This is part 2 of a multipart story, and it is recommended you go back and read Victorian Dreams Ch 01 to gain perspective. For those of you who have expressed interest in the story I thank you and offer this part for your enjoyment.

This part as well as the prior part and any parts that fool are Copyright 2003, 2004 by Charles F. Johnson, and all rights are reserved under copyright laws of the United States and other countries.

Chapter 33

Haley had never stolen anything in her life. It bothered her as she walked out of the church.

Why when she first resorted to thievery, had she chosen to steal religious items?

She made a mental note to return the item once it was of no further use to her.

She wasn’t sure if she was on the right track, but the thoughts that had almost overwhelmed her on a couple of occasions that day told her she probably was.

Haley hoped Clarice would give her a visit and confirm things for her. She wished there was a way she could summon the angelic spirit.

Yet, when Clarice had told her she would watch over her the night before, she said she couldn’t watch over her all the time. It seemed apparent to Haley she was basically on her own, and she wasn’t about to become one of the common concubines, which was her lot if she were to succumb to the seduction or fall to the trickery of the evil arrayed against her.

Though not a conscious thought the steeling of her resolve Clarice had promised was starting to occur. It would strengthen as she went further into battle with these demonic interlopers in her home.

She thought to herself the minions who had the use of the common concubines must be feeling fortuitous these days, for the promiscuity that started in the 60s and 70s and to lesser degree, perhaps, continuing unto today had a lot of women ‘impure out of matrimony’ and therefore of only one purpose to the Master of darkness, to service the lust of his evil hoards.

When she arrived home, Haley took her treasures to her sleeping quarters. She set the bottles of Holy Water on the table beside the bed, and laid the cross embroidered cloth on the bed. When she went to bed in her usual attire of panties and T-shirt, she wrapped the cloth around her neck, kind of like a muffler. She said the 23rd Psalm prayer at bedtime as she had become accustomed to doing.

That night was clear, and the orb of the moon was nearly full in its brilliance, so she had no visitors, of either the evil or the good variety. As she sat drinking her morning tea, she again wished she would get another visit from Clarice. After her first cup of tea, she refreshed it and went to the verandah, with Clarice diary, and began reading again. She went back and reread various accounts of the visits the girl had received from the evil women bent on having her join them and become a servant of the Master, and of the night the ‘ogre’ creatures had found her looking in the chamber window. She hoped this would give her some idea of what to expect and that she might be better able to prepare to protect herself.

Chapter 34

Haley returned then to the place in the journal where she had left off and began reading of the accounts, further. Clarice wrote of more days where her mother seemed to be coherent and each time, she warned Clarice of the dangers of the basement chamber and had her reaffirm her promise never to go there.

Clarice reported these coherent days seemed to correlate with the nights the visitors to her room were particularly active. Her mother apparently wouldn’t have a sleepless night of activity if all the chamber dwellers except the Master were in her room. The Master had never come to her room, nor had the ogres since the night they returned her to her bed. This led Clarice to believe they must always be on patrol outdoors and that the Master was confined to the chamber, or simply didn’t appear every night. On these nights the concubines worked on Clarice, her mother was allowed a night of peaceful sleep.

The Master must be absolutely ‘allergic’ to moon light, if he was confined to the chamber and neither he nor his minions were active when the full moon promised a bright night.

The phase of the moon seemed to present a timetable to Clarice as to when certain activities would occur. When the moon was full and for the week before she never seemed to have visitors, or at least if she did, they didn’t show themselves. Then during the waning phase when the moon was growing smaller in the night sky, they would visit almost nightly. She always got a visit on the new moon when there was no visible moon in the sky, and for the week after. Then when the first quarter moon occurred and the moon continued to wax and grow larger toward the advent of the full moon, the visits would become less frequent. These patterns were only altered if the weather produced a night when the clouds would obscure the moons glow.

Clarice had tracked them carefully and they were well documented, so Haley began to feel fairly certain she could start to predict when she would have visitors.

It was just a passing thought to Haley, but she noted how this contrasted perfectly with the human concepts of the moons phases. Man seemed to have his worst activity when the moon was full, and other phases and points of lunation never seemed to bother man, though man did apparently follow the Farmer’s Almanac advice and planted on ‘the dark of the moon’ when it was a new moon. Fishing was also enhanced or inhibited when the phase of the moon was at a particular point, contrasting the activities of the servants of evil intent.

It seemed appropriate when taken in the context of evil doings. The nefarious characters of the underworld did their evil when the moon was lightless or almost that way, while man unwittingly did the devils deeds when the brightness of the moon prevented the evil entities from being active in the night.

It occurred to Haley that perhaps this was part of a grand design and the balance and equilibrium always sought in nature. The lectures of her Earth Sciences teacher and his stressing the balance nature always sought in life when she was a girl were fresh and vivid in her mind.

Clarice, in her writings, seemed to be growing bold in her abilities to cope with the evil that was ever-present and trying to lure her in to their bloated ranks. The young woman documented the fact she was glad she was a virgin, so the lusty pleasures they tried to seduce her with were unfamiliar and hard to fathom. Yet, that same virginity made her more vulnerable, first from naïveté then from the pressure the minions would bring to bear because she could serve as a brood wife for the Master, or as the energy to free the evil hoards in the ritual or ceremony that required a virgin sacrifice of some kind. Yet, apparently they had no way of knowing for certain she was a virgin, because the raven-haired lady always said ‘if you are pure’ and not ‘since you are pure’. Yet, in these more innocent times it was likely easy to assume the girl was a virgin. The upbringing of her parents in a time when sex and the reckless pursuit of personal hedonism were not as commonplace as they are today.

Clarice understanding was becoming rather detailed and the young woman had an uncanny sense of making sense of the seemingly nonsensical in her writings of the events taking place in her young life.

If Haley had not talked with the angelic spirit of the girl, had her heal her wound with a gentle touch and had not been visited by the minions, she would have by now, probably, written it off in her mind as schizophrenia or other psychiatric illness.

Hadn’t the websites she had researched on exorcism and demonic possession postulated this as the modern theory on possession.

This level of detail was a symptom she had already recalled from her psych class, of schizophrenia and related mental disorders, and would have compelled that assessment.

As Haley read, the depiction in the diary suddenly took an ominous turn again. Clarice spoke of awakening one morning and finding her mother gone. Her bed had not been slept in and Clarice searched the entire house and property, and she was nowhere to be found. That is she searched all places but the basement chamber. Missing or not she would not violate her promise to her mother and enter there.

Chapter 35

All things considered, she didn’t think it wise to notify the authorities, either. First, she wasn’t yet 18 and would likely end up in an orphan’s home until she passed the age of majority. Second, how could she explain what had been going on around the house. Third, they probably already thought her wacky because of her assertions regarding her father’s death. Lastly, the brave girl couldn’t subject outsiders to the potential dangers of the chamber.

Surely any search of the premises would not exclude the chamber unless she could control it. She realized control was something she would immediately lose once adults and especially adult authorities became involved.

She promised herself to not contact the authorities.

Clarice had taken on a newer much more intense mantle of protectionism similar to that she had felt after the death of her father and that was basis of the responsibility for the odyssey she now found herself compelled to pursue.

Now she felt compelled to protect all of mankind, and that meant she basically had to fight this evil alone, without outside intervention. That was the only way she could be assured no one fell victim to the wiles of the evil that resided in her basement each night.

Clarice wrote of the weighty feelings of obligation she felt in this regard and though boldly taking on this mantle that had been thrust upon her, she resented the loss of the quieter times and felt the last brief moments of her childhood had been stolen from her.

She almost reneged on her promise to herself, not to contact the authorities, when that night the onslaught of the minions was the most intense it had been. It was still only the three concubines, but their pressure and the sirens song of the raven-haired lady was intense. Clarice wrote the first rays of the sun’s light on the horizon, which dispatched them all to the chamber, was immensely welcome.

As Clarice pondered the events of the night before and the fact her mother was still missing, she decided to notify the town constable. After all, had they not searched the chamber for a perpetrator when her father had died, and not been harmed?

Yet, Clarice didn’t contact the authorities, for in the end, she thought the chambers evil must have grown stronger since her fathers death and subjecting the constable or his deputies to the potential hell of becoming captive to the legions of the evil Master that dwelled in her basement was just not something she was prepared to do.

She again felt she was the only one who could fight this growing threat to the world. After all her mother had said, “They are always seeking ways to be released from the darkness so they can rain death and destruction on all mankind”. Though Clarice wasn’t certain what it took to ‘release then from the darkness’ she wasn’t prepared to unwittingly be party to that release.

Chapter 36

The constable and his deputies were all men and she didn’t know what would happen to men if the Master seduced them, or if they were even susceptible to the seduction. After all in the accounts of the first evil seduction it was Eve and not Adam that was seduced by the evil in the presence of the serpent. But then, that may have simply been because Eve presented the first opportunity and not that she was more susceptible.

If events had been different then perhaps it would have been Adam that had altered the course of existence for all mankind. Surely the instigators of evil would not pass on even the slightest opportunity to subvert God’s intended good for man.

Rather than recruiting her father to the evil hoards, they had merely killed him, so perhaps men weren’t allowed, and the constable or his deputies might be killed, another thing Clarice wanted no responsibility for. But then Clarice surmised that perhaps contact by men was merely tolerated and the reason her father had been killed was due in part to his trying to remove the gargoyles and these somehow represented a source of strength to the evil.

The ‘ogres’ were male, obviously, having asked to use Clarice body for pleasure that night in the chamber, but if Clarice understood, they were the result of a pregnancy between the Master and an impure concubine, ostensibly the raven-haired lady. She had called them ‘her children’. Still the other contraindications to contacting authority still existed.

As Haley read these accounts she felt she knew just how Clarice felt, because it seemed every solution or resolution that was obtained provided more questions than answers. It must have been both frustrating and frightening to the young girl, all alone now in this big evil house, her father murdered by the evil here and now her mother missing, long enough now to be presumed dead.

Clarice finally indicated in her diary, she would give it a little more time. Then if she couldn’t locate her mother or her mother didn’t return, then she would revisit the idea of contacting the constable.

As it turned out that was a good way to pursue the situation. The new moon was approaching by Clarice calculations in her diary and the activity nightly in her room was intense. But it was like the loss of her mother to these doers of evil had steeled the girl in her resistance. It had gotten so easy for the girl to tune them out. Clarice was to the point she had to caution herself against falling asleep, for fear a misstep might occur when she was not yet fully awake.

Then the night of the new moon occurred and instead of the usual three visitors, Clarice had four. The common concubines were there in the corners of the room wearing their red see-through gowns and chanting their mantra “The Master cometh”

The raven-haired lady was there too, standing beside her bed as usual beseeching Clarice to go to the Master in the Chamber below, for he waited to receive her into his service in return for untold pleasure, power, and immortality.

The fourth visitor though was Chirsty Johansson.

Clarice mother materialized at the foot of the bed where the raven-haired lady, usually made her appearance, but stood there and didn’t move around to the side as the raven-haired concubine did.

Like the raven-haired concubine, Clarice mother wore the black ‘uniform’ of a concubine reserved for the Master, indicating what Clarice had already known.

The question unnecessary and inappropriate to ask, that her mother though no longer ‘pure’ yet, having lost her virginity within the confines of marriage.

Clarice almost didn’t recognize her mother when she first appeared. She looked much younger, like the mere act of dying had restored her youthful beauty, this probably a product of no longer requiring the sleep that was constantly robbed from her in the later days of her life.

What was surprising and alarming to the young girl was that this meant what she had feared, that her mother was in fact dead. The fact she could materialize was evidence enough, but the fact she wore the ‘uniform’ of a concubine was further evidence of the fact.

Her mother came just as the rosy glow of the rising sun started to tint the eastern sky outside of Clarice window. The others had been in her room assailing her with their diatribe and their chanting for hours already. As her mother appeared the others were starting to make their departure.

Clarice started to exclaim joyously that her mother had returned, but several factors held her silent. First she seemed to have joined the ranks of those who tormented her almost nightly now, and second, she feared expressing emotion in the midst of the other entities present in the room might represent a vulnerability to them, or lastly, it might put her mother in an awkward position, so Clarice remained stoic and silent for the moment.

The common concubines had already started to dematerialize and the raven-haired lady cast a furtive, wary glance toward the window and the growing presence of the rising sun. She then started to move toward the foot of the bed where Clarice mother stood.


Reaching the side of the woman, she embraced her, kissing he full on the lips as a man would kiss a woman, not as two women usually kiss. When she broke the embrace, she winked at Clarice giving her a knowing smile, or that she had a secret that was about to be revealed to Clarice, then poof she was gone. Now only Clarice and her mother remained in the room.

Chapter 37

Moving quickly to her daughter’s side she took her hand and stroked it lovingly as she had done in the kitchen just days earlier, Clarice tried to hug the woman, but only had a vapor to embrace and with a wistful tear asked,

“Are you dead mother?”

“Yes, my baby, I am dead. I brought this on myself though.” Chirsty seemed to be defending the other spirits as she uttered these words. Clarice broke into hysterical crying, the long night without sleep and now the confirmation of the fears her mother was dead.

Looking toward the east-facing window, Chirsty had a worried look on her face and continued.

“I need for you to calm yourself and listen carefully to me, I don’t have much time.”

Chirsty Johansson stroked her daughter’s hair lovingly and gave the girl a moment to recompose herself and smiled at her before beginning to speak, again.

“If you remember I told you the only way the Master could have you is if you gave yourself to him, but I stopped short of telling you it could also be accomplished if I gave you to him. I told you when you asked not to worry because that wasn’t going to happen.”

“Yes mother, I remember, and those same conditions were stated the night I was taken prisoner to the chamber.” Clarice voiced her understanding.

“The Master started putting pressure on me to make you a gift as a token of my loyalty to him. I couldn’t do that to you and I couldn’t unleash the potential that presented on the world, so I threw myself in the well out back. I know you have been worried and I know I abandoned you in your darkest hour, but I knew I had failed in the temptations of the Master once and though I never even once conceived of ever giving you over to him, I was truly afraid I would fail to resist the temptations again."

"I knew If I was dead my powers would be no greater than that of the others that come here, and I have grown so proud watching you fend off their advances, so I felt certain you could fend off mine if I were put in a position where I would be asked to try to lure you to his service. Besides I was concerned I might become pregnant and deliver another hideous minion into the world. Since the Master can only procreate with a living being, I thought it wiser I sacrifice myself and die.”

Clarice was quick to realize her mother’s sacrifice, but that didn’t lessen the impact of her loss.

Chirsty glanced toward the window at the approaching sunrise and continued her discourse.

“I waited until I could put together a plan to talk with you as I am now. When they wanted me to start joining in the coercion they are putting you up against, I was afraid I would be too much and you might give in if I was one of the ones trying to convince you to do so. So I proposed coming at dawn and talking to you after they had worn you down all night."

"I convinced them this is when you would be the most vulnerable, and that I needed to be alone to talk to you as only a mother and daughter talk. So the Master agreed. They actually thought me brave to expose myself to the potential of the sun, but that is part of my plan. I will not try to get you to join the Master. I love you too much and the rest of the world to ask you to do that even if it meant you could somehow save me, and it doesn’t mean that.”
“Nothing can save me now I have been lost since I gave myself to him in my moment of weakness, long ago. I have come to tell you to destroy this house and the evil that lives here. The best way would be to get sunlight into the chamber below, but that is too risky, so the next best way is to destroy the house by burning it."

"Burn it to the ground Clarice." She was almost screaminmg at Clarice, as she spoke.

"You must be covert in your action and you must succeed the first time you try. Otherwise you will be destroyed, virgin or not.”

Clarice mother again looked to the east to see the sun is just about to rise and she stands. She runs her hand along the young face of her daughter, and says more.

“You are strong my child. I have seen your strength from the moment I held you in my arms at birth. I never knew what the strength was for, but now I know. You will defeat this menace to mankind, and you will survive. Please always try to remember I love you Clarice. Never underestimate them Clarice. They are cunning in their intent and execution of the evil they desire to unleash.”

“I know you love me mother. I have never doubted this for a moment. I have grown ever respectful of their evil wiles and the guise of their purposes. I will remain cautious as you wish.”

The tears were streaming down Clarice face as she spoke these words, but it is hard to say if she was prepared for what happened next.

Chapter 38

“I am sorry baby, but I must abandon you again. I must look to my soul now. In the end, perhaps we can be together again without you having to go to the Master this way.”

Chirsty walked over to the window and stood facing it as the sun’s first rays streamed over the horizon. Just as the light hit her, she spoke again.

“I love you, baby.”

Then the vaporous form that had once been her mother burst briefly into flames and vanished from the room. The last thing Clarice heard was ‘I love you baby’ then a blood curdling scream as her mother’s vaporous form disappeared in the momentary burst of flame.

Clarice wept in her bed for hours. Though she had presumed her mother dead, the actual conformation of it was more than she had expected. Then the words her mother had said resonated in her mind. ‘You are strong my child’. Even with her mothers words echoing in her mind it still took her several more minutes to compose herself.

She rose, cleaned herself up and dressed, then went to the well and looked in. Just as her mother had said, her body was floating face down in the water 15-20 feet below the lip of the well.

By now the girl had regained the composure that so characterized her strength, and she began to formulate a story to tell the authorities if they should ask why her mother’s body had been in the well for several days without Clarice notifying the authorities she was missing or had fallen into the waters below.

Once she had put together a plausible story, she got into the family car, a Model A Ford, her dad had been so proud of when he drove it home to their flat in New York City, and drove to town to get the constable.

She told the constable her mother had apparently fallen in the well and drowned, and she needed someone to handle the situation. The Deputy that had investigated her father’s death recognized Clarice immediately, so the constable dispatched him to investigate. Not having radios and the like back in those days, he went by the coroner’s office and had a crew follow him out to the house. Clarice was waiting on the verandah when they pulled into the yard, and took them back to the well.

One man was lowered into the water and tied rope around the body of Chirsty Johansson and they hoisted her out.

The crew from the coroner’s office examined the body and pronounced, estimating the time of death as several days earlier from the water logged condition of the body. When the deputy asked why Clarice had not reported her missing earlier, Clarice gave the story she had already concocted.

“Since the death of my father, Mom has been in a deep depression. It isn’t unusual for her to wander off into the woods to be alone and not return for a couple of days. In one of her lucid moments, she apologized to me for being ignored by her and told me not to report her missing unless she was gone for a week or more. She said that way I wouldn’t get entangled in the system and get shipped off to an orphan’s home until I turn 18 next year. Nor have to face the other problems that could arise from her disappearance. She said she needed this time to grieve my lost father. As a dutiful daughter I was compelled to follow her wishes. Besides, she has only been gone for 3 days.”

The story was just plausible enough the deputy bought it. Chirsty’s body had been in the well for longer than three days, but Clarice had listened carefully when the coroner’s assistant had said after about 3 days there was no way to tell how long the body had been in the water.

Clarice didn’t seem despondent or depressed on the loss of both her parents in such a short period of time, in fact an almost eerie calm seemed to have a grasp on the girl, yet the deputy had no choice but to set the wheels in motion for Clarice to go to an orphanage.

Since she had stayed at the house for this period of time without adult supervision, and was 17 so less than a year away from majority he decided to let her stay alone at the house and contact the state agency that had jurisdiction on the matter then they would remove her from the house.

Besides the only place the Constable would have to house the girl would be in a jail cell, and the nice deputy couldn’t bring himself to subject her to such squalid conditions as the city jail.

He asked her if she thought she would be all right alone at the house for a day or two until the Child Welfare people could get involved.

“Deputy, I have spent most of the last several weeks alone, whether my mother was here or gone, so I think a few more days won’t be a problem. Besides, I can have the opportunity to get some things in order and my things together.” The answer was factual all things considered yet Clarice thought it might sound a bit rude or flippant, so she quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry deputy, I didn’t mean to sound flip or rude. I am just under a bit of strain right now.”

“That is alright, Miss, I understand.”

The deputy ruled the death an accident, though he did consider suicide as a possibility based on what Clarice had said. Either way there were no suspicious circumstances to be investigated in his observation.

As soon as they left, Clarice set about the plan to burn the house down.

Chapter 39

The day was slipping into darkness, and Haley found herself again self-castigating for wasting another day. Though she had given up on cleaning up and moving to the third floor, she still had things she could be doing downstairs.

She thought the third floor was perhaps a bit too closely linked to the basement chamber for her comfort. Further, she felt her plans for a B n B needed to be on hold until she figured a way to rid the house of the evil. Like Clarice, she had taken on the responsibility of see the evil here was not allowed to reach the rest of the world. That night when she went to bed, she again prayed the 23rd Psalm, and clad in panties and T-shirt as usual, she looked rather comical as she put the alter cloth from the Catholic Church around her neck like a muffler.

She went one step further and emptied one of the apothecary bottles of holy water into a cup at her bedside.

From the best that she could determine, the full moon had just passed, so the likelihood she would receive a visitor in the next week was remote, yet summer thunderclouds formed as the evening progressed and though the storm clouds were passing well south of the house, that didn’t preclude some might not obscure the moon.

Haley recalled the first night of visits had occurred when the phase of the moon wouldn’t have indicated a visit, but storm clouds obscuring the moon’s glow had brought them to her room.

The clouds did apparently obscure the moon, for along about 1 am the common concubines began to float around her room. Apparently their new tactic was to try to scare her into submission.

They had apparently failed with coercion in Clarice case, and Haley was proving to not be any better a prospect, so the common concubines were whirling around the room like spectral zephyrs, plaintively moaning instead of chanting the mantra they were usually heard to utter.

This reminded Haley of the tactic the military had used when they went after Manuel Noriega in Panama, setting up loudspeakers and playing rock music and the chanting of monks unceasingly. It had worked for them, so this new tactic worried the woman and was a bit unnerving.

When one got too close to the bed for Haley’s comfort, she grabbed the cup of holy water and flung it at the spirit, again shouting ‘get the hence, Satan’.

Both zephyrs froze in place when this happened. The one that had been drenched by the holy water, started to bubble like she had been drenched in acid, and slowly dematerialized. The other dematerialized as soon as her sister concubine had gone.

Haley refilled the cup from another bottle of holy water.

A little later, the raven-haired lady materialized at the foot of Haley’s bed. Haley had drifted off to sleep but it was a guarded sleep, and was wide awake the instant the yellowish light appeared in her room, along with the characteristic burnt odor.

The raven-haired lady drifted over beside Haley’s reclining form, to the place she always presented her litany from. She looked down at Haley with a scolding look on her face. Haley just stared back, a defiant look firmly affixed on her face.

After several minutes of this ‘standoff of stares’ the raven-haired woman finally spoke.

“Usually we merely try to persuade someone like you of the advantages and the eternal rewards of coming into the service of the Master. But you have become overly aggressive. Your assault on my sister, cannot go unpunished, so I am here to punish you for your transgressions.”

As the concubine spoke, Haley felt herself levitating off the bed and a deep fear began to grip her. She began reciting the 23rd Psalm as she rose higher off the bed, the covering blankets slipping slowly from her body. When she started reciting the 23rd Psalm, the raven-haired Lady started to laugh hysterically, throwing her head back, and cackling like a witch in the middle of an incantation, not looking at Haley as the bed covers slipped off to reveal the makeshift muffler, of the alter vestment, the young woman wore.

When she recomposed herself and looked back in Haley’s direction, the religious garment was completely visible around the young woman’s neck and trailing down across her body and dangling between her legs as she hung horizontally suspended in mid air.

When the raven-haired lady saw the religious cloth, she gasped as if hit by an unseen fist in the solar plexus. She almost doubled over from the force of the unseen force that had assailed her standing form.

Haley dropped back to the bed and the raven-haired lady disappeared almost instantaneously.

Haley grew fearful as she lay there contemplating the events of the last couple of hours. Clarice had said the minions were of limited powers, yet they seemed to be growing stronger and getting aggressive themselves in their approach to Haley’s increased resistance.

Tears streamed down her face, more from exhaustion than fear. An adrenaline hangover was just starting to make its presence known, and Haley was justifiably scared. She had no way of knowing the extent of what might occur now that she had evoked the wrath of the evil beings that occupied her home.

As she lay there weeping and wondering to what extent they could assault her, the form of Clarice materialized.

She hovered over to the side of the bed and tenderly wiped away the tears from Haley’s face and spoke gently to the woman.

“Do not be unduly fearful. They cannot go beyond what they have done thus far. There powers are limited as I have said and they are at the limits of these powers. As long as you avoid the chamber and the Master, they can do you no harm. Their tactic now is to scare you into his service.”

Haley responded, “Well it’s working. They are scaring the weebies out of me.” Her response was perhaps an attempt to lighten an already frightening situation. Clarice had eased her fears somewhat, and this was just Haley’s way of recomposing herself.

The injection of a certain amount of levity into the events seemed almost objectionable in retrospect to Haley, but it had served the purpose intended by steadying Haley’s frayed nerves

“Do not fear them further. Do not lose sight of the respect you must have for their wily ways, but do not fear them. You have done as I have told you and increased in the things that represent the Holy Father. You have used them effectively and they have protected you. Continue to rely on them for protection, for they will not fail you.”

Haley understood now that her understanding of the meaning of the cryptic phrase ‘things that represent the Holy Father’ had been accurate. She still sought confirmation, though.

“So the understanding I have gained is correct then?” she asked the angelic girl who hovered over her. Haley’s head had cleared of the confusion that had accompanied the abject terror she had felt moments earlier. Now she sought to gain a better understanding in hopes that might allay her fears completely.

“Yes, your understanding of what will protect you is accurate. Now you must increase in that understanding and decide what this knowledge will do to help you defeat the evil, not just hold it at bay. For as long as the evil exists, you and anyone else who dwells here in the night are not safe, and each time they win a new servant to their hoards they grow stronger. If one of these should be a virgin, the wickedness of their strength will again be released on the world, with no protection from the purifying effect of the daylight.”

Haley considered the words Clarice had said ‘For as long as the evil exists, you and anyone else who dwells here in the night are not safe’. This confirmed Haley’s feelings of putting her plans for the B n B on hold.

“I will again remain vigilant for you throughout this night so you can rest. Sleep now my friend. Sleep.” Clarice hand tenderly stroked Haley’s hair like a mother tenderly caressing her child. Clarice had steadily become more motherly as her visits to Haley progressed.

This was comforting to Haley, but she couldn’t understand why the two forces couldn’t do battle and leave the all but helpless humans out of it.

Haley felt the weariness slip up and overtake her as she nestled back down into the bed and the drained feeling of an adrenaline hangover overtook her. Just before she slipped off to sleep she thought to ask.

“Is there any way I can call you to come visit me?”

“I am here most of the time, and if the Master’s minions aren’t here just speak my name and I will become visible to you.”

“You are Clarice, right?”

“Yes, I am the spirit of the girl Clarice.”

“Thank you.” Haley murmured as a warm feeling stole over her and she drifted off to sleep Haley dreamed as the night slipped inexorably toward morning. In her dream she saw two creatures, both beasts in their own right, though one was definitely good while the other was so hideous it no doubt was a manifestation of evil.

They did battle in her dream, neither clearly gaining advantage over the other in the end. What was clear was the destruction of the things around them as they battled for supremacy.

As the sun drifted through the window the next morning, Haley awoke refreshed. Her dream had served to answer her question as to why the two entities of good and evil couldn’t do war with each other and leave man out of it. So it was clear to Haley now she must become a warrior and assume the mantle of responsibility as Clarice had decades earlier.

She must attempt to do what the younger girl had failed and not allow the rest of humanity be assailed by the evil that would come if the terror in her basement were allowed to slip the chains of darkness.

As she arose to greet the day, her mind started to work on the things Clarice had said to her the night before and how the holy water and the alter vestment had served her against the minions of evil. Her mind was working on a way to defeat them permanently and not just hold then at bay as Clarice had said. The thoughts weighed heavy on her mind and the mantle of responsibility she had assumed grew heavy as she pondered the facts known to her.

Haley decided it was time to go to the Chamber in the basement of the house. Surely if the Judeo-Christian religious trappings helped her in the bedroom, they would help her in the chamber. Besides was not the sunlight untenable to the minions and the Master. Had Clarice herself not visited safely in the daytime and the constables deputy when he had investigated Christian Johansson’s death. So Haley figured if she took adequate precautions, she could safely go to the chamber. Besides if she was to formulate a plan to defeat the evil there, she needed to ‘case the joint’.

She started by rereading Clarice account of her nighttime visit as a prisoner of the ogres and her visit the next day on her own. She made a list of the things she wanted to check out while she was there, because she only wanted to have to go one time. She decided she would go at 1 pm. The day was clear so the sun would be at its brightest and at 1 pm would have just crossed the crest of the house so it would be on the west side, shining in the basement windows.

She took one of her T-shirts and soaked it in holy water along with the alter vestment. She was almost out of Holy Water and made a mental note to get more.

At 12:30, she went to her room, and put on the overalls she wore when working on the house and the wet t-shirt soaked in Holy Water. Haley rarely wore a bra on the weekends and her breasts were outlined with prominence when she put the wet T-shirt on, and she blushed as she looked at herself in the mirror, for though it was a warm summer day, the coolness of the wet T-shirt had her nipples standing erect like pencil erasers against the shirts thin cotton fabric. As her blush diminished, she told herself she should have chosen a color other than white for her shirt, but then reminded herself that no one would see her, and that such childish thoughts were inappropriate considering the mission she was about to embark on, and that she needed to focus her mind on the dangers that could lie ahead.

After she made herself focus and concentrate on what she needed to do in the chamber, she wrapped the alter vestment around her shoulders like a stole and decided to secure it with a safety pin.

Chapter 40

She was dressed, crosses around her neck and waist, holy water soaked T-shirt and alter vestment on her upper body. She thought about it a moment and dipped her fingers into the holy water remaining in the basin and dripped holy water from her fingers onto the legs of her overalls so her lower body had some ‘protection’. She went over the mental list of things she wanted to check out and got the flashlight she had purchased from the tool chest in the room she used as a utility room. She was as ready as she was going to be she figured and it was 1 o’clock so she headed for the basement stair. She started to tremble as she began her descent toward danger. After a minute she stopped and scolded her self.

“Haley Louise Baxter, you have taken every precaution you can and if you are wrong there is nothing you can do about it but find out. You can’t fix things if you don’t know how, so get a grip girl.”
As usual, her self-castigation calmed her down and she continued. When she reached the door it stood ajar as it had since the night the board had fallen free. She straightened the boards on the floor around the door, so if she needed to make a hasty retreat she wouldn’t trip over them. Then she continued her descent into the chamber, prepared, or so she thought to face the evil that might lurk there.

Reaching the bottom step, she stopped, and scanned the room with the flashlight. The burnt smell she had smelt the first day she toured the house and when the raven-haired woman appeared in her room was intensely strong here.

In one corner the gargoyles that had apparently adorned the gables stood in silent testament to the events chronicled in Clarice diary. One broken, apparently the one Christian Johansson had successfully removed with the sledgehammer, the other its horny adornments on its head tinged with a red color, no doubt the blood from the impalement Christian Johansson had received in the fall from the roof, after having been pushed when he tried to remove this adornment from the edifice of the roof on the house.

The table Chirsty Johansson had been shackled to in the accounts in Clarice’ diary was there against the wall, and like the other things in the room it was covered in dust and cobwebs, appearing to indicate it hadn’t been used recently.

It occurred to Haley perhaps the reason the pressure had seemingly been turned up on the persuasion techniques the concubines were using was the Master desired a flesh and blood woman rather than his raven-haired concubine.

Clarice had said in her accounts of being taken prisoner by the ogres to the chamber they had lamented “Thank you Master, but the concubine women are never as satisfying as real flesh and blood women.” It was perhaps the same way for the Master, so this might explain the pressure being increased.

Though the sun was now on the west side of the house, very little light penetrated the dirty windows on the west wall. She walked to the west wall and ran her finger through the accumulation of dirt and dust on the windows. Yet, the outsides of the windows were just as dirty as the insides, so her efforts produced no discernable effect.

She returned to the center of the room and got her bearings, based on Clarice’ diary accounts of the room. As Haley faced the windows, the chains the common concubines hung from must be behind her. That meant the spot where the brick and mortar appeared fresh to Clarice must be to her right. She went to the wall directly behind her and the shackles hung there menacingly and as described. She touched one of them and what appeared as caked blood came off in her hands. She brushed her hand on her overalls to get most of the material off, but then ran her hand across her wet T-shirt. Where her hand traced along the garment, a bloody red handprint smear appeared and started to bubble as if hydrogen peroxide had been poured on an open wound. The effect of the Holy Water on the evil residue on Haley’s hand she supposed.

She turned to her left now, and walked over to the wall, shining the flashlight on the brick there. Just as Clarice diary had noted, the brick appeared new and the mortar appeared still wet to the touch.

Haley’s hand still had a little bit of the Holy Water moisture from cleaning her hand on her shirt and when she traced her finger along the mortar line between the bricks, the trail her finger left began to smolder briefly. Another indicator this was an area touched by the hands of evil.

Haley had all of the ‘casing’ she had wanted to do accomplished and she hastily retreated from the room unscathed.

Back on the ground floor, she calmed herself, regained any lost composure, poured a glass of iced tea and went to the verandah.

The beginnings on an idea were starting to form in Haley’s mind, and she reviewed what she knew as she sat and sipped the tea, her T-shirt drying in the warm afternoon breeze. She had hung the alter vestment over a chair in her room to dry so she could drape herself with it at bedtime. She did a mental inventory of what she knew.

The brick was freshly mortared just as it had been nearly 100 years earlier in Clarice diary account of her visit to the room the day after she had been taken there forcibly. That must be some kind of portal she assumed that the Master and the minions used to come to earth from the underworld each night.

The minions were only a meager power in comparison to what the Master must be. Their reactions to the religious accoutrements must be minor in comparison to how it would be for the Master. Either that or the religious items wouldn’t faze him. She made a note to ask Clarice about that possibility.

She must figure out a way to get more sunlight into the room. This fact resonated in Haley’s mind. She retrieved the diary and reread where Chirsty Johansson had instructed her daughter to burn the house down and destroy the evil there. The words, “The best way would be to get sunlight into the chamber below, but that is too risky, so the next best way is to destroy the house by burning it.” seemed to take root and form a crucible of understanding for the woman. She didn’t know what made flooding the chamber with sunlight more risky than any other method, but she would certainly respect the words of warning from the woman and only use the sunlight as an adjunct to whatever plan she finally formulated.

Besides, wouldn’t flooding the chamber with light by day only be effective during the daylight hours when the evil entities were in the underworld, anyway?

Perhaps the cleansing effect of the sunlight would make the chamber untenable to the creatures when they returned at night. Haley understood Clarice observations that each answer only seemed to produce another half dozen questions.

These facts were rummaging around in her head as she pondered the possibilities the rest of the afternoon. The day remained cloudless, and still only a couple of days past the full moon, Haley didn’t figure she would get any visitors tonight, but she still prepared, just in case.

Chapter 41

At bedtime, the T-shirt she had worn down stairs was dry and the handprint smear that had bubbled up on the shirt where she had wiped her hand was gone completely, so she decided to wear that T-shirt to sleep in. The alter vestment was dry, so slipping out of the overalls leaving only her T-shirt and panties she again donned the vestment as if it were a muffler. She knelt and prayed her routine 23rd Psalm prayer. And went to bed.

Around midnight she hadn’t yet fallen asleep and called for Clarice.

“Clarice are you here?”

Haley felt the familiar draft on her cheek as the spirit of the courageous young girl appeared to her.

“Yes, I am here.”

“I have been thinking on a plan to rid the house of the evil for good. Is it safe to discuss it here, or anywhere for that matter?” Haley was beginning to grasp the gravity of the situation and the abilities of the powers arrayed against her.

“No I think you would be wise to keep any plans you have to yourself. Though the minions can’t materialize here while I am here it doesn’t mean they aren’t lurking close by and could hear. And any attempt must succeed on the first try, or you place yourself in grave danger. The Masters servants will thwart any subsequent attempts as they learn of your tactics should a first attempt fail.”

“Would it be safe to ask questions?”

“Yes, as long as your questions weren’t so obvious they made your plan apparent. Again, though I must remind you I cannot answer a question, I can only confirm or refute something you already know and understand.”

“I understand and I do need for you to confirm a couple of things for me.”

“I will try.”

“When I threw the Holy Water on the common concubine and when the raven-haired concubine was exposed to the alter vestment, they reacted to the things that represent the Holy Father. Would the Master’s reaction be similar? I would think either he would be stronger so the effect would be minimized, or because he is the worst and the source of the evil, his reaction could be even more pronounced, and perhaps dangerously explosive.”

Chapter 42

“The Master is affected by the things that represent the Holy Father, as well. He has no greater strength against them, but to say he would react more intensely might be an overstatement, but yes, he is under the same influences to them any of his servants are.”

Haley continued her query, “Sunlight is fatal to all those who frequent the chamber?”

“Yes, unless their power is unleashed by a virgin girl in a special ritual, they cannot tolerate the light of day. You read what happened to my mother when she was touched by sunlight.”

“If sunlight were present and bathing a human person in the chamber, I assume they would be safe?”

“Yes, that would serve as an effective shield, for even the reflection of sunlight would have a negative effect on the Master and his servants of evil. This is why moon light bothers then, for it is a reflection of the suns light on the other side of the earth.”

“The area in the chamber that appears to have been bricked recently, is that a portal of some sort, where the Master and his servants depart each morning and return each night?”

“Yes, each night at sunset the bricks are removed and the Master and his people are set free to rain terror on the unprepared of this earth. Then each morning, they return to the underworld, leaving the appearance they have never been here, to the unsuspecting.”

“Is the portal just that one spot or does it appear anywhere in the earth.”

“That is not a question I can answer.”

It occurred to Haley it was an attempt to gain information, and not a confirmation, so that was why Clarice was restrained in her answer.

Haley’s plan was taking shape, but she wished she could confirm its efficacy without revealing too much. She would certainly feel safer that way. She recognized she would need to reword her query in such a way as to get an answer that was more a confirmation. She felt she was like a trial attorney, and had to word her questions in such a way as to not ‘lead the witness’.

Chapter 43

At the moment Haley felt certain she could proceed with a plan without having to seek concurrence from Clarice, especially since that concurrence would likely not be forthcoming.

The next day, Haley went to the hobby and crafts store and purchased several packages of plaster of Paris. When she returned home, she used the Holy water in the basin she had used to drench the shirt and Alter vestment the day before with the plaster powder and made a smooth heavily liquefied paste. She had to use tap water to get it as liquefied as she wanted it, but the presence of holy water was sufficient she hoped to serve the purpose.

It was already after noon by the time Haley’s preparations were concluded, so she decided to proceed with her plan. She draped herself in the alter vestment and headed down to the chamber with the plaster preparation.

She had no brushes or putty knives to apply the plaster with, so she merely smeared it on the wall with her hands. Once she had applied most of the substance she spread it around to cover the portals freshly bricked area completely.

Her assumption the small amount of Holy Water would do the trick was seemingly confirmed when the wall began to smolder as the Holy Fide paste was applied, coming in contact with the evil residue that was present there.

Haley finished the task in a matter of minutes and retreated from the danger the chamber presented. Now it was only a matter of waiting for night fall to see if the task had accomplished the goal of sealing the portal as a point of ingress for the Master and his evil.

She received no visitors for the next several days, either of the good variety or evil, and felt no need to call for Clarice in the night. Then late that week when heat storm clouds obscured the moon’s glow, she got the first indication her plan had failed.

The raven-haired lady appeared to her at the foot of her bed as she had before. Haley still wore the muffler of the alter vestment and the raven-haired concubine didn’t go to her side as before, but spoke to her from the foot of the bed.

“Your attempts to prevent the Master coming to earth have been foiled. Surely a foolish human like you can understand your powers and abilities in upsetting the Master’s plan to rule the world and provide it with the decadence it desires can’t be undone?”


Haley lay trembling, expecting the concubine would get physically aggressive as she had on her last visit. She had no Holy Water left to throw at the evil spirit and felt quite vulnerable at that moment.

She vowed to herself to never let her supply of protective measures run low again. As it turned out she didn’t need them this night. The raven-haired concubine spoke again and then left.

“The Master cometh and no feeble attempts by man or beast will prevent this inevitable truth.”

The raven-haired lady dematerialized and the hazy yellow-glow and terrible burnt odor that so typified her presence left the room. Haley lay scared for several minutes, expecting a return visit from the army of evil she was used to and then thought to summon Clarice to preclude their return.

“Clarice, I need to speak to you.”

Immediately the cool draft appeared on her cheek and the spirit of the girl once again hovered over Haley, her placid features and the deep blue pools of her eyes, focused just inches away from Haley’s fear contorted face, producing a calming effect for the human friend of the spirit girl. “I am here.”

“I tried to defeat the evil in the basement by not allowing them a point of ingress and I failed. Are my attempts thwarted?”

“Your attempts were successful, but as you have discovered, only temporary.”

“I assumed the things that represent the Holy Father, are good down through eternity, and not of limited endurance. As an example, the shirt I wore when I plastered the portal was drenched in Holy Water I assumed that even after it dried it would protect me until I washed it. I thought blocking the portal with things that represent the Holy Father would end the evil from being able to gain worldly access. It appears my assumptions were invalid.”

“No, you aren’t thwarted. That was a valid assumption to a point. The garment actually took several days to dry and for the Holy Water to be thoroughly dissipated from the fibers, though the shirt felt dry to you, in actuality residual moisture remained. Until all that moisture was gone, it was protective. After that point it no longer is of any protection from the evil in this house or else where in the world. That is what happened with your attempts to seal the portal before. As long as the plaster was wet with the Holy Water it succeeded in preventing that place from being used as a portal, but now that it is dry, the protection no longer exists.”

“If the area that is bricked in the chamber were somehow blocked with things that represent the Holy Father, that were enduring, it could no longer be used as a portal and no other portal could be created?”

“Yes that place could no longer be used as a portal, but another could be established next to it or anywhere along that north or east wall, as you have seen. Now I must go, I cannot give you any more confirmations. You seem to understand the situation, and what is necessary, now I must leave you to do what must be done, but again I caution you do not under estimate the powers of evil and their attempts to thwart you. Now that you have made one attempt and failed though successful temporarily, the minions and sources of evil will be even more vigilante against your efforts. Use what you have learned and continue in your efforts to defeat them and prevent their aims at the downfall of mankind.”

Apparently Clarice had stepped over a line with the last answer, and now wouldn’t be allowed to answer any more of Haley’s questions, for just as suddenly as she appeared, she disappeared. She hadn’t given Haley the usual caress of her cheek when she left this time either.

Chapter 44

Haley had difficulty falling to sleep as she pondered the possibilities of how to permanently evict her unwanted and unwelcome guests. She even tried to make light of the situation when she was pondering it too heavily, by saying, “After evicting these tenets, evicting any of my B ‘n B guests should be a piece of cake.”

Haley pondered how to mix the things she knew, sunlight to protect her, block the portal and all other available portal possibilities with enduring things that represent the Holy Father. After work the next day, she returned to the Catholic Church to refill the bottles of Holy Water, and encountered the priest she had seem the week before. She thought to avail of him of his knowledge.

“Father, may I ask you a question?”

The priest immediately recognized Haley by the sharp outfit she wore and the too-short skirt.

“Yes my child.”

“Where does Holy Water come from?”

“It is regular water that has had a special prayer said over it.”

“Can you do large quantities?”

“It depends on what you consider large quantities. We typically do up to 5-gallons at a time if we are baptizing a baby or something, but usually it is a gallon or two at a time.”

“If I were to bring water to you would you bless it for me?”

“I guess I probably could, why do you ask my child?”

“I want to paint my house with water based paint and I want the water I use to mix it with to be Holy Water, kind of to bless my house and ward off potential evil spirits.” Haley was intentionally being vague. She didn’t need her only human ally thinking she was a few French-fries short of a Happy Meal.

“Usually a blessing would be applied directly to the house, but I guess you could bless the house in that manner.”

“Would you bless the water for me father if I bring it to you.”

“Gladly my child.”

“Thank you father.”

Haley left the church, but the thought was going through her head she needed something more permanent than just water. As Clarice had said, though the water would take several days, and perhaps in the dark, dank basement even a couple of weeks to evaporate, then it would no longer serve as a barrier once it was thoroughly dry.

As Haley considered the possibilities, it occurred to her a manner that might work. Just as she had placed an arc of crosses around her basement door, if something like that could be conceived it might work. Though the crosses around the basement door and the crucifix above her room hadn’t stopped the evil from appearing there, they never just walked through the door.

Haley felt certain if a plan that employed something that wouldn’t just evaporate away was devised an effective barrier could be positioned to prevent the evil access to the basement chamber from their daily retreat to the darkness of the underworld. Surely some way could be devised. Haley was an intelligent woman, so surely she could devise something.

At the same time, though a new plan would be similar, it had to have enough variation to prevent the danger that existed from her having failed in her first attempt.

Chapter 45

That night she returned to her computer and started a new a search of the Internet for information she might possibly use. On one of her search engine queries, she got a link to Ebay.

She didn’t know how that applied but followed the link anyway. She knew Ebay was an Internet auction site and the query that had produced the link was on religious artifacts.

When she logged into the auction site, and followed the link further into the pages there, she found she was on a bid page for religious articles such as chalices and goblets. These were all up for sale from a person that had collected them on numerous trips to the Holy lands. They were reportedly used in the times of Christ, and one was even purported to have been used in the Last Supper. The Apostles Paul and John supposedly used several of them as they went about their ministries to spread the gospel of Christ after his death and resurrection.
Haley doubted these assertions, for several reasons.

First the items were solid gold and jewel encrusted, not in keeping with the impoverished status of Christ and his disciples as her recent superficial studies of the Bible had revealed.

Second, if they were really of such significance historically and religiously surely an historic or religious organization or museum would have possession of them, such as the Vatican had possession of the Shroud of Turin. That cloth was said to be the burial robes of the crucified Christ, and was zealously protected. Surely goblets and the like from the Last Supper or from the travels and the ministries of the Apostles would receive equal protection from some religious or historical organization of museum.

Yet, Haley understood they did have Holy significance and might as a result serve her purpose. She immediately placed a bid for the items.

She was disappointed to later return to the web site and discover the bidding had reached 6 figures, well beyond her meager means. It appeared others had been fooled by the assertions of the seller the items were of Christ-touched significance.

A fortuitous event took place the next day as she was driving home. She passed an antique store she had seen many times and had sought to browse to perhaps complete the furnishings in her home as she prepared to open it as a B ‘n B. She was now beginning to think she might get her dream business open eventually as her confidence in her ability to evict the evil in the chamber in her home grew. Deep down inside she was reluctant to go home, as well.

At home she had to remain on guard all the time and she needed to relax. It had occurred to her she was pushing a bit hard in her attempt to derive a solution to the evil in her basement and that if she didn’t slow down and approach it a bit more methodically, she could end up making another mistake.

Clarice had warned her the attempt needed to be successful on the first try. Though she had failed in the first attempt, she was getting a reprieve of sorts in that she was going to have a second chance to rid her home of its evil occupants, so she needed to get it right this time. She might not get a third chance.

Though this was not to be her first attempt, the plan she was devising was sufficiently different from the prior attempt perhaps the danger of her first failure would be mitigated.

With Clarice seemingly unable to give her further guidance after answering a question rather than confirming an assumption the last time they had talked, she felt again she was probably on her own, and so needed to slow down and take things slowly. So she decided to stop and browse this day as she passed the antique store.

More to slow down the pressure of her planning than to prepare to finish furnishing her B ‘n B. She wouldn’t need to worry about finishing her home out until she was certain her unwanted guests had been permanently evicted.

Inside was typical of antique retail establishments. Multiple booths of dusty old stuff, some of it more junk than antique, but it was like they say ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’.

Haley browsed for a long while, going from one antique dealer’s booth to another and as she came down one aisle and turned the corner to start up another, the corner booth caught her attention immediately.

Chapter 46

There were enumerable religious artifacts ranging from crosses and crucifixes to chalices and goblets all apparently used in religious ceremonies.

A sign said ‘circa 1860’.

As she stood observing the items, the owner of the booth approached her.

“Interesting pieces aren’t they?”

“Yes, what is their origin?” Haley asked the question in an attempt to make it sound like she was a seasoned antique shopper.

“They were discovered when an old Puritan church was being torn down in New England. The church had been abandoned for decades and these items were in the basement. For safety reasons, the demolition crew didn’t enter the structure, but started to demolitish it from the outside."

"Once the super-structure of the building had been removed they discovered the basement. These items were tucked away in a cupboard there. The rumor is the Church goes back to colonial times, but my research on the style of the items and etc, puts these as more likely Civil War era, so mid 1800’s. They are mostly pewter though they are gold plated, in some instances. When I purchased them, I wasn’t sure there would be a market for religious artifacts and I have found my fears were justified. I have had these for several years now, and they are just taking up space and are pretty labor intensive in the polishing and maintenance they require.”

Haley was rather astonished the dealer was being so candid about the items. She had yet to realize real antique dealers are usually forthcoming about condition and the collectible nature, etc.

An idea was starting to percolate in Haley’s pretty little head, so she asked what he was asking for the lot. She wished her basements contents were friendly rather than what actually resided there.

“Actually, anything is probably a loss considering what they cost and the upkeep I have put into them over the years, make me an offer.”

“Would you take $200 for the lot?”

The dealer seemed to ponder a moment before answering then he said.

“That is a big loss actually, but if you are willing to buy the lot, I will accept.”

They loaded the items into Haley’s SUV. It came to three small pasteboard boxes full.

She drove the rest of the way home the primitive idea she had starting to take shape in her mind. The next evening on her way home from work, she stopped at a machine shop. She asked the owner to grind the items down into a small fine particle dust.

He was a Hispanic man and likely a devout Catholic, and refused to destroy religious artifacts in that manner. He probably figured Haley was attempting some blasphemous or perhaps nefarious activity and it became apparent he wanted her out of his business rather quickly.

She left disappointed, but got another idea on the way home.

She would get a small welding torch. The exothermic reaction when you supplied oxygen to the burning acetylene produces temperatures in excess of 5000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pewter would melt at around 750 degrees and gold at about 1950. She would reduce the items to a blob of metal and then have them ground to a fine dust. She would find a different machine shop from the one she had just visited and they wouldn’t know what the metal had been before it was reduced to blobs of melted metal.

She decided to give things a couple of more days before proceeding with her plan. She felt she needed to ponder it through a while longer and take a more slow methodical approach or risk the danger of having her plan fail again.

It was the week following the full moon and if the schedule proved accurate, she wouldn’t need to worry about a visit from the concubines for a few more days. She was also hoping her discovery of religious paraphernalia’s affect on them wound inhibit them as well.

Saturday morning she drove into town and purchased a small torch kit and two large cast iron kettles. She put the items into one of the kettles and started the torch to supplying the heat.

There were numerous flare-ups at first, none severe, as paint, paper and other combustibles that adorned the items reached their flash points. Then the pewter got hot enough to start melting. Most of the items were gold plated, so they tried to hold their shape since the melting point of the gold had not yet been reached, but the layer of plating was thin, so many turned into indistinguishable blobs of gold as the pewter underneath liquefied and the malleable gold followed the shape of the collapsing form.

After several hours of torching the contents of the pot, a molten mass was all that remained. She had set the pot up so working with it was easy and tilted the pot pouring the metallic river of liquid into the other pot, which she had filled with cold water.

The water in the receiving pot quickly began to boil as the river of molten metal in the neighborhood of 2000 degrees hit its cooling presence. After she had poured about half the liquid metals into the water, she stopped and added more water to the receiving pot. Then she finished pouring the molten metal into the receiving pot.

She knew she would need to wait for the water to cool before she could work with the metal any further. So she got a glass of tea and Clarice diary to read more on the trials the girl had endured. She needed to have all available knowledge when she attempted what she was planning, and the diary was the best source considering Clarice spirit was probably incommunicado, now.

Chapter 47

As she started to read the words carefully chronicled in Clarice diary she picked up at her planning to try to destroy the house as her mother had implored her to do before she let the ray’s of the sun, dispatch her spirit to wherever spirits in her situation are sent to.

Clarice felt she must do things quickly, before the Child Welfare agency came for her. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to get back to the house if she was incarcerated in an orphans facility.

Incarceration was the only word that came to her mind as she wrote of her dilemma. She started outlining a plan in her diary, to burn the house to the ground. She figured to be successful she needed an accelerant. She thought to try to get some gasoline from the tank of the Model A, but wisely decided gasoline was too volatile.

Clarice wrote of driving to town and getting a gallon of coal oil. It was flammable, but not nearly as volatile as gasoline. When she arrived at the house, she fixed herself a bite to eat and sat and pondered on the activity she was planning.

She would likely get in trouble for Arson, but as the sole heir of the house, if she didn’t file an insurance claim, hopefully it wouldn’t be too bad. She wasn’t even sure if there was insurance on the house. She hoped as the owner, she could dispose of the house in any manner she chose.

The diary ended at that point, and at first Haley was at a loss as to why. Later it occurred to her, when she had researched the history of the house, it had been noted that Clarice had burned to death in her attempt to destroy the house, so no further entries in the diary would have been possible.

Late that afternoon, after the water in the kettle had cooled. Haley poured the kettle’s contents through a makeshift wire strainer she had built. The metal was now in little teardrop-sized ingots, the gold plating and the pewter had separated out so there were two distinct colors as she strained the water off the mass. At first she thought to try to separate the tiny chucks of metal and to save the gold out and perhaps in saving it help to recoup some of her expense, then she realized the effort would probably be more labor intensive than the return would justify. In the end, she bagged all the metal into canvas bank bags she had obtained for the purpose.

That night as the hour grew late and Haley lay in bed, dressed in her religious armor and trying to drift off to sleep, she called for Clarice again.

“Are you here Clarice?”

When the spirit didn’t appear instantly as she had the nights before, Haley at first got a sense of loss of not being able to talk to the girl again, then a sense of foreboding, thinking perhaps it meant she was about to be visited by the evil spirits. Then she felt the familiar draft on her face.

“Clarice. I am so glad to see you. I didn’t think you were going to return.”

“I am here, but I have been reminded to watch how I respond to your questions.”

“Why can you not speak freely and openly?”

“It is a part on the power struggle that has existed through all eternity, that is all I can say.”

“My question is what happened when you tried to burn the house down.”

“Oh that, I was foolish. I underestimated the powers and the wiles of the evil ones.”

“In what ways?”

Chapter 48

“First, I wrote what I was attempting and they probably knew exactly what to expect. Then like your earlier excursions into the chamber in daylight to avoid contact, I thought burning the house in the afternoon would prevent them trying to thwart my attempt.”

Haley felt her heart skip a beat when she realized she had probably been in danger in the chamber on her two previous visits. She realized she must proceed as if there was no respite afforded by the daylight hours. She must consider the evil was present in one form or another at all times.

“I got the coal oil as I said in my diary. I felt to start the burn on the west side since that seems to be the closest point to the evil. I know now I would probably have succeeded had I started it anywhere else. I doused the west wall with the coal oil, from a bedroom window on the second floor. Then I went outside and tried to light a match. I tried several times to light a match and each time a gust of wind would blow them out. Finally I built a small torch, and put a few drops of coal oil on it, all that was left in the can, and lit it in the sheltered protection of the house so the wind couldn’t blow it out again.”

“Is that the burnt smell I detected when I came in the house that first day, and the smell when the concubines are present and the burnt smell in the chamber?” Clarice queried.

“No that is brimstone. When the evil ones return to the underworld each day, the smell of burning brimstone is absorbed in their vaporous being.”

Clarice continued in her explanation of failure in burning the house down.

“I touched the burning torch to the coal oil running down the side of the house, and it lit. I stood there and watched as the flames crept up the side of the house. For the first time in a long time, I felt safe again. Then the vines that grow the thorns under the Agarita reached out and grabbed me around my waist and slammed me into the flames on the side of the house. My clothing caught on fire as the oiliness of the coal oil rubbed off onto my clothing. The vines hurled me to the ground and I rolled trying to put the flames out, but I couldn’t with the fuel oil being the source of the fires combustion. I was thinking, ‘I might die, but it was a worthwhile sacrifice for destroying the evil in the house.”

“As I lay there burning, just before the agony of the flames forced my mind to shutdown because the pain was too unbearable, I watched the house seemingly extinguish itself, and knowing I had been thwarted. Then I burned to death. But even then when I knew I was going to die, I thought I must do something to protect those who follow in this place.”

Haley was aghast at the tale told by the spirit of the young girl, and gained a new level of respect for the cunning of the adversaries in her basement, as well as, for Clarice personal courage.

“So when Olaf, my mother’s cousin, inherited the house and came to stay here, I appeared to him, but instead of comforting him and trying to get him to devise a way to destroy the evil here, I only scared him into erecting the doorway on the stair and vowing never to return. Again I failed.”

“Then you came. I saw strength in you when you discovered and started reading my journal, just as mother saw strength in me and so I thought I could help you do what I couldn’t and Olaf refused, to do. I tried to approach you slowly so as not to scare you as I had Olaf.”

“I don’t know what you are planning, and you should not tell me or write it down or make your preparations too obvious, but I think you are on track to succeed where I have failed. I only wish I could help you more”

Haley wished the same thing and told Clarice she was afraid her plan would fail. Clarice sought to allay her fears.

“If your plan was so far off you were endangering yourself, I would be allowed to tell you that, for though I don’t know your plan, there are those with me who do. Take heart in knowing they think you are going in the appropriate direction and proceed. Just be cautious as you go forward. Don’t do as I did and underestimate the power of your adversaries.”

“If some of those who are with you can see my plan, what prevents those who are evil or opposed from seeing it too?” Haley asked, her question a valid concern.

“Those with me can see the good intent in your heart not the idea in your head. The evil can only see material things that would represent your idea. Though they are aware of your acquisition of the things that represent the Holy Father, they cannot see your intents in the use of these items. Considering how you have used these items up to now, they are probably not overly concerned about you doing things to protect you, and in their arrogance probably haven’t conceived you are looking for a permanent solution to their evil intent, for down through time man has rarely succeeded in thwarting the evil they do, primarily because man is so easily corrupted.”

Haley thought to ask more, but Clarice headed her off.

“Sleep now. Store your strength for the trials that await you. I will be here for you throughout the night so you can rest.”

Haley took note of the fact Clarice had stroked her hair again, and relaxed and prepared to sleep a restful sleep under the caring watchful presence of the friendly spirit.

She awoke the next morning invigorated and ready to pursue her preparations. As she sat sipping her morning tea, she pondered her plan in her mind. Once the morning got late enough businesses would be starting to open, she went to one of those huge chain hardware stores and spent an hour talking with the man in the paint department on the techniques, and the why’s how’s and wherefores of mixing paint. He was of some help, but she ended up with more questions than answers when all was said and done.

Next she went to the discount store and bought 3 cases of water, each with 6-1 gallon jugs per case. Then she went by the Catholic Church hoping to time her arrival after any masses they might be conducting had been concluded.

She found the priest that had agreed to help her and he blessed the three cases of water, turning the liquid to Holy Water. The blessing was a rather short invocation, and this worried Haley.

The 23rd Psalm and the Prayer of St Michael the Archangel were both of considerable length and when the priest’s invocation over the water was brief, Haley became skeptical of its efficacy.

Chapter 49

On her way home she decided to test the water. If it was truly Holy Water and the thorny growth on the West side of the house was evilly inspired, then pouring some of the water on the growth should produce an effect she assumed.

When she arrived at home, she removed one gallon of water from each of the three cases, and poured some in a large cup. Walking out to the West side of the house, she got to within a few feet of where the bramble grew in a tight geometric spiral.

She kept her distance, clearly respectful of the thorny mass after the story Clarice had related to her of the growth’s part in her burning to death.

Standing about 5 feet from where the mass covered the basement window, she tossed the contents of the cup onto the thorny growth. The mass began to move as if it had come to life and Haley retreated to a safer distance.

Returning to the house, she refilled the cup from another of the gallons and retraced her steps to the point a few feet from the mass. She tossed it again. Again, the mass started to move and she retreated a few feet further back to safety. This time a low eerie wail could be heard as if the mass were crying out in pain. Haley went back into the house to complete her tests.

She refilled the cup from the third gallon, and returned to the shrub. The places where she had thrown the two other applications had shriveled to a mass of seemingly decomposing organic plant matter. Haley was still respectful of the other healthy growths on either side of where she had apparently successfully destroyed the evil vine, so kept her distance.
She thought to see if a third application would destroy the vine completely. When she tossed the third cup of water onto the mass though, she over did it a bit and most of the water landed on the window of the basement wall, instead. It immediately started to smolder as the evil residue on its surface reacted to the water that had been blessed by the priest.

If nothing else, Haley was convinced the water was sufficiently holy. She decided she needed more though.

She went back to the discount store where she had purchased the water, but instead of buying more water, she bought 5 5-gallon water cans. Stopping at a gas station, she filled them with water from the hose provided for radiator and battery top offs. Then went to the church and had the priest again bless the water. He jokingly commented that her house was certainly going to be a holy place when she was finished.

She simply replied, “I hope so.”

Her seriousness took the priest a little by surprise, and he made no further comment on the matter, or attempts at levity.

When she returned home, she tried water from each of the 5 containers on the shrub, and as she had hoped, another application on the decomposing mass caused it to dissipate completely in a matter of minutes. Yet, as the center dissolved to nothingness, the remaining sides seemed to thicken and tighten in their swirl as if steeling themselves to be destroyed in a like manner.

When she was finished the mass had been ‘water-pruned’ back to completely reveal the basement window. Haley wondered if after the water evaporated from the soil and the evil that came in the night returned that night and saw the effect of her handy work, if the vine would be regenerated somehow and her attempts for naught. That night she went through her usual ritual at bedtime, and didn’t receive a visit from the concubines. She hoped her offensive had them off guard and reeling. After all, the best defense is a good offense. She recalled her father trying to teach her chess and telling her if your king is under attack try to take the offensive, to get the opponent to back off. She hoped her offensive in fact had them reeling, and not just looking for an opening for a new assault.

Though she figured from her experiences thus far that was what they were probably doing.

The next morning after she had dressed for work, and the sun was fully up in the Eastern sky, she walked out to look at the west side of the house. The vines hadn’t grown back, but the window was now coated with a soot-like black substance from what Haley could determine from a safe distance. She moved in closer to get a better look, a healthy respect for the vines that remained, compelling her to keep a safe distance, but as she drew closer she noted footprints in the bare soil around the window.

These weren’t footprints made by men though, but more like hooves of an animal. The ‘ogre’ creatures in Clarice diary came to mind, immediately.

She thought to apply some more holy water to see if the sooty substance on the window would rinse off easily, but time was slipping by and she needed to start her commute.

After work, she took the sacks of pewter and gold to another machine shop. When the man at the shop inquired as to why she wanted to grind the hunks of metal to powder, she was prepared.

“I buy scrap metal and use it in crafts and jewelry I make at home to sell at flea markets and the like. I melt the metal, but it seems it is easier to work with if it is in a fine dust rather than these little blobs, which is as fine as I can make it. At times I paint the dust onto an item and just swiping across the face of the item with a butane torch is enough to get it to melt and attach without overheating the item I am trying to attach the flecks to or whatever.” This explanation was enough to convince the man of what Haley was asking for, and her took the canvas bags of scrap and said he would have it ground within a couple of days.

Chapter 50

She drove on home and her plan was starting to come together, so she was starting to feel good about things in general. She tallied what she had to work with in her plan. She would have the metal dust ground from religious paraphernalia. And she had 43 gallons less the few cups she had used, to test efficacy, of the Holy Water. The plus even though she had used some of the Holy Water, was she had cleared the thorny vines from in front of the window of the basement. She thought to ask Clarice if the metal dust had the same efficacy of the crosses and things it was ground from.

She needed to get more sunlight into the chamber. With the tangle of shrubs no longer blocking the rays of the sun, if she could just get the window clean, the room below should be flooded with ‘evil-fatal’ sunlight. Her final plan called for her to be in the chamber for several hours, so she felt the flood of sunlight was necessary to protect her. She had to figure a way to get more sunlight into the room. She would have to work from inside the room to accomplish this she felt, because the evil thorny vines were too much to go up against. They had after all been the agent of Clarice’ demise in her attempts to destroy the evil in the house.

They also appeared to be the only agent of evil that were unaffected by the sun’s light.

Haley felt certain if she tried to clean the window from the outside, the vines would intervene. And she would also need to reenter the room to unlatch the window to allow her to clean the interior surfaces from the outside.

It just seemed logical to Haley, the reality of the vines and the fact the chamber would have to be reentered any way made it the wisest choice to enter the room to clean the window. She had after all entered the room safely once before. Besides, if the vines stood guard during the day and the ogres apparently roamed around on guard at night and had not as yet been revealed to her, it held that some other danger, also not yet revealed, might possibly exist on the exterior of the house. After all the windows on the third floor had closed themselves the first week she had lived in the house.

Had the house not ‘pushed’ Christian Johansson when he tried to remove the gargoyles?

And Clarice had said the house had extinguished itself when her attempts to destroy it with fire had failed. All this to Haley would seem to indicate there were other forces available to the house when the evil beings were in hiding from the sun, during daylight hours. This served to remind her of her thoughts to never relax her guard around the house even in the daytime.

Chapter 51

Haley had come to realize a lot of things in the last several weeks. Things that hadn’t really seemed out of the ordinary, like the windows closing and the landscape workers taking ill, all now seemed clearly linked to the evil in the house.

She called the landscape company and talked with the foreman that had headed the team that had removed the shrubs from her property. Ostensibly her call was to discuss re-landscaping her property, but during their conversation she innocently worked the conversation around to the ill workers. The foreman said it was all very strange.

The doctors and other health care professionals were at a loss to explain the illness and the symptoms the men were suffering, and the cynical foreman had given up on the theory of laziness, when the illness persisted for weeks after they had left her property. The main symptom was fatigue, but there were others like respiratory difficulties, and blood disorders. No amount of treatment had caused a response from the illnesses, of a favorable variety. The doctors and other medical professionals were thinking it was something like legionnaire’s disease or something similar with the respiratory involvement, which had not yet been discovered and documented.

Yet, it must be worse, because this had blood abnormalities associated with it. The Centers for Disease Control had come in to do their own investigation, but they too were at a loss to explain it all.

The CDC getting involved had afforded the itinerant workers the best available medical care at no cost to them, yet there was seemingly no medical cure to the problems they were experiencing.

The cynical foreman had changed his opinions on the matter completely, then a week or so ago, they had all recovered quite miraculously, which served to regenerate his cynical thoughts about the workers.

Haley quickly calculated this timing in her mind and it roughly corresponded to the dates when she had thrown the Holy Water on the thorny vine growth on the West side of the house.

To her, all this corroborated her thoughts on there being other unseen, and as yet unrevealed, evil-induced dangers to the house. No doubt they all stemmed from the evil source, but yet, they didn’t seem to have the limitations as some of the minions did. Yes, the vines were ‘allergic’ to Holy Water, but the sun had no effect on them. In fact it appeared their purpose was to shield the sun from hitting the windows of the basement and retard its penetration into the chamber below and to protect the house in some way.

Haley told the foreman, she would contact him in the spring when her exterior work on the house was complete, to schedule the re-landscaping project. They ended the conversation on that note.

Haley was firmly convinced now she needed to plan a revisit to the chamber, to clean the window. The idea scared her, though not as much as the prospects of attack, the thorny evil vines, portended. At least in the daytime she appeared reasonably safe from the evil in the chamber, though she wasn’t naïve enough, at this point, to discount any fears on the matter or any potential evil possible from her presence in the chamber. She did take a little comfort in knowing she had accomplished going into the chamber by day once before. Further it would give her another chance to ‘case the joint’.

She giggled as the phrase went through her mind again. She sobered and thought to herself how evil begets evil.

Before she started fighting this evil force in the basement, she had led a safe sane crime free existence. Sure she had considered shoplifting candy as most children do, and had even thought to steal a coveted CD on one occasion, but better judgment and good upbringing prevailed and she had refrained from the activity. Now she had stolen the alter vestment, and was thinking in terms of criminal behavior as she thought of ‘casing the joint’ as criminals do before they perpetrate a crime.

Another idea that came to her was to get a cool mist humidifier and fill it with Holy Water and position it at the doorway on the staircase misting Holy Water into the Chamber. Then perhaps any spirit that might somehow appear in the daytime would be walking into a ‘mist of pain’.

Chapter 52

She liked the concept of a ‘mist of pain’. She started to plan the effort for the following Saturday, and figured her follow up effort to finalize the fate of the evil in her basement, would need to occur the following day. She based this on the fact her destruction of the Vines in front of the window had resulted in the window becoming coated in the black soot-like substance. She surmised that was probably because she had tossed the Holy Water on the dirty window, and the soot was the result of the evil residue on the window, which polluted the refractive clarity of the glass, burning when the Holy Water was applied

It might even be that her efforts on Saturday to get more light into the chamber would be rendered moot when she waited until the next day to finish her intended actions. Once the Master and his minions returned on Saturday night and discovered the window had been cleaned, they well could undo her efforts by applying another layer of the soot like coating to the window. This if they were responsible for the coating instead of it being a byproduct of the reaction of the evil substance on the glass with the application of Holy Water. She had seen an exothermic-like reaction when she first threw the water onto the exposed panes. This was similar to what she had seen when she traced the mortar with her finger damp with the Holy Water, and when she had thrown the water on the concubine. But it was the next day before the soot-like coating was evident from the dousing of the window.

So she had to conclude the cleaning of the window was only temporary, in fact it was likely her efforts to clean the window would be rendered moot by the next day. It seemed likely the coating would reoccur once the evil returned after sunset, Saturday night. If that were to occur, she would need to modify her plan to get everything concluded in a single day. All these considerations were going through her mind when she went to bed that night. As she lay down to sleep in her alter vestment muffler and T-shirt and panties, she had said her 23rd Psalm prayer, and refilled the cup at her bedside with Holy Water. In fact, she had filled a pitcher with holy water to refill the cup, should the need to launch multiple attacks during the night.

Chapter 53

It was a cloudless night but the New Moon was approaching, so it was a ripe occasion for her to receive visitors. Yet, none had appeared by midnight and so Haley thought to summon Clarice.

“Clarice are you there?”

Immediately the draft she felt on her left cheek when the spirit of the girl appeared was present and the soft glow of white light illuminated her room.

“Yes, I am here.”

“I have a question, can you answer it for me?”

“Yes, as long as it falls within the boundaries I have explained to you.”

“Ok, I understand.”

“Ask your question.”

“I assume once an item is holy, it remains Holy. By this I mean, if I took a cross or crucifix and melted or ground it down, the Holy properties would remain in the resultant metal, though its shape is no longer that of a holy symbol. Is this assumption correct?”

“Yes, once metal or even plastic, plaster or clay, is shaped into something representative of the Holy Father, it retains that Holiness for all time. Just as the Holy Water remains Holy Water once blessed though it leaves the church where it was blessed. There are limitations though. Just as putting a cup of Holy Water in a lake wouldn’t make the entire body of water Holy, the molecules of Holy water though mixed and diluted in the presence of the thousands of gallons of water in the lake, would retain their Holy enrichment.”

“Thank you, I have my plan complete now, and hopefully, soon this house will be rid of the evil that taints it.”

“Yes, those with me who know of your planning are pleased with the idea you are conceiving, they do however request I warn you again to not underestimate the powers arrayed against you.”

“Thank you, tell them thank you for me. I will be cautious.”

Clarice softly caressed Haley’s cheek again, and dematerialized from the room. Though the timing was right, the concubines and other evil entities that resided in her home didn’t appear, and Haley got a good night’s sleep.

Chapter 54

The next day after work, she went to the machine shop and retrieved her bags of metal dust. The five bags of metal blobs were now only four bags of fine metallic dust particles, but the result was as she had hoped it would be. When the man at the shop commented on the fact some of the metal was fine gold and the rest pewter, Haley was prepared and told him she was aware of that and the first thing she would do was to separate the metals using a method similar to panning where the heavier gold particles would settle to the bottom and the lighter pewter particles would slosh out with the water.

He was rather impressed with her technique, and told her so. She hoped to end the conversation by saying the scrap was cheaper than buying the metal in a purified state, but in the final analysis it probably cost her more in the amount of labor it took to get the metals in a useable form, but she enjoyed the effort and so that was half the reward.

The attempt at terminating the conversation was successful, as the man produced an invoice for the grinding services and Haley paid and left.

She went to the discount store and bought 5 more water containers, filled them and had the priest bless them raising her compliment of Holy Water from 43 to 68 gallons. She also bought a cool mist humidifier at the discount store.

The next day was Saturday and time to put her plan in action. No visitors on Friday night let her get a good night sleep and she awoke refreshed and primed for action. She set up the cool mist humidifier at the doorway on the stairs leading to the chamber, and filled its large reservoir with Holy Water. As she drank her tea waiting for businesses to open, she thought to write a warning note to anyone who might follow her should she fail in her attempts and become a servant to the evil or die, or both. The note was brief. It said the house contained an evil presence and should be destroyed whatever the legal dealings were necessary to allow that to happen. She briefly summarized the deaths of Christian, Chirsty and Clarice Johansson, and added if someone was reading this she must be dead, too.

The facts she outlined should convince the authorities no matter what the value of the house from an historical standpoint, its presence was a danger to all mankind and needed to be wiped from the face of the earth. She told as much as she could with the knowledge she had, and sealed the, larger than expected, note in an envelope that she placed on the mantle above the fireplace in the sitting room. She hoped it would be found by anymore who discovered her body if her attempts of the next couple of days led to her death. As an after thought, she sprinkled Holy Water on the envelope to hopefully prevent the evil forces in the house from removing or reading the contents. By then it was approaching mid-morning, so Haley drove into town to the hardware store and purchased paint pigment, rolling pans, brushes, and rollers. When she returned it was going on noon, and she wanted to execute her prep-plan at 1 again.

She put a T-shirt in a basin, choosing a different color than white this time, along with the alter vestment and started both to soaking in Holy Water.

She turned on the cool mist humidifier and felt a warm and fuzzy safe feeling steel over her as the cool mist began to be atomized from the device. She didn’t like the fact the mist spray was only about 6 inches from the device and didn’t even reach the door, but figured since hot air rises, the cool mist would settle and would soon be tumbling down the stair into the chamber below. She used a small piece of twine to tie the door open by affixing the twine to the doorknob, then swinging the door back on its hinges and tying the other end to the handrail that ran along the wall as part of the stairs descent. This way, the mist had no obstruction to tumbling down the stair, and it was a precaution she had thought of as she was leaving the chamber on one of her earlier visits.

She had no doubts the evil forces could break the twine or untie her efforts and close the door if they wanted, and this just prevented the door from swinging closed of its own weight and gravity and perhaps latching and locking her into the chamber.

Chapter 55

She felt hunger and fixed herself a sandwich, yet the trepidation she felt of returning to the chamber and the possible evil she might encounter there took her appetite, and after preparing the light lunch left it uneaten on the kitchen counter top.

Next she fixed a bucket of sudsy-water to clean the window with. She used sudsy ammonia mixed in Holy Water and a small amount of dish soap to prepare her cleaning fluid. An old rag was dropped in the bucket, then as an after thought she dropped a green scrub pad in the bucket in case a non-evil component such as decades old dirt should prove stubborn in its removal. She felt rather certain any evil-placed coating would dissolve on contact with the Holy Water. As an after thought she prepared a second bucket of the mixture without mixing it with Holy Water, in case the soot-like residue appeared and she needed a non-holy mixture to clean it with. She went to her room and wrung out the alter vestment and T-shirt.
Removing the clothing she had worn to town, she stood only in her panties as she slipped the T-shirt on over her head. She looked in the mirror, and noted that though she had used a different color T-shirt, there was no mistaking the outline of her breasts under the wet fabric. Her nipples had hardened again as they had the first time the cool fabric had come in contact with them, but the deadly serious nature of what she was doing precluded a blush this time or even more than a casual notation in her mind as to her bodies reaction and lushness clearly revealed under the wet fabric.

She slipped on her coveralls and pulled the vestment around her shoulders as before, safety pinning the garment in place.

She made a mental inventory of her preparations and looking in the mirror, she felt like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character must have felt as he prepared to do battle with the Predator or more likely how Sigourney Weaver’s ‘Ripley’ character must have felt each time she prepared to do battle with the Zenomorph in each of the Alien movies.

She returned to the kitchen and checked the level of the Holy Water in the humidifier. It hadn’t even really started to drop yet, so she thought it would be Ok for the limited amount of time she planned to spend in the chamber.

The instructions that had come with the device said a single filling of the reservoir was good for approximately 18 hours, so Haley felt ok with the usage rate on the atomizer. She grabbed her cleaning supplies and a flashlight and headed down into the chamber. As she passed by the humidifier again, she stood in front of the mist to allow a little of the safe spray to coat the legs of her overalls, giving her a bit of ‘protection’ on her lower body, then proceeded on down into the evil abyss.

Chapter 56

As before, little light penetrated the room, though there was a slight improvement now that the vines had been ‘Holy Water pruned’. Haley went the place below the window and set her bucket of ‘holy cleaning’ solution on the floor, along with the regular ‘non-holy’ preparation. It was a stretch for her to reach the window, so she dragged the table over to where she stood and placed her buckets on the table and crawled up on to its surface. She sloshed a little of the water onto the table top and the reaction was immediate.

A smolder began to rise from the surface, though it quickly dissipated.

She scrubbed the interior surfaces of the window, and saw a combination of cleaning and reaction to the holy water by the evil residue on the surface. She scrubbed for several minutes and it appeared the interior surfaces were as clean as they would ever be and she started trying to open the window to clean the exterior. The window latch was at the top of the window, and the window was hinged at the bottom, meaning it would probably tilt inward and make for easy cleaning. Haley couldn’t budge the window though the latch was completely disengaging from the housing it slipped into when latched. The window was clearly stuck closed.

It didn’t help that Haley only had a small loop of metal latch to grasp with her fingers. The design was one that allowed for easy opening from the floor with a metal hook affixed to the end of a pole, but Haley couldn’t get enough of a hold on it to pull even if she had enough strength. She briefly scanned the room trying to locate the latch pole she hoped existed, but to no avail. After several minutes of tugging she was about to decide she would have to clean the exterior of the window from outside, and contend with the vines, when another idea came to mind.

She climbed down off the table and went upstairs. Going to her small stash of tools, she found the little crow bar she had used in her attempt to pry the boards off the doorframe and returned to the basement chamber. She stopped at the humidifier as she walked by and stood in its mist as she again checked the level of the Holy Water in the reservoir.

Again it appeared the level had hardly been reduced. She continued back down into the chamber. Returning to the table against the wall under the window, she climbed back up on to its surface and slid the crowbar through the loop in the latch and grasped it with both hands one on either side of where it came through the latch. She tugged against the latch and the window groaned, but did not open.

She tugged again on the crowbar and again the window groaned but didn’t open.

Once more she tugged on the crowbar, this time she threw her weight backwards and the window groaned and broke loose from its stuck position years of settling in and never having been opened had sealed. As the window began to break free, Haley caught herself, but not before the window broke free and flew back toward the woman. The latch and crowbar, struck her in the forehead. Haley’s saw stars and her body immediately went limp and fell backwards onto the table and rolled to the floor below, out cold. The force of the blow to her forehead as the window broke free had knocked the woman unconscious. She lay there out like a prize fighter after a successful right hook had landed on his cheekbone.

Haley lay there throughout the afternoon, the sun continuing its relentless trek across the sky and headed for its resting place on the western horizon. She had knocked herself out good, her fall to the floor adding to the efficacy of the blow she had given herself when the window broke free.

As she awoke, she noted the light had grown brighter in the room, though it was going down now, so the light in the room was really no greater than it had been when Haley had first entered the chamber with the window closed early that day. As she rolled over onto her back and sat up, her hand went to her head and she felt the goose egg she had created when she had broke the window free.

Her head was clearing now so she started to look around to take stock in her surroundings.

The bricks that usually blocked the portal lay in a heap on the floor. The common concubines were already chained to the wall where they were described in Clarice’ diary. As Haley stood, the raven-haired concubine was standing a few feet away, and began to speak.

“I see you have decided to come to the Master. You are a wise girl, but you will need to remove those hideous, objectionable garments, my dear.”

Her presence in the chamber was likely interpreted as submission on her part. She reacted quickly, or at least as quickly as her trauma beaten mind could. She was still woozy from the blows to her head and stood a moment in an attempt to regain her sense of balance and bearing.

The raven-haired concubine drifted closer to the girl, but kept a respectable distance since Haley wore the alter vestment like a shawl around her shoulders.

Composed now, Haley reacted to her approach “I will never join you.” She hissed as she turned to run to the stairs and her escape. As she did she spied what must have been the ogre creatures, Clarice had mentioned in her diary. They were muscular, hairy creatures with hooved feet, and worse yet, they were coming through the hole in the wall at that very moment.

She broke for the stairs, and the raven-haired concubine retreated out of her path, obviously repelled by the religious items of clothing and the essence of the Holy Water soaked shirt, though the shirt was all but dry, by now. She wouldn’t have been able to stop her as a vaporous form at any rate. As Haley swept past, she heard the raven-haired lady exclaim to the ogre-creations.

“Get her my children. Get her and hold her until the Master arrives.”

The ogres were in motion immediately.

The next segment continues Haley's fight against the evil in her basement.