The Holmes Curses: The Chill of the Crypt Ritual
Previously: This is Arson Ritual.
Whilst perusing the shadowed recesses of those dread forums dedicated to the macabre revelries of Halloween Horror Nights, I didst unearth a most singular and long-abandoned ritual in that ghastly section of Tumblr. Originally known as the “Screamhouse Hex”, this curse was once the property of a certain sinister scribe who called themself @yourtimehascome666 — an appellation most foreboding, which suggests a hub of macabre writings and morbid reblogs, all centered upon the eerie specter of one Dr. Albert Caine in its unholy prime. ‘Tis melancholic that this once-thriving community has since crumbled and been forgotten about, yet by fate, I was led to stumble upon its lingering vestiges. Moved by a solemn duty to preserve such knowledge, I have taken it upon myself to preserve and update the essence of this rite, weaving its dark directives into my own grim tapestry.
Many of its practices are rooted in authentic and ancient spiritual traditions, such as the use of graveyard dirt — a most potent substance, drawn from the resting places of the dead, its properties shaped by the nature of the spirit whence it was taken. Broken mirrors are also traditional symbols of bad luck. It is a most fitting scourge for those who are associated with suffocation — be it of the body, heart, mind, or the soul. Claustrophobic enemies, abusers who smother others under the weight of cruelty, censors (including CEOs who wouldst stifle the voices of whistleblowers), landlords who cast people into the cold — all are ripe for its malevolent embrace. In these wearisome and Trumpian times, such an instrument of retribution may prove most efficacious. And let it not be forgotten that those ravagers of the earth, the defilers of nature’s sanctity, shall likewise find themselves ensnared within its grasp.
Thanatophobes and necrophobes, beware and proceed with caution. The rest, do so at your own risk and discretion.
Participants:
One practitioner
Materials:
Shovel
Lancet
Flat rock
Mirror shard
Three dead flies
Target's backyard
Recording of spooky hospital sound effects
Rusted nail, preferably one pulled from an old coffin
Four small bones, one painted green, one painted red, one painted blue, and one left white
Source of dim lighting to be able to see, such as a flashlight, a candleholder with candles, or a lantern
Grave dirt, ideally collected from a nameless grave (especially that of a criminal/murderer)
(Optional) Chalk
(Optional) Wilting flowers
(Optional) Taglock of target
Directions:
Begin at 3 AM. You can either use a candleholder, a flashlight, or a lantern for dim lighting. Dig a shallow hole in the earth with a shovel near your target's house in a spot where it is hard to find. Find a flat rock that will serve as the headstone (if you want, you can write a message on it or a rune). Consecrate it by sprinkling a little bit of the grave dirt over the headstone. Do not fret if it is eventually stepped on by the target, it will only accelerate the curse.
Take the Bones. Hold the green bone aloft to the North. "Bone of Decay, Death's friend, mark the boundary of The Living's End." Place it at the Northern edge of the circle. Hold the red bone aloft to the South. "Bone of Cremation and what fire ate, mark the boundary where all Fates await." Place it at the Southern edge. Hold the blue bone aloft to the West. "Bone of Passage, Acheronian and Stygian pure, mark the threshold they cannot endure." Place it at the Western edge. Hold the regular bone aloft to the East. “Bone of Pneuma, where the breath is stilled, mark the boundary where death is fulfilled.” The space is now enclosed.
Call Upon the Caretaker. Play a distorted recording of surgical sounds while pricking your finger with the lancet and letting six drops of it fall onto the mirror. "One for silence, two for dread, three for the worms beneath their bed, four for the air turning to lead, five for my despise of the living — six for my love of the dead. He who delights in the process of prepping a corpse, I call upon you in this hex, of course. By rust and rot, by suture and seam, rise from where the damned scream. Come with your shears, come with all of your blades, come up from the depths of Hades. I know you'll act on your own if given the chance, in moves that are silent in a last macabre dance — so come forth to this cemetery at night, and to that who lives closely, give (the target's pronoun) fright."
Wait for Response. If you feel an unsettling presence, hear the scrape of medical shears, smell the overwhelming aroma of decomposition, or even a full-blown apparition, you may proceed. Your target's time has come and Albert is delighted to be assigned with torturing your enemy. Abort the ritual if a response is not given within the next three minutes, you suddenly find cuts across your flesh, or you suddenly fall ill. If a sign isn't given, he is simply not there and you probably performed a step wrong — but if it is any of the other two, he is displeased and it is in your best interest to not continue lest to piss him off any further.
Bury in Nameless Grave. Drop the dead flies inside. "Little wings, no air to breathe, just like (target's name) smothered by my seethe.” Whistle or hum some notes of a nursery rhyme (maybe Hush Little Baby, This Little Piggy, or Eenie Meenie) and immediately trap your breath against the mirror shard — this "catches" the malevolent energy in the air. Press the shard against the rusted nail, then drive it into the dirt. This ensures that they hallucinate being buried alive. “Nail your joy, nail your sight, nail your lungs shut — no more light.” Cover it all with the rest of the grave dirt.
Leave it Be. Vacate the premises without looking back, whistling or humming the rhyme again. “Here is something you seldom see: a dark, baleful, successful malison upon a person who has no heart.” For potency, before walking away, place an offering (I heard that he enjoys wilting flowers the best) and a taglock of the target on top of the makeshift cemetery. If you don't, the ritual may or may not work, or it may even affect you instead since you either used your own blood without using something that Dr. Caine can use to track down your enemy or he deems you as an ingrate who deserves to experience what you were planning on putting on your target in the first place. So... be careful.
Additional Notes:
This ritual MUST be performed, alone, in your target's backyard. If you were to perform it in another person's backyard, it would affect said person instead, and having other people partake in this malison would also affect them as well if they do not abide by the rules, which is why it is highly suggested to be solitary when performing this. Furthermore, do note that as with all of my Holmes Curses, this cannot be reversed or undone. As with all Spiritual Murderism rituals, do not get scared, let go of any preconceptions of it being "evil" or "bad", and keep it good and healthy. Be in a great personal space — clean, happy, and in a good mood. Be in your good senses.
Do NOT be surprised if you see him in the days after performing this ritual. This usually means one of two things, and you better hope that he's there to ask you what you want specifically done rather than harm you instead. Thus, again, I repeat, do not your own hands rather than the shovel, do not misplace the bones, do not use any more than six drops of blood lest he takes you as payment, do not inhale before catching your breath in the mirror, do not look back, don't whistle or hum a different rhyme, do not be an ingrate, do not only leave your own taglock there rather than yours and the target’s taglocks, and please abort the ritual if anything goes wrong. Obviously, this ritual involves summoning a spirit that delights in suffering, and if any step is done incorrectly, the consequences could be permanent, lethal, and far worse than anything you could imagine. Proceed only if you are willing to accept the price of any mistakes that may have been made.
On an easier note to take in, there are several ways that this ritual may not even work at all. Performing at any other time, phone screens may disrupt the ritual's energy (printing out the ritual is highly recommended), he may ignore the malison if you use less than six drops of blood, the recording isn't distorted, the nail isn't rusted, the flies aren't dead, exhaling too soon when catching your breath in the mirror, and lack of intent are all to blame here. However, if everything does work, the effects include but are not limited to the target dreaming of dirt filling the mouth (and waking up gasping and with dirt under the nails), near-suffocation episodes (e.g., choking, asthma attacks), feeling buried long before the body fails, etc.
