‘Hey, Sam.’ I hesitated to speak since I knew Samantha was able to read my mind while she was possessing my body. Since Sam wasn’t talking much I thought maybe I would have to be the level-headed one for once and broach the crucial subject at hand. ‘What’s the plan to deal with the demon possessing your body?’

“I figured I’d do what you did to get Baby back. Oh shit – ” We skidded to a stop. “I totally forgot about the dog.” To be honest, I had too. Samantha swayed back in the direction of the abandoned and wrecked car, then back in the direction of her mother’s place and her son who was in imminent danger.

“Damnit!” She cursed in my voice and for the first time since she had taken over my body it actually sounded like I was speaking. “She’ll just get possessed and dragged into the pit again if we don’t go back for her.” The heart rate in my chest increased with anxiety that wasn’t my own.

It was dark in the spaces between streetlights. The wind blew and rustled the leaves of trees that lined the street making me worry about what unseen things might be snaking through the night to get us. The Hellmouth demon tentacles that we had already encountered multiple times tonight were the thing primarily on my mind.

Samantha sighed. She’d been staring at the ground thinking furiously, debating what action to take. Go rescue the dog she knew was in immediate danger or go help the family who was in less danger but who were closer and more easily rescued.

My eyes closed then opened as Sam raised my head turning in the direction of the car and her home. Then my face smiled. From the direction we had come, was a knee-high bundle of fur galloping toward us. Baby’s long fur fluffed out to the sides along with both of her floppy ears with each lunge forward she took.

“Baby!” The dog leapt into my outstretched arms and Samantha shouted with joy. “Oh, you good girl. You must have hopped right into the car with us and I didn’t notice because I was freaking out about being an incorporeal spirit.” Good grief it was weird listening to someone else speaking with my voice.

Now that she said it, I realized that Sam was correct. Baby had jumped into the back seat when I opened the door to get in my car. It had completely slipped my mind because I was petrified by Samantha’s driving.

“You ass.” My body had started jogging again, holding the cute dog bundled protectively against my chest. “That can’t possibly be the scariest trip you’ve ever been on.” Yet again, she reminded me that she could read my damned mind. Because yeah, I’d been thinking that it was the most terrifying vehicular experience of my life.

We ran in silence after that. We ran far faster and with less effort than it would have been if I’d been in control of my body. After a few blocks, Samantha turned us down a cheerful-looking street where there were no dark spaces between the streetlights.

This was a nice neighborhood. Behind large fences and gated driveways, the expansive lawns were expertly manicured, and the trees were well-trimmed. Not that I was salty or anything, but the gardens looked like they were professionally landscaped by people who were paid more per hour than I was.

“They are.” I was assured gruffly and I was immediately defensive.

‘How do you know th-?’ Once again, I’d forgotten the whole mind-reading issue.

“I work in accounting.” Came Sam’s reminder. “I know how much everybody at work makes.” Her reply was distracted as she scanned the quiet street looking intently for something.

“What are you looking for?” I whispered internally while kicking myself for the silliness of whispering when the only one who could hear my thoughts was Samantha.

“I’m looking for my car.” She answered as she crouched behind a bush and began stealthily walking down the street. “I don’t see it on the street, so either the thing that possessed my body hasn’t made it here yet, or it got my mom to let it drive in the gate. OR…,” she realized angrily, “…the damned thing just used the key in my pocket to unlock the gate and let itself into my mother’s property. Also, you should ask for a raise.”

“Really?” For someone who had never worked in my line of work, Sam had been keeping an unrealistically cool head. She’d also been thinking of stuff that I would have been doing if I were in her situation. The ‘raise’ comment had caught me off guard as I was marveling at her blasé fair attitude toward the whole Hell is real and demons are possessing her body issue.

“Yeah.” Her clipped whisper-hissed at me. “Management is screwing you.” Then she was silent as she reached the pedestrian gate to a large and lovely home. She peeked around the hedge planted between the driveway and the pedestrian gate to see her practical fuel-efficient vehicle parked behind an expensive BMW. Her sharp intake of breath indicated that Sam was not happy with what she saw.

Mom’s got expensive taste.” I snarked to keep her focused and not panicking.

“You should see the mid-life-crisis-mobiles that my dad drives.” She quipped back as she carefully placed the now subdued pup next to our feet.

Mobiles? With an “s”? Like, more than one?” Briefly, I wondered what it would be like to make that kind of dough.

“He didn’t handle the divorce well.” Sam was busy adjusting the crucifix chain around my hand. “You ready for this?”

Do I have a choice?” It was rude snark. I know. But I was getting pissed that my body was continuing to be possessed by a certain someone else passed the point in time that I thought it would be.

“You know that we are stronger together. Do you want to fight that thing again with regular Daniel strength and agility?” She was pissed and I fully appreciated why. And Sam had a point too about the strength part, but...

“I’m pretty sure I fight better than you do.” Sam punched in the code to unlock the pedestrian gate, then opened it and stepped through.

“Your right.” Sidestepping, I felt her leave my body with the same chill and tingling warmth she had entered. “Have at it then.” We jogged up to the front door together and I paused with concern when it swung open under my knock.

“That’s not normal, right?” I glanced at Samantha’s spirit self and watched her arch an eyebrow at me. “Your mom doesn’t usually keep her front door open like that?”

“No, dear. That’s not normal.” When she called me dearwith that angry dominatrix look on her face, it made my insides quiver.

Damnit. I was downright turned on and thought maybe, just maybe, I might be able to get a kiss, or a date, out of this if I played my cards right. Maybe it was a bad idea, but I’d already forgiven Sam for hijacking my body and running through the streets like a crazy person in her quest to find her kid.

“Shall we do this?” She questioned in her slow warm voice.

“Let’s do this.” I confirmed and entered the house. Walking carefully through the entry, I skirted overturned furniture. Shoe racks, coat stands…there was a whole herd of purses scattered across the living room... Is that what one called this room in this kind of house? Fuckit. I don’t care. We continued my careful stalk through the, really, nice home. Like, the walls and –

“Ahh!” A small screaming woman with curly white hair jumped out from around a corner. And…shot me with a water gun? The squeak of the air pressure pumping action continued as the heavy stream of liquid slowly dribbled to a halt. When she’d chilled out I went after her with the crucifix.

“No. Mom.” Sam jumped between us. “Daniel, can’t you tell that she isn’t possessed?” How the fuck would I be able to tell that? I thought at her with frustration, but she just stood there in her ghostly form looking concerned and aggravated at me. Ah. She couldn’t hear my thoughts anymore now that she wasn’t…inside me. I shivered at the thought I never thought would cross my mind.

“No?” Finally, the question slash statement came out of my mouth. So, I took a moment to look more closely at the woman. She didn’t have that dark aura that Baby had had while she was possessed or that Sam’s body still had when it took off to go after Caleb.

The lady was also not supernaturally aggressive…

“Does that say, ‘holy water’”? The yellow bottle-cartridge attached to the water gun (more like a water automatic weapon) was neatly labeled with blue embossed printed labeling tape with the words ‘HOLY WATER’ in all caps.

Her hair was tied back with a lacy handkerchief Rambo-style and she had a bandolier of grenade-shaped water balloons slung haphazardly across her shoulder. A toy gun double holster was strapped around her waist. One side held a small water pistol and the other a shaker of salt. From her neck hung an ornate gaudy crucifix like mine, but classier.

“Who the Hell are – Oh, my God. Sammy?” Sam’s mom had intended to interrogate the stranger in her home, that stranger being me, but was interrupted by the fact that she could see her daughter’s soul wandering around without a body.

“Heeeeyyyy…, Mom…” Sam waved hello and then scooted around to hide behind me. What the…?

“That’s how it works, huh?” The elderly woman took a few careful steps back, watching where she placed her feet and making sure not to disturb what looked like a line of sand on the ground. With a flash, I realized it was salt, like from the shaker in her holster, and wanted to smack myself on the forehead for not realizing it. “They have to kick you out so they can get in?” No answer came from Sammy so I glanced at her. Seeing the stricken look on her face, I took the liberty to answer.

“Yep.” Grandma nodded sagely as if this made total sense to her. Which was good. Maybe someone could finally explain to me what was happening. “The good news is that you can put souls back into a body once you kick those wretched things out of them.”

“Grandma,” A young voice called from the room behind Sam’s mom. “Is it safe to come out yet?” She turned toward the voice and motioned for us to come into the room. Just as carefully as grandma had, I stepped over the unbroken line of salt protecting their haven. Baby sniffed at it warily but hopped into the room cheerfully. Samantha though, not so much…

When Sam tried to walk through the doorway behind me, there was a flash of light that rippled from the floor to the top of the doorway. She could not get through. The salt had created some kind of spiritual wall in the way. Even when she tried to go around the doorway and walk through the wall it didn’t work.

I could see then that the line of salt was unbroken around the entire room. Grandma and Caleb had even used glue to create lines of salt in areas where the line would have been broken by vertical walls and cabinets. The empty bottles were tossed hastily on countertops and one was still open, oozing its contents in a trail down the cabinet door to puddle on the floor.

“Hang on.” Grandma got out her saltshaker and grabbed the oozing bottle from the counter. “I’ll let you in, then close it up as soon as you cross.” She got down on her hands and knees and I kept a lookout in case the thing in Sam’s body showed back up. “Go now!”

As grandma hissed the command, Sam’s body jumped into view on the other side of the living room. The shadow stuff of the pit creature that occupied the body eddied around its form. It started stalking toward them with an undulating, almost seductive, walk.

“Come to mommy, Caleb.” Otherworldly and clearly evil, its voice sounded like it belonged to many as opposed to a single being.

“Heck, no!” Caleb shouted back. He’d been hiding further back in the room until Sam had crossed the threshold. Upon seeing his mom’s soul he’d run to her and tried hugging her. It was touching. Really it was. Sam had gingerly hugged him taking care not to make her incorporeal arms pass through her son’s body.

“Hurry up, Grandma.” I called out with just a touch of panic as I saw pit tentacles start rising through the floor halfway between the thing inside Sam and where we stood. Grandma was busy laying down a thick layer of glue and shaking the salt frantically over it.

But she wasn’t fast enough. The pit tentacles coming up through the floor darted through the gap in the salt and snagged Caleb, jerking him away from his mother.

“No!” Sam sprinted right back through the barrier that had just been lowered to let her in. I wasn’t sure what she thought she could do in her non-physical state, but it didn’t stop her from trying to grab her son’s hand.

The pit tentacles slid horizontally through the floor dragging poor flailing Caleb after them. Though Sam’s body tried to stop her, the woman plowed right through it with a shriek, whether it was anger or pain, I couldn’t tell. The two shapes seemed to sort of have trouble unmeshing from one another as they separated again.

“Here,” Unnoticed by me, Grandma had grabbed something off the counter and thrust it into my hand as I prepared to chase after Caleb and Sam. “Take this.” She urged. I glanced down and saw more of the blue label tape declaring that the spray bottle in my hand contained more ‘HOLY WATER’. The all caps on the label made the words sort of shout in my head as I read them. Chuckling, I shook my head.

“I love this family.” I muttered somewhere between sarcasm, despair, and genuine humored affection. This was the most excitement I’d had in a while. But it was time to work. Sam was going to need her body back if we were going to save Caleb.

Raising my arm, I rushed the hell creature possessing Sam’s body. Holy water hissed into a cloud of steam as I sprayed the thing. It screamed. A haunting unholy howl that really did sound like it came from the depths of hell, grating on the soul with unpleasant reverberations.

“The power of Christ compels you to get the fuck out of that body!” My crucifix landed on the bare skin of Sam’s arm. I’d learned from my previous attempt that the crucifix wouldn’t work if it landed on clothes. It had to come into direct contact with the body that was possessed.

An amorphous blob shot out the back of Sam’s body and the body collapsed to the floor. I caught her before she hit and lowered it the rest of the way. Didn’t need Sam’s soul to come back to a broken bone in her body or some other injury on top of having gone through the whole ordeal of this evening.

As much as I wanted to stay with Sam’s body to make sure it wasn’t repossessed by something else. I had to deal with the thing that had just left it. If it didn’t get back into Sam’s body it would just go after someone else. And I had a plan.

Something I had noticed when I skewered the thing that had possessed Baby, was that the creature was diminished by repeated contact with a crucifix. Maybe it was hopeful thinking, but maybe, just maybe, I could kill it. Advancing on the creature, I sprayed it tentatively. It howled again, but the cry was weaker, muted.

The substance it was made of sizzled and bubbled like hot tar. Holding my cross defensively before me, I continued spraying it, pulling the trigger like my life depended on it, because somebody’s life was going to depend on getting rid of this thing. The more I sprayed the more it hissed and bubbled. But it was getting smaller. The holy water was evaporating it with righteous wrath apparently, or something was.

Sam hurried back into the living room just as the last piteous screeches died away and the final bubbles of the thing were popping into steam. She stopped dead in surprise.

“What’s that?” Her question was a bizarre kind of normality in the fucked-up night we’d had. I glanced down at the bottle and held it up for her to see the words neatly labeled on it. She smiled as I spoke.

“Holy Water spray bottle.” I hesitated a moment then asked the question I already knew the answer to. "Where's Caleb?" Sam frowned, trying not to burst into tears.

"They went into the abyss that the pit tentacles come from."

Into The Abyss

Holy Water Spray Bottle