[ WP ] `` Sometimes the things you possess end up possessing you . ''

`` Shit!'' Mal'e'zak yelped as she crashed onto the floor of the pub. Her head was pounding, and her wings had knocked over a couple barstools as she had dropped. Her sudden appearance had slightly startled her friends, Belthel and Haf'kris, who currently helped her to her hooves. 
 
 `` Aye twas a right bad one there,'' Belthel said, as they placed her on one of the remaining upright stools at the bar. The Brimstone Cauldron patrons went on with their business, barely any heads even turned at Mal's entrance. 
 
 `` You hurt. You sit.'' Kris struggled, but managed to say, patting her shoulder as her wings folded themselves down onto her back. 
 
 `` It's this new girl I'm on, she's an absolute nightmare!'' Mal wailed, turning swiftly on her stool. `` Give me a pint of whatever's cheapest Alazane. God this is gon na be a rough month.'' 
 
 It had been her second possession attempt of Elizabeth Stetler, the previous had gone about as well. 
 
 `` You know Bel, at first I had thought I was just off my game. I had just broken up with Karagnak, I had been on the succubus rotation for weeks, I thought I just needed to get the rust off. She kicked me out good after only some minor mischief, I could n't even get a decent foothold to do some like, decent property damage or get her to seduce an older boy.'' 
 
 `` We all get the rough breaks now and then, girl, cannae let it get ye doon.'' 
 
 `` I do n't know Bel, I've gotten kicked out before, it happens to the best of us-'' 
 
 `` Aye it does'' 
 
 `` -but this time, I thought I could... hear her? It sounded like I could hear her in *my* head. And Bel, it was realy next-level. I had gotten her to talk the boy down the street into some fooling around,'causing a little mischief with the youngsters works pretty good filling up the sin jars, but when I grabbed it, I could swear she was in the back yelling at me to rip it off.'' 
 
 Kris shuddered. 
 
 `` Yeah, exactly Kris. I'm a demon but jeez, I'm not a *monster*. Tomorrow I'm just gon na do a haunt on her, I got ta get better intel if I'm gon na get a decent foothold here.'' 
 
 `` Take yer time Mal, ye were oot a sorts right good after Karagnak, no need tae push yeself too hard.'' 
 
 Mal dropped a couple silver coins on the bar, they sizzled and vanished, along with her empty glass. 
 
 `` I'll see you guys tomorrow, let you know how it goes.'' 
 
 
 Early next day, Mal dripped the goat's blood carefully in a circle around the chicken bones in her apartment, muttered a few words, and poofed to the surface. 
 
 Even though she was totally ethereal, haunts still made her feel nervous. She preferred to be in a nice, warm body, but she needed to watch Elizabeth. Something was n't sitting right, and she needed to know what. 
 
 The morning following Elizabeth around was easy enough, she got up and ate a quick breakfast before heading off to walk to school before her parents were awake. School itself was uncomfortable for Mal, she could never shake the feeling that somebody might see her, that her incantation would wear off and she would be suspended in a high school hallway, horns, wings, and cloven hooves for all to see. But Elizabeth had a mostly uneventful day. The other children were n't particularly nice to her, and one boy even pushed her into her locker as he walked past, but nothing unusual for one of Mal's assignments. She had a knack for getting girls to go from mildly outcast to truly wayward, so this was all familiar territory. The boy whose dick she had held gave her his candy bar from his lunch, but Elizabeth seemed quite nonplussed over it. 
 
 `` Either way,'' Mal commented to herself, `` School is not what's going weird here.'' 
 
 On the walk home, Mal thought she could feel the haunt waning, so she dropped back into the pit to perform it again, just to be sure. It took a little extra goat's blood and one more chicken bone to get it right the second time ( these little rituals were tricky and had never been her forte ), but she was certain she had n't left the girl for long when she dropped back in and Elizabeth was in her room, sobbing uncontrollably on the floor next to her bed. 
 
 `` What? I was barely gone 30 minutes! An hour at most!'' Mal cursed herself for fumbling the ritual. `` Well, maybe if I get in there I can see what's going on, my quota's obviously shot this month, but if I can figure this out maybe we can get some good, regular sins out of her next month.'' She snapped her long-nailed fingers twice, and clicked her tail against her hooves as hard as she could, and she was in. 
 
 `` Motherfuck! What the hell is burning so bad?'' She cried out in surprise. The girl's whole body was on fire, agony radiating through her. `` Okay, got ta calm down, what hurts, what hurts, it always starts somewhere... 
 
... 
 
... shit.'' 
 
 Finding the source of the girl's pain, she recoiled inside herself. This explained a lot. Mal had only seen a case like this once before, and it had never been this bad. It must have happened when the girl got home, and only the father was home. 
 
 `` From bad to worse,'' Mal shuddered. The last case had been not quite this brutal, a stepfather that time. Mal had turned it over to the Bureau of Extreme Mortal Failing last time, but what she had heard down the line about their handling of it had n't impressed her. She was a demon, but not a *monster*. She had to do something this time. 
 
 `` Teenage girl sins are supposed to be stealing, drinking, flirting, even some fornicating is fine,'' Karagnak had told her, back when he had been her boss, before their affair and its eventual discovery by Administration. `` You're in there to freak her parents out. Maybe get her to barf something crazy up, or do some weird fiddlin' with her bits with a cross or something. You ca n't go violent, they're too small, they do n't have the frame or the strength for it.'' 
 
 But she had to do something this time. 
 
 `` Listen to me girl, my name is Mal'e'zak and I'm in possession of your body right now. I'm a Demon from the 4th level of the pit, and I'm here to put you through some mischief. It has come to my attention that you're already past what I wanted to do with you, so now it's time we had a talk. I've got the power of a Demon, a terrible being from beyond your mortal world. Fire and pain are playthings to me, the burn of flesh is my daily job. So I'm asking you: 
 
 What is it you want me to do to him?'' 
 
 There was a bizarre sound, almost like a low hum had switched off, leaving only silence. Mal, holding Elizabeth, sat and waited for a few minutes. 
 
 Then after those few moments, Mal felt it well up inside of her. She stood up slowly, and the bedroom door turned to ash. 
 
 `` Deal.''
