After what can only be described as a long day, Sera is finally heading home. She feels as though she could cry again. She always knew there was something different about her; she always knew she was waiting for something. Only, what she wasn't expecting was the fact that her presence alone could put the people she loves at risk. Risk for possession, risk for harm, and even risk for death. She doesn't even want to imagine her parents with red eyes; she shivers at the unwelcomed thought.
Finally pulling up to the little blue farmhouse, she steps out of the car. As soon as she closes the door behind her, she's hit with that gut feeling again. The bad one—the one that screams trouble. Her necklace is no longer pulsing at her throat, it's maintaining its solid glow. All the hairs on her neck are standing at full attention. She tosses her purse onto the hood of her car, and her body immediately taking a defensive stance. A cool breeze filters through her sweater as the naked branches of the trees surrounding her sway like creepy fingers against the dark night sky. Another cold breeze hits, and it carries with it that putrid smell of garbage... and something else. The smell is so strong, she can taste it in her mouth. Gagging, she scans the deserted street.
The houses that line the left side of the street have all gone dark, not a single light to be found. The night around her is silent. Not a cricket or owl in the trees, it's a haunting silence that envelopes everything around her. It's like the street is stuck in a bubble.
Sera finds herself squinting toward the dead end of her street, the shadows from the dense woods hiding all their secrets. Something is there.
Her instincts take over, closing her eyes; she attempts to clear her mind. Blacking out her feelings is what makes her take focus. There's something else in the smell. It smells like sulfur and rotting garbage. Almost like that time she burned her hand on her curling iron. Her entire room had this gross smell to it. It reeked of... burned flesh.
She gasps her eyes fluttering open. Her feet take a step toward the dead end. She stares at the shadows ahead of her, willing them to show her what they hide. Slowly, as she focuses, a dark figure appears in the wood. It appears to be getting... bigger. It's coming closer.
Get out of there.
The internal voice is screaming at her. Every fiber of her being is telling her to run, but the closer the figure gets the more it appears human. Human, only it's approaching on all fours like an animal. Sera's heart is racing inside her chest. Especially, when the smell only gets stronger, more agonizing. She also begins to pick up a clicking noise echoing from the approaching shadow.
Seraphina, get out of there!
No. She has spent her entire life in hiding. Whatever it is that is happening to her or coming for her, it's going to come to a head tonight. This is going to stop here, one way, or another. She'd rather die taking a stand than cowering in fear for the rest of her life.
The closer the figure gets, the more repulsed Sera begins to feel. It's not just about the smell any longer. The thing has set off some internal alarm in her brain. The night grows colder and colder, her heart increases, her palms grow sweaty from clamping them so hard. Her breath increases causing little puffs to appear in front of her. What is this thing?
Her feet feel like they are stuck in cement. Maybe, she should have run. That voice has never been wrong before. Even if she wanted to, her body doesn't seem to cooperate. This must be what shock feels like. The clicking is growing louder with each step. It isn't until the figure finally leaps over the guardrail and into a spotlight of moonlight on the street that she can finally see what it is. It is a she.
She is human, or at least she was. It's a young woman still dressed in a long blue nightgown. Her long, dark hair is all disheveled and her nightgown is covered in soot giving the illusion that she had crawled for miles.
The woman looks up from her crouched position on all fours and Sera can see her glowing red eyes. Her cheeks are sunk in, she appears to be only skin and bones. She doesn't recognize the face. The woman opens her mouth to speak and a chill runs down Sera's spine at her words. It isn't what she is saying; it's the woman's voice. It's not her own. It's deep, too deep, and too... evil. She remembered what Jack told her earlier; this woman is possessed.
"Surrender yourself to the dark one," the woman's deep voice states. Her neck twists grotesquely to the side.
Sera doesn't know what to do. She just stands there in disbelief. What did she think she could do? She can't harm a human. The woman will wake up and remember nothing of this. She shivers.
"Surrender... Surrender... Surrender." The woman repeats and continues her spider-like approach. Sometimes her legs come over her arms as she crawls forward. Sera comes to the realization the crackling sound is coming from this ladies' bones. Completely freaked out now, Sera takes a step backward. Big mistake. The woman leaps onto her eerily fast. She's on her chest knocking Sera flat on her back against the concrete road. She crouches on top of her with her dirty hands reaching for Sera. She rips the pendant from her neck and wraps her hands around her throat.
No, my pendant! It lands on the curb in front of her house before the glow fades and the vial falls dark. Her hand reaches for it, uselessly.
"Surrender or die!" The woman is yelling now; the hands at her throat, growing tighter and tighter. Sera stares up at this skeleton woman with her eyes wide. She can only watch the woman cut off her air supply.
In the last moments of her life, something bright and hot comes from behind her. The woman falls off her chest. Sera turns to see the woman land on her front lawn with a tumble before returning to her feet with cat like reflexes. The woman lets out a sound that can only be described as a growl of some sort. A man walks up from down the street. He's tall and broad, dressed in all black complete with ski mask hiding his identity. The possessed woman approaches again low like a predator stalking prey. She's about to pounce on the person that saved Sera's life.
Sera rolls onto her stomach, watching as the man throws another ball of fire from his hands as if it were a simple baseball. He misses, and her father's truck in the driveway is now a piece of burning scrap metal.
He pulls out a silver blade from a loop in his pants that seems to be glowing white, and he dives for the woman. She narrowly misses it scrambling up into a tree. She climbs like a spider all the way up and across a branch, upside down. When she stops about halfway across, she twists her head all the way around at an unnatural angle.
"Join us or be destroyed." Her horribly deep voice chills Sera's blood all the way to her core. Never taking her gaze from Sera, she lands on the stranger's chest knocking him onto his back. She begins to scratch at his face like a tiger. Her movements are so fast her eyes can barely keep up.
Her little internal voice must have finally noticed she needed encouragement, it finally responds.
You are stronger than you think.
Stronger. Isn't that what Jack had said to her as well? She is strong. She's contemplating her next action when the woman slashes the mask off the stranger's face. His face twists away from another slash. Chestnut hair comes tumbling out. Gorgeous blue eyes meet hers only a moment before he bends to escape another blow. Nate!
A floodgate opens; the next moves Sera makes are all instinctual. She jumps to her feet. Her body takes it from there. Her eyes close her emotions surging around her like a tornado. She can feel as it pulls from the very tip of her toes to every strand of her hair. She controls them, bringing the power of it all to her core. It becomes too strong, and she falls to her knees, fists clenched at her sides. Biting her lip, she somehow maintains her hold. Her fists are clenching so hard she can feel her nails digging into the palms of her hands. She can't stop. Vaguely, she can hear Nate's voice outside of her little bubble.
"Run, Sera, run!"
When she opens her eyes, she brings her fists in front of her, and they are glowing. Suddenly, it all becomes clear. She stands to her feet, all her senses have returned. Nate is screaming at her to run. Instead, she feels her power making her stronger, more confident. She takes a step closer to the woman. Whoever sent her made a mistake coming here.
Her power comes to a head, and she extends her hands toward the woman. Then Sera allows the power to release itself from her center through her hands. Pure white power surges from Sera's outstretched palms. It smacks into the woman on top of Nate's broad chest as if she hit her with a baseball bat. Falling onto her back on Sera's front lawn, the woman immediately begins convulsing like she's having a seizure before lying still and evaporating into the ground.
Fully exhausted, Sera falls to her knees. Nate stumbles to his feet and runs for her. He pulls Sera's weak body into his arms.
"Sera, are you okay?"
"What happened... the woman... red eyes, but she evaporated?"
He nods in understanding, "It was too late. There was nothing good left in her." his hands explore her face, her body, "Sera, Sera stay with me."
"I just feel so... tired."
"What did you do?" his voice shrieks. She's never heard Nate so out of control before, even in her dreams. His eyes are glancing this way and that, like he was looking for something.
"I did what you showed me in my dream." Sera gets out between yawns.
"You dreamed of this?"
"Idreamed of you," she whispers beforefalling into a dreamless sleep in his arms.