The pill bottle was a soft blue colour. The lid was decorated with a striped pole, and people danced about it while holding streamers. It looked happy and cheerful, but in Olivia's hand it weighed a thousand pounds.
Olivia Kulas rolled the pill bottle over in her hand and read the label. She read it softly to herself, committing it to memory, "Take two pills three times daily with food. Take pills no less than two hours before sleeping. May cause insomnia, skin irritation, or induce vomiting." Her hands shook as he pried open the child-proof cap. When she tipped the bottle five pills came spilling out. She set the bottle down on the edge of the sink and picked the extra three out of her hand.
Olivia filled a plastic cup half with water and set the two remaining pills beside it while she closed the pill bottle and set it back into the medicine cabinet. Before she closed the cabinet her eyes fell on another pill bottle. The bottle was a dull brownish colour and only had a few pills left in the bottom. She looked down at the pills on the sink and then back up to the brown bottle. She popped the cap on the brown bottle and tipped it back over her mouth, four or five pills spilled out onto her tongue. She threw back the half filled cup of water and swallowed them all in one gulp. Olivia refilled the cup with water and carefully picked up the two pills for Hannah. Her hands had already started to stabilize as she left the bathroom.
She crept down the hallway towards Hannah's room. The hallway was cluttered with scaffolding and paint cans. As she got a bit closer to the door Olivia stumbled a bit on a length of electrical cable that had been left partially uncoiled on the floor. The repairs to the hallway were coming along well now that Hannah was on the road to recovery. It had only been three weeks since she had begun the treatments but she was already showing vast improvements. Most of the objects in her bedroom now remained stationary, and Hannah very rarely screamed obscenities in dead languages any more.
Olivia had been worried when she heard about the damage Hannah had caused to Dr. Coburn's office, but he hadn't even sent a bill for the cracked windows. Olivia had been in the lobby waiting for her daughter when the screaming had started. She had pounded on the door and clawed at the pretty receptionist who had tried to restrain her. Finally the screaming had stopped and she could hear muffled voices from inside the office. When Dr. Coburn finally opened the door his office looked as if a wild bear had mauled it. The desk was overturned, the patient's couch was torn in two, and her daughter was curled in a ball on the far side of the room.
Olivia had run in, screaming, "What have you done to my daughter! If you have hurt her I will see that you never work again!" She had rolled Olivia over onto her back and checked her breathing, it had been strong, and deep. But the thing that had struck her the most was the peaceful expression on Hannah's face. It had been a long time since Olivia had seen Hannah like that. It was as if the fury had gone from her. In that moment Olivia had dispelled all her doubts about Dr. Coburn.
She had come home that night feeling relieved and excited. It had been a breakthrough, the demon had loosened its hold on her daughter. Surely the end couldn't be far off! But her enthusiasm had been premature. Hannah still faded in and out of her attacks. Though they weren't nearly as potent as they had been before she started the treatment, they were still a major disruption to their lives. Tensions around the household continued to rise. Olivia and Van rarely spoke any more, and had fallen into a routine where each simply knew whose day it was to keep an eye on Hannah.
Van mostly kept himself contained within the study. There he worked on his computer or wept softly to himself, mistakenly believing that the study doors were keeping his misery private. Olivia had taken it upon herself to begin the healing process. It was she who had ordered the contractors to come in and repair the damage Olivia had done to the house. It was she who had started going out into the yard to clear away the rotting and diseased plants, the animal corpses, and swept the ash off the outside of the house.
Olivia was startled out of her reverie by a series of bumping and shuffling noises from inside Hannah's room. She hurried to the doorway, nearly spilling the cup of water in her hand as she did so. She twisted the knob frantically and lurched into the room, calling out, "Hannah! Are you alright?"
Inside the room it was nearly pitch black. The window had been open when Olivia had last been inside, and sunlight had been streaming into the room. But now no light filtered through the blackened panes, it was as if Hannah had gotten up from her bed and spray painted the windows. Olivia turned back towards the hallway in the hopes that she could find a flashlight amongst the contractor's tools, but behind her all light had ceased shining as well.
From in the darkness she heard a raspy voice taunt, "What's the matter, mother? Have you lost your way? Come. Follow my voice. I want to play."
The voice made Olivia's skin crawl. She felt bile rise in her throat at the sound of it. Again she heard bumping and shuffling. Olivia put her right hand out in front of her, fingers still wrapped tightly around the two pills. She waved her arm gently from side to side, trying to find Hannah's dresser or vanity, anything that would give Olivia her bearings.
Then, in front of her, Olivia started to make out the shape of a huge shadow, outlined in red. She concentrated, trying to make out what it could be. It took her several moments to realize that the shadow was hers, and the red glow that surrounded it was coming from directly behind her. She spun and gasped.
Hannah was sitting on the bed, her arms raised straight up in the air. Her eyes burned a fiery red, and it was the glow from her eyes that now illuminated the room. Olivia saw movement in the shadows around Hannah's bed. A dry scraping and shuffling noise that dug into Olivia's ears. Hannah opened her mouth and began laughing, an angry maniacal laugh, and as she did more light spilled out from between her teeth. It was as if Hannah had swallowed hell itself and the glow of burning embers was spilling from her throat.
All around Hannah's bed were toys, dragging themselves along in a circle. They twitched and stuttered about. They had joined hands, the ones who even had hands, and their motions were both rhythmic and erratic, creating a sort of ritual music. Olivia had begun shaking. Each time Hannah had a relapse she found new ways to terrify and terrorize her parents. But Dr. Coburn had assured Olivia that as long as Hannah was taking her medication regularly the demon wouldn't have the power to cause them harm.
Olivia tensed up, her right hand slipped down and tucked the pills into the pocket of her pants. She looked down at the cup of water in her hand, there was very little left. She crouched slightly and then sprung onto the bed. She tipped the cup in Hannah's direction, splashing her with what little water was left. As she did Hannah lost her concentration and suddenly the room was bright again. Olivia used her forward momentum to tackle her daughter, pinning her against the torn mattress. She leaned back a bit and held one arm against Hannah's chest, with the other she dug into her pocket and rammed the pills into Hannah's mouth.
Hannah convulsed and tried to spit the pills out but Olivia was resolute. She pressed her hand against Hannah's mouth, forcing it to stay closed. Hannah's breath came in hot bursts from her nostrils and her eyes flashed with rage. Hannah tried one last attempt to buck her mother off by thrusting her hips upwards but it was futile, Olivia was locked in place, the will of a mother proving stronger than the forces of hell.
Olivia saw Hannah's throat bulge momentarily, but she held on for nearly an hour after the convulsions stopped. When she finally rolled off the bed she was exhausted, she stumbled over to a chair in the far corner of Hannah's room and collapsed. Her last thought before she slipped out of consciousness was, "Well, that went better than last time, at least."
Olivia awoke hours later to the sound of birds chirping outside the window. Her eyes went wide and she bolted out of the chair. She scrambled to the window. Her fingers toyed with the latch for a moment before she flung the window wide open. As she did she heard Hannah's voice from behind her, "Mom, what are you doing?" Her voice was clear and melodic.
Olivia looked outside and saw three birds perched in a tree a short distance away, singing and chirping happily. She turned to Hannah and saw that she had some colour in her cheeks. Olivia instinctively looked down at her wrist, trying to gauge the time. It was then that she remembered that the last time she had worn her watch into Hannah's room it had run backward for three days afterwards, and had since been leaving it in her jewelery case.
"Nothing, honey. Nothing's wrong." Olivia looked at her daughter. She was still surrounded by twisted toys, but they seemed much more innocent in the light. Even the torn and battered bed seemed less troublesome. Olivia opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it. She had been about to tell Hannah that the sound of birds scared her now, ever since the demon had commanded flocks of them to plunge into the windows of the house. But Dr. Coburn had said that Hannah didn't remember these things, and to bother her with them when she was coherent would simply cause her stress that would allow the demon a greater foothold.
"Mom," Hannah said, "I am feeling much better today. Can I go to school? I really miss my friends. And I have midterms soon."
Hannah didn't know that her midterms had long since passed. When the demon was here Hannah didn't sense the passage of time, and so the entire ordeal seemed to her as if it had only been a day or two. It would be a shock to her to find out that she had missed an entire semester, so Olivia and Van had continued with the ruse.
Olivia replied, "Not quite yet, honey. Only a couple more visits to the doctor, then you should be well enough to go back."
Hannah sighed, "But I feel fine, really! Where's my phone? I want to call Sarah."
Olivia cringed. Sarah wouldn't be coming by again soon.
Two weeks ago Sarah had come by the house looking for Hannah. Van had turned her away, but he had a small cut above his eye when he answered the door. He had forgotten about it, and though it had stopped bleeding he hadn't had a chance to cover it up yet. Sarah was an imaginative girl and had gotten suspicious. Sarah sneaked back after dark. She had come around the back of the house and tossed rocks up to Hannah's window. The noise woke the demon instead.
Sarah had seen Hannah in the window and called up. The windows had flown open and Sarah was lifted off her feet and hurled back about ten feet. The blended sounds of Hannah and Sarah screaming had woken the entire household. She scrambled to her feet and bolted away from the house. The police had arrived an hour later. Thankfully Dr. Coburn had prepared them for this. He said that in cases as severe as Hannah's the police often got involved. He had them explain that their daughter had developed a tumor which caused the onset of a dangerous psychosis, and that Sarah must have stumbled and fell when Hannah opened the window and started screaming.
Dr. Coburn had included in their bill a special charge he referred to as "Reputation Insurance". He had said that the charge was necessary in case anything unforeseen came about. In this case the Social Insurance had bought their way out of a potentially embarrassing visit from social services. It turned out that Dr. Coburn had quite a few friends in different government agencies who believed in his particular brand of medicine, and many of them could be persuaded to look the other way for as little as a night out at a nice restaurant and a pair of opera tickets.
Olivia moved over to the bed and sat next to Hannah. She stroked her hair like she had when she was just a girl. It seemed so long ago. Hannah was fifteen years old now, fifteen going on ten thousand if her demon was to be believed. Olivia whispered, "Soon, baby, soon. You get a bit more rest and I'll grab the phone for you."