Sensing its next step, Kian sprinkled monk-blessed water into his palms. The liquid was cold against his skin. He grabbed restraints from his box, chanted the mantra under his breath, and grabbed onto the child within seconds, wrapping them around the kid's wrists and legs, binding him to the bed frame.
Still, it remained silent and wore a scared expression that could trick anyone but Kian.
"Why did you do that? He is just a kid." Xal's voice cut through the heavy air, subtle disbelief evident and falling to its terrified act. Kian didn't look away from the child, as he is so used to the 'innocent tactic'.
"Because the next thing you know would be that kid's hands around your neck, choking, trying to possess you. Now that it failed, it will say that I'm the bad guy." He smirked as he saw the child's expression waver.
"I have to warn you. This spirit is stronger than what his parents let me on to. And quite old because it was stupid enough to underestimate me. So, no matter what you hear, what you see, do NOT try to stop me."
He approached the bed slowly. The kid's eyes finally followed him, black as oil slicks. But Xal couldn't see.
"Time to leave that body. Either you get out willingly, or I get you out and expel you to Vuidexo." The word that would leave the older spirits like these shaken to the core. It was the dimension where violent spirits were banished that got scattered in that dark, empty space.
One would refer to Vuidexo as hell, as the consciousness is attached while the soul is scattered and would relive the worst moments of its lifetime till the bad karma is spent.
The kid's face shifted. Morphed into something pleading and weak.
"Uncle, please help me." The voice cracked, small and afraid. The boy's eyes locked onto Xal again, not Kian. "This uncle is crazy. He came here earlier, too, kept telling me there's something inside of me, and he hurt me."
Xal's expression flickered. Doubt creeping in.
Kian saw the thread pulse weakly, dimming further. His chest tightened. This was what he wanted Xal to doubt him, to leave, to be safe. But right now, in this moment, it was becoming a distraction he didn't consider to affect him.
The timing couldn't be worse.
Can't help it. The hard way it is, then.
"I've never been here before," Kian said quietly, more to himself than Xal. "It's lying."
He placed his right palm over the kid's chest. Began chanting.
The words came from deep in his throat, syllables that always felt out of place, heavy and strong. They pulled energy from the air around him, from the earth beneath the house, from the thin spaces between dimensions. It was like trying to fill a lake with a teaspoon.
Slow and insufficient.
He focused on the energy, driving it to grab hold of the rogue spirit wrapped around the child's soul, and started pulling it out. The kid started screaming.
Not the high-pitched cry of a child, but with another inhumane undertone, and Kian hoped Xal could hear the same. The body convulsed, back arching off the bed at an impossible angle.
The sound of the bones grating against each other at the pressure sent chills down his spine, and the sight of joints bending wrong wasn't something that Kian could ever get used to.
"Stop…stop… it hurts…Uncle pleeeease save meeee…."
The words scraped out of the kid's throat like broken glass. Blood vessels appeared in his eyes, leaving them red-rimmed and wild.
He gritted his teeth, forced more energy through the connection. His arm trembled. Sweat dripped down his temple. The spirit wasn't budging; it had dug its essence deep into the child's soul, wrapped around like an octopus.
Behind him, he heard Xal shift. The corner of his eye, he could see him raising his hands, maybe to cover his ears, maybe to reach out.
"Kian. I think it's too much for the-"
"Shut up and GET BACK!"
The words came out harsher than he meant, but he couldn't afford to give a break. Couldn't afford a distraction. He twisted his palm and pulled out one more time, and this time, the rogue lost the grip it held around the child's soul.
The kid's scream split into two distinct sounds.
Using the weakness, he pulled the rogue spirit out, ignoring the muscles that screamed in protest.
"Come ON…"
With a final, guttural shriek that rattled the windows, the kid's back arched one last time, then went limp.
For Xal, Kian stood there, arms folded towards his chest, palms cupped as though holding an invisible ball.
But the spirit writhed between his palms; he could feel it twisting, trying to escape, trying to dive back into the kid or leap toward Xal or even force its way into Kian himself.
His palms shook violently, and the veins in his arms bulged. He chanted, opening a small rift to Vuidexo, and compressed his hands with effort to force it in.
In the next second, his palms clasped together with a sharp clap. The spirit's presence snapped, its essence scattered to Vuidexo in fragments.
He let his arms drop, shoulders sagging in relief, and stood there for a moment to gather himself, swaying slightly, vision swimming. Drew in a slow, long breath to steady his core energy, and man, was he glad at the crisis he managed to avert.
The cold sweat clung to his forehead and neck, uncomfortably. He dabbed his clothed palm over the sweat. Chanted the release mantra and quickly untied the ropes that had dug angrily into the child's soft skin and coiled them back into neat loops.
Forcefully keeping himself from explaining anything to Xal, who was clearly disturbed, worried, and glancing between him and the child, he removed the talismans from the walls and placed the handmade protective amulet around his neck.
Then, he wiped the sweat from the unconscious child's forehead. Gently parting the hair plastered to his skin, he pulled the blanket up to his chin.
Holding onto the weight of unsaid words, he turned and walked out without a word.