The Curse

One of my ancestors 600 hundred years ago made a decision that changed the course of our whole family. The story goes that he was a travelling merchant and one day he ran into some bad luck, got separated from his group and ended up stranded in the Sahara Desert.

Little is known about what he went through but it was enough to leave him desperate enough to make a deal with an entity that he should never have been able to see. Ever since then my family has been able to see him, talk to him and sometimes when he demands we let him borrow our bodies.

The said entity, people call them by many different names, stands before me now. I pack my books up, save our group assignment and close the laptop. My classmates look at me confused. “Hey where are you going, we’re not done yet” speaks out Anisa, the pretty curly head girl sitting in front of me, of course, she’s clueless to what’s standing behind her laughing. The entity, he has a name but I refuse to acknowledge it, says “ you know she thinks you are sexy too” I don’t knowledge his words. “sorry guys I need to rush out it’s an emergency, I’ll do all your parts over the weekend and email it to you” I didn’t wait for a response I quickly left the study room and headed out of the university.

I didn’t bother asking what happened, why do I need to rush home, did anything happen? Simply because it would be pointless. I couldn’t trust his words so I stuck to my strategy of minimum engagement. As long as we didn’t piss him off we would be ok. Sometimes he gave us useful information like warning us of impending danger, or beneficial information such as what stocks to invest in, where gold was buried, etc, which has made my family wealthy also generations of my family were struck with poverty because they annoyed him.

My grandfather made the most of the situation by making as much money as he would. The entity can be useful and scary . ”you need to stop calling me that, the name is Sar” I shouldn’t be surprised but it still gets to me whenever he reads my thoughts. According to him, he can’t actually read my mind but he never explains how he does it.

“I don't want to be too friendly with you by referring to you by name” I respond. He laughs “There is no one closer to you than me, not even your parents” he spoke in a low intimidating tone. Continuing to engage in this conversation can get dangerous so I stop talking and focus on my driving.

I get home, nothing seems out of the ordinary. We live in a middle-class neighborhood with nice houses and nosey neighbors. The entity loved having someone at home for some reason. I wouldn’t be surprised if he told me to go home just because. “is the house clear?” I ask he responds “for now” “ are you saying someone is about to break into our house,” I asked shocked, “ I thought you were the brightest in the toolbox” he retorts.

This was a new situation and I was starting to get panicked. “all you have to do is let them into the house and I’ll take care of the rest” he says wickedly “what do you plan on doing” I asked fear filling me up. “What THEY plan on doing is knocking on the door, they know you are alone so they will pretend to be here for some maintenance, as soon as you open the door they will force their way in, tie you up and take what they can” he looks at me intensely and finishes with “so play along”

I grabbed my phone, not knowing if I was going to call my parents or the police. Then it happened, the kitchen got dark, I lost my footing and began to fall, headfirst into a pitch-black hole, I hear furious hissing noises waiting for me at the bottom. For a moment I was panic-stricken then I remembered it’s not real it's all in my head. It was Sar’s way of enforcing his dominance over me. I closed my eyes and started to inhale and exhale deeply until my heart stopped racing. “ Can you stop now?” I said to him trying not to sound scared “I’m bored Adam unless you want me to play with you, I suggest you do as I say” He says with a flat tone.

Our house was soundproof, no one could hear screaming from outside, and boy were those thieves screaming. As soon the entity started his “enjoyment” I went upstairs to my room put on my headphones and turned up the volume so I didn’t have to hear anything.

My family was on holiday and unfortunately, I wouldn’t go with them, not because of my classes but someone had to stay home, not just anyone but the person he took a liking to, and in this generation that was me. My nuclear family consisted of my mother, father, little sister, and me. My extended family counted in the hundreds and we were all under his control but some more than others. We refer to him as the family curse to which he always responds “you guys are lucky to be stuck with me, imagine if I had a large family each one of you would be screwed” He wasn’t wrong there

In his race, he was an outcast and he was very territorial so no other entity dared mess with our family, in a way we all acknowledge our luck but being ruled over by an immature moody demon wasn’t my idea of having a life. I finished my group assignment, emailed it. Spoke to my parents for a bit to give them an update and went to sleep.

Sar had the 4 thieves locked up in the basement for 3 days, there is no way any of them would walk out sane. Of course, I did not try to interfere I went about my business day and night and stayed out of his way. As long as he wasn’t interested in me I was happy.