Haunted

‘Dark shadows lingered just on the edge of Lily’s peripheral, hidden by fog and she knew that she wasn’t really awake. Psychic cleansings were exhausting, both mentally and physically, but sometimes they were necessary.

Sat crossed-legged on the ground, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The idea of the process was to rid herself of the demon attached to her and so far she hadn’t sensed its darkness, but demons were known to be tricksters.

Somewhere in the distance, Lily could hear voices and cautiously made her way towards them. No matter how far she walked the voices never seemed to get closer and she carried on walking, until suddenly she was falling.’

Lily came too with a gasp, fighting to catch her breath and pulling away as someone touched her arm.

“Lil?” came Zak’s voice from nearby, “Hey, it’s okay... it’s just me.”

Disorientated, she fought to re-establish her grasp on reality and took a few deep breaths. Slowly, the fog seemed to clear from her mind and she relaxed under Zak’s touch rather than flinching away. Not trusting her voice, Lily focused on the sensation of Zak’s fingers running through her hair and looked up as Jay knelt in front of her.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked, retrieving a bottle of water and handing it to her.

“Drained,” Lily answered honestly, uncapping the bottle and taking a few small sips, “It feels like I’ve completely opened myself up for a long length of time.”

“Do you think the process worked?” Zak added from his position on the arm of the sofa.

“I guess only time will tell,” Lily mumbled, “I can’t feel it anymore, but that doesn’t mean that it’s gone... it could be hiding.”

Not once since fully understanding her gift had she ever seen it as a burden, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t scare her and that’s what nobody seemed to understand. It’s not always clear why a spirit hasn’t crossed over and demons generally didn’t have one, but there was always a way to free yourself... even though this time felt different.

“Are you hungry?” Jay asked, “I made tacos.”

“I could eat.”

***

It had been a few weeks since Lily had tried a psychic cleansing and despite not feeling any sensations of attachment, she was still experiencing paranormal activity within her apartment. Some nights were quiet, but the majority of them were filled with noises and stuff moving.

“So, what’s going on?” Zak inquired as they sat in a diner eating lunch.

“I don’t know, since doing the cleansing the paranormal activity around me has been crazy,” Lily explained with a shrug, “Voices in the middle of the night, footsteps, doors opening and closing.”

“Anything physical?”

“Scratches, random bruises and marks on my skin... kind of like burn marks.”

“Sounds like the demon is annoyed,” Zak said, earning a nod of agreement from Lily, “Now, we just need to get rid of it permanently... what’s wrong Lil?”

“I’ve just been having those nightmares again,” Lily confessed quietly, “I walk into a dark basement and there’s a body in the center of the floor, but it has no face. At first, I couldn’t make out who it was, but over time it’s become clearer and the body belongs to me.”

“It could just be your subconscious playing on your fear, there’s no reason to think that it’s anything else,” Zak tried to reassure her, but Lily wasn’t convinced and he knew that, “How about coming to stay with me for a while?”

“I...” Lily started to argue, but quickly fell silent, “That would be good.”

Lily hated how vulnerable this demon was making her, but it was easier to handle with Zak and the others there to help her through.