The Cemetery - XVI

Part 1

Amelia

cont.

In April, after the second lengthy vivid dream, I met Martha once again. The images I saw were the same so no need to waste ink on that now, but one thing became apparent upon reflection. The demon wanted me to accept it. It wanted to be with me. I took this information to Margaret, who I visited alone, and sat with her. She had written a letter to an old friend who lived in America and he had written her back. After our first discussion she began a dialogue with him about the issue and wanted to intercede.

                In her letter to her friend, a Mr. Geoffrey, she left out no detail, and equated my situation with her own that she had endured ten years prior. Geoffrey, a learned man from an American university in Massachusetts, wrote back with an apparent solution to the malady. Margaret told me that I was being coerced for possession by a demon. She was forthright with her words, not mincing them or being coy in the slightest. Normally when one spoke of demons they were under some influence, a priest on Sunday, or simply mad. Margaret was no such thing but spoke to me plainly as if this were similar to a household problem, like rats or a roof leaking. Though with much darker and everlasting circumstances. I felt the blood chill in my veins when the word “possession” left her lips.

                Her study, where we sat, was littered with open books…tomes rather and papers were scattered to the floor and the desks. It appeared as though Margaret were searching for something buried in the words. I spied a few of them as she tended to tea in the next room. I couldn’t discern their meaning as most works were written in foreign languages. Margaret caught me spying and chuckled.

                “Unless you know Egyptian, Latin, or Arabic, I’m sure you won’t be able to read these.”
                “What are they?” I inquired taking the tea from my gracious hostess. I noticed as well that despite her apparent wealth, the home was large and filled with trinkets, she had no servants or attendants. She lived alone in this great mansion.

                “They are scribblings, excerpts from ancient texts, spells. Just things I’ve come across or that Geoffrey has sent to me over the years. I don’t do much field work but I do enjoy reading the odd tome. But we didn’t come here to discuss the ancient words of dead men, we came to discuss how to save your soul.”

                The way Margaret threw out such lofty affirmations made me jump. Saving my soul, demons and possession, ancient texts. It was all too strange as though my life was taking on a fantastical shade from reality. But she warned me that things were not to be taken lightly. She flipped through a few different texts, citing the letter she received from Geoffrey and came upon one such account similar to mine own. A woman in Prussia, some two hundred years ago, wrote of seeing a creature with red eyes and coming to her after the death of her son and husband in a house fire. The creature, visiting her in dreams, asked her for acceptance. That if she did so that she would have what she desired…her family restored to her. Being a faithful woman, and having accepted the death of her family she refused. But the creature, on multiple attempts, came to her in sleep until as time had passed, the year had ended and it was over.

                Other similar accounts appear in the texts from different regions with varying circumstances. A few threads were consistent: a shadow creature with red eyes, visitation in dreams, a promise for wish fulfillment, and the continued questioning for acceptance.

                “It appears this creature wants to possess those who have seen death, or suffered great loss, or are under great mental stress. None of these accounts speak of anyone accepting the creature so we don’t know what happens if it succeeds. Though I’m not sure whatever it is will be any good. For making pacts with devils is one of the greatest sins we can commit.”

                “So I’m being coerced by a devil?”

                “If what you’ve told me is not a lie, then yes. I would like it if you stayed with me for a few weeks. I can make you comfortable here while we figure this out.”

                And that is how I came to stay with Margaret in the large house across town. And how this ordeal would soon come to a close.

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