Tortured Soul

One, cold, nearly frost autumn afternoon, Cherry was having a so far normal day. It seemed a little too normal. Normally things go wrong and frightening for Cherry, but so far today seemed at peace. She buried her tiny hands into her loose sleeves of her heavy black jacket handed down from her older brother before he had left for college and she's worn it ever since. She kept walking along and her teeth gently chattered, feeling more cold than she would like. She could see her shallow breath with each step. She jerked her head from left to right, then saw a library.

She shrugged and decided to go in. Her sneakers crumbled under the sidewalk pavement and crunching fall, brown, sweet-smelling leaves as she made her way up the stairs and pushed the door open. The door closed behind her and the only noises heard in the library were the librarians click clacking their fingers against the keyboards, people turning the ultra-thin pages, quiet coughs from the weather ailments.

Cherry deeply inhaled and held herself as the toasty warm gust of the heating caressed her as she walked among the library. She stumbled a little with each step as her feet were sore from the frigid temperatures of the outdoors, away from the heated shelters. Cherry bounced by each section in the library: comedy, romance, science fiction, and fantasy. She felt like none of them could fit the boot for her interest, so she went to the librarian.

"May I help you, child?" the woman asked in a thick, raspy, aging voice.

"Do you have any books that have like, thrilling adventures, terrifying characters or magic spells?" Cherry asked.

"Yes, we have a room upstairs with books like that," the librarian replied. "They're adult books though."

"Thanks, but I think I can manage." Cherry replied, going with a stumble in her steps once again.

Cherry found that the elevator would be much quicker and less exhausting than the stairs. She stepped inside the library elevator, clicked the top floor button and the doors shut ominously slow and clicked. As they closed, the elevator went up and opened. Cherry saw more people on the top floor having innocent research on the computers and checking out numerous books. Cherry felt more mature once she was on the top floor with more selections and literature.

As Cherry walked by the same sections as before, she spotted the horror section. She let her fingers dance among the several book titles as she looked at them carefully and clicked her tongue with each name, each more frighteningly interesting than the next. She then took out what appeared to be a spell book and Cherry's hunger for intellect, new things and interests like magic forced her to take the book. She went to the librarian, checked it out with her card and gripped the book tightly as she returned to the deathly cold weather and walked along to return home to read the book and satisfy her appetite for Gothic Horror literature.

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Cherry's parents left a note saying they would be gone all night and would return the next afternoon, but luckily, they left her dinner. Cherry didn't mind being alone much, she liked company, yes, but she liked to be home alone so she could do whatever she wanted with no intrusions. Mostly whenever she would write to escape from the pressures of reality without it being a nuisance toward her to tangle up her brain as it spun a web of ideas and she would end up being the juicy fly when someone would interrupt her.

Cherry cracked open the book and pushed her glasses back as she was huddled against the cold, dark corner of her bedroom. The fresh luster of brand new pages, the cold, yet hardened cover, the words leaping off the page and into her soul as she delicately read each and every word. Cherry tried to stop reading, but her will power weakened as she continued to read the everlasting poetic text. Cherry shuddered and gently closed the book as her hunger for the stories turned to hunger for dinner, so she left the safety of her bedroom for forage for the pork roast with glazed potatoes and honey carrots which was left, just for her.

Cherry licked her lips as she served herself her dinner and would quickly eat and return to her reading, her cold, black, tortured heart's desire. Cherry finished her dinner and went back to her room as she spotted a spell to bring a soul back to life. Cherry shrugged and decided to have fun with this and recite the spell out loud. Cherry looked all around and smirked to see she was still alone and went to her bathroom to get some water and wash her face and drink before she would go to bed. The water in the sink was always effected by the weather outside, since it was cold and icy outside, the water tasted as if it came from a melted, frozen lake.

Cherry then whimpered as she felt a just as cold and icy hand on her shoulder. She gulped and turned around slowly to see a stranger in the house with her. Not just any stranger, it was the once famous horror novelist.

"B-B-Ben!" Cherry whimpered.

"Hello Cherry..." Ben grinned maliciously at her as she shivered and cowered with immense fear and coldness. "Oh," Ben mocked her fear. "Cold? Maybe you want Mummy to get a blanket for you. Maybe you want Daddy to make me go away."

"Get out of my house, you bastard!" Cherry snapped.

"Temper, temper," Ben waved a finger. "You wouldn't want to make things harder for yourself, now would you?"

"Just go away before I call the police!"

"Call the police for what?" Ben snorted. "You saw a ghost of someone who haunted you as a child and now as an almost adult? You were always so foolish and naïve, Cherry, glad to see you hadn't changed much."

"Mr. Ravencroft, I swear, if you don't get out of here!" Cherry furrowed her eyes up at him. "I'll-"

"You'll WHAT!?" Ben got deep in her face.

"I..." Cherry whimpered as her fear got more exposed as he taunted her.

"You can't do anything for yourself," Ben smirked. "You always have to get your precious parents or protecting older brother to do it for you. You're nothing but a weak, tiny fool!"

"Cut it out..." Cherry weakened. Ben was right about her, but she couldn't bear admit it to him. It would get a lot worse for her than already.

"Frightened, are we?" Ben smirked.

Cherry's eyes itched with salty tears. She shut her eyes tight with a sharp sigh and she balled her hands up into fists. She then opened her eyes and nodded her head slowly at him.

"That's what I thought." Ben smirked.

"Why are you here?" Cherry sniffled.

"You summoned me," Ben replied. "You purchased Sarah's spell book, used her spell to bring the dead back to life and here I am."

"Sarah..." Cherry remembered Ben's ancestor's name. She then quickly went back to the book and saw indeed it had been print from Sarah Ravencroft. Cherry swallowed hard and turned to him slowly. "I... I brought you back... from Sarah!?"

Ben grinned.

"No!" Cherry moaned.

"Oh yes," Ben hissed. "And now... Since I can do this..." Ben went toward her and caused a shivering feel all around her body. Her spine tingled, her heart rattled in her rib cage, her toes felt hard and bitter as usual. Ben then took out a glowing blue ball from inside of Cherry and bounced it in between his fingers. "Much better..." he grinned.

"What did you do!?" Cherry hiccupped.

"This will be mine until you do exactly as I ask of you..." Ben smirked as he bounced Cherry's soul back and forth in his fingers and hand, squeezing it like a stress ball.

"What is that?" Cherry asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ben scowled at her. "It's your soul."

"My soul!?" Cherry cried, holding herself deep in fright.

"Duh."

"How could you take my soul!?"

"Simple." Ben replied, sarcastically. "Unless you do what I want of you, WE will BOTH go to Hell after perished deaths."

Cherry shook on the inside and outside of her body. For the first time in her life, Cherry felt terrified. She swallowed hard and looked up at Ben.

"What do you want?" Cherry moaned.

"You." Ben stroked her face with one his frigid fingers, making her feel very uncomfortable. He even ruffled up her hair. "You were such a nuisance as a child, but now you seem more interesting..."

"I'm not interested in you that way, Ben." Cherry shoved him aside.

"I think differently..." Ben pushed his hands on her cheeks and made her lips pop and look curved. "Now, I want you to make me happy or else your soul will belong to me... Either way, you shall be mine..."

Cherry quaked with fear and discomfort as Ben caressed her face in the creepiest way possible.

"What else do you want?" Cherry gulped as her skin was dotted with goosebumps.

"I want you to be an orphan," Ben demanded. "I want you to kill your parents and brother."

"What!" Cherry cried at the very thought of committing such an act.

"Don't feel bad, I did the very same thing at your age to my family."

"You killed your family?" Cherry's eyes widened.

Ben nodded. "They stifled me of being interested in Sarah's witch powers and my intentions of being a warlock. My mother committed suicide though when I was nine and my father abused me. He was out at bars late at night and I was forced to look after my younger brother. It really got to me, so I shook my brother because he wouldn't stop crying and I lit my own childhood home on fire after drenching it in gasoline, killing my father with it after I made myself an orphan."

"Ben, I can't! I won't!" Cherry cried.

"Oh, yes you will." Ben growled, grabbing her wrist, painfully. "I don't want to have to kill you, Cherry... Are you going to disappoint me like Velma Dinkley?"

Cherry groaned and struggled as Ben had her in his grip.

"ARE YOU!?" Ben repeated, forcing more pressure against her wrist.

"No!" Cherry cried, trying to free herself from Ben.

"Then do it, do it as soon as possible, the sooner the better." Ben scolded.

"Yes sir..." Cherry whimpered.

"Good." Ben grinned as evil and sinister as the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. "Now get some sleep." Ben pushed her onto her bed.

"Where are you going?" Cherry asked, hiking up her duvet.

"Don't worry about that, I'll be watching you." Ben glanced at her before he disappeared into the cold dark sky.

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Cherry sighed heavily and wished this would be all a dream, but it was reality. It was reality, and nothing more. Ben's demands of killing her parents and brother were stuck in her brain overnight. She really didn't want to, but she knew if she didn't, Ben would be haunting her. She tossed and turned in her cold bed and pulled the sheets back. She heard her parents talking and close their bedroom door, clicking off their light. Cherry gulped and took out one of the kitchen knives and opened the door as it creaked slowly. The nasily snores from her mother and nosy, older snores from her father. Cherry winced as she committed the horrible event Ben had forced her to do so.

The next morning, the paramedics came and a mortician came. Bud and Michelle were found in their beds with slit throats, stabbed chests, and looked very gruesome. Cherry attended the funeral and service and wore all black. She shuddered as the caskets closed and she was now an orphan like Ben had wanted. Cherry let out a shallow, sharp sigh, then the hairs on her neck stood on end as she felt the cold, shivering hand on her shoulder and Cherry looked up to see the true killer.

"Well done, Cherry." Ben smirked.

"I can't believe you made me do that!" Cherry glowered at him.

"Eh, you can cry tomorrow." Ben waved off her anger.

"Where's my brother? He hasn't come!"

"Oh yes... You see, Cherry..." Ben grinned maliciously. "Your brother has already passed on once he heard the news..."

"What?"

"He hung himself before he could come here... You are now homeless and an orphan with nowhere else to go."

"Bastard..." Cherry whispered with anger.

"Now, now..."

"YOU BASTARD!" Cherry roared, then Ben put pressure on her soul which made Cherry gag and nearly lose her life.

"Calm yourself, child..." Ben snapped.

"What do I do now?" Cherry sighed.

"I'll put you out of your misery..." Ben took out a pistol.

Cherry's eyes drenched with tears. She felt like she had deserved this after releasing Ben from his prison in the library, part of a spell book from his ancestor, Sarah. She didn't even flinch when Ben pulled the trigger and there was a gunshot.

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Blackness. All Cherry saw was cold, dark, blackness. She had hoped she was dead after all she had been through in just two days. Her eyes then slowly opened and she saw herself in a wedding dress. There was then a distant knock at the door.

"I know it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, so hurry up!" a sharp voice called from behind the door. It was Ben. He then opened the door and was dressed in an elegant suit with a sinister smirk. "You coming?"

"I feel I have no choice..." Cherry sighed.

"Come on, then." Ben took out his hand.

Cherry groaned and took his hand in hers. They then walked together as it was cold, dark and black like before. Cherry and Ben were then walking into a bright light together and that was that. Soon enough, Ben and Cherry spent the afterlife together by force and soon grew accustomed to each other's company, even if Ben was abusive towards Cherry, whether sexual, verbal or emotional. They currently had a four-year old daughter named Robin who would have her own story eventually.