GHOST PORTAL (#1 GHOST PORTAL series)

TWENTY-ONE

"Excuse me?" Jessamine set her hands on her hips, hoping holding on to something would cease her sudden shaking. What had brought that on? The vision of herself with abnormally glowing blue eyes, or the fact that Avery had just claimed she was possessed?

Possessed? What the fuck?

"You heard me," said Avery, relaxing in the seat, setting his clasped hands behind his head. His attitude was much too calm for the situation. Yet when he spoke again, his voice was uneasy, less confident and boastful as she'd heard it in his YouTube videos when announcing something so dire. "Something is, and has been, inside your mind, most likely since your accident. It's what's preventing you from remembering the details, and it doesn't want you to remember because it doesn't want you to go back."

Jessamine's jaw dropped. She dug her nails deep into her hip-bone. "Let's say I believe you—and for the record, I don't—why are we, why are you only realizing this now?" She gulped; her jaw wouldn't return to its place, continuing to dangle from her face as if about to fall off and shatter at her feet. How could she be firm with him if her body wasn't responding to her commands? Or claim to not believe him when clearly something in her was off? "And how is it, this... thing... no longer blocking my memories, if that's what was happening?"

Leaning forward, setting his hands in his lap, Avery frowned. "The house—seeing it triggered you. As in actually triggered you, activating something inside, doing something to lower your possessor's defenses."

"Possessor," Jessamine cringed, "ew. Can we call it something else? I'm... I'm not... no, this can't be possible." Her legs were giving out, but Avery was fast—he hopped off the chair and swung it behind her just as she fell, and she swiftly landed on the cushions with a huff.

Avery kneeled before her, his face level with her knees. "But that's what it is, and there's nothing else to call it. Thing, maybe?" Jessamine nodded. "Thing, then. Well, seeing the house caught this thing off guard, and your conscience is getting stronger now, your mind is fighting it. You're gaining the upper hand and it's struggling to block your natural memories."

"Gee, fancy vocabulary," said Jessamine, fanning herself as beads of sweat streamed down from her temples. Avery grabbed a tissue from the desk and handed it to her for her to mop up her perspiration. "But okay... again, let's say this is true... how would I be possessed and not know it?"

She recalled the encounter with Louise; how she'd read Jessamine's inner-most thoughts, explored the memories she herself couldn't summon, and had fainted after coming into lengthy contact with her. Such events should have prompted her to believe what Avery was saying, and yet she doubted.

It couldn't be true. Something, someone, inside her mind?

No way. I can't accept that.

"It's not fancy," said Avery, straightening up to lean against the desk, instead. He folded his arms, but then used one hand to scratch at his cheek. "I've seen this before, worked with possessed people before. Not stuff I do for my YouTube channel—this is the dark shit Jamie and I don't want to film." He flinched, averting his gaze to the floor. "And the thing is, the signs of possession were there, always have been... but you didn't know to look for them. The being was dormant, I'd assume."

Jessamine had had no clue Avery performed other paranormal tasks behind-the-scenes. She'd been under the impression he put everything on camera, wanting everyone to see it—and so he'd gain more followers.

"Dormant?" She imagined some demonic creep peacefully slumbering in a corner of her mind. Tranquil, yawning, then being shaken up by the video. "Fuck."

"It didn't need to manifest; its only role was to protect your memories, most likely. But now... it's having a hard time with that, so it is manifesting, and becoming aggressive. Which makes you aggressive, irritable, moody. It's active," Avery swallowed hard, "which makes you nauseous. It's a foreign host, an entity that doesn't belong in your body."