While heading into the basement,
the door closes behind Peter and Rebecca.
“Figures,” Peter says before continuing
down.
The basement is a simple room with
hundreds of pictures covering the walls and ceiling. These pictures play the
memories of Peter, Rebecca, and other people with small differences as they
loop. When they look down, Peter and Rebecca
see dozens of people embedded in the house’s foundation with their faces
contorted beyond recognition. They stop holding hands for a second as the
people beneath them start reaching out to them as if beckoning them for their
presence. Their arms don’t touch them, but it feels like they’re sucking them
in somehow.
The same female voice that they’ve
been hearing in the house tells them, “We’ve been waiting for you to join, Peter. Why are
you keeping your family waiting for you?”
“We figured you had to do something
with this, but who are you?” Peter says.
“Who else would I be besides your
mother, Peter?”
“Damn. I didn’t want to believe it.”
“Everyone in our family has done
this tradition for the past few generations. We fall in love with the people
our parents assign us and bring them here where we live out our memories over
and over again. The house allows our bodies to have children and live in the
world until our children are ready for this marriage.”
“This isn’t any kind of marriage or
real happiness. It’s delusional occult garbage.”
“I’m sad to hear you say that, but
unfortunately for the both of us, I can’t force your decision by ending your
life. Some of the people within our family have had their fill of memories and
the cracks that you’ve been slipping through to survive are a result of their
will to escape, however, we can still make you decide.”
“I decide-”
“I know what you want. Rebecca is the
only one who is undecided.”
“Rebecca…”
“Let her decide. I won’t let you go
if you interfere.”
Rebecca thinks about her decision
and settles her mind on it. She brings up a memory of them fighting and adds in
a knife to her hand that she puts to Peter’s throat.
“Please, make this easy for us,”
Rebecca says as she holds the knife over Peter’s chest as if asking him to push
it down.
“I’m not going to give up so easily
like you.”
Peter breaks the illusion, but
Rebecca manages to keep her knife. She tries stabbing at him while he tries to
find another way out. He tries pulling down the memories from the walls and
this weakens Rebecca’s ability to use her memories. As Peter throws the
pictures at each other to knock them off the wall while also knocking the
pictures off the wall, he fights Rebecca’s use of memories with memories of his
own. She uses the few memories of fighting while he counters with memories of the
present. It’s as if the past is fighting the present and with every picture
broken, Rebecca weakens until a bunch of the pictures are broken. The souls
stuck in the house are free, the string connecting Rebecca and Peter disappears,
and Rebecca’s ability to use their memories against him disappear. The pictures
that once moved are now still and decay into pieces.
“Why, Peter?”
“It’s time to move on from the past.
There’s no reason for us to stick ourselves in it when we live in the present.
Come on, let’s get out of here.”
With nothing more she can do, Rebecca
gets up and follows Peter out of the house. The house itself now has a lighter
feeling to it as if the spirit possessing it is gone.
Once they’re outside, Rebecca asks,
“So now that it’s all over, can we finally be together?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? Why?”
“You tried killing me so many times
when you didn’t have to. You’ve been one of the most precious people in my life
and this betrayal has me iffy on whether or not I should see you anymore.”
“Peter…”
“Just give me some distance and I’ll
decide.”
Rebecca starts to cry as her guilt
gets to her. She tries to hug Peter, but he pushes her away.
“I said give me some distance. Now,
I need something to break down this stupid hous-…where the hell did it go?! It
couldn’t have just walked off. We didn’t walk that far from it. Do you know anything
about it?”
“My parents did say that you can’t
destroy the house so I guess whatever is in it disappears and moves on to
entice another family with what it can offer.”
“Damn it!”
“Peter, I-”
“Stop it already!”
Peter runs away from Rebecca and back
to his car. He quickly turns on the car as Rebecca tries to break into it. He
then drives away and leaves her in the dust. After everything that has occurred,
he takes the day off to reflect on what he wants to do. While relaxing and
reading a book on how to deal with the dark nights of the soul, he remembers when
Rebecca and he used to watch horror movies and how Rebecca liked to play as the
slasher when they played pretend. This memory gets him to stand up in time to hear
the door to his backyard being opened. After a couple seconds, he sees Rebecca
in his house with a knife.
“Of course this would happen,”
Peter says as he puts down his book.
“Don’t you just shrug off me coming
here!” Rebecca says as she shakes with tears in her eyes, “That house is still
out there. Maybe the deal between it and your family is still active. Maybe we
can still live our memories together forever.”
Peter approaches Rebecca, knocks
the knife out of her hand, slaps her as she tries to fight him, grabs her, then
puts her through his dining room table. He then immobilizes her by holding her
wrists and sitting on top of her. She is unable to move or fight back.
“It isn’t so easy to fight me when
I’m at my normal strength, is it?” Peter says with some sarcasm.
Rebecca starts to cry as she says, “I’m
sorry, Peter! I’m so sorry! I love you! I really do! Please, give me another
chance!”
“Okay.”
Peter releases Rebecca from his
hold and sits on the floor.
“Really?”
“Yes. Even though our parents
pushed us to be together, I still legitimately love you.”
“Do you really even though I might still
kill you?”
“You know what?”
Peter gets the knife and gives it
to Rebecca.
“I trust you to make the right
choice, Rebecca. You know that we can live a happy life together without having
to do what our parents wanted.”
Peter closes his eyes and waits for
Rebecca’s choice. She almost immediately throws the knife aside and throws herself
on him and kisses him. They then get married soon after, have children, and
live a happy life together while making new memories to remember, but not to be
stuck in because the present is where love lives eternally.
The End
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