[MythicDusk]

Akkia felt her knuckles whiten on the handle of the broom. She felt her jaw tighten to the point where a headache bloomed behind her eyes. She felt the tension build in her until she felt like she was about to snap, until she felt like she couldn't breathe.

She felt every iota of anger, every inch of hurt and pain and fear echo through her, rebounding off bones and rattling through nerve endings, setting her heart aflame. She felt like she was white-hot, like she would burn the house down with a word.

She sucked in a breath, and it felt like the hot iron in her soul had been doused in ice water, she took deep, gulping breaths, her eyes wide, as if she had just been drowning. She slowly flexed her painful fingers on the broom handle.

"Should I start sweeping now?"

[Mousen]

Solomon nodded at her, slowly and clearly. She could feel something in the room, and didn't like it at all. It seemed to bubble under the surface, but then got worse, catching in Solomon's throat and filling the room with the smell of ash and smoke. She broke her chanting as it hit her, and she was forced back, a feeling like falling into a deep pit and loosing track of the light above you. A feeling like running out of home. For a moment, she couldn't speak, and was instead just reeling.

"Akkia. Out. Now." She said, pulling the woman with her into the corridor. She could feel her own demons beside her, their auras like small candles in the gloom. They were sulking, surprised at the sudden onslaught.

"Its more dangerous than I thought," she said. "I'm going to challenge it directly." She'd been surprised once, but not again.

[MythicDusk]

Akkia grit her teeth, following Solomon's instructions to the letter. She still kept her grip on the broom handle. she still felt the despair weighing her down, still felt whatever it was feeding off her. She felt hatered and bile build in her. She felt the urge for violence, to take the broom and break it over Solomon's head.

Then, all of a sudden, she felt dizzy. Felt her knees shake and vomit echo in her throat. She shook her head slightly, her hands shaking as she dropped the broom, gasping and trembling, her fingers tangling into her hair.

"Solomon, what is it? Why does it hate me?"

[Mousen]

Solomon quickly bent down beside her, wrapping an arm around her. "It hates everything, not just you. It's a being of evil. Breathe for me now. Slowly. Think of the things you love, think of kindness." She hoped she would get through, and she glanced at Delos, who settled onto Akkia's shoulder. She wouldn't normally prescribe such close contact with any infernal being, but if Delos' presence kept the creature away, then it was worth it.

"Once you can move, we need an open space. I'm going to use a spirit-trap." Solomon's face was set into a hard line, her pale grey eyes flashing with determination.

[MythicDusk]

Akkia did her best, sucking in great lungfuls and thinking of her daughter, of the thing she loved the most. Slowly, she felt herself begin to steady, felt her legs begin to solidify again and she stood. Slowly and shakily, she stood.

"Is- Is the living room open enough?" Her voice was hoarse, and she felt tired, drained. She felt like she had walked a hundred miles in so many minutes. She felt like she was going to collapse at any given moment.

She just wanted to sleep. She looked up to Solomon, and took heart, let herself be bolstered by the exorcist, let herself be given courage by the other woman.

She would make it through this.

[Mousen]

Solomon nodded, there to help Akkia up if she needed it. Quickly, Solomon headed for the stairs, keeping an eye on Akkia all the while. The presence in the house she felt most under her feet, like eyes in the floor. She tried to take heart, concentrating on her own spirits and Akkia. It'd be over soon, she knew.

In the living room she moved aside a rug and got out a pen. Chalk was traditional, but it really only worked on stone floors, also it was far too easily smudged in dangerous situations.

She began drawing an intricate series of symbols on the floor, each linking together. She drew two lines on either side, the start of a triangle, and left the end open.  From her jacket pocket she took a new scalpel blade, opening the packet and taking it out. She pressed it into the tip of one of her fingers. The others sported similar cuts, clearly also from her work.

She muttered something under her breath as the drop of blood fell onto the markings. There was a flash as she did so, a feeling like all the air had been sucked out of the room. She finished off the triangle.

"We got it," she said. "Now to see what it wants."

[MythicDusk]

Akkia sucked in a breath, she hoped the wants would be simple. She wanted it out of her house, out of her home, she wanted to carve it out of her like a cancerous growth.

She flexed her hands nervously, licking her lips. Her fear pressed at her, with the immediate fear of the demon less, well, immediate, her fears and her thoughts drifted to the demons that still dogged her ankles. She found her attention waning, her eyes drifting to the front door, watching it with fear.

Fear always did this to her, always forced her to expect him to walk through the door, to knot his fingers into her hair and pull chunks from her scalp-

She closed her eyes tight, gritting her jaw and forcing her attention back to the circle. She needed to stay focused, just for a little longer.

[Mousen]

It appeared slowly, piece by piece, something all flicker and shadow and pair of eyes blinking out from within it. A series of scuttling limbs, impressions of teeth, the shape of a human face all appeared and sunk back into the formless mass.

"I demand that you leave this place," Solomon said, her eyes not leaving the shape.

It's voice was broken glass, raised voices, the slam of a fist on a table. "It is my right."

"How can you say this?"

"I come only when invited, feed on what is already here," the demon said.

"You were not invited. This is not your home. You will leave, either by force or willingly."

"A door with a draught invites the cold, a roof missing tiles invites the rain." It said, and its voice reminded Solomon of women sobbing, the smell of stale beer, a slap echoing through an empty room.

Solomon muttered something and the creature snapped to attention, wincing. "Careful," it hissed. "Don't want to mess up your pretty face with words like that."

She pointed to a scar that ran across one side of her face, and shrugged. She began speaking again, and the demon writhed.

It made a coughing sound, and the tiles Solomon had drawn onto cracked. It fled upwards into one corner of the room. "Bitch!" she hissed reflexively. She moved to put herself between it and Akkia.

"Delos!" She called, as a small shadow rushed to intercept it, and they tangled and fought. Delos pushed himself away, Nostos moved in to corner it. The demon was too quick for them though and darted between them towards Solomon. She held up a hand reflexively, and it caught her, and a thin line of blood welled up from her wrist across her fingers. The creature moved onto the second floor and Nostos followed.

"Damn. I'm sorry Akkia. It's powerful. I'm going to have to try this without a circle, it might be messy," she spoke hurriedly. "You need to get out now, run as far away as you can. I'm going after it."

[MythicDusk]

Akkia heard the words, heard the horrors that bled from them. They cut into her soul like his fingernails scraping down her arm-

She heaved a breath, blinking to clear the tears from her eyes and she looked to Solomon with fear, with horror and with guilt. "Did I do this?" She whispered. She clenched her hands, lowered her head, willed the tears away. Willed the memories away as they flooded through the gap in her armor, as they swarmed at her blindspot.

She felt her lungs tighten, like she was standing in an oven. Felt her head start to swim. The room changed for a moment, and she blinked her eyes to clear in, backing away quickly. She could hear him upstairs, thundering out of bed. She felt her lower jaw chatter with fear.

She knew what was happening, logically. She knew she was going into a flashback. She knew the sounds and the sights were hallucinations. She knew he wasn't here, that he would never be here. She knew she wasn't in that stiflingly hot house anymore, the doors chained and locked with only one key which she was never permitted to handle.

But even so, she had to stop herself from urging Solomon to leave when her scared, tired eyes finally settled on her.

[Mousen]

Solomon shook her head quickly, pressing a hand to the scratch across her wrist. "Listen to me: demons like this are some of the foulest things that exist. They find a weakness, any moment of pain or trauma and they use it. They push it back against you. None of that, none of it, is your fault."

She took a breath. "But I will hold myself personally accountable if I don't catch that thing and send it back to hell," She turned to look at the two demons beside her. "Nostos, Delos. Let's go."

She strode up the stairs, a slight twitch in her jaw giving away how tense she was, how angry. She pushed open the door to Akkia's daughter's room, her eyes quickly scanning for any sign of the creature.

"Solomon-!"

It was too late, she was flung full-force into the wall. Her two demons spiralled after the shadow as she lay winded a moment.

"Fuck." She touched a newly formed bruise on the back of her head and swore again. "Fucking hell."

Solomon stood, her eyes flashing silver in the dull light from the windows. "Nostos, Delos! Bring him to me. This ends here."

[MythicDusk]

When the fear had faded, all that was left was anger. A hot, burning thing. Deep in the pits of her gut, coiling its way up her chest and throat like a serpet butting its head against the back of her teeth, begging to be let free.

She walked up the stairs, slow and purposeful. Every step was like thunder in her brain. She could feel the hair oh her arms and on the back of her neck prickle, but that just made her innards lash more. It just made her angrier.

She looked at Solomon on the ground, her eyes scanned to the shadow and her lips pulled back further. Her voice rumbled in her throat, like a revving engine preparing to run a man down. "I want to make it fear me."

[Mousen]

"We can try. But be careful! It's quick." Solomon kept glancing around her for any sign of her demons or the one that they were hunting. She heard shuffling, the sound of claws against wood, and some floorboards lifted and fell beneath her. A bit of plaster fell off of the wall. She heard Delos yelp, and she winced.

Nostos came tumbling out of the wall, he was larger and less solid than Delos. He had something in his jaws, shifting and yellow-eyed. It reached a set of claws for Nostos' face and he flinched away. The thing became larger, throwing itself at Solomon who drew a short knife from her pocket, the blade engraved with symbols. It pinned her, and she dug it into it's shoulder. It howled, slashing at her neck. She bucked her hips and rolled, and the claws dug into her shoulder. She swore.

She touched a hand to her shoulder, and began to speak, her voice hurried. Her blood started to fizz with blue sparks.

[MythicDusk]

Akkia moved. Her fury pistoning her forward, her hands grabbing at the blackness and slamming it into the floor. She kept her grip tight, her fingernails digging into whatever it was as she straddled it. She screamed, in fury, in fear, in every emotion that it loved to feed off, she howled into it.

And then she began to strike it. She pulled back one arm, her fist connecting with whatever it was, slamming again and again against the inky darkness under her.

After a moment, she moved her face closer, her teeth bright and sharp. "You will learn to fear me."

[Mousen]

Solomon felt something slam into the creature on top of her. Akkia. She rolled onto her knees and stood up, the head-rush making her dizzy. Ugh. She needed to focus. This fight had been too messy, and she hadn't been good enough. It'd gotten the drop on her, packed more of a punch than she was expecting. She'd been sloppy.

She watched Akkia hit it, again, and again. It wasn't flinching away from her but more regarding her. It had not attacked. It reached towards her, and the force of her blow made it jerk its hand (it's paw?) away from her. It was quicker though and before she did anything it reached for her neck and then jerked away. Solomon's pentacle glinted silver at her neck. The thing snarled.

Solomon went to close the space between her and the creature, to protect Akkia when Akkia dug her nails sharply into its eyes. It started to scream.

Solomon grinned. She picked up where she left off, her words like quicksilver as they danced off her tongue. The creature flailed blindly in Solomon's direction. Apparently, it didn't like her reciting binding rituals in one of the supposed angelic tongues. Who could have guessed?

Her blood crackled. The air seemed to hum. She pressed her bloody hand onto the creature. It swiped for her again.

Delos grabbed a limb. Nostos another.

She spoke, and everything went still. She willed the creature far away, deep and sealed and gone. It pushed back, she could feel it lingering at the corners of her mind. Looking for a weakness, a way in, an old wound to reopen. He hissed through her teeth, and fought back. It found light, the loyalty of the spirits bound to her, and she held the image of Akkia being able to welcome her child home in her mind as she pushed it out.

When Solomon opened her eyes, the demon was gone. Her shoulder was still bleeding, her head throbbing. She  let herself drop to her knees, exhausted.

Nostos reached out to her first. "You okay?"

"It's done. I'll be fine. Just. Give me a sec." First she needed to catch her breath.

[MythicDusk]

Akkia sat on her heels. Her shoulders and chest heaved. She could feel the weight off her, like a millstone having been lifted from her neck. "God." She breathed. Slow and soft, before turning her head to look at Solomon.

She was hurt, but her hands and thumbs felt sticky. She wondered what the feeling of that came from. The memory came like molasses. She beat the thing, of course. She rammed her fingers into its eyes. Slowly, she dragged herself to a stand.

"C'mon, lets get you downstairs. Can't have you bleeding all over Innie's bedroom floor." She held out her hand to Solomon, her shoulders sagging.