Joan had just moved back to her hometown. She moved a few years ago when her grandmother died because her grandmother was her guardian since her parents died. She remembered the old house well, but only came back because she had just found that she had inherited the house. Since her grandma died, she had lived in a tiny uncomfortable apartment but couldn’t wait to live in the giant eighteenth century house.
When she got there, the memories flooded back. The smell of warm cookies, grandma knitting sweaters, telling stories by the fire. A tear tell from her eye. She missed her very much. The only thing strange about grandma was that she would never let Joan outside. She said it was too dangerous. So Joan would always stay inside and never got to go outside. She never saw the backyard, so she decided now that she was an adult it was safe to explore.
In the middle of the back yard, there was a very old-looking well. It looked MUCH older than the house, which was over a century old. She looked down into the dark well, but couldn’t see to the bottom. She pulled up the bucket but it was filled with vile black liquid with a terrible smell. She reeled in disgust. She dropped the bucket back in and went back inside. She forgot all about the well after she went back in the house.
She started looking through the journals grandma never let her look at. Joan’s grandmother was an avid journalist. She found much about everyday life, but there was also a very old leather journal. She blew off the dust and opened it. It had many jagged scribbles in which her grandmother wrote about an evil creature that haunted her every night. It was full of how the creature always wanted to kill Joan but it was only stopped by her grandmothers sacrifices. Joan was terrified and wondered what this “sacrifice” was.
That night, still thinking about the journal, she heard a sound. A sound that sparked a terrible memory. A memory long forgotten from her childhood. A nightmare she had that was too horrible to be a dream where a monster broke into her bedroom, got very close to her face, and mouthed ‘soon’. This happened many years ago but she remembered when she told her grandmother, grandma opened her eyes in fear and kept whispering, “Just a bad dream dear,” but looked very fearful for her granddaughter.
She now realized this must have been because of the monster she mentioned in her journal. She heard the sound again. This time it sounded like it was in her bedroom. She hid under the covers. after she did, she heard rasping breath. Something sat on her bed and whispered in her ear, “Your grandmother would sacrifice a drop of her blood every day to protect you. But now that she’s gone, you’re all mine.”
