Soul Pills

Chapter 7

The pill bottle was a soft blue colour. The lid was decorated with a striped pole, and people danced about it while holding streamers. It looked happy and cheerful, but in Olivia's hand it weighed a thousand pounds.

Olivia Kulas rolled the pill bottle over in her hand and read the label. She read it softly to herself, committing it to memory, "Take two pills three times daily with food. Take pills no less than two hours before sleeping. May cause insomnia, skin irritation, or induce vomiting." Her hands shook as he pried open the child-proof cap. When she tipped the bottle five pills came spilling out. She set the bottle down on the edge of the sink and picked the extra three out of her hand.

Olivia filled a plastic cup half with water and set the two remaining pills beside it while she closed the pill bottle and set it back into the medicine cabinet. Before she closed the cabinet her eyes fell on another pill bottle. The bottle was a dull brownish colour and only had a few pills left in the bottom. She looked down at the pills on the sink and then back up to the brown bottle. She popped the cap on the brown bottle and tipped it back over her mouth, four or five pills spilled out onto her tongue. She threw back the half filled cup of water and swallowed them all in one gulp. Olivia refilled the cup with water and carefully picked up the two pills for Hannah. Her hands had already started to stabilize as she left the bathroom.

She crept down the hallway towards Hannah's room. The hallway was cluttered with scaffolding and paint cans. As she got a bit closer to the door Olivia stumbled a bit on a length of electrical cable that had been left partially uncoiled on the floor. The repairs to the hallway were coming along well now that Hannah was on the road to recovery. It had only been three weeks since she had begun the treatments but she was already showing vast improvements. Most of the objects in her bedroom now remained stationary, and Hannah very rarely screamed obscenities in dead languages any more.

Olivia had been worried when she heard about the damage Hannah had caused to Dr. Coburn's office, but he hadn't even sent a bill for the cracked windows. Olivia had been in the lobby waiting for her daughter when the screaming had started. She had pounded on the door and clawed at the pretty receptionist who had tried to restrain her. Finally the screaming had stopped and she could hear muffled voices from inside the office. When Dr. Coburn finally opened the door his office looked as if a wild bear had mauled it. The desk was overturned, the patient's couch was torn in two, and her daughter was curled in a ball on the far side of the room.

Olivia had run in, screaming, "What have you done to my daughter! If you have hurt her I will see that you never work again!" She had rolled Olivia over onto her back and checked her breathing, it had been strong, and deep. But the thing that had struck her the most was the peaceful expression on Hannah's face. It had been a long time since Olivia had seen Hannah like that. It was as if the fury had gone from her. In that moment Olivia had dispelled all her doubts about Dr. Coburn.

She had come home that night feeling relieved and excited. It had been a breakthrough, the demon had loosened its hold on her daughter. Surely the end couldn't be far off! But her enthusiasm had been premature. Hannah still faded in and out of her attacks. Though they weren't nearly as potent as they had been before she started the treatment, they were still a major disruption to their lives. Tensions around the household continued to rise. Olivia and Van rarely spoke any more, and had fallen into a routine where each simply knew whose day it was to keep an eye on Hannah.

Van mostly kept himself contained within the study. There he worked on his computer or wept softly to himself, mistakenly believing that the study doors were keeping his misery private. Olivia had taken it upon herself to begin the healing process. It was she who had ordered the contractors to come in and repair the damage Olivia had done to the house. It was she who had started going out into the yard to clear away the rotting and diseased plants, the animal corpses, and swept the ash off the outside of the house.