through hell and back

we need to talk

The sun shined through Judy's window and the warm rays touched her face. She stretched and opened her eyes.
"What a wonderful morning it is..", she yawned to herself. The little girl didn't sleep very well once again, but that wasn't a rarity. Just today was different, she knew that. It felt different from the moment she had woken up.
Judy got up and sneaked to her parents' bedroom only to see that they were already up. She sighed once and tiptoed carefully to the kitchen.
"Judy.", it was her mother who was in the kitchen alone,"good morning, darling. How did you sleep?"
Lorraine stood in the middle of the kitchen and holt a cup of coffee in her hands. Her smile was surprisingly bright and Judy thought she looked a lot better than the past few weeks, whatever has happened this night.
"Oh.. good morning, mom.", she responded slightly confused,"I'm a little tired. That's all."
"Anyway..", Lorraine rejoiced,"your father and I decided to make a family day today.. you know, as it's Sunday and we haven't done anything like that in forever. We could go to the beach we thought. What du you think? I know we've been arguing a lot recently and I'm very sorry for that, Judy. I don't want to fight with you. I love you."
The older woman's daughter looked at her in disbelief and didn't really know what to respond. She had expected anything but this.
"Yes! Of course!", she stated and her voice was full of happiness,"I'd love to go to the beach with the two of you. But.. where's daddy?"
"He got a call.. I don't know from who. You could ask him yourself as soon as he returns. You'd like to eat pancakes?", Lorraine took a sip of her coffee and put the cup on the kitchen counter,"why am I even asking?"
She turned around and got a pan out of the cupboard. Judy loved pancakes and she always was pleased as a punch when her mother made her favourite breakfast. She sat down at the table and watched her mother cracking the eggs.
"You noticed it, right?", Judy mumbled.
"Noticed what?", Lorraine asked confused but didn't turn around.
"That I heard you screaming every night. That I can't sleep properly since, mom. I can't sleep! Because you're screaming every single night! And I don't even know why because you won't talk to me.. you won't! It feels like.. like you completely forgot about me being there. Me being your daughter, mom! You didn't ask me once how I was doing and that hurt!", she exclaimed and crossed her arms tightly,"how can you tell me you didn't notice?!"
"I.. I don't know what to say, Judy.. I had no idea and I'm so so sorry.", she finally turned around and looked at her daughter who was about to cry every second.
All of a sudden Lorraine felt so guilty for everything she had done since coming back from the exorcism. She looks down trying to not make any eye contact. How could she possibly forget about Judy? And how could she not sense it?
Neither of them moved or said anything for a while until Lorraine sensed some real smell of burning. Judy had already left the kitchen without having made any noises. She didn't know how to feel about her mother's reaction so she was looking for her father.
She marched through the hallway, her hands balled to fists, and she was trying to spot Ed somewhere. He probably still was on the phone, that was the only thing the small brunette knew.
Meanwhile Lorraine, who was still absent, took care of the burned pancakes. She threw them into the garbage and sighed once before she trudged along the hallway with her cup of coffee. When arriving at her bedroom she sat down on her part of the bed and stirred her coffee, completely lost in thought. Despairingly she tried thinking about how to stop screaming at night because she knew too well her nightmares won't stop that quickly. What she had seen in her vision haunted her.

The priest was performing Maurice's exorcism. Lorraine was watching Ed who helped him doing so. The priest was saying something in Latin and the brunette came closer to Maurice whose demon was still fighting the exorcism. All of a sudden Lorraine found herself in an endless darkness. She immediately felt that there was a negative entity right around the corner and she was terribly anxious. It was unbearable silent in this place but full of entities. There was no light at all. She carefully looked around but couldn't spot the smallest incidence of light. Something was going to happen, she knew that, she wasn't brought there without a reason.
"Mommy?", a familiar voice shuddered.
Lorraine turned around and froze as she saw her Judy in this endless darkness. Her little daughter looked terrified and pointed at something behind her mother before bursting into tears and falling on her knees.
The sound of Judy's cries broke Lorraine's heart but she knew she had to turn around although she just wanted to comfort her Judy in this moment. She already could sense that it'll be something she'd rather not see. With shaking hands she turned around and saw Ed.
"I'm sorry, Lorraine", was all he said before he got stabbed by a tree-trunk and disappeared a while after.
"Daddy!", Judy screamed in pain which made Lorraine turn around once again.
She was hurrying towards her crying daughter but with every step she took Judy seemed to get further away from her. Then she heard an inhuman sound. That was the negative entity she sensed before. The most negative in this endless darkness. She saw a shadow hovering behind Judy which got closer.
"Judy!", Lorraine screamed her hearts out but her daughter just still kneeled and cried.
She tried running faster but could feel herself getting dizzy. She stopped once the shadow revealed itself as something inhuman, as a demon. The demon looked like a nun. And this nun was looking right into Lorraine's eyes and Lorraine couldn't help herself but look back. She felt the closest to hell as she's ever got. Still feeling dizzy she just concentrated on looking at the nun and forgot about Judy. Judy was still in right front of the demon, crying. The demon killed Ed, Lorraine knew that. And the demon would kill Judy. As soon as she realised that, she looked back at her daughter.
"Judy!", she shrieked as the demon started strangling her daughter.
She started running towards Judy again, as fast as possible, but when she finally reached her she already was dead. Strangled to death by an inhuman spirit.
Lorraine started screaming and felt losing the ground below her feet. The nun looked at her and screamed inhumanly before something skidded her back and she found herself back in reality. This was a vision but a warning for her. Something wants to take the most important things in Lorraine's life from her. Something wants to see her suffer like she's never suffered before. And although this was a vision it felt so real and she could literally feel her heart getting ripped into a million of pieces.
When she came back to the real world she kept screaming at the top of her lungs and didn't notice Ed trying to get her away from Maurice and the room. In this moment he didn't care for anything but his wife who was clearly in pain. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a silent corner, trying to calm her down. She was shaking and crying like hell and her skin felt so cold, all while not stopping to scream. Both of them stayed like that for a while until Lorraine calmed down and they realised they eventually lost Maurice. But for now Lorraine was safe. For now. Little did they know how much effect it would have on their life.

All those images were present once again. Everything she felt, sensed, saw and did. The pain of losing her two loved ones was real and so was the demon. Lorraine was still holding the cup of coffee in her hands but now after the flashback hit her, tears were streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably.
"Daddy?", Judy asked when she entered the living room, hoping he would've ended his call already.
"Yes, darling?", responded and looked up from his notebook he was holding in his hands.
"Can we leave already?", she took a step closer towards him, trying to look at what he had been writing down.
Judy always cared about what her parents are doing in their job, on cases or during lectures. She wanted to know them safe. But Ed wasn't stupid and he could forecast that Judy would try reading his notes so he closed the notebook, he just knew her too well.
"Where is your mother?", he looked at her curiously,"have the two of you made up again?"
"No. We didn't.", she replied and folded her hands, looking down in sadness.
She still was mad at her mother but at herself at the same time. Judy knew she shouldn't blame herself because it wasn't her fault that her mother was a gifted clairvoyant and that her mother woke up every night, screaming. Also she didn't knew why she was doing that, but neither did Ed.
"I'm going to talk to her later, alright? But now get dressed for the trip. We should enjoy this day!", he smiled comfortingly and kissed her head before going back to their bedroom.
He found his wife standing in front of the closet where she hold two bathing suits in her hands.
Lorraine didn't want Ed to worry about her so she acted like nothing has happened. And as she was really looking forward to this trip, she thought picking something to wear later would be helpful.
"Should I wear the black or orange one?", she asked Ed, turned around and hold both of the bathing suits in her hands.
"I'd prefer you being naked, Mrs Warren.", he grinned and walked towards her.
She rolled her eyes and chuckled. Ed put his hands on her waist and pulled her closer carefully. He softly kissed her on the lips and then rested his forehead against hers while softly caressing her waist with his thumbs. Lorraine smiled at him and laid one of her hands on his cheek while the other one was resting on his shoulder.
"I love you, Lorraine Warren.", her husband whispered.
"I love you, too, Ed Warren.", she agreed and kissed him once again.
She always felt safe when Ed was holding her close. Like not even the most evil entity in hell could harm her. Ed was some kind of her human shield. He was her soulmate. And she was so lucky to have him as her husband. She was so lucky he believed her. Lorraine closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest, knowing he was about to say something she'd find uncomfortable.
"You need to talk to me, Lorraine. Your behaviour has a serious affect on Judy. I don't want forcing you to talk to me, but it cannot stay like that. And I know you, you know that. So please, for your daughter's sake.. do something that your nightmares will stop, honey.", he gulped, knowing he shouldn't force her to do anything.
Ed knew that Lorraine would figure out another way without telling him about her vision. But he really wanted to know what it was about because he worried about his wife. He was full of worry ever since the exorcism, ever since Lorraine locked herself into their bedroom, ever since she started screaming every night. He knew she would talk to him as soon as she needed to, when she couldn't figure it out herself anymore. Just this time was different. Judy took part in it. And he cared as much for Judy as he did for Lorraine.
"I think you should pick the white bikini though. You always look so sexy when you wear it.", he said.

--
Damn 2.042 words. I've never ever written a chapter this long before. But anyway.. this chapter is dedicated to fanofmanythings11 because she gave me so many great ideas and without her help this chapter would be finished in like a hundred years.
And yes I thought I could write my version of Lorraine's vision down and here it is. I also decided the story will take place in today's world because it's a lot easier to write and yah.
- Alice