(A/N):
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Jojo walked past everyone in the room without another word.
His footsteps were unhurried.
Measured.
As though he had all the time in the world.
The possessed corpse followed his movements with unnatural interest, its pitch-black eyes never blinking even once.
When Jojo finally stopped in front of the reinforced bed, he didn't immediately speak.
Instead, he pulled over an old wooden chair from the corner of the room.
The legs scraped softly across the floor.
Then he sat down.
Face to face with the thing wearing Ellie's body.
The room became unnervingly quiet.
Beth instinctively gathered the children closer behind her.
Bruce lowered his Bible but refused to let it leave his hands.
Even Leah stopped moving around the room.
Everyone's attention was now fixed on the silent confrontation.
For nearly half a minute...
Neither Jojo nor the entity uttered a single word.
The creature simply stared.
Then its nostrils flared.
Once.
Twice.
It leaned forward against the chains as though trying to catch a scent carried by the air itself.
The grotesque smile slowly returned.
"Hehehe..."
Its voice had become much calmer than before.
Less frantic.
More curious.
"I smell it..."
It closed Ellie's eyes and inhaled deeply again.
"...Fire."
The smile widened further.
"But not ordinary fire."
The black veins beneath Ellie's skin pulsed lazily.
"It smells..."
"...like something that once burned beneath the world."
The creature slowly opened its eyes again.
They remained fixed on Jojo.
"You've been there..."
Its voice carried genuine fascination now.
"You escaped."
Another soft laugh escaped its throat.
"Hehehe..."
"It has been such a long time since I smelled someone carrying the scent of Hell itself."
Behind Jojo, Leah instinctively tensed.
Lorraine's fingers rested on the grip of one of her pistols.
Neither interrupted.
Jojo, however, remained completely expressionless.
He calmly observed the corpse from head to toe.
Not the flesh.
Not the black veins.
Something deeper.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
'Interesting...'
Most possessions followed predictable rules.
When a spirit invaded a living person, it didn't require much.
The victim's soul was still present.
The nervous system still functioned.
The body remained biologically active.
The invading entity merely had to overpower the original consciousness and seize control.
Simple.
Relatively speaking.
But this...
This was completely different.
Ellie was dead.
Not dying. Not unconscious.
Dead.
A corpse should have rejected possession entirely.
Without life, there was no spiritual circulation.
No functioning vessel.
No reason for an entity to choose it.
Unless...
Jojo's gaze slowly drifted around the bedroom.
'There has to be an anchor.'
A powerful one.
Something continuously feeding infernal energy into the corpse.
Without an anchor, possession of a dead body would collapse within hours.
Yet according to the reports...
This thing had been active for nearly three weeks.
Which meant the anchor wasn't merely strong.
It was close.
Very close.
Jojo finally stood up.
Without another glance toward the restrained corpse, he turned toward Beth and the children.
"I need all of you to think carefully."
Beth wiped away the tears still clinging to her face.
"What do you mean?"
"Before Ellie changed..."
Jojo folded his arms.
"...did anyone bring something unusual into this apartment?"
Beth looked confused.
"Something old."
"No..."
"Something connected to the occult."
She slowly shook her head.
"I don't think so."
Jojo continued to ask his questions.
"An antique."
"A strange box."
"A necklace."
"A statue."
"A book."
"Anything."
The room became quiet.
Beth frowned as she desperately searched her memories.
Bruce looked equally puzzled.
Mr. Fonda simply shook his head.
"I've never seen anything like that."
Kassie looked toward Danny.
Danny immediately avoided everyone's eyes.
A small movement.
So small that most people wouldn't have noticed.
Jojo did. Leah did.
And...
Bridget certainly did.
The girl slowly turned toward her older brother.
Her expression gradually disappeared.
Instead, suspicion crept across her face.
Her brows furrowed.
She stared at Danny for several long seconds.
Then her eyes widened ever so slightly.
A memory surfaced.
Three weeks earlier.
Danny had returned home carrying an old leather-bound book wrapped inside a paper bag.
She remembered asking him about it.
He had quickly hidden it under his bed.
Yesterday...
She had seen him reading it with a flashlight despite she repeatedly telling him to go to sleep.
The next morning...
Ellie had become sick.
Bridget slowly looked back at her brother.
Danny's face had lost all color.
His lips trembled.
He refused to meet anyone's gaze.
That was enough.
The little girl's heart sank.
'No... He couldn't have...'
She slowly took a hesitant step backward.
"Danny..."
The boy closed his eyes.
A single tear rolled down his cheek.
Bridget's voice became barely above a whisper.
"...You read it... didn't you?"
The room fell silent.
Every pair of eyes turned toward Danny.
Beth looked between her son and daughter in complete confusion.
"Kassie... what is she talking about?"
Danny's breathing became ragged.
His shoulders shook violently.
For several seconds he tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Finally...
His voice broke.
"...I..."
He swallowed hard.
"...I didn't think..."
Another tear slid down his face.
"...I didn't think it was real."
Behind him, the thing chained to the bed suddenly began laughing again.
Not loudly. Softly. Patiently.
As though it had just been waiting for someone to remember.
The silence inside the apartment became suffocating.
Every eye remained fixed on Danny.
The boy stood frozen, his breathing uneven, tears spilling freely down his face. His lips trembled as guilt threatened to overwhelm him.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
Then—
A slow clap echoed through the bedroom.
Clap...
Clap...
Clap...
The sound came from the chained woman.
Ellie's corpse leaned forward as far as the restraints allowed, the iron chains groaning under the strain.
The thing inside her wore a smile so wide it nearly split her face.
"Hehehe..."
Its pitch-black eyes settled on Danny.
Not with hunger.
With delight.
"Oh..."
"What a wonderful little boy."
Danny instinctively stepped backward.
The entity laughed louder.
"You finally remembered."
Its voice changed, becoming softer.
Almost affectionate.
The way a mother might praise her child.
"You opened the book."
"You read the words. You played the tape..."
"You invited me inside."
It tilted Ellie's head until the bones in her neck cracked sharply.
"And do you know what that means?"
Danny shook his head violently.
"N-no..."
The creature ignored him.
Its smile stretched even wider.
"You killed your own mother."
The words landed like a hammer.
Beth's eyes widened.
Bridget gasped.
Kassie covered her mouth.
Danny simply stared.
The entity continued mercilessly.
"She tried so hard to protect all of you."
"It was her own son..."
"...who opened the door."
It chuckled, savoring every word.
"How proud she must be."
Danny collapsed onto his knees.
"No..."
His voice barely escaped his throat.
"I didn't know..."
"You didn't know?" the entity mocked.
"You still read it."
"You still spoke the words."
"You still completed the ritual."
Its laughter echoed throughout the apartment.
"And because of you..."
It slowly looked upward, as if admiring an invisible sky.
"...your mother's soul is now suffering in Hell for all eternity."
"No!"
Danny screamed.
"I didn't mean it!"
"I was just curious!"
"I didn't know it was real!"
The entity's grin became almost ecstatic.
"Exactly."
"You wanted entertainment."
"You wanted excitement."
"And your reward..."
It leaned forward until its face was only inches from the edge of the bed.
"...was your mother's death."
Danny buried his face in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
Beth rushed toward him and wrapped her arms around her son without hesitation.
"No..."
She held him tightly despite her own tears.
"No, Danny..."
"It wasn't your fault."
"You didn't know."
But the words carried little conviction.
The boy had already begun believing the monster.
And that was exactly what it wanted.
Jojo, who had remained silent until now, slowly stood from the chair.
He looked neither angry nor shocked.
Only disappointed.
Not in Danny.
In the creature.
The entity noticed him approaching and smiled smugly.
"Does the truth bother you?"
Jojo stopped beside the bed.
His voice was calm.
"So that's your game."
The creature blinked.
"You don't need to infect the body first."
Jojo looked toward Danny, who was still crying in Beth's embrace.
"You infect the mind."
The smile on the entity's face faltered ever so slightly.
Jojo continued.
"You isolate the victim."
"You feed guilt."
"You turn grief into despair."
He slowly turned his gaze back to the creature.
"And once they stop wanting to live..."
"...they become much easier to possess."
The room fell silent.
Even Lorraine looked at Jojo with newfound understanding.
The entity hadn't been taunting Danny because it enjoyed cruelty.
It had been trying to break him.
To convince him he deserved damnation.
Because hopeless people stopped fighting.
And hopeless souls were easier to claim.
Jojo's expression hardened.
"You almost had him."
The creature's smile disappeared.
"But you made one mistake."
It narrowed its black eyes.
"And what mistake is that?"
Jojo glanced toward Danny.
Then back at the entity.
"You assumed guilt and responsibility are the same thing."
He spoke loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear.
"Danny made a reckless mistake."
"He disobeyed his mother."
"He opened something he didn't understand."
"Those actions had consequences."
Danny slowly looked up through tear-filled eyes.
Jojo continued.
"But the one who chose to murder Ellie..."
His gaze locked onto the entity.
"...was you."
The room became utterly silent.
"You made the decision."
"You committed the act."
"You are responsible for her death."
Beth's grip around Danny tightened.
The boy stared blankly at Jojo.
The crushing weight on his shoulders eased, if only slightly.
Jojo took one more step toward the bed.
"And I don't let murderers hide behind children."
For the first time since they had entered the apartment...
The creature stopped smiling.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Check my new Fan fic: Karuppan: King of Openings
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