The Conjuring (The Warren daughter)

Chapter 8 (Oppression)

~~~~~~~~ Perron House

Back in the Perron House, Carolyn Perron looked to her bruises that littered around her body through the bathroom mirror. Her arm, her elbow, her back, her leg, her chest. She opened the bathroom cabinet in front of her and took two pills prescribed to her for iron deficiency.

Roger had reluctantly taken a route to Florida a few days earlier, leaving the family without the man of the house. Carolyn was folding the family's clothes in her room, Bette Anne Steele's 'Sleepwalk' playing quietly on the radio in her room.

Out of the blue, she heard giggling. Girls giggling in the hallway. With a frown, she turned off the radio and all was silent until two claps sounded in the dark. "Girls, it's way past your bedtime," Carolyn called out with a sigh before grabbing her night coat and walking out her room into the dark hallway only to find no one there. She looked into the first two rooms.

Cindy and April were sound asleep and Christine and Nancy were found under their blankets, sleeping peacefully. She reached the end of the hallway, flicking a switch which turned on the lights. It was dead silent besides the ticking of the grandfathers clock downstairs. She went to check on Andrea, her oldest daughter and too found her sleeping. If the girls were fast asleep, who had been giggling and who had made those claps?

Caroline jumped as she heard a crash behind her, followed by girls giggling on the way down the stairs, the sound of glass hitting the floor. She immediately turned and looked to the steps, leaning on the railing to look down. The pictures of the family that had been hung by the stairs had been shattered on the floor and glass was strewn everywhere.

Carefully, she went down the steps, and luckily she was wearing hard soled slippers as she stepped on the glass on the way to the bottom. A small crunch echoed and Carolyn flicked a switch downstairs, turning on the lights in the room next to the stairs. Nothing.

As she looked around, the grandfathers clock tolled thrice as the clock struck three, signalling it was 3am in the morning. Carolyn continued to look around, checking the living room on the opposite side of the room she had checked moments before. Suddenly, two claps sounded. Carolyn whipped around and turned to find the source of the sound.

"Who is that?!" she called out, a tinge of anger lacing her voice. She was tired of getting sleepless nights because of these noises. She turned on the lights and walked down the hallway. She stopped when she began to hear the scraping of wood behind her. She turned on the lights in the room that was behind her on her left, but there was nothing there. She began to get scared. A creaking sounded behind her and Carolyn turned her head in dread. The door beneath the stair was open.

The piano that had been in the cellar began to play discordantly, the same notes that Carolyn played when she had gone down with Roger that morning. Treading lightly toward the door underneath the stairs with trembling breath where all she should see was pitch darkness.

She turned on the lights that had been replaced by her husband and looked into the cellar. She leaned in, flicking a switch that turned the lightbulb on at the bottom and gingerly went a few steps down the stairs, taking a peek at the poorly lit place. She saw no one and she went back up the stairs with haste.

"Whoever's down there, I'm gonna lock you in now!" Carolyn yelled, turning to the door only for it to slam in her face, making her crash back before tumbling down the stairs and onto the basement floor. A moment later, she struggled and groaned in pain as she got up from the cold cement floor, looking around. The only light source was the lightbulb that hung in the centre of the cellar, dimly illuminating the room.

Suddenly, a ball flew from behind a furniture stack, bouncing once before rolling and stopping close to her. It had been the ball she had thrown to Roger earlier when they were down there days ago. Panic set in and Carolyn ran up the steps on all fours, shrieking when the only source of light in the basement exploded, making it pitch black and impossible to see. Carolyn screamed, pounding on the door, calling for her oldest daughter, Andrea, for help. A little girl giggled and all fell silent.

Carolyn stopped screaming. She knew Andrea wouldn't be able to hear her. The matches that had been left in the basement by Roger the first time they found it was snatched up by Carolyn in the dark. She fumbled with the matches before striking one, lighting a small area with the little flame. Her hands were shaking and she was whimpering. She was terrified of what was down there.

The match was quick to burn out so Carolyn struck another match, holding it in front of her. Then, in the darkness, she heard a girl whisper. "Hey, wanna play Hide and Clap?" the voice whispered. Not a moment later, two claps sounded right beside Carolyn's ear making her scream and drop the match and proceeded to bang on the door.

In Andrea's room, the oldest girl was just sleeping when she heard an almost rhythmic thumping. She turned on her bedside lamp to find Cindy sleepwalking, banging her head against her closet door again.

Andrea took slow steps to her sister, placing her hand between Cindy's forehead and the closet door, gently coaxing Cindy away from the closet and closer to her bed. "Okay, you can just sleep with me tonight, all right?" Andrea told Cindy and Cindy fell onto her bed. The older proceeded to tuck in her sister but stopped short when her closet doors began to bang closed by itself, the same rhythmic pattern that Cindy had been doing.

Andrea left the side of the bed, stepping closer to the closet before slowly reaching out and throwing the closet door open, finding only her clothes. Nothing else. Behind her, Cindy rose from the bed in a Dracula like fashion, her eyes wide open. As she looks to her sister standing in front of the closet, her eyes drifted above and what she saw made her gasp in fear.

Andrea heard it, making her turn to look at Cindy. She looked to where Cindy was staring and saw a woman on top of her closet. It was the woman who had been haunting them. Bathsheba was her name and it was she who cursed the land. As she crouched on the top of a wardrobe she bared her ugly teeth and pounced onto Andrea, making her scream out of fear.

Outside, Roger had just come home from his route from Florida, only to hear screaming coming from the house and Andrea's room. He dropped his things and rushed inside. He called for his oldest daughter but heard his wife screaming for help instead, banging on the door. Roger opened it with haste, Carolyn falling forward for she had been to hit the door another time. Now that Carolyn had been freed, both parents were quick to rush up the stairs calling for their oldest daughter.

"Help, Daddy! Help! It's Andrea!" Cindy screamed, running out the room. The other sisters tried to calm her to no avail. Once Roger reached the room, he found Andrea rocking on the floor on her back, holding her arms above her head like she was defending herself from something, screaming like no tomorrow.

"Who's in here," Roger asked frantically, trying to grab his daughter. His daughter only pushed him away out of fear and Carolyn came in from behind cradling Andrea. Once she realised it was her mother, she screamed and sobbed into her mother's shoulder. "Somebody, goddamn it, tell me what's going on here?!" Roger yelled out, frustrated.

A/N: ey, two chapters in a day, I'm on a writing spree today. Stay safe dear readers and please leave comments about the book!