Grace rubbed her eyes and whimpered. Her head pounded in a rhythm of a hundred drums. A beep interrupted Grace’s pity party. With a sniffle, she looked up from her bed. With a groan, Grace reached over to her nightstand and slid her phone toward her body. It was a text message from Paul. Eyes becoming blurry with tears of frustration, Grace danced her fingers across the tiny keys: “I'm coming over”.

“Oh, you’re going somewhere?” A sleek, seductive voice called from the corner of Grace’s dimly lit room. The setting sun had cast shadow after shadow across her floor. Out of the corner, stalked a long bodied girl, with dark clothing and dark hair. Her lips were coated in thick black lipstick, which she licked when she started toward Grace. “Leaving so soon, huh Gracie?”

“Yeah, a...away from y...you Saundra.” Grace stammered over her words, faltering on Saundra’s name as it had left a bad taste in her mouth. Grace was shoving things into her bookbag, cramming some clothes, her phone charger, and a few CD’s into the small thing. The zipper was about to burst. “Can’t you j...just leave me a...a...alone?”

“That wouldn’t be much fun, would it?” Saundra got closer to Grace, tendrils of blackness following her, carrying her closer to Grace.

“I think you should leave her alone, Saundra.” A strong male voice bounced from the other corner of the room, making the now dark room shine with light.

Grace smirked at the look of disgust on Saundra’s face. She turned her attention away from Saundra, and towards the shining voice. “Thank you, Jefrey.”

“No thanks needed. I hate her as much as you. So go. I’ll handle her.” Jefrey cracked his knuckles and moved to Saundra.
Grace didn’t know what else happened because she was already out her window, and scaling down the lattice on the side of her house. Her feet hit mud with a squishy sound, which she dismissed and quietly shuffled behind a tree, away from the lights of her parents’ living room.
Grace moved with the night; she stayed out of streetlights and kept right, moving quietly behind trees. To Grace, it seemed darker, a lot cooler than it had been before. She pulled out her phone and checked the time: 11:57. Grace stared at the glowing screen, furrowed her eyebrows and pursed her lips. “Wasn’t it just sunset?” she said quietly to herself. Not expecting an answer, she shoved her phone away.

“Yeah it was just sunset, stupid.” The same sleek voice was carried across Grace’s ears. Grace whipped around quickly and stopped, searching for Saundra.

Saundra was there, in the shadows, but she looked… different. She was darker, a lot more demonic than Grace had ever seen her. Jefrey was nowhere in sight. Panic started to fill Grace’s mind, and her heart fluttered with fear.

Grace was staring into Saundra's eyes, when she noticed something unsettling. There was a faint yellow glow in Saundra’s bottomless pit eyes. The same faint yellow glow that had once captivated the presence of Jefrey. The glow hit Grace where it hurt most: the head.

A sharp pain shot through the center of Grace’s forehead and her eyes started to roll back. She realized that the pain was from Saundra, and that Saundra was pushing her finger into the middle of Grace’s head. With a “No!” Grace frantically tried to shove Saundra off. It was too bad that Saundra was draining Grace’s energy.
The pain in Grace’s head ceased, but it had left her with a pounding headache that caused her nose to bleed. She lifted her head and blinked a few times to clear her vision, as she stared up at Saundra, who was staring down at Grace, beaming a 100 watt smile that was full of evil.

Grace’s pants were soaking up the wetness off the sidewalk from the rain that had fallen the night before. Her hands were pressed against her forehead, as her body mind shook with exhaustion. Saundra grabbed the hood of Grace’s jacket and hauled Grace to her feet. Woozy and unbalanced, Grace swayed.

Now they were face to face. Saundra had Grace by the hood, and Grace was almost lifeless. “I’m strong enough,” Saundra began “that I could live without you, be my own person. I could, and probably will, kill you, get away with it, and live my own life instead of being stuck in your overemotional, overthinking, psychotic mind.”

Grace couldn’t say anything; her mouth hung there, catching the blood dripping from her nose. Grace was Saundra’s host, and Saundra was her parasite. The panic that had been in Grace’s mind was now covered with pain. This was the same pain she saw in Saundra’s eyes. Since, Grace thought, since she is mine, my creation, couldn’t I use my feelings to hurl them at her?

Grace mustered up the strongest emotion she carried: fear. Grace forced herself to remember her first encounter with Saundra when she had been younger, and what Saundra had done to her the first night. How she had teased her and cut her hair off, and Grace was the one who had gotten into trouble of because it. She reflected on times when Saundra had come after her in attempts to harm her, to get a little fright out of her. Grace took all of that fear and threw it at Saundra.
The creation of years of madness and hatred let go of Grace’s hood and staggered backwards. “No, no, no, no, no.” Was the only sound escaping Saundra’s lips. Saundra fell flat on her back and started kicking. The only visible thing was her pale face and huge black eyes that screamed bloody murder.

Grace watched Saundra closer, and noticed that she was starting to get away. A sliver of panic crept into Grace’s mind, but Grace replaced it with fear once again. Grace noticed that Saundra was not going away, but disappearing into the night, and back into her mind.

Grace didn’t continue to Paul’s, but instead walked home, thrilled to tell her parents that she was better. That Saundra was gone.
The sun had just begun to rise as Grace’s feet met her front walkway. As Grace flung open the door, she could only faintly remember what followed. Her parents were there, scorned looks on their faces. Her therapist was also there, along with two male nurses, holding syringes. They were all staring at her, as she was covered in her own blood. After realizing what was going to happen to her, the fear grew like bacteria, and Grace fainted.