I could smell the foulness from the outside, and as Richard opened the door, I was greeted with an odd sight. The entire room was nearly spotless except for the occasional stain here or there, but other than that, you could tell that a lot of love went into making this particular room as homely as possible.
The girl, Rose, was tucked away in bed with a wet rag over her head. She probably had a fever or something similar. Her skin, though, was the thing worrying me the most, as it was starting to pale, as though she was becoming an undead creature, like a vampire or any of the other undead species. Which wasn't a great sign alongside the crosses adorning the room, not keeping out the foul thing.
While I did believe in the being known as The Presence, I was by no means a Christian or religious person. Which meant symbols like these would just be a piece of metal or wood in my hands, but to Richard, well, they should've protected him, at least a tiny bit, but whatever was happening here was a bit too tough to be severely weakened by it, which would be a problem. Either that or perhaps something about the land itself, a dead spirit or witch/mage of some kind.
Binding themselves to the land for some reason, even though the Salem witch trials would've never made it here. This state was founded way after the fact, alongside local Native American tribes inhabiting this place probably wouldn't have killed someone like that without a good reason, if any colonizers came to the area, which odds were they probably did, maybe.
Well didn't matter as this was probably related to the disaster in the past, which meant a lot more research.
"Do you mind if I examine her? I do have some basic medical training, and it does help to determine what is happening to her beyond what you have told me." I said as I leaned down, opening up my briefcase, and I got a penlight to help examine her eyes and see if her pupils dilated or did anything out of the ordinary.
Richard just nodded his head slowly as he stood outside the room for some reason, probably not wanting to possibly interrupt me in case I was doing something to help his daughter. Anyway, seeing as how I got his approval, I approached her and slowly opened one of her eyes and shined a light on it, and seeing as how the pupil shrank from it, I then began moving it to see if her eye followed it. Which, to my dismay, didn't mean that while it reacted somewhat like a normal eye, the spirit or demon's hold over them was tighter than I thought.
Sighing, I put the penlight away and got out a piece of onyx lined with some silver to help trap the thing, or at least point me in the right direction.
"Capti facti daemonium sordes!" The very moment I spoke those words, waves of arcane washed off of him and into the girl as a darkness began to seep out of her.
The room then began as cries of agony, both from Rose and the being possessing her, began to cry out, its rage palpable. I then heard a loud thump as Richard was slammed into the wall just as I was being pushed back.
"Capti in Petra et metallum in aeternum!" I said to finish the second part of the incantation, with the darkness growing as Rose began to shake violently.
"Capti facti daemonium sordes!" I repeated letting my voice be heard and my will be unwavering, as the darkness began to be pulled into the onyx, trapping the spirit temporarily, at least.
"Capti in Petra et meallum in aeternum!" I finished as the darkness was fully swallowed into the rock and the silver blackened, signalling that the spell worked. It didn't matter, though, in the long run, as the spell did capture this spirit in the onyx, but unlike what I said about it being trapped forever, the spell didn't do that, no, that's more for dramatic effect than anything else.
Once the darkness had settled and the room returned to relative normalcy, Richard was able to get up and walk inside, dazed and a tiny bit confused.
"Is-Is it over?" He asked, rubbing his head as I held onto the piece of onyx tightly, making sure to never escape my grip as the voices started. They were dark and monstrous, telling me all the classics of how they are gonna tear my family apart, tear me apart, and well, you get the picture.
"No, all I did was temporarily trap them inside the rock, to trap them forever, I'm gonna need to know this thing's name, and based on what you told me about this place." I said, gesturing to the roof.
"So, do you have any items that came with the house, or was this recently built?"
Didn't take long for Richard to lead me back to the table we previously sat at as he ran upstairs, telling me he was going to grab the items. While he did that, I took a gander at the onyx as a series of images flashed through my mind as I stared at the object. I saw a family of four, their faces clawed out as fire overtook their bodies. I saw the mother scream in terror as her husband hung himself before some monstrous being slashed the mother's face.
I saw the daughter, a girl no older than ten, be ripped apart by an unseen force, and I saw the boy, a young man now wearing priest clothing, chanting something. I saw a stitched-up body made up of the family, except for the young man. It then began to repeat over and over, with more fire involved each time, and soon enough, they were nothing but charred corpses. I was snapped out of it as I heard Richard coming quickly down the stairs from the attic, I was guessing, holding up an old mirror.
I put the onyx down, not letting the entity play its trick on me as he handed me the mirror with a frantic look on his face, but one new thing as well in his eyes, hope. Hope that this was all gonna end soon and their lives can go back to relative normalcy.
"I found this in the attic a couple of days ago. I was gonna sell it, but Rose said it looked pretty, and so I just gave it to her, after cleaning it, of course." Don't know why he added that last bit; it didn't matter to me after all, but to each their own.
"Yeah, this thing stinks of foul magic, meaning whatever's haunting your family bound itself to this object, which is lucky."
"Lucky how is this lucky, my dau-" I held my hand up stopping him before I coudl finish as I coudl feel his rage when I said that, pretty standard reaction when I say shit like that but it was true in this case.
"Luck in the fact that it isn't bound to your land but rather an object, meaning I can take it back wth me and use a bit of a complicated ritual to learn its true name." I said as I began to pack up, putting the onyx in a little black box with the mirror being put in my trench coat.
"Does, Does that mean it's-" Richard stammered out, and I interrupted him before he could finish.
"Over for you, yes, for me no, and I would like to be paid now so that I can get home and begin banishing this little bastard." Richard then quickly went over the counter and grabbed a check, handing it over to me, crying as he did so, hoping and in some way knowing that his family was safe.
I grabbed the check and tucked it in my pocket, making my way out as I could still smell the foul magic in the air, but not in the house anymore, but rather on me. Whether or not this could actually work, I would have to wait and see, maybe come back after a day or two to see if Rose's condition improved. Honestly, I thought Richard would insist on waiting a bit before handing me the check, but maybe he was just in a hurry, or maybe he really did believe in the supernatural.
Either that or god was on my side today and wanted him to know it was alright.