Outcast

On Glenn Allen Street, all the homes faced the road in a uniform line, showcased a classic half brick and half siding exterior, and were all perched on lush lawns. The curb appeal would only appeal to a person like Nadia Beck, the average white woman past her middle age, who had been left with just enough money from her dead husband to get a nice house in a nice neighborhood. 

Mr.Beck died about a year ago in a car accident, or because of a heart attack. The corner was not sure if he was killed by the heart attack or from the trauma caused by the five car collision. It was a terrible accident either way, but Nadia did not think that either was the real cause of her husband’s death. At his funeral, during the most inappropriate hour, she announced her theory that their evil daughter caused his demise after she denounced the Lord and became a witch.

“I will not allow those sacrilegious things to hang on any wall in this house!” 

Nadia’s outraged shout was heard by a dog walker and his dog passing by. The man and large black lab were alerted by the yelling, but did not slow their pace. 

The house they hurried away from was a single level, wrapped in brick that was a mixture of different shades of red, topped with rows of cheap white siding. Behind the pulled curtains of a big picture window, Nadia Beck was marching into the living room.

She moved with such purpose that her dark brown hair, streaked with the natural silver that comes with age, was blown behind her ears and gave her a look similar to Medusa. Her navy blue nightgown was pulled against her body like a cocktail dress, and accented a lovely shape that remains mostly hidden. When she stopped and stood by the television the gown fell loosely and gave her a more plump appearance. 

“Did you hear me young lady? I want it all taken down and thrown out!” Nadia continued to shout, even though she was standing right in front of her daughter, Nora.

The teenage girl was leaning against the corner of the couch with her legs pulled up and tucked to the side. The girl’s fair skin was brightened by her contrasting dark clothes and dark hair with red streaks, insead of silver ones like her mother’s. Without looking away from the television screen Nora said, “That’s just fine, but you won’t find all of them. Not even if you snooped around the entire house instead of just my room.” 

The girl lifted the remote and the show paused. “And for the record, sacrilege is the misuse of religious items. All those things have been used properly, and given your reaction, they seem to be working.” The girl ended the sentence sharply,resumed the show, and even turned the volume up when her mom tried to respond.

This made Ms.Beck, a children’s Bible School teacher five days a week, lunge toward her daughter with both arms out. Nadia imagined both of her hands around her daughter’s neck, but did not think that she would actually do that. She thought she might slap Nora for having a smart mouth, but she did not think she could ever choke her own child.

Nora did not flinch. She made sure her mother could not come within three feet of her with malicious intent, and had no doubts about her protection spells and the sigils she carved underneath the couch cushion, but she still wanted to keep an eye on the thing pretending to be her mom. Like a modern day Perseus, the girl pulled out her phone and used the screen like a black mirror. Holding it low so it would not be noticed, Nora could see the muted image of her mom’s hands reaching for her and the dark blue nightgown hovering in place. 

If she looked over her shoulder she would have seen Nadia was frozen mid-stride, arms quivering from the weight of gravity, and her face glaring with malice. 

“Look at me when I speak to you! Look at me!” Nadia bellowed, thinking she might strangle her kid after all. That thought startled the mother, but she gave it an excuse of just an impulsive thought. She had been having alot of those kinds of thoughts lately, but she also excused herself. As a devout Christian, Nadia felt as if she had a right to act a little aggressively when her daughter was bringing the Devil and all his demons into her home. 

As Nora expected, her mother turned heel in a huff and stomped back down the hall. She left out a sigh of relief when she heard the bedroom door creak open and slam shut. Assuming her mother had stormed off to bed, Nora made herself comfortable on the couch. 

The living room was the only safe place now that Nadia was more vigilant about finding and removing all the items from different religions and forgotten beliefs. Nora used various tools from multiple religions for protections and to cast out negative energies, and the only religious symbols Nora did not consider to help get rid of possessive spirit were those from the faith following God. She avoided those things because she thought whatever had possessed her radically christian mother must not be affected by that faith. Nora thought it may even be energized or empowered by the faith, especially since Ms.Beck never missed a day of teaching children God’s word while their parents sat in a musty room and listened closely to the speaker as if their souls depended on it.

Nora unlocked her phone, started a timer for one hour, and put the sound on vibrate. She wanted to give her mother plenty of time to fall asleep, and then she planned to walk to the bus station. 

About three minutes into the sixity, Nora was startled by loud bangs coming from down the hall. 

She quickly got to her feet when she heard more crashing sounds. It was not unusual for her to hear Nadia’s violent fits of rage and destruction before she exhausted herself into a deep sleep, but the girl sensed something was different this time. 

At the end of the hallway were two bedroom doors, one on the right side of the hall and the other at the very end. Behind the door to the right was Nora’s room, and the one at the very end was the master bedroom, her mother’s room. 

Nora slowly outstretched a shaking hand and grabbed the door handle to her mom’s bedroom.

“I will find them. Your mind is strong and shielded, your soul is not weak willed, but your heart…there lies the answer.” Ms.Beck’s angelic voice came from behind the door along the wall, in Nora’s room. 

The girl was surprised to find herself frozen in place. Over the past year she had faced her mother’s possessive demon head on, and even attempted to exorcise it. Looking back she sees that only made things worse, but she always had the courage to face it. Nora even held onto her bravery when Nadia attacked her and she had to conceal the deep scratches until they became faded scars. Now, the girl was frightened and could not explain why.

“Why?” 

Nora was so distracted in her thoughts that she did not realize the word had slipped past her lips. It came out so softly that she did not even hear it, but Nadia did.

The malicious entity using Nadia’s vocal chords kept a soft tone and answered, “Because you love your mother.”

Nora was pulled out of her trance, and all at once she grabbed the handle on her bedroom door, threw her weight against it, and practically fell into the room.

If she was the teenage girl in a scary movie, she would have seen her mom levitating or crawling up the walls, eyes glowing red, and speaking a forgotten language in an unnaturally deep voice. Nadia had not expressed any of those common cinematic symptoms of possession, so Nora did not really expect to see that, but she was expecting something drastic.

The room was in fresh disarray. There was a single beam of light coming from her bedside lamp that was now laying in the middle of the floor. Nora knew it was not an accident that the light was shining directly on the back of her mom’s blue nightgown.

“You have my attention. Are you finally going to tell me what you want so we can end all this?” Nora asked as firmly as she could, but her voice broke in the middle. 

“What makes you think I would tell you now? Maybe you have been giving me what I want this whole time. Maybe this is just anothe occurrence to get you to finally acknowledge me.” Nadia said slowly as she turned to face her daughter. The corners of the woman’s mouth were turned up in a smile so big that her face muscles twitched from the tension. “Maybe it worked because here you are, instead of on your way to the bus stop.”

The last comment came out slowly and hung in the air for a moment.

‘How did you kn…”  Nora started to ask, but then stopped herself. There was no possible way her mom could have known about her plan to run away because Nora did not buy a ticket or pack any of her things. It was just the other day that she made the decision to walk out the door with only the clothes on her back and enough money for a long bus ride. She did not even tell her friends the plan, and so she knew that meant it was not her mother that found out, but it was the possessive spirit showing off its knowledge of things unspoken. 

Nadia’s smile dropped into a frown, her brows creased together, and her eyes shimmered as the tears swelled up. For a moment, the first time in months, Nora thought she was actually seeing her real mother’s face. 

“You were actually going to leave me?” Nadia asked, her voice breaking as she began to gently sob. Before Nora could say or do anything to interrupt the tears, her mom’s face was back to a grimace hidden behind a grin. 

“If it’s me you want, this is not how you do it.” Nora said coldly before taking a deep breath and walking out. It was a desperate bluff, but she was hoping the entity would be more desperate. If all went according to her instantaneous plan, maybe a deal could be struck, and maybe her mom could be freed from within her own flesh.

“I know you won’t leave without knowing for sure that mother dearest is safe.”

Nora stopped in the hallway and without turning around she said, “You’re right, but I want you to say that I am right too.” She wanted the possessive spirit to know that she was not going to fall for scare tactics. “I’m right that you’re scared of me leaving. If I leave, you know you can’t stop me or follow me.”

It had been a long time since Nora heard her mother’s laugh, and it sounded just like she remembered, but she knew it was not real.

The laugh ended abruptly and the soft tone in Nadia’s voice was gone, “You won’t leave.” The words came out sharp and direct as Nadia continued, “You are mine and I could have taken you anytime. Even right now.”

Nora scoffed and took a step out of the room. She paused in the hallway, expecting to hear her mom charging out of the bedroom to attack at any moment. When she did not hear any heavy stomps or anything else, she kept walking. 

She was almost in the living room, but quickly rushed back in when she heard Nadia shriek in pain. 

Her mom was kneeling at the foot of the bed and had one arm bent backwards at the elbow, making an unnatural “L” shape.

Mother and daughter screamed at the same time when Nadia’s good arm suddenly raised above her head and was pulled behind her with such force that Nora could see and hear the shoulder joint pop. Nadia remained upright from a moment, arms horrifically contorted behind her, and then her upper body toppled to the floor and her face bounced off the planks of the hardwood.

Nora started to run to her mom’s aid, but stopped when she heard a forced laugh beneath Nadia’s whines.

“Oh, come to us child. How could I harm you now?” Nadia taunted in a low voice, pausing to spit out the blood that got into her mouth as it ran down from her nose. She lifted her head enough to face Nora and said, “Come be with your mother.”

Nora did not move. It was obviously some kind of trick and they both knew her protections would need a recharge after this intense interaction that was clearly giving the aggressive spirit enough energy and power to manipulate her mom’s physical body. 

She also knew something Nadia’s intruding spirit did not.

“You won’t because I made sure that you’ll never be able to leave her body. If you kill her you will have to go back to wherever you came from, and it will be without what you came for… Me.” Nora retorted sternly with both hands curled in tight fists and her entire body shaking with fear and frustration. 

“That’s cold. You would rather watch your mother suffer and die instead of giving in?” Nadia asked with disappointment. Her voice changed from slightly amused to sounding serious and condescending,  “What a selfish and ignorant girl you are. Your protections weaken if I’m diligent, so why do you think you’re powerful enough to contain me? Even if that was within possibility, there’s nothing you could do to stop me from coming back.”

Nora always considered that, and she was shaken by the sight of seeing her mother crumpled on the floor with her arms behind her like twisted wings. The relationship between daughter and mother had always been strained, and when Nadia attacked her the bond was almost completely severed. Ever since then, Nora thought it would be easy to sacrifice Nadia and finally put an end to both of their suffering. Now, faced with the real possibility that it would just be killing her mother for nothing, she felt differently.

“What would I be giving into? And why haven’t you taken me by now if you are so powerful.” The girl asked, her body’s shakiness making its way to her voice box.

Nadia’s face went blank and her lips parted as if she was about to answer, but all that came out was a gagging sound. Like a fish out of water, the woman’s eyes widened and her mouth opened and closed rapidly. 

“Wha…What’s happening?” Nora asked, watching her mother struggle for air. Without thinking Nora blurted out, “ Okay I give up, but you have to let my mom go.”

There was no response.

“The cellar. All my sigils, altars, and spell jars are down there, running the length of the house. If you destroy those things I will be completely vulnerable. That’s why I blocked her memory of its existence and covered up the door in the back.” Nora spouted out in panic at the sight of her mother turning the deadly blue color that everyone talks about when someone chokes.

No response came. 

Nadia’s strained gurgles fell silent and her legs stopped moving. Nora’s legs also stopped moving and she stumbled up to her mom’s motionless body. She looked closely at Nadia’s blue nightgown, expecting to see any movement that would give away the malicious spirit’s deception, but the gown was stiff and still. Nora had a flash of memories of all the times she stared at the unnatural stillness of a loved one in a casket. Then her imagination made her see Nadia laying in a casket, her mangled arms propping her up from behind, lifting her chest towards the sky. 

That mental image seemed more divine than what she was seeing now, but in the back of her mind she knew it would have to be a closed casket anyway.

Tears blurred Nora’s vision for only a moment before she swiped them away. She slowly lowered herself to the ground and cautiously reached out to touch her mother’s back. The only thing she felt was fabric on a hard surface. 

She moved closer and checked for a pulse on Nadia’s neck, but felt nothing. 

The girl screamed and covered her face with quivering hands. Her eyes were squeezed shut behind her fingers, forcing out a tidal wave of salty tears, and so there was no way she could have seen Nadia’s hand move.

It gave a lively twitch and then rushed for Nora’s throat, the dead fingers instantly squeezing her airway.

Nora quickly grabbed ahold of Nadia’s wrist and tried to pull away, but the middle finger and thumb were already hooked onto her jugular veins. The more she struggled, the tighter the two fingers pinched together. 

Vine-like streaks obscured her vision, but she could still see the form of her mother. Her head was turned to the side, laying on her silver streaked hair, and Nora could see her blank wide-eyed stare was still there. This brought Nora to the sudden and horrifying realization that she was being choked out by her dead mother’s hand as a sick way to prove that her banishment spells had failed and the maleficent entity had not been casted out.

It was the last realization the teenage girl would come to, and the last thing she would hear would be a whisper in her own head, an intruding voice saying, “You were always mine.”

There was just enough life in Nora to hear it, but not enough to react. Her body slumped forward, all it’s weight being propped up by her dead mother’s hand, and then it fell to the ground when the death grip loosened. 

Nora’s body laid still for a moment, but then began to slide across the floor as if it was being dragged by an unseen force. As her corpse unnaturally moved towards the closet, the hand shaped marking on the front of her neck started to change. Like a snake come to life, the dark discolored handprint and slithered all the way around her throat until it looked like something other than a hand strangled Nora.

The closet door opened on its own and her body slid inside. As if she was being pulled up by arms, her dead weight was lifted up into a standing position, and she levitated there while some parachute cord escaped a box of junk and then wrapped itself under her jaw. When the noose successfully tied itself, the closet shut.

It stayed shut for almost a week before a concerned and nosey neighbor called the cops when they noticed there had not been the usual activity happening, like Nora waiting for the schoolbus and Nadia leaving to do her daily round-abouts. When the responding officers did not get a response to their knocks, they decided to split up and search around. One cop approached Nora’s bedroom window and recognized the sour smell of decay, and at the same time his partner was moving a couple fallen tree branches off the cellar doors at the back of the house.

The officers, who were both Catholic, went into the cellar hoping to find a way inside the home, but instead they found the space was covered from floor to ceiling with red smears forming evil shapes, mason jars containing dark liquids, and multiple shrines made for what they believed to be false idols. 

What was in the cellar set the tone for the conclusion that was drawn when the bodies were discovered. The entire police force and local government were members of a church in a some capacity, and knew of the rumors that Ms. Nadia Beck proclaimed that her husband’s death was because their daughter became a witch, and so authorities were quick to announce to the public that they were certain the daughter killed the mother and then herself for a ritualistic purpose. They even made a reaching point by stating that they also believed it possible that she also had something to do with her father’s mysterious death.

The truth was her father was killed by something other worldly, but it was summoned by him.

Not even Nadia knew that her husband was infertile, and that the only reason they were able to conceive a child was because he participated in a ritual that reversed his infertility for just one night. The ritual was led by his friend who was a self proclaimed spiritual healer that did not have much expertise and unknowingly bonded the unborn child to the powerful energies they were asking favor of. 

Because Nora was born a healthy baby, and got old enough to be a young woman, her father thought he had been blessed and had no idea that he had actually cursed himself and his family.