Light and darkness.

She looked surprised, and stepped a bit closer, reaching out to gently rest her hand on his back

"You cant live with this fear Kal.."

She looked back towards the door

"They wont stay down there forever"

"They have too..."

He whispered as if saying anything else any louder would release them. His hands gripped the table a little harder. He wanted to say more but his mouth was clamped shut as he stared at the table.

She looked at him, before moving her hand from his back

"You cant let the dead rule your life"

And with that, she began to walk towards the basement door, her clunky shoes a bit loud on the floor, and she reached out towards the key to unlock the chains

Kalbert didn't move until he heard her shoes get close to the door and the clink of the key and he spun around with his eyes wide. He thought of anything to get her to stop and he almost blurted out that he had been to her house.

"Rema!..."

As if the spirits could tell what was about to happen the breeze blew through the house and silenced the candles. Almost an instant later the tapping began at the corner of the door and slowly moved towards the handle.

"I-if you o-open the d-door...t-they're going t-to get out and t-there's nothing w-we can do to stop them..."

The key moved close to the lock, but she stopped at the tapping, her hand shaking slightly from the noise as she backed away. Taking several deep breaths she sighed low, before saying quietly

"Kal.. whats down there.."

"Ghosts...o-or de-demons...or...something j-just as bad...I n-never stayed down there l-long enough to find out..."

He slowly and hesitantly moved to stand next to her looking at the door, as the tapping reached the handle and started jiggling it rhythmically.

"I-I thought maybe they were left over...f-from that Ritual...o-or they're the spirits of t-those my Mother...."

He looked down at the unlit candles, trailing off silently either unwilling or unable to think on it.

Rema nodded slowly, watching the door knob jiggling

".. I wont go down there right now.. but We're going to soon. When Im more prepared.."

She placed the key back where it was hanging before, and then, without warning, suddenly slammed the palm of her hand against the door, it almost sounding like a gunshot it was so loud, and then she walked away from it, looking as if this was nothing new

Rema grabbed her bag and sat on the couch, pulling out her diary, but when she opened it, there was nothing at all written in it, all the pages blank, and she began to draw something, a symbol, just to make sure she remembered how to do it properly

"They like to make a big fuss, the spirits I mean, try to scare everyone else away y'know?"

She continued drawing, a very detailed symbol, as if she had done it dozens of times before

"Im not so scared of them.. even after what happened to.."

Her voice trailed off, thinking about her sisters

Kalbert could only nod a little as he went to his own bag and picked it up. He slung it over his shoulder as he looked over hers to see what she was drawing.

"I-I guess so...w-what is that?"

He furrowed his brow a little, trying to make out the symbol.

"Well see.. At a few houses there were spirits, and theres this one symbol that seemed to keep them away.. bah.."

She ripped out the paper and dropped it to the side, starting over

"Just..have to remember how it goes.."

Kalbert nodded slowly and continued to watch her draw. He pointed at a part of the symbol.

"Isn't that supposed to be more curved...?"

He wasn't sure why he felt like that was right but he was sure. He glanced at her with a small smirk and explained.

"I...don't recognize it but it just...feels...like it should be..."

She looked at where he pointed and snapped her finger

"Thats ri-.. Wait, you dont know what the symbol is..and you're correcting me on it? My memory must be really bad then.."

She said somewhat jokingly. A low rumble of thunder made her jump a little, taking her off guard, but otherwise, continued trying to perfect the symbol

Kalbert flushed slightly.

"Well I've looked a lot of arcane, religious, and supernatural symbols...there's whole books of them in the study... I have probably seen that one before and don't remember it..."

He chewed on his lip a little as he realized how heavy his bag was getting and hefted it a little.

"What will you do with it when you're done?"

Rema seemed very into drawing, biting her lip a bit as she was

"Make a second one.. if you're coming down there with me anyways. All you need to do is fold it up in your pocket or wear it, as long as its on you, you'll be fine."

She grinned and held up the symbol

"Think that looks right?"

Kalbert pointed at two lines in the symbol.

"Those should be a little longer I think..."

He looked around the room and thought to himself a bit.

"I should...get this stuff upstairs...there's uhm...some stuff I need to look over...I uhm..."

He frowned as a thought came to him.

"Do you think one of the spirits got out and that's what happened....?"

She nodded and began to lengthen the lines, and her voice dropped to almost a whisper

"A lot of wierd things happen when Im around.."

She frowned and just continued drawing. She looked over the drawing again, and nodded to herself

"Perfect.."

She didnt even look at him, not even sure if he was still there, and began to make a second

Kal's mind wasn't blaming her, but himself. What if they weren't just spirits in the basement? Or they were and they were spirits of the demons? What if one slipped past all the wards he had around every basement window? What if it was his fault...

These thoughts made Kal frown and looks very sad. He took a breath and said quietly.

"I went to your house..."

Rema blinked, and looked up at him

"Thats why you were gone for so long..?"

She put down her book, one of the symbols only half completed

"W-Why? Or.. why didnt you just tell me?"

Kalbert looked down and tried to come up with an answer for her, but they all sounded lame and stupid. He was starting to feel guilty but he remembered the burn marks.

"I-i found something Rema...burn marks in the mattress...not in the sheets...they smelled like sulfur...I took...video and pictures and voice recordings...to see if anything spiritual was present while I was looking around...I'm...sorry but if we waited too long...things might...have vanished..."

He stared intently down at the carpet just waiting for her to yell and leave.

Rema wasnt sure what to feel, she felt like he didnt trust her enough. She nodded slowly, and went back to drawing the second symbol

"we should go over it then, see if anything came up.."

She went back to biting her lip,trying to get the symbol perfect

"I just...didn't want to make you go...back if you didn't...want too...and uhm...y-yeah...might have gotten some EVPs or something..."

He shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. Not sure what she was thinking but surprised she wasn't that mad, or mad at all.

She nodded a bit, still trying to perfect the symbol

"that would be great, would give a nice lead, how about you set everything up?"

She kept looking back and forth between the symbols until she got them both perfect and nodded

He looked at her, still unsure of how she was reacting but he nodded a little. he started to head tot he study and stopped and walked back over and pointed at the symbol.

"Add a curved line there...I think that symbol is ancient latin..."

He shook his head a little, unsure then headed into the study. He opened up a cabinet that was tucked into a corner and started up his computer and started work on getting everything set up.

"ah .. thats right"

She did as he said to both symbols, and gasped slightly, just for a moment, closing her eyes tightly. She had memories suddenly rush at her, of the last time she used this, and dropped her book to the ground, staring at it, seeming somewhat breathless even though she barely moved