The A-Frame

I wake up suddenly and in a panic, in the middle of the night. I blink a few times, looking around to realize I’m in the living room. Not of my current apartment, but of the old house I used to live in. Confused, I swing my legs off the couch and stand shakily. There’s a sound coming from down the hall, and the smell of smoke with a sickening undertone I can’t place.

I walk down the darkened hallway of the house I used to live in for years. This house can’t be here. The new property owners demolished the beautiful A-frame and replaced it with some sort of box-looking travesty with too many windows. So how am I here?

I come to my bedroom door and there’s a swirling darkness seeping from the cracks around the door. I grab the doorknob and immediately yank my hand back. Burns start to creep across my skin, spreading like a fire beneath my skin. Against everything in me, I know I have to get in that room. So I grab the doorknob again, turning. This time I don’t let go until I hear the click of the latch releasing and the door pops free, opening only slightly. A wave of heat rushes through as I cautiously push the door open further with my foot.

There, my old bedroom is laid out exactly the way it used to be. Dresser to the left, bed directly in front of me, and a chest full of old things to the right where the TV sits.The same swirling darkness hovers over my bed. I notice now that there’s a figure there.

I hear a low almost growling chuckle come from the figure before he blows away the darkness and I recognize him. Physically, it’s my fiance, on the outside. Inside though, there’s someone or something else in his body with him. Something I don’t recognize at first but gradually start to realize is a demon sharing his skin. Now that I notice this, I also notice that his skin seems to be bulging a little bit - as if it’s struggling to contain both of them inside.

Beneath them - clawing out from under and inside my bed - are still living decomposing bodies. The sound of their frayed fingertips pulling apart as they dig through the stuffing of my bedding and clawing at the wooden frame makes me nauseous and I look away. The sickening smell from earlier is coming from them, and their bodies come apart and smolder as if on fire from within.

The entity on the bed chuckles again before he speaks.

“What have you brought for me, my love?” he growls in a voice that is both my fiance’s and otherworldly. The sound scratches my ears like nails on a chalkboard. My discomfort is noticed and he laughs, this time a full laugh from the chest that startles me. He speaks again.

“I have your dearest in here, I haven’t let him go or done away with him yet. Gift me your greatest possession and I will turn him over to you - safe and sound.”

“I don’t…” I begin in a whisper. “I came in here empty…”

“Empty handed, yes. But not empty.” his black eyes shimmer for a moment.

He’s right. I’m empty handed, but not empty. The baby.

“What use do you have for him?” I whisper.

“Whatever I please!” He snarls. “Yes or no.”

“Why us…?”

“Yes. Or. No. It’s very simple.”

I look into the blackened eyes of my fiance, which used to be so blue, knowing there is no right answer to this question. I see the recognition from him there. He knows no matter the answer this demon has claimed him and he will not get out alive.

“No.” I whisper, as tears begin to stream down my face.

A sinister smile spreads across his face as the demon contorts him, snapping his bones, while he struggles against him as best he can. To no use. One hand grabs each side of his head and the demon forces him to twist in one jerking motion, twisting his head entirely off his shoulders.

A sound escapes me that I don’t recognize as my own and I am snapped awake, sweating and unable to breath. A dream. Just a dream. I take a few deep breaths before opening my eyes fully and realize I’m waking up in the living room… Of the old house I used to live in.