Possession

It started with the damn tea! I’m sure of it. I’ve not felt the same since I drank the mysterious tea at the Chinese restaurant two weeks ago. Now maybe the two things are not causally related, but I seriously doubt it! I drink the strange tasting tea after my lunchtime buffet at Golden Dragon on Wednesday. All night long, I have bizarre dreams about a spirit named Golgorth. The next morning I awake possessed by a demon. It strains the limits of plausibility to think they aren’t related.

-

Thursday 11:07 AM

I wasn’t feeling myself Thursday morning, when I headed into my job. I am a massage therapist and said some awful things to my coworkers. It wasn’t like me at all. I didn’t feel in control. These weren’t my words and actions! What was up? In a moment of frustration, I ran into the spa bathroom and stared into the mirror. My legs nearly buckled when I saw my reflection in the mirror.

I was no longer me! The image that I saw in the mirror wasn’t my familiar face; it was the face of an ancient demon. Yellow, lidless, soulless eyes looked at me from the mirror. That was when I first heard the entity speak and laugh.

The demon in the mirror looked at me and laughed a raspy laugh that troubled me to my soul. It wasn’t a good-natured laugh, not by a wide margin, thank you very much.

‘What the hell?’ I whispered more to myself than to the alien reflection before me.

Incredibly, it spoke to me. So I’m either not crazy at all or totally crazy; I’m not sure which is worse.

‘You may call me Golgorth.’

How imperious of this creature.

‘What are you I?’ I hissed at the mirror, suddenly self-conscious that someone outside the bathroom might hear me talking to myself as I slip slowly into madness.

‘You know what I am. Say it. Say the word.’

‘Demon,” I say. ‘So I’m possessed?’

‘Yes, but only temporarily. Well, temporarily, unless I do my job right! If I’m successful, it will be a more permanent possession.’

Yeah! Shoot me when that happens.

‘I can’t recommend that! The shooting thing!’

How had the demon heard that? I only thought it, I didn’t say it aloud, did I?

‘Obviously, I can hear your thoughts mortal.’

Well, fuck me!

‘Nah, you’re not my type, human.’

-

I sense there will be some level of trickery during whatever time I have to spend with this demon riding in my brain. Despite not trusting anything this entity says to me, I have to ferret out some details.

-

‘So how long do I have to ..,’

‘For three days.’

Well, that doesn’t sound awful, I think.

‘You might want to rethink that,’ Golgorth says. ‘I’m a centuries-old demon that has committed atrocities and evils that would send you running into the night screaming.’

He has a point. Wait! Is it a ‘he,’ I wonder.

When I look back at the mirror, the demon is flashing the mirror, emphatically answering the question I wish I’d never asked.

‘You know a simple yes or no would’ve worked just as well, right?’

-

Thursday, 3:33 PM

Four hours later and my sanity is unraveling.

Golgorth spends every second flinging the most base, depraved thoughts into my brain. No one knows true temptation until they’ve carried a demon in their brain!

I started stealing from the grocery store. Just minor items, but I feel like a puppet. No longer convinced I have any free will of my own. Saying no or refusing the demon feels like a Herculean task. Besides, giving in and stealing things seems to make him so happy. Inexplicably: I enjoy making the demon happy.

All of this is wildly untenable. Whatever! I only have two more days to get through.

-

Friday, 1:13 PM

I’m pretty sure I’m going to murder at least one of my clients at some point. Golgorth relays to me their inner thoughts. Some of these people are as bad as he is!

My stealing has gotten worse! I was nearly busted, brazenly sneaking out three packages of ramen noodles under my shirt. I got away with it when I pretended to be talking on my phone, saying that I just forgot to go through the checkout. Even that was not my doing. I feel like I’m slowly receding away as Golgorth assumes more and more control of my actions. I only have another day to endure, but I’m no longer certain I will make it.

Management hired a new sales associate today, Rachel. I stepped behind her just once to fetch a hot towel for a client. During that instant, Golgorth allowed me to hear her thoughts. She has no business working with people if these are her thoughts. I can’t record the awful things I heard her thinking; it’s just too dark.

-

Saturday 9:48 AM

I think I have killed someone. I woke covered in blood, none of it mine apparently. I’m terrified of leaving my apartment today. Every time I pass by my vanity mirror, Golgorth ridicules me. Saying to me he is winning, asking me how I enjoyed my first murder? I tried to yell at him, but I’m too scared of it now to assert myself in such a forthright manner.

I shower, dress, and make my way into work.

When I walk into work, my world crumbles before me.

The other employees are all talking about Rachel. Her body was discovered this morning in the dumpster behind the spa.

I may have been the one to have killed her and casually dumped her corpse in the dumpster. Things are speeding up. I don’t have long now, and I feel powerless to slow any of this.

‘Tell me, did I kill her or did you?’ I ask Golgorth. I’m back in the spa bathroom.

Someone knocks at the door.

“Be right out,” I shout over my shoulder.

I lean in, anticipating the Golgorth can’t resist gloating, answering my question.

‘At this point, there is very little daylight between you and me!’ Golgorth says cryptically. Still, I guess it is an answer.

Another knock at the door.

‘Give me a second, jeez!’ I say to the door.

“Police! Open the door now, Mr. Svenson!”

I am lost; my soul is forfeit. Golgorth has won. I wash my hands and face, determined to at least look presentable during the last phase of my life.