Harly

Chapter Nineteen (Edited 08/2021)

My first reaction was to run.

I had already tensed, the muscles in my legs contracting to take me as far away from here as they could get me.

But I remembered that I had called him here myself, and I needed to face the music that Harly was real, a threat, and a current danger to my family right now.

He didn't make a sound, just stood there, almost holographic. His form glitched in and out of reality like an old school television with the rabbit ear antennas that you needed to adjust to get a clear picture. I wondered if it was just because it was hard to maintain his form, or if it was because he was currently sucking the life out of my niece and taking over her body?

I took in a breath to begin the chant Norman had packed away at the bottom of it all. A banishment chant. Who knew if it would work, or if it'd just piss the demon off. For all I know, I could begin this chant and then they'd find my body in the woods, mutilated from a demon attack.

But before the words could leave my mouth, Harly suddenly reached forward, his arm shooting out at a speed I couldn't comprehend, grasping my arm painfully.

I tried to shout out, or even push him away from me, but I couldn't.

Because suddenly, I wasn't in the forest anymore, but in a cabin of sorts.

Similar to Harly's appearance, it seemed grainy and hard to view. I squint, trying to make the picture more clear, but I guess this was as good as it got.

In the room with me was a little boy. I couldn't see his face as he was facing away. But in front of him loomed some large shadowy creature I couldn't quite make out. It reeked sinister intentions though, and I could only imagine that it had to be Ilkasepth.

The boy chattered away happily to the shadow in a language I couldn't understand. It, too, was distorted and warbled. It vaguely sounded similar to what Andrei and his followers spoke, so I assumed what I was hearing was Romanian.

There was a movement behind me, and I jumped to the side thinking it was another attack from Harly. Instead, I saw the door had just creaked open somewhat, letting a man much taller than me peer into the room.

The boy didn't seem to notice, but Ilkasepth did. Though I doubted the man could see him, Ilkasepth's head lifted to gaze at the newcomer, his head shaking and glitching uncontrollably. The sight terrified me, but however I got here was beyond my control. Harly had to have brought me here, maybe in his memories?

The door was left slightly open, but the man turned and walked away. The scene changed, a very similar room however.

The boy from the previous vision laid on a bed, his eyes closed, sweat adorning his brow. His breaths came in short gasps, and he looked close to death.

Ilkasepth sat on the side of the bed, looking down on the boy. Now that he was still and laying flat, I could see his face.

The boy was the current host of Ilkasepth, or the boy I've been seeing as Harly. The ancestor of mine who was trapped away in the box because he was the final victim.

I watched as the boy took a shuddering breath and did not take another.

Then, I saw Ilkasepth smile.

Describing the smile of a demon is next to impossible.

Think of all the scariest nightmares you've ever had. Any and all horror movies that kept you up late at night, macabre paintings, anything.

A demon's smile held all the fear in the world.

Before I could shrink away, to try to run from these mental images that were placed in my head, Ilkasepth stood.