Cursed ✔️

68. Time To Go Back

After the funeral of Petunia, David, Rose, and John came back and got freshened up. John went straight to his room and jumped on his bed on his stomach - He was really tired and exhausted from all the events since the past few days. A lot was on his mind at the moment - the lingering atmosphere of his Aunt's death, how she died, the moment when Diana caused the hooks to penetrate her eyes and lift her up - John closed his squinted eyes and shook his head to shake off the shivers from replaying the death scene at the dinner in his head-, the final viewing, and the burial. It was an emotional day.

Then suddenly, he rolled to his side and got up. Sliding back on his bed, he buried his back in his pillow and put his hand in his pocket. He took out the paper which he found near his Aunt's casket when it fell down and unfolded it.

The note looked so simple yet so intriguing at the same time. John kept looking or rather staring at the paper like he was lost in some deep thinking world while leaning back in his red race cars printed pillow.

He got up and went near one of his drawers. He opened it and took out another piece of folded paper. He took the paper and sat on his bed keeping the two unfolded notes side by side in front of him.

'The Lady In Black Is Next'

'Skylar'

He gave a quick glance to the first note he found in the bouquet at the hospital and then shifted his eyes to the note he found at the funeral house. At first, both of them looked so unrelated and useless to think so much about them.

What is happening to me? Why am I pondering on it so much? With the first note, Diana told us about the victim who would die next. Why would she tell us - that's a different question. But this note? Is this also written by Diana? Is she telling me that she is going to kill some girl named 'Skylar'? But in the first note, she had made it like a riddle for us to guess the person but in the second, believing that she wrote it, why did she straight away write a name? Is this a clue or some pattern? Or maybe I'm overthinking things, making connections between two things that might be unrelated. Maybe it must be Mr. Louis's. After all, it was near the casket. Maybe he must have dropped it when he was placing the body in the casket.

But then his eyes noticed something that made him question his thoughts. He raised one eyebrow and gave the two notes laying side by side another close look. He observed that the handwriting was the same in both the paper - the same strokes and the same style. The 'T' in the first note had a long vertical stroke with a little curve at the end which exactly reflected in the second note. And the 'y' in both the notes have a bit extra curve and a big lower loop. Plus, the letters in both the notes were slanted to the right the exact amount.

Does this mean that these two were written by Diana? But if she wrote the first victim in a riddle kind of way, why did she directly write the name on the second note? Maybe is she trying to do something? I don't know but if this girl named Skylar is next on Diana's target, I have to do something regardless of whether or not the note is true. I cannot risk another life in danger just because of confusion or doubt! If nothing happens - good - but suppose...?

But one thing I still don't get is that why does Diana want us to know who she's gonna kill next via these notes? Is she playing some kind of game with us?

He picked up his cell and was about to press 'call' on Emily's contact when his thumb hovered over the screen and he paused.

Should I tell her about the note and that we have to find a girl named Skylar? Maybe she knows a girl with this name. Maybe we both can - But on second thought, why should I? She will think of it as just a joke or maybe she'd not take it seriously or be all pessimistic about it just like she did with my idea.

I mean my idea might not get the biggest problem solver award, but at least I tried! But instead of appreciating my effort, she has to be all negative about it and that too right from the start! Anyway, I don't wanna think about it! If she thinks that she can do it alone and that she is much better than me, then so be it!

I guess the responsibility of finding this person - two, he corrected himself, lie on me. First, this Skylar and then second, the person who could break the spell.

Alright, John. Think. Do you know anyone named  Skylar?

Skylar... Skylar... Skylar... It's like I know her but at the same time, I don't. Skylar... Yes!

When we thought that we had given Father Murphy the first piece which he had kept in the Church, Emily told us that she had seen a lady with the stone. That girl leads us to a thrift store where the shopkeeper told us about the eerie woman.

John was thinking all this with his eyes shut. He then thought something which sent shivers down his spine.

That's the place where I saw -

He gulped his saliva.

- that man. That horrifying melted rod faced man.

He shook his head to shake off that thought and the flashbacks - when the three of them were at Skylar's house, he was about to get up from the couch to leave when he saw everything going far away from him. The whole room, its things, and everyone seemed to be going away and away with every passing second becoming smaller and smaller. Everything but him.

He screamed for Hannah or Emily to hear him but all of his screamings were in vain as no one heard him or looked at him.

He even tried to run too but he was still there and everything was going away from him becoming smaller.

And how he then felt a cold hand slightly above his knees even when he was sitting all alone and saw a hand covered in blood with some blood dripping down, making blood stains on his jeans. How his whole system froze and was shut.

And when he turned to his side, he saw a man - a man with his face melted in two halves which were joined together by rusted iron rods all the way from one ear to another.

And when the man extended his blood-covered hands to his neck and tried to open his mouth, he fainted.

I don't want to go back there.

John was afraid. Afraid to see that man again. That haunting image and scenario were imprinted in his mind so badly that every time he tried not to think about any of it, everything came back - like he was again reliving that moment of scary encounter which he did not want to ever again. He did not know who that spirit was or why was he at that house or why when he appeared, John felt what he felt, but he had no intentions whatsoever to meet him again to get the answers.

No, John. Even though you are terrified of that man, you have to go back. You have to do it for everyone. Everything counts on you. Be strong. If Hannah was here, she would have said the same thing. She would have encouraged me to go and find the solutions - to fight back my fear. The fear only grows stronger when you feed it.

I have to do this for Hannah. I'm having a feeling that there's more to the eye than it seems what we saw at that house.

I think that girl's name was Skylar! Only one way to find out. Time to go back.

But in all this, I don't have to forget the most important thing - the unknown third stone - which I almost forgot about.