The Dead House - Kurtagich Dawn (лучшие книги читать онлайн бесплатно без регистрации TXT) 📗

Ari killed Juliet. ARI. He needed a sacrifice to bargain with the Olen.

“Did ‘Kaitlyn’ tell you that?”

It’s the only explanation.

“Kaitlyn was the delusion of a very sick girl.”

No. Kaitlyn was real. She was my friend. You can’t just erase her.

Homes leans in, his expression tired and drawn, his eyes shadowed. “You can’t see the truth, can you?”

You’re a fool.

Homes reads Naida’s last note with dismay, regards her for a moment, and then looks to the officers behind him.

“Cuff her.” He turns back to Naida. “You’re under arrest. Do you understand?”

She nods, and the uniformed officers handcuff her wrists behind her back while DCI Floyd Homes states her rights.

“You are being charged with obstructing a police officer, wasting police time, harboring an escaped prisoner following sectioning, obstruction of justice, perverting the course of an investigation, and willful conspiracy to harm. You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.” He pauses, frowning at her. “I hope they find you mentally incompetent. A girl like you wouldn’t survive prison.”

Naida tries to spit at him, but her missing tongue makes it impossible, and she drools on herself and the table instead.

DCI Floyd Homes sighs, his eyes bright with tears, and he shakes his head. “Jesus. What the hell is the world coming to?”

[END OF CLIP]

Much analysis has been done of the Johnson Incident. Academics have studied the scratchings in the attic wall—the only remnants of the writing that Kaitlyn described in her journal—and the basement where Naida lost her speech and John Hutt lost his life. Both sites were part of a center for paranormal research for the better part of a decade.

In 2013, what are presumed to be the last words Kaitlyn ever wrote were discovered in an old visitors’ book in the chapel at the top of Elmbridge hill, which had remained boarded up since 2004. Whether these words are, in fact, Kaitlyn’s is yet unknown.

Extract:

My confession to whoever finds it, to anyone who cares:

I am not real. I spent two years trying to convince people that I am, but after everything that’s happened, I realize—I finally realize—that I’m not. Carly isn’t either. Not anymore. I’m a vessel. That’s all I am now.

I want you to know that I didn’t kill him. It was the thing inside me. It’s getting stronger. He wanted to bind it because he loved me. He loved me so much, and I loved him too. Even though he did bad things, I loved him. And that does matter.

But it was my hand on his neck. It was my arm that jerked. And even though I was screaming inside, and even though I wanted to stop, it wouldn’t let me. I have to live with that. But it wasn’t me. And now it’s getting stronger. I can feel it taking over. I am a vessel, but I still have some control. I can still end this.

I am not real.

110

The Final Image

The final security footage in the Elmbridge seniors’ common room reveals the last moments before the fire. This image has received a cult following, held dear by those who seek a happy ending to the Johnson Incident. The camera footage has been transcribed below.

Seniors CCTV Camera Footage

Wednesday, 2 February 2005, 12:33 AM

The fire is already lapping at the sofas in the room when Kaitlyn enters the camera’s field of vision. She leaves the frame, and moments later, a flaming ball of some kind—perhaps a towel—is thrown into the room. It lands by the curtains, which quickly ignite.

The curtains burn, the upholstered sofas burn, the tablecloth and the cabinets burn. All obscured by increasing amounts of smoke. It is several minutes before Kaitlyn returns. She walks into the flaming room, pauses, and is engulfed in the fire.

A close inspection of the footage reveals four things.

1. Kaitlyn Johnson died smiling. Indeed, there seems to be a look of complete serenity on her face in the split second before the fire closes in on her. This is in line with her last journal entry, which also has an air of peace about it, implying that she must destroy herself in order to destroy the demon within her.

2. As the fire engulfs her, she raises her hand as though to reach for something—or someone.

3. Her final word was either “Dee” or “Carly.”

4. When the footage is enlarged, a darker shape can be discerned in the flames. Most analysts believe it is a flame shadow or an object in the fire, but some fanatics and devoted followers of the Johnson Incident believe that it is either the snake Kaitlyn spoke of or her long-lost sister Carly. More extreme Johnson Disciples claim that the figure may in reality be the actualization of her journal and closest (imaginary) friend, Dee.

It is certainly comforting to think of Kaitlyn reuniting with her sister. However, her smile suggests a deranged state of mind. On the night of the incident, twenty students had minor injuries and burns.

Naida Chounan-Dupre, tried at seventeen and found mentally incompetent, was detained at Broadmoor mental hospital at Her Majesty’s leisure following her first trial but was found competent in a retrial five years later after additional camera footage was discovered.

Camera Footage Played at Naida Chounan-Dupre’s Retrial in 2010

Video Date Index: Saturday, 22 January 2005, 11:56 PM

The quality of the image is poor, but it is clear that the person holding the camera is in one of the Elmbridge High School dorm rooms. The overhead light is off, but the camera light allows us to see that the dorm is bare, bed stripped, desk empty. One item seems to have been left behind: a purple Post-it stuck to the lamp shade, evidence that we are in the former room of Carly Luanne Johnson.

The person carrying the camera wanders towards a nook in the wall, where a sink sits beneath a mirror. The mirror is broken, the glass spiderwebbing but not shattered. Naida’s broken reflection stares out at us. She backs away, frowning, and turns again to the room. She walks over to the wardrobe and opens the doors. A mirror in the rear wall is also smashed.

“Holy shit…”

She turns to leave, but gasps.

The full-length mirror on the back of the dorm door is zigzagged and broken as well. Naida shakes her head, an expression of horror on her features.

“Oh, Gorro. She broke them all.”

[END OF CLIP]

Not many conclusions can be drawn from this video footage, but the prosecution was able to argue that Naida, at the date of this video, knew that Carly Johnson was responsible for the attack on Michael Bowers and the vandalism of school property. Naida, twenty-two years old at the retrial, wrote a defense stating that Carly had broken the mirror and cut the skin of Mike Bowers only because she was possessed by a demon.

Despite these claims, Naida was found mentally competent and given concurrent sentences of two years for withholding evidence from the police, one year for concealing a suspect, and an additional eight-year sentence for obstructing the course of an investigation, obstructing the course of justice, obstructing a police officer, harboring a suspect, and conspiracy to harm. She served a total of nine years and two months and was released on probation in 2014.