Wolf's Bane

Possession

Desiree's first thought was to smash the mirror, but she remembered hearing the voice in the dining room, too. It was unlikely smashing a mirror would do anything more than raise questions she didn't want to answer.

"Trying to figure out how to get rid of me?"

"Of course," Desiree replied. "I told you you're not welcome in my head."

"Our head," she countered. "I exist here, as well. It's unfair for you to keep denying me."

"It's unfair for you to try and interrupt my life like this."

"We can co-exist peacefully."

"I'd rather not and it's my head, so I get to make that choice." She grabbed the charm Sebastian had given her.

"You think something like that will work on me?"

"Figured it was worth a try," Desiree said. "This is basically possession, so I could get a priest involved."

"We share a soul. Are you going to exorcise your own soul?"

"You can't be hanging around like this!"

There was a pause before she suggested, "Let's be friends."

"I don't want to be friends with the crazy ghost possessing me."

"I'm not a ghost!"

Desiree felt like there were other parts of that sentence she might have considered more offensive, but that didn't seem worth the argument. "Well, you're dead and basically haunting me, so..."

"You make it sound creepy."

"It is creepy! Why are you doing this?"

"I don't know. I got worked up after our session and it seemed like you were ignoring me. I don't like being ignored, so I started trying to talk to you and here we are."

"You never felt that way before?"

"Not really. Before I was more relaxed. I didn't have a lot of negative feelings. Since that session, it's been different."

"Great, so my hypnosis session woke up the comatose ghost possessing me." Desiree plopped down on her bed. "Any chance we could get you back to your nice, peaceful state?"

"I don't want that."

"Well, I don't want to share a soul, but here we are."

A long silence followed and Desiree wondered if she had faded away, but she didn't dare to check the mirror. Eventually, Eleanor said, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" She hadn't expected to hear that.

"When the witches suggested I be brought back stronger, I was happy to agree to it. I'd been sick for a while. With my poor constitution, I wasn't able to recover. I thought this would allow me to reunite with Andrew and have a long life with him. I didn't think it would be so complicated."

It was hard not to feel sympathy for her, especially since Desiree could feel a pang of her sadness. "I understand why you did it, but you have to realize this isn't going to work out. This is my life and I have the right to live it."

"I know," she admitted. "I'm not sure what to do about it, though. I can't just go back to the way I was. I don't know how."

"I guess it would be too much to ask you to just not talk to me."

"I would think so."

"Alright, so you can't stay and you can't go." Desiree considered the problem, but couldn't come up with an answer. "I guess I'll just have to let you stay as you are, for now, but don't go causing me problems, okay? It's my life. I'll try and listen to you while you're here, but anything I do has to be my choice. Understand?"