Over the next few months, Carmina did everything she could in an attempt to break me. My once happy life here in Spring Valley was now a living hell.
I woke up in the mornings to see strange words like beauty written in blood red lipstick on my mirror.
I’d go to the bathroom and see words like suffer crudely written in black eyeliner or ink on the bathroom tile.
Sometimes I’d open my curtains and see hate on the window or open my eyes in the morning and see murderscratched into my ceiling.
I’d open my dresser and see the word evil carved into the wood of the drawers.
But no one else saw any of it. They were blind…blind to the evil that they had let into their lives…that Ihad let into their lives.
Carmina eased her way into each and every thing I did.
When I went to work, she was there. The stylists that I once considered my friends now barely noticed that I was around.
They couldn’t get enough of Carmina.
Her creamy complexion and beautiful curly hair was like a stylist’s dream come true.
They doted over her; constantly wanting to make her up and style her hair.
I was now like a ghost…and no one noticed that I started dying a little on the inside when she arrived. All they saw was Carmina and her beauty…her dreadful beauty.
The worst part of it all was watching Carmina slowly poison the minds of Eva and her family during that time. The torment and helplessness that I felt was like being burned alive without dying.
Everyone absolutely adored her; especially Crisannwho practically worshiped her.
Everything Carmina did, Crisannwanted to be a part of…
…and that scared me. I knew that Carmina was not one to be admired or looked up to.
But like with Nick, Carmina had full control of them all.
They believed that she could do no wrong and she played on that belief any chance she got.
They were as blind as I was when I first saw Carmina. But now my eyes were wide open; standing on the outside looking in…
…trying to figure what I could do to stop her…and she knew it.
She knew that I wasn’t going to give up this time. I would figure out a way to stop her for good.
I didn’t know how it was possible, but I was pretty sure that when Carmina mentioned the otherson the day that she arrived, that she was referring to other families that she’d managed to destroy.
The problem was I couldn’t figure out how a tiny baby could have destroyed other families… unless there was some sort of supernatural phenomena involved. But what I did know was that there was no way I was going to allow her to destroy thisfamily.
I made a very important decision when I began to witness first hand the full impact of Carmina’sdominion over Crisann.
Once sweet and kind…Crisannwas now becoming a little monster…a miniature Carmina.
Carmina took pleasure in tormenting me any chance she got. Neither Eva, Linda, or Greg was around when she would do it…
…but Crisannwas and everything Carmina did, Crisanndid.
Crisanncalled me into the bathroom one day, saying that the sink was stuck and that she couldn’t turn it on. When I went in to help water began to shoot up all around me; totally drenching me.
While I stood there fumbling to turn off the faucet, feeling like I was drowning, Crisannwas laughing…the same evil type of laugh that I often heard coming from Carmina.
Just as I finally managed to stop the water from coming out, Carmina appeared behind me.
“You know what to do…” she said to Crisannbefore leaving the room.
Just then Eva walked into the bathroom. “What happened here?” She asked.
That’s when the manipulation and lies started. Crisannturned on her most innocent tone… “Grandma…Miss Diane broke the sink and I came in to help her!” She said; not mentioning her part in the whole thing.
“That’s sweet,” Eva said to Crisann. But to me, she said, “Get that fixed and please clean up this mess before somebody slips.” Eva didn’t even bother to ask my side of the story.
While this prank seemed somewhat harmless…I knew that before long, the pranks would escalate…even becoming dangerous and Crisannwould be right there with Carmina making it all happen. I had one choice…I had to leave…return to Midnight Hallow, and take Carmina with me before this family ended up like Nick.
