CHAPTER SIX
There was a room in Joe’s house, with floor to ceiling mirrors on each wall. Not a single window, light reduced to the thin crack beneath the metal door.
In the centre of the floor yawned a small, sunken pool, the water motionless and black. There, in the water, I sat.
Iron chains snaked around my wrists, a cross dangling above my head. I screamed, and begged, and thrashed around. But my pleas went unanswered.
“The Devil is in him, Mary,” Joe told my mother, their bodies huddled in the doorway, “you were right to bring him to me. God will save him. But we need to be strong.”
“How long will it take?” my mother asked.
“I cannot say. It is God’s will.”
The door clicked shut.
I was trapped, swallowed by a vast ocean, lost to the ripples that danced in the mirrors all around me. Darkness crawled over my bare skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake.
It was worse than the linen cupboard, for when my eyes adjusted to the cruel darkness, I saw my own reflection all around me, the Devil wearing my face.
I closed my eyes.
My mother and Joe wanted to draw the Devil out, but I was too scared to face him. Hearing his voice was one thing, seeing him another.
Don’t be a coward, Augustus, open your eyes.
My eyes remained shut.
What are you so afraid of? Yourself?
I did not answer.
I just had to endure him until God saved me, releasing me from this nightmare. He would come. He would free me from these chains.
Do you really think He is coming to save you? He has abandoned you. You are mine.
I had to pray. God would hear my prayers this time. He had to. He was the only one who could tear me from the Devil’s grasp.
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name,” I whispered.
Laughter echoed all around me, but I dared not open my eyes. The Devil would not steal my soul. I would not let him.
“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is Heaven.”
The laughter grew louder. My body trembled like a leaf hanging from a branch, desperate to fend off the wind.
“Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses…”
A loud splash resounded to my left, as if the Devil had jumped into the water with me. My heart thundered wildly. I wanted to run, but the chains kept me in place. My only defence was prayer.
“...as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen,” I finished.
The laughter ceased.
I exhaled. The Devil had his eyes on me, but he would not devour my soul. God was here. And I was saved.
My eyelids cracked open and the Devil’s face hovered inches from mine, black eyes bleeding red, tongue dangling from his dislocated jaw.
His skin was peeling, fungi sprouting from his flesh, spiders pouring from his ears.
It was a nightmarish reconstruction of what I had seen in the mirror all those years ago.
Me and the Devil. The Devil and me. One face. One horror.
I screamed, and screamed, and screamed. The Devil laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
God had forsaken me. I could not be saved.
***
I was a shaken shell of a boy when I emerged from that room. I did not speak, I did not eat.
I refused to look in the mirror when I brushed my teeth. The mirror was my enemy, I never knew who would be staring back. Would it be my own hazel eyes, or the Devil’s black pits?
Without a mirror, I had neglected to notice the bruises littering my cheeks. I could see the torn skin around my wrists, but my face was a mystery only solved when my father applied cream or when my mother scowled with disgust.
I wore a long-sleeved sweater to school to hide my bruised arms. My face, however, was difficult to shield from unwanted attention.
Despite the curls that had grown down my neck and over my forehead, the school had noticed the state I was in.
They called my parents who told them I had been getting into fights with the neighbour’s children.
Lying was a sin, and yet my parents lied with ease, scolding me for doing the same.
North Lane had no neighbours, but it was a believable lie since I had started getting into fights at school. Not the kind I had any chance of winning, but the kind that saw me on the ground, curled up in a ball, enduring the several pairs of feet striking my fragile body.
My year four teacher sent me home early on one autumn afternoon, my body aching from yet another fight I did not win.
I stepped up onto the front porch of North Lane and unlocked the door, stepping inside with an uneasy feeling in my chest. It was quiet except for the faint sound of music coming from my parents’ bedroom.
Lowering my school bag and discarding my shoes, I made my way through the living room and down the hallway toward Auden’s bedroom.
He was asleep in his bed, one arm dangling toward the floor where his security blanket had fallen.
I approached him with a fond smile, adjusting his arm so that it rested on his stomach, placing the security blanket on top of his thin body.
Assured that he was safe, I kissed the top of his head and continued down the hall toward my parents’ bedroom, the music growing louder.
I knocked on the door, but there was no response.
I should have walked away. I should have waited in my room, and then maybe my world would not have shattered because of one stupid mistake.
I entered the room without an invitation, words locked in my throat the moment my eyes landed on a man on top of my mother, their limbs entangled in a passionate embrace.
“Mum?” I asked in alarm.
Her eyes flew open and the man on top of her turned around. It was not my father.
Joseph Kade blinked at me in stunned silence as I backed away, left shoulder knocking into the doorframe in my haste.
My mother called my name, but I ran. I ran until I was out the front door and into the woods, until my legs ached and I fell to the grass, gasping for air. I didn’t know where I was, but I was glad to be far from that bedroom.
My mother and…
…that monster.
It wasn’t that I was naive enough to believe my parents had a perfect marriage. I knew they had their problems, like many did, but they were God-fearing Christians. Adultery was a sin.
My mother had accused me of being a sinner my whole life. And yet there she was, underneath a man who was not her husband. She was a hypocrite.
I glanced down at my bruised wrists, the evidence of the punishment for my sins. Would my mother confine herself inside the linen cupboard or in a dark pool of water, alone and handcuffed like a criminal?
Of course not, the Devil growled, you will have to make her.
I closed my eyes to shut him out. His thoughts were not my own. I would never lock my mother away. I couldn’t, even if I wanted to. God was on her side.
I do not recall how long I remained in the long grass, sobbing into the dirt, but the sun had barely grazed the horizon when I rose to my feet, a thick morning fog swallowing the House on North Lane. A lone leaf drifted in the ice cold breeze, falling at my feet as I pushed open the door.
A darkness had settled inside the House, a poison that devoured its very heart. The air was thick with rot, a dampness that wouldn’t dry out. Dust painted the dark oak furniture grey, cobwebs hanging from every corner of the ceiling. It was as though I had been gone years, instead of mere hours.
On the staircase, Auden coughed.
His arms were wrapped around his shivering body, dark circles under his pale blue eyes. I guided him up to the second floor, each step grunting beneath our weight. A dark corridor greeted us with a sinister hum, the walls pulsing with the sound of rats scurrying along the wooden beams.
Mold infiltrated my nostrils as my bedroom door creaked open, an ice-cold breeze from the shattered window lashing me like the sharp end of a whip.
I drew Auden close, securing him to my warmth as I wrapped him in a blanket. With his shoulders covered to fend off the chill, we ventured back out into the hallway and into the heart of North Lane.
The hallway light flickered as we neared Auden’s bedroom, casting taunting shadows that followed our every move.
We stepped inside the room and sighed with relief, the biting cold confined to the hallway as we shut the door behind us.
“You look like you haven’t slept,” I told Auden as I guided him into bed, tucking him in beneath the sheets.
He shifted closer to the wall, leaving room for me. I debated returning to the darkness to find my mother, but Auden’s pale cheeks and wide eyes convinced me to climb onto the mattress beside him, securing his back to my chest.
Warmth lured me to sleep, and I was standing in the woods surrounding North Lane, walking along the brook barefoot, a long stick glued to my hand. I was alone, with only the sun kissing my skin and the birds whistling from the treetops.
It was peaceful. Calm. Like the many summers spent venturing through the trees with an imaginary quest to occupy my time.
But the scene shifted the moment I slipped on a moss-covered rock, falling forward with my knees grazing the sharp spikes jutting out of the water.
Blood tainted the stream and darkened the reflection peering up at me. A red droplet rippled the water, twisting the grimace on my face into a wide, devilish smile.
Horns protruded from my nest of curls like blackened roots, dark eyes unblinking. It followed the movement of my hand, but where my fingers ended with shortened nails, the reflection wore monstrous claws.
You should wake up, Augustus.
I jolted awake, heart pounding. My treacherous brain would not grant me respite, even in sleep. The Devil followed me. I was his to torment.
It was cold, the absence of my brother’s warmth sending alarm bells ringing in my head. I rose to my feet and looked around the room, emptiness glaring back.
“Auden?” I called out as I stepped into the hallway.
Unease trickled down my spine. The House was too quiet, as though it had devoured every soul and was now sated.
I descended the staircase, hand on the wall to safely guide me through the darkness. Wood groaned beneath my feet, the sound reverberating along the walls, frames trembling.
Upon reaching the bottom, a faint sob echoed through the House. My feet guided me forward, heart thundering inside my chest.
The living room was void of all furniture—no couch, no coffee table, not even a rug to warm the cold wooden floor. In their absence, a white chalked star entrapped within a circle centred the room, each corner of the star home to a flickering candle, red flames illuminating the darkened room.
In the heart of the circle was Auden, seated with his knees drawn to his chest, rocking back and forth as tears streamed down his face.
His name left my lips in a gasp, my feet moving toward the circle before I could even process what was happening. I crouched by his side and pulled him to my chest. He slumped against me, exhausted, skin glazed with sweat from the heat of the candles.
“Shh, it’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here,” I tried to soothe him.
My mother stood beyond the circle in a long white gown, fringes soiled with ash and dust. A harsh breeze stirred the fabric, rippling like the wings of an angel. Her eyes were wide and unblinking, drawn to Auden’s shivering form.
“Ma?” I moved in front of my brother, shielding him from the eerie sight. “What’s going on? What are you doing?”
She raised a small, dark green bible, face flickering in and out of darkness as the flames cast shadows across the room. Incoherent muttering rolled off her tongue as she held a silver crucifix toward us, her voice rising as the wind grew in strength.
The flames closed in, heat bearing down on us without mercy. I reached for Auden’s hand and started toward the circle’s edge, determined to get him to safety before things could escalate.
“Halt, demon!”
And halt I did, gaze locking on Joe who emerged from the shadows to stand beside my mother, his body draped in a clean white suit with his hair slicked back neatly for the occasion. In his hands, a wooden crucifix hung like a blade between us, the mightiest weapon of one of God’s soldiers.
“Why are you doing this?” I shouted.
Words spilled from his lips—words from an ancient tongue that my mother repeated, their crucifixes glinting in the candlelight. Together, they chanted their foregone language, eyes aflame with the spirit of God.
A scream shredded through my body as Joe knocked over a candle, sending flames along the chalk circle all around us. I lifted Auden up over my shoulder, intending to carry him away from the searing heat.
A wall of flames forced me back. Smoke poisoned the air, burning down my throat into my gasping lungs. Auden coughed, sweat dampening his hair to his forehead.
I staggered backwards.
Confused.
Scared.
Struggling to breathe.
Falling to my knees, unable to bear Auden’s weight, I watched the flames crawl towards us, smoke smothering my lungs with the kiss of death. Auden whimpered beside me, oxygen evading him as much as it evaded me.
“Please, God,” I coughed, arms tightening around Auden’s trembling body, “save us.”
Every breath was a stab of pain. Tears burned my eyes, ash painting my hair white. I squinted through the smoke, gaze landing on my mother. She looked the part of an angel, framed by a flickering golden glow, though her cracked lips were pulled up into a cruel smile.
I screamed for God, praise and worship pouring from my scorched tongue. I needed him to hear me. Just this once, I needed him to save me.
There was laughter. It circled me like the flames, but it had only one source. And she stood there, watching me, as if I were a demon and not her son.
A glint of a blade.
Demons dancing in the smoke.
Screams buried in the ash.
God had not come. Heaven had not sent their soldiers to save me. Their soldiers, instead, chanted to my destruction.
My eyelids fell shut, surrendering to Death’s warm embrace, abandoning all trust in the Heavenly Father. He had chosen his side. And it wasn’t mine.
Wake up, Augustus. You need to wake up.
The Devil’s voice was loud. Urgent. He was angry. Afraid. There was desperation in the way he called my name.
Augustus. Wake up. Augustus, Auden needs you. Augustus. Augustus. Augustus!
I forced my eyes open, my shadow grinning up at me as I pushed myself up off the ash-covered floor.
Hell was born that night. And it remained burning ever since, a poison contaminating my veins.
I hauled Auden to his feet, dragging him through the flames, the Devil watching the scene through my eyes as I collapsed to the floor outside the circle, surrendering to the safety of darkness.