by Nick Lavitz
6.
I awoke, still in the room, inside a pentagram. Raymond was chanting all sorts of incantations in my direction, several of which I happen to know don’t actually do anything.
“Funny way to thank me for saving your life,” I said, trying to remember if I'd brought any painkillers for my headache.
He gave me a baleful look and finished his current chant.
“I don’t get it,” he said, “I don't think you're actually possessed. I’ve tried everything and I can’t get it to manifest.”
“The demon inside me?” I asked.
He just nodded.
“Trust me, Raymond. I had no idea he was in there all this time, but I know who he is.”
“Oh?” His eyebrows rose so high they almost disappeared under his hairline.
“You’re not going to like it.”
Raymond looked like he was going to explode. “It's a named demon? Like you know it's actual fucking name?”
I got up and crossed the threshold of the pentagram and the circle he’d drawn around it. His face became even paler, if that's possible, as I walked past the wards he'd set up.
I sat on the bed and held my head in my hands, exhausted. The paper was still peeling from the walls and the smell of mold hadn't disappeared.
“I see the damage to the hotel was real, and that getting rid of the Thinning didn’t restore it to its former glory.”
“Mr. Etram is sufficiently grateful for his spiritual freedom, and sufficiently traumatized by what appears to be over a year of possession, that the state of the hotel seems to be the last thing on his mind.”
I allowed hope to blossom for a brief moment. “Is he going to pay us?”
Raymond snorted. “Of course not. Besides, he has other concerns. He's guilty of at least a dozen murders within these walls, and 'I was possessed' isn't a functioning defense strategy in a court of law. That said, insanity's looking good for him based on what's coming out of his mouth."
“Great, we risk our lives in possibly the most dangerous demonic confrontation I’ve ever been a part of, and we don’t have ten cents to show for it.”
Raymond tapped his foot and crossed his arms.
“Get on with it, Emily, which demon is it?”
I looked down at my feet.
“Ahazu.”
Something stirred in my bones when I said his name.
“Fuck me.”
I looked at him, pleading. “Raymond, if it would undo what I did to put him there, I’d take my own life in an instant. If I knew of any way, no matter the cost, I would do it."
“You put him there?”
“A group of us, many years ago, made a mistake. Summoned Ahazu without knowing what we were doing. There were consequences. Really bad consequences. It’s why I do this." I waved at the rotting remains of the hotel.
"I’ve been looking for a way to complete the ritual ever since because it’s the only way I know to send him back. I was looking for him, always hoping my next confrontation would be him. I’ve carried what I need to banish him every day for four years. I only found out now that he was with me all along.”
“He’s dormant?”
A low chuckle resonated in my consciousness.
“I don’t think so. He was just keeping a low profile. Hiding from me.”
“And now?”
“Now?”
There was nothing I could do to block out the deep baritone that echoed in my mind.
I pulled my head out of my hands to look Raymond in the eye.
“Now he wants to talk.”
