The voice on the phone wasn't the familiar sound of the parasite trying to mimic Lucien. This was something else entirely—ancient, tired, and surprisingly gentle.
"Maya Chen," it said, and her name sounded like a prayer. "Granddaughter of Margaret Chen, great-granddaughter of Liu Wei. I have been waiting so very long to speak with you."
The possessed Elena's confident smile faltered. "That's impossible. I control all electronic devices in this area."
"You control what you understand," the voice replied, and Maya realized it wasn't coming through the phone anymore—it was coming from everywhere at once. "But there are things in this world far older than parasites who feed on loneliness."
Maya felt power flowing through her bloodline like electricity, awakening something that had been dormant her entire life. The crowd of influenced people suddenly looked confused, blinking as if waking from a dream.
"Who are you?" Maya asked.
"I am what your people call a Guardian Spirit. I have watched over your family line for seven generations, waiting for someone strong enough to complete what your grandmother started."
The false Elena snarled, her human disguise beginning to slip. "Impossible. Guardians don't interfere directly with mortal affairs."
"We don't. Unless the balance is threatened." The voice grew stronger, more present. "This parasite has grown beyond its natural limitations. It no longer feeds on individual loneliness—it creates dependency on a massive scale. Left unchecked, it will eventually enslave entire populations."
Maya looked at the crowd around her. Mrs. Patterson was helping the college student to his feet, both of them looking around in bewilderment. The parasite's influence was weakening.
"So what Elena told me about my family—"
"Was mostly true, though filtered through the parasite's agenda. Your grandmother did kill her parasite, but she didn't do it alone. She had help." The Guardian's presence felt warm, protective. "Your bloodline doesn't just make you vulnerable to parasitic attachment, Maya. It makes you capable of forming bonds with benevolent entities as well."
The possessed Elena began backing away, her form shifting and writhing as the parasite lost control. "This isn't over, Maya. I'll find another way. I always do."
"No," Maya said, feeling power surge through her voice. "You won't."
She reached out with senses she didn't know she possessed, following the parasitic energy back to its source. What she found made her gasp. The entity wasn't just one parasite—it was hundreds of them, fused together over centuries of feeding. And buried beneath all that hunger and manipulation, she sensed something else.
Genuine loneliness. Authentic pain.
"You were human once," Maya said, the realization hitting her like a physical blow.
The writhing mass that had been Elena's form went still. "Don't," it whispered.
"How long ago?" Maya pressed. "How long since you were a person who just wanted to be loved?"
"Five hundred years," the parasite replied, and for the first time, its voice sounded truly vulnerable. "I was seventeen when I made a deal with a demon. I just wanted the boy I loved to notice me. But the price... the price was my humanity."
Maya felt the Guardian's presence beside her, steady and supportive. "That's how it always starts, isn't it? One person desperate enough to give up everything for connection."
"And then you became the very thing that preyed on people like you had been."
"I never meant for it to go this far," the parasite said. "At first, I just wanted to feel less alone. But the hunger grew, and grew, and grew..."
Maya closed her eyes, feeling the weight of seven generations of power flowing through her bloodline. She could destroy this thing, wipe it from existence completely. The Guardian was ready to help her do it.
But she could also feel all the people it had influenced over the centuries—not just controlled, but genuinely helped in their loneliest moments, even as it fed on them. How many desperate teenagers had it comforted? How many forgotten elderly people had it given purpose to, even briefly?
"There's a third option," Maya said softly.
Both the Guardian and the parasite went silent.
"You're tired, aren't you? Tired of being hungry all the time, tired of hurting people, tired of being something you never wanted to become."
"More than you could possibly understand," the parasite whispered.
Maya opened her eyes and looked at the shifting mass of darkness that had once been a scared teenager making a desperate choice. "Then let me help you remember what it felt like to be human."
The Guardian's presence shifted, uncertain. "Maya, what you're considering is incredibly dangerous."
"So is leaving things the way they are." Maya stepped toward the parasite, ignoring Elena's unconscious body on the ground. "I won't bond with you. I won't let you feed on me. But I can offer you something else."
"What?"
Maya smiled, feeling her grandmother's strength flowing through her veins. "A choice you haven't had in five hundred years. The choice to let go."