by M. K. ROZE
placed the gauze over Adelyn’s wound on her head. “Why
would you jump out a window, honey?”
“It wasn’t—” Adelyn bolted upright and grabbed her
chest—her eyes rolling back while her body shook
aggressively.
“Jeff,” Mom screamed. “I think she’s going into cardiac
arrest. Help me get her on the floor.”
Adelyn let out a guttural scream. She lowered her hand
from her chest and turned to her parents with a detached
gaze. She grinned, and her body slowly lifted from the couch.
“Holy s-shit!” Mom yelled and rolled off the couch.
Dad yanked Mom up—his wide eyes on Adelyn
levitating in midair. They held on to each other and stepped
back with their mouths open.
Adelyn watched her parents’ shocked look as her body
slowly floated up the stairs and over the ledge of the loft,
ready to be dropped.
“Please stop,” Mom screamed.
A black dress glided from down the hall and slid over
Adelyn’s body as if she was putting it on.
“Don’t hurt our daughter,” Mom sobbed. “Jeff, help
her.”
“Breanna, I-I don’t know what t-to do.” He rubbed his
eyes. “We must be drugged. This shit isn’t happening.”
Adelyn’s body bent backward, cracking her back. She
glared her parents down with her glowing red eyes. “I …
know … what … to … do,” Adelyn provoked in Muma’s
voice, and her body dropped a few feet.
Mom cowered. “No. Please!” she shouted and ran over
to where Adelyn was hovering twenty feet above her head.
“Jeff!”
Dad snapped out of his shock and ran to Mom’s side,
ready to catch Adelyn in case she fell. “What do you want
from our daughter?”
“Her, of course,” Muma hissed and let go of Adelyn.
Her parents caught her in midair—Adelyn’s foot hitting
Mom’s head, knocking her out cold.
“Breanna!” Dad set Adelyn down onto the floor.
When sirens came from afar, an unseen force grabbed
Adelyn’s leg and dragged her out the front door, then down
the stairs—Adelyn’s head bouncing off each step. The
unseen force lifted her and set her in the driver’s seat of her
truck.
Adelyn turned to Dad running toward her, where he
tried to open the door.
“Daddy, help me!” Adelyn teased in Muma’s voice
“Watch out!” Dad warned. He smashed out the window
with his flashlight—glass shattering all over Adelyn’s body.
Police lights lit up the truck as Dad yanked her out the
window.
“Jeff,” Steve yelled. “What the hell are you doing?”
Dad ignored him and cradled Adelyn for dear life.
“Honey, is it you?”
Adelyn nodded. “Dad.”
“Steve, go inside and check on Breanna,” Dad yelled.
“We’re fine.”
“Jeff, I can’t leave you here alone with her. Not after
what I just saw.”
“Go, dammit! Go now!” Dad stood, picked Adelyn’s
limp body up, and staggered over to the EMT’s, who were
rushing out of the ambulance. “Cathy, look my daughter
over, please. She’s hurt.”
“What happened?” Cathy asked and went to take
Adelyn, but Dad wouldn’t let her go. “Jeff,” Cathy said, “you
have to let her go so we can help her.”
Dad shook his head in a daze. “I-I can’t. She will take
her.”
“Who?” Cathy asked.
Dad stared at her with a blank look.
“Mike, hold Jeff while I take his daughter,” Cathy urged.
“Jeff’s in shock.”
They pulled Adelyn out of his grip, and Cathy lay her on
the gurney, where she placed Adelyn into the ambulance,
looking her bloody body over. “What happened to you,
sweetheart?”
Adelyn glared her down, and Cathy went flying
backward out of the ambulance—landing on her back—
moaning from the pain.
“No!” Dad fought out of Mike’s hold.
The mirror flew into the ambulance and the doors
slammed shut, trapping Adelyn inside.
Within seconds, the engine revved violently—rocking
the ambulance back and forth, then it went into reverse,
slamming into the patrol truck—pushing it down the hill
until it was out of the way.
“Adelyn!” Dad yelled and jumped on the hood of the
ambulance. He pounded his fist on the window.
Adelyn stared at him with no remorse. She revved the
engine and stepped on the gas—Dad rolling off.
Pop, pop, pop, pop. Ear-splitting gunshots went off.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Dad yelled. He got up and
stumbled over to Steve, snatching his gun out of his hand.
Adelyn shot them an evil grin and floored the
ambulance down the hill in reverse without looking behind
her.
At the foothill, Adelyn stepped on the gas and went
toward town—her stomach growling—craving fresh meat.
She licked her lips. “Let the hunt begin,” she said in a
Southern accent. She looked in the side mirror and let out a
spiteful cackle with pure hatred in her yellow eyes.
he following morning, Adelyn staggered through
the woods smiling at herself in the mirror while
twirling her hair. When kids laughed, she stopped
and licked the blood off her lips.
Adelyn walked toward their voices and approached a
fence with kids playing on the playground. She narrowed her
hungry eyes on a woman standing in front of the daycare
building, who was talking to a man. She looked around the
yard until she spotted a girl with blonde pigtails, who was
swinging by herself.
Adelyn walked down the fence line, pushing through the
heavy brush until she was directly behind the little girl.
“Nicole,” Adelyn whispered in an unknown woman’s voice.
Nicole peered over her shoulder. “Mommy, why are you
back there?”
Adelyn raised her finger, caked in dried blood, to her
mouth. “Shh.” She waived for Nicole to come to her.
Nicole looked forward, jumped off the swing, and
approached Adelyn.
“Where did you get that pretty dress?”
“I will tell you in a minute. I want to show you
something, sweetheart. Hurry up and climb over the fence.”
“Mommy, I will get into trouble. We’re not allowed to
climb the fence.” She looked over her shoulder and back at
Adelyn. “Ms. Casey will get mad.”
Adelyn looked away, licked her lips, and turned to her.
“I already asked for permission. Now, hurry up and climb
over.”
When Nicole climbed up the four-foot fence, Adelyn
pulled her over, scratching her knee.
“Ouch,” Nicole screamed and cried.
Adelyn placed her finger over her small lips, silencing
her.
“Oh, my God, Nicole. What are you doing over the
fence?” Ms. Casey yelled and ran toward them.
Adelyn set Nicole down, took her hand, and pulled her
into the woods.
&
nbsp; “Mrs. Watson!” Ms. Casey yelled in a shaky tone. “What
are you doing!”
“Mommy, why aren’t you answering Ms. Casey?”
Adelyn ignored her.
“Stop making me run. I’m tired,” Nicole said out of
breath.
Adelyn’s stomach rumbled louder and louder with every
step. She stopped in front of a big tree and looked over her
shoulder.
Nicole yanked on Adelyn’s black dress. “Mommy, why
are you ignoring me?”
Adelyn turned to her, licking her lips.
Nicole cowered. “Mommy, why are your eyes glowing
yellow like that? You’re scaring me,” she cried and took off
running further into the woods.
Adelyn caught her and slammed her on her back—
Nicole sobbing while shielding her face as she looked in
Adelyn’s eyes in pure terror. “Stop!” she screamed. “Help
me!”
The man that was talking to Ms. Casey ran toward
Adelyn. “What the hell are you doing to your child?”
Adelyn faced him—her mouth turning into a grin.
He stumbled backward. “What the hell are you?”
“I’m your worst nightmare.” A black mass erupted out
of Adelyn’s chest, flew over to the man, and snapped his
neck.
Adelyn looked at Nicole. “Run!”
The man’s body dropped to the ground—blood flowing
out of his nose, and the mass flew back into Adelyn’s chest,
possessing her again.
“Mommy, what happened to Mr. Derek?”
“He’s dead. Now, shut up.” Adelyn set the mirror aside,
straddled Nicole, and held her down. “I’ve never eaten a
child before.” Her eyes rolled in the back of her head as she
leaned forward with her mouth open, ready to rip Nicole’s
throat out.
“Adelyn, stop!” Dad yelled from behind her.
Adelyn whipped around. “Your cunt for a daughter isn’t
here right now.”
“Who are you?” he demanded in a shaky voice as his
eyes flicked to Mr. Derek’s body and back to her. He stepped
closer to Adelyn with precaution.
“If you must know, my name is Muma,” she bellowed
and hissed violently.
Nicole got out from beneath her and ran over to a tree,
crying.
“Run!” Dad yelled.
Nicole took off running back the way she’d come.
Adelyn jumped to her feet and slowly walked toward
him. “You look much tastier than her.”
Dad stepped back and aimed his gun at her. “Get out of
my daughter before I shoot you out of her.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said and licked her lips as she
approached him.
“Adelyn, you need to fight her,” Dad choked as he
backed up. “I know you’re in there. Please, baby, please fight
her and come back to me. I-I don’t want to shoot you.”
Adelyn smirked and opened her arms, provoking him.
“Shoot me, daddy.”
Dad looked down and blinked a few times. “What …
what the fuck,” his voice shook, and he quickly backed up
against a tree.
Adelyn looked on the ground and watched hundreds of
black widows run out of the mirror. She grunted and
snatched the mirror—the spiders running down her body
and darted toward Dad.
“What the hell,” Dad yelled. He shot at the spiders—
the bullets kicking up dirt as he jumped on top of a log.
The spiders ran up his legs and went into his mouth,
nostrils, eyes, and ears. He thrashed at his body, trying to get
them off, and began choking. Dad’s eyes turned black, and
his body jerked forward. He glared at Adelyn in a trance as
he levitated.
“Sula … Sula … Sula,” Dad said in Muma’s voice.
“How dare you cast a spell and act like me.”
Adelyn grinned. “I’m sure you enjoyed it when I made
her levitate, then dropped her worthless body in front of her
cunts for parents.”
Muma didn’t blink as she stared her down. “How were
you able to hide within her, and most of all, from us, for all
these centuries?”
“You will never know. Now leave!” Sula thundered.
Dad lowered to the ground and stepped forward.
“Release the thief so she can take my mirror back, or I will
find a way to break the spell that is preventing me from
coming here.”
“That will take centuries.”
Muma snarled. “I broke the weak spell that prohibited
me from possessing the thief at will, so what makes you think
I can’t break a territorial one?”
Adelyn glared Dad down. “The thief … and your
enchanted mirror are now mine. Flee my land, or I will kill
her like I tried to before after her doctor visit and again when
I made her jump out the window. Adelyn paused. “You
should’ve listened to her when she told you someone else
was inside of her.”
“You would’ve killed her by now. There is something
you seek of her as I do. Now, release her, and I will let you
be.”
“Never!” Sula bellowed.
A black mass flew out of Adelyn’s mouth and
shapeshifted into Sula.
Adelyn dropped to the ground coughing, while
grimacing at Sula’s charred body and her torn black dress.
Sula’s yellow eyes found hers, and she flicked her worried
eyes to Dad. “Dad,” she sobbed and began crawling toward
him.
Sula raised her hand toward Adelyn, and she went flying
backward, slamming against a tree. Adelyn clutched her back
and screamed in pain.
“I guess I will have to show you who is more powerful,”
Muma said. Dad tilted his head back, and the spiders crawled
out of his mouth. They scattered down his body and formed
into a black figure.
“You won’t last long here without a body,” Sula said and
pointed at the silhouette. “I will make sure my new spell will
prevent your black soul from entering her body again. And
when I do, you won’t be able to break it this time.”
“I love challenges,” Muma’s voice thundered, coming
from the black mass. The shadow spun in the air, formed
into a fireball, and shot through Sula. Sula let out a guttural
screech and erupted into black ash.
The mass transformed into Muma’s silhouette—her red
eyes looking down at Adelyn. “Take my mirror back, or next
time, I will allow Sula to tear you into pieces while I watch.”
“I tried to tell you she was inside of me.” Adelyn sniffled
and wiped her tears away with her unsteady hand.
“Take my mirror back before she possesses you again.”
Muma’s body dropped to the ground, and her shadow
exploded into hundreds of spiders, then they scattered and
ran back into the mirror.
Adelyn pulled herself up, using the tree branch, and
limped over to Dad, who was lying passed out on the ground.
She dropped to her knees and shook him. “Dad,” she cried,
“please wake up.”
Dad gasped for air and sat up, looking around in a haze.
“What just happened to me?”
Adelyn wrapped her shaky arms around Dad, wanting
to tell him he was possessed, but based on the way he was
acting, she knew he wouldn’t have handled it well. “You
blacked out. Do you remember anything?”
“Yeah. That. … that thing inside of you was about to
make you eat a kid, then I saw those damn spiders coming
out of that mirror.” Dad helped her up.
Adelyn limped over to the mirror, picked it up, and
looked at her bloodshot eyes. Sula’s going to kill me.
“Just leave it there,” Dad shouted while grimacing in the
mirror.
“I can’t. I have to take it.”
“Why?”
Adelyn quickly told him about Sula and Muma.
Dad hesitated, took her hand, and led her through the
woods until he reached the patrol car. He helped her get
inside and shut the door, then opened it back up. “When we
got a call from the daycare, the woman said it was Nicole’s
mother who took her. But that was impossible because while
the dispatcher was on the phone, Nicole’s mother stormed
into the police station wanting our help. How did you
disguise yourself to lure her daughter to you?”
Adelyn looked up at him. “Sula can shapeshift into
anyone. I found that out when Nicole thought I was her
mom.”
Dad gulped and got into the driver’s seat, turned up the
heat, and placed a jacket around her. “I don’t know what’s
inside of you, but I know it’s way more powerful than any
human. We need help. I can’t do this on my own. Do you
know what they want?”
Adelyn told him.
Dad grabbed his head, and his hopeless eyes found hers.
“I thought Sula was only a myth. I had no clue that there
would be another witch, too. Jesus Christ. I-I just can’t
handle this. And I don’t know how I can take you out of
town to return the mirror, knowing Sula will stop us. Why
does she want the mirror anyway?”
“Because Sula told me she needs to possess me so she
can see herself in the mirror as she used to look before she
was burned.”
“Why doesn’t she just take the damn mirror?”
“She can’t. She stole the mirror once before, which
