It was only when the restroom door had shut behind the strange man did I realize the rest of the group were staring at me with concern.

“What was all of that?” asked Brianna

“Yeah, it looked like you thought he was going to kill you,” Rebecca said as she finished her drink and pastry. “Well anyway,” she continued “we should be getting home now. It’s going to snow soon.”
The whole group nodded with agreement and started home, all except for me. I waited patiently for the strange man to leave the restrooms. After fifteen minutes had passed with no sign of him leaving I began to wonder what he was doing in there for so long. After thirty long minutes had passed I began to give up hope. I grabbed my coffee and brownie and stood up. I double checked the table to make sure nothing was left behind by my forgetful friends. Just as I started for the door, I heard the restroom door open behind me. I slowed my pass to let the strange man go first out the door. Once he had left the building I turned around and headed straight for the restroom.

As I passed the table I had just been at I dropped my brownie and coffee without pausing as I went. I pushed open the door and was instantly hit the odor of urine and bleach. The restroom had one toilet and one sink. Everything had copper rust around the edges. Nothing looked to peculiar to me at first glance. But I still didn’t believe he took that long to use the bathroom.

I examined the sink and the walls. I dreaded having to examine the area around the toilet but I knew it had to be done. I slowly headed for the toilet when I felt as if something was pulling me toward the floor. As I took one more step towards the toilet something moved under my right foot as it landed on the tile floor. I lifted that foot back up and looked at the loose tile under it. I bent down and removed the tile. That’s when I saw it. There, underneath that very tile was a golden ring with a moon on it. There were diamonds incased onto the moon along with little craters. Something was telling me to take it, something I couldn’t see of hear was demanding that I take the ring.

I quickly slid the ring onto my right pocket and walked casually out of the building without the slightest hint of guilt. I left my coffee and brownie sitting deserted at the round table as I opened the door and let in frosty air from outside. I pulled the hood of my jacket up and started home in the cold. Snowflakes began to swirl down around me as I quickened my speed.

I could here footsteps coming up from behind me and before I could turn around a voice whispered in my ear “Get rid of it, its evil.” When I turned to see the owner of the voice I could see no one. I started to jog home.

I didn’t live very far from the café. It had only taken me about ten minutes to jog home and by that time I was already sweating from the heat of inside my coat. I walked up the front steps of my house and took my hood off my head. As I opened the door the smell of chicken and rice filled my nose.

I closed the door behind me and walked upstairs to my room. I placed the ring on my dresser by my desk and threw my coat onto my bed. For the next two weeks life continued as usual. Until the moon ring went missing. I searched for it everywhere for two days.

“Looking for this?” asked my younger sister Angel while standing in my doorway holding out her left arm. I saw the glint of the diamonds on her finger and knew then, as I should have known the whole time, she stole my ring.

“Give me my ring back you thief.” I demanded as I stood up from my bed.

“I’m a thief who stole from a thief. It’s not your ring you found it and took it.”

“How do you know that?” I asked her taking one step towards her.

“It told me. It told me everything.” She said with a sinister tone to her voice. She held the hand with the ring in her other hand as she examined it. “It says that it doesn’t like you and honestly, I’d have to agree.”

“So what? You never liked me and I never liked you, but we just have to deal with that,” I said.

“No, I plan on changing that with the help of this ring. I won’t have to deal with your crap ever again. And if I were you, I’d be good from now on.” She winked at me, flipped her long golden hair, and left the room. She was not my little sister anymore.

After she left I sat down on my bed and thought hard about what has become of my sister. Was the ring really talking to her? Is that the reason I took in the first place? I was scared. I was sure that my little sister had just threatened my life. I always called her evil but I would have never thought that it would come to this. I got up and paced in my room. I had to think of a plan, and quick.

For next couple of days I kept my distance from Angel. It felt as if she could sense my fear. The way she looked at me when she passed my room. Like she could see right though me. I felt tiny, and petty. There was also a change in her behavior. She walked differently than she used to. Now she walks with her hands holding each other in front of her, shoulders never slouched and she looked at everyone with an evil grin, even our parents. She started to treat our mother worse than she already did. One day I walked in the kitchen after coming home late from school. My mom was cooking dinner and Angel sat at the counter behind her, playing with a lock of her own hair. I dint think she noticed my presence so I started for my room when suddenly I heard my mom yell. I turned back to the kitchen.

“Mom?” I called. I ran into the kitchen where my mother laid on the kitchen floor. “What happened are you okay?”

“I-I don’t know. The water boiled over and burned my hand. I fell backward but something pushed me to the floor before I could fully stand up.”

“Are you okay mom?”

“Yes I’m fine. I’m going to put some ice on this hand though.”

Angel still sat at the counter. The same as before, except this time, she was smiling.

The next day I woke up with a searing pain in my stomach. It felt like my insides were on fire. I tried to stand up but only rolled off my bed onto the floor. It burned so much, I started to black out as I vomited thick black sludge. I couldn’t stand, or even manage to crawl. The pain was overwhelming and lethal. I fell to my side and continued to vomit the thick black substance. I felt myself dying. My floor was covered in black and so was I. My world was fading to oblivion.

“Its time to wake up, sis,” Angel said, interrupting my nightmare. When I realized it was a dream I jumped to my feet and checked my floor for the non-existing black sludge. Angel was standing in the doorway staring at me. It looked as if she was becoming much more pale and fragile, like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. There were dark circles around her eyes and the skin of her cheeks clung to her bone. “By the end of day, I’ll be done with you, and the rest of this family.” She walked away from my room and out the front door.

I was afraid and confused. I had no official plan of action against my possessed younger sister. I knew that I couldn’t hurt her but I was afraid that that’s what it will come down to.


Later on that day Angel came in from school and went straight to her room. Half an hour later while I was sitting in my room I could hear her talking to someone. I was unaware if Angel had a guest or not because I had not seen anyone come in with her. I stood up and pressed my ear against the wall to listen in on the conversation that was taking place in Angel’s room.

“Please stop” I could hear Angel say in her usual voice. It sounded like she was her normal self again and I began to take comfort in the possibility that my only sibling was coming back to her true self again.

As if it were sand that little comfort I had just gained slipped right between my fingers when Angel started talking again. Except this time it wasn’t English. The language she was speaking was nowhere close to English and I had never heard anyone speak it before. It was definitely her voice but different. It sounded as if she were whispering and her voice was horse and rough.

“But she’s my sister” came Angels normal soft angelic voice. It sounded like she was crying.

Just like that the evil voice was back and I realized that I would only be able to understand Angel’s side of the conversation.

“I DO love her.” Cried Angle. “No not all the time.” “Leave my parents alone.” “My family does love me.” “I won’t kill them.” “NO!” I could her Angels scream echo through the house. “AHHHHH!” Angel was in pain.

I leapt from the wall and towards my room door. I swung my door open and with a loud slam it hit the wall behind me. I swung Angel’s room door open with a lot more force and as it slammed against the wall the door knob made a hole.

Angel was sitting on the floor with her legs crossed, her hair hanging down over her head, and her body was moving. I took slow steps toward her careful not to upset her. I said nothing. It was only when I stepped in front of her did I realize what she was doing. She was trying to remove the moon ring, but it was stuck.

She lifted her head and looked at me. “Help me” she said crying. I bent down and grabbed the hand with the ring. The ring was to tight and was preventing any blood from getting to her finger, and every second it was getting tighter. “Help me. It hurts.” She said between fits of tears. Her finger was purple and as I tried to pull it off the ring wouldn’t budged.

I’ll get some hot water but just as I began to stand up Angel screamed and the bone in her finger broke with a loud snap. Tears began to roll down cheeks as the look of pure agony overcame my little sister’s face. She continued to scream and her finger bled. “Liz” she said. Every hint of pain vanished from her face and voice. “Liz run. Run now.” She looked down at the ring again and her body began to shake violently.

“Angel?” I said, suddenly scared to my very core. “Angel!” but it was too late. I ran for the door but it slammed shut when I reached for it making a loud noise that made me jump. I turned around and saw Angel standing with her head dangling on her neck and her hair hanging down. She was wearing her sleeping gown which she slept in when she felt as if she would have a nightmare that night.

“Sorry Sissy” Angel whispered. Her head swung backwards as she yelled in pain. Her arms rose parallel in front of her body towards me and I looked at the finger that held the ring. It was dangling by one small piece of skin before it fell of and landed on the floor with a thud. I held back vomit and the urge to scream because I knew that both would be no aid to me at that moment.

As I took a step backward my body hit the door that I had forgotten was right behind me. Angel’s body started to jolt in different directions as both her arms faced the ceiling. Her hands were palm up when she yet again let out a cry of pain and as I covered my ears both her arms snapped towards the ground with a loud crunch sound that made my stomach turn. I looked up to see Angel; she was floating above the floor. The bones in both her arms showing and her face cold and emotionless.

I could no longer hold it in. At the site of her protruding bones my stomach gave out and I vomited onto to the floor and doubled over in pain. I tried to stand again but failed. I was on my hands and knees when Angel started to scream but was cut off by something taking place within her, which I could not see.

What looked as if she was about to vomit turned into something much worse. She opened her mouth wide and bent over but instead of vomit, a hand came crawling out of her mouth. Her jaw opened wider and wider and wider until finally her jaw snapped and broke. The shoulder of the creature was visible now but I had to look away and vomit once more. This time I stayed looking at the hard wood floor and refused to watch the creature destroy Angel.

As I was staring at the floor I heard the front door of the house open and shut. My parents were home. I attempted to stand but I was immediately thrown across the room and four pairs of feet hit the floor. As I hit the wall with a hard crash all the wind was knocked out of my lungs and my spine cracked. My tailbone hit the picture frame on the wall and the glass shattered and fell to the floor with me.

I hit the floor with a loud crash and I knew I’d feel it tomorrow, if there was a tomorrow for me. I saw Angel’s body lying on the floor, dead. The creature that had crawled out of her mouth was hovering over her body. Breathing heavy and hunched over on all fours, it looked at its latest victim. Its spine and ribs were visible just like almost all the rest of its bones. Its skin was dark brown and blotchy and had hands that reminded me of birds feet. On its head it had long brown hair that slid along the floor when it moved.

In one quick movement it turned it head to stare at me. Its eyes were familiar although I could not remember where I had seen them before. Its mouth looked as if someone cut a line across its face with a knife. It slowly began to crawl towards me. Its beady eyes widened as its mouth widened revealing razor sharp yellowed teeth. As it got closer it was recognizable that it was an ancient female human being, and she was pissed.

She began to speak in a different language. Even though I couldn’t understand what she was saying I knew that she definitely was NOT complimenting my hair.

When she was within five feet of my crumpled body, lying against the wall there was a noise from downstairs.

“Liz!” my mom called from downstairs. “Come bring in the groceries, your fathers being lazy.” The woman and I looked at each other for a split second before I stood up and sprinted for the door before a massive amount of force sent me flying towards the window. I could see her body quickly move towards the door while I was flying through the glass of the window. When I hit the ground outside I felt all the wind leave my lungs and my mind went blank as I sunk farther into unconsciousness.

When I came to I could hear screaming coming from inside the house and I knew exactly who the voice belonged to, my mother. I ran around the side of the house and jumped up the stairs to the front porch in one long step. I swung open the front door, but I was too late. The woman was holding my mom’s bloody dead corpse in her arms with her heart in one hand. I could see my fathers’ body
Both hearts were taken right from their chests. My hand covered my mouth. I ran for the stairs. I could hear it drop my mom’s body onto the floor and begin to speak its language. I ran into my parent’s room and to their closet where I know my dad kept his gun. I opened the closet door and there it was. Not hidden at all because my dad was never very bright.

I grabbed the gun. I could hear her coming up the stairs still talking but I still did not understand. She was now at the door, back on all fours. It was only when she put her left hand forward did I see that she was wearing the moon ring. The sun from the window glinted off of the diamonds on the ring. She took another step in my direction.

The gun was loaded, I could tell by the weight. I cocked it, pointed it at the spot right between her black eyes and pulled the trigger. Her head flew backwards as her blood covered the bed room door behind her and she fell to the floor.

I didn’t hesitate to run out of the room and to the back room, were Angel was. I ran over to her body. She was covered in blood. Both her arms broken and her jaw hanging from the rest of her head. I held her in my arms and cried. I knew wit was pointless to call her name because she was long gone from this world. The moon ring was in my parent’s room. But I was too weak to stand.

I moved Angel’s body aside. Now here I am. I brought that ring into the house. That makes me responsible for the deaths of all my family. That makes me murderer. My name is Eliza James, and I killed my family.