The chair that Caitlin had drug into the middle of the circle was not a dining room chair. One of those might have actually been soothing in a way - something I’d sat on during my time here that reminded me of the good times I’d had. But no, for some reason, she’d drug in this old leather chair from somewhere. It had a worn quality to it, as though it was somewhere people commonly sat at, but I’d never seen it before. To me, it felt almost clinical, like the chairs you might sit at waiting to be called into the doctor’s office. Regardless, I sat down in it, resting my arms on the uncomfortable leather armrests, and turned my attention to Circe, waiting for her instruction.
Circe pulled a small bottle of liquid from one of the boxes before turning her eyes to me. “You ready for this?” she asked quietly, as though trying to keep the others from hearing. If she was, it clearly wasn’t working, as they all turned their heads to look at her. “If you’re not mentally prepared to fight the demon, we can postpone it, although I don’t think Caitlin would be too happy about the prospect of leaving a salt circle on the floor for long.” Caitlin frowned at the slight dig, but remained silent, turning to look at me as well.
I had to admit that it was tempting, but I knew myself well enough to know that I wouldn’t get more prepared for this with time. I don’t think there really was any way to get mentally prepared for it. “No,” I said, shaking my head, “let’s just get this over with.”
“Alrighty!” Circe said, twisting off the top of the bottle. She sprinkled the liquid into her hand and then rubbed her hands together, spreading it around as much as she could. Then, she reached out and placed her hand on my forehead. Her fingers crept up into my hair, and I could feel the oil from whatever liquid she was using sinking into my scalp. She kept her hand in place and closed her eyes, as though she was trying to properly sense the demon. After a moment of silence, she spoke, her voice much lower than her normal speaking voice. “Whosoever inhabits this body, I order you to leave! You are cast out of this mortal shell through the force of our Lord, and the force of the true inhabitant of this body!” Then, Circe opened her eyes and looked at me. “Sorry about this,” she said with a slight half-smile.
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“Wait, sorry?” Liam asked, taking a step forward, but keeping himself on the other side of the salt line. I was glad for that at least - if nothing else, he would hopefully be safe. After all, he was on the other side of the line and had had just as much of Circe’s oils and holy water as I had. But seeing his worry was almost enough to make me want to stop what was happening.
Circe’s palm pressed harder against my forehead, the pressure almost turning painful, but I did my best to focus on her words instead. “With a demon of this strength, there’s only so much that I can do. She’s going to have to fight it herself. Hopefully, we’ve managed to weaken it enough that it’ll be easy for her to defeat.”
Liam stepped forward and grabbed the wrist that held onto my forehead. Even as he moved, I could feel a sort of cool sensation spread from her hand and into my head, like she’d sent off some sort of internal water balloon. “Circe, stop,” Liam commanded, his voice harder than I’d ever heard it before. “This wasn’t part of the arrangement.”
“It was always part of the arrangement,” Circe argued back, curling her fingers so that her fingernails pricked into my scalp. It stung, but it also provided a sort of tether to what was going on around me. Even as I tried to keep my focus and listen to them, the cool feeling kept creeping, and as it started to curl its way around my mind. With every movement, I could feel myself losing focus on what was happening around me as I fell into darkness. I wasn’t sure if I was falling asleep or just leaving my body temporarily, but even as I fell, I could tell there was no use trying to fight it. The cold was going to pull me down anyway. “You wanted me to remove the demon from her. I’m doing that. But the demon is too powerful, and too entwined with Andi, for me to just banish it outright. So, this is your option.”
I saw Liam pulling at her wrist, but it was like it was cemented to my forehead. He had to be stronger than Circe was, but even though I could see the strain in his face, he was unable to move her an inch. “Circe, please,” he begged, pulling again to no avail. “Let’s talk about this, and we’ll see if we can come up with another way around this.”
“There is no other way around this,” she said, but her voice sounded tinny, as though I was hearing it from an old walkie-talkie. As she spoke, her voice got quieter and quieter. “Besides, it’s already too late for that. She’s nearly gone now.”
Liam’s face turned toward me, and I was just present enough that I could see the fear radiating from his eyes. He dropped Circe’s hand and rushed to me, grabbing onto my shoulders with his hands. I couldn’t feel it, though - everything just felt cold. “Andi, please fight this,” he said loudly, and my vision grew blurry as he lightly shook me. “You can do this.”
As I sunk into the last drops of cold, there was no way to tell him that I was already gone.
