Rivercrest Road

Troy and I were finally preparing for our long-awaited trip out of town. We had been planning it for ever, but work always managed to get in our way in the past. The night before the trip, however, I woke up from a weird dream; my late grandmother appeared before me and told me not to take Rivercrest Road.

Nana passed away six months ago, but when she was alive, she would often warn us of certain routes and places. Every time she predicted something, it would come to pass; it was an eerie gift of foresight that equally scared us as it did leave us in awe.

Now, having seen her in my dreams, I had second thoughts about taking the shortcut through Rivercrest Road. Troy, however, remained sceptical about the situation; he had only met her a couple of times and had only been warned by her once about a car accident on the route he was planning to take that day. He brushed it off as a mere coincidence, but I knew there was more to it than that.

Even though he was sceptical, Troy still agreed to skip the shortcut because I was stressed about the dream, but things took a turn when we tried to take the normal route; a bus had tipped over and was blocking the entire road. We had no choice but to take Rivercrest Road. Halfway through that road, I remembered what Nana once said: “Beware of Rivercrest. That area is unwelcome—especially the old cemetery.”

I felt a faint chill race across my skin as we passed that place. It was abandoned, but no one bothered to tear it down or renovate it because it was in an obscure area of our town. No one had lived by that road for over five decades. Troy and I were travelling for over half an hour, but we soon found ourselves facing the strangest of circumstances. The Rivercrest Cemetery, which we had passed maybe fifteen minutes before, was looming before us once again.

“How is this possible?”

“I don’t know, Kara. Maybe there was some truth to that dream you had.”

Troy sped up the car. He was beginning to sweat, and so was I. The longer we drove down that road, the darker our surroundings grew. It should have been noon, but it looked as if the sun had already been buried by the night. And then it happened again. The cemetery came into view as we struggled to find our way out of that maze. What was happening? I hoped it was a dream, but it wasn’t.

Troy decided to turn the car around and see if we could escape Rivercrest Road. Fortunately for us, it worked. We broke free from the suffocating shadows and found our way back to the main road, but we soon found ourselves gripped by the after-effects of that experience. Troy was burning up fast. He had to park the car by the side of the road to catch his breath.

“Hon, we need to take you to a doctor.”

“No, just give me a few minutes. I think I’m still a little spooked by all that.”

We decided to wait a few minutes and catch our breaths, but Troy didn’t show any sign of feeling better. We had no choice but to turn back and see a doctor. I took the wheel and drove him to the hospital and then to our home. That night, things became stranger.

I woke up past midnight to find Troy out of bed and standing by the window. He just stood there, looking aimlessly into the night, but what caught my attention was that his body seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. For a brief moment, it was almost as if his body was nearly transparent.

“Troy, are you okay?”

He slowly turned to me with a smile. “I’m fine, hon. The meds are working faster than I expected.”

Something was off. I didn’t know what it was, but I had a weird feeling in my gut. Troy came back to bed and lay next to me. He seemed to fall asleep in minutes, but I remained there wondering what was happening. Was there something wrong with him? Was I just imagining things? I didn’t know anymore. When I did finally fall asleep, I saw Nana again.

“You need to free Troy from the spirit. My spellbook in the basement… You’ll find the answer on Page 66,” she told me. I woke up right after and found no sleep for the rest of the night.

I spent almost the entire next day walking on eggshells around Troy; I even noticed that our pet Rottweiler Sprinkles avoided him when he passed by her. Sprinkles was more attached to Troy than she was to me and always rushed to his side, but that day, she would not remain even two feet from him.

In the evening, while Troy was watching TV, I went to the basement and found Nana’s spellbook. As I was flipping through the pages, however, I felt a sudden chill behind me. I turned around to find Troy standing behind me.

“What are you doing down here?” he asked, his eyes moving to the book in my hand.

“J-just going through Nana’s things. I miss her…”

Troy smiled and nodded. “I understand.”

A few seconds of silence endured between us. My heart began to pound; I didn’t know what to say. Troy just stood there, holding my gaze without even blinking.

“W-well… I guess I’ll put these back,” I said, turning around to put the book away. However, Troy then said something that sent chills down my spine.

“But don’t you need that to perform the spell?”

I had no time to react. I tried to run, but he struck me down and kicked me to the wall. The spellbook fell from my hand as I fell face-first into the ground.

“You think you can get rid of me, do you?” Troy yelled, turning me over and kicking me in the side. I cradled my stomach and gasped for air as he continued to attack me, but soon, I heard barking. Sprinkles came to my rescue and leapt at Troy, sinking her teeth into his shoulder and taking him down. He began to hit her repeatedly, but she refused to release him from her maws.

I dragged myself to the spellbook and turned to Page 66. Fortunately for me, the spell was short; I was done reciting it in a few seconds. I backed myself against the wall as Troy struggled for the next few seconds before finally falling unconscious. It was done. I sighed with relief and tried to get back on my feet, but I soon found myself having yet another bad feeling in my gut.

Sprinkles slowly loosened her grip on Troy’s shoulder and walked around him. Something was not right. She soon stood between Troy and me, and suddenly, she began to growl. I felt a similar chill race across my body once again as Sprinkles revealed her sharp fangs.

“No…”