(Whew, this chapter wore me out lol)

A startled scream had Taylor jerking upright on the couch. Confusion clouded his mind for a moment, since he didn't remember ever making it to the room, let alone getting up on the sofa, but as the sound of a struggle met his ears from the other room, he quickly pushed it aside and got up. 

His foot sent pulses of pain straight up his leg as he tried to run. It was clear that that wasn't a great idea, so he ended up limping his way toward his bedroom. When he got to the doorway his eyes immediately widened at what he saw. 

Nikolai was still mostly outside of Adon's body, but instead of sleeping he was kneeling on either side of the man with part of his right leg disappearing into Adoni's torso. Adon had his right hand grasped in his left, a tiny trickle of blood escaping from between his fingers. 

"Nikolai!" Taylor yelled, immediately drawing the banshee's attention. 

It turned its body enough so that it could look over its shoulder at him. A faint bit of pale red painted his nearly see-through lips. 

Taylor was just about to ask why the hell he'd bitten Adon when Caleb suddenly appeared in front of him. He backed up automatically, raising one arm in case the wraith intended to do anything. 

The sound of the doorbell abruptly chiming had Taylor jumping and glancing toward the front of the house, but he immediately turned his attention back to the current situation... only to find both the banshee and wraith, gone.  

I guess.

"You okay, Adon?" he asked as he glanced back toward the door as the bell rung again. 

Adon slowly sat up, then swung his legs over the edge of the bed. 

"Yeah. No idea why he bit me, but it wasn't much, and he didn't try to make the injury worse or anything." 

That was weird, but good, at least. Nodding, he turned around and walked over to the door. After a quick glance through the peep-hole, he opened it. 

Sasha and her friend, along with his dog, came walking in as Taylor stepped aside. The girl wasted no time finding her boyfriend and freaking out over his injuries, while the man's dog immediately bolted down the stairs, even as commands to do the opposite were being shouted at her. 

Well, this is already a great day. 

"Tay!" 

Looking away from the basement entrance where the dog had vanished, Taylor walked back over to his bedroom to see Sasha sitting next to her boyfriend. Adon still looked really tired, but at least he was conscious and able to sit up. 

"Adoni told me what happened."

Taylor pursed his lips and leaned against the doorjamb to give his bad foot a break. 

"What can we do about it?" 

Sasha sighed as she nodded past him, drawing his attention to the man that was walking up. 

"A banshee can rarely, and I mean rarely, possess someone who is extremely weakened. In order to do so, they must consume a part of their body." 

Taylor made a face, glad that he hadn't eaten anything yet.

"Not like that... technically," Martin said, then continued; "Yes, he could have eaten a finger or what not. It would have worked just as well, but considering the bandages wrapped around your chest, I'm betting that he just got some of your skin and blood?" 

Adon slowly nodded after a glance down at his chest. 

"The banshee is able to possess you as long as a piece of your body is in its system." 

Sasha squeezed Adon's hand reassuringly. 

"But it has to keep feeding off of you to remain in your body. Every day, or sometimes even several times a day, it will have to ingest some part of you." 

Adon looked up at Taylor, honest fear in his eyes. 

"I'm totally cool with getting him out of my body now." 

Sasha pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts. 

"I found a pretty highly rated exorcist who should be able to get ri—" Nikolai appeared suddenly, his translucent hands wrapping around Sasha's neck as he pinned her to the bed with an ear-piercing scream. 

Adon's body jerked with the action, but Nikolai seemed to be locking most of his ability to move, even though his undead form was mostly out of the man's body. 

Taylor hurried forward, since the banshee's strength was definitely not something to joke with, but Martin beat him to the situation. Instead of trying to do anything to Nikolai, the man grabbed Adon's shoulders and yanked him backward, throwing him to the floor a few feet away. Taylor watched as the banshee was forced away, too, since it evidently needed to remain connected to its host in at least one place. 

Nikolai tried to get at Sasha again as he clawed at the floor, growling, but he couldn't drag Adon more than a few inches at a time with the man resisting. 

Martin abruptly sat down and took out a long string of beads from his pocket. Taylor was about to ask him what he was doing, but as soon as the man started chanting something, he shut up. 

Nikolai started panting, making both Taylor and Sasha stare at him in confusion. 

"He needs to breathe?" she asked at the same time Taylor took a hesitant step forward. 

"Yeah," he whispered as he watched Nikolai tuck his head and roll over onto his side, then reach up to claw at his own neck. 

He did no damage, of course, since he didn't have a real body, but it was clear that he was struggling to breathe... and actually needed to. 

"I-I think you're going to kill him," Adon said as he raised a hand to his forehead and winced, clearly affected by the assault on the banshee. 

"He's panicking. He doesn't want to die again." 

Martin grunted as the beads in his hands began to glow faintly. 

"This is the only way I can kill a banshee. I'm not really cutting off his oxygen, but I'm making him think that I am. His mind is responding to that, making him unable to process the oxygen he really does have available." 

So he can really die permanently this way? He will actually die if he's suffocated by what Martin is doing? 

"Don't worry, Tay, Adon will be fine, and he'll get his body back," Sasha said. 

Taylor was about to reply when he heard a deep, groaning sound as the floor beneath his feet began to shake. 

An... earthquake? 

"Shit! Get out of the r—" before Adon could finish his sentence everything in the room, including the bed, boxes, and people, began dropping through the floor. 

Taylor stumbled backward just in time to avoid falling with the others. His eyes couldn't comprehend what was actually happening, but when he started to hear sounds downstairs, he hurried toward the opening in the wall. 

He carefully started to ascend the stairs, looking around as he made his way down. The first person he saw was Adon, who was slowly rolling over onto his stomach, struggling to push himself up. 

Sasha had landed in a dusty, deflated kiddy pool. She wasn't moving, but as much as Taylor moved faster, intent on helping her, the familiar sound of a dog growling drew his attention to the far side of the basement. 

Star? 

The minimal white marks on the dog were barely visible in the darkness, but it was clear that it had a hold of something and wasn't interested in letting go. 

"Get him, girl!" Martin rasped somewhere in the darkness. 

Blinking to try and better his blurry vision, Taylor made it to the bottom of the stairs right as he realized what Star was biting. 

Caleb. 

The wraith was standing near an old, dilapidated desk. It looked like there was some sort of small laptop on it, as well as some old, dusty papers and something hanging against the wall, but Taylor didn't focus on it for more than a moment. He quickly turned on the flashlight in his phone and limped toward the three. 

"Caleb, don't hurt him!" he yelled as the wraith grabbed Martin by the throat and easily lifted him into the air. 

They were just about the same height, but Caleb's added strength had Martin's feet just-barely dangling off the ground. 

Star shook her head, trying to make the wraith release her master, but he didn't budge, even with her frantic tugging. 

Shit. He's going to suffocate him or break his neck. Think, Taylor. 

Looking around, he shined his flashlight to his left. 

Can I take back this decision, please? 

Two deteriorated skeletons became visible as they were illuminated by the light. Flecks of dust danced in the air above them, drawing Taylor's attention like a cat. 

They really are here. 

The bones had been slightly displaced and moved here and there, likely due to rats and insects feeding on the living tissue previously attached to them, but all of those creatures have clearly long-since gone. Their job completed. 

Walking forward, he took in the first set of bones. It was a slightly smaller, shorter skeleton, making it easy to guess that it had belonged to Caleb. The skull was turned sideways toward the other skeleton, its hollow eye-sockets still staring at the person who had died with him. 

The other skeleton was next to a stained metal baseball bat and had some of its digits still on the little twin sized bed, making him think that Nikolai had died with his hands up there, likely staring right back at his little brother. One set was jumbled up with the skeleton's on the bed, making Taylor purse him lips and blink back tears. 

He was just stepping closer when he heard the sound of something heavy dropping to the hard floor. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Martin coughing in the corner, his dog wagging its tail fervently as it licked him like crazy. 

He let him go. 

Turning back toward the skeletons, Taylor yelped and stumbled backward. Caleb was less than an inch away from him, his stare blank. 

"I-I wasn't going to mess with you guys, I swear," he stuttered out as the floor began to shake beneath his feet. 

Oh shit. 

"Get on the stairs! There's nothing under us now but earth!" Martin yelled as he fumbled toward the stairs. 

Adon followed him, barely managing to carry Sasha in his arms. Taylor swallowed and began to turn as he heard Caleb start his shrill scream again. His feet were just about to dart for the steps as best they could with his injury, when he suddenly stopped, something having caught his eye. 

Above the desk, a small square sheet of paper stood out, a date circled in faded red ink. Lifting his phone's flashlight, it highlighted just enough of the writing for him to confirm that it was the same colander from the dream he'd had. 

"Happy... birthday," he read aloud in a whisper. 

The screeching scream slowly quieted, drawing Taylor's attention back to Caleb. The wraith's head was still tilted toward the ceiling, his mouth slightly open. 

"Hurry up, Tay! You'll die if he pulls you under the floor this time!" Sasha yelled. 

The floor was, indeed, still shaking, but Taylor was convinced that he wasn't going to fall through it. Caleb wouldn't do that to him. 

He wouldn't do that to his older brother's bones, and the few remaining physical decrepit possessions he had. 

Granted, it was obvious that things had been greatly exaggerated in Caleb's dreams. The king-sized bed was a tiny, tattered twin. The hot tub with jets and room for three was a deflated, worn, kiddie pool. Where the wall of fish tanks had been, sat a lonely, empty, fish bowl that had likely not held water in years. 

One thing is the same, though. 

Turning around again, Taylor ran his eyes over the two words circled on a specific date. Said date had passed, very recently, though it was obviously not the correct year. 

Shaking his head, he turned back around, surprised that Caleb had lowered his head and was now staring at him. There was an emotion in his eyes now, but just barely, and he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Unsure, but determined to figure out what was changing the young man before him, Taylor hesitantly lifted a hand toward Caleb's face. 

The wraith's eyes widened to illogical proportions, but when his hand actually settled against his cheek, they slowly returned to normal, then moved to stare down at the hand touching his face. 

"I won't bother your bones. That's not appropriate and you two deserve to remain together. I won't split you up," he said quietly, only caring about Caleb hearing. 

A gasp and the sound of stumbling drew Taylor's attention over toward the stairs. Adon stood awkwardly by the steps, an ethereal baseball bat in his left hand and a quiet growl emanating from his clenched teeth. 

"He still cares a lot about you," Taylor whispered as he looked back at Caleb. 

The wraith still seemed fixated on the hand against his face. 

"I'm sorry that things ended up this way. I don't want to give up on you guys, but I don't know how I can help."

Caleb finally looked up at that, but his eyes seemed to focus on something behind him, drawing Taylor's attention over his shoulder again. 

The calendar. 

Turning back to Caleb, he licked his dry lips and reached up with his other hand. Instead of touching his face, like his other one was, he let his hand move past the wraith's head and then did the same with his other hand. Excruciatingly slowly, he wrapped Caleb in a careful hug. When the guy didn't move a muscle, Taylor lowered his chin to his cold shoulder, then spoke just loud enough for Caleb to hear. 

"I'm sorry that it's late. Way, way too late... but happy birthday, Caleb. For all these years, and for that day. I hope that I can give you a truly happy birthday one day. I hope that your nightmare can come to a peaceful end and you and your brother can get out of this place." 

The floor slowly stopped shaking as Taylor finished speaking. He intended to release the guy from his hug and, hopefully, head back upstairs now that the danger seemed to be over, but as he moved to step back and unwrapped his arms, he realized something that made his heart jump into his throat. 

Claws poked through the back of his shirt, their sharpness daring him to try and get away. 

"Caleb?" 

The wraith didn't give any kind of response, and Taylor couldn't back away far enough to see his face without getting stabbed. He was just about to reach behind himself and carefully try to remove Caleb's hands, thinking that he might have run out of energy and become immobile, when something caught his eye. Taylor's body froze and his breath caught in his throat. Eyes. Real, translucent eyes, were staring at him... from the skeleton on the bed.