Rachel had barely collapsed onto the couch in her apartment Room Number 26 near Taj Wlongkon when her phone started ringing.
The room was dim, curtains half drawn against the evening haze. Papers from work were scattered across the table, her laptop still open with a faint glow. Exhaustion clung to her body like a weight that refused to lift.
The phone kept ringing.
She exhaled slowly and picked it up.
"Mom?"
At first, there was only static. Then her mother's voice came through, trembling and uneven.
"Your younger sister… she's possessed…"
A chill ran through her instantly.
"Mom, what? Since when? Who did this?"
"I don't know…" her mother whispered, her voice breaking. In the background something slammed hard. A door creaked open slowly. Faint whispers slipped through the line, low and unnatural. "Someone has done something to my daughter… I don't know what to say right now. I'm scared… we're all scared…"
Her breathing turned into quiet sobs.
"You're the only one who can cure her. Please come home. Please."
The line went silent for a moment.
"I'll be there," she said, already grabbing her bag. "Just wait. I'll be there in a few hours."
It took fifteen.
Fifteen endless hours that refused to pass.
The train from Ancisho Junction rattled through the night, its metal body groaning as if it carried something restless inside it. She sat by the window, eyes open the entire time. Sleep never came. Every time she blinked, she saw Aruhi in her mind, but not as she remembered her.
Something felt wrong.
When the train finally stopped, in the Florida, the station was unnaturally quiet. Her footsteps echoed as she stepped onto the platform.
Rachel took a taxi from outside. The driver said nothing. The roads were emptier than they should have been, streetlights flickering as if struggling to stay alive.
By the time she reached home, the sky still refused to turn bright.
The house looked the same.
But it did not feel the same.
The paint seemed duller, as if it had faded overnight. The windows looked darker, almost hollow. The air around the house felt heavy, like it was holding something inside.
The door opened before she could knock.
Her mother Elina stood there with swollen, tear filled eyes.
She did not say anything. She just pulled her into a tight embrace, gripping her as if letting go was not an option.
Inside, the cold hit immediately.
Not the kind of cold from weather.
Something deeper.
Rachel had barely stepped in when her three sisters rushed down the stairs and wrapped their arms around her.
"We missed you," one of them whispered.
"That demon is going to take all of us," another said, her voice shaking. "Please do something."
Her heart began to pound.
Slowly, her gaze lifted toward the staircase.
The hallway above was dim. The light flickered once.
Then she saw it.
A shadow.
Not a normal one.
It moved.
Slowly, unnaturally, stretching across the ceiling like spilled ink. It was darker than anything around it, thick and wrong.
It stopped.
As if it noticed her.
A cold sensation ran down her spine.
Then it slid across the wall and disappeared into Aruhi's room.
It was not hiding.
It was watching.
In an instant, everything changed.
Rachel was no longer on the stairs.
She was inside Aruhi's room.
The air felt heavy, pressing against her chest. It was hard to breathe.
Aruhi was laying on the bed.
Still.
Too still.
And
At sudden Aruhi appeared Standing near the door
Her head tilted slightly toward the wall, hair falling across her face. Her hands trembled just a little.
But she did not blink.
Did not move.
Did not react.
Memories rushed into Rachel's mind.
She saw herself chanting prayers.
Tying protective threads around Aruhi's wrist.
Searching through old books for answers.
Shouting into the darkness.
Being thrown back by something she could not see.
Pain.
Failure.
Again and again.
"I won't let anything take you," she had once promised.
The words echoed faintly.
Her eyes opened suddenly.
She was lying on a bed.
The room was silent.
Too silent.
Then she heard footsteps.
Soft.
Fast.
Before she could sit up, Aruhi came running toward her.
Her heart stopped.
Aruhi's eyes were wrong.
Wide.
Empty.
Hollow.
In her trembling hand was a knife.
"Aruhi…" Rachel whispered.
For a brief moment, something changed.
A flicker.
The real Aruhi.
Fighting.
Trying to break through.
Then it was gone.
Everything happened at once.
A sudden movement.
A sharp force.
A crushing weight.
Pain spread through her body instantly.
The world tilted.
Her strength slipped away, fading like something being pulled out of her.
The ceiling above her blurred.
Darkness crept in slowly.
And in that final moment, she did not know what hurt more. Aruh came towards her and stabbed her continuously with thinking anything like it was her only wish she wants to be fulfilled.
The wound.
Or the realization forming in Rachel's mind.
A quiet, terrifying thought.
Maybe the demon was never in Aruhi.
Maybe it had been waiting.
Waiting for Rachel all along.
And
The Rachel's eye's stopped seeing anything