She Is The One

This week it's X meets Y - again.  Chuck has us picking from two lists and we're in for fun and games... something I love about this is that we've done this before.  

This time, I picked out Paranormal Activity and The Matrix.

Enjoy!

She’s not sure if it was the fact the place hadn’t been rented out for months on end, or that the owners were on the verge of going crazy and being broke due to the weird stories their previous tenants spun about the place scaring the crap out of them.  But she knew for sure she had found a place to call home the moment she walked through the door. It was a lovely, warm, charming place. The colours were just right. The feel was perfect. She just knew she’d fit in well here in this place.

And she’d be perfect company for that snide-looking person on the stairs who was giving her a foul look.

“What are you looking at?” Brett, her real estate agent, asked.

She blinked and the person vanished as she turned and smiled at him, “Oh, nothing, I just wondered what the rooms upstairs looked liked.”

He grinned, “Sure! We’ll start there!” he led the way, moving in front of her, up the stairs. However, on the forth step, he stopped short and shuddered, moving slightly to the left and then proceeded slowly onward. Turning at the top of the stairs, she noticed sweat pouring off him.

“You okay?”

Pulling out his handkerchief, he nodded, “Yeah, I forgot about – um – my blood pressure pills this morning.”

Glancing down the stairs, she saw the person again. They had turned around and had a mischievous on their face, “I have a feeling that wasn’t your blood pressure playing up.”

He looked at his leg, “My leg is cold… I’ve been to my doctors, and they say it’s my blood pressure.”

Before long, Lydia had moved in and found the place was starting to look good.  The back yard had begun to look nice as she attacked it with vigor – turning the weeds into a lush lawn – and then she found she had a few things that began to bother her a little.

But then, she did know she had a spiritual resident… she just hoped they didn’t mind little old her living with them.

Lydia wasn’t going to hurt them.

She just hoped they could live in the same place together.

By the time Lydia was locked out of her house twice for no reason, she knew something was up. Fortunately she always carried a spare key on her at all times in case she did get locked out of any place she did live in by accident (it saved money on calling a locksmith; time on calling in on the real estate agent).

Well, Lydia let herself in as a vortex of wind was going through the place. As she slammed the door, it stopped. All the papers, glassware, her vinlys, dvds and other bits hung in the air for a moment before she raised her hands, “Gently now, go back home.” Lowering her hands, every piece was either placed back on shelves and into the china cabinets and stored away properly, or placed into their respective collections. The newspaper folded itself back up and slotted itself next to the television; ready to be tossed out with the recycling.

Looking around, Lydia could feel this spirit’s anger rising as the window panes shook – threatening to shatter – and the screen doors bashed and slammed open and shut as a temper tantrum raged within their tortured soul, “Okay, are you finished? Because I’m sure if we sit down and talk this out, we can live together in this place… I’ve done it before.”

The young woman fickered into view in front of Lydia; her face filled with rage, with an unspoken need to harm her. Lunging towards her, she raised her hands to throw the young blonde against the wall behind her with enough force to kill her.

Lydia felt her force move toward her and raised her hands up just as it reached her, protecting herself, as it visibly bounced off the shield she had put up, “I see I have to be a bitch about this.” She didn’t know what Lydia meant, and hesitated as she stepped toward her, “Do not fear me child, for I am the one you have been avoiding.” She felt her powers well within her as she raised her right hand.

As her ring began to glow white hot on her finger…

…as she realised she was The One…

“Relax, I will take away your fears.  I will take away your worries and you have a choice to make.” Lydia recited from the script she knew too well, “You can stay here and be peaceful, not worrying anyone. Or you can come with me and I can show you the way across The Valley of Death.”

It was now Lydia heard her voice.  She was a young woman trapped within an old soul, “No! Please don’t make me stay!”

“As you wish.” The room filled with a brilliant white light as she closed her eyes against it for a moment. As it dulled and her living room turned back into what it was before. Sighing, she picked up her mobile, dialed the number for her real estate agent, “Brett, it’s Lydia from that place you got the heebies from – you told me it was haunted and nobody will live here, remember?”

“Oh, yeah… how are you sleeping at night?” he laughed.

“Better now I got rid of the ghost.”

He paused, “You’re kidding… there was a real haunting?”

“Yeah… she was terrified, but we had a chat and she left.”

“Um… left?”

“Yeah.” she sat slowly into my lounge, “But she was a real bitch man… I had to be rough with her.  She was really destructive… fortunately, I put her in her place and showed her who the boss was before she left.”

“What can I say?” his voice sounded hesitant, “Thank you?”

Brett hung up his phone at the real estate agents and sat back in his chair.  He looked at his lunch from Young Chinese Takeaway Restaurant next door, and just didn’t feel like eating it anymore; instead, he stared at his computer and wondered if what he had done was right – setting up Lydia in a place deemed impossible to rent due to its history.

“Hey, Brett, you okay?” Ronda’s cut into his deep thought.

“Yeah… that Lydia Wilson chick just got back to me.” He said, “You know the one you recommended for the haunted place out on Renwick Avenue.”

“Oh yeah, how’d she go?” she asked pulling her chair around and grabbing his uneaten lunch, “May I?”

“Yeah, go for it – my lunch is your lunch.” He dragged it over to her side of his desk, “Well, she got rid of the spiritual problem in that place.”

She paused between bits of spring rolls, “Well, I did say she was the one to get it done, right?”

Rubbing his fingertips over his forehead, he groaned, “Yeah, I thought you were kidding.”

“No… she’s the One… you know… The One.”

“For one for what?” he asked.

“For everything.” She smiled, “She can control everything… like Luke Skywalker in ‘Star Wars’… well, she’s The One like in ‘The Matrix’.” Ronda took a mouthful of food and thought about what she said, swallowed and rephrased, “Not exactly like those movies; but she’s one gifted bitch.”

Lydia’s eyes snapped open.

Somebody was in the house.

She didn’t need to turn on a single light to know where they had gotten into, where they were now and what they were after.

All she had to do was wait and they’d move upstairs to where she knew they’d look for it.

What is it?

Well, the ring of course.

Looking to her bedside table, she could hear it calling to her from the top drawer, so she pulled it open and put it on as she heard them come up the stairs.

The air filled with aftershave and sweat…

“Hello Brett.”

The person stopped moving, “How do you know it was me?”

“I’m gifted in more ways than one.” She said getting out of her bed and grabbing her dressing gown from the glory box at the end of the bed without stumbling in the dark, “That’s the thing about having a gift like mine… you know too damned much.”

“Like what?” he asked.

“Like… you’re not going to get to your gun fast enough and you’re not going to kill me for my power.” She smiled in the dark.

His hesitance told her she was right that he came armed, “Well, if I had your power, I’d be able to get rid of the other ghosts from other houses we’re trying to rent and sell.”

“Killing me will do nothing but send you to prison.” She said looking at his tall, dark form in the doorway. Then, she saw something she hadn’t seen often in life: a number glowing on his forehead, “Oh dammit.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” She said walking toward him, “You will feel nothing as you walk through the Valley. Do no fear me, child, for I am the one to walk you through to the other side.” She raised her hand and touched his forehead with her fingertips gently.

As his body collapsed to the floor, she heard a voice behind her, “What the fuckin’ hell is going on here!”

Turning, she quickly grabbed his arm, “You died, Brett. You had a number on your forehead that only I could see because I am The One. I can’t change that and I had to take you. It’s my job.”

Wrestling to pull from her grip, tears blurred his vision as he looked down and saw her ring, “Oh my God… you’re the Horseman… you’re the One.”

She had heard this before hundreds – millions – of times; and she felt nothing when she did, “Brett it’s time to go. I must lead you to your guide through the Valley of Death.” As she touched his arm, he disappeared from sight and his anguish, sorrow, sadness and fear went with him.

She hated being The One.