Bella Valore

At the time, I never realized exactly why The Valore's family were so popular, or why they acted regretful during their kindest actions. There were 3 of them, Casey, Angela, and Bella. There were the sweetest people I've ever known. Especially Bella, she was in my grade and probably one of my best friends, and being me, that's saying something. I've always had a disliking in people, especially schoolkids, and it was always hard for me to make friends, or any in general. I only had about 5 friends, including her, and Bella was my favorite.

The Valore's in general, were basically the richest people in school. They always had the newest gadgets, whatever it is, or the hottest toys, whatever it was even if it was not exactly for their age group. Bella had to be the most social of the family, every time she had a party at least 15 people were there, and all of them were her greatest friends.

That night was no different, especially when my phone rang and the caller ID showed her name, I got very excited, as she was someone I liked. I never told anyone about it, not even my best friend at the time, Hayden, but I loved Bella. She was always a beacon of hope to me, and she would always be friendly and nice to me, even if I wasn't doing the same to her. One thing that would always interest me of the Valore's is their love to travel, of course, them being rich, they could travel basically anywhere they could.

Except, it wasn't ever the trips that would interest me, no, it's not like she ever invited anyone to them. Actually, it was more of what she would bring back from these trips. The things brought back were always... strange to say the least. Artwork, old manuscripts, dolls, black magic, voodoo kits. It was fascinating to play with these, and each to see what either 'fortunes' or 'predictions' we could conjure up. It was always thrilling and we were filled with a sort of childhood feeling that accompanied these actions and thoughts.

Innocence is the reward of childhood. There are no terrors in life; there is no death, no tragedy. One day though, this will always be shattered one way or another. It is always with the same results, a feeling of inescapable fear. That's exactly how I felt with these items, innocence, but, not always. Sometimes, when we would play with items of darker origins, I would never feel... safe. Something would always be tingling at the back of my neck, and it would never seem right. I don't know why, but it was quite satisfying. It was as if I was getting adrenaline pumped through me. That's strange to me, as normally it takes a large thing to excite me; really, I've never been the most fun person to hang out with, to say the least.

That night she called me, and I gladly picked up the phone once my mom saw who it was on the caller id, like I said before. Now, once I picked it up, she explained to me that she was going to be 14 this weekend, and she wanted me to go to her sleepover that Friday night. It was all planned ahead of time, once school would end, her dad would pick me and about 3 other kids up, and we would drive to her house, where other kids would show up. This actually felt unnerving to me, and for this whole time I never understood why. Looking back, I think it was more of her voice in that call. It sounded like her normal, insane self, however, this was different. It wasn't her.

It sounded like a recording, as if it was already set up, similar to a telemarketer. It had a tone of uncaring. It might have been small, but to me, this is all I needed to get me suspicious about her for one reason or another.The party that night was boring, to say the least. It was about 2001 at the time, so there wasn't many things in the field of technology. Sure, she had a computer, but it wasn't anything like today's standards. There were games, and we were able to play with the kits that she got from those trips she had taken as fore-mentioned. Still, I was feeling strange. It was like I was being watched from afar. Then I noticed something I hadn't seen before. The house behind The Valore's was non-existent. In most scenarios like this, the people live in the remote wilderness. No, Bella and her family lived right in the middle of suburbia Grand Rapids, Michigan. The houses in this neighborhood stretched miles, so then why would the house directly behind The Valore's be the only one missing?

Then another thing was unnerving to me, the whole house just seemed too calm, and out of place. There were no messes. When I say that, you'd think of the overly strict parents who are horrified at every stain. However, this was not the case. Nothing was in sight, really. Everythign was locked up I guess I was looking alone and confused at the sight, as Bella noticed and approached me.

"Asher," She began. "are you okay? You look afraid, or confused." I wanted to respond, but as soon as I turned to look at her, I froze up. This was not Isabelle Valore. This was not the Bella we all called her. Something in her eyes said this. There is no way this was her. She looked cruel and evil, unlike the innocent and outgoing girl I had always seen. "Bella, are you okay? You don't look right yourself."Her eyes widened, she had realized I had a feeling weighing on her. A mental thought was slashed across the room right into my mind, and then it slowly dawned on my consciousness. The voodoo items. Black Magic. It all began to make sense. I opened my eyes in a horror. I began to sweat.

She looked at me, now with a look of pure malice and hatred. "Asher, what is it that you are thinking. I know it's not something I wouldn't like if you told me..." Slowly, as I looked, her eyes and her body movements looked more and more, fake. Her arm slowly moved over to a ruler on the wall, she grasped it ever so slightly. "Bella, what, are you doing?" It whacked my face, the wound instantly swelled larger and larger, making it grow larger by the second while Bella began to cruelly laugh at this. The rest of the party-goers just began to stare at her as she laughed, louder and louder by the second. Within moments, she quickly smashed a lamp on the ground.

The source of light coming from it smashed apart and began to spread across the floor. It wasn't an electrical light. Nor was it a gas light. It was a black flame. The black flame is a fire so cold that it really can't possibly exist. It does in black magic though, sometimes it is used as a form of mind control. Every person in the room jolts out the trance. They're all focusing on the suddenness and pace of the situation at hand. We needed to get out of there. The flames were spreading over the bed, slowly causing a large grey-black singe to form on it, however, every single space it touched made it multiply. It slowly spread on the bed, moving up the walls, and burning everything to a crisp. Including 2 guests. "Asher, it's done now, you've destroyed the calmness of our world."

We ran. Everyone, the sounds of burning, screaming, and destruction behind us. Every step we took made the flames come twice as close to us, Bella then stopped in place. We shouted at her to run with us. She paused before running again. As soon as we ran out of the house, it was gone. Black Flames were rampaging over the premises. Bella then spoke. "Things have to be settled. It's time for this to end, not in the way you want it." She then sprinted towards the house. She went right into the flames. The rest of us were all shocked and simply terrified at what we just witnessed. We heard splinting noises as the flames died down.

The flames had calmed for a second, before exploding in a most dazzling spectacular. From the moment it materialized, I knew it wasn't normal. It moved in the way flames never could, as if it was possessed. I never thought about it until later, but Bella had possessed it at the time. She had shed her mortal body and took a much more deadly, eerie form of a pure, black fire.Shaking, a large blast of the flames separated from the main group, aimed right at us. Everyone scrambled for safety as the flames exploded, and 3 unlucky individuals were incinerated.

It was being distracted by the fire hose of the fire department when we escaped, we all climbed the fence to the next house, and ran. The flames spread faster as we sprinted. Destroying all the houses and buildings it crossed along the way.

I never looked back. 2 other 8th graders were lost in the flames that night. I never went back, and once we got in the ambulance and it drove off, I never looked back. I never want to know anything more about the Valore's, or their secrets.

=5 years later=

=-I= t's been a while since I moved out of that town north to Grand Rapids.

I have the nightmares of the event every so often.

Therapy isn't helping too much either. It began to dawn on me a while ago, and only now have I recognized the cause of it all. The fact I couldn't make friends easily is because of the fact I have, not exactly a power, but a sense of danger and mystery. Bella always managed to hide this.

Recently, the reports have surfaced saying The Valore family was a supporter of the voodoo and dark arts. It was always something I never thought of. All my life though, I've recognized, but just never could say identify it.I think I'm going insane.

I hear the TV turning on and off while I'm out of the room, and the phone calls of nothing, along with the knocks on the doors.

There are people standing outside my new school. Kids my age, and they are always out of sight to identify them, they follow me. I never notice them until they are close enough where I can hear their footsteps.

Even so, I can hear footsteps when I'm home alone upstairs. The knocking and phone calls have gotten worse, and now I've started developing hallucinations of large black flames raging on the horizon. Coming closer and closer every time I look away and back again.Laughter rages across the house, and now it's being noticed by my parents. Object have been appearing, and I have no idea of an origin of where they're coming from. I do have an older sister, but she would never collect these types of items.

The visions get worse every night. It's caused so much stress that I've been skipping school. That doesn't help in the slightest. It only makes the anomalies worse, more repeated, more strange, more consistent.

Yesterday, I got a phone call from someone with the caller ID "Bella Valore". That's impossible though, and as I answered it I could clearly hear her voice on the other end, albeit distorted and fuzzy, she said the words clearly "I know your fears and your desires. It will not hurt. Fear the signs." There's been a string of arson murders near my neighborhood. It's not adding up. It's all ludicrous, this can't be happening, but it is. The voices and visions keep getting worse, and worse, and worse.

The black flames are slowly creeping up the walls. I can't be sane anymore.

The phone just rang again, Bella's calling. I shouldn't answer, I won't answer. I will though, and it is not something I can avoid, this time at least.