1 Rise of an Evil

The sky was tar-black, and clouds were pouring in. In this scary and challenging time, I am moving forward without wearing anything. I can hear the horrible howling around me. I am looking for a light but cannot see gleam far away. I feel like snakes and insects crawling on my feet and can hear the wicked laughs of large trees. I think it's an old cemetery. Suddenly I step on an old grave, and blood bursts out of it like a volcano and scatters all around me.

Suddenly, I feel like I am being buried in the ground, and the grave is immersing me. I start screaming and try to get out of it, and that's when I see a corpse coming out of that pouring blood. It turns into a hideous creature, grabs me in his hands, and throws me into the air. I come back to him while screaming. Then that skeleton looks at me and says, "You are looking for the truth. You want to find light from the darkness."

I won't utter a word, but my tongue is ceased. My voice is lost, and I'm unable to speak. He throws me out of the grave, and then all the graves open, and all the corpses start to come out. All the branches of the trees turn into snakes, and they all attack me but….

Suddenly a light appears in front of my eyes, and all the corpses start going back to their graves. Everything turns back to its normal position, and a hand comes out of that light and puts it on my head as guardian…. And I am awake by the horn of the train. I can see the daybreak from the window. All passengers are yawning in their seats. I looked at the watch, and it was still 1 hour to reach my destination.....

I saw these nightmares for a long, but always, a white light was there to save me. I got up and went to the bathroom, and then I had tea and came back to my seat; after an hour, I was at my destination. Mr. Thomas was already there to take me to his home. We had a normal conversation on the way. When I reached home, I was fatigued; we had breakfast, and I went to sleep as I wanted some rest.

I woke up with the knock-on in my bed. I wasn't wholly awake but could feel that creepy look. It was like someone was staring at me with anger. I was still on my bed but not in the room. I looked around to see it was again an old cemetery but could not see far because of the fog. I got up and sat on the bed, and started looking around. It was dark, and there was no sign of life. Suddenly the two eyes which were staring at me began to going up. Upon looking hard in the dark, I realized it was a giant old tree whose branches had turned into long tentacles. It started coming towards me. I don't know if I was being dragged towards the tree or the tree was moving forward. It was getting bigger and bigger, and when one of its branches was about to hold me in it, a light came between us. The light became so bright that it became hard for me to open my eyes and suddenly I heard someone calling my name… Erik! Wake up, Erik. I opened my eyes to see I was again dreaming.

It was Mr. Thomas who had to wake me up for lunch.

"Are you alright, Erik?" asked Mr. Thomas,

"Yes, I am fine," answered Erik,

"I think you had a bad dream," said Mr. Thomas

"Yes, I am having these dreams for a while," replied Erik,

"I am looking for the answers for these dreams; that is why I have come here," said Erik

"I hope you will find what you are looking for," said Mr. Thomas.

I was not always blessed to see the dark world. I was an average child with everyday life, but my father always wanted to see what was after death. He used to think that what happens after a person dies? How a dead is punished or reward after leaving his body? He said if the body is buried, where the soul went? He wanted to find the answers, so he kept searching. He was wandering here and there for answers when he met a magician named Maddy. Maddy said he could see the other world and can take him there as well.

Wanted to see the next life, my father agreed to do the spell. Maddy told him that his life would be in danger if that spell goes wrong. My father, passionate to find the answers, agreed and said yes to every term. He never asked Maddy what was another name if anything goes wrong. I think he would have agreed to that as well because he was desperate to find the answers.

On the first day, Maddy asked my father to sacrifice anything if he genuinely wants to be one of us.

"Us? Who is us?" My father asked Maddy

"Our family," said Maddy.

"You think you will come and find the answers? And we will let you know everything and walk away easily," Maddy added.

"What do you mean?" asked father

"I mean, it is not normal to live with this knowledge. If you think knowing the dead is easy, then I think you should reconsider my offer," Maddy explained.

"No, I cannot go back now. I need to know, and I promise I will do anything," Father promised.

Maddy smiled and said, okay, let us start.

You have to sacrifice anything you love the most. Now think and tell me what you will offer?

My father looked at Maddy and started thinking of his precious thing to be sacrificed. Father began to think about what he loves most. Erik, Samantha, and Johnny were the ones he loved most, but he couldn't kill his daughter or son, so Johnny came to his mind. But how could he kill his dog? He loved him so much. He was a pup when he brought him home. All those memories with Johnny, all the beautiful time spent with him, moved around his eyes. How can he sacrifice his beloved dog? He said no, I couldn't, but the wish of knowing the secret overwhelmed his love. He decided to give away his dog life for answers.

In the middle of the night, he brought Johnny to a cemetery known to be the oldest and had many mysteries. It seemed like it is not used now because many graves were broken and were lost in dirt, and large bushes grew beside them. It was like no one has ever visited this cemetery, and their loved ones forgot the deceased, or maybe there was no one left to see them. My father told me to stop at the oldest grave. This grave was of Vesper, a cult leader who offered Satan his life and hanged himself on the tree to live an eternal afterlife.

All his followers had to sacrifice their beloved thing to become a member of his cult. My father was going to take the life of one of his cherished things. He put Johnny on the grave. Johnny started looking at him, and maybe knowing what would happen, he laid down himself in front of his master as if he said that this is the end. Tears fell out of my father's eyes as he watched his dog going to be butchered by him. Johhny had love in his eyes for him. Father put the sharp knife on his neck and tried to cut his throat but could not gather the courage to do so.

Maddy wanted him to do it quickly as the time was passing. Looking into his eyes, father just said," I am sorry, please forgive me," and cut his throat. Blood gushed out of his neck, and Johnny was trembling with lots of weird voices coming out of his mouth. There was blood everywhere, and suddenly blood started to go into Vesper's grave. All the blood drained in the grave, and all of a sudden hand came out of the grave. The grave started to open, and an older adult in black with red eyes came out of the grave.

Johnny's lifeless body was lying on the grave, and Vesper was out now.

"Who has to awaken me?" Asked Vesper in an angry voice

"It's me, Maddy master. I have brought blood for you to drink," said Maddy

"What do you want?" asked Vesper

"His name is Jack, and he wants to know what happens after death?" replied Maddy

"so you want to have a look into our world also" Vesper looked at Jack and asked.

"Yes, I want to see what happens after death? Where does the soul go?" said Jack.

"I will surely help you, but there is one more thing you have to give." Said, Vesper

"What else?" this time, my father was confused and looked at Maddy.

Maddy was smiling and looking at his leader.

"I was going to tell you, but you didn't listen to me and said yes, I would do anything," Maddy replied

This time my father felt scared if they ask me for another sacrifice.

Vesper said, "don't worry, it's not going to be a sacrifice."

Vesper came near to Jack and said, "I want the soul of your son."

"He will work for me just like Maddy and others," Vesper added.

"No, I cannot do this. I cannot put my son's life in danger. Please, I beg of you to keep him away from all this." Father begged

Vesper got angry and turned into fire and said, "You fool! How dare you say no to me."

Maddy got scared that his master had got angry and will burn him to bring such a cowardly man to him.

Maddy quickly grabbed my father's arm, took him aside, and said furiously that you agreed to everything. That's why I brought you here.

"But I cannot sacrifice my son," cried the father

"who said sacrifice? Just give him to us; we promise we will not kill him." Said, Maddy

"I know I will lose him after that, and I cannot do that," father said decisively.

"Then we will have to kill you and get him," said Maddy

"No, you cannot do this, please," Father begged.

"We have no choice," Vesper replied and said a spell.

Dead roused from a grave and started moving towards Jack.

"No, please, you don't have to do this. I will not tell anyone, and I promise" Father was screaming for his life.

But it was too late that the skeleton beheaded my father and took the head back to his grave.