Love & Exorcisms | 18+ | COMPLETE |

- Chapter 58 -

The evening came to a close long after the sun had set. I said my farewells to the ladies at the door with a full heart. Part of me had been fearful they would hate me for leaving, or hate me when they saw the luxury of this place. But they had been nothing except joyful for me. As they were leaving, Mary-Ann turned to me one last time, clasped my hand, and said, "You deserve this happiness, Samara. Truly, you do."

She kissed my cheek before she left. I mulled over her words as I helped Rachel with the cleaning up, scrubbing dishes in the sink. She thought...I deserved happiness. The concept was truly strange to me. What had I done to deserve happiness? It was something I was lucky to have at best, at worst...at worst, I suspected I truly did not deserve it at all.

And why WOULD a girl like you deserve happiness? A murderer, a harlot, a perverted thing.

I paused with my arms elbow-deep in the dishwater. I shouldn't have been thinking of such things, merely giving the demons more fuel to attack me. After today had been so beautiful, so peaceful, I could not help but find it hard to believe. I had always been taught that peace and happiness came to those who had overcome their sins and fully given themselves over to God. I had hardly overcome anything, and my faith in the God I had been raised to fear was fading.

It didn't feel as if I had earned this kindness.

"Because you haven't."

I did not turn, I did not move. That voice...rasping and painful, reminiscent of my mother's. A chill went up my back, like a cold finger caressing my spine. It was real, it was there, just behind me. I slowly put down my dishes and took my hands from the sink, not daring to look back. It's just an illusion, it can't hurt me. It's just an illusion...

"You...have..." The voice was coming nearer. I could hear water dripping onto the floor, and slow, moist steps. I gulped, resisting the urge to close my eyes. "...earned...only..." I knew the Gray One was just behind me. I could see her moldering skin and overly-long limbs in my mind's eyes. I could imagine her huge pupils staring at the back of my head.

"Death."

Sharp nails dug into my throat, yanked me back and flung me hard against the floor, knocking the air from my lungs. On my back I scrambled, choking for air, the Gray One looming over me.  Just an illusion...illusions couldn't hurt...then why...why...

"We have waited long enough," she hissed, thick gray saliva dripping from her lips. She sunk to the floor, crawling towards me, her wretched mouth stretching into a horrific grin of broken teeth. "You...are...ours!"

I shrieked, closing my eyes, anticipating more pain as she came over me. I could practically feel those wicked claws sinking into my skin and her cold corpse-like body, so much so that my stomach lurched and I thought I might be sick. But...nothing happened. There was no more pain. The whispering in my head was frantic for several moments and then, slowly, faded. I opened my eyes and looked about. The kitchen was empty. The Gray One was gone.

My hands were shaking, my stomach in knots. My brain continued to repeat the mantra, "it's only an illusion, it can't hurt you" over and over even as my neck burned where her claws had sunk into me, and my side ached where I had hit the floor. The Gray One had touched me...hurt me. That had been no illusion.

"Samara?"

I scrambled up as Damian stared at me in confusion from the doorway. He'd taken off his jacket, his hair was tousled from the long day, and he held a glass of bourbon in his hand. I stood before him in silence for a moment, watching his frown deepen, words tumbling around before my tongue in an effort to put fear and horror into some semblance of sound.