QWith her hands folded beneath her breast, Carla's attention was caught by the mirror in her room.
'What was that just now?'
If Rhys could read her thoughts from the sitting room, he would know that she was in a great panic.
Gingerly rising from her bed, she took slow and unsteady steps towards the mirror, there were black swirls of smoke in the mirror.
She stood directly in front of the mirror, eyes stretched, trying to decide if this was also a reality and not her brain playing tricks on her.
"Carllllaaaa…" A whisper from behind that made her hair stand behind her neck, she snapped her head to the back but saw nothing.
Rhys was right, Anna's disappearance was not ordinary. How was she supposed to explain that she felt like someone else was in the room with her?
The door opened and everything ceased, she jerked at the sound of the open door to see Damien's face poking into the room.
"Are you alright?" His face was crumpled with worry but that was not the face she wanted to see.
"Why?" She shot back instead, her eyes nervously shifting to look at the mirror but the black smoke was gone.
"Why are you standing? And why are you standing there?" He made to step in fully into her room.
"Don't come in." She went further into the room and towards the window.
"I want to be alone." She declared and made sure to face him, holding his gaze.
"I don't know the connection between you and the fucker in the room but he persuaded me to be here and here I am."
'So he heard me after all.' She sighed.
"So you better start spilling. Did you text him to come or something?"
"What part of I want to be alone and I want the damn police gone don't you understand?" She bit her inner cheek, her temper rising at a fast pace.
"I'll leave." He took one last look at her, before closing the door.
Immediately the click of the door sounded, it felt her room got heavy. It was like she was in the room with three hundred other beings she could not see.
"Carllaaa…" The whisper came directly before her, she felt the stinky breath of whatever called her.
Her heart gave several thumps and then the mirror started producing black smokes, this time thrice as much as it did before.
It felt like the smoke was making her suffocate. She felt a tug in the middle of trying so hard to breathe.
She was pulled towards the mirror and when she finally got to stand in front of the now dark and smoky mirror, she swallowed.
"Touch it." It was the same whisper but this time, it was louder, it made her skin crawl.
Her breath hitched, her eyes rolled.
"If you want to see her, touch it."
'What?' She tried to see the owner of the voice but she only saw dark smoke.
"Really?" She asked slowly, she couldn't believe it.
"Why?" This time it was a hiss.
"You don't believe it?" Now it was a different voice.
She was surely not running mad.
"If you don't touch this at the count of five, you can say goodbye to your daughhhhttteerrr…" The two voices spoke at once, stressing the last word so much that it made her heart break into tiny fragments.
"One." More voices joined and she knew she was right, there were more beings in here than she could imagine.
"Two." And it got louder.
She should think before taking any rash decisions but all she could see were the images of Anna.
"Three."
Now she couldn't decide if she was the one bringing up Anna's images in her head or if her mind had been invaded so badly that she couldn't even control what she could think of.
"FOUR!" Their whisper was so loud that it felt like she had ants crawling into her ear and marching on inside her brain.
She stretched out her hand in fright and in anticipation.
"Yesssss!" They hissed like excited snakes.
'NO!' It blared loudly in her head.
That was Rhys' voice.
She looked around in anticipation but couldn't see him.
Where was he?
"Open!!!" They hissed at her, they sounded crueler this time, her organ felt like it was about to stop functioning.
She stretched her hands out again.
"Faster!" She could not see them but she could taste their impatience.
'Do not yield Carla!' She jerked, her eyes blinking at the blackness before her.
'Did he just speak through my head?'
'Yes, I did. Now get the hell out of there.' He sounded urgent.
'I can't.' She became shaky when she felt painfully small bites around her ankle.
'I'm in pain!' She yelled out in her head.
She didn't know how Rhys was able to achieve this feat and she didn't care, all she wanted was to be free from whatever rubbish was going on around her.
'Scream!' Rhys ordered.
Carla tried forming a scream but to her horror, it felt like her lips were sealed shut, she was going to shit her body.
''I can't!' She screamed in her head again, she couldn't move either, only left to feel the unbearable pain.
'Shit.' was the only thing she heard before the door broke open.
"Carla!" Just like that, everything ceased like it had never been there.
She gasped for air audibly, her chest heaving and she stumbled around almost falling down when Rhys caught her.
"Hey? Hey? I am here." He made her face him before pecking her forehead, something she absolutely wanted at the moment.
She wrapped her hands around his waist while he patted her back silently.
Her eyes met with the hard stare of Damien and she forced herself to look away. He didn't understand what she was currently going through so he couldn't relate.
"The police?" I asked him when he finally stopped patting my back and I loosen his hand around his waist.
"What are you?" Damien asked instead, his eyes squinted as he stared at Rhys.
"Rhys." He answered simply.
"What did you do to make them leave that way?" I watched Damien pick himself up from the wall he was leaning on before taking a few steps close.
"Hands off her."
"No." I answered this time.
I had a vague idea of what he was asking Rhys about, he had probably manipulated the police just to come save me.
I looked up at him but he looked away, allowing me to focus my attention on Damien, whose threatening glare did nothing to me now, I had seen worse.
"What's that?" Rhys sounded uncertain.
"What's what?" I asked back, following his line of gaze to see what he saw.
'Yeah. What's that?' I stared at it without blinking.