Nightmares Vs Magic

The next request was from a person who claimed they were being held hostage inside a small apartment building, along with a couple other tenants. 

This was one of the reasons why I wanted to go with the twins, because I saw one of the case files on Laurence's computer, requiring the person to investigate an apartment building. Recently, I started searching for some affordable apartments myself and wanted to take a look around, as I had never lived in an apartment before. With the way the units were structured, they always reminded me of hotels but designed for permanent residence. 

Some motels or hotels, such as the Inn that I currently reside at for example, do offer contracts for guests to stay permanently or for extended stays, but it's just not something I prefer. Which makes me feel bad because Joel and Anne have been treating me so nicely that I feel both guilty for staying there and for wanting to leave. 

It was the twins' first-time riding in a topless car. Jalal took out his phone and snapped a selfie of him and everyone, stretching his arm up and out for a fun angle. He technically didn't stick it out the window, so Dove couldn't reprimand him. She did scold Malicka for sitting up on the edge above the car seats, practically on the hood. 

"You could get hurt if you sit like that. I can't promise you won't go flying if I suddenly stop." She told her. 

Malicka only brushed it off, telling her not to worry. Jalal didn't even seem the least bit concerned and actually joked. 

"I could just tie some string to her, and then we can use the car to fly her like a kite!" 

So that's where Annabelle got the idea from about 'flying a kite' with my car.

They drove to the apartment building that was also in the downtown area, but it could be categorized as one of the nicer buildings. It had no gates or anything, only some parking areas for the tenants' vehicles, stairs on the sides of the building for the fire escape safety regulations, and a lobby with glass doors. Malicka told Dove and her brother to go on ahead, and she'd first find a free parking spot for the car. Dove gave her the keys, and they went to the front of the building.

To their luck, the property manager was also standing out the front doors of the building, having also gotten a call from the trapped tenants inside. He stood with one hand in his pocket, the other on his phone as he paced in a small circle. A middle-aged man who was concerned with both the tenants and what was suddenly happening to the building he was in charge of.

Jalal asked what him what knew so far, and the confused man could only answer that he suddenly got multiple calls from multiple tenants, each one complaining about the building suddenly becoming haunted by ghosts, and a madman keeping all of them trapped. 

Dove attempted to get more information and find a way inside the building, and it was then that she began to learn of the unconventional methods that the twins enjoyed using. 

The property manager showed that the doors to the lobby were locked from the inside, along with the backdoor fire exit. He knows that it couldn't have been any of the tenants because only the security guard has the key, and the doors have scanners to scan the keycards of the tenants, preventing any outsiders from entering. 

Jalal asked if the lowest windows that lead inside had any bars or screens. He shook his head. Jalal then asked if he still had contact with any of the tenants. 

"For some reason, whatever the madman or whatever is happening to the building, it started from the top and began going down. I couldn't call any of my tenants on the tenth floor when this started, but I could at first with the ninth and eighth, until recently where I tried again and they just wouldn't pick up."

"So, the ones of the first or second floor, you can call?"

The property manager nodded.

Jalal then clapped his hands together and asked one of the tenants on the second floor to open their, because he and Dove would be climbing inside. 

The man was rightfully confused; Dove's eyes were wide open with surprise. 

Jalal nudged him to make the call, looked up to see which window was opened, and proceeded to drag Dove along as he began climbing the building up to that window.

How? You may ask? Well, Jalal has these gloves, custom-made by the alchemy lab, that apparently let's him climb up with ease. Did he elaborate on how they work? No. Did he apparently bring a pair for me to use, made me put them on, and made sure I followed him up the building? YES.

If I didn't care so much about my life, I would've been fearing for it. But I couldn't let my death be something that someone could blame themselves for, in this case, Jalal, who, while he's so far, a mystery besides his mischief to me, he's alright and doesn't deserve that. 

Jalal did keep an eye on her every so often as they climbed the building, the landlord down below looking for very shocked and concerned because two young adults were climbing up his building, and forget the possible lawsuits, imagine the injuries they could sustain if they fell?

The tenant who had their window open did not expect two people to actually arrive through her window. She thought perhaps the message her landlord sent was a delusion and she needed fresh air. 

Jalal and Dove greeted her politely, explained the situation, and simply asked where the door out of her apartment was. 

She was wary of them especially after looking out the window and not seeing any ladder or safe climbing gear. But they did repeatedly say that they just needed a way inside and would be out of her apartment if she showed them where the door was. 

That was when they say the first nightmare of the building. Right when the woman turned around after seeing the landlord waving to her from the parking lot and was about to turn around and say something to them, before screaming. 

Dove took out her baton as she whipped her head to where the woman was looking. 

A grey woman with long, greasy hair, a stitched mouth, swaying back and forth as she crept out from behind the kitchen counter. 

Jalal lunged forward and made quick work of her before Dove could even think up a plan. 

Claws came out of his gloves; he swiped at her and her wails faded along with the black fog of her body. 

"Damn, we got here just in time." Jalal said, retracting the claws inside his gloves. 

Dove watched in surprise and then turned to check on the woman, who was now curled up on the floor near the wall, trembling. 

Jalal turned around to check on her as well. 

"Who are you people? Who was that woman?" She asked in a shaky voice. 

"It's a long story, and we can't explain much because we have to hurry. You just stay inside your apartment, and I promise you'll be safe." Jalal told her, before pulling out a vial from one of his pockets. 

It looked like the Belladonna perfume, but it had a different hue. 

He gently sprayed a mist in her face. The woman's face contorted, blinking rapidly, then becoming drowsy and swaying. He gently caught her as her eyes shut, and he laid her down on her sofa.

"New mixture if you're wondering. Makes it easier for people to forget the issue if they think it was a dream."

Jalal then pulled out a piece of chalk out from one of his other pockets. 

He used that chalk to draw runes and symbols around the apartment, starting with a chain of symbols for protection around the frame of the windows. 

"To prevent Manananggal and other flying spirits."

Next, he helped give Dove a boost up on a chair so she could reach a vent. He instructed her on what to draw.  

"For any nightmares that enjoy crawling through vents."

The chalk wasn't like any other, some dust would get on her fingers, similar to regular chalk, but the one she was using, it could be used to draw on any surface with ease, from the wall, to carpet, to metal. It even faded after the writing was finished, like it was seeping into the surface so that the magic could work.

The last was the door which he did from the outside as they needed to go quickly.

"Were all of those runes for protection?" Dove asked as she locked the door on the inside before shutting it behind her. 

They ran down the hall, hearing the screams of others in their apartments as nightmares were beginning to pop up. The lights flickered on and off, and the ones that they ran under would blink more rapidly, almost as if they were eyes that shuttered, noticing their presence. Jalal took another piece of chalk out of his pocket and handed it to Dove.

"Mostly for protection, yes, but also for preventing the intrusion of nightmares and other spirits. Some symbols were also for luck because this place is going to need it!" 

The runes and symbols, Bence taught him how to write them, and he began teaching Dove, as fast as was functional, as many runes as he could. At least the ones strong enough to create barriers of protection, and he instructed her to draw them on as many parts of the wall as possible as they kept going. 

The elevator was broken, or more missing as the elevator doors opened, but there was no cabin or lift. Just a big cable in the middle and guide rails. He of course convinced her to climb that with him as well. 

"It's okay, I'll go first, that way if the elevator is coming down, I can take care of it, you climb up after me and stay a good distance close. If the elevator comes up, alert me and we can just hop on that and ride it up."

"That might end with us getting crushed if it's heading for the top floor." She answered in a deadpan tone but continued to follow him as they climbed up the cable. 

The gloves didn't grow any claws, but just like when we began climbing up the building to the second story window, there was a strange pull the gloves had to the materials of the cable as we were climbing. Like magnetism. With the building walls, it was more like the gloves secreted this glue, even though they were completely dry, and made it too easy to grip any parts that I needed to grab.

They made it up to the third floor. Jalal kept one hand on the cable whilst he used the other to pry open the door. The gloves' fingertips touched the metal of the door, and just like a very strong magnet, bent the door and he pulled it open.

Dove couldn't tell what was happening at first because there was no light, the power to the third floor was all shut off. 

Jalal climbed out first, then took out his phone and turned on the flashlight app, shining it over the hole he made through the doors so that Dove could see where to grab.

"What are these made of?" She asked, her voice echoing inside the hoist way before climbing all the way out.

Jalal smirked.

"On the inside of the gloves are alchemical symbols for all types of metal and alloy, stitched into a special layer of fabric. Those symbols help to summon whatever alloy or substance you need, secreting it through the fabric. When we have time, I'll show you."

He flashed the light down the hall, and they saw that it seemed normal, aside from the banging and yelling of the other tenants. They were all trapped inside their units and asking for help to be let out, like none of the locks were working.

Some muffled voices were yelling through the door about their unit's power not working.

Dove looked through her pockets for something to throw and found a piece of fabric from her shredded blazer. She kept it to remember the color when buying a new one, shrugged, tied it in a small ball of a knot, and threw it forward. 

A haze of some sort appeared from the walls, eating up the ball, and phased back into the wall own the opposite side. The speed and weight were so impactful that Jalal's flashlight shook as it passed. The fabric was gone and there were marks, like the dragging of claws, against the carpet.

"Well then, it's a good thing the tenants are trapped inside." She said as she planted her hands on her hips. 

"What do we do for this one?"

"Just wait for Malicka to catch up!" He responded with a smile.

The walls and the entire hallway shook as soon as he finished, as if hearing him. Dove was alarmed but saw that Jalal still kept smiling, looking ahead.

There was a screeching sound coming from the walls, and then Jalal turned his flashlight off. 

In the pitch-black darkness of the hallway, the same runes and symbols for protection that they drew earlier, suddenly appeared on the walls. Only larger, glowing in the dark, and moving like animated drawings across every surface. 

More and more scattered about until suddenly freezing. They stopped. Then, faded.

The lights of the hallway lit up one by one, from the farthest back until reaching Dove and Jalal.

Upon the final light that reached them and the entire floor now having gotten its power back, as proven by the muffled voices of the tenants through their doors, Malicka slowly emerged from the ceiling. 

She floated down, her body turning from transparent to opaque as more of her parted from the ceiling. 

Jalal just had a proud smirk on his face as she landed finally, like she was showing off. 

"What took you so long?" Jalal teased.

"Dove and I managed to slowly climb our way to the third floor while you were parking the car!"

"Excuse me?!?" Malicka theatrically gasped, one hand on her chest and the other on her hip.

"I'll have you know I found a parking space in seconds! And then I went inside the building to figure out the power issue! Don't you dare diminish my actions!" She playfully fought back, pointing a sassy finger at Jalal.

Jalal snickered as Dove watched their interaction. 

They weren't fighting. This was a playful banter, and one I wished I could have with a friend or sibling. I remember mentioning earlier in my notes that I had a brother and sister, but as whoever's reading this may have noticed, I haven't mentioned them since. 

That's because I have not been completely honest with you, or rather, my truths have not been entirely whole.

Malicka had explored the building in her ghost form whilst figuring out the issue with the power. Turns out no one had touched the breaker box, all of the switches were in place, it just suddenly stopped working. She switched them on and off to turn the power back on, as for the signal, that was caused by another force.

While in the walls, she controlled all the locks, rendering all of the tenants trapped, but safe in their units until they could find the cause. 

"I don't know how, nothing was touched, it's just all coming from up top." Malicka informed them, pointing up. 

"We should hurry then." 

The elevator was functional this time, but the twins wanted to show Dove how they traveled when in a rush, as the elevator was too slow to them. 

Malicka placed a hand on both of their shoulders, gripped firmly, began to float, and as soon as Dove blinked, she saw that her hands were translucent. 

Malicka pulled both of them up and as she spread her magic to Jalal and Dove, all three of them phased through the ceiling, passing through the layers of drywall, insulation, the cellulose wool, fiberglass, and floor joists. All the way up through the floor of the next story. 

It was like whiplash for Dove even though she was fully conscious the entire time, but she couldn't take her time to process it as Malicka patted her shoulder. 

"No time to reflect on that moment just yet." She told her. 

The lights of the hall flickered, grabbing their attention quickly, and Malicka clicked her tongue. Dove couldn't see most of her face aside from her eyes, but she could sense the annoyance. someone was undoing her work, and she was peeved.

"We've got company." Jalal pointed down the hall, where a nightmare crawled towards them. 

It looked like the corpse of a woman, the flesh and cartilage from her nose and below appeared to be burned away, along with her eyelids. She was all skin and bones, a smoky gray complexion, like she had just crawled out of a fire, eyes filled with envy for the skin and flesh on them. Her jaw opened and closed as she crawled closer, like a puppet with an evermoving mouth that could not close.

"I thought I took care of this floor!" The young woman huffed, brushing past Dove and her brother. 

She glided towards the crawling corpse, it reached it up to try and grab her, but she stayed in the air. Malicka grabbed the nightmare's head, pulling it up. It groaned and gurgled despite looking crumbly, dry, and decayed, trying to swipe at her. The hands only phased through her, and yet her grip on its head remained solid. 

Malicka only clicked her tongue again, turning it int her hand before slamming it back onto the floor, and then stomping on the skull. It turned to dust in moments.

Jalal then ran past her as another nightmare came into view, more turning the corner from the end of the hall, as if searching for them. Dove took out her baton and tried to assist him but quickly saw he didn't need assistance.

There was an old looking doll walking with a pair of scissors in their hand, the shoes rotting whatever it touched. Following the doll was another ghostly woman with a stitched mouth, no eyes in her sockets and a long, gray dress. 

He used the metal alloy in his gloves to create longer sharper claws. He swiped at the doll that pounced at him, then beheaded the eyeless woman.

His moves reminded Dove of Annabelle's free-spirited fighting style, except it was like Jalal knew how to aim better and kept his moves efficient. Annabelle always moved for wide attacks and liked swinging and tackling. 

Dove made her way over anyway, throwing her baton like the javelin it transformed into, through the skull of the next nightmare that turned the corner. 

That wasn't enough to kill it, just enough to nail it to the wall. 

Jalal whistled as he walked towards it, dodging the swing of the wrists, dangling by the stringy veins of the arms. 

The nightmare was missing patches of flesh and muscle on most areas of its body, with some holes revealing the milk white of its bones. His body also smelled sweet, and he kept oozing this red substance from the holes in his body, but the red liquid didn't fit the consistency of blood, more like red jam. Dove nearly gagged. 

"No symbols or signs on this one either."

"Symbols?" Dove asked, grabbing his forearm and tugging him away from the thing. Out of the nightmares they encountered, this one with the sweet smell and blood with the texture of jam is what disturbed her the most.

The wrists inevitably fell off the weak veins, trying to crawl towards them. they both stepped on each of the hands. 

"It's what Malicka was checking for earlier on the burnt corpse." He answered. 

"I suspected that there must've been someone summoning these creatures. This apartment building is new and with no record of death based on my search in ghost form. It doesn't qualify as a haunted building and based on the lack of marks; it's an accidental summoning. A haunted person inside this building is creating them unconsciously."

Malicka took the arm of the nightmare still struggling to get himself unpinned from the wall. The milk white, broken edge of the bone was sticking out, jagged edges dulled and not even sharp, but good enough to her. 

She twisted the arm, stabbing the nightmare's head with his own bone. It dissipated with a groan, and she pulled the baton out for Dove.

"If this equivalent of an invasion began from the top floor and made its way down gradually, then that means we don't have to worry about any suspects being on any floors below the top, right?" Dove asked. 

They agreed but told her to not be surprised if that isn't the case. Sometimes when buildings with multiple levels are affected by nightmares, power and signal leaving the building, starting from the top is just something that can happen.

Malicka asked if Dove was ready to be put in ghost form and float again, as the trip to the top would be long. Dove just agreed without bothering to think if she was comfortable with it. She just wanted to focus on the job. 

Malicka grabbed them both by the shoulders and their bodies became translucent again.

"Normally I would just make us transparent instead, but that would freak you out too much." She said. 

She carried them up the remaining six floors, stopping at the tenth. When they passed each level, Malicka grew more annoyed as she saw each of them were back to being dark and crawling with nightmares. The protective charms and runes she put up were being undone.

Once they finally landed, Dove held her head with one head, recovering from the vertigo as Malicka patted her back. 

The tenth floor was different for it was where the more expensive apartments resided. It wasn't as dark, but the lights did flicker and the walls were bleeding. Sounds of subtle screeching and the dripping of liquid emitted all over the place. 

Some apartment units were left open while others were closed. One was blocked, a chair wedged underneath the doorknob. It jiggled and there were multiple knocks coming from behind the door.

"Well, clearly the ominous blocked door emitting creepy noises is where we start!" Jalal said, going over and taking his phone out. 

He opened his camera app, switched to video mode and knelt beside the door, one hand holding the bottom edge of his phone as he experimentally slipped it underneath the crack of the door. The groans coming the door stopped, he counted down, and pulled his phone back out, stepping away as claws reached underneath the door, swiping for him.

He giggled as he escaped its grasp easily, holding up his phone to stop the recording, hearing the banging sounds and ticking of the claws underneath the crack of the door.

"Alrighty, what kinda creature is behind that door?" His sister asked, crossing her arms. 

He flips his phone around, playing the video. 

A bloody dress, or more, a nightgown from the 14th century, covering all but the head. Then there was the face of a dead woman that couldn't be described due to the worm's eye view. Nothing but her chin as she kept rhythmically knocking slowly on the door, until she sensed the presence of the phone. Her head snapped down, the camera caught her pitch-black eyes and hung open mouth. Her hand moved, hovering above the camera, and then lurched forward, right as Jalal pulled the phone back out.

"How is just the door blocking her? It seems she's able to roam around that apartment, but she can't come out?" Dove asked, watching as the claws kept peeking out from underneath the door, and the doorknob jiggled more.

Malicka hummed, turned translucent again, beginning to float. Jalal cupped his hands around his mouth as Malicka flew through the chair and door to inspect the room herself. 

"Watch out old hag! An even worse ghost is coming for you!"

Malicka phased back into the hall and solidified her hand, poking him in the eyes. She left again while he yelped in pain. Dove had to drag him by the arm away from the door before he tried to unlock it to get back at her.

They checked one of the apartment units that were left open, specifically the one that also had a sound coming from it. 

A more demonic-looking nightmare, one with red skin and stitched, warped material for skin. You could see the bones of its and yet it was baggy in some areas. Very confusing, but I've seen freakier. At least I certainly got freaked out, it grabbed me by the head as soon as it jumped out.

The thing tried to bite her skull; she swept its leg to get it to trip, breaking the wrist with her baton to get it to let go. It fell but grabbed her leg, she just lifted her leg up and stomped on it repeatedly in the ribs. Jalal tried to grab the arm to set her free, the other just extended and choke slammed him into the wall. The demonic nightmare's mouth got larger, unhinging like a snake and revealing more teeth in the back of the throat, trying to eat her foot. 

"Aim for the head!" 

"The mouth is in the way of the head!"

Dove shifted her baton into a mini spear, stabbing the mouth multiple times. Not much help.

Someone finally came and threw a vase, smashing it into the mouth. It shrieked loudly, letting go of Dove's foot to pick the pieces out. She shifted her baton into a blade, kneeling down and stabbing into the armpit. The arm still didn't put Jalal down. 

The person who threw the vase ran over to try and set Jalal free. Dove looked down and saw the demonic nightmare try to get up, shifting her weapon from a blade to a pitchfork. She stabbed threw the mouth, aiming where she assumed the throat was, as hard as she could.

It made choking noises as she sifted through her mind for a solution. Her eyes sifted over to the coffee table, finding that they were in a living room. The lights were dimmed low, candles on the coffee table, and an Ouija board in the center. 

She couldn't help but look to the new person with a judgmental, assuming glance.

The person was a teenage girl, wearing a black sweater with the name of a band, black jeans, and was trying her best to release Jalal from his chokehold. She could feel Dove's stare, slowly looked over to her, then to the Ouija board on the coffee table, and gave Dove a sheepish, pained, face of regret. 

"I got it from a toy store."

"Yeah, well, it's October."

"Close the gate before I meet Allah!" Jalal said as best he could on low oxygen.

The girl ran over to the board, grabbed the disc, and used it to spell out 'GOODBYE' then blew out the candles. 

The demonic nightmare disappeared, Jalal fell to the floor, coughing, wheezing, gasping. The teenager went to help him up, and in a croaked voice, he told her to bring him to the Ouija board. 

Dove stood up and watched as he caught his breath and took a small, glass bottle of water out of his pocket.

He unscrewed the cap and splashed some onto the board, revealing it to be holy water as he muttered some prayers in Arabic. Based on the tone, it wasn't any religious quote but rather comments of annoyance. 

"Kunt sa'asfaeuk law 'utihat li alfursa."

Dove asked the teenager for her name and the teen said her name was Courtney.

"Should we get rid of the board too?" The girl asked, looking to Courtney for permission to burn something she bought. 

The teenager nodded eagerly. 

"Yeah! Yeah, go ahead! My parents don't even know I got this, my friends and I got it with cash!"

"Speaking of friends, where is everyone else on this floor?"

Courtney sucked in an involuntary breath, suddenly looking away, letting go of Jalal as he could now stand on his own.

"Where are the other tenants? You didn't already sacrifice them, did you?" Jalal asked, between serious and joking.

"NO! No,,, we just, made a bet."

"Oh no, that never goes wel-"

Dove cut him and tried to gently coax Courtney to explain. Turns out, most of the tenants on the top floor were six teenagers who all decided to skip school and play some paranormal games while their parents were all still at work. Courtney and all of them were neighborhood friends, and for October, since their parents would be making all of them attend a boring party on Halloween, they wanted to make time to have their own Halloween fun instead. 

They made up a game together, beginning with using the Ouija board to open up a portal for the spirits to come through, then when that was finished, each one was given a challenge to complete. All six of them were to do their challenges and return back to Courtney's apartment, but no one returned, and all of the nightmares came. There were only six of them on the floor as the other apartments were thankfully vacant.

The unit that Malicka went into with the bloody woman belonged to a boy named Atticus, who was given the bloody Mary challenge. The others were Lincoln, who was to do the challenge of reading a book of scary stories while watching a haunted video, Evelyn with 'One man hide and seek', Georgia with a staring contest, and a boy named Samuel, who had the elevator game. 

"That explains why the elevator wouldn't work at all. Sammy is probably in the other dimension already, forever lost." Jalal mockingly lamented with a sigh.

Dove elbowed him in the ribs.

Courtney was to play hangman in her unit, showing the paper with the hangman drawn on it. The word spelled out was 'DEMON'. She also brought over a walkie talkie, the other was with Samuel, and she told them that the walkie-talkies were bought at the same store where they bought the board, because the label said that the walkies-talkies would help them commune with ghosts, but they thought the walkie-talkies were normal, and Samuel only needed one because Samuel lost his phone. 

Unfortunately, ever since Samuel began doing his challenge, Courtney had yet to hear his voice, only strange sounds would come through every now and then.

Dove then quickly asked her about the store, and if the others also had their own items that they were to work with. 

"Um, Atticus got a mirror, that's what he was supposed to use to play bloody Mary with. Lincoln had this book that we thought was just another Stephen King novel, and a hard drive that had this video on it, but he texted earlier that it was just the scene from that one movie about the girl crawling out of a well. Evelyn had this creepy looking doll, and Georgia got a painting." Courtney stammered as she counted all the items they bought from this mysterious store for their games. 

"Great! Okay! Let me call Malicka and tell her to help us get those items." Jalal said as he took his phone out. 

"We don't have a lot of time since you guys somehow managed to do every wrong horror movie ac-" 

"Just call Malicka. We can scold them later." Dove glared at him silently. 

"No need to call me!" Malicka suddenly burst into the scene. 

She scared Courtney who hid behind Dove. It was not because of the sudden jump scare, but because Malicka was dragging an unconscious body with her, and in her other hand was a broken mirror. 

"Found him inside the mirror when fighting his nightmare version of Mary. She was very annoyed because she was just trapped inside the mirror, but she couldn't get out of the apartment! I guess some ghosts just forget how to use doors. Anyway, I finally broke the thing." She gave a summary of the story, holding out the mirror. 

Dove took it and held it for Courtney, letting her see and confirm for herself that it was broken. 

"I don't think you'll be getting a refund for this, and I don't think you should keep this either."

Courtney looked at the broken mirror, and then to her friend that was gently put down on her floor, slowly regaining consciousness.

"Did you have to drag me?" He whimpered as his groggy body moved to get up.

Atticus had some fatigue after being trapped and panicking inside a cursed mirror. Courtney went to his side and helped him up, also filling him in on the current situation and who Dove, and the twins were. She then told them the apartment numbers of the other kids. 

Malicka phased through the doors to Lincoln's apartment, finding him sitting and rocking back forth with wide-eyed fear all over his face. He was wrapped in a blanket, sitting slouched on the floor in front of his laptop, mumbling the lines from the book in his hands. His finger tracing the lines without him looking. When it came time to turn the page, it moved on its own. The laptop showed nothing but static, and emitted strange noises mixed between sobbing, incoherent muttering, and hissing sounds. 

The boy was also surrounded by nightmares, every new one crawling out of the shadows of the corners of his bedroom. It was best to assume he was creating the majority of nightmares in the building, and that the entire laptop was too haunted to salvage, so she destroyed it along with the hard drive, and then tore up the book from his hands, freeing him from possession.

Dove had to break down the door to Georgia's apartment, finding her in a trance as she stared with red, dried-up eyes at the horrific painting that was practically floating in front of her. 

I can't describe much of the painting because I shielded my eyes. I had this feeling that if I also made eye contact with whatever figure was painted on that cursed canvas, I too would be put in a trance like Georgia, my mind being tainted into creating nightmares, like a spawn point. What I did see were these hands coming out of the painting, holding her head in place like morbid horse blinders.

She had to smack it away with her eyes closed, squint them open just enough to find where the canvas landed, then dodge the hands that were still pulled out of the painting. It tried to grab her when it couldn't reach Georgia. Dove's baton shifted into a machete, and then she spotted the girl, who was still possessed in a trance with unblinking eyes, coming towards her. 

Dove ran into the kitchen, crouched and hid, then tripped the girl as she ran around the corner. She kept her pinned to the floor and looked in the direction of the sound of pitter-pattering. 

The painting flipped over and was crawling on its hands like a cockroach, towards her. Dove noticed the stove beside her and stayed crouched. 

The crawling painting got closer, and she stabbed it, holding it and keeping her head down as she turned on the stove. The painting roasted over the fire, and she laid it flat on the stove top, letting it burn as she went to check on Georgia. She only turned the stove off after Georgia blinked rapidly and her eyes went back to normal.

Jalal was made aware that Evelyn is being chased by the doll throughout the building, as evidenced by her apartment door that was left open, the lower part having multiple dull scratches. That would also explain why each of the floors gradually became haunted one by one. He tracked the girl and the doll based on the status of the floors. Courtney handed the walkie-talkie to Malicka so she could find Samuel.

It was a nightmare to search for either of them. Dove stayed with the teenagers that were currently safe, telling them what would happen after the other two were found.