“It’s in your older brother now!” Mom screams, her limbs shaking. I back away from them, resisting the urge to let out a scream of my own. I could hear my brother banging at his door, each thud seeming to make a larger crack in the wood.

“We got to go NOW!” My little brother yanks at my mother, who is stubbornly refusing to exit our flat. “There’s nothing we can do except ensure that we save ourselves.” Tears shed down his cheeks as he gives one final pull at Mom. “Our brother is gone now.”

We lock our apartment door shut, to give us a bit of a head start. His room’s door is nearly broken off his hinges. We have ten minutes- fifteen minutes tops.

Luckily the elevator was already at our floor, otherwise we would have had to race down the stairs. We do not have the luxury of waiting for the lift to reach the third floor. Knowing our luck, it would stop at nearly every floor, and he’d be waiting at the bottom.

While we descend to the ground floor, my Mom lets out loud wracking sobs. I know she would give anything to be in his place, but that’s not how this game works, doesn’t it? My heart thuds loudly. I squeeze the palm of my little brother, and he tries to give a reassuring squeeze of his own.

I love my family. If I could put an end to this, even at the cost of my life- I would do it in a heartbeat. But this demon enjoyed toying with us, making sure we all had a share of its possession.

It was nothing suspicious at first. Sometimes one of us would zone out, and there would be a flicker of red or green in our eyes. We would brush it off, thinking it was a reflection of a light behind us.

Then things started to get weirder.

My mother would tilt her head to the side, not breaking eye contact with us for even more than sixty seconds. When I walk over and shake her, she has no recollection of doing it. Then my little brother would be in the kitchen, making a sandwich-

And a second later, he was right in front of my bed, holding a knife in his fist.

I would sleep in one room, and wake up in another. Apparently I had sleepwalked. Seems kind of normal, right?

Wrong. Apparently I had crawled, with my limbs at all jerky angles. I had hissed and scratched my mother, and my brothers, and then tucked myself back into bed like nothing had happened.

We knew the next time, it was going to be much more severe.

The elevator dings, indicating that we have reached the ground floor. We tumble out, and race towards the gate.

Our apartment was the first one in the lane, exiting out to the main road. This was the route we normally used, because the opposite side led up to only more apartments and a small ATM. The main road is where we normally go, considering all the stores are found on that side.

My brother grabs our arms. “Wait,” he says quietly. “That way is where he’d think we’d take, right?” Getting what he meant, I nod quickly, and race in the opposite direction.

An auto passes by us. I scream at him, and flag him down like our life depends on it, which technically is true. We beg him to drop us at the opposite end of our lane. The auto man looks at us, pissed. “I ain’t dropping you just two hundred meters away! What will you do, pay me ten rupees?” He glares at us, making a move to drive away.

His glare turns to confusion as I slap a hundred rupee note into his outstretched palm. “Take us to the end of this lane,” I repeat, trying not to let the panic show in my tone. He stares at the note again, but shrugs and opens the door.

We leap in, and nag at him to start quickly. By now, he must’ve broken down the main door. We seem to have better strength than normal, while it is inside us.

The handbrake takes one, two- three tries to get the vehicle moving. By then, the three of us are on the verge of a mental breakdown. We finally zoom over to the opposite side of our lane, away from the main road.

Away from where he’d assume we’d escape to.

We jump out, and after giving us one final funny look, the auto guy drives away.

We hid behind the last house, so that we could still have a distant view of the entrance of our gate.

Just seconds later, we see my brother stroll out of the gate, his pale blue and pink shirt reflecting against the streetlight opposite our building. He turns his head eerily to the left, then right towards our direction. We wait with bated breath, but then he turns back to the left, and starts walking towards the main road, his steps robotic and creepy.

We let out three identical sighs of relief, and walked out of our lane, passing by the ATM. We can get out of the lane and zigzag through the other smaller lanes. Then we’d get to another main road, which is less used. He wouldn’t be able to find us there.

I don’t have a solid plan yet, but we will work something out.

The three of us make a right turn, and freeze.

Pitch black eyes, with flecks of red greet us, his head cocked to the left.