After weeks of quiet, Alice received a call from a certain man. She did not know him, but he knew a certain woman, and she had obtained the number from a certain couple.“All clear,” Alice thought, yawning loudly into the receiver. Then the proposed payment was mentioned, and the witch finally became interested.

  It was about a girl, already of age, who suffered from severe psychological disturbances. She had been diagnosed, treated, reexamined, and then examined again, endlessly cycling through specialists, yet nothing changed. Every time the doctors were convinced they had finally identified the problem, it turned out they were wrong. No therapy helped, no expert managed to solve it. Someone suggested possession, but the priests failed as well. Even the Vatican had sent its own specialist, who proved just as helpless. Whatever it was kept returning, each time stronger and harder to control. The rumor was that a young witch might at least try, or determine what they were dealing with. Would she be willing?

  She was. Nothing else mattered to her. Only the payment, and the address where she was to appear. The last few days had been unbearably colorless, after all.

  She arrived late in the evening. The door was opened by a haggard woman with deep dark circles beneath her eyes. She looked at the young visitor uncertainly, then sighed and let her into the small single-family house on the outskirts of the city.

  “I’m so very tired,” she whispered as she closed the door, and said nothing more.

  Alice entered a large room where a simple chair stood in the middle. A young girl sat in it, dressed in plain, everyday clothes. She looked young, but her eyes did not match the rest of her. They were old. Sick. This promised interesting times ahead.

  The girl watched the witch closely but did not speak. She did not move either, though that was more due to the straitjacket and the thick rope securing her to the chair.

  “Are you able to help us?” asked the man who was likely her father. He sat against one wall, exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and unkempt hair.

  Alice studied him for a moment, then returned her gaze to the girl.

  “Probably,” she said at last, “but not in a way you’ll thank me for later.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” the father replied, burying his face in his hands. “Do anything.”

  At those words, the daughter burst into violent laughter. It was not ordinary laughter, but the sound of hundreds of overlapping voices laughing at once. Alice felt power surge toward her and smiled faintly.

  “As you wish.”

  She stepped about a meter away from the restrained girl and stared into her eyes without speaking. In her mind, she prepared for the confrontation. She slowed her breathing, then counted down from ten to one. Without closing her eyes, she summoned her subconscious.

  “This won’t be easy,” the little girl in her mind informed her.

  Alice immediately began erecting thick protective barriers. Not easy did not mean impossible, and that alone was a promising start.

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  “These barriers won’t save you, bitch,” the girl snarled in a chorus of voices. “I’ll crush them to dust, then I’ll fuck you like no man ever has.”

  Alice laughed freely and continued reinforcing her defenses. The mother burst into tears. The father let out a long sigh, too exhausted to react in any other way.

  They were broken, both of them, but they were only human. The last witch in this world would not be handled so easily, Alice thought as she rolled up the sleeves of her hoodie.

  Perfect silence fell over the room. In an instant, the atmosphere grew so dense it felt tangible. Worse still was the awareness that something terrible was about to happen.

  Alice thrilled at the thought.

  She did not possess vast energy reserves; it was time to replenish them. Besides, this confrontation was a challenge unlike any she had faced before. She had heard of such things, read about them, but never encountered one firsthand. What a magnificent specimen of possession lay before her. Served on a silver platter, no less, and she was being paid for it. For a moment, she felt like a Wild West bounty hunter. Too bad she did not have spurs.

  The girl watched Alice with a mocking smile. Something inside her knew that while it was confined to an imperfect human body, that body still held potential. The coming confrontation felt exciting.

  Priests, exorcists, psychologists, psychiatrists. All useless. The last two were easy to deceive; the first two made excellent snacks. A young witch? She had potential, perhaps, but lacked experience. Her aura was unremarkable, and those pitiful barriers were laughable. Watching her erect them one by one was amusing, knowing each would burst like a soap bubble.

  Her energy, however, was exceptional. Weak, but exquisite in taste. And her body held greater potential than the one currently occupied. Perhaps, after finishing with her, a transfer could be arranged. The idea was tempting.

  Alice sensed how fragile her outer barriers were, but she remained unconcerned. Her subconscious knew its work. Beneath the layers of useless shields lurked something else: a hidden, impenetrable barrier. Most of her power had gone into creating it.

  She half-closed her eyes to focus.

  Her mind struck something hard.

  No. Not glass.

  A mirror.

  A perfect reflective barrier, converting every incoming attack into a counterattack with minimal energy loss. Simple. Elegant. Effective.

  The entity noticed the smile forming on the witch’s lips and felt amused. Let her enjoy the moment. This was entertainment. It withdrew deep into the shadows of the girl’s mind, granting a brief respite.

  “How is this happening?” the girl asked suddenly.

  Her voice had changed. Softer. Younger. Innocent.

  “He’s leaving,” she whispered. “I can feel it…”

  The mother burst into sobs and rushed forward, but Alice blocked her with an outstretched arm.

  “He hasn’t left,” Alice said calmly. “He’s hiding.”

  “But…”

  “He’s mocking us.”

  The girl’s face twisted back into its former shape. The possessed one laughed, voices overlapping once more.

  The mother collapsed to her knees. The father stared at the floor, broken.

  “You think you can handle me?” the entity snarled. “Try.”

  “You try,” Alice replied.

  The lights flickered. Doors and windows slammed open and shut. Wind tore through the room. Footsteps echoed everywhere, followed by laughter. The mother screamed. The father did nothing.

  Alice yawned.

  Objects flew. Furniture overturned. Electronics short-circuited.

  Still, she did not flinch.

  Intrigued now, the entity focused its power and released a thin, concentrated beam. It tore through the outer shields effortlessly. The entity howled in triumph as the barriers shattered one by one.

  Then the beam struck the mirror.

  The energy rebounded.

  It tore through the entity’s own defenses, shattering them completely.

  That was not possible.

  That was not how it worked.