Chapter 7: Hell is Empty and all the devils are here (part 3)

. . .

Date: April 4, 1994

Location: Lee Song's Residence

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...Yes.

The horrible thing was, yes, I do want to know.

Hours after hours of hiding myself away in my bedroom (after making sure that the book was back in the same spot and no one could possibly tell otherwise), I tried telling myself to let it go, just forget about it.

This is no longer my concern.

This is way out of my control, after all. I mean I'm just a kid, what on earth could I possibly do about this?!

Call the cops?

Heck, they just might lock me up in the loony bin!

...damn it, Leigh Anne, stop thinking about it already!

But for the life of me, I can't.

Forget about curiosity but it's like the being... that thing that lies beneath the ocean floors, the being that I didn't even saw but I know it was just right there, looking at me...! I know it was calling for me, even until now I can hear faint whispers of its long-lost hymn, sung by dead men in a dead language that had been long since lost to history playing in an endless loop inside my head, bidding me to return, making my ears faintly ring with the promise of another round of bleeding yet again.

Aunt Lee must know about what those things are, without a doubt, I'm sure of it, I mean that... that book was hidden in a property of her own, after all.

So yes, it's definitely her book.

And I do know for a fact that she wouldn't tell me a single damn thing about what's going on too. She'll most likely freak out, be apoplectic with rage if she ever found out that I 'accidentally' went through her stuff again... even though I'm pretty much ashamed to admit that it had been on purpose this time around.

My aunt might finally kick me out of the house for good this time or... or she might do something even worse...

The thought sends shivers down my spine.

But every time I close my eyes, I swear I can see the glimmering colors of the sea. Ocean green shifting into a deep and darker blue until there was nothing but an encompassing, never-ending blackness of the nothingness that can only be found in the deep and there was the presence of something ancient, something powerful weighing my very being for what I'm worth, urging me to find out more.

And I know... I just know if only I could find out what it was then maybe there's something I could do about it and...and just maybe...

...the hymns will stop.

* * * * *

Aunt Lee's schedule was way too predictable, was what I was mostly thinking, almost too smugly, as I slowly but surely made my way into her bedroom, a few minutes only after I made sure that I heard the tell-tale sound of the front door slamming shut.

She's going for a late-night walk as usual.

It was easy; I thought almost giddily, as I hurriedly yanked her bedroom door open, a bit surprised it wasn't even locked this time around. But on hindsight, maybe that should been the first red flag all along.

It was easy.

It was way too easy.

So what if... what if this was all a trap, a set-up? What if Aunt Lee has never really left the house all along, what if she was just hanging around the porch or somewhere close by, waiting for me to give in to my curiosity; to get inside her bedroom so she could catch me red-handed just so she could have a good excuse to send me packing back to my dad or... or worse?!

This... this is a mistake.

And I'm such an idiot, I... I never should have come here, was what I was thinking now with a sudden sense of rationality washing over me like a cold splash of ice water to the face as I helplessly stared at the candles my aunt had left burning, the strong scent of the salty sea that seemed to come from them making my shoulders hitch up defensively as I stumbled a step back.

The set of candles were scattered but somehow left to be positioned in a large circle in the middle of her bedroom that was illuminating a large, flat table that has been covered by a long, dark cloth that had pooled all over the floor in large bundles and in it was a single, bluish-green stone nestled in a beautiful, fluffy pillow that reminds me the color of the skies on a clear, sunny day. Other than that, there's no other furniture, no closet, not even a bed.

And even in the dim light, I'm pretty sure that even an idiot like me would have come to realize that this place wasn't even supposed to be just a simple bedroom, no...

This is a place for worship.