No Control (Chris Motionless)

Chapter 43 - Waiting Game

"Listen to me." Kim orders as soon as I get off the phone with the paramedics. "You have to stay here. It's not safe for you to be alone anymore. If you do leave this house, make sure that it's with someone you truly trust."

I nodded, baffled that she was more worried about my wellbeing than her own and the way her eyes began to frantically dart around made me even more uneasy. I felt as if I was going to crawl out of my skin as I just stood there beside her, hating that I was unable to do anything other than wait for actual help to arrive. I glared down at the pill bottle in my hand every now and then, still trying to process that this was what had been making her sick the entire time. My mind then drifted to that nurse and how I had been so unaware that she was a part of the threat we were facing.

A sickening notion came over me, Madison was probably letting the cult know that I was here right now. I glanced through the opening of the living room at the front door, finding that I had left it unlocked.

I took a step in that direction, intent on fixing my mistake, when Kim called after me, "Amber, grab me that big brown book right there."

My eyes snapped in the direction she pointed, finding a small bookshelf crammed with tons of different-sized volumes, and the book she requested almost blended into the wooden shelf. I pried the heavy book free and then hesitated when I saw the title 'Occult Studies:  Performing Rituals and Knowing When to Cast Out.'

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kim unlatch a chain from around her neck and a heart-shaped locket slipped out from under her shirt collar. I gingerly laid the book across her lap as she ran her fingers over the intricate designs of the necklace, but she closed her fingers over it as she put her focus on the occult book. She skimmed through pages dotted with notes all over the margins and stopped when she reached a section named 'Binding Techniques'.

"This," Kim stated as she held up the golden necklace while tapping a finger on her other hand to the page. "is most likely the best way for you to get rid of William." 

"Why does he even go by William when he signs those letters as Jack?" I questioned, still feeling puzzled by that, as my eyes scanned over the text before me.

"It's so the police would have an even harder time connecting that the two are the same individual."  She mutters before saying, "We don't have much time now, but this will walk you through how to perform a binding ritual. This might be the only way to get that demon out of Chris. The simplest way I can explain it right now is you have to combine your blood and his, find an object that symbolizes love, and draw the blood around it."

My head was beginning to ache as I took in everything Kim was telling me and tried to reason with myself that this could be a side effect of the poison. That there was no way I was dealing with not only a serial killer but a demon on top of that. Despite how I felt, I could only remain where I stood and listen as she went on.

"I'm almost certain that this is why Roy started to have me killed off," Kim murmured as she flipped past a few more pages. "They had to know that I was getting close to finding a way to put an end to this for good. I've been searching for something to get rid of that creature for years, so this has to be it."

"How exactly is all of this meant to work?" I ask as she finally stops thumbing through the book.

"The binding ritual mentioned here is only a piece of what needs to be done, but it's meant to trap negative entities inside objects. Back when Roy and I still lived together, he would sometimes harbor the demon's hosts in our own home. I'd try to exorcise those poor people and free them from the monster they were unknowingly being made into. I got close once, enough to alarm William when he should have been dormant."