| howsyourcoffeejesus |

It started out as a bargain that Ricky just couldn't pass up.

A nice little farmhouse with an abundance of land, for a pretty reasonable sum of money as far as he was concerned. It just needed a pinch of work, but other than that, Ricky thought it would be perfect for his little family. Only an idiot would turn down this kind of deal on a property.

The house was quite small in size, but it would work nicely for Ricky, his husband, and their daughter, Becca.  The land around it, though, was what Ricky really had his eyes on. There was so much he and Ryan could do with it. It was money well spent, Ricky decided. There was even more land available to purchase all around it. He figured he could invest in some of that as time passed, as well.

It was a happy day for all three of them, the day they moved in. They were finally getting out of that lousy apartment, which was far too small for them, and moving into their own house.

However, it took less than a month for Ricky to realize why the property had been sold for such a low price.

After just a couple weeks of living in the house, Ricky had spotted an abnormal creature lurking outside in his fields. From what he could tell, it had the head of a rabbit, and the body of a dog. He acted as quickly as possible, grabbing the hunting rifle he kept in the house's first closet, shooting at the animal multiple times. But, it was to no avail. Somehow, the creature had vanished.

He contemplated asking some locals about his situation, but without any proof, he decided he would be better off keeping it to himself. After all, his own family didn't even see the creature, because they were out for the day. For all he knew, it could have merely been his imagination. Besides, he would rather not mention anything at all than seem like the town's new psychopath.

Just as Ricky was starting to let the whole event go, something else out of the ordinary started happening. While trying to sleep that night, Ricky could hear all sorts of noises coming from outside the house. Scratching, gnawing, hacking, and even knocking at the doors and windows.

"Ry?" he spoke up softly. "Are you up?"

"Yeah," Ryan groaned in response. "How the fuck would I be able to fall asleep with all that racket outside?" he mumbled.

"You wanna come check outside with me then?" Ricky asked. "We can probably easily stop whatever it is."

"Fine," Ryan exhaled, dragging himself out of the bed. He gave his husband a quick peck on the forehead, before following him out into their living room.

The two of them both put their shirts back on, then quietly made their way outside, Ryan grabbing the hunting rifle on the way out. But, there was nothing, and no one, out there. The noises seemed to stop the second they stepped outside.

"Seriously?" Ryan muttered under his breath. "There's nothing out here. What the fuck was making that noise then?"

The pair stood there in silence for another moment or so, before Ricky spoke up again.

"Come on, let's go back inside," he said, placing his hand on Ryan's shoulder. "The noises stopped, anyway."

Though, the noises never really went away. They never stopped. The constant, various beating noises only got worse as the days- Or nights, rather- Went on. But eventually, the noises were combined with something even worse.

One night, while Becca was falling asleep, the covers of her bed were slowly peeled off of her. She could feel the fabric lightly tickling her exposed arms as it slid off of her body, causing her to giggle a bit and open her eyes, expecting to see one of her parents there in her room. However, when she opened her eyes, she saw nothing, and no one; only her blanket moving further and further away from her bed.

Her cries were audible from her parents' bedroom just across the hall, and the two of them were quick to come in to comfort her. Ricky tucked her back in, and Ryan offered to stay with her for the night, sleeping on the floor of the room.

While Ryan's company definitely made her feel more safe, it wasn't going to stop this mysterious force from messing with her as she slept. Its next target was her pillow, ripping out from under her head, causing her to wake up instantaneously. As she sat up in bed, she could see that Ryan was still fast asleep by the door, and her pillow had been tossed right next to her bed. She knew that it couldn't have been him.

This torment continued for weeks, and even spread to Ricky and Ryan's bedroom.  But, of course, this unknown entity wasn't stopping at that.

The family soon began to hear voices inside the walls of their house, faintly whispering. These voices were not loud or strong enough to be properly deciphered, but they almost sounded like elderly women singing soft hymns. But as days went by, the voices grew louder and louder, almost becoming unbearable for the three of them.

Ryan suggested leaving, finding somewhere new to start fresh. Ricky, though, did not want to give up on the property yet.

Ricky continued to keep news of the strange happenings in his house on the down-low, but he eventually had to open up about it to someone other than his husband.

The final straw for him, though, was when this unknown spirit began legitimately attacking his daughter.

The young girl had walked out into the living room one evening with raging red handprints on her cheeks, tears rolling down her face as she rubbed the top of her head. Her parents were quick to comfort Becca, of course, but neither of them could be quite sure about what could have happened to her. These marks kept appearing on her skin day after day, and Ricky could only assume that the spirit inhabiting the property had something to do with it.

----------

"So, let me get this straight," Ricky's only good friend in the neighborhood, Chris, began. "An invisible entity is tormenting your family?"

"Yeah," Ricky replied in exasperation. "Since, like, two weeks after we moved in."

"And you haven't decided to move out yet?" Chris questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean, we've thought about it, but I want to figure out if there's anything we can do about this weird spirit thing before we just give up on the place all together, you know?" Ricky responded.

"If I were you, I would've gotten my ass out of there a long time ago," Chris chuckled, taking a quick sip of his coffee. "But hey, to each their own, I guess."

The two of them sat in silence for a few moments before Chris spoke up again. "You know, I could stay over for a night or two, if you want. Then, maybe you could get, like, an outsider's perspective on it or something," he told the shorter man.

"You really think that's a good idea?" Ricky asked with a slight laugh.

"Probably not," Chris shrugged. "But I figure I could help with gathering evidence of it for you or some shit like that."

"You know what?" Ricky started after contemplating for a second, "I think that could be helpful. Come on over."

And so it was settled. That night, Chris showed up on his friend's front porch, gladly welcomed inside. He was allowed to stay in the one guest bedroom they had, which had been temporarily turned into a small in-home office space. Ryan had rearranged the room a bit, and had set up the pull-out couch in the room with clean sheets and pillows for their house guest.

Chris guessed that it might be a hard night to get through, but he was confident that he could get through his short stay with ease. He had headed to bed a bit earlier than he would have if this was a normal night at home, just to make sure he would end up with enough sleep in the morning regardless of whatever would disturb him in his sleep.

As Chris was finally starting to fall asleep, the same thing that happened to poor young Becca mere months ago happened to him. His covers began to slowly slide off of him, causing his eyes to shoot open. He looked around briefly, determining that there was nobody in the room with him. He was all by himself.

He didn't want to be afraid of something that he couldn't see, but Chris couldn't deny that he was terrified of what could happen next. He didn't make any move to grab the blanket that was now on the floor. Instead, he laid back down, closing his eyes once again. He thought that maybe, just maybe, if he didn't move, he would be fine.

That wasn't the case, though.

A sharp pain suddenly rushed through his left cheek, and his whole body tensed. He was preparing for the next blow, but it never came. Chris reached his hand up to his face, rubbing his faintly throbbing cheek. It was hot, and he could only guess that if he got up to look in the mirror, there would be a patch of red there.

Just as he removed his hand from his face, he felt something closing around his neck, swiftly pushing his head against the wall just enough to pain him. The tall man groaned, grimacing as it became harder and harder for him to breathe. He kicked out at the air surrounding him, but he wasn't getting anywhere. He finally decided that he might be better off if he stopped struggling.

Much to Chris' surprise, he was right. As he laid still once more, he felt the pressure around his throat cease. He took a deep breath, coughing a bit, before laying back down again, ready to finally get some sleep. The spirit was not having that, however, and violently slapped Chris upside the head.

"Jesus Christ," Chris muttered, sitting up again, holding the back of his head. "For God's sake, who are you, and what the fuck do you want?" He screamed at the entity.

There was no response. Chris waited for a few more moments before laying back down, still half expecting more hits to come his way. The hits never did come, though. The rest of the night passed by peacefully, allowing Chris to get the sleep he was craving.

----------

It was apparent that Chris had angered the spirit. After all, after he left the next afternoon, the voice of the entity continuously got louder day by day. The voice did not only sing hymns now, but it also began to quote scripture and sermons.

Word of Chris' experience in the house, as well as the voices that had been haunting the property, spread quickly throughout the town, thanks to Chris' girlfriend, who was quite a social butterfly.

Upon hearing about Chris' experience, a majority of people planned on staying away from the property for good. There were a handful of braver souls who decided to pass through the property, just to see if anything would happen, but the voice of the entity was quick to scare them off.

One man, though, a military general to be exact, dared to come through the property with a small fraction of his crew. He was curious about what exactly was happening to those who set foot on the land that the unknown entity, so he decided to find out for himself. Whatever the situation was, he was sure that he and his men could get past it easily.

The little entourage that the general, Joshua Balz, brought along with him consisted of his wife, and three other men, all carried in a wagon lead by a pair of horses.

As the group began to approach the haunted property, the wagon suddenly came to a halt on the edge of the yard. The horses could no longer move. The general made his men try to coax the horses into moving further, but it was to no avail. "It must be the spirit," he proclaimed. "The witch."

Just as the words left Josh's lips, the wind seemed to pick up, just enough to shake the wagon slightly, spooking those who were still inside it. A female voice spoke up through the noise of the wind: "Proceed, mortals. I'll be seeing you again this evening."

Everyone in the general's entourage glanced at each other, not quite wanting to believe that what had just happened was real. Sure enough, they were now able to proceed onto the property without an issue, pulling right up in front of the family's front porch. Josh stepped out of the wagon as it came to a stop once again, his wife following him, and they both stepped up to the front door of the home, where they were then happily welcomed inside by Ricky. The other three men, Angelo, Devin, and Vinny, stayed outside, in order to fend off the entity if it returned.

Hours passed, and Josh and Ryan-Ashley were still inside with Ricky and Ryan, leaving the rest of his small crew outside in the now setting sun. The spirit had not shown up since they first arrived on the property, and the three other men were starting to get bored of simply sitting around and talking to each other.

One of the men, Devin, smirked, chuckling slightly as he pulled a shiny, silver pistol from his tall boot. "You know, I could slay that witch without even trying," he snickered, twirling the gun around on his finger. "The silver bullet in this gun could kill anything, visible or not. The stupid bitch probably let us in, and hasn't bothered us since earlier, because I was smart enough to bring this with me."

Almost instantly, Devin began to scream, flailing his arms and legs about. He could feel something beating him, pricking him with pins. He was then kicked down onto the ground, before hearing the voice of the entity speak up.

"There is another fraud in this little group of yours," the spirit spoke angrily, loud enough for those inside the house to hear. "And he shall be tormented tomorrow evening, if he should decide to stay."

Needless to say, the five of them left the property, deciding to save themselves from pain before having to go back into any battles.

----------

After the general's visit, it was very rare for Ricky and his family to have any visitors. The spirit almost seemed to have calmed down a bit, however it still expressed some sort of dislike for Ricky.

Years and years began to pass by in front of Ricky's eyes, and still, nobody else dared to show up on the property. The only people the entity still haunting him could harm were him and his family. Ricky, though, was now the one getting almost all of its wrath.

While his daughter and husband seemed to be going without harm, Ricky was experiencing facial twitching, and was finding it hard to swallow food. This went on for a year, and his health only declined from there. His poor health eventually prevented him from leaving the house, leaving him no choice but to be the subject of the spirit's tormenting.

During his days at home, the entity often removed his shoes when he attempted to get up and walk, and violently slapped him across the face when he experienced his twitching. Her voice rang loudly throughout the property from time to time, cursing the man she referred to as 'Old Richard Olsen.'

Ricky lived his days like this, miserably, waiting for his husband to return home from work. His daughter had moved out already, living with her fiancé, who the spirit had clearly taken a disliking to, desperate to get away from the entity that had been hurting her throughout her childhood. He was honestly surprised that Ryan hadn't retired yet, but he supposed it was for the best that he still had someone doing his best to pay the bills for him.

He was inching closer to death everyday. Ryan hated to have to be away from him everyday, but he needed to earn the money to keep himself and his husband afloat. His worst fear, though, was that Ricky could pass while he wasn't at home.

And of course, just to his family's luck, that fear became reality.

Ryan arrived home one evening to see his husband's chest no longer moving. He stepped closer to Ricky, who was laying on the bed as usual, then gently placed a callused hand on his chest. He could feel nothing happening beneath Ricky's skin. His breathing had stopped. He had no pulse.

He called Becca, doing his best to choke back his cries as he told her the news that her father had passed. It felt like forever to both her and Ryan before she showed up to the house.

"I didn't think it would happen this soon," she said softly.

"Neither did I," Ryan sighed. "That sickness was eating away at him more than we knew, I guess."

The air felt heavy within the house. It wasn't because of the grief planting its way into Ryan and Becca, but it was because of the entity that still hadn't left the property. It was waiting for the moment that Ricky's family would realize just what had happened to the poor man.

As Becca wiped away more of her tears, she noticed a small, glass vial on the floor at the end of Ricky's bed. It was almost completely empty. "Hey, dad, what's this?" She asked softly, getting up off the bed and kneeling down to pick it up.

She carefully handed it over to Ryan, allowing him to take a closer look. He eyed the substance for a few moments, but the vial held no familiarity. "I've never seen this in my life," he murmured.

"You... You don't think that had anything to do with his death, do you?" Becca questioned after a quiet moment.

Before Ryan could answer her, a cackle rang inside the room. Becca and Ryan's eyes met, both of the piecing together that this may not have been a natural death. The cackle became louder and louder, undoubtedly the evil spirit's voice.

"I fixed him," the entity snickered. "I gave him a nice, big dose last night. I fixed him."

The laughter continued, until finally, Becca tossed the vial into the fireplace in the living room. She watched with tears in her eyes as the liquid inside burst into a bright flame, the same color as the liquid itself, and exited the house through the chimney.

There was no saving Ricky, as it turned out. His funeral was held just weeks after his death. It turned out to easily be one of the largest funerals ever held in the county, with people that barely even knew the man attending.

Many of the people that did come really only showed up to see if the spirit would make an appearance, and of course, it did. Throughout the whole service, the voice of the entity sang. It continued to sing until the very end, until each and every person left the graveyard.

After Ricky's death had passed, the entity was never heard from again. Its purpose had been fulfilled. His life was over.