The Possessed Read online

  Eloise got to the door before me, whipped it open, and hurried out.

  I followed a second later, and Eloise went to Nona’s other side to help her to the Oldsmobile.

  “I’m fine, you two.” Nona grunted the words. She cringed in pain and placed a hand against her hip, massaging it. “You can let me go now.”

  “You’re okay?” I asked as Eloise and I exchanged puzzled glances. “But the demon—”

  “Don’t worry about me.” She rubbed her left elbow. “I’ll be fine.” She hobbled, favoring her right side. She put a hand through her hair and continued toward the street. “Well, that was…unusual.”

  Yeah, it’s not every day someone picks you up with one hand and tosses you into the sofa.

  “We should go to the hospital,” Eloise said, reaching the passenger side of her car. She popped open the door for Nona. “You look like you’re in agony.”

  Nona took her time getting inside, even groaning in discomfort. When she sat down, a haunted expression took ownership of her. “What happened in your home? I’ve never encountered anything like it.”

  16

  Half an hour later, as we sat in a booth at a family restaurant, I appreciated the sunlight shining through the blinds beside us, and while Eloise tried to fiddle with the blinds to dull the luminosity, I waved her off. I didn’t want to admit that all of the darkness in my home had sunk into my bones, not to mention the vexed look in Nona’s eyes after we left my house. I needed the illumination to cut through the pitch-black feeling that tried to enter my soul.

  Opposite me, and seated beside Eloise, Nona pushed aside the saucer holding a croissant and grunted from the effort.

  “We should be in the emergency room,” I said, unsure why Nona wouldn’t admit that she was suffering. Of course, I wanted to get the demon out of my sister, but I couldn’t do that if Nona was only a shadow of her former self.

  “I’ll be fine.” The elderly woman blew on the hot coffee in front of her.

  Eloise ignored the slice of cheesecake sitting in front of her and looked out the window while tapping her foot against the tile, her face crimped in worry and confusion.

  “Your mother and sister,” Nona said, “are they close?”

  “They’re like twins,” I said before realizing how much those words hurt me. I didn’t want to let negativity into my heart, so I deflected those thoughts from further consideration. “I’m having a tough time with all this.”

  “According to Eloise,” Nona said, “your sister had turned the tables on you.”

  “Right,” I agreed. “When I asked my sister about it, she acted like I was nuts. She didn’t remember doing any of it, so the demon must’ve been in charge of her then.”

  Nona and Eloise looked at each other with disappointed expressions before turning their attention on me.

  “What’s wrong? Just blurt it out.”

  Eloise said, “It’s obvious your mother drinks around the clock. After you finished seeing Jake a couple of nights ago, you went home and saw Noelle holding a bottle of liquor. Is that right?”

  “Yes. She bought it for my mother. I know its codependent behavior, but why is that so significant?”

  “She wasn’t only delivering it for your mother.”

  I’d heard so much bad news lately that I needed the truth without anyone trying to break more upsetting news to me gently. “You’re saying my sister’s an alcoholic?”

  “Has Noelle joined your mother during her alcoholic binges?”

  “Yeah, but she’s not an alcoholic.” Nonetheless, I had to admit to noticing an obnoxious scent occasionally peaking out under the perfume Noelle wore every day. Had she been drinking more often than I’d thought? I concentrated on how long that had been going on, but I couldn’t pinpoint when it may have started.

  If what Noelle suspected was true, what kind of sister ignored those facts? Then again, Noelle split time between her radio gig reporting on traffic patterns in the city and her anchor job, so she was working twelve-hour days at least six days a week. With her spending time with Lilah, I now found it far from surprising that she may have used alcohol to cope with the stress.

  I should have checked in with her more frequently. Instead, I’d been single-minded about my own career pursuits. And look how that turned out. I wanted the last few days to disappear into a void, but I knew such hopeful thinking would never happen, so I worked on controlling my emotions so I didn’t wig out.

  “By drinking so often,” Eloise said, “your sister may have allowed her mind to wander and open herself to outside influences.”

  You had seen them drinking together more frequently. So why hadn’t you said something? Did it have anything to do with jealousy? Jealousy caused by the close relationship between your mother and sister? Or was it something more self-serving? Were you upset that your mother took your best friend away from you?

  “But my mother’s the alcoholic. If anyone’s ripe for a demon infestation, it would be her, not my sister.”

  “Has Noelle been acting unusual of late?” asked Nona.

  “No,” I admitted. “Not at all.”

  “On the phone,” Eloise said, “you told me that your sister looks for approval from others to build her confidence: her appearance, her job, her friends, all that. I might be wrong, but it seems like she’s always turning to others for advice, always seeking a better way, always hoping to get something just out of her reach. I think those are the reasons she’s been listening to the demon whispering in her ear. She’s so used to taking advice that she’s begun taking it without thinking where it’s coming from because the alcohol she’s been drinking makes it tough for her to juggle between good and bad advice.

  “That’s why she tried hurting you. I don’t think it was a conscious decision. She just did it because the demon floated the idea past her, and she’d gotten used to outside influence. Your sister was open to the idea and tested the waters, but then she probably realized how much she didn’t want anything to do with this demon. I’d bet that’s when the demon punished her, which explains why your sister had those bruises. But her drinking became a distraction from dealing with reality. She probably let the demon in without even thinking about it until it was too late.”

  Everything Eloise said made sense. My sister had always looked to improve herself, but she’d never consulted her inner feelings and taken the wheel herself without getting directions from someone else. I presumed it stemmed from disinterest in an advanced degree outside of high school. She listened to others who had more experience, more education, more success and prayed that taking it would lead her to what she wanted: money and fame.

  So far, Noelle hadn’t done so bad for herself, but by accepting advice from everyone, she was bound to apply some propositions as sound guidance when in reality, she had finally set herself up for monumental failure. The only problem was that it wouldn’t result in losing a job or ruining her career.

  This time, she might lose her life.

  Once again, the weight of helping my sister weighed on me. I treasured the memories we’d shared, and I missed the relationship we once had. I think we’d both wanted to return to that close-knit friendship, and now, knowing that I might not get her back at all made me want to fight for her even harder. I was ashamed that it took demonic possession to make me put our relationship first. I’d watched it fade over the past couple years, but Noelle may no longer have enough strength to fight for herself, so I might need to save the most important relationship I’d ever had.

  Nona hadn’t spoken in a while, and she didn’t seem in a hurry to start now. Even worse, she looked to be in great pain. She had already told us over a handful of times that she didn’t need a doctor to look over her injuries, so I decided to drop the issue. “What’s wrong?” I asked her between bites of a blueberry muffin. “Something spooked you back there. What was it?”

  Nona took her time before meeting my gaze. “I’ve worked a few dozen possession cases, but the demon that ho
lds sway over your sister…” She tilted her head up toward the ceiling, mouth open, eyes half-closed as though asking God for answers she’d asked Him privately. “I don’t know what to make of it.”

  “What’s so strange about this case?” I asked, my stomach churning at her inability or unwillingness to explain what troubled her.

  Eloise looked my way. “From what Nona told me, no demon will let you know it has possessed a human.”

  Until now, I’d never considered my sister a victim. She’d always been the one leading the charge for everything, whether it be a craft fair in middle-school, heading up a pep rally during high school, or using her wiles to get a job in the media industry that…On second thought, the demon admitted Noelle needed some help to close the deal on getting her “deepest desires”. Could getting that job have been it?

  “Once the demon worms its way inside,” Nona continued, “it crushes the host’s will to fight.” She said to Eloise, “Do you still think Noelle is putting up a fight?”

  Eloise nodded.

  “Hmmm.” Nona fell quiet.

  I didn’t like these odd silences, probably because it meant Nona was either conflicted about something or uncertain about our predicament. “I can’t just sit here and not help my sister.” I grasped the glass of cold water in front of me and tightened my grip on it to feel some measure of discomfort to get my mind off the conflict whirling around my sister. We need to come up with a plan.”

  “We will.” Nona reached across the table and took my free hand. “Be patient.”

  “For how long?” I asked in a timid tone, one that contrasted with the persistent anger that made me want to shout at Nona for remaining so calm in a situation like this. “How long can she fight this demon?”

  “Quite a while,” she said.

  “How long is that?” I asked. And how did Nona know that? Maybe she’d exorcised the demons and later questioned those she’d set free.

  “I’ve felt Noelle fighting it,” said Eloise.

  Her response lifted my spirits. It sparked the idea that we still had a chance to save her.

  Nona took a sip from her coffee. “This demon is strong, yet I can’t remember where I first met it. And that is unusual because once a demon possesses a host it usually forgets whom it possessed in the past. This demon is different.” She stroked the coffee mug with her fingers as though doing so might elicit some deeper thinking about this case.

  I hated the emphasis Nona had placed on the demon’s strength, especially when she looked confounded. It made her look as tiny as her body. I needed someone more confident, a person who could go in, take charge, and expel the demon from my sister. And contrary to Eloise’s claims that Nona was up for the challenge, I couldn’t help but wonder if Nona could tackle the situation without enduring even more pain than the first time she met the demon.

  As if reading my mind, Nona felt the spot around her neck the demon had grabbed. She flinched, possibly due to the pain.

  It hurt me to see someone so old, so fragile have to deal with evil. Nona should be relaxing while reading a book and drinking tea, not fighting demons.

  “The demon is cocky,” Eloise said, “because it thinks it can do as it pleases.”

  Annoyed, I leaned forward, pressing my chest against the table. “You were vague before, so how long can my sister fight it before she gives in?”

  “It could be days or weeks,” said Nona. “In some cases, possibly even months.”

  It had been a couple of weeks since Noelle and Lilah had first used the Ouija board, and while I didn’t know when the demon had entered my sister’s body, I feared Noelle’s defenses might not last much longer. I deflected that thought by allowing another worrisome idea to enter my mind.

  The demon knew things it shouldn’t have or couldn’t have, and I wondered if it had left Noelle’s body and somehow tracked us here. I glanced around the restaurant looking for anything or anyone out of place, like a stranger listening in to our conversation. “What if it’s listening to us right now?”

  Nona squeezed my knuckles. “Slow down, dear. The demon can’t hear us. It can’t body hop. A demon can go anywhere when it’s outside of a host. Only then can it confer with its brethren.” She retracted her palm and settled back in the booth once more.

  “How can you say that? It heard us talking outside my house. How do you know it’s not here now listening to us?”

  Eloise said, “It left your sister’s body to listen in on us. It can come and go at will, but at that point, it wouldn’t have taken long for it to get back inside of Noelle’s body. We’re pretty far from your house, so I really doubt if it would track us. Besides, most demons are arrogant, so it thinks we can’t defeat it. Plus, it wants to keep wearing down your sister’s defenses, so it’ll want to remain inside her as long as possible.”

  The hand I’d wrapped around my glass of ice water had almost grown numb from the cold, so I removed it, and it rattled not from the chill pervading my flesh, but the knowledge that Noelle might not be able to hold off the demon much longer. I looked up at the two women on the other side of the table.

  “We can’t just sit here,” I said, feeling miserable that I wasn’t taking action. “I’m not doing enough. How can I help?”

  “Once we return to your house,” Nona said, “follow my instructions.”

  “See, that’s what I’m talking about. I don’t mind taking direction, but I need to do something. You’re hurt. Maybe I should do the exorcism.”

  “Not a good idea,” Eloise said. “It’s not something anyone can do.”

  “Just because you’re scared,” I said, “doesn’t mean I am.” Even though I was. I turned to Nona. “I can do it. Show me how.”

  “Child,” Nona said to me, “do you believe in the Lord?”

  I wouldn’t tell her I hadn’t spoken to him in quite some time. “Yes.”

  “You hesitated,” said Nona. “When it comes to an exorcism, you must believe completely in God and that Jesus speaks through you. If you cannot feel that, you will fail.”

  I wasn’t devout in my belief, the kind that meant I went to church every Sunday, prayed to God on a daily basis, or even read scriptures in the Bible, so I yielded to her explanation.

  Since neither Nona nor Eloise found it imperative to return to my house without a fleshed out plan of attack, they most likely presumed the demon wouldn’t overtake my sister anytime soon. As much as I feared that might happen, I relied on their insight and set my worries aside.

  Once again, I recalled the spill Nona had taken earlier. I checked her throat for a bruise. I didn’t see anything, but at her age, she must be quite brittle. What if she’d broken a bone? Maybe adrenaline had dulled some of her pain at first, but now that nearly half an hour had passed, the rush had most likely trailed away. “How are you doing?”

  Nona offered a fleeting smile. “Thank you for your concern.” She took a bite of her croissant and washed it down with some coffee. “Aside from two cracked ribs and a hairline fracture in my fibula, I feel fine.” She winked at me to show she’d been joking.

  “Phew.” I appreciated a moment of levity to shake the nervousness from attacking me.

  Eloise sliced a fork through her cheesecake. “That was incredibly dangerous back there, Nona. Don’t get that close again.”

  “Ah, yes,” Nona said with an impenetrable nod. “Next time. As Eloise stated earlier, no demon openly tells you it’s in control of a human.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t want anyone to know what it is and what it's doing.”

  “Why not?” I repeated.

  After taking a bite of her dessert, Eloise said, “So it could sow more anger, resentment, destruction, and chaos.”

  “There’s usually a phase,” Nona said, “where the exorcist must prove that she knows the demon has taken up residence inside the victim, and the demon pretends to be ignorant of that fact. It is a test of wills, as is the entirety of any exorcism. When we app
roached it, the demon outright told us that we’d met in the past.” She sat straight against the cushioned padding of the booth, troubled by that twist.

  “Why would it do that?” I asked.

  “That’s what I find so troubling,” Nona said.

  “In what way?” asked Eloise, slumping against the window to face her mentor.

  “I don’t know,” Nona admitted.

  I couldn’t understand why a demon might identify itself. Something about that seemed like a ruse, something that might negatively affect it at first, only to potentially aid its plans later, whatever they might be.

  “I need to be strong for my sister.” Anger boosted my courage as though someone had filled it into a syringe and shot it into my arm. “I can’t just sit around here.”

  Nona and Eloise examined their expressions, as though wondering how long my determination and certainty to help Noelle would last before settling their gazes on me.

  Nona turned to her partner. “The demon said something about seeing me again so soon and then it almost looked as if it had revealed too much.”

  “That’s right,” Eloise said, excitement hitting her tone as she straightened. “Who could it be?”

  “I don’t know. Each demon I’ve vanquished was memorable in its own way, but I didn’t have enough time with this demon to get a grasp of its personality. It may have been the one who harassed me after I’d exorcised it.”

  “What?” asked Eloise, raising her voice loud enough for a half-dozen customers to look her way before returning to their food and conversations. “You never told me about that,” she said in a hushed, aggravated tone. “Does that happen a lot?”

  “It’s only happened once. The demon knocked picture frames off my wall and slammed doors in the middle of the night. Without a body to harness the extra energy it needed, the demon eventually gave up bothering me.”