When I woke up this morning, I found myself laying on the attic floor, among all the old furniture and clothing that had been forgotten about months ago. My neck hurt from being propped up against an old desk and my throat felt dry like the inside had been scrubbed with sandpaper.

Once I sat up and stretched, the confusion set in. Why was I in the attic?

I had no memory of coming up here, and I clearly remembered having fallen asleep in my own bed the night before.

I stood up and saw that I wasn’t alone; my sisters were just waking up as well.

“What the hell?” Ingrid asked.

She was the middle child, and frequently the most annoying. She lay on the floor in the middle of the attic and rubbed her eyes. She was missing a sock. I glanced over at our older sister Tessa, who was still sleeping.

She lay on her side with her arm bent under her head. She looked comfortable, despite the fact that she was laying on an old rolled-up rug.

“Jo? What are you doing here?” Ingrid asked me.

I walked over and sat on the floor next to her. “I don’t know,” I replied.

Ingrid sat up and looked around the room, spotting Tessa.

“What’s going on?” She asked.

I shrugged and watched her as she stood up and walked over to the attic door, which had been closed. She pounded on the door and then grabbed hold of the ladder and shook it, causing the entire door to rattle.

“Mom!” She shouted.

She continued to shake the ladder aggressively as she shouted.

“Mom! We’re stuck!”

“What’s going on, why are you being so loud?”

I looked over to see Tessa waking up. She yawned as she pushed herself up into a seated position and looked around the room. Once she realized where we were, she stood up and walked over to us.

“Why are we in the attic?” Tessa asked me.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“Mom! MOM!” Ingrid shouted.

“I’m here.”

We froze and Ingrid let go of the ladder, sighing in relief at the sound of our mother’s voice.

“We’re stuck. I don’t know how we got up here. Can you open the door, please? I really have to pee,” Ingrid said.

There was silence for a few seconds while we waited for the door to open. But it never did.

“I can’t,” my mother said. “I can’t let you out.”

We looked at each other.

“What do you mean? Is everything okay?” Tessa asked, scooting closer to the door.

“No, everything is not okay,” our mother replied.

Her voice sounded sad, and it caught my attention as I began to wonder what was going on.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked.

“I am,” she replied. “But you girls aren’t.”

I looked over at Tessa, who looked confused as she turned and mouthed something to Ingrid.

“What do you mean? What’s going on? Just tell us!” Ingrid snapped.

“You’re going to kill me!” My mother cried. “One of you is going to kill me!”

“What are you talking about mom? We don’t want to kill you!” I replied.

“Maybe not you, but it does.”

Ingrid froze for a second and turned to look from me to Tessa. “What do you mean ‘it’?”

“The evil thing! The evil thing that possessed one of you! I know that it did, I know it’s waiting for me to let my guard down so it can take control and kill me. I can’t let you out! I won’t do it until you can prove to me that it’s gone.” My mother cried.

I could hear her hyperventilating. She sounded scared, terrified.

“Mom we’re not possessed. You just need to open the door okay? Just open the door please…” Ingrid pleaded, trying to reason with her.

“No. I’ll let you out when you’ve gotten rid of it.” My mother replied in a firm voice.

I could hear her footsteps retreating to a different area of the house, headed towards the front door. I walked over to the side of the attic and peered through the small opening in the wall. I watched as my mother hurried down the driveway and got in her car, driving off.

“FUCK!” Ingrid screamed, kicking a box of sweaters.

I looked back to see her wipe away her tears in frustration as she paced around the attic.

“Ingrid, it’s going to be okay. She can’t leave us up here all day. She’s going to come back and when she does we’ll make something up. We’ll tell her that we got rid of that thing she’s so afraid of, and then she’ll let us out,” Tessa said, trying to calm her down.

We sat in silence for a while, waiting for our mother to come back. It was hard to tell how much time had passed. None of us had our phones, and it’s not like we kept a clock in the attic.

Tessa stood up after a while and walked over to the pile of boxes in the corner. I watched as she opened one and rummaged through it.

“Do you guys wanna play Monopoly?” She asked, pulling the game out of the box.

“There’s a bunch of pieces missing,” Ingrid replied.

“So?” Tessa asked. “Come on, it’ll help pass the time.”

I nodded as I moved over and sat on the floor. Tessa followed, opening the box and unfolding the board. I waited for her to set it up and after a while, Ingrid crawled over to us.

We spent the next few minutes playing Monopoly. Tessa was right, it did help to pass the time, even if Ingrid kept complaining every five minutes about having to pee.

“Just pee in that vase over there,” I suggested, pointing to an old ceramic vase that lay on the ground near the boxes.

“Ewwww,” Ingrid said. “I’m not going to pee in a vase Jo, that’s disgusting.”

I shrugged. “Fine, but stop complaining then.”

Ingrid stared at the vase for a few seconds. “Fine. But don’t look!” She snapped.

Tessa and I turned around so our backs were to her. I could tell that Tessa was getting anxious. She didn’t like being stuck indoors for long periods of time because it made her anxiety act up. I watched as she folded her fingers over her palm and then used her thumb to crack her knuckles.

Once she was done with her pinky, she started up again, pressing down on her index finger even though it didn’t pop a second time. I could hear her taking deep breaths to try to calm herself down, but I knew that it wasn’t working. We had been up here for too long.

“Okay, I’m done. Ew,” Ingrid said. “Don’t come over here.”

I turned around as she came over to sit by us.

“Do you think mom will be back soon?” She asked.

I shrugged and looked over at Tessa. Her eyes were closed and she was whispering to herself. I knew she was trying to recite bible verses from memory. She once told me that she found the bible to be an incredibly boring read, and had realized that it took a lot of concentration for her to both read it and remember passages from it. Apparently, concentrating that hard on something helped to calm her anxiety.

Ingrid glanced at Tessa too and then bit her lip. I could tell she was starting to get antsy as well, which meant that it wasn’t long until she started to get mean.

We sat in silence and I listened to the silence of the house. After a while, I got up to look out into the driveway again, but the car was still missing. I was starting to get very hungry, and the dryness in my throat had turned to pain.

“Can you shut the fuck up?” Ingrid snapped.

I glanced back to see her glaring at Tessa.

“Ingrid relax, she’s just anxious,” I said.

“Yeah well, she’s making me anxious will all her mumbling. She’s freaking me out.”

I watched Tessa roll her eyes as she wiped a tear from her face and continued whispering to herself.

“Shut up Tessa! I swear to God you’re so annoying! Can you just be quiet?!” Ingrid shouted.

“Stop yelling at me!” Tessa shouted. Her voice cracked as she started crying harder, gasping for air.

Ingrid stood up and walked to the other side of the attic. I walked over to Tessa and held her hand as I tried to calm her down.

“It’s okay, just breathe. It’s going to be fine.”

Tessa yanked her hands away from me and stood up. “No, it’s not! You don’t know that. We’re stuck up here and no one knows where we are and mom is gone! I want to get out!”

She walked over to the attic door and started shaking the ladder and she sobbed.

“I need to get out of here. LET ME OUT!! SOMEBODY LET ME OUT!” She shouted at the top of her lungs.

I got up slowly but Ingrid rushed over and tackled Tessa to the ground. I watched as they wrestled around a bit until Ingrid managed to pin her down. Tessa kept crying and yelling at Ingrid to let her go.

After a while, Tessa stopped struggling for a second, and Ingrid got off of her. Tessa leaned over to the side and vomited as she continued to cry. Ingrid grabbed her under the arms and dragged her across the attic.

“Ingrid what are you doing? Just leave her alone you’re making it worse,” I snapped.

She ignored me and dragged her over to an old chair, sitting her on it. Tessa had stopped sobbing and was just taking deep breaths now and occasionally sniffling. I thought it was over, but then Ingrid came back with some rope and masking tape and began tying Tessa down to the chair.

“Ingrid stop, I’m fine now I just had a panic attack,” Tessa whimpered.

Ingrid kept wrapping the tape around Tessa’s wrists and then her ankles as Tessa began to struggle.

“Ingrid stop, that’s mean. You’re just going to make it worse,” I said, walking over to stop her.

“Fuck off Jo,” she snapped, turning around and pointing a pocket knife at me.

I froze. “Where the fuck did you get that?”

“I found it while I peeing,” She replied as she kept tying Tessa down.

Tessa started to freak out again upon seeing the knife. She wiggled around in the chair, trying to get out but Ingrid had made sure she was secured.

Once she was done, Ingrid stood up and walked over to me. I took a few steps back.

“I figured out a way to get rid of it,” she said.

“What?” I asked.

“The thing that mom was afraid of. I know how to get rid of it.”

She smiled and I watched as she walked over to Tessa and kneeled in front of her.

“What are you doing?” Tessa asked through tears.

Ingrid lifted her hand and plunged the knife into Tessa’s side.

“Ow! What the fuck Ingrid?! That fucking hurts what is wrong with you!?” Tessa screamed.

Ingrid stood up and I watched Tessa cry and scream out in pain.

“You stabbed me you fucking bitch!”

Ingrid wiped the blade on her shirt. “There. Now if the spirit or whatever was inside of her, it’ll be gone.”

“What is wrong with you?” I asked her.

She ignored me and I walked over to Tessa who was once again struggling to get out of the chair. She rocked the chair back and forth as she cried.

I looked back at Ingrid, making sure she wasn’t to go for me next. She stood still, the knife down at her side, as she stared at us.

I looked back at Tessa just as she managed to tip the chair over on its side. She yelped as she started to go down and I tried to reach out to stop the chair from falling but I was too slow. The next thing I knew, the chair had tipped over all the way and Tessa had fallen to the floor along with it, but not before hitting her head against the old desk. The loud thud filled the attic and Tessa lay still on the floor, blood oozing from underneath her head.

“Oh my God…” I gasped.

Ingrid didn’t react. We stood in silence for a few seconds. I turned around, not wanting to see Tessa’s face.

“This is your fault,” I hissed.

Ingrid stared at me but still said nothing.

I walked over and sat in the corner away from her. It was silent for a while, still no sign of our mother.

After a while, Ingrid spoke. “We should make sure that we’re clear too.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked.

“If the spirit was inside of Tessa, it’s out now but it’s probably inside one of us.”

I backed away from her. “You’re fucking crazy. You’re losing it, Ingrid. Spirits aren’t real.”

Ingrid moved towards me. “Yes, they are. That’s why mom was so freaked. Don’t you see? There is something evil here.”

“No,” I shook my head. “Mom needs help. And so do you. So did Tessa…”

“It’s the only way, Jo. We have to do it. I’ll even go first.”

I watched as she took a deep breath and plunged the knife down into her thigh, grunting in pain as she lifted it back out. She whimpered for a few seconds, crying as the blood rushed over her leg.

“Fuck! That hurt, oh my God,” she panted.

She wiped her blood off of the knife and then slid it over to me. I stared at it.

“If you won’t do it, I will.” She said.

We lunged for the knife at the same time but she grabbed onto it first, throwing herself at me. I tried to push her off by kicking her away but she pushed herself up and dodged my kicks. I tried to get away but she managed to crawl on top of me and stab me in the arm.

I shoved her off as I screamed in pain. I knew that getting stabbed would hurt, but I never imagined just how much it would. I pulled the knife out of my arm and threw up as the pain set it.

As I sat there, vomiting from the pain, Ingrid approached me and started to tie a piece of fabric around my wound.

I must have passed out at some point because the next thing I remember was waking up in the attic again. The sun had started to set, and my stomach wouldn’t stop growling in hunger. My throat was hoarse and it hurt to swallow.

As I got up, I could feel the pain in my arm and I looked around the room. Ingrid was watching me as she sat propped up against the wall. There was a piece of bloody cloth wrapped around her leg.

“I need to check your wound,” she said.

I said nothing as she dragged herself over to me. I let her pull the cloth away from my arm and look at the stab wound.

Next, she began to unwrap her leg. I watched as she removed her makeshift bandage.

Her leg was fine.

It was completely fine. There was no sign that she had ever stabbed herself.

“What?” She gasped.

I backed away from her.

“What happened to your stab wound, Ingrid?” I asked.

She shook her head as she scooted away from me. “I don’t know, I-”

She trailed off, looking for something. She had started crying.

“It’s inside me. Oh my God, it’s inside me!”

I didn’t know how to react so I sat there and I watched as she found what she had been looking for; the knife.

“I have to get it out, I have to get it OUT!” She shouted.

She lifted the knife and I watched, unable to look away, as she stabbed herself in the face over and over as she repeated the same words.

“Get out! Get out! Get out!”

I moved away from her, hiding behind an old table as she continued to stab herself and apologize, although I didn’t know who she was apologizing to.

I covered my ears and closed my eyes for a while, not wanting to hear Ingrid’s cries.

After a while, it was silent.

For a third time, I woke up in the attic. It was dark now, and I could barely see anything. There was some light coming in from the streetlights and the moon outside, but it was not enough to see clearly.

As I sat up I heard whispering and I peered out from behind the table. I saw Ingrid and Tessa sitting a few feet away, whispering to one another with their backs toward me. For a second, I thought that everything that had happened in the past four hours had been a dream, but then they turned around.

Ingrid’s face was disfigured from all the stab marks, and Tessa’s hair was caked in blood.

“How are you alive?” I asked.

“We aren’t alive. We’re dead, Jo. And we want you to join us.” Tessa replied.

Ingrid nodded.

“It’s fun this way. This is what mom wanted, don’t you see?” Ingrid slurs.

“You’re fucking crazy.”

“Come on Jo, we could help you die if you want,” Tessa offered.

I ran towards the attic door, rattling it and jumping up and down, trying to get it to open but it wouldn’t budge.

“HELP!” I shouted.

But there was no one around to hear me.

Ingrid and Tessa got up suddenly, and they threw themselves at me, tackling me down. I fell, landing on one of the steps on the ladder which sent a piercing pain through my ribs.

We all fell then, and suddenly, I was falling again. This time, I fell all the way down into the hallway. Our weight had somehow caused the attic door to loosen and the ladder had unfolded, causing us to tumble down into the house.

I groaned as I got up. Ingrid and Tessa lay unmoving.

I stood up and wandered around the house. I headed towards my room and grabbed my phone from under my pillow and then headed back down the hall. As I passed by my mother’s room, something caught my eye. I pushed the door all the way open and came face to face with my mother’s body. She lay face up in bed in her pajamas. On the floor next to her was an empty bottle of pills. Her head was tilted, facing the door and her eyes were wide open.

I stared for a second. She had to have been dead since last night. But then, who had we been talking to earlier? And why did it sound like our mother? Why did it look like her when I watched her leave?

I ran back out of the room, noticing that Tessa and Ingrid were now gone. I ran out of the house, and down the street.

“Jo….?” I heard Ingrid call.

I jumped over someone’s fence and kept going, hiding behind trees and fences.

“Jo…where are you?” Tessa sang out into the night.

I could hear them approaching and I crouched down behind a children’s playground slide in one of the backyards.

“Mr. Riley, have you seen Jo?” I heard Ingrid ask.

As I glanced around the yard, I realized that I was in the Riley’s yard now, and I wondered what they were doing up so late.

“No, is she the only one left?” He asked.

I held my breath.

“Yeah, she’s the only one,” Tessa replied.

“We’ll keep an eye out for her,” He reassured them.

“Good. She doesn’t seem to want to join us. We just want to help her out,” Ingrid replied.

I waited for them to leave before I kept running. It seems like everyone in our neighborhood is looking for me. I managed to make it to my friend Molly’s house. Her basement door was unlocked and I snuck in here. I haven’t moved in a while, because I’m not sure how many people are in on this now.

Molly lives about five minutes away, so I thought I would be safe here. About two minutes ago, however, I heard her and her family talking about me. Her dad said they got a call from my sisters, and that they need to find me and get me to join them.

Molly keeps calling me every few minutes, and I don’t know how much longer I can hide out down here.