Baby's New Buddy

Over thirty years ago, fifteen-year-old Ella "Baby" Parker disappeared whilst attending St. Edwards Academy, a prestigious boarding school for girls.

Nobody had a clue what had happened to her, except her two best friends, Karen Kirkpatrick, and Melissa "Missy" Jennings.

Whilst playing witches in the boiler room, the trio accidentally summoned an otherworldly evil which possessed Baby, and took her; at least that was the best way the girls could comprehend the night's events.

Both girls suffered from bouts of horrific night terrors, all involving that tragic night's events.

Missy pulled a more mundane disappearing trick after high school, jumping the first plane to anywhere in a futile attempt to escape herself.

On the other hand, Karen fell in love with a handsome handyman named Steve, and settled down with him in Central West-Haven.

A few months before their firstborn's birth, tragedy knocked at Karen's door once more; Steve passed away suddenly due to a heart attack, leaving her all alone to raise their child.

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Karen ran towards her daughter, Audrey, who'd just awoken as an adult for the first time, and caught her in a tight embrace.

"Happy birthday, sweetie!"

"Thanks mom."

"I've got a big surprise for you! Your little friend, Emmy's, coming around later and we're going to have a big party?"

Karen unwrapped her arms from around her daughter and sat back down at the dining room table.

"Ooh, so what time do we expect the clown and the jumping castle to arrive?"

"I see you've gotten funnier as you've aged."

"There's gotta be an upside to this maturity thing, right?"

►⁂◄

"That's a fancy looking bottle of tequila, Emmy. What's it called?"

Emmy, who'd already had a few drinks before she arrived, squinted to read the label.

"Uh, Vela-Negra. Oh I know what them words mean, it's eh-spaniel for Black Candle."

The tipsy teen stumbled out of the kitchen, and joined her friend, Audrey, in the dining room.

A wind blew in from nowhere, surrounding Karen, and freezing her worse than a Siberian nudist in a blizzard!

Something was wrong; she stopped cutting the Brie, and fearfully ran into the dining room where she saw Emmy salting the rim of a glass, while her daughter looked over the bottle's label.

When she looked down, she spotted it.

Clutched in her hand was the cheese-knife from the kitchen, just like the makeshift athame all those years ago.

Emmy was making odd salt sigils on the table just as Missy did on the boiler room floor; along with the two white tapered candles lit on the table, Audrey held the "black candle", just as the possessed Baby had lit before she disappeared.

Before she could do anything, a great mystical fire sprang from out the bottle and completely coated Audrey, before receding to reveal that she was missing.

Karen manically slashed at her bare skin with the blunt cheese-knife.

►⁂◄

Emmy ran home and called the police, although neither Karen nor Audrey were ever found.