“Get out!” Screamed the voice of Evermore with a deep guttural thunder.

            A shiver crawled over my entire body, as I stood frozen like a statue.  After a few moments of silence, I remembered that I had a flashlight near the sink.  Since this wasn’t the first time the house’s power shut down surprising me, I had put a few flashlights in different rooms so I was prepared in future.  I grabbed the flashlight and felt my way into the living room.

            “Seamus.” I said in a loud whisper.

            “I’m fine, Daniel.” He said faintly.

            I shone the light on him, and noticed his eyes were closed as if asleep.  “Is Angela upstairs?”

            No response.  Then I thought to myself, of course she’s upstairs where else would she be.  She’s probably in Evermore’s room.  I hesitantly, walked towards the staircase leading upstairs following the path of light from my flashlight.  An icy chill just passed through me as though I had entered an ice storm the closer I got to the stairs leaving my arms covered with goosebumps.  There were more banging sounds coming from upstairs, as if things were being thrown around.  All the while, I could hear a screaming chant from Angela.  It was in a language I didn’t understand.  I held onto the railing with my right hand and hesitantly ascended the staircase with my left hand holding the flashlight pointing to the stairs ahead of me.  I didn’t want to climb the stairs but something was making me walk up each step. Up and up my legs took me disregarding the fear filling my mind.  Having reached the second floor, I turned and walked down the hall towards the shut door from where I heard screams.  The hall was dark but a red light glowed around the edges of the door.  Without wanting to, my hand reached out to grab the doorknob and turn it.  With the door open, in front of me was a dark room aglow in red light.  I could see a tall figure holding Angela against a wall.  Evermore attempted to strangle her, as I stood there helpless, unable to move any further into the room.  Angela, though now struggling to complete her chant, kept speaking.  Evermore seemed to be loosening his grasp on her neck all the while shrinking before me. 

Angela’s eyes stared at me and she shouted while gasping, “Daniel, don’t come in here!  Go downstairs with Seamus!”

            I tried to turn around to descend the stairs, but felt frozen at the room entrance.  My legs wouldn’t move me.  Evermore must be trying to control me, and he was winning.  I opened my mouth, but I had no voice.  Suddenly I had control of my legs back.  I turned and ran towards the stairs.

            “Daniel, come downstairs.” My grandfather was calling me.  I flashed my light at the bottom of the stairs, and saw him sitting in his wheelchair.  “You can do it.  Just listen to my voice, Daniel, and come to me.  Fight the hold it has over you.  I know you can.”  He started coughing, then caught his breath again.  “Follow my voice down the stairs.  Evermore cannot hold you anymore.  You need to leave the house.”

            Somehow, my legs were taking me down one step at a time to my grandfather.  I felt the ice melting from my bones.  The closer I got to him, the warmer I felt. 

            “That’s right, Daniel.” My grandfather coached me.  “Now keep walking ahead to the front door and back to your car.  This will all be over soon.”

I didn’t want to leave the house without my grandfather, but somehow he was forcing me to leave.  After me, I heard Angela’s voice call.  “Keep going.  Out now, Daniel.”  Angela was running behind me pushing me forward.  I could feel a strong heat overtaking the house I was leaving.  She gently pushed me through the door, and shut it behind her.  “Daniel, you will be free now.” 

            The word “free” brought me fully awake and in control of my body again.  The plan came rushing back to me as the house went up in flames behind us.  I looked at Angela, and she hooked her arm in mine and brought me to the car.

            “But, my grandfather.”  I didn’t want to leave.

            “This is Seamus’s gift to you, Daniel.  You are now free from the evil of this house.  He wanted to give you and Kate a life free of its control.”  She held my hand, and I remembered my grandfather’s words to me.  Tears welled in my eyes watching the house burn in front of us.  The flames reaching to the skies were so hot we had to get further back and into the car.  We watched together from there as the house crumbled to ashes before our eyes.  I had never seen anything burn so quickly before, disintegrating before my eyes as if it were made of cardboard. 

            “And Evermore?”

            “Is gone forever, Daniel.” Angela sighed with tears in her eyes too.

            I heard sirens coming in our direction.  Firemen jumped out of their trucks and started hosing the fire down, but they couldn’t stop it.  This fire was part of the supernatural world and thus could not be stopped by this world.  Neighbours gathered around in shock watching the house burn to ashes before their eyes.  Even the weeds of the lawn shrivelled and disappeared into the ground, yet nothing outside of the evil perimeter of this house and its yard was harmed.  The fire was contained within those limits, and then it burned down to smoke and ashes without spreading anywhere else.  The firemen looked upon this in astonishment. 

            One of the firemen walked over to me and Angela in our car.  “Do you know how this fire started?”

            Angela spoke up, “I left the stove on, and forgot I had an empty pot with oil heating up.  I just forgot.”

            “Did anyone get trapped inside?”  The fireman asked.

            Yes, Evermore and my grandfather but my reply ignored these facts. “No.  We’re safe.  Luckily.  Thank you.”

            Angela turned to me and said. “Seamus  added a letter to his will to take care of this land so that nothing ever be built on it again.  It is to remain abandoned and empty.  Also, you are released of any obligations to it as dictated in his will.  He claimed all responsibility for it and pronounced it uninhabitable land.  In short, he didn’t want any complication to be left for you.  He also left his existing house in Lunenberg and his money to you, his only remaining heir, Daniel.”

            “Where is the journal?” I asked her.

            “Amongst the ashes.  All things from within that house originally had to be burned with it to abolish all of its evil.  You didn’t take anything from its original contents did you?”

            “No.  I wanted the desk, but never had a chance to ask my grandfather about that.”  I was also hoping I could keep my great great grandmother’s journal, but that was not to be.  In my future book about the house I would have to draw upon my memory from the journal as well as the research I had gathered about it’s past.

            “That’s good.” Angela replied with a sigh.

            I drove Angela back to Alex and Vanya’s house to see Kate.  I needed to see for myself that she was okay and that Evermore had left her untouched. 

            Before I knew it, I was sitting on the couch holding Kate in my arms.  “We’re okay now.  We’re safe from Evermore and the house thanks to my grandfather and Angela.”  I could feel her shoulders relax and  she held me tight.  “I need to drive Angela back to Lunenberg tonight, and thought you’d want to come.”