"What are you doing here?" the question was directed at my mom who stayed quiet. I couldn't see her facial expression, but grandma soon directed her gaze to mine, and I looked away almost immediately.
"Come in." she turned away from the door and walked in.
"It's been a while since I last came here." Mom breathed as she sat on a couch in the corner. I remained standing near the door. I was never comfortable in this house.
"Tea or coffee?" grandma's hoarse voice asked from the kitchen.
"Where's Frederick?" Mom asked. Fredrick was my grandfather. She finally noticed his absence. I had noticed it the moment grandma opened the door.
Grandma emerged from the kitchen with a tray which had three cups in it.
"He died…of a heart attack." Grandma finally replied, while mom gasped.
"I'm…so sorry, Linda. I didn't know th-"
"How would you know?" she cut mom off, as she sat on a couch after placing the train on the center table.
"How would you know that he died when you forgot that we exist? You had always ignored our existence, Abby." Her glaring eyes turned from mom to me, and I fidgeted on the spot.
"So much so that my granddaughter wouldn't even take a seat." She stared at me with her intense eyes. The smell of garlic grew ever so strongly in the house. It always smelt like garlic.
Mom cast me a glare, and I knew what that meant 'sit your fucking ass down'. I inched to a chair closer to where I was and sat.
"It's not like that , Linda. It was James who kept us away." That was my dad's name.
"Of course. That child always was a disappointment. I curse the day I birthed him." She pressed her lips in a thin line.
"What brings you here?" her gaze was directed at my mom who turned to stare at me once the question was asked.
"I think she's possessed."
It took just four words to get me in a strange room filled with crosses and statutes of Jesus and Mary. Rosaries decorated the room in their beady glory. Who knew the sentence 'I think she's possessed' will lead to me being forced to dressed in an all white clothe.
"What are you going to do to help her?" Mom asked grandma.
"Exorcise her. I'm going to cast the demon out." She replied as she mixed some strange substances in a bowl.
"Mama, I don't want to do this please." I pleaded with my mom. I had a really bad feeling about it all.
"Don't you worry my darling, you're safe. Grandma would never do anything to hurt you." I highly doubted that.
Grandma turned to give me the side eye, and my fear increased. Dad told me stories, stories of his childhood. If anything, the woman I called my grandmother was going to do everything to hurt me.
"Here," she finally stood up with the bowl where she had mixed all the strange substances.
"Drink. Drink every last drop." She handed it to me, but I didn't even try to take it from her.
"Leticia." Mom's tone of voice was scolding.
What if it was poison?
"We can do this two ways. You can choose to drink this and the process of exorcising the demon from inside you wouldn't be so hard on you, or you can choose to not take it and face the process head on. It's your choice. I'd pick wisely if I were you." How did I end up with such a shitty grandmother? I was never normal, I know. I was not from a normal family, so how could I have been?
Dad always drowned himself in old books and talked about other dimensions. He was a fun figure in my life until we found him in a pool of his own blood haven committed suicide. Maybe I had killed him. I had noticed the change in his behavior the last few days before he died, but I didn't tell anyone. I didn't even try to talk to him about what might have been bothering him. He just always said 'I'll soon be gone, Leti, please hold on strong. I'm sorry I'll have to leave you. I'm sorry I couldn't do much for you.' Then he'd pause and lean in to whisper, 'He'll come for you. When he does, do not resist. You can't run from him. He gave you life.'
Well, that was more than crazy in my opinion. I guess my dad knew a lot about my present predicament. Now he was dead, I couldn't ask him all the questions I wanted to. He was the only one who ever understood. When mom was busy being on her own, dad thought me, he always had time for me.
"Drink it, Leticia." Mom's voice snapped me out of my state of trance.
I knew that voice too well, it meant 'drink it or I'll force it down your throat'
I took it from grandma with shaky hands, and hesitantly brought it down to my lips.
A sip had my face all scrunched in a grimace.
"What the fuck is this disgusting stuff!" I snapped once I spat out the sip I had taken.
"Language, Leticia." Mom reprimanded. Who cared about fucking language at this time?
"Do not waste it, drink every last drop of it." Grandma stated intensely.
"I swear to God, before the demon or the exorcism kills me, this nasty stuff will." I took in a shaky breath.
"Drink." Grandma's voice was adamant.
Closing my eyes, I downed everything. I didn't even get the chance to gag at the disgusting and bitter taste before I was falling, and soon enough, darkness consumed me.
When I woke up, I was all sweaty and in a confined space, it was pitch black. I couldn't breathe and I was so weak. It took my hazy brain some minutes of my hands feeling around to know where I really was, and I swallowed. My breathe started to pick pace at the realization that I was in a box. A coffin. A damn coffin! Mom let that crazy woman bury me!?
"Hey!" I screamed, banging my fists against the cover of the coffin, but it didn't budge.
Was I in the ground? If I was, I was so dead.
"Mama!" I yelled banging.
"Help me someone! Please, damn it!" I banged harder and suddenly started coughing.
"They buried you, no one is coming." My body stilled at his words. He was back in my head? Did the nasty drink not work?
"Please help me." I cried.
"I will help you, but you have to accept me, look back and say my name."
His voice was like a whisper.
I shook my head.
"No."
"My name is Draven, say it and you'll be out of here."
"No."
I remembered dad's words 'He'll come for you, and when he does, do not resist.' I couldn't listen to that. I couldn't be anyone's doll.
"You'll die here."
"I will not. They'll come for me, they'll cast you away."
His evil chill giving laugher soon filled my head and I panicked.
"Sorry to disappoint you kitten, I'm not going away ever. I'll see you soon….in flesh."
He said and then he was gone, leaving me to suffocated to death. I couldn't count how many times I passed out or how the time flew, but it was a very long time later before they came.
I heard someone above talk in a muffled voice and suddenly, the coffin cover was shoved off, and I took in a deep breathe to fill my lungs with much needed air.
"Oh dear." Mom appeared above me, and quickly carried me out, hugging me to her chest.
"Mama," My voice was hoarse from all the shouting and crying I did. Looking around, I realized we were in the same room grandma had given me that nasty thing to drink. I wasn't in the ground after all, they were always going to come back for me. My tired arms wrapped around her in a hug.
"I missed you mama."
"I missed you too darling, you were in there for seven days."
I swallowed.
"I believe the demon is already out of you?" My eyes landed on grandma who was standing behind mom, and I nodded my head immediately.
"I felt him burn and scream and then there was silence." That was total lie. I couldn't undergo that anymore. If I had to lie that I no longer could feel the devil to not undergo that again, then lie I would for the rest of my life.
"Good. If you notice any sign that she might still be seeing the devil, bring her back and I'll up things. No relation of mine will accommodate the devil." All the while, her intense eyes didn't look away from me, not even once.