Answer To Our Problem

Samson and Nelly were the only ones awake while the others were still unconscious. Samson went to the door to try and get it open while Nelly watched over their friends. They were all breathing heavily and sweating in their sleep so Nelly used his jacket as a fan to cool them off.

"I don't understand how this door got stuck and why it refuses to open!" Samson complained and kicked the door in anger.

"Whatever's messing with us doesn't want us to leave this place," Nelly said to Sam from where he sat.

"Nothing is messing with us, Nelly. I already told you that we were all just probably exposed to some sort of chemical that made us have those hallucinations." Samson said.

"And what chemical would that be? Joker gas? This place is haunted and you know it." Nelly said loudly to Samson.

"This place isn't haunted, Nelly," Sam replied. Nelly's behaviour was starting to get on his nerves.

"Yes, it is. Think about it, Sam! The door is locked shut and you can't open it, our phones have absolutely no signal so we can't call or text anyone for help and I saw a demon. This place IS haunted. We woke something up in this place, now it's out to get us and it won't stop." Nelly said with a weird look, also like the fear was slowly making him lose his mind.

Samson got tired of trying to convince him and continued trying to open the door. He kicked the handle a few times but it didn't even have a scratch. He even hit the glass panels on the door but they didn't break which surprised him because when they first arrived, Darryl had used a rock to break the panel to stick his hand in and open the lock.

"Why... won't...you...open?" Samson screamed at the door and kicked it several times. Samson then noticed his reflection on the glass but it wasn't his face, it was Jamie's. He squinted his eyes together and rubbed them with his hands and when he looked at the glass a second time, it was his own face staring back.

"Sam!" Nelly called out which scared Samson because the image of Jamie's face was still on his mind.

"I think Peace is waking up...and so is Jennifer!" Nelly said happily.

Samson ran to them and held on to Peace. He began shaking her a little bit to help her wake up.

"Peace? Can you hear me? Wake up Peace." He said to her, Her eyes flickered open and she smiled at him.

"Samson? Is that you?' She managed to ask. She seemed very tired and her voice was low in volume.

"Yes, it's me, Peace. I'm right here." Samson said soothingly to her and stroked her hair softly.

"Darryl, he attacked me." She said to him,

"Darryl didn't attack you Peace. It was all just an illusion, it wasn't real." Samson said to her although a part of him wasn't so sure about it all being an illusion.

Nelly went over to Jennifer and also tried to help her wake up.

"Hey, J-Lo! Looks like you weren't the last to wake up this time." Nelly teased her as soon as she opened her eyes.

"Nelly?" Jennifer asked in confusion.

"Yeah, it's me. Are you okay?" Nelly asked.

"My mom...She was a giant and she stepped on me." Jennifer said drowsily. 

"You're alright now. It was all just a dream." Nelly said to calm her although he knew it was more than just a dream.

Just then, Darryl also woke up but unlike the girls, he woke up screaming, completely shaken and terrified.

"Darryl? Darryl, relax man. It's okay, you're fine." Samson said to him, trying to calm him down.

"The snake? Where's the snake?" Darryl asked hysterically.

"What snake Darryl? There's no snake here, there never was a snake." Samson had his hands out and tried to hold Darryl but he pushed him away.

"I know what I saw. It was a big snake and it sounded exactly like my dad. It bit me and strangled me and then, it began to swallow me whole." Darryl said with his hands on his head.

Peace and Jennifer were helped to their feet by Nelly and Darryl finally got a grip when he saw his girlfriend.

"Jennifer, you're alright," he said, "I thought something bad had happened to you." And he gave her a hug.

"What happened to us guys? Why did we see all those horrible things?" Peace asked.

"I think we inhaled some kind of ga..." Samson began to say when Nelly caught him off.

"We're being haunted by whatever ghost we awoke in this place," Nelly said and they all stared at him as if he was insane.

"Y'all don't look at me like I'm crazy! I know what I'm talking about." Nelly fought his case.

"Look Nels, I admit what happened to us is weird but ghosts, seriously?" Peace said to him, clearly not sharing his opinion about a ghost haunting them.

"Okay then, answer me this. In your dreams, nightmares, illusions, whatever you want to call it, you were all in danger, right?" Nelly asked.

The others stared at each other and nodded affirmatively.

"Okay, and what did you see? Who or what did you see?" Nelly asked again.

They were all silent until Darryl spoke out, "I saw my Dad, or at least I heard him." He said.

"I saw Jamie," Samson admitted.

"I saw my mom," Jennifer said as well.

"I saw... Darryl!" Peace said and stared at him. He looked at her as well.

"Good for all of you. You saw and heard your friends and families unlike me. I didn't see my mom or my Pops or any of you. I saw what looked like a demon straight outta hell." Nelly said to them.

"You saw a demon?" Jennifer asked sarcastically, clearly not believing him or at least, believing that what he saw was real.

"Yeah, I did. It was huge and slimy. It had huge fangs and long claws and I think it had a tail but I'm not sure." He described the monster. Nelly then realized that the guys all had a look of terror on all their faces but he didn't understand why.

"Was the demon you saw wearing a torn shirt?" Peace asked with fear in her eyes and her voice.

"Yes, it was," Nelly replied.

"And were its eyes red?" Samson asked, also looking completely terrified.

"Yes, its eyes were glowing bright red but, how do you know that and why do you all look so scared?" Nelly asked them, oblivious to what stood behind him.

"Because it's right behind you," Darryl told him.

"What? What do you mean it's right behind..." Nelly was asking but the low growl of the beast made him quiet. The creature roared at him and Nelly screamed in fear and ran over to his friends.

They all began to move away from the creature to the door of the house. The beast shrieked and snarled, gnashing its teeth and clawing at them. It looked hungry and they were definitely on its menu.

They all backed off to the door and tried desperately to open it. Darryl and Samson were hitting the door with their shoulders, trying to break it but were unsuccessful.

The creature got closer and grabbed Jennifer's arm. Her friends all held on to her, trying to pull her back to them but the creature was strong and refused to let go. Darryl picked up an old broomstick on the floor and began hitting the creature multiple times. He hit it on the face and the creature got angry and snatched the broom away from Darryl and threw it across the room.

It seemed like this was the end of them as the creature got ready to rip them apart. That was when Nelly summoned enough courage to pick up the old broom. He took out the matches from his pocket and lit the broom on fire, waving it towards the creature in an attempt to scare it away.

"Get away from us, you freak of nature." He said while waving the lit broom. The creature roared in anger and what seemed to look like fear. The flames were clearly upsetting it and it ran away into the other parts of the house.

The group held themselves in complete fear, baffled by what they just saw and wondering what the hell was going on.

"What was that thing?" Jennifer asked, holding tightly to Darryl.

"That was the devil that's haunting us. Do you still think it's all just an illusion?" Nelly asked.

"This is crazy! This is not possible. That thing shouldn't be possible." Jennifer ranted.

"It clearly was and it's out to get us," Samson said back.

"Nelly, give me the broom," Darryl asked and Nelly handed the fiery broom to him. "The fire seems to be a weakness for the monster so we have to keep it going so it doesn't come back." 

"We're going to have to burn a few things to keep the fire going," Samson mentioned and moved closer to some of the old furniture that could burn easily.

"Really Sam? You want to burn more stuff in this place?" Peace said disapprovingly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Samson asked, feeling that she meant more with what she just said.

"This all started after you dared Nelly to light that stupid box on fire and now you want to burn more things." Peace replied, admitting that she thought everything that was happening to them was Sam's fault.

"You're blaming me for this? How do you know for certain that lighting that box on fire is the reason we're trapped here and being hunted by that thing?" Samson asked defensively.

"Enough guys! We can't be fighting with ourselves. We have to survive the night and the only way to do that is to work together and keep this fire going." Darryl cut in.

They stopped arguing and began breaking apart the furniture and tossing the wood into the fire. After the fire grew larger, they all sat in a circle around it, holding on to each other for warmth and protection. Despite the fire, the temperature of the room was freezing in a very unnatural way.

Jennifer sat with Darryl, holding hands with head on shoulder. Nelly sat in between Peace and Samson who were still upset with each other for playing the blame game earlier. They didn't know how long they would be here, or how long the fire would stay on. They didn't have a plan and they all felt like they were sitting ducks waiting to be slaughtered.

"Yo J-Lo, did you bring anything to eat in your backpack? I'm starving." Nelly suddenly said.

"Yeah me too." Peace added.

"There are some brownies in the bag," Jennifer said.

"Brownies? Did you lace em?" Nelly asked, not wanting to have any drugs in his system so he could think with a clear head.

"No, I didn't. They're just regular brownies." Jennifer clarified.

Nelly got out of the circle and went to pick up the bag. He heard a low growl come from the dark of the house and saw two red glowing eyes that disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Nelly immediately went back to the circle, near the safety of the fire.

"Guys, I think beast boy is still watching us," Nelly told everyone, looking a bit panicked.

"If it could come after us, it would have by now. It's scared of the fire so as long as it's lit, it can't get us." Darryl said, having figured out that fire repels the monster.

"Get the brownies out before I die of hunger," Jennifer said while cupping her stomach. She also was very hungry, they all were.

"You decided to bring us to the middle of nowhere to spend the night partying and having a good time and all you brought for food, is a few brownies?" Nelly said to Jennifer as he took out the brownies from the backpack in an attempt to criticize her.

"I brought more stuff for us to eat but we left them in the car and now we can't go outside to go get them," Jennifer said.

"If we can get outside, it'll be to get the hell out of here and not to get more snacks." Peace said angrily and snatched a piece of brownie from Nelly.

 They all shared the snack and ate together in silence, with defeated looks on their faces and their heads and shoulders drooped. They could hear the sounds of crickets chirping, owls hooting and the wings of bats flapping but they tried their hardest to remain calm.

"This is going to be a very long night," Samson mentioned.

"It seems that way but if we can make it to morning, then we're surely going to be able to get out of this place," Darryl said optimistically.

"Didn't you bring any water?" Nelly asked after emptying the bag on the floor.

"I brought only alcohol and we drank it all already," Jennifer said smugly.

"You couldn't bring water but you thought that bringing scary Christmas storybooks was a better idea?" Nelly said again and held up one of the books.

"Hey, back off Nels. Jenny's not your Mama alright, so could you stop hassling her about your lack of food and water?" Darryl said defensively.

"Ok, fine," Nelly said with one hand in the air.

Peace suddenly noticed something on the cover of the book in Nelly's hand. "Give me that!" She said and snatched the book from Nelly's hand. She stared at the cover with extreme focus and everyone wondered what she was looking at.

"What is it? What's on the cover?" Nelly asked her.

"What does this wolf on the cover of this book look like to you guys?" Peace asked and showed them the book.

The Christmas book was titled "Consequences" and it had the picture of a monster on the cover, a monster that looked a whole lot like the same one that was haunting them.

"That's the beast that attacked us!" Nelly said in realization.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Peace said.

"Guys, do you know what this means? If this creature in this book is the same one that's after us, that means whatever is written in here isn't just a story, it's probably true." Samson said with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Yes, you're right. And this book could give us a clue about what we're dealing with."

"And how to survive the night." Darryl and Jennifer said respectively.

"Where did you get this book, Jennifer?" Samson asked her.

"It's been in my house for years but I never read it. I only brought it along for entertainment." Jennifer said.

"Well then, what are you waiting for, Peace? Open it up and start reading." Nelly said excitedly. 

Maybe the book really did have all the answers to their problems and they all hoped it did.

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