The Ghost Hunter Chronicles - A Place of Nightmares Vol 1.

A Place of Nightmares Chapter 20 Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long Legged Beasties

I sat scrunched up on the couch trying not to move too much. I was watching the Doc and the clergy men tending to the injured paramedics when another unearthly scream rent the air. Something exploded upstairs. Next there was the acrid stink of smoke wafting down the stairs and the smoke alarms screaming their heads off in the upmost hallway.

"Jim! Aide!" I yelled. Jim nodded and ran to the stairs. I could hear him running up, then silence.

Then the next scream I heard came from Jim.

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Aiden ran from the Attic excited to share the news of the Tweed demon's demise. He was about half way down the flight when he became aware of a growling slobbering sound, and the terrified whimper of Father Jim.

As Aiden rounded the bend in the grand staircase he saw them. Father Jim was bailed up on the first landing. Hannah, it seemed angry at the vanquishment of her granddaughter and not yet recovered from her own tantrum earlier had sent one of her pets after them. She must have been sending it after him, and poor Jim had the misfortune to run into the thing on the stairs.

It was smallish but grotesque, it closely resembled a large spider, eight long hairy spindly legs, and a round abdomen. But here all resemblance to an a arachnid stopped. As Aide snuck up behind the monster he saw Scute like protrusions sitting up along it's back like an alligator, and it sported a tail like a Comodo Dragon. It was certainly not human or animal though. It had never been human this thing. Father Jim's eyes shifted to Aiden carefully advancing on the thing from the rear. The creature saw this and swung itself round to face him.

It's angry yellow eyes settled on Aide, and his blood froze in his veins, it was the same demon that had plagued him as a child. Aiden had grown up in and old farm estate in Conneticut, each night he would hear it scrabbling around under his bed. One night, tired of being afraid, Aiden had taken his brother Donny's baseball bat and sat up on his dresser and waited for whatever was terrorizing him night after night to come out.

After almost falling asleep and toppling off the dresser, a noise jerked him fully awake. He started and sat up straight his eyes glued to where the comforter was over hanging the side of the bed. His mother kept the hall light on for everyone each night for bathroom trips or going to the kitchen for water. In the spill of light coming in from the hallway, Aiden could see the faint gimlet like glimmer of animal eye shine under the bed, peeping out from under the cover. At first he got excited, thinking perhaps it was a raccoon or a stray cat he could make friends with. Then thing had started crawling out from under the bed, and the horror that stood looking at him with it's eight yellow eyes, and slobbering jaws, was sure as hell nothing Aiden wanted to be friends with.

Aiden remembered feeling himself going cold all over, sweat turning to ice. Of trying to scream for his parents but his throat slamming shut and not allowing him the lungful of air he needed to execute the terrified cry that would have brought them running.

The thing sat looking at him for what felt like forever, and then it chuckled, a horrible phlegmy sound, it then lifted one of it's long boney appendages and pointed at him. "Aiden" it wheezed, and chuckled again.

That broke his paralysis, urine squirted down his leg and he launched himself off the dresser, sprinting for the door. He was almost out when he felt the rapier like sting of claws just grazing his left side.

He ran screaming to his parents room. Donny also aroused ran to see what was wrong. It was when they switched on the lights to see what was the matter with their hysterical youngest child that Aiden's mother had screamed herself. The light revealed a torn pajama top and five deep rents in Aiden's tender seven year old skin.

Donny and his dad had pounded down to his room to investigate. The thing was gone, but blood decorated the doorway floor, and some strange sticky substance smelling like sulphur had been left behind.

Aiden's mother had gone to speak to their parish priest the next day. There were many harshly whispered conversations between his parents, and Aiden sleeping with them for the rest of the week. Then the next Sunday, the boys had been sent over to their grandparents house for Sunday lunch and a concert in the park, after Church.

They then had had returned to spend the night. The next day the boys were dropped at home. His parents looking worn out and frazzled, but the house felt different. After many false starts and creeping back to his parent's room, Aiden was suddenly aware, he could no longer hear any strange scratching sounds under his bed. The lights didn't flicker anymore and he could sleep. And soon had forgotten about his terrifying nocturnal visitor.

It was years later during a sleep over at a friend's house that involved five twelve year old boys eating too much candy and watching horror movies all night, that a screening of the original Exorcist brought the memories crashing back into the forefront of Aiden's mind. He had gone home the next day demanding to know what had happened. Was it real?

His mother confessed they had brought in a couple of priests to bless the house and rid them of the demon. It turned out a demon had been stalking Aiden. A stinking thing called Azazul.

Aiden so impressed that the priests had done that, went to the church to thank them, and asked if they could teach him. They said no, but they did tell him what to do if he ever was confronted by such a being again. This lead to Aide's interest in the field of Demonology, and and an almost superstitious need to pay it forward and help other people, least the beast return, if it sensed an ungrateful nature.

Now, despite Aiden's generous nature and need to help where he could, he was faced by the same horror that had crawled out from his bed that humid summer night when he was seven.

"Azazul." Said Aiden trying to stay cool. Jim began backing down the stairs and ran to get help.

"You dare speak my name boy?' The thing gurgled at him.

"You can't hurt me any more Azazul, I do not give you permission!" Aiden said strongly and the demon hissed and drew back.

"In fact, I renounce you and everyone of your kind, I renounce the dark Lord and do not deign to speak his name, lest I give him the power he craves!" Aiden yelled at Azazul, and the thing shrieked.

"Get ye back from whence Ye came Ye filthy beast!" Came a fierce Scottish voice from behind the monster. Aiden looked up and there stood the Doctor, Jim and Cardinal Ambrose.

"Now!" Yelled Aiden sensing their intent.

The Doctor and the clergymen let loose with water balloons filled with Holy water, all of them reaching their mark and soaking the diseased looking thing on the stairs.

"Aaaaaaaghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!" It screamed, it began smoking and the stink of sulphur hit the air. The smoke alarms went off again, and Azazul erupted in a pillar of flame.

The clergymen began saying a baptismal prayer designed to send demons back to hell, Baptism by fire. The thing screamed again and the sprinklers came on. Water spewed down like rain and the smoke got worse, the stench eye watering. Then suddenly it was over, the smoke cleared, the sprinklers shut off and the staircase was empty. The bannister and carpet scorched, but nobody was hurt.

Aiden had stood up to his childhood foe, and this time he had won.

The celebration was short lived however, when Shania began yelling for help, and the paramedics started screaming.

George Snell was back pounding on door, screaming to be let in. And of course, as all hell began erupting again, the sun was going down, and as in every good scary story the lights went out.