Group : Treatment Task

It is raining. It is dusk. An old abandoned house stands alone in an overgrown field next to some dark woodland. Some of the windows have been smashed out and the timber used to build it is rotting away, rain penetrates in places.

            An old path through the still, quiet, woods. The rain patters off the canopy overhead, it is autumn and the ground is littered with sodden, rotting, browning leaves. The silence is disturbed by the sound of footsteps, two friends dressed in black walk into view down the old muddy path through the woods. One carries a heavy looking rucksack. They do not speak.

            They arrive at the house, it looks foreboding. They stand outside; take a deep breath, the door swings open. They enter into the dusty gloom. The sound of the rain continues when they are on the inside. The door shuts behind them. All is black for a second before one of the boys lights a small lantern. The room is eerily illuminated. There are a number of work tools around the room: shovels, axes, saws etc. They move towards a dusty staircase, the floorboards creak as they ascend to the second floor. They kneel next to the only window on this floor. The room smells of damp and mildew. One boy turns to the other and ominously says “Shall we begin?” In reply the other boy begins to remove objects from his bag: five candles, duct tape, some matches, an old tome, a curved blade and an animal bone. He begins to draw a pentangle on the floor using the tape. He places a candle at each point and the animal bone goes in the middle.

            One of the boys lights the candles one by one whilst the other opens the book. They begin to sway and chant in Latin. The boy who lit the candles draws the knife and slashes across the palm of his hand. He then squeezes the blood on top of the animal bone. As he does so objects in the room (most notably the bone) begin to move. A knocking can be heard from under the floorboards, keeping with the rhythm of the chanting. The tempo increases and the objects in the room begin to move faster. When the chanting reaches its peak an entity flashes in and out of existence at different points in the room. It is a young, pale, blonde female. Eventually she appears in the middle of the circle arms raised high. The chanting continues her face is deathly and ill looking. She has blacked out eyes. She slams her hands down and with a woosh all the candles blow out and the cheating and knocking ceases.

            All is still for a second then once again the lantern is lit. The boys’ cold pale faces are illuminated. They say nothing. They collect their things, get up and leave the building. As they walk away the girl watches them from the window.