The Possessed Read online

  He turned to Lilah. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms.—”

  I was so pissed at him that I pushed him through the threshold and out of the house before he had a chance to finish his sentence.

  12

  “Great,” Jake said, stopping on the porch to close the door behind me. “There you go abusing me again!”

  “Cut the shit, Jake.” I started down the sidewalk toward his car at the curb. “How could you take my sister’s side?” My mind attempted to veer toward the familiar excuse: he found her more attractive, more exciting, and more charismatic. But unless they’d met before tonight, Jake wouldn’t have had enough time to feel that way.

  That was a relief, but given the circumstances, I felt like he’d betrayed me, and even worse, he never understood me. Is this how it had really been these past few months? Had I been so deliriously happy to have a boyfriend that I’d overlooked the truth? Maybe. I didn’t like that answer, but I had to consider it a possibility.

  Jake led me toward the street at a quick clip. “What was that all about?”

  I found it hard to keep up. “That wasn’t my sister.” To see her change so starkly in ways that I wouldn’t have considered possible only a few days ago, my heart tugged at me to turn around and check on her. “She doesn’t talk or act that way.”

  “What’re you saying? Your mom had triplets?”

  “No, it’s just…we need to talk. How does a long walk sound?”

  “Normally? Yes. But I am not leaving my car in front of your house. Your sister might slash my tires.”

  “Wait,” I said, bewildered. “So you believe me?”

  “I don’t know what I believe.”

  My gut tightened at the possibility that Jake still didn’t trust me, that this might be the end of our relationship. Tears instantly entered my eyes. “I’ve got to tell you something.”

  “Let me guess: your family is messed up.” He pulled away and his lips curled into a half-smile. “Did I pass the quiz?”

  “Y-e-s,” I admitted. “But I don’t want you to think I’m crazy.”

  He didn’t say a word.

  I looked down, frightened that what I had to say might put Jake over the edge. But he’d had enough reason to leave earlier, so I needed to trust that he might believe me, even if he’d already admitted he had a tough time doing so.

  Jake reached out for my hand. “Let’s talk about it in the car.”

  While Jake drove through the city streets, I’d explained all of the strange events that went down in our home since my family used the Ouija board. Afterward, I let out a heavy breath and waited for Jake’s reaction.

  He stared out the windshield.

  “Say something.”

  Jake opened his mouth but thought better of it and closed it again.

  My nerves clinched, making me fumble for words. “See? I knew you’d think I’m crazy.”

  He cocked his head to the side, silently conceding that point. “It’s either that, or you live in a haunted house.”

  “It’s not haunted. I didn’t see a ghost. As far as I know, spirits aren’t composed of black smog. But something visited us.”

  “It could be a demon,” Jake said.

  My head snapped in his direction. I figured he’d say that. Demons were an entity I hadn’t researched.

  “What else could it be? Something without physical matter, but filled with energy. If it’s not a ghost, it has to be a demon.”

  “You believe in demons?”

  “I believe in angels. And I can’t believe in them and think demons don’t exist.”

  “So you believe me?”

  Jake made a right turn, stopped at the red light ahead, and looked around the interior of the car before settling his gaze on mine. “I guess so.”

  That wasn’t the most convincing response. He still seemed conflicted.

  “I don’t think I should hang with your family for a while.”

  “Why?” After all the emotional turbulence the last few days, I’d prefer him to be at my side. On the other hand, he knew the circumstances I’d been dealing with and he wasn’t interested in sticking around. It felt like he’d hammered an iron spike into my heart.

  “Do you think it’s going to get any better than it was an hour ago?” he asked.

  I couldn’t imagine Lilah and Noelle warming up to him anytime soon. Rather than answer his question, I said, “I’m responsible for my sister.” I’d never really thought about it that way until now, but a surge of memories flooded my brain: handling chores she’d been responsible for a zillion times during middle school because she wanted to hang out with her friends; doing her algebra homework for almost a month so she’d pass her math class. When a cop arrived at the front door and told my mother that Noelle had bought liquor for a senior class party, I appeared by my mother’s side and impersonated my sister well enough to trick the officer into believing I would never break the law. I’d always been there for her, always done whatever was necessary to make sure she didn’t get in trouble. An assault on her was an assault on me.

  So now, with the accusation of rape hanging over Jake’s head, I needed to set things right. This time, I viewed things in a new light, one where Noelle wasn’t responsible for her actions. This time, she hadn’t willingly acted of her own accord. This time, something else had guided her actions. She wasn’t guilty. And she needed my help.

  My phone rang. I pulled it out of my purse and answered it, hoping it would be Eloise. “Hello.”

  “Hi, Jocelyn? It’s Eloise Blythe.” Her voice sounded as smooth as if honey coated her tongue. “I heard you’ve had some strange things going on at your house.”

  “Yes,” I said, ecstatic that she had finally gotten in touch. “Thank you so much for calling me back.”

  “So you’ve had some unexplained phenomena happening in your house?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  I spent twenty minutes describing every detail so Eloise would know exactly what we were dealing with and afterward answered every question she had.

  Jake pulled to a stop at the curb outside my home and killed the engine.

  I’d been so focused while talking that I hadn’t realized that we’d returned to my neighborhood until now.

  Jake got out and made his way to me, but when he gazed at my house, he looked as if his insides squirmed.

  “All right,” said Eloise. “We should meet.”

  “Great,” I said. “The sooner the better.”

  “How about now?”

  “That would be fantastic!”

  Behind me, a car door opened. Across the street, a young woman around eighteen-years-old got out of a rusty white Oldsmobile that looked as if it had existed for decades. A dark-haired woman with a pixie cut and purple highlights approached us. “Hey, Jocelyn.”

  “You were here all along?” I asked, breathless at the idea that she’d be able to check out my house immediately.

  “You gave my boss your contact info, so here I am.” Her friendly demeanor gave way to a more professional one. “But my partner is the star of the show. She’s kind of wiped out from our last gig, so I’m sorry, but I’m all you’ve got.”

  “That’s fine,” I said, “but who’s your partner? Rosalind mentioned her.”

  “Her name is Nona Torres. She’s been helping me hone my skills as a psychic.”

  After we shook hands, I introduced her to Jake.

  They exchanged smiles in greeting, and then Jake’s phone rang. He scooped it out of his jeans front pocket and placed it against his ear. “Hello? Yes, Dean Winslow, thanks for calling. Oh…” His eyes met mine. “Right now?” Jake flinched and lowered his gaze, appearing disappointed. “Is there any way I can meet you later?” He looked elsewhere. “Oh, I see. Well, I guess I’ll be right over there then. Thanks, Dean Winslow. Goodbye.” He hung up. “It seems the dean is leaving for a family vacation to Orlando later tonight to avoid traffic on the highway. He has a plan in pl
ace for how to deal with the accusation. I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

  I was disappointed, but I couldn’t ask him to stay, not under these circumstances. Besides, our first meeting with my family didn’t go well. I went over and hugged him. He put his arms around me, but whereas in the past, he might hold me tight or kiss me, this time he did neither. It felt like our relationship was dying, and it cut me deep inside that I didn’t exactly put more effort into this embrace. “Thanks for coming by.” I stepped back.

  “You’re welcome. I’ll let you know how it goes with the dean. And call me with an update about whatever you two find out.” He got back into his car and drove away.

  I nodded, stunned by how he didn’t consider my predicament significant. Yes, his career was in jeopardy, and he had a limited amount of time to save it, but he’d mentioned the presence of a demon. Didn’t that earn more than a shrug and a quick goodbye?

  My breath left me as I watched him walk to his car. During our fifth date, he’d mentioned wanting to get married and starting a family, and while that future definitely appealed to me, it now seemed very far away.

  “Well,” said Eloise, looking up at my home. “What do you say we check things out?”

  From my research, I’d learned that, as a psychic, Eloise had the ability to identify emotions within others and, after touching another person, could potentially view past moments or upcoming events from that individual’s life. Of course, that depended on the strength and training of any given psychic, so I didn’t know what to expect from Eloise.

  “You gave me a pretty good idea of what’s been happening,” Eloise said. “But I’d like to just take things as they come, so don’t act any differently now than any other time.”

  “Okay, sure.” I reached the front door, my chest was tight with worry. I wrapped my hand around the doorknob but didn’t twist it. “Ready?”

  Eloise nodded. “Only if you are.”

  Her words gave me pause. A few seconds ticked by. I turned to her. “Actually, I’m not. Ready, that is.”

  “Oh?” She stared into my eyes, waiting for an explanation.

  “I’m unsure about all this.”

  “About opening the door? It’s actually pretty simple. Just turn the knob and push.”

  Her quiet confidence filled me with courage. “Okay.” I opened the door.

  “Hey!” said Noelle, sitting on the couch beside Lilah as both of them held red solo cups and watched an episode of The Simpsons on TV.

  Noelle set her eyes on my guest. “Hey, Eloise. I’ve been expecting you!”

  13

  “Expecting us?” I asked my sister, unnerved by her sense of prognostication. “But I just met Eloise.”

  Eloise drew close and placed her mouth next to my ear. “Don’t believe everything she says.”

  I didn’t need a psychic to tell me that. Still, I looked into Eloise’s eyes, only to find her giving me a hard stare, one that told me to trust her and follow her lead.

  “Sometimes demons have otherworldly knowledge.” Eloise stepped forward and set her gaze on Noelle. “How did you know I was coming?”

  My sister’s lips perked into a charming smile. “Oh, you know,” she said in a sing-along voice as she twisted a finger in her hair, as though she’d regressed a decade in the past minute. “Where’s your friend, Nona?” Her expression turned dour. “She’s the main event, isn’t she? You’re just her lackey.” Noelle affixed me with a dead stare, one void of emotion. “You left Eloise our landline number. She called asking for you.” She continued to twirl her hair in her index finger. “I may have impersonated you. No biggie”

  “Why would you do that?” I asked.

  Noelle issued a disappointed frown. “I said, ‘I may have impersonated you.’”

  I looked to Eloise. “Did you call here and think you were talking with me?”

  Eloise shook her head.

  “Oops,” said Noelle with a wicked gleam in her eye. “Busted.”

  Surprised that whatever controlled my sister somehow knew about Eloise and Nona, I searched my memory for whether I’d mentioned them to my sister and mother, but it took only a moment to realize that I’d kept their identity to myself. So how could Noelle have known that I’d contacted Eloise?

  “Aw, what’s the matter, sis?” Noelle chuckled and chugged from her cup before setting her gaze on Eloise. “Are you done, Eloise?”

  Eloise stirred at my side before stepping forward. “Hello, Ms. Ryland,” she said to my mother, acknowledging her with a nod of the head.

  My mother smiled at Eloise. “Another visitor. Wonderful. Would you like a glass of tea or coffee?”

  I appreciated that Lilah had offered Eloise a non-alcoholic beverage since she didn’t look old enough to drink liquor.

  “Are you done, Eloise?” my sister repeated with a devious stare. “You came. You saw. You know the truth. So, let’s say we get on with things, huh?”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. Had the supernatural creature that controlled my sister somehow met Eloise in the past?

  My sister said, “That woman is a seer. Isn’t that right, Eloise? But that’s all you do. You see the past, not the future. That must be frustrating: only looking backward and never forward. Oops, sorry, almost forgot: you can feel what others experience. But really, what good is that? Nona, on the other hand, does something. You just stand there, watching and listening.” Noelle’s humorous expression flattened. “Like I said: a second-rate lackey.”

  With the utmost indifference and poise, Eloise said, “How do you know about Nona and me?”

  Noelle turned a sarcastic scowl upon me. “What will bringing a psychic into our home accomplish? I expected a lot more from you, sis.”

  I found it difficult to look at my sister, who seemed anything but the person I’d known all my life. I crossed my arms across my chest because a chill had permeated the house.

  Eloise ignored my sister, acting as if Noelle hadn’t even spoken. She directed her stare at my mother.

  Noelle took another sip from her glass while something on TV captured her attention. “Ha!” She slapped a hand against her thigh. “That Homer…he’s such a riot!” A machine-gun of laughter erupted from her throat. “Definitely the best father in television history.” She turned to Lilah. “Am I right?”

  “Indeed.”

  “All right,” said Eloise. “It was nice to meet you both, but I should get going.” She walked right past me and opened the door.

  “See you soon,” said Noelle.

  Eloise stepped through the threshold.

  I walked out of the house and heard my sister’s sinister laugh as I shut the door behind me. It sent a quiver down my spine. “That’s it?” I asked Eloise. “Why are you leaving so soon?”

  Eloise stalked to her car with the fortitude of someone who didn’t want to hesitate until she’d reached her destination. “I don’t think I can help you.”

  “Why not? You were in my house for only a minute or two. You didn’t check anything out.”

  “I didn’t need more than that to find out what’s going on.”

  “What’s that? And how did Noelle know you and Nona?”

  “As I said, the demonic have otherworldly knowledge.”

  “Wait,” I said, outstretching a hand, stopping her. “The demonic?”

  “I may be getting ahead of myself,” she said, pressing two fingers to her lips, deep in thought.

  Her muted response, along with my sister’s strange behavior, made me trust Eloise because she seemed so confident in her assessment. My stomach plummeted as though I’d just gotten on an amusement park ride, only to have it drop fifty feet in one second. “A demon?” I repeated, shivering at how her statement mirrored that of Jake’s. “How’s that possible?”

  “I may have gotten that wrong,” Eloise admitted, shaking her head now as though accepting that response as fact.

  “Why?” I asked, caught off guard by her uncertainty.

 
; “Your sister hates me. I mean, she really hates me. Like she wants to attack me.”

  “You felt all that?” I asked, taken aback by what seemed like great exaggeration. “Noelle was demented and sarcastic and rude, I’ll give you that, but why do you say she wants to—”

  “Remember, I sense feelings. I’m often more empathic than psychic, but these abilities often feed off each other. Let me just say that Noelle seems like she wants to throw me in a tub of acid. That and her ability to know things she wouldn’t otherwise know make me wonder if a demon may have possessed her. There are a couple of other elements that will help identify the presence of a demon, and Nona’s presence might encourage your sister to reveal those signs.”

  I almost laughed. “She could have found out about that on your blog.”

  “And that’s why I might be wrong. Still, you didn’t tell her I was coming, but she knew about me. Either way, something is influencing your sister. Nona needs to handle this. She’s wiser and more experienced. But her last case took a lot out of her. She’ll need some time to rest before taking on another one.”

  “Why can’t you help?”

  “Your sister called me a ‘lackey.’ I’m more like an apprentice, but I don’t know enough to help.”

  “What else might make you think it might be a demon?”

  “Fear of sacred things,” Eloise said and pulled a cross pendant from underneath her blouse. She shook her head, disgusted. “I should have had this out. I forgot. Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”

  “Give yourself a break. No one’s great when they start something new.” Her blog had told me that much. I took a moment to consider what I was up against, but I needed more information. “What other signs might make you think a demon is involved?”

  “Speaking foreign languages the person doesn’t otherwise know and having extraordinary strength. Put all those together and you may have a demon infestation. But I don’t want to get too close to your sister, so we’ll need Nona to check things out and see what she thinks.”