Haunted

Lily’s nightmares got worse over the next month and sleep became nearly impossible, despite her attempts to shut everything out. Beyond the nightmares, she’d also started experiencing noises and physical manifestations in her apartment as well as migraines.

She had never been scared of her gift and had always invited spirits to talk to her, but this thing was different. The creature itself took multiple forms, each bringing with it a mixture of emotions and thoughts.

Awoken just after noon by her phone ringing, Lily grabbed it off the coffee table and answered it without looking at the screen.

“Hello?” she greeted, settling back against the arm of the sofa and running a hand over her face tiredly.

‘Hey’ came Zak’s voice from the other end, ‘Did I wake you?’

“No, what’s up?”

‘We’re in Vegas filming for an upcoming episode and thought that we could maybe grab some lunch.’

“Sure.”

‘Normal place in about an hour?’

“See you there.”

The diner where they regularly ate was busy, but it didn’t take her long to spot Zak sitting in their usual booth and planted a smile on her face as she made her way over to him.

“Hey,” he stated, standing up and kissing her cheek, “You look exhausted, are you okay?”

It would have been the easiest thing in the world to lie to him, but they had known each other for a long time and didn’t have secrets. With a sigh, she hesitantly told him everything and felt a heavy weight lift from her chest.

“I’m not sure if the demon from the house attached itself to me, or if I was already being haunted, but I do know that it’s only going to get worse,” Lily said as she ate.

“Have you spoken to anyone else about it?”

“I thought about talking to Reverend Thomas, maybe ask him to do an exorcism but...” Lily began, “I have no idea what adverse effects it would have on me.”

After talking about it for another hour, Lily agreed to talk to Reverend Thomas and felt herself relax a little when Zak offered to go with her. She had worked with the Reverend on several occasions, mostly on cases that involved grieving loved ones and yet, Lily found herself reluctant to ask for his help.



The building before them was beautiful, constructed from old stone and colorful stained glass windows that depicted various religious scenes. It had been a while since Lily had stepped foot in a church, but it didn’t hold the peace that it used to and that told her that something was wrong.

Sat on a pew, Lily stared up at the statue of Jesus on the cross and found herself stuck in some kind of trance. Voices echoed in her mind, screams of raw pain and pleas for help that would go unanswered. Someone’s hand on her arm snapped her back to reality and she cleared her throat, shifting her gaze to where the Reverend was now stood in front of them.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he apologized, “What can I do to help?”

Filling him in on everything that had happened, Lily fell silent and glanced over at the statue with sudden uneasiness.

“Have you ever heard of anything like this happening to a medium?” Zak inquired after a short silence.

“I’ve only ever seen this once,” the Reverend answered.

“What was the outcome?” Zak added hesitantly as if he didn’t really want to hear the answer.

“Not a good one, Lily, how do you feel?”

“I don’t know, I guess I kind of feel like I’m slowly going crazy,” Lily admitted, “I’ve always been in control of my gifts, but this is different and I feel like a piece of me slips away with every encounter... like it takes a piece of who I am with it.”