Cursed ✔️

88. Swift Family

"But you know what this means, right?" Scarlett asked in a scared voice.

Biting her lips, Emily responded, "Yes, I know that to break the spell, I would have to sacrifice myself."

"Alright, people!" Clyde jumped in, "Hold it right there! It was alright till we found out that Emily was 'THE' person, but if she sacrificed herself, then we are done. Do you hear me? D. O. N. E. - done." Clyde spelled it out.

"What are you saying?" Emily asked.

"Let's assume that even if we succeed in breaking the spell, we would lose you forever!"

"But, Clyde, we have to. If we don't, Diana's army would just keep growing and growing, and then what could we do? There would be nothing much left."

"I can see your point, Emily, but think straight. With John being Diana's pawn and Hannah possessed by Diana, in such a situation, even if we lose you, what good would it do? We would be helpless. Do you hear me? All the doors would be locked that could lead us to Diana's end."

"I believe in you, Clyde and Scarlett. I'm sure, you two would definitely find a way - with or without me. Just if my parents ask, tell them I love them. I hope you'll make my sacrifice worth it."

Scarlett nodded.

"Don't do this, Emily. There have to be some other options too which we could have ignored?" Clyde turned to Scarlett.

"I don't know, Clyde," Emily responded. "Even if there were, don't you think that Father Murphy would have told us?"

- - - - - - - -

"Don't you think it's weird, Ryan?" Helena asked a man sitting on a sofa as she paced around.

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked moving his eyes along with the motion of Helena.

"I told Emily that I was helping her all along and that I took an indirect path to warn them using the notes as I cannot have Diana harm me anymore. I won't be able to take another blow. I told her that I had faced Diana's wrath once."

"That we all did. So what?"

"So, this, Ryan, that when I was leaving to come here, Scarlett said to me that I had faced Diana's wrath twice - not once."

"Did you tell her?" Ryan asked in a concerned yet alarming voice.

Helena shook her head. "I only told her about the time when Diana made my neck half - sliced and gave me a dead bat as an earring when I first tried to help the trio. But I never told her about the other time."

"Do you think, what I'm thinking?" Ryan's breaths elevated as Helena replied, "I couldn't deny it."

- - - - - - - -

"If you want to," Scarlett began, "take your time to think about it."

Clyde felt a weird feeling inside him. It was like something was pulling him towards something. He tried closing his eyes and took deep breaths to shake it off, but the feeling won't go away.

"Emily," Clyde began. "Please think about this. Will your sacrifice be worth all this pain that you've put yourself through?"

"I'll just come," Clyde excused himself after few seconds when the feeling inside him kept growing and growing.

Leaving Scarlett and Emily, Clyde went inside the house.

"Clyde, we need you, now."

Clyde felt someone whispered.

"Close your eyes, Clyde, and let yourself free."

He tried to fight, but he couldn't fight the weird feeling inside him anymore. It felt like someone was pulling him. He closed his eyes and loosened up his body.

When he opened his eyes, he was in a totally different place.

He saw a man and a woman in front of him whom he had never met.

The woman was dressed in a black gown with a bat hanging from the side of her hair, with a ruined makeup and a horrifying face. She had an evil and creepy smile, showing her yellow, crooked teeth. Her head was tilted to her left side, full 90 degrees - it made her neck rest on her shoulder – as if her neck was cut open from the side, bones totally broken.

The man's face was melted in two halves which were joined together by rusted iron rods all the way from one ear to another.

"Hi, Clyde, I'm Helena, and this is Ryan," Helena said.

"You two are spirits too, isn't it?" Clyde was still in a state of shock from his teleportation.

Helena and Ryan nodded.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Clyde said in excitement. "You so gotta teach me how to do that!"

Helena and Ryan giggled. "You will, Clyde, you will, when you've reached our stage of experience," Ryan replied.

"But why did you two teleported me here?" Clyde asked looking around. It was Skylar's old house. "And why are we at Skylar's old house?"

"I know Scarlett just like you do," Helena replied. "I visited Scarlett and Emily when you went inside the house. We teleported you here because we know that Emily's in danger."

"I know, Helena. She's 'THE' person to break the spell and she has even agreed to do it which meant what needed is her -"

"- Sacrifice," All three of them said in unison.

"We have to stop them, Clyde," Ryan began. "Emily's in danger from Scarlett herself!"

"Say what now?" Clyde looked at both of them confused.

"Scarlett is Diana's pawn." Ryan began. "We came to know just now when we realized that Scarlett knew something only Diana knows. So, if Scarlett knows, that means only one thing. She wants to get rid of Emily so that no one could stand in her way."

Clyde stood there for a while trying to process the information he just received. "Come to think of it, Skylar and her parents were acting a bit strange too when I tried to scare them. I don't know about Mr. and Mrs. Swift, but Skylar surely gets scared every time she sees a ghost. But today was way different. Everything makes sense now. None of them were on their usual behavior, which means that the whole Swift family has become the pawn of Diana!

And if that's true, Emily's life is in grave danger. We have to stop her. And fast! She has made up her mind to break the spell and in turn, sacrifice herself."