Charlie Charlie
Challenge
Leave the demons where they lie
I was bored, it was only three
o'clock and the day had ticked by slowly since I arrived at work that morning.
The student workers returned from lunch and sat around my desk. My brother and
two of his friends were there as they were working for the summer.
I was searching through social
media looking for interesting things to read to them when I came across the
trend #charliecharliechallenge. I was intrigued so I read on. It turned out
there was a challenge where teenagers were trying to summon a demon with
pencils and a chant.
I watched a video on YouTube of
people doing it. They said, "Charlie, Charlie are you here, Charlie,
Charlie can we play?" and the pencil turned to yes. They all ran out of
the room. On another poorly filmed video the same thing happened and everyone
freaked out so the camera went all over the place. It was video after video of
the pencil turning so of course it had to be true.
I laughed and read it to James, DJ,
and Paul.
"There's this thing on the
internet, it's trending right now and there are tons of videos. People are
running out of the room when the pencil turns. It has to be some kind of trick
right?"
"I don't know," Paul
said, "we'll try it tonight."
"I'll try it right now, let's
look up instructions." I felt like it would be a fun thing to do. It was
bright in the office, sure it would be spooky if it turned, but it wasn't
really something I thought was going to work.
"This is dumb." Saying it
out loud made it even more apparent that what I was doing was stupid, and it
probably wouldn't work. Of course, there's always that slight little inkling
that something might happen, that something could happen.
I drew the cross on a piece of
paper and wrote yes on two sides and no on two sides. If it turned to yes then
he was in the room and you could ask him questions that he would give you the
answer too.
A source said to “use his demonic
life experience to find out answers.” Alrighty then.
I put the two pencils on the paper
and waited. I wanted to see if it would turn on its own. Nothing happened and I
looked at the pictures to make sure it didn't need to be balanced. The pencil
turned in each without being balanced. Nothing happened, so through some
giggles I said the line. "Charlie, Charlie are you here?" I waited.
Nothing happened, but we all stared
intently waiting for it to do something. My brother kicked the desk and the
pencil still didn't move.
"Man, that's
disappointing," I said as I repeated the phrase. Nothing happened with the
pencil, it didn’t even twitch.
I’m no dummy though. I still read
the words to close the portal just in case. The student center was haunted and
it wasn’t a good idea to take any chances.
“Charlie, Charlie can we stop.”
I threw the paper away and put the
pencils back in the cup on my desk. I was actually bummed it hadn’t done
anything in front of us. I should have been pleased, but I was bummed.
I went about my day as if nothing
had happened, because in my mind nothing had. I ran and went home to eat
dinner. Got ready for bed and climbed in under the covers to read. I hadn’t
gotten very far, when I suddenly felt very cold. Sleep overtook me and I snuggled under the
covers with my puppy.
When I awoke I saw that the puppy
was gone and all the covers had been thrown off.
I saw her standing at the foot of
my bed as I came out of my sleep thinking I was still dreaming. Her face was
covered in blood and she smiled wide with yellow teeth. Her head tilted
sideways as she studied me.
“You’ll do nicely.” Her voice was
gravely like she had inhaled dirt and was talking through it. I scrambled from
under the covers and up against my head board.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Charlie’s forever.” She
climbed on the bed the stench rolling off of her choking me as her black eyes
stared into mine.
“Charlie?” I didn’t understand. It
didn’t make any sense who she was or what she wanted.
She crawled towards me slowly as I
cowered at the corner of my bed. I was frozen by fear the thought of wishing
her away was all I could think of. I closed my eyes and told myself it wasn’t
real. My eyes didn’t open until I felt
her touch me. It burned like my arm was on fire. She had slid backwards so her
back was to me, I could see her faded tattoo Charlie across her back in fading
black letters. My legs and arms were stretched out beside me, I had no choice.
The strength she possessed as a tiny spirit was that of ten grown men. She was
going to break me, I knew it would hurt. Her hand reached through my body and
her arm disappeared into mine. Searing pain as the bones in my arm fought to
keep her out.
I fought really hard. She laughed
as piece by piece she inserted herself into me like some demonic puzzle fitting
each limb, a shoulder, and finally a head in its place. When the disgusting
rotten head leaned back to fit the final piece it hurt the worst. I felt her in
my brain behind my eyes and my thoughts mixed with hers. Charlie hacking into
her head with an ax outside the very building I had chosen to play some stupid
childish game. Charlie entering DJ the same way she had entered me, because I
had called them from the grave and they were going to walk the Earth again
inside of our bodies.
She remains inside me and I have
become her prisoner. The pain hasn’t gone away, as she sears through me like
she is burning, and it’s a torturous existence. I think I know what hell must
feel like. I want to die.
The End
