My Possession Became a Ghost Story

‘Let’s turn everything upside down!’ Maybe there’s a diary that I couldn’t find yesterday. I have searched Evangeline’s room already, so let’s check the other rooms. Here’s a toilet, and here’s a bathroom, and here’s a drawing room– ah! Here!

The door was difficult to open because it was kind of stiff, but it was a room that looked like a warehouse. Some things were covered with cloth, and diverse goods were placed in wooden boxes rather than paper.  

Wow… How do I get here?

Everything covered in cloth was paintings. I found some paints while searching, it seemed that Evangeline had a hobby of drawing. Seeing that it also has bookshelves, I thought it was a study or a reading room. For some reason, curtains were loosely swaying down. I moved away from the paintings and looked at the books. I couldn’t read the letters, but I wrote the diary myself, so I’m sure it will stand out. And then, bingo! It was a black covered–quite strange, obviously handwritten– book. There were even traces of smeared ink. Looking at the figure written above, I was a hundred percent sure. As I was flipping through the pages, something strange fell off. 

‘What kind of note is it?’ I picked up the paper. 

‘Summoning? A geometric pattern inside a circle. This is 100% summoning! A summoning pattern popped out of this crazy diary!’

Looking at this, it seemed that the place I was possessed was an old-fashioned novel. Novels with contracts and all that isn’t a trend these days.

It didn’t matter. I needed to draw the summoning pattern. Whether a spirit or a dragon appears, I had to draw it. A villainess needs at least one ability to protect herself. Fortunately, there were some paints. I didn’t have a blank canvas or paper, so I decided to draw on the floor. Either way, people usually do all of these drawings on the floor, right?

I decided to use red paint since it was the most abundant one because I was afraid I would run out of paint halfway. The brushes were all hardened and didn’t bend, so I had to use my fingers.

First, draw a large circle, then draw a triangle…a star… full of letters. While I was drawing zealously, my hand was pricked on the wooden floor. Lucky me, there was no splinter, but I bled. Because it hurt so much, I just ended the drawing with a stiff brush. Although she was uncomfortable, she deserved to draw. 

‘I should have done it earlier. If you don’t act smart, your body will be in pain.’

‘It’s done!’

It was a bit dented and weird, but I drew it all! I thought that something would pop out right away like in a novel, but nothing happened.

‘As expected, should I finish the drawing and recite the spell?’ There was a spell written under the fancy summoning circle drawn on the paper, but… 

‘So what?! I can’t read it!’

It would be a waste of a drawing, so I just try to say whatever.

“Mister Spirit King? Mister elemental1? Dragon? Hello…?”

Nothing happened.

“Umm… I want to sign a contract, can anyone come out?”

I begged pitifully. But as expected, it seemed I had to recite the spell too. I would have to learn the letters first and try again. 

Are you saying an illiterate person can even do a summoning ritual? What kind of world is this!!

* * * 

Count Rohanson looked down at the maid in front of him. She wasn’t even a criminal, but Daisy closed her eyes and trembled with her head down. She looked more frightened than she should be, considering that Count Rohanson wasn’t a cold-hearted master. But it was understandable, Daisy had been taking care of Lady Evangeline for the past two days. Whatever it was, its appearance was the same as before, so she must have been seeing parts of the late Young Lady.

Count Rohanson, who was well aware, did not blame the maid. The woman in front, Daisy, regardless of her status, had a close relationship with his dead daughter, that was why she volunteered to help with ‘It.’ Count Rohanson spoke slowly.

“Then, what did ‘It’ do?”

“It asked about Miss Evangeline. How old is she, how her family is. About her favorite foods and the things she did often. And then started acting as if it had become the real Lady. If the lady used to take a walk around eight, ‘It’ said it would do it too. It put on Milady’s clothes and went for a walk…”

The cute face with freckles distorted. The tightly closed eyelashes trembled. Daisy vomited as if confessing in front of a priest.

The roaring-like cry gradually faded away and became sobbing. ‘It was as if ‘It’ wanted to become Lady Evangeline.’ She couldn’t finish because emotions overwhelmed her. Because, for anyone, it wasn’t as painful as it was to the Count, Evangeline’s father.

“‘It’ didn’t seem to care whether the maids who saw it fainted or not.”

What else? Daisy recalled the young lady, Evangeline, watching a restrained maid being taken away. She cried out so desperately for help, but the emotion in the red eyes watching her was clearly disgust. It was the same disdain as if watching a wriggling worm on a side of the road. The Lady Evangeline that Daisy knew wasn’t like that. The weak girl, even though she was ill, could not speak harsh words to others. If ‘It’ wanted to become the lady, it shouldn’t have looked at people with such contempt. ‘Don’t look.’ Daisy lowered her head, afraid of eye contact. 

By the way… That– those eyes were still looking at her…

“Then ‘It’ suddenly said that it wanted to learn the alphabet.”

“Alphabet?”

Daisy nodded and continued,

“‘It’ asked me to buy a book because, since it has memory loss, it said it can’t even remember the alphabet.”

Since Daisy promised to attend ‘It,’ she couldn’t go out to buy the book, thus, she went out for a while to give the job to someone else. In that short moment, ‘It’ disappeared from the room. Daisy searched all over the 4th floor, wanting to know where that thing had run with her Lady’s body. And then she saw the room at the end of the hallway open. It was a room no one couldn’t enter, as per the Young Lady’s orders. A room that was left alone because not even a key was found. It was locked, so Daisy briefly wondered how ‘It’ could open the door. There was a very small gap in the opened door. If she tried to open it a bit more, the door would make a sound. If so, Daisy would face that contemptuous gaze. She held her breath and peered into the room through the crack in the door. ‘It’ was surely holding a book…

“When ‘It’ asked me to go and buy a book, it was a lie to make me leave its side. When I came back, I looked for ‘It’ and saw it reading a book and, and…”

What happened after was still vivid. She wanted to forget about it, but the more she tried, the clearer it became.

“Its fingers were bleeding. I think it painted a pattern on the floor with blood. Just by looking at it, it was a painting that made me feel uncomfortable.”

It was drawing on the floor with its finger, but then a harsh sound was heard. It sounded like fingernails scratching the floor.

“And after finishing the drawing, it mumbled something. What I heard… I’m sure it was ‘contract.’”

She couldn’t hear very well. Daisy placed her ear closer to the door, but, accidentally, she pushed the door slightly. She begged ‘It’ hadn’t noticed. But their eyes met. Terrified, Daisy tightly closed her eyes. And that was all Daisy saw.

“A contract…”

Count Rohanson stroked his chin. A blood-drawn pattern and a contract. No matter how you look at it, it didn’t seem like a very good situation. What kind of sorcery was this? He was already feeling sick because some thing had possessed his daughter’s body, but it didn’t seem like another monster summoned by blood had appeared. Count Rohanson sighed. It was all because his daughter had committed suicide. He couldn’t even organize a funeral in the temple or enshrine her, so a demon possessed her body. The problem was that the demon couldn’t be driven out even with holy water. There was no other option, so they had no choice but to continue monitoring it. He was about to encourage Daisy to work hard and hold it in for a few more days, but looking at the maid, with her eyes still shut, made him curious.

“Say, why have your eyes been closed since earlier?”

“What do you mean? It’s only natural to keep my eyes closed because I’m scared. It keeps looking at me, Count.” Daisy replied as if puzzled. 

‘What do you mean, looking at you?’ The count suddenly turned around.

And his eyes met with lump-like eyes looking straight at him.

1. [Elementals, also called simply spirits, are beings related to nature and the four elements