around them, but Tesha couldn't wait for the girls to get up any longer.

"Excuse me, Berry, could you help me? My sister is knocked out cold." Tesha tried to explain.

Berry looked up at her with eerily darkened eyes, and said "No, I don't think I will." Tesha was taken back by his refusal.

"Alright..." Tesha's brow knotted. "I'll just go get a teacher then." She tried to get off the bus, but Berry slammed the doors in her face.

"What the fuck!? Who are you?" Tesha demanded.

The edges of Berry's mouth slowly widened into an outrageous smile. Tesha watched in repressed horror, while the corners of his mouth reached for the helix of his ears. "I'm not Berry, that's for sure."

Alcie was pulled through more traumatic memories. She was at a cousin's house now. The house looked broken. In her mind it looked dark, mis-shaped and cracked. The front windows were covered in cobwebs, and there weren't any lights on inside. The front door was barricaded, but she could see her family safe and warm inside. Alcie looked down to see a nicely cut green lawn and two five year old girls running on the soft grass.

'I couldn't remember this... I couldn't remember for such a long time.'

She watched as the two girls exhausted their energy, and made their way back towards the crumbling house. Before they got to the door that was nailed shut to its wooden frame, an older boy called to the two girls from a large white van. He waved them over, they shrugged and went to see him. "Hey girls, how are you?" He asked with the illusion of charm in his voice. The two girls noticed there was a second man sitting in the van with him. He looked at the two little girls up and down in silence. "What is your name?"

Alcie's hair rose up on her neck, and felt herself starting to growl.

"My name is Niki!" Alcie's cousin said excitedly. "And I'm Alcie." The five year old Alcie shouted. "Well Niki, we are here to take you to your friend's house." The charming man said. "You mean my friend Taylor?" Niki asked. "Yep that's the one." Fifteen year old Alcie defensively hovered her arm in front of her five year old self. 'Don't go with them.' She whispered into her five year old ear, while tiger claws started to grow from her fingers.

"Come on Niki! let's get you to your friends house. Where are you from Alcie?" The charming man persisted. "I don't live here. I'm just visiting." Alcie said, as her first friend climbed into the back of a white van with two strange men.

She jumped "Can I come with you guys? I love to play!" The charming man held a hand down to stop her from going. "Sorry dear... You aren't pretty enough." Alcie's smile vanished. "Oh." She looked down, trying not to show how much he hurt her feelings. She looked back up to see her cousin fiddling with her arms. "Okay?" Alcie said. "I guess, I'll see you later?" The men then slammed the doors shut and drove off. Thirteen year old Alcie held her small self in place. 'Remember that license plate Alcie.' And squeezed her little shoulder.

Five year old Alcie wandered sadly back up the driveway to see an adult standing at the door. "Where is Niki?" They asked her. "She went with the men in the van. They said they were going to take her to her friend's house." The adult looked shook. They ran to the road realizing they had just lost one of the children in their care. "Why would you let her go!? What were you thinking!?" Thirteen year old Alcie held Five year old Alcie's hand while she was yelled at and blamed for losing her cousin to strangers in a white van.

'It wasn't your fault... It was never your fault Alcie.'

"Now... Which one is your sister?" Berry slithered.

Tesha paused for a second, then jumped into a random seat. "She's right here." Tesha sat in a seat with one of the other five girls, trying not to hint at the fact that her sister was in the back of the bus, passed out and vulnerable.

"I thought she needed help?" Berry raised an inhuman eyebrow.

"I thought she did too, but it turns out she's all better. Must have just been a spell." Tesha said, putting her arm around a girl she hardly knew. When Tesha patted her on the arm she was as stiff as a board. Tesha whispered to her, "it'll be okay, if anyone can get us out of this, it's Alcie."

After a tense, silent two hours of driving, Berry pulled up to Tesha and Alcie's old elementary school in the desert. Tesha drew in a sharp breath. "This is gonna be rough." Berry tried to stand up, but his human shape was failing him. Tesha watched as the bones in his legs bent far to his sides, and made clicking-cracking sounds while he walked towards them. Berry noticed Tesha's concern, and let an evil smirk curl on his face. When they locked eyes, he snapped his fingers.

"AH!!" The girls screeched. "Where are we!?"

Tesha let her eyes adjust to the darkness they were swallowed in. She steadied her breathing and said quietly, "we're inside the elementary school."

"Ow," Alcie groaned, she felt extremely dizzy and overwhelmed, slowly she rose from her seat watching the world spin around her. After her mind came to a steady halt, she focused on the scenery outside her window. To her horror she was in the desert again. "I thought that was just a night terror, a flash-back of a traumatic event."

She carefully turned her head, to feel a ghostly recognition of abandonment. "Where is everyone?" Alcie asked herself. She quietly tiptoed to the right side windows, finding her old elementary school staring back at her. Her heart tried to jump out of her chest, as she tripped, falling backwards over her numb tingly feet. "What's happening!?"

While she was trying to process her circumstances, the bus jumped off the ground. Alcie screamed, and tried to get herself to the front of the bus while it jumped and tossed itself three more times. She tried opening the door but the leaver was jammed. Alcie raised her foot, and kicked at the center of the door desperately trying to weaken its hinges. The bus jumped again and the door broke, as long as she timed herself perfectly Alcie would be able to wiggle herself out. After the bus jumped a sixth time Alcie rushed, squeezed and sliced her skin to get through the broken folding door.

Alcie was about to try finding her way back home, until she heard faint screams coming from the elementary school. 'Just...' Alcie closed her eyes and clenched her fists. "Just walk away. It's not your problem." She said to herself through gritted teeth.

She heard more screaming, and forced herself to turn around. 'You know you can't just leave them Alcie.' She thought to herself. 'How many times did you need someone, and no one came to help.' Alcie started to jog. 'Exactly.'

Then She ran through the gates that incarcerated the school yard and lunged towards the double doors. The ground shook violently, and Alcie fell to her knees. The inertia disrupted the nature of her earthly body. She wacked her head on the cement and heard sirens beginning to wail in the distance, she raised her head holding herself up with jiggly arms. "What?" Alcie said to herself, "maybe an earthquake?" She shook her head and pushed herself faster. While she looked up to the school doors, there was a thirty-foot tall monstrosity looking down at her.

Alcie was petrified, staring at this gigantic jester who looked like he was wearing a nighty. His body was boxy, almost like a robot, and his eyes were slits. His legs were freakishly long, and he was covered in pastel-blue and purple stripes. After what felt like ages, she made it to the doors. Alcie pulled hard at the shimmering-copper handles. "Locked!? Of Course there fucking locked." She growled.

As Alcie tried to find a resourceful tool to open the doors, she heard her name being whispered as a chant. "Alcie... Alcie... Alcie..." She realized she was holding her breath, and forced herself to inhale slowly and calmly.

*Click *

The doors unlocked... Alcie's eyes widened. She Couldn't believe what was happening. 'Was that me? Was that the monster letting me inside?' She fussed frozen in place until a stilt foot slammed on the ground beside her. She scurried like a squirrel as her screams were drowned out by sadistic laughter booming around her. Alcie covered her ears, and sprang into the school, away from the massive beast. She landed hard on her ribs.

Crack.

"AH!" She screamed. Breathing heavily, she looked up and recognized the faint red glow of a lifeless alarm system.

"ALCIE!" Prickly spikes went up her spine when she realized that was Tesha crying out for help. She ran for the stairwell, while a spell of sadistic laughter rang out through the hallways. Their old elementary school was only two floors, plus a boiler room. She could probably find Tesha easily, but that could be true for the monster being able to find her.

Alcie knew she had reached the second floor when she saw ROOM 202 on a classroom door. As she caught her breath she heard more than five other girls screaming, "NO!" They begged, "PLEASE STOP! SOMEONE HELP US!" Alcie ran down the hallway and tried to follow the ear splitting screams. She could see the south stairwell at the end of the corridor. She grabbed the railing and just before she could finish taking a step her body was wrenched back to the entrance. Alcie tried the same tactic seven more times before she was out of breath. She took a knee, breathing heavily and holding her broken ribs. She shouted, "STOP MESSING WITH ME!!" Her plea was met again with the same venomous laughter.

Alcie got up rubbing the back of her neck. She cracked it to one side. "Okay then..." She sprinted back to the staircase, faked a descent, then ran down the hall that was to the right of her instead. She felt as though she had successfully fooled the monster.

She found the east stairwell and took a step. When she wasn't pulled back or turned around for every step she took, she let her shoulders fall in relief. She could finally reach the first floor. Once she arrived at the bottom of the steps the school was manipulated into the main floor of a house.

She walked towards a light and found herself entering a kitchen. Alcie had reached her sister, and five other young girls placed around a long rectangular dining table. She cautiously walked in their direction.

All but Tesha was staring at her. They looked up at her with dark-watery eyes. As if they had been screaming and crying for days without end. Each wide eyed stare was begging 'help me.' Alcie's thoughts contradicted themselves from sarcasm to deliberation. 'What can I do to help them? Fuck what can I do to help them?'

She took another quiet step towards them and a floating, pitch black figure slowly turned its body towards her. Alcie forced herself to cover up a flinch that tried to take over her body. She looked forward to where a chair at the head of the table was waiting for her. 'He must have been expecting me. I never got away. He was never fooled. I'm the fool. Damn it.' Alcie winced. She tried to keep an even pace, as if she wasn't being stared down by a red-eyed-snake-tongue-top-hat-wearing-monster. Alcie pulled her chair out and sat at the table. She took in her surroundings, and noticed that the kitchen was unkempt. Pots were burnt and boiled over in a pile on the stove. The sink was birthing flies, and an excessive amount of light fixtures were broken. 'What happened to the people who lived here?' Alcie thought. She looked down slightly to see a dusty plate set in front of her. 'This place feels wrong...' Despite the many things Alcie wanted to say she stayed silent, hoping that her cooperation would get her, her sister, and the others out of this strange situation.

"Nice of you to join us!" He boomed. Each girl jolted in their seat except Tesha. She was just looking down. Alcie saw her sister's eyes disappear into an unfamiliar distance.

A girl to the left of Alcie, closest to the black blotch that hung in the air, couldn't keep in her fear and spat. "Why are we here? What do yo- " Before she could complete her sentence, an otherworldly-black-serrated weapon detached from the monster, and stabbed through the middle of the girl's body. The girls gasped, hyperventilating with their hands over their mouths. Alcie's anger flared. Her lips tightened and her teeth locked together. "As I was saying. I am Jestool." He pulled the weapon out of the girls back to emphasize his point. "I have multiple forms. Yes, I was Berry the bus driver, and yes I was the enormous-nightgown-wearing-monstrosity. I'm this slithering beast now, but most importantly, I am a demon." To punctuate himself the girl's mangled body hollowed, turning into gold dust, and the fragments of her existence were lost to the atmosphere.

The blood curdling screams returned and the girls ran back up the stairs and into Jestool's torturous maze. Alcie stayed in her chair at the head of the table and kept her composure. Jestool flashed her a malicious toothy smile and left her behind to continue his torment of the other girls.

Once Jestool was gone Alcie realized she was holding her breath through the whole visual transaction. She inhaled hard, and brought herself back to the present. Quietly she pushed the chair back and inspected the kitchen. She found a door that led outside, and could save them all from the chaos they were trapped in. 'A way out!' Alcie wiggled her body intensely.

She went to open the door but it was locked up tight. She unlocked a lock that had a never ending twist, one that would be considered a normal padlock for a house, a sliding lock, and several more. Until she noticed that the door was locked from the outside too. This lock was another otherworldly thing, the place for the key looked like the shape of the top of a diamond. 'where the fuck am I going to get a diamond from? I'm trapped, we're all trapped, it's all my fault.' Alcie fell to her knees crying. While she had her moment holding her head in her hands, a glint of an amber colored gem flashed in her peripheral. She walked toward an overstuffed coat rack and picked through the pockets of each jacket. When she got a hold of the crystal, the shape of it was the same size of the lock on the door. 'YES!' She thought loudly. While she held the gem in her hand a new staircase started to materialize behind her. Alcie held her breath, and hid the gem in her pocket expecting to see Jestool, but Tesha was the one descending the stairs. She looked tired and defeated. Alcie's eyes widened and she lurched toward her sister in a desperate attempt to make her move faster.

She grabbed Tesha by the forearm, showed her the crystal and unlocked the door. When the crystal touched the lock it glowed like a sunset. For a moment Alcie was mesmerized and would have been stuck in that spot for eternity if Tesha hadn't lazily fallen into her, gently and accidently pushing them out the door. She shook her head and they ran down the dimly lit street. Away from Jestool, and the places he was slicing apart and splicing together.

Tesha's and Alcie's situation was not ideal at best. They were back in the desert, with little food, no money, no cellphones, and no transport. They had the clothes on their backs, and their school bags. While they walked Alcie asked, "so, what happened? What was Jestool doing to you guys?" Tesha stopped walking and started to tear up.

"Alcie, it's hard to describe..." Tesha took a breath. "He was showing us our worst traumas, and telling us they were never going to end. So." Tesha had to stop a sob pushing up in her voice. "So, he offered to take our place. He wanted to live in our minds and have control of our bodies and actions."

"Oh my god..." Alcie covered her mouth. "That's insane."

"Torturous." Tesha said. "Unfortunately I don't think that's the last time we'll see him."

Alcie looked down at the cracks in the dirt under their feet. "I guess we are just going to have to be more prepared to see him the second time around." Alice and Tesha walked on a bit further. "What happened to the other girls, Tesha?" Alcie pushed.

Tesha held her head high, with a serious but sad expression. "They-" Tesha huffed "They all said yes.

...To Be Continued...

Thank you so much for reading. Have a great day everyone!