"So that's exactly what has been happening for the past few months. My mum tells me that I'm paranoid, and my dad will not most certainly believe in the supernatural, my sister seems to be doing fine, but I perceive a dark halo of evil. I cannot save her from herself. The more I think of it, I'm gradually losing everyone I ever cared about. I'm afraid, it's coming for me, for my family, and I cannot do anything about it. My reluctance killed Dylan. He was my masculine support. I told him anything and everything. I should have listened when he seemed disinterested. I should have backed out, and now because of me... He's dead. You really have to help me." Stephanie said. She had been talking to an exorcist, the one Dylan had suggested but had been initially turned down.

His name was Mr. Darren. They were very few of these kinds around, so Stephanie underwent miles to book an appointment with him. Till then, he hadn't spoken a word. One could read from his energy that he was analyzing the scenarios laid before him, but Stephanie wasn't quite sure. She had heard of the monstrous demons he had exorcised in the course of his specialization. Surely this shouldn't be a hitch, she had thought. He took a moment to take down some notes it seemed professional enough and convincing. Stephanie let her eyes run around with keen attention. She noticed a room in his office with a blue light and lightening flashes.

It's crazy sunny, and there are lightening flashes in one room?

She saw the need to put her thoughts into a polite question, and she did immediately.

"Well you see, what is in that room, is what I'd like to call Objects of Demonic Inhabitation Demons or evil spirits of the supernatural World, are utterly powerless in the physical realm without a body to do their bidding, so they usually target innocent unsuspecting children with little or no vile intent using their toys or possessing them. Signs begin to manifest from malignancy, stubbornness, and the rest. So I collect the vessel used and keep it locked up in that room where I study it." Mr. Darren said slightly dropping his pen and tapping the desk.

"You said... It possesses some children personally without any physical vessel?"

"That is correct. It all depends on the evil in question."

"You believe in demonic spirits?"

"Well, of course. That's basically my field of study." Mr. Darren laughed making Stephanie feel a little silly.

"My parents don't, so I was wondering if older people felt the same." She said in defence.
"Well, it's unfortunate most people do not believe in evil, but to have to know and make your family understand that diabolical forces and powers are real, and they exist within us. It's this power, this subduing force that catches people off guard."

"Do you love what you do? Don't you ever worry that someday this evil you drive out from homes boomerangs and hits you right in the face?"

"I have a faith that doesn't allow me fear... Besides this wasn't always my dream. Like every child I wanted something prestigious but fate said otherwise, and I love what I do."

Thereafter, an awkward silence eluded. Before Mr. Darren had been brought back to his immediate environment. Perhaps he saw a trance, or he remembered something that struck him. Stephanie let her eyes wander off a bit until it saw a picture frame on a wall. It was bold enough and easy to guess that it was his wife and daughters. They looked beautiful together, she appraised. After what looked like a moment, he looked up but missed her staring at the picture. He was always writing, Stephanie observed. He had now drawn closer as though he intended telling her something only meant for her hearing.

"I have filed your case to the best of my ability and taken notes where necessary, but I must confess, you are really brave."

"Thank you."

"So I have decided to let you have the credit. This will be your case to handle"

"Wait... What?"

"Yes, you have to complete your investigation, and at the end of tomorrow, you come over, and I'll see how far you have gone."

"But it's because I chose to handle it myself, that was why I lost my friends in the first place."

"Well, unfortunately it's your fight, but she didn't kill you yet because it's you she wants, so you find out the much you can. I know you would do a great job."

That night, Stephanie paced around and the words of the exorcist rang repeatedly.

Did he really know what he was saying?

She thought about where to begin she got her notepad where she had initially scribbled down some notes on the psychologist's and on Emily's case. At first she laughed at herself. It had seemed to her that she wanted to so badly be the detective, but now, she had been given the privilege to be so. It didn't seem quite easy.

Then a thought ran through.

What happened in the Psychotherapist's office earlier on her death day that could warrant her life.?

"I told you, I don't know anything." Karla replied when Stephanie had asked her details of their last therapeutic session.

"What did she tell you? What was her diagnosis and therapy?"

"How does that..."

"Answer me!!"

She exclaimed more than intended. She remembered her encounter with the exorcist on demonic inhabitation. Perhaps her sister was under this influence. Later on, Stephanie searched and read on the local household website on those who had earlier lived in their house, and what she saw amazed her.

"After a whole night of research... I have come up with something. I know who Akeela is, and why she does what she does before killing her victim. Once upon a time, Akeela was a sweet little girl adored by all. She had a cat named Scarlet. Everything she does symbolises something. They lived in our house apparently they were the ones who built it on October 5th 1902. They had a particular Rose garden with thorns where she played with Scarlet until one day after school, she came home to meet her parents and Scarlet dead. She was just a kid of five years then, and as she faced extreme disturbing paranoia.?She had to be registered in an orphanage which is now a coffee shop.?Why? Because of the unusual happenings that ensued over time...

"Akeela's mum, Maugerite, was the founder of a little cult group for women and kids before then. It was a women and children social group until they started invoking spirits and killing those who dared to oppose them. You see, Akeela's parents were killed by a spell gone wrong, and so they choked by their own evil. Everyone in that cult died. The children inclusive they were to perform a local initiation and officially welcome the children into the fold until there was a blackout, and everyone died with their families, an entire generation wiped out."

"How does this have to do with anything?" Mr. Darren had said after so long a listen.

"Everything she does symbolises something... The Roses to begin with, back at the orphanage, Akeela was restrained from the others as the secret cult dissolved even kids got to know about the story and refrained her from their games especially the particular 'Ring a Ring O'Roses'... Not to mention the fact that she had a scald so glaring at the right side of her face and covered it with her hair most of the time.

"Wow.... If that be the case, why is she still in a child's body it's been a century."

"Affirmative but... Her real name is Janesse. Janesse was just one of the very innocent five year olds who lived also in our house and had her body possessed by Akeela. There were others Lisa, Miranda, and apparently my sister Karla. Since she cannot go downwards to remain youthful, she possesses other kids to do her bidding. The kid will eventually kill her own family. It's a repeated process. That is why I am not dead yet. It's supposed to be my sister's job."

"You really did a lot of work under one night."

"You left me no choice... Impulsively pushing your responsibility on me, the least I could do is do it well. My sister is slowly having her body inhabited by a monster, and I'm not going to let that happen... I finally know how to kill her."

****************************

It was the next morning, all thoughts from the day before had eluded her. Her door was slightly open and large enough to see her sister with a sinister black shadow behind. She had known enough to know that wasn't her shadow. She had gone downstairs, and Stephanie stealthily followed her but being careful enough to be caught, she had gone into the kitchen and had gotten a knife.

Quicker than I thought.. She wants to kill us.

She had walked back upstairs and had accidentally shut the door with so much force that that it ruined the whole plan.

"Stephanie?" Karla called out innocently with the knife on her right.

"Hey... Karl. How was your night?"

"Were you stalking?"

Exactly how did she know what stalking means, she's just six. I didn't even know my way to the kitchen when I was her age.

"Nope! What's the knife for" Stephanie said regretting immediately her rapt diversion. She had been so certain her sister was undergoing a phase as her researches indicated. She had occasionally flapped her pajamas as she moved.

These are so big... I could have gone shopping myself... Mum just had to be the one to get them for Me now I'm stuck with them until I'm overgrown... That's not the issue right now silly! Listen to your sister.

"...an apple" Karla said or rather Stephanie heard.

Since when did you use a butcher's knife to cut an apple.

It wasn't until noon that Stephanie noticed something wrong with her sister. She had begun to turn pale. Surely Akeela had prepared her body and was about to jump in and fully possess her personality and becoming a youth again. After then, she'd have her body in possession of someone else, and all traces of her sister will be gone. She had along side the exorcist dug up the grave of Late Akeela Jefferson who supposedly was said to be dead on the 17th of May 1910.

The bones of the long deceased were taken home. The intent was to return her spirit back to her body to be cremated. It wasn't that simple as she had now possessed her sister.

"What do you want?" The exorcist asked in thunderous voice..

"I want her dead" Karla said.

"Kill me, but leave my family alone."

Wait... That didn't come out right.

"Please go away." She pleaded. The now brave Stephanie had her courage replaced with submission... She stuck herself with the exorcist.

The house now shook with a disturbing effect from the foundation of to the lintel, and Karla floated up... Her hair in single strand, and they spread apart.

"By the power of God I condemn back into your body. Leave the girl alone!!" The first exorcist countered supporting himself with a wall.

"Nim simbari sonta yo... Kasintazinka ya tam bisi zon tan sanlo Zim Arim lepaka." Karla confessed.

It was at that moment Stephanie figured out why the lips were usually stitched. It prevented them all from confessing the words that were now repeatedly said by Karla until then. The Spirits of Dylan, Mrs. Brown, and Emily rose up and confessed the same words... Each proceeding The other.

Stephanie fidgeted as she saw the spirits of her friends.

"Make them fight from inside." Mr. Darren instructed.

"Enough!!" Stephanie said as she sobbed.

"Dylan, Emily,.... Have you forgotten all the times we spent together, when we made our best friend pact, when I had the flu and you all stood by me till you caught one. She doesn't belong in your body. Do not let her use you as her vessel." Stephanie said, moving a step at a time... Now they had descended but were still under her influence as their eyes turned pitch black.

It took a while and a ton of reminisces and just as she succeeded in winning them over and reaching for a group hug, they vanished. She was once again reminded of the fact that they were ghosts. She prayed that were safe were they were.

She didn't also forget to do same for Karla and just immediately, Karla was thrown into a deep state of convulsion. She had strands of her hair lift and was violently tossed about the whole house. The exorcist countered the forcing by holding her down to the ground and Stephanie got the family picture few inches away from Karla's face,

"This is you Karla, not what you are now." Stephanie began her eyes now with stains or blood. She was hurt.

"Send her out Karla... Please."

She continued... Her skin was in folds, and she had wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

Karla let out an echo and emitted a high pitched sound, then fainted right there, just within the embrace of her sister. The black shadow was redirected back into the bones of her remains while she still lived and was burnt.

"Stephanie... What happened, the last I remember was when I tried waking you up to play. How did I end up here?"

"It's a long story... Thank God you are back.0 She said reaching for her sister as they all watched the corpse burn.

Something had made an appearance on the reflective window of Stephanie's room, a girl with a black hair that rested on the right side of her face and who wore an amateur makeup with its blood red lipstick extending to her cheek. Beneath her eyes were black marks that looked as though she had just cried wearing a mascara... She was now grinning...

The End!!