Mina ran. She had been running for a long time already. She vaguely remembers through the haze of exhaustion that the sun was still up when she started.
Earlier that day, just around 6 in the evening she had met up with Alexandra and started walking towards the forest together. They had heard of an abandoned train station just around the area, and, like most teens, they loved some good old urbex.
The first strange thing Mina noticed was the air. It felt weird. And she had been in mouldy buildings before. She had been surrounded by rot and moist, crumbling concrete before. This wasn’t like that. She had a feeling it wasn’t related to the building’s structure at all.
Still, they carried on. Neither of them had anything better to do, as it was the start of summer. Might as well spend the night in a creepy old train station, right? That’s when they noticed the second strange circumstance. Alexandra had supposedly seen—out of the corner of her eye— a dark figure sprinting into the forest from behind the building. This did make Alex a bit apprehensive, but Mina encouraged her to carry on, she herself feeling quite confident, not having seen anything.
Finding nothing upon entering, they decided to go up the stairs. Neither the ceiling nor stairs looked very stable, being in all likelihood entirely rotten wood.
On the upper floor were more rooms, and the pair chose the first room opposite the stairs to enter.
Mina stopped in her tracks. There was a pentagram, drawn in chalk, covering the entire floor. Five candles burned in the five points. Stepping closer,
Mina saw that each candle had only a tiny ring of melted wax around the wick. These had been lit no more than a minute ago. She looked up, and Alex had a crumpled paper in her hand.
„What’s that? “
„I’m not sure, looks like some spell? I think it’s in latin. “
„Well, what’s it say? “
Alex read the text out loud. It wasn’t particularly long, only three lines perhaps. But by the last word, both girls noticed a shaking. Mina fell to her knees, struck by a headache like no other she had ever had before.
Alexandra dropped the paper. She crouched down to look at her friend, needing to hold out a hand to the ground to not fall over from the shaking that had struck the room. Mina was holding her head, looking at the ground, and Alex put a hand on her shoulder, trying to see what was wrong.
She stumbled back in shock and found Mina lunging at her.
Alexandra ran. She wasn’t sure it was the right direction. She wasn’t sure it mattered.
Mina ran. She didn’t want to. She didn’t think she was moving her body. She felt like a puppet. She didn’t remember thinking anything after that, she remembered her vision went black.
When Mina woke up, the first thing she noticed was that she was covered in blood. She briefly wondered if this was her own, and if she was about to die. This thought was quickly dissipated when she saw a mangled corpse by her feet. She stared at it in horror, which grew after she finally recognized the wrecked face, it's eyes staring back up at her.
It was her friend. It was her dear friend. She was supposed to meet him tomorrow night. He’s dead. And she. She killed him. What had she done? She looked around. She was still in a forest, though not one she recognized anymore. She heard distant police sirens. Oh, gosh. They must be coming for her.
Mina started running again, this time by her own will.
Now, she was still running. She could barely feel her legs anymore, she wasn't sure if she was still running or just stumbling. If she thought about it, she would've realized it wasn't entirely of her own volition. She had tried to stop, feeling too tired to continue. She couldn't, though. She just kept running. She was sure she wasn't moving her body anymore. Still, she kept running. She thought this may be the same thing that caused her to run after Alexandra earlier. Earlier. When was that? She could barely remember. Was it even the same day? Who knows how long she was blacked out. Was that even the first corpse? Had she killed other people? The thought made her want to throw up. She didn't want to keep running. She was tired. She wanted to lay down and cry. Still, she ran.
Mina stumbled. She had made a misstep. Or, perhaps, whatever was controlling her made a misstep. Whatever. The result was that she was laying face-down in the moss. She layed like that for a while, using the brief opportunity for some rest. She expected to be forced up again, but it didn't happen. After several minutes she slowly tried to get up, and was suprised to have regained control of her body. Raising her head up, she noticed the moss beneath her was covered in blood. She thought she must've hit her face on a branch when falling.
Mina didn't remember starting to walk, but when she came back to her senses, that's what she was doing. She came across another abandoned building. She felt sick. Memories came flooding back. she didn't want to enter it. But despite her best wishes, her feet kept moving forward. She wasn't sure if it was curiousity or whatever has possessed her earlier making her go forward. The building looked to be some dilapitated concrete shack. Turning a corner, she looked through a doorless doorframe and froze. There was a person there. On a probably mouldy, plaster-dust covered sofa sat a person. He seemed to be quite tall, Mina thought. Even sitting his limbs seemed long and gangly. Mina took a step back and was about to run when the man spoke.
"No, don't go yet! I've been waiting for you."
Who... who is this? Was he talking to her? Did she know him?
"Yes, you. Who else would I be talking to? C'mon, where the rush to? It's not like you can go home. A hiker saw you commit those murders, and you're not exactly hard to recognize, you know."
So, she had killed more than just one person. Oh dear, this was bad.
Mina stepped forward, just to the edge of the doorframe. She now noticed the man had a pitch black mask on, hiding any form of facial feature. He seemed to have
black curly hair, held in a loose ponytail at the back of his head.
"You're confused, aren't you? You got possessed. Your dear little friend happened to summon a demon, and you were standing in the middle of the circle. Well, you are possessed. I'm sure the demon is still in your body. I can tell it from your eyes. You don't get it, do you? Here, take this--"
He hands Mina a small grimy hand mirror. She steps forward coyly and grabs the mirror. Mina drops the mirror after a glance and it shatters on the concrete below her. Her eyes are black. Pitch black. Like the sky on a moonless winter night.
"Suprising, isn't it? I'm not sure why that happened, but---"
Mina turned her head and threw up. She felt sick. The vomit was almost as black as her eyes. Oh, god, what is this. What it this. She threw up again and it looked like blood.
"...That doesn't seem good. Well, I was going to say, the demonic possession seems to be causing your eyes to be black, so we know you're still possessed, although you have control over your body for now. Hey, take this!"
He tossed a necklace at her. Mina watches it hit her shoulder and fall, crouching down to pick it up after a moment. The man seems bored at this. The necklace seems to have a... pentagram on it? Mina tossed it down. She doesn't want to see any more pentagrams.
"Oh c'mon! Don't worry, it's not gonna summon any more demons :) It doesn't burn, does it?"
She shook her head.
"OK, great. Anyways, this should keep the spirit at bay, to a degree. It's a protective symbol!"
He had picked the necklace up, and now placed it around Mina's neck.