Parental Guidance

Pray.

Pray.

Pray.

The four-letter word, chanted thrice by two of my parents, had one meaning—to kneel and beg for forgiveness.

They had already tied me up on the bed with my mouth taped shut. The both of them walked around my bed, each hand holding a candle lit by a blood red flame—painting the room in hellish hue. I should know, because I went there.

I shook the rope around my arms and legs in a feeble attempt to break free. But when their words of prayer grew louder in my bare ears and their eyes glowed literally in flames, I knew this was no ordinary exorcism.

"Rid of this evil in Your name!" I heard them chant the only English words I can decipher, the rest of it were along the lines of Latin.

I try to dig deep into my head as to what had happened, to how I got into this mess. But I can't and I don't know.

Then, I felt liquid oozed from my ears as a stabbing pain erupted from my eardrums. I looked at the sheets and saw blood. I screamed at the top of my lungs as the pain spread throughout my system.

A flash blinded me as visions of a dead girl in a muddy dress was thrown to a circular pit with the bottom never to be seen. The faces were a blur but I was sure of those stances. The man had its back curved a bit to the right, a woman with a perfectly straight back. My parents. But the girl in a muddy dress was someone else. She did not have the same raven black hair as I do, no. She had golden locks covered in mud, and blue eyes that contrasted my hazelnut color.

And all of the sudden, I felt strong surge of power that prompted me to destroy the rope. It was a power unlike I had felt before but so familiar.

I hurriedly got into my feet in the bed. Then, I launched myself in between them, using their shoulders to catapult myself away. I felt my nails dug through, breaking their porcelain white skin.

Groans of pain followed by screams of undecipherable utterances erupted as I fled from the blood red room.

I can hear their chants still, and it stung deep within me. Loud thumps on the walls behind me erupted in fast and successive way. I got myself to look back and saw my parents crawling on the walls and jumping from there to the ceiling in a rapid manner.

No, they aren't my parents anymore. They are monsters. Spawns of Hell that try to get rid of me for whatever I've done. My real parents would never want to see me flinch or in pain. These are monsters.

Their mouths were curved into a smile whilst speaking their chants. Eyes were still blood red but now, red tears flowed from their sockets.

I fell forward as one of them jumped on my back. My mom turned my face to face her then she hissed. I spat at her face and out of nowhere, my nails dug onto her belly, prompting her to spit blood right on my face.

Then the world shifted abruptly. My mind blurred furthermore with visions. But this time, I was in front of a masked man, and was stabbed in the stomach.

I gasped from the thought and my mom fell to the sides, holding her belly.

My dad grabbed ahold of my hair and used it to slam my head hard on the ground. It then triggered another vision. It was me falling fast in the pit until my head made contact to the ground.

I managed my strength to get up and scratch my dad on the face and ran to catch the door to the outside.

The world beyond was stark black—a pure spectacle of nothingness. Then, a hard metal made contact to the back of my head, sending out a loud pang that rendered me motionless in the night's ground.

"No one should be back from the dead."

Despite losing blood rapidly, I felt the need to smile. Like my mission had been fulfilled.

And it was.

As my eyes darkened, I felt my soul wander around in the night sky and into a hut. Inside, a girl lying on the floor with the same beautiful golden locks that invaded my head.

I then got inside her head. And in what seemed like a ghostly hiss, I whispered.

"Apocalypse is coming. And you are the vessel."