PROLOGUE- HELL'S PROMISE - IV

The day was August 2nd. I nervously stared down at the page in the weird book. Nothing else had written itself down inside the thing, but I couldn't help being nervous. Nothing normal about this, but still so absorbing. What is this thing? I feel myself gulp. The day is pretty much over already. Was something supposed to happen? I look over at the alarm clock. 9:40 PM. If something's gonna happen, then, I feel way too close to it for comfort. Please, please just mean something I don't understand. I grit my teeth behind my lips as Chloe comes in, rubbing her eyes. She looks at me and sighs.

"Still lookin at that?" She grumbles. I sigh, nodding. She walks over and pulls me into a hug. "It's probably nothing. Please stop acting so scary." She didn't see it happen, so I know she's just trying to comfort me. I appreciate it, but I also don't wanna just ignore this and get bit in the behind for that. Still, clearly I'm scaring her and, I can't let myself do that. As such, I close the book. If it means something dangerous, then I guess I'll find out when I'm supposed to.

Placing the book next to me in bed, I lay my head down on my pillow as Chloe turns out the light, bringing us into the dark. I quietly give into the dark's demands for me to hush up my racing mind as I turn myself to watch Chloe. Her calm breathing means she's already managed to fall asleep. I envy her ability to just shut out the entire world like that and go to sleep. I suppose one of these days I need to ask her how she does it. I smile as my eyes close themselves, waiting for sleep to take me.

...

As the night drags itself along, a woman finds herself staring down at a book she'd thoughtlessly grabbed from the store. Boring as it seemed to be, it would do the job of being a simple before bed read. Taking it up into her hands, she gently makes her way to her bed when she hears something from somewhere in the house. Freezing up, she watches her bedroom door. What the hell? Where her kids awake? That was a possibility. Maybe they were sneaking some food out of the fridge, or maybe they wanted to play video games late and Chris kicked something over in frustration.

Assuring herself it had to be her kids, she carefully made her way to the door. Maybe they needed some kind of help. How could she live with herself if she let anymore happen to her kids. She carefully opened the door to her room. Downstairs, she could the rustling and scuffling of someone messing with the dishes. She grumbled to herself. If he was hungry he just had to eat more dinner with them. She grabbed ahold of the railing and began to descend the stairs. The sounds slowly got louder.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and began moving to the kitchen when she halted in her steps. Standing there, moving together two clean plates, was her husband. No...not even her husband could look so vile. This thing...had taken any restraint from his soul and brought him right back here. Realizing just what she was staring at, she tried to move to take her phone out of her pocket, but to no avail. She cursed. Her nightgown had no pockets. Her phone was upstairs. She turned to run when she felt her hair being tugged back.

She tried to tear her hair back but the grip was relentless. I tore her through the living room and slammed her against the couch. The thing wrapped its hands around her neck, and squeezed. It was clear from the sensation that this thing wasn't really human. Rather, just a memory of hatred, amplified by something even crueler. Her hand tried to reach out to touch that face she recognized. Something flashed through the front of her mind. A smiling, happy face, his hands around her hips. Something had escaped his lips that managed to make her heart race.

"Hey, I love you." They sounded so sweet mixing with that song from that no-name on the stage, playing off some CDs he'd surely bought from the gas station. The sound of her voice eagerly repeating those words made her racing heart ache. Now, those soft and tender hands, or some form of them, were so tight around her neck that she could hardly breath. "Hey, I love you." The words repeated. "Hey, I love you. Hey, I love you." Again and again. Where did he go? Even before now, where did he go? She wondered as her face started to drip with tears. That man who decided to marry her. To have kids with her. When did he become an angry monster? 

'Please, even now, just come back for a moment...don't just be gone for good. Please, I want you back. I can never forgive you, they can never forgive you, but come back. Fulfill my selfish wish...beyond even the kids who I say I love so much. Just hold me, one more time.' Her thoughts, so full they were close to bursting. She tried to form words, even as she felt herself on the verge of fading away.

"I love you."

Her crying eyes started to close.

'Chris...Chloe...I'm sorry...please be strong, stronger than this me. Run.

My babies...my little ones I failed more than any others...

I love you.

I love you so much.

Dream of me, sometime, in a place safer than you ever were with me.

Don't forget me...your...terrified...mother...'

Her eyes went dark, as all that could be called her faded from this plane of existence. The spirit gently removed its hands as its eyes bored into the empty corpse, before looking to the staircase, where the two kids he once called his own were waiting.