Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26169026-20150304202536

Jenny was young, but she wasn't like other teenagers she knew. She preferred to associate with the elderly instead of anyone her own age. That's not to say that she didn't have friends or anything, but they just didn't seem to hold her interest for very long. Because of this, her lifelong ambition had been to work with the elderly.

Jenny decided an old folks home would have potential, but she didn't much like it as much as she thought she would. Changing bed pans and sheets and cleaning up shit and piss wasn't exactly all it was cracked up to be. She was growing tired of her job. The older people were grating on her. Her friends weren't helping. She was becoming depressed and she was sinking further into that depression.

Not until the day that Martha moved in.

Martha's family couldn't take care of her. They wouldn't take care of her. They put her in the home because they were afraid of her. This is what drew Jenny to caring for Martha. All of the other workers were afraid of her, too, so they didn't mind letting Jenny become her fulltime caretaker. This only bothered Jenny slightly, because she did care for the crazy old woman.

"Martha, how old are you?"

"Oh, dearie.  A woman never reveals her age."

"But Martha..."

Martha cut her off with a wave of her hand.

"Why doesn't your family want you around?" Jenny was truly curious.

Martha didn't bat an eye, saying, "Oh, I'm not too sure.  I'm not scary at all, am I?"

Martha seemed like a godsend. She really helped pull Jenny out of her slump. She didn't even mind cleaning the woman up every night after she had pissed herself because she couldn't get up fast enough. Jenny didn't even want her in adult diapers; she was worried that Martha would get some kind of infection.

The days grew long, and even though Jenny loved Martha dearly, this did cut into her "alone time". She made an arrangement with one of the other girls to take on Martha's care on Sundays so that she could have some time to herself.

The arrangement was perfect for months until the day that the other girl called Jenny screaming about the demon she saw in Martha.

"Angela, what do you mean a demon?" asked Jenny. Jenny could hear banging coming from the background. Scratching.

"Angela, what's all that noise?"

"JENNY, GET HERE NOW-" Angela was cut off.

"Ang, Ang, are you there?!" Jenny stared at the phone in confusion until her brain kicked in telling her to move.

She called the home but only got a busy signal.

The walk back should have been peaceful. The sky was a radiant shade of blue with hardly any clouds. The sun was shining, the birds were even singing, but she couldn't stop... she had to get back to the home as fast as she could. What she would do when she got there, she had no idea.

The pavement was getting hot under her feet. The farther she ran, the hotter her feet got. She noticed that she had broken out into a pouring sweat. She brushed sweat out of her eyes, but didn't think much of it. The heat under her feet, though, she couldn't ignore.

She looked around for somewhere to sit besides the pavement... her eyes settled for the grass. The grass was beautiful. It was freshly mown, a deep shade of green she had never seen before. That thought hadn't crossed her mind, though. She just sat down, thinking to check her shoes. Maybe the soles were loose or something. Looking at her shoes, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"I don't get it." She said, aloud. She moved on her hands and knees over to the pavement, brushed her fingertips over the top. She pulled back instantly. It was scorching. Her fingers were already blistering.

"What the hell is going on here?" She had the sinking feeling that something was trying to keep her from getting to the home. She was desperately afraid for Angela. She was desperately afraid for Martha and the other elderly. What could be going on?

The blisters on her fingers were throbbing. She looked down at them. "Oh my God!" She screamed. She could see that the blisters weren't just blisters anymore but the burns were so deep she could see her bones.

"Oh God, what am I going to do?!" She crawled back toward the middle of the grass patch. She wanted to be far away from that road. Anything to get away from that heat. She hardly noticed the grass slowly sinking with each forward motion that she made.

Suddenly, the grass dropped out from under her.

She screamed as she fell.

The fall couldn't have been more than twenty feet but to her it felt like an eternity.

She couldn't see anything. The hole she was in was pitch black. She had never been so frightened in her life. Luckily, she landed on something soft.

Cradling her burnt fingers to her chest, she pulled her phone from her pocket, turned on the flashlight application but the flash seemed to be broken. She tried using the screen to emit some light around her, but it didn't help much. She couldn't even tell what she had landed on.

Setting her phone in her lap, she ran her good hand on the stuff she had landed on. It felt soft, like velvet but it was slippery, like it was wet.

She picked her phone back up, dropping it in the process. The screen cracked.

Wincing, in pain, she said, "Great, just what I need right now."

On her knees, she felt in front of her to make sure she wasn't going to be falling off of anything. In front of her, it seemed okay to proceed. To be safe, she crawled on her knees. This went on for what felt like a millenium. It really only took five minutes before the place she was in started to fill with light.

This gave her hope, but she was still scared. After a moment, she thought to check her phone again, this time noticing it had no bars.

"Where am I??" she wondered. "What the hell am I supposed to do without any reception?"

She realized she was talking to herself, hoping for answers from the darkness.

The hope that had started in her chest no longer felt as good. Her chest hurt.

{Scratch, scratch scratch}

"What the fuck was that?" She then heard giggling. Giggling that turned to maniacal laughter.

She stopped. "Wh-- what's... where am I, what's going on?"

She felt wind on her neck, causing the hairs to stand up. She shivered, not knowing what to do next.

"Oh, Jennnnnnyyyyy," she heard. I... I know that voice, she thought. Maybe Angela ... maybe Angela was right.

"Oh Jennnnyyyyyyy, just wait and see what I have in store for you." Out stepped Martha, her nightgown covered in blood. Blood dripped from her mouth and hands. "Just you wait and see."

Jenny passed out.

She was awoken when her body slammed against a wall. She felt several of her ribs crack. She screamed out in agony. The flesh on her fingers that she had burned earlier was getting worse. It was beginning to give off a pungent smell. Pain was searing from the fingertips up through her arm.

"Jenny, you didn't have to take care of me.  My family was right to be afraid."

SLAM.

Jenny was thrown to the other wall... Martha was on the other side of the room. All of this was happening without anyone touching her. Martha must really be some kind of demon, she thought, dismissively.

"Let me explain.  I am not really a little old woman.  Martha died long ago.  The gates of hell were opened, I was let free."

"Wh-- who are you really?" Jenny gurgled, blood was seeping from the corners of her mouth.

"Tsk. Tsk.  We can't have you dying on me already.  Stop that bleeding."

The woman that was once Martha, waved a hand in Jenny's direction.

Jenny felt the blood in her mouth recede, causing her to retch. Coughing blood onto the floor. She felt slightly better.

"I don't have a name.  Nothing you would understand anyway.  You silly humans and your silly languages.  Just call me Open if you have to call me anything.  You could still call me Martha.  I still look like Martha anyway, don't I?"

Jenny shook her head. "No, you don't look like," Jenny winced. "You don't look like Martha anymore.  What do you want from me?"

The pain in Jenny's arm seemed to be fading but her fingers were still searing. She realized she was putting her weight on her hand. She shifted ever so slightly over to relieve some of the pressure.

"Well, I wanted to kill you.  You were too close to Martha.  But now I mostly just want you to heal."

"Wh--what?" This made no sense.

"Yes.  I want you to heal.  I need you strong.  I need you."

Martha pointed a listless finger in Jenny's direction. Jenny's wounds healed almost immediately.

Jenny passed out again.

-

Jenny smiled. She felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She felt like a new woman. She looked down at herself in the bright sunshine, checking all the wounded places. Everything was in order.

She looked down in the hole, seeing Martha's lifeless body. She smiled to herself while waving a hand over the hole. She watched the grass materialize as if nothing had happened there.

"It's time," she thought.

In the back of her mind, she could hear a voice screaming to be let free. "Give me my life back!!!"

Jenny just smiled. She had things to do. 