Viribus

Chapter 14: Darkness

Over the next few days, Dimitri has his surgery and gets discharged home and we don't talk about this thing that's been haunting us. I just focus on him and concentrate on making sure he is healing. It's been nice and calm but eventually the subject comes up again because we've both been silently worrying.
"Viviana, what are we going to do? It's been 2 weeks since you got this letter and you haven't opened it. Don't you want to know what Lillie had to say?"
"I do,but...."
"Look, I know you're scared. We're all scared, even Viribus has been looking worried lately but we can't let this evil win. We have to show it that we aren't scared."
Dimitri had a look on his face that reminded me of anger mixed with fear, I had never seen him like this before.
"I want a life with you, Viviana.  You know that right?"
"Yes, me too."
"Just the thought of anyone or anything jeopardizing that makes me feel so angry."
For a brief moment, my mind switches to the thought of Beau with his red hair and mischievous grin. I wondered what he was up to and if he had finally got out of that place. I sure hope he did.
My mind snaps back to reality and back on Dimitri and I look down as all the guilt I'm feeling manifests itself as the tension on my forehead.
"Viviana, you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine. I think I'm just a little tired"
"Well, it is getting a bit late. Why don't I make you a hot cup of tea and we can lay down for the evening?"
"Sounds great."
Even though Dimitri's in a cast, he has gotten much stronger over the last few days. He pushes up on his good leg, holding on to the side of the enormous dinner table and grabs his crutches. He manages to do this pretty smoothly now and can even make tea and do other things around the house now. It used to worry me at first, but he's proved that he knows what he's doing and I trust him.
We take our steaming cups of tea up stairs and start to get settled in the bedroom. Viribus follows closely behind. His big ears pointed at the top of his head as if he's on the lookout for anything suspicious.
Viribus was such a beautiful dog. His fur was shiny black and his eyes were a burning orange. I watched him as he slinked up the stairs behind us, his massive shoulder blades peaking smoothly from one side to the other. A person could probably think he was scary looking or threatening, but they would have to know absolutely nothing about him to think that. There was a regal glow about him, and his eyes were almost human-like. I always had an overwhelming sense that he knew more about this whole situation than we did.
Once at the top of the winding staircase, Dimitri takes a moment and looks down the stairwell; The same stairwell he fell victim to just weeks earlier. There's a slight wrinkle in his brow and I'm not sure what's on his mind. A part of me wants to ask, but I decide against it and I stand there silently.
"We're going to send you back to pits of hell."
He says calmly into the empty air. It's echos and bounces off the walls all the way down. The sentence sounds cold and hard coming from his lips. Colder than I've ever heard him sound. I put my arm around him and signal him to come to bed.
"The tea is going to get cold."
He stares for a couple more seconds and then looks at me. His expression immediately softens and we go in our room. He sits on the bed and sips his tea, still obviously thinking deeply. I go into the bathroom, which still gives me the creeps by the way, and start my nightly routine. Viribus lays in the doorway of the bathroom and doesn't take his eyes off of me.
After a few minutes, I realize Dimitri had been suspiciously quiet.
"Dimitri?"
Nothing.
Immediately my heart speeds up a bit and I peek out into the bedroom and to my relief, I see Dimitri already snoring on the bed.
Poor thing, his massive home is now working against him since his injury. It takes a lot of his energy to get around it. I cover him with his blanket and lay down beside him with a sigh.
I don't know what we were going to do. All I did was move into a house and try to be independent for once in my life and now I'm being harassed and I don't even know why.
My mind shifts to the letter. Will I ever feel safe enough to open it? This was obviously a strong spirit with how fast and easily it killed Lillie.
All this time, it had left her alone until she decided to finally tell the truth of what happened in that house and then it took her life. I can only imagine the horror that would ensue from me opening the letter and I feel like I need to have a plan in place when I do it. Suddenly,from the doorway to the hall, I hear a indistinguishable whisper. I look over at Dimitri. Still knocked out. My heart rate increases and my ears start to feel hot. Looking around the room, I want so badly to get out of the bed and close the door. I have an uneasy feeling that any minute something is going walk down the hallway and I don't want to see it.
I look over at Viribus and surprisingly, he's still sleeping and curled up at the foot of the bed. I'm starting to think this was a figment of my imagination when the lamp that was sitting on the bedside table turns off, leaving the room pitch black. Panicked, I reach for the lamp and try to click it back on with no luck. I want to get up and run or at least find a light but when I get scared, I freeze.
My heart almost completely stops when I feel hot breath on the back of my neck. It breathes out and then in and then out again at a much slower pace than mine.
"Viribus?", it leaves my lips as a pitiful, shaky squeak
Nothing.
"Dimitri?"
Close to my ear, in a voice I didn't recognize, nor do I think any human on this earth would recognize, it echos through my eardrum and sends a jolt of fear through my entire body.
"No."
I scream and run into the hallway, with only my phone lighting the way. Something big and heavy runs into my legs and almost knocks me down. Pointing my phone screen down to the floor, I see Viribus standing at attention by legs. I crouch down, put both of my hands on his massive head and I pull him to my chest.
"I'm so glad to see you.", I say, tears flowing.
I've always been afraid of the dark ever since I was a small child but I guess a part of me still is because I'm just frozen in fear in the middle of the dark in this massive house.
I'm almost scared to point my light anywhere for fear of what I might see but I have Viribus and I can't sit here forever. Has Dimitri heard any of this? Why hasn't he gotten up or made any sound at all?
"You lookin' for me?" I hear down the long hallway. I can only see a pair of yellow glowing eyes in the distance. I shine my light and there's Dimitri; only I know it's not Dimitri because he has no cast, no limp and no Russian accent, but a southern one.
His eyes are completely black. This is not a human.
Viribus crouches down and begins a low growl.
"Who are you?"
The thing begins to walk slowly towards me down the hallway. I try to not show how terrified I am.
"Don't tell me you don't recognize me?"
He shifts from Dimitri to the form of Lillie.
"Show me who you really are, you coward."
"I am whoever I want to be." It says as it continues to walk closer. It then shifts to an image of me.
I just stare in amazement and pure horror.
"If you come any closer, Viribus will take your head off." I say, backing up, careful not to run into the stairs.
My doppelgänger looks down at Viribus and hisses.
"So we meet again, old friend." The demon then shifts into a Viribus type form. It looked exactly like Viribus except something was off. It never got the eyes right. They looked evil no matter what form it took.
The beast lunges toward us and Viribus jumps forward as well. The two massive dogs roll around, barking, snarling and scratching. It's hard for me to figure out who's winning. When one dog is hurled down the stairs, I quickly look over to see which one was left upstairs with me. Looking into his eyes, I could clearly see that this was my Viribus. His eyes warm and orange. I look him over to make sure he's okay.
I haven't had the feeling of relief for even five minutes when I hear it.
Thud.....Thud.....Thud.
I knew I didn't want to look but I had to look. I was still not expecting what I saw.  The beast had shifted again but something had went horribly wrong. It was a mutated, horrific mixture of all of the things it had shifted into before. It was part dog and part 3 different humans. It's face was half dog snout and teeth and the other half was some mixture of Dimitri and my face. It was disgusting and undoubtably demonic. The thing was dragging its body step by step up the stairs with its arms. It's back legs, one being a canine leg, looked broken. It did not take its black eyes off of me. I didn't know what to do but I did know one thing, I couldn't let it get to the top of the stairs. I silently prayed to myself, Hoping to be saved by some miracle. I knew Viribus would fight until his last breath but I didn't want him to. I knew he was tired.
Suddenly, I hear the beast scream. It was not a normal scream, it was a suffering scream; a dying scream. I feel a sprinkle of cold water on my hand and turn around to see Dimitri splashing water onto the monster from behind me. He was limping to catch up to where I was, still splashing all the way. With every splash the beast was sent further and further down the stairs until it writhed and sizzled and dissolved into nothing.
At this point, I'm so happy to see Dimitri but I'm also hysterical. I wrap my arms around him and just continue to cry. He just holds me in that moment until I feel I have gathered enough composure to speak.
"Was that holy water?"
"Yes, I've always kept some beside my bed ever since I was a child after my mother's death. I knew this thing was demonic. I've also stuck the letter in a bible and I think that has angered it even more.  Viviana, I think we might be in over our head now. I've read many things about evil and demons but I'm no professional.
I look up at Dimitri, meeting his gaze.
"I think I know someone that can help.", I think to myself.