Isolation

IV

The office.

I left Mary's room, finding myself in the dark hallway. Pulling out my phone, I turned on the flashlight, freezing as it moved over a tall silhouette.

Lanky and floating, the dark figure loomed from the other side of the hallway. A cold sensation swept over me, sending shivers up my spine. I fell over, involuntarily grasping at my jacket for warmth. As if it were skipping frames, the demon launched itself at me, showing me its long claws and translucent skin. Its skin clung onto its bones, it's teeth were rotten and broken, jaw hanging loosely and crooked. The eyes were the worst part; empty sockets with skin peeling to show shattered bone.

It stopped directly in front of me. The vomit clawed its way up my esophagus, but my frozen body refused to relieve the burning in my throat. "Re- e- sa- su- -u-n," the monster moaned out.

"Wha-"

It screeched, disappearing into thin air. The smell of rotting flesh lingered, but I let myself regain control before continuing forward, feeling stronger than ever about finding a way out.

Upon entering the office, I immediately noticed how empty the large room was. One broken desk sat further back, with a wooden chair fallen over near it. A shelf sat on the right wall, with a few old knickknacks collecting dust. I had to take a deep breath before setting the room back into order, somewhat.

In the blink of an eye, I returned to a clean, stable house. Although the room was still empty, there was an oil lamp on the desk, and another wooden chair sat in the corner. The door opened, the sound of two sets of steps entered, closing the door behind them. My heart started racing for no reason, my breathing began to get heavier.

"It's been here for a long time now, I'm worried for my family," a man said. His voice was gruff and deep, yet composed.

A woman replied, her voice serious, cautious. "Oh, yes, I feel it in this very room. How did this happen?"

"A spell gone wrong. I was trying to bind this house to our family, however, I seemed to have summoned a demon. It is killing us off, attaching our souls to the house." The man was clearly panicked. "If we leave the property, we die."

The woman didn't respond for a long time, but footsteps could be heard around the room. She placed something on the shelf. "This will trap the demon to the room. Speak demon!"

Nothing happened.

I knew that I caused the panic. I caused the Aunt's death. Maybe when the man tried to cast that spell, he accidentally trapped me.

"I'm not a demon," I said. The man gasped.

"Why are you here, demon?" The woman said. I guessed she was some sort of psychic or something.

"I'm not a demon. I'm stuck here, you need to reverse whatever spell you cast." I could hear the man cursing and panicking.

"Leave now, demon!" The woman shrieked.

"That's what I want to do!" I shouted back, gaining a gasp from the woman. "I'm from the future and whatever spell that was cast trapped me in the house. Now I get sent back to this time when I mess with things from my time."

A silence spread around the room. I was about to leave when the man spoke up. "I do not know the way to reverse the spell." A book was taken off the shelf and opened, placed on the floor.

It didn't say how to reverse the spell, but the summary of the spell caught my attention.

A soul bound to an object.

"What if we burned the house. I've heard that burning an object the spirits are attached to, the soul will be released," I suggested.

"I agree, you need to return to your time, Dear. Go back and burn the house," the woman spoke.

"No. I'd still be trapped. We have to burn it here and now."

The man began to cry. "No! No, no, this is my home, my family's home. We can't lose it! I worked so hard to keep this for my family." He grabbed the book, throwing it at the desk, breaking the wood and knocking over a chair.

"Please! I have to get back! There is something there with me and I'm afraid!" I started to shout.

The argument last for another few minutes, before the man finally agreed to burn the house. With great reluctance, the people left, and I blinked to find myself back in the future.

In front of me was the same creature from before. It stared me down, unmoving and quiet. Something in its hand glimmered, the necklace that I left in Mary's room.

As it lifted its arm, a black powder fell below it, staying on the necklace as the ghost dropped the locket into my hand. I quickly left after watching it disappear in a cloud of black smoke.

Sprinting to the front door, I managed to break it open and run out into the early morning light. The smell of fresh air, and the feeling of an early morning mist had never been so amazing to me, but I continued off the property hurriedly.

~~~

It had been a few weeks since I even looked at the locket. However, I remembered recently that I never actually looked inside.

I hesitantly opened the necklace, seeing a very old photo. A little girl's face had been smudged out, but a lady around my age held the young girl. The lady seemed all too familiar to me, and I didn't know how to react.

A chuckle escaped my lips. "So the spell didn't completely fail."

A/N- I'm kind of bad with endings, lol, so if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to comment it!

Let me just say, writing fanfictions is so much easier than writing your own books, but I think this one turned out pretty decently.