Tension hung in the air like over-reduced soup, the humidity and lack of ventilation choking and unbearable. They were gathered in the kitchen in pin-drop silence without the noise of the raging storm, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

Matthias leaned on the kitchen counter, picking at the hard skin on his thumb under the table. It was a necessary distraction to keep himself from asking a third time what transpired inside the girl's room. He had tried and failed twice, first with Adelaide, and then again with the Padre - shot down hard with a glare both times. He knew better than try again.

His eyes darted around the room, stopping only when they landed at the pitiful couple huddled together in the corner. The woman's eyes were red and puffy from crying, her body hunched like a doll laid down by the wall, lifeless and drawn to the floor. He watched the man rub his wife's back with one hand, the other grasping tightly on her arm. They both looked deprived of sleep, hopelessness masking their faces. Which was most likely the case, he thought, another pang of sympathy nudging at him. Whatever they saw when they entered their daughter's room, couldn't have been good. Especially if nobody wanted to talk about it.

The boy glanced at the girl sitting to his right. Her eyes were downcast, the small fire from the candle lighting her otherwise blank stare. There was an unusual darkness in them he couldn't identify and his pulse quickened at the disturbing assumptions forming in his mind. Had she done something she shouldn't have? Were the demons whispering to her bad thoughts?

As if she could hear the wheels turning in his head, Adelaide spared him a quick glance, her lips forming a hard set line. The events of a few minutes ago kept coming back to her in blinding flashes. There was a constant turning in her stomach, making her want to spill its non-existent contents on the floor. An unrhythmic pounding in her ears tangled with the accursed whispers in her head that wouldn't let her have a single straight thought.

She glanced at her companions' faces discreetly and the sickened feeling heightened. The priest had looked at her moments before with wide eyes and a distorted expression that made her cringe. What she did must've come a great shock to the old man. But that was quickly replaced by a deep set frown and pointed words he obviously bit back. The very same look was directed at the table as the older man clasped his hands tightly before him.

The boy, Gabriel the Padre had called him, was more transparent with the glares he'd been throwing at her like sharpened knives. She didn't need try to figure out how he felt, his balled fists and clenched jaw did much of the telling. He was angry, as he should be. Even she was angry at herself.

Beside her, her friend kept glancing at her with slightly glistening eyes, and she struggled not to return his gaze. He had the same look always etched on his features whenever he knew something was amiss and she wouldn't tell him. At least he didn't know what she'd done, a small comfort that did nothing to make her feel better. She wished he wouldn't though. She didn't deserve the sympathy. Not after what she did.

"What are you?" Adelaide's brows furrowed deeply, her forehead creasing.

"Wouldn't you like to know." The way it snickered threatened to flick a dangerous switch in her head, her heart a firecracker in her chest.

She glared at the despicable thing. "I demand you tell me what you are demon." A rebellion spark in her thoughts and she gritted her teeth.

The thing's laugh bounced off the walls in a resonating echo. Saliva dripped down the girl's too-widely opened mouth.

"Demand you say," it said once it's regained some composure. "Do you hear yourself, woman? What makes you think you can demand anything from me?" It laughed again. "There is nothing you can get from me, even if you beg for it!" The girl strained against the restraints, the bedpost creaking from the force. "Though I might consider if you ask me politely. You know, 'pretty please, with sugar on top'?" It winked at her.

Adelaide could feel the blood rushing to her ears, the sound almost drowning out the incoherent mutterings only she could hear. Her jaw slightly trembled from clenching, her brows twitching.

She balled her fists tight that her nails dug into her palms drawing blood. Her breaths came out shaky and uneven, despite her conscious efforts to put rhythm in the simple task. She took a deep breath before opening her mouth. "I demand-"

"YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME!" It's voice was no longer the young girl's, a certain hoarseness and an otherwordly mixture of tones and inflections dissolving the previously feigned innocence. It pulled at the girl's hair and jerked her limbs around, its growl the defiance of a deranged animal. "Why do you not get it!" Overly protruding eyes bore into hers.

The voices screamed.

Every demon the girl had taken inside her body pulsed with excitement, their voices jeering her in a deafening chorus. They fidgeted with something akin to recognition. They squirmed and shrieked, fighting each other for dominance. The desire for release was overwhelming, blinding her sense of reality and nightmares.

There were too many of them inside her, she thought. Too many for too long, and it might just break her. Her heart was still pounding but she couldn't tell if it was hers. There were flashes of lightning but she could see no storm. The room spiraled to an endless pit, the floor tilting below her. She felt like falling, though her feet remained on the ground, her head pounded out of sync with her heart. Her eyelids heavy, craving that sure blackness behind them.

In a panic she stared at her shaking hands. The lines hidden behind the sleeves covering her wrist pulsed red. Like vines they crawled out to her palms, and soon her fingers were tainted with the same curling marks of the evil she held inside her. She could feel heat moving up from her neck to her face. Her eyes widened as the invisible reins tightened.

She needed to escape, she knew. But it seemed there was no way for her to do it anymore. Had she finally succumbed to the inevitable finality of her curse? Would this be her end?

No, she thought as she struggled to gain back her focus. It was not the time nor the place to be fighting with her own demons. Their existence was as real as hers, but only through death would she admit her defeat.

The burning fires in her head subsided, but the voices had remained. She panted, sweat dripping from her forehead. Her eyes darted around to her companions, who seemed to have not noticed a thing. It was like time had stood still for her, the work of the demons she presumed.

With part of her consciousness back in her grasp, little by little the racket in her mind gained coherency. The voices spoke directly into her ears, like figments of a little devil perched on her shoulder.

Adelaide turned to the possessed girl. The demons were calling the unknown entity inside her their Master. They cried his name in bone-chilling pleas, calling out for it to notice their chained existence. They want it to save them from their confinement, and their desperation made her shudder.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" it said in a voice alarmingly calm. "Been hearing things lately?" It smiled a toothless smile.

The girl tensed in the face of its charred eyes, her body growing numb. She drew blood from the inside of her cheek and her palms - a reminder of where she was.

"I can hear them you know," it said. "They are screaming for me to help them. Pathetic little creatures!" Its laugh sounded like breaking glass to her ears.

She clutched her head at the deafening uproar. Another wave of overwhelming power surged in her veins in response to the demon's acknowledgment. Memories that were not hers seeped into her consciousness, evil realities flashing in still pictures in her mind's eye.

Adelaide could feel her blood boiling, her heart near bursting in her chest. The metallic taste in her mouth pooled as her teeth grinded together with amplified strength. The need to plummet her fist into the girl's distorted features was overbearing, and she found herself cursing at the fact that she couldn't. If only it wasn't inside the girl, she thought. She couldn't do any harm, not unless it wasn't inside the girl.

An unwarranted chuckle escaped her, the realization seemingly funny. Why hadn't she thought of it before? She laughed. The solution had been so simple. How could she have missed it?

The others turned to her, brows furrowing at the sight of her body shaking with unreasonable laughter.

"Adelaide?" The priest placed a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

The girl didn't even hear him and took a step towards the bed. She met the demon's eyes with a glint in her own and smirked. "I have an idea, demon," she said.

Its devilish grin looked out of place in the young girl's face. "Oh really?" it said, a subtle sultriness coating its voice. "Do tell me, my little demon nest."

"Well-" Adelaide leaned forward, her face a few inches from the other girl. "You did say I have no power over you, right?"

A low groan rumbled in its throat making her smile.

"Why don't you come out of there and face me then?" She moved such that her lips were right next to the young girl's right ear. Her next words were mere breaths. They were for the demon, and the demon alone. "In your true form."

The darkness that veiled the demon's face was the absolute blackness of an abyss. It hissed at her, as she straightened her back, its eyes sharp and seemingly burning in the light of the candle.

Whatever the Padre and the boy shouted behind her, she ignored, her mind in a terrifying focus as the evil inside her quietly reveled in their success.

"What's the matter demon?" she said, not losing the shallow confidence fueling her distorted thoughts. "Don't tell me you're actually nothing without the girl?" She shook her head. "I'm disappointed."

An earsplitting scream rattled the whole room. The boy and the priest jumped as the windows exploded into a million tiny shards. The demon pulled at the restraints, the bedposts tied to other ends cracking. The girl's wrists tore and bled from the constant friction of the ropes and her skin. Her body contorted into impossible positions as the scream was replaced with the familiar guttural sound. The sound of bones breaking bounced off the walls, breaking the trance that had held the two men.

"Adelaide!" The priest turned to the unresponsive girl who'd seemed glued to the floor, her eyes unseeing.

Gabriel leapt onto the bed cursing. With his whole body he tried desperately to stop the thing from inflicting more damage. "Father you have to do something!" The veins on his neck protruded through his skin as he wrestled with the rampaging demon.

The priest took out a rosary from the pocket of his pants and made the sign of the cross in the air. He closed his eyes and the creases on his forehead deepened when his brows knitted. He murmured a prayer, his hands tightly clutching at the steel crucifix. For a second he paused, calling out the girl's name again.

An echo of the priest's call reached Adelaide's ears along with his prayers. She blinked her eyes once and a subtle glimmer of life shone in them. Her eyes widened at the sight of the boy on the bed helplessly pinning the girl's limbs.

The possessed girl snarled at her and she jumped. In her head the demons snickered in delight. What had she done? The thought brought panic to her features.

"Adelaide!" The sound of her name called out with urgency snapped her out of her guilt-ridden thoughts.

Regaining her wits, she quickly started chanting the beginning of her ritual. And almost immediately, the demon started cursing, yelling for her to stop. It took tremendous effort for her to concentrate, the murmurs in her head fighting with her consciousness and breaking her focus.

A sudden cry came from the doorway and Adelaide turned her head towards the interruption. Her heart dropped.

There by the door swinging from its hinges were the wide-eyed parents of Angela Salvatore.

Adelaide sighed. She sneaked a glance at the couple and her chest tightened. What she did was unforgivable. No parents should ever have witnessed their child in that state. And she caused it. They had stood their for an hour, watching as the three of them struggled to get the young girl under control. Their efforts had all been futile though and the Padre had to result to sedation. The demon had even refused succumbing to the drugs up until the very end when it was inevitable that biology won.

She cursed herself for intentionally delaying her purge. If she didn't have the demons inside her, she wouldn't have done what she did and things could've gone down a whole lot better. Maybe the ritual would've even worked. She bit the inside of her cheek, drawing blood from the still swollen wound. The metallic taste made her feel a little better despite the voices rejoicing in her pain.

The demons' cries continued to mingle with her thoughts. They called to the one inside the young girl with a yearning she could not understand. Perhaps the entity is up higher in hierarchy than they assumed. But then for what purpose had it ascended? Had it intentionally placed itself in their path?

The voices amplified in response to her thought. She could hear them clearly, could recite their words as her own.

Master! MASTEEER!
We're here! 
Right here! RIGHT HERE!
Master we're heeeere!
Save us Master! Saaaaave us!
Free us!
Master FREE UUUUUS!

Adelaide clasped her hands together under the table. Her nails dug into her skin as the voices grew louder. She needed the pain to keep her mind straight, otherwise she'd want to pound her head on the table instead. She could feel her strength wavering. Soon she would break. The only thing she could do was delay it from happening.

Matthias eyed the indentations slowly opening to bleed under the pressure of the girl's nails. His mouth curved into a frown, questions trapped in his tongue. She would be hearing them, he thought, perhaps louder than usual.

It was because of an accident that he knew of her friend's secret. He could still remember how she'd been in the same condition then with the demons' marks painted on her skin in black ink. The repulsive souvenir was a reminder that she carried evil, was what the girl told him. But what she'd failed to say was for whom the reminder was for.

His friend's first near slip had almost cost her her life. He could still see it in his head how her hand shook as it held on to the blade hovering above her wrist. When he saw her he'd panicked, jumping at her and grabbing on to her arm. It was the first time he saw her cry too. She said the demons wanted her to it. He'd rushed her to be purged and when she was finally able to think straight again, she'd had no choice but to tell him everything.

Her purging had been delayed for a month then, he thought, and quickly estimated how long it'd been this time. His head snapped to her direction at the answer. Three months was two months longer.

Adelaide felt the boy's heavy gaze and shot him a pointed look. The slight diversion helped her tune out the voices if only a little. But she had no time to deal with his obvious concern. The case was first priority and she swore to herself to see it through. Even if it turned out to be her last job.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, breaking the silence. She clasped her hands tighter and broke through skin. "There's no excuse for what I did but-"

"Damn right there isn't." There was unrivaled intensity in Gabriel's answering glare that made her jump.

Guilt blew up in her chest and she looked down, losing motivation to even continue speaking. But they had to try again, was what she was about to say, but the words burned to dust in her mouth.

It was her fault. Everything was her fault. She'd been reckless and stupid. The sin would be born by her soul. In her head the demons jeered and she did nothing to stop them.

The boy raised himself from the floor, patting the dust clinging to his jeans. He didn't want snap at the girl like he did, but the boiling anger towards her got the better of him. Seeing her was aggravating the emotion. He knew he had to get away for a while.

At the corner of his eyes he saw the other boy tense. He shook his head. He was like a loyal guard dog ready to pounce at whoever does his mistress wrong.

"Relax Romeo, I'm only going to check on Angela," he said as he moved towards the bedroom.

Matthias followed the boy with his eyes until he reached the door. He'd half expected him to come right out and land a punch or two. He'd even prepared himself to take him on. It would've seemed petty and stupid had it actually happened though.

He let out a deep breath and rolled his shoulders. "He has some serious attitude problem," he said to the Padre. "Don't tell me that's how a model seminarian is nowadays."

"Watch your tongue, Matthias," the priest said. "Gabriel is a deacon."

The boy's mouth hang open.

"He's been appointed as my right hand and successor."

"You can't be serious." He leaned on the table, brows knitting. "That guy? Really? But he's so-"

"Matt." Adelaide shook her head. Deacon or not, the boy was there to help them. There would be time to question the Church's choice later.

Silence fell over them a second time, only to be broken mere seconds later when the deacon reappeared from the darkened hallway in short breaths.

"Fa-Father!" All attention turned to him.

Mr. and Mrs. Salvatore stood side by side with their backs straight, urgently woken up from their hopeless wallowing. Their voices mingled with an air of panic as they spoke, their questions overlapping yet conveying the same thoughts.

"What happened? What's wrong!"

"What is it? Did something happen?"

Fr. Andres was already out of his seat before the boy could even gather himself to coherence. "What is it, Gabriel?" His lips pursed to a hard set line.

"Angela-" Gabriel's eyes were wide and frantic. He breathed deeply to settle his pounding heart. It took him a second or two before he could finally get the words out. "She's gone."