They all got their clue alright.
As Zooey stooped low on the ground towards the broken glass, Alex understood immediately. But almost at the same time, the poor woman screamed with a loud terror-stricken voice. The reason for a scream was not yet evident to the others. In one of the larger shards of the broken mirror, a single large eye-ball was glaring at her, in the same way a peeping tom would look through a glass or peeping hole.
For the demon, christmas came early.
The mirror was his cage. Or at least, it had been meant to serve as his prison. If the glass had remained unbroken, he could have very easily spent anything between ten, to a thousand years imprisoned in his very own personal sarcophagus. And yet, by a dumbstroke of luck, within only five minutes of his incarceration, he had been set free by the same woman who had hired these mages to exorcise him.
If he had not bee a demon already, he might have been tempted to believe that miracles did actually happen.
And so, brimming with confidence, and full of a revenous inhuman hunger, Khosa's formlessness rose out of the shards of glass, filling the upper room with his smoky presence. Completely greedy for a new human host, for a second, his lusty eyes scanned all five humans in the room, trying to see which vessel would be perfect. The two mages were definitely out of the question.
Catherine, (his former host) was still under the influence of that terrible perfume. The father's aura was a little to dim. But the mother, she was just perfect. As she stared at the thick black smoke, Khosa James felt her fear, her shock, and her despair. This collection of negative emotions came to him like a sweet aroma, and he instantly, without question, he knew right away that this was his new mark.
So, without the slightest hesitation, while everyone was yet to recover, he took advantage of the chaos. Seething with malicious glee, he focused his energy and lunged right at the poor lady.
Paralyzed by the sight, the terror stricken lady was still pinned to the ground with her mouth wide open in shock. Even with the demon rushing right at her, she could not move out of fear. It was not like she had any chance of actually outrunning a being that was not bound by the laws of physics. It would have been utterly futile. So, Khosa James sailed smoothly right into his new vessel without any kind of hesitation.
All this happened within a space of two and a half seconds.
Zooey hated being caught off guard. Alex was very much amused. Catherine was still knocked out, and the father was still in shock. There was no one who was in the right mental frame to stop the possession.
Khosa knew this, and acted very quickly as soon as he took over the body.
Normally, stepping into a new body took some getting used to. Depending on his mission in the human, he had to go through the minds and memories of the victim, and pull out their worst secrets, as well as their sickest desires. This would then be used for his sick games.
But, this time, he had to skip all through that.
Immediately, Khosa, (who was now the lady) reached for the ground and picked up a broken piece of glass. Holding it to 'her own' neck, his voice came with a paralyzing injunction;
"Make any sudden move, and I'll slit her throat!!"
Zooey's mind was, working really fast now, but unfortunately, so was Khosa's. He had thousands of years experience with intruding mages, so he knew Zooey might be tempted to make a clever play for one of her very effective artifacts. So, he stopped her before she could even think about it;
"You crazy bitch!! Hands where I can see them!! If you so much as try to do anything funny, I will slit this fat cunt's throat right away, and leave her body leaking so much blood, you'll need a bucket to mop it all up!!"
It was all too dramatic.
Even though it was clear that the lady was possessed, it did not stop Alex from thinking just how sweet and hospitable she was just a few moments ago. And now, all thanks to her callous mistake, her personality had literally changed, painting her in a more unflattering image. It was really something.
"There, there Khosa James..." Zooey was the one speaking now; "...don't you dare hurt her..."
"HA!" the demon shrieked; "You have to options human. Either let me go, or I'll slice out her throat, and infuse her body with so much darkness that you won't be able to heal her! Trust me!"
Khosa no doubt had a little cunning, but he was straight up foolish.
His full attention had been focused only on Zooey, after all, she had been the aggressor all through this exorcism, and he was right to be wary of her. But that automatically did not rule out the other mage as a threat. And therein lay his worst mistake.
The air inside the room was replete with the gripping tension and danger that came with sudden life or death moments.
Zooey's plan was to try to stall while she came up with a plan, so she taunted at the demon;
"If you murder that woman, I can guarantee you that your punishment will be a thousand times more horrendous than that glass prison I put you in. Try me Khosa, just try me."
She said coldly.
The demon clinched the glass harder, causing the woman's plam to bleed.
"I will slit her throat!! I'm warning you, if you don't let me out in five seconds, you're going to have to explain to your bosses just how you let an old lady get gutted like a fish!"
By this time, Alex had fully gained complete understanding of the situation at hand, and could clearly see that the demon had the piece of glass pressed so tightly on the woman's neck, any little pressure could prove to be potentially fatal. Somehow, he knew Zooey was more concerned with making the demon suffer than trying to save the woman.
The demon however was all too willingly to slaughter at the slightest provocation. This was a real connundrum. He could not afford to sit this one out. His intervention was key to saving the woman's life.
So, while Khosa James, and Zooey continued their dick measuring contest, Alex unleashed a tiny fraction of his suppressed power. This sudden surge not only triggered a blast of invisible cosmic energy that was targeted right at the unsuspecting demon, it also momentarily seperated Alex's spirit from his body.
Like the shadow of a blood moon covering a portion of the earth, Alex's spirit swallowed the entire room with an inescapble darkness that not even the demon could evade. Because the attack looked like it came out of nowhere, the demon was caught in the full range of the unseen blast.
But Alex had not actually attacked yet. What the room, and the demon were feeling was only the shocking effect of a demigod's temporal re-alignment with the spirit world.
When the the attack did come, it came with the thundering effect of a divine judgment from on high. Nobody told Khosla to flee. Totally on another, the psychic attack sent the demon fleeing at once without any hindrance. With his tail between his legs, the very surprised demon fled not just out of Catherine's mom's body at once, but the entire building.
It felt like a nuclear bomb had been detonated in a submarine, all just to kill a rat- a very annoying rat.
Alex could have easily gone after the demon to teach him a very good lesson. But there was no need. He could already feel the demon retreating in abject fear (having tasted the wrath of a god). With that out of the way, he exited the spirit, and brought back his essence into his own body.
Clearly, he had let the demon go of his own volition, and not because he could not handle such a weak, low-level demon.
A few moments later, everyone was huddled over Catherine's mother as she slowly regained consciousness. What could have been a celebrated day, had almost turned into a whole another nightmare. They were both still in shock, and Alex's next words somehow managed to both frighten and comfort them at the same time.