CHAPTER 50

Dear Calla and Ethan,
You need to find Aurelie. An incubus is trying hard to possess her. But if he gets to her then there is no way stopping him. He wants to get an incredible power that he only can get by the girl. Save the girl and kill him. Take Agatha with you, you'll need her. You'll find the letters into his clinic.
Good luck.
AURELIE’S POV
The dark clouds have covered the mountain top; the birds are flying away from the forest. The animals are crying in pain as the hunters have hunt down the demons lurking in the shadows. The demons, protected the woods in the dark from the heartless humans living in the haunted place, called city. Little Aurelie is running away from the fire in the woods to inform his people about the danger coming in their way, but before she could reach her home, a hand comes out from the dark shadow and drags little Aurelie in the world of darkness.
After that nightmare, I wake up drenched in my bed. The sweat on my body is like I have been thrown away in the ocean and brought out from it.
I gasp for air as I feel my air pipe blocked, I pant heavily to catch breath. I throw the duvet away and check the time. “3:15 A.M.” As I expected, I have had this nightmare at the same time, every day since I was a little girl.
I've never been to the woods before and I don’t understand why I always dream about this particular dream. Despite of having a troubled sleep, I need to take sedatives to make me doze off every single night, even if they stopped working.
I take a shower and complete my daily chores, and run to meet my psychiatrist, Dr. Lucas Smith. His therapies are effective for me but I stopped the session when I felt enough but today, I have fixed an appointment with him so I can explain to him my dreams in detail.
I knock on the door and he permits me to enter, “Ah! Aurelie, how are you? it’s been a while since you had your therapy.” Lucas asks.
“Hello, Dr. Smith! I think the last time I visited your clinic was 6 months ago, maybe more.” I say.
“so, is everything okay? You are looking dull.” The doctor asks.
“I am not good. When the nightmare stopped, I thought I don’t need the therapies again but I am having these bad dreams again. Why is that happening?” I ask curiously.
“Well, bad dreams, or dreaming the same dream repeatedly happens mostly in cases where the person was abused or scared from an incident in his early life, but your case is complicated. You said you have never been in woods or the woods scare you. it would be related to your past life.” The doctor explains.
“I don’t believe in past life or afterlife. I want you to start my therapy sessions as soon as you can.” I state.
“okay! We will start from tomorrow, 9 A.M.” the doctor says.
I noted down my schedule for tomorrow and left the clinic. As the doctor said about past life, it got me wrapped in weird thoughts. I am not a non-believer but I believe the facts more than the myths.
I was deeply lost in the thoughts that I bumped into someone, a girl. She apologized, “I am sorry.” She puts her hand on my shoulder.
“you don’t have to say sorry, it was my fault.” I state.
The girl turned to me and asked, “Are you okay? You look tense?”
I wonder how she noticed that. I can conceal my expression but somehow this girl seems to be familiar, “do we know each other? Like we have met before?” I ask while scrunching my brows. I notice the girl who is pretty but hideous somehow.
“I don’t think so but I can feel something is wrong with you.” she says and my mouth remains open for a while.
“Can you explain?” I request her.
“I don’t know exactly what you want me to explain to you because there are plenty of things are going on with you.”
“Who are you?” I ask her.
“I am Calla Davis! Follow me, I know someone who can help you!” the girl says with confidence. I have no option but to follow her.
She is a stranger or maybe she is tricking me but still my heart wants to believe her. She takes me to a café where the crowd is less, surprisingly. Calla gestures to me to get inside a private room with her. The lights are off and it is complete darkness.
“You will be fine, trust me!” she says and I follow.
My eyes adjust in the darkness and I notice two other people present with us in the room. A young man and a woman who is probably in her late seventies, looking at me. It made me uncomfortable but suddenly, the lights turned on and I could see them clearly.
The woman sitting across me looks determinedly at me with a smug smile on her face. I don’t like her at first sight. The man sitting beside her is looking dangerously at me like I have taken his property illegally.
“What’s the matter, Calla? Why did you invite a stranger here?” Ethan asks furiously.
“she is the one we were looking for. I just bumped into her. She needs our help." Calla defends.
Ethan sighs loudly and gestures to me to take the vacant chair, “what is this? Are you doing some kind of witchcraft?” I stammer when I notice the table.
A pentagon was painted over the round table with a star shaped symbol. The candles were lit on the joints. To be honest, it scared me to the core. I have seen this kind of cultism in movies or T.V. and I don’t believe in such dark art practices.
“just relax, we are not going to sacrifice you to the devil. In fact, we are going to find the devil inside you.” the woman sitting across me said.
I thought of running away from the room but the door gets locked by itself, “what are you guys doing? I will call the police.”
“take my phone and try calling them.” The guy's name Ethan jabs.
“Aurelie, that’s your name, there is no need of running away. We are here to help you. Please take the seat, or I have different ways to make you behave.” The evil lady states.
Reluctantly, I sit down with them and Calla asks me to put my palm on the table, facing up. I did what she said but If any of them try to do something wicked, I swear I will make them pay.
“you are having bad dreams? What kind of dreams?” the lady asks.
I stay silent but Ethan growls which made the hairs on my nape of the neck stand. I reply in a low tone, “I dream about woods. They are on fire and a girl, who is running away from there but someone drags her back. I was 14 when I had such dreams but now I have them every single night.” I wake up all sweaty in the bed, like someone poured a bucket full of water over me.” I cry.
“Have you ever encountered a weird stranger ever?” the lady asks seriously.
“NO! As long as I remember, I have never met a complete stranger. I have lived here all my life and my mother is my only family. We never go to other places as my mother has no relatives.”
“that’s strange? I can sense some weird negativity inside you but I can’t locate it.” The lady states.
“can I leave now? I have a therapy session with my doctor.” I ask hesitatingly.
“that would be great!” Ethan snaps.
I stood from my seat and was about to leave when my locket got unlocked somehow and fell on the wooden floor. I bend to pick it up but before me, Ethan grabs the locket in his hands and observes it carefully.
“who gave this to you?” Ethan asks
“My doctor gave me this, it has amethyst which helps in peaceful sleeping.” I reply.
Ethan crushes the locket under his foot and it reveals that the locket was full of sand instead of a stone. I gasp to see and everyone else stands in shock.
“Amethyst? Is your doctor an astrologist?” Ethan asks angrily.
“he is a psychiatrist! He is giving me therapies to prevent horrible nightmares.” I defend.
“I want to meet your doctor! Something is fishy.” Ethan states.
“what are you saying?” I ask.
The lady approaches me and gives me a small potion bottle, “this is holy water.”
Calla drags me to the out from the room and they ask for the direction of the clinic. I take them to Dr. Smith’s clinic. My heart is drumming arithmetically inside of me and my throat burns in dryness.
“go inside and show him your broken locket. We will be there in a few minutes.” Calla assures me and I build a strength.
I knock on the door and get inside. Dr. Smith was sitting facing his back to me or checking other patients.
“sorry to disturb you doctor but….” As he turned to me, I saw his big sharp conical teeth with blood covering them. The patient was lying dead on the chair and he was eating the flesh. I scream and run to leave but the Doctor grabs my hair and pulls me inside.
“you are a devil!!” I scream.
His fangs grow longer and he moves his head to bite me off. Suddenly, Ethan breaks the door and shoots the doctor with a weird gun. The doctor is thrown away to the opposite wall. They both indulge in a fight with the devil getting an upper hand.
Calla comes to save me but the devil jumps on her and scratches on her upper arm. Something happens to Calla as she passes out immediately.
Ethan jumps on his back and stabs a shiny knife into his neck, decapitating from his body. The devil dies and his body disintegrates in the air.
Ethan approaches Calla and shakes her but nothing works. I recall that the lady gave me holy water, I brought out the bottle from my pocket and handed it to Ethan.
He removes the dart and pours the holy water over the wound, then licks her wound. The wound over her arm gets healed quickly and Calla regains her consciousness. I sigh in relief.
“thank you guys for saving me and girls like me from the devil.” I smile at them.
“we did what we were sent here for. Don't thank us.” Calla says.
“the devil was an incubus who was holding on you by manipulating your dreams.” Ethan informs
Calla stood up and went through all the drawers. She pulled out two envelopes from one of the drawers. She put it in Ethan's jacket and nodded at me. Ethan and Calla leave the place and destroy the Dr. Smith clinic. I went back to my home and for the first time in my life, I had a peaceful sleep.


(The story credit goes to Ashea Sparks.)