O Death ⇉ Paul Lahote

fourteen

Back in the real world, Embry and Paul had been pacing outside Heidi's room for hours, debating what they should do with Ereshkigal and how they would be able to get Heidi back.

Well, Paul had been doing most of the pacing, Embry had his head stuck in a book to learn as much information as possible about what they were dealing with – but nothing was looking promising.

Closing the book and placing it on his lap, Embry finally spoke up. "We have good news and bad news; the good news is that I've found a way to get Ereshkigal out of Heidi's body. But the bad news is that if we want to save Heidi... we're going to have to kill her."

Paul stopped in his tracks, staring at Embry in disbelief. "What? No! We can't do that!"

Embry placed his hands on Paul's shoulders, trying to remain as calm as possible. "Paul, this thing has attached itself to Heidi's soul like a leech and it won't stop until she has full control over Heidi – her host, or if her host dies. We have very little time; the only thing stopping Ereshkigal from complete possession is a small portion of Heidi's brain – it's fighting it. A full possession should happen instantly, and she should be unstoppable but she's not – something's holding her back."

Paul slowly nodded his head, still in a somewhat state of shock. "She's fighting back."

"Exactly, but we don't know how long she can keep going before Ereshkigal is in full control. I don't care what we do, but we have to do something, and we have to do it now."

Paul thought for a moment. "We have to at least try an exorcism – just something to get that thing out of Heidi."

Embry frowned a little as he considered that idea. "I doubt it'll work – this is a thousand year old goddess who selected Heidi as her host we're talking about, not just some ghost that randomly came into Heidi's body."

Paul nodded his head, almost sadly. "I know, but we should try – we have everything we need here."

Embry sighed, eventually nodding too. "Okay, but I'm warning you now – this has a one in a billion chance of working. So don't be upset or angry when it fails."

Paul took a deep breath before preparing the things needed for an exorcism; a prayer book and a bowl various herbs and spices together to make a powder to cover Ereshkigal with.

Paul and Embry nodded to each other before walking back into Heidi's room, both of them being taken aback by Ereshkigal's appearance.

Honestly, she looked terrible. Despite only being tied up for a few hours and Heidi being almost completely taken over by Ereshkigal, her body looked like it had been starved for weeks. Her bones were sticking out through her pale and frail skin – her face had sunken in and all she had become was flesh and bone.

"What's wrong with her?" Paul asked, almost dropping the bowl.

Embry kept a firm and steady voice as he stood at the end of the bed. "Ereshkigal is starving her to death – if she doesn't get what she wants, she tortures to get it. If Heidi doesn't completely surrender, she'll slowly starve to death."

Paul placed the bowl down on a table to flick through the book to find the correct prayer. After finding it, he began chanting it, getting louder and louder as he continued, throwing the powder around the bed before eventually throwing the remainder of the powder over Ereshkigal.

Ereshkigal went silent for a moment after the powder was thrown over her before she started almost screaming with laughter, pulling on her restraints as she laughed before she fell silent within seconds and glaring at Paul, any signs of laughter leaving her in seconds. "I am older than your God or your Devil; I am thousands of years old, it'll take more than that to kill me or banish me from your precious child."

Embry almost growled as he forcibly placed a bag over Ereshkigal's head and tightened his grip around her throat, not allowing any air to go in. Even through Ereshkigal's struggling and screaming, Embry didn't let up and only got tighter.

Tears pricked his eyes and he tightened his grip. "I'm so sorry... I had no choice."

Eventually, Ereshkigal slowly stopped screaming and struggling, eventually going limp in Embry's arms. After a few minutes, Embry removed the bag from her head and release his hands from her throat and checked her pule.

Dead.

Quickly taking her out of the restraints, Embry grabbed a defibrillator and pressed it onto Heidi's chest, watching her chest rise as the electrical current ran through her chest. After one charge, Embry checked her pule. Still nothing.

He tried a few more times before a weak heartbeat came back, he looked at Paul. "And now we wait."

Note

First update of 2019! Hope you all had a good new year! All will be revealed soon. Two chapters left of this story, after all.

I'm going to need to delete my internet history after writing this chapter because I think my parents might worry about what I've been doing/what I'm planning on doing if they see it.

You can probably blame Evil Dead for this.