Ballet on Glass

Will I Disrespect Him?

**

It'd been a week since my visit to the Isonokami Shrine.

One week since I'd been the most terrified in my life.

I'd only managed to get out of bed yesterday, but the earlier days of the week were spent under my comfy grey blanket. I just couldn't get myself to leave that bed even if I wanted to.

"I don't get it, Anna. I don't get why you refuse to listen to me, then get yourself in a big, ugly mess afterwards, then shut up about it," Mum piped from across the table.

I bent my head lower, so low I couldn't believe my head hadn't slammed into my bowl of casserole yet. This was the fifth time Mum had said this exact line. She'd also been asking nonstop what exactly happened to me in Japan.

"Anna, you have to tell me what went down over there. Did you see or hear anything strange? Evil spirits, perhaps? Oh Lord, this questioning won't do it. Get dressed, child. We're going to church."

As soon as Mum stood and gathered both our plates off the table, I felt the hand on my shoulder again.

I heard my neck bone crack loudly when I turned back, and the sound didn't catch just me by surprise.

"What was that? Was that your bone?"

I turned to my mother, the scared look in my eyes still very much visible.

The very next second, we were out the door, on our way to the nearest church.

*

"You've been marked, child."

Father Marley's deep baritone shook my bones and goosebumps coated my entire skin as it did. I didn't give his words a second thought, because I already knew he was right. From the time he saw me, his gray eyes boring into mine, to the time he locked us in his office and sprayed holy water on the door and walls, I knew he was right.

I'd been marked. And apparently, by a powerful demon.

A demon I suspected was the one that kept touching me in the shrine and eventually called out my name.

I shivered just thinking of the image of its face in my head, and Mum took this as a signal of alarm. She looked at me as if I'd already been possessed and turned to Father Marley, asking I be prayed for.

"We have to do more than just pray. This... thing following her... it's not an amateur, and she certainly isn't its first victim."

"What must I do, Father. Please tell me."

Another second later, we were heading out of the church, my hand firmly clutched in Mum's, and on our way to Momoko's house.

I had a feeling this visit wasn't going to end with good news.

*

We'd stood at her door for over fifteen minutes now, yet no one was answering.

"Momo-chan!" I yelled at the top of my voice. When she or her parents didn't hear the doorbell, this did the trick.

I didn't understand why it wasn't working this time, because I knew Momoko's family was home. She and I had texted right before Mum and I came here.

"You sure this is her place?" Mum asked, her fingers twiddling with the hand of her purse. Her eyes kept darting from one end of the house to the other, then to the small parking spot behind us and back to the house again.

I felt just and anxious as my mother, but if we were going to dissolve this demon matter, I'd rather do that as quickly as I could. No time, or space, to digest fear.

I pulled out my phone and called Momoko, only to have it direct me to voicemail. A thought occured, and I didn't know why I didn't hesitate when my gut told me to push the door open.

"Momoko? This isn't time for games, okay? Come downstairs."

Nothing, not even the sound of water droplets leaving the tip of the faucet could be heard.

I took matters into my hands, and skipped the stairs two at a time to Momoko's room, all the while ignoring Mum's frantic whispering.

I wished I had stopped to have her with me, because then she would've shielded me from what was in front of me.

The demon sat on the edge of Momoko's bed, or at least what I guessed was the demon.

I couldn't really tell the difference... because it had merged with Momoko.