Possession

1. (Unedited Preview)

Shadows dance across the walls of my room. The setting sun is casting a golden glow around the tree whose shadows are dancing. They look like gnarled claws of a ghastly beast, but no such thing could exist, it's impossible. I slouched back against my chair. Homework is exhausting. I sigh aloud and push against the desk. The chair rolls back a few inches and I stand to perform some quick stretches before leaving to go to the kitchen.
    As I get closer, I can hear my mother humming a fast paced tune and I can smell the pork she's cooking. I always love the way she cooks, she can escape her stress and reality that way, everyone benefits. Well, just the two of us since Dad is often away on business trips and my brother is never home, or if he is, it doesn't show because he soundlessly creeps around the house like a cat. I hang outside the kitchen at the entrance for a second just watching my mother as she works. She's quick in her movements, but each one still carries a loving motion.
    I slide into the room and sit at the kitchen island. Resting my head in my hands, I get lost in the motion of her hand slicing an onion, then a tomato, and sliding each one into separate bowls for the time being. I watch her whip up tzatziki sauce like it's the simplest thing in the world.
    "Want to fill your own pita, or do you want me to do it traditional style?" She asks in a soft voice as she starts on making my own anyway.
    "A little less tzatziki sauce than you did last time, but yeah," I respond, still watching her graceful movements.
    If she fills my pita for a gyro it always goes faster, and we can both enjoy our meal together. After we eat, we work as team and clean the kitchen in less time than it took her to make our food. I always like to thank her by helping her out like that, it makes for us to spend more time together. Even though we try to play a game of cards after dinner every evening it doesn't always depending on how much homework I have each night. Tonight is one of those nights where I still have homework to finish. Around eight though, my mom will bring me a dessert, whatever she made that night in absence of us not playing cards.
    But for now, time to go back to my cave of a room to finish up a few last minute touches to assignments for all the boring subjects school has to offer. Right on cue at eight, my mom knocked softly and set a brownie down on the corner of my desk with a small cup of milk. She leaned over to see what I was working on. I felt some confusion radiate off of her before she patted my back.
    "Keep up the good work, Kiddo," she said as she walked out of my room closed the door gently.
    I finished up the assignment I was working on. Then, to my surprise, the brownie was still warm as I bit into it. The milk wasn't as cold though as I washed down the bite. That's alright though, I'm not picky. I leaned back in my chair and savored the brownie while it lasted. I pushed the chair back from the desk and stood. I closed the curtains that I had left open and got ready for bed. I like my sleep, and to do that on school night, is to go to bed super early.

⁕⁕⁕

Midnight. My eyes shot open, they were the only thing I could move. This was a frequent thing for me recently, sleep paralysis. But something was different about it this time. It felt like something was watching me, observing me. There was a pressure on my chest that was making me panic, I wasn't able to get enough air in. I focused my eyes on the ceiling, staring at nothing would calm my mind and release me from the paralysis.
    Eyes, red like the taillights of a car, beamed at me. Fear filled me and my hair raised on the back of my neck. The eyes snarled at, it sensed my fear and knew I was awake. I heard soft scratching as the eyes moved around the ceiling to a wall. Once it reached the wall, it hit a patch of moonlight and I could vaguely see it's disfigured vague human body. It crept down the wall towards my body, gnashing it's teeth in anticipation. Spittle flew from its mouth onto my face as it jumped from the wall and onto my bed. It hovered over me, pressing its face close to mine and sniffing, like a dog.
    I desperately willed my body to move as it opened its mouth and a string foamy saliva dripped right above my right eye in a heavy glob. It growled, causing more spittle to fly. A clawed hand reached up and began to stroke with a single claw from my temple to my jaw. Then it began to pry open my mouth with both clawed hands.