Remi had been more understanding about everything than Amya thought she would be, taking each revelation in stride, asking questions, and not judging. Amya had been afraid Remi would think she was crazy like everyone else.
"So, I was named after mom's cousin who went crazy, walked into the woods here and died, and you can see his ghost? She said I was named after a cousin, but she didn't tell me that." Remi had told her.
"He didn't go crazy; he was driven crazy by whatever is bothering us now. It wants the same thing from us."
"And you don't know why?"
"Not yet, that's why I need back into the attic. There is something in there is doesn't want us to find." Amya explained.
Then with a glass of water behind the door, she and Remi fell asleep. It was a calm sleep for the first time since she moved into the house. She dreamed of the ocean, off the cliffs not far from the house. A storm was moving in off the coast; she loved storms. The waves smashed against the earthen wall spraying salty sea water up and over her.
Amya held her arms up and waited for the storm to release above, drenching her in a cleansing rain. The thunder echoed like music surrounding her. The lightning in the distance cleared her eyes to the darkness that surrounded her. She as renewed.
She woke up in a peace she hadn't felt in a long time.
Remi, next to her, slept quietly, her breathing even and deep. She didn't want to say the glass of water worked, but neither had a nightmare, and it was early morning. The trees had yet to allow the light to hit her windows, but the clock read five-thirty.
With a deep breath, she lay back and sighed. At least there had been one night of peace for both. Remi would go with her into the attic today. She had promised to help her find whatever was in that room it didn't want them to see. It had to be close to where Rem's box had been, or where she had set it.
Maybe it did attack because Rem was in the house. She hadn't managed to decipher how that had happened. He had told her he had not been inside the house since he died. How was he able to be in the attic with her then? If it hadn't been for Rem, what else could it have done to her? Rem was gone by the time she made it out the door.
A sound brought her out of her thoughts. It was something like a hiss and a rattle, that came from the shadow in the corner above the door.
Amya leaned up on her elbows and focused on the corner. It was a normal shadow, cast in the furthest corner from the windows, only now it began to click. She squinted her eyes in the darkness.
Then it moved.
Like tentacles it stretched out across the wall, reaching, pulling itself out of the shadows. Its movements were jerky and inhuman.
Amya froze. She was awake. She was sure she was awake.
A putrid smell filled the air as arms hauled themselves out of the wall, a thick black tar dripping on the floor.
Amya could see a form in the blackness now, long black hair falling forward, the many appendages undulating across the wall, leaving a slimy, black substance in its path. It dripped down her walls in rivets like black tears. The form pushed itself out of the corner and on to the flowery wallpaper.
Its head snaked back and forth in a motion that made Amya's hair stand on end. Remi was still asleep, and Amya considered she may still be asleep as well, but the smell, the sound was too real. Her heart pounded, she could hear it like drums playing above the sizzling of the black substance as it plopped on the floor.
It looked up, directly at Amya, and she gasped. There was only darkness but for the eyes. Human eyes, larger than normal, dark circles surrounded by white, set in black. It looked at her, through her, moving in spasms. Then it looked past her, to Remi, and lunged.
Amya threw herself on top of Remi, the momentum sending them both over the side of the bed. Remi screamed as they hit the floor, a loud thud sounded as the creature hit the wall above them. Amya grabbed Remi by the shirt, pulling her under the bed.
It began to shake furiously, making Amya and Remi scream as the wooden frame jumped around them. Black tentacles oozing, dripping grotesque, rotting goo all around them, folded around the edges, creeping closer.
Amya held tight to Remi, squeezing her eyes shut, tears streaming as Remi screamed and cried.
Through her fear and the sounds of Remi's panic she heard a voice,
"Amya! Amya!"
Then a tentacle grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her out from under the bed. She screamed at the top of her lungs, as she was wrapped in hot, sweaty arms.
"Amya, calm down! Remi, give me your hand." Jason's voice broke through the terror that consumed Amya.
"Dad?" she sobbed, pulling him closer, pulling Remi closer.
"Yeah, it's dad."
Amya's eyes cleared. The room looked normal, no dark shadows, no tentacles, no black tar-like substance dripping down her walls baking into her floors. Had she imagined it? No, Remi had seen it too.
Safely in her dad's arms, Amya let the world go black.
