What am I going to do?! I stand stiffer than being sealed in concrete. I need to do something before the creature attacks my mom.

I need to contact dad, I thought.

I turn back around, in order to get my phone from my nightstand. A cold blast of wind brushes past me and a white fog appears out of thin air. It swirls and Terri appears right in front of me, blocking me.

"Contacting your father will result in both of your parents' demise," Terri comments as if he read my thoughts.

"My mom needs help," I yell at him.

"I know, but you're not gonna lead to a positive outcome."

"What am I supposed to do?" I desperately ask him.

He stares at me sharply without saying a word.

"Screw this," I said before rushing out of my room. I look at the creature again.

"Let my mother go!" I beg furiously. The creature quickly snaps his head around followed by an inhuman snarl, "You know that you are a terrible person for torturing someone that actually cares about yo-"

A brute force slams my left side. I fly sideways. I roll down the stairs. My ribs snap and I cry in pain. I can hear my mother screaming out my name. I get back up, knowing that there's not much time.

Terri appears behind me on the stairs and covers my eyes with his hands. A vision takes over my sight. I see a little girl trying to run away from Markus in a basement. The house was set ablaze by wild flames. A bookshelf was burning on the ground. The little girl had wavy strawberry brunette hair and hazel eyes. She looked very young, between four to seven years old. She was in flower pyjamas. She looked familiar too.

"The little girl is your mother," great grandpa's voice booms inside my mind.

Mom was cowering away in the corner with a pipeline sticking out. Markus dashed to her within a millisecond. My mom raised her right hand to prevent him from slashing her head. Markus's claws struck and opened a pipeline, spewing dirty water on his arm and his half-sister. His arm was no longer on fire. The vision ended.

"Water burns his fire out temporarily," Terri states.

"What are we gonna do? My mom would already be dead by the time I fill a cup of water."

I hear my mother shrieking in agony from upstairs.

"Mother!" I cry out of worry.

Terri glares at me and shakes his head, telling me not to listen. He mouths the words, "Get a knife. I will put his fire out."

I immediately obey. I can hear disturbing cracking sounds and mom's screams of pain, which makes me more frightened. I head into the kitchen and pull out the largest knife I can find.

"I will conceal your presence right as you sneak up," Terri whispers to me while invisible.

I silently sprint up the stairs. The closer I got to the second floor, the more I went into a stealthier pace. My courage diminishes as I draw closer. Mom is levitating up in the air. Her legs and arms distort in impossible ways. Fire is swirling all around her, which is closing in on her with every dreadful second. He seems to love taking his sweet time by enjoying every time my mom screams.

"M-Markus p-please," mother quivers. Sweat from the heat and anxiety drenches all over her face and body. If he touches her, it will put his fire out.

I remain frozen. Shall I go through with this? Markus responds by contorting more of her limbs very fast. I hear the loud snapping of bones in the process. My mom screams out louder than before. The same shrieks when someone's limb gets sawed off without anaesthesia. Her limbs loosely hang there, out of her control. The fire around her intensifies and I hear the roars of the flame that sounds like a jet.

Suddenly, a white fog appears on the ceiling. Large amounts of water appear out of thin air and drop down onto Markus. He lets out a mutant roar as his fire goes out. He drops mom back onto the ground. Water keeps coming down like a downpour. Pools of water start to form on the floor.

"Naomi, now!" I hear Terri's command.

I snap out of my frozen state. I clutch the knife tighter than ever as I charge towards my demonic uncle. I plunge the knife straight into his back, forcing it to go deeper into him. A sound of rocks breaking as I stab him.

Markus beastily screams as he thrashes around. I wrap my arms around him as a spontaneous reaction and try to keep the knife in him. I pull out the knife and jab it into the back of his neck. The rain never stops pouring. Mom and I are soaking wet. I gaze into my mom's eyes while I clutch onto Markus. She looks broken, in pain, and concerned. She is worried that I put my life in danger.

A groan comes from Markus and I can feel him starting to warm up. His groan turns into a growl. Once his growl turns very dark and monstrous, I let go of him, leaving the knife inside his neck. His dark growls turn into terrifying roars. He turns around and faces me. His eyes are a deep red. Markus shows his very sharp fangs that can rip throats out. Fear enters my body once again.

An invisible force of a freight train slams against my body, causing me to lunge back. I hear my mom scream my name. I fly backwards faster and faster as the force keeps pushing me. I feel myself impact the wall so hard that I blast into the outside world. The pain seethes while I am unable to move. I plummet to the ground as the upper side of the house crashes down with me.

I don't feel anything anymore. My world goes silent and black.

My eyes flail open and I shoot up. I look around and see I am in the library again. I still see Terri standing in front of me with a calm look on his face. I study more of my surroundings. I am on the library's floor. The pain that I felt before ceases to exist. I realise that this wasn't another of Terri's visions. I am in the library itself! But how did I get here?

"Congratulations, you made it to the library, Naomi," he proudly says to me, almost grinning.

"How did I get here?" I confusedly ask.

"Markus blasted you right onto a portal, killing you. You're no longer in the physical plane, Naomi. You're in a spiritual plane." His smirk makes me grow suspicious of him. He better not say congratulations.

I am baffled and still disorientated by what I've heard. I quickly got up. I lift up my arm and I see a slight purple glow around my hand. I feel weightless as a snowflake.

"What happened to me?" I ask Terri.

He lifts his hand as black fog swirls into a small crystal ball. A vision appears. Doctors and nurses are performing CPR on my body during an emergency surgery. There is a tube down my throat. I see a monitor alerting them that I had no pulse. My eyes become stapled wide as the realisation hits me.

I am dead!

The vision stops and the black fog vanishes. "You're dead, but not for long," he says to me, "Find a ritual that'll transform you." His voice went from calm to a hasty manner.

I look around the library. Where do I start? What should I get? It's going to take a while for me to read everything out. Will I find what Terri wants me to do myself? I don't know what to do. Too much is all happening at once!

Five books start to move from their shelves and they slowly fly down towards me. I wince at Terri and see his eyes are rolled back into his head again. I look back at the books and focus on their appearance. All of them have a thick covering. One of them appears to be what Markus was reading out of. Their auras give off a mixture of vibes: Strength, fierce, dark, light, chaotic, and fearsome. Quite a few should not be trusted. They feel overwhelming enough that I am reluctant to open them.

The white fog swirls next to the books. It manifests into a notebook and a pen. I look at Terri and say, "My time likes to type, not write."

Terri stressfully groans. He raises his hand up and I see the writing materials turn back into fog again. It quickly turns into a tablet with a full touch-screen.

"Thanks," I said to Terri without looking at him. I look at the book that my uncle used to transform him. Maybe I can find a ritual that will transform me too?

Page after page, hours beyond minutes, and exhaustion beyond determination, I didn't find what I wanted. There were many transformation rituals in there, but none of them caught my eye. At this point, I did more reading than I did during my final year thus far. One of the rituals that involve transformation ritual was The Dark Angel. It had seven parts! I got a feeling that Uncle Markus had done that ritual, which turned him into a dark angel. I feel he was blinded by emotions to feel the vibes of the ritual itself. It felt very dark and sickening to read it.

I sigh heavily. From the corner of my eye, my great-grandpa appears again and he is approaching me.

"You're running out of time," he notifies me. His impatience is cracking me down like a boar again.

I tiredly say, "I am trying."

"Not," he replies sternly, "Earth's time goes by much faster than here. It will only be a matter of time before you are sucked into the mortal world."

"You placed five books in front of me!" I argue, "I couldn't find anything I desire."

"It doesn't matter what you want; it's about being able to bring down your uncle!" He fires back.

"The rituals that I found in this book will make me lose my humanity!" I said while holding the book.

"These books were not written by humans," he informs me with a frustrated tone, "Humanity is a price to pay."

How can he say so mildly too?!

"The reason why you have your humanity was that you blew up when you opened up a damn book!" My fists clench with anger. "You know, it's your fault that Markus turned into an out-of-control son of a bitch!"

He erupts, "I know that it's my fault!" A powerful shockwave blasts in all directions. The shockwave blasts me into a shelf full of books. I drop to the floor while the books topple on me. Any other librarians here will go berserk over Terri. He goes on, "That's why I need you to set things straight!"

I wish that my family wasn't involved in the occult. This family would've been different. Better yet, I wish that Markus's mom wouldn't be a total mess. Markus could have actual brothers and sisters with the same father. There's a chance that dad wouldn't have met mom, but I could've been born in a different life. It could've been better than this life.

My mind goes into some sort of flashback. The old man holds more power than usual spirits do. He can make my friend pass out, materialise water out of thin air, see the future, create shockwaves, and much more. That is all from the fact that he absorbed some of the book's energy. I get up and leave a cold glare towards Terri. I walk towards the books and begin feeling their auras.

Minutes go by as I focus on their energy. I go into a meditative trance. Something that I rarely do unless I am with Blathnaid. She teaches me how to do this stuff. Their energy makes itself more known by colours. The five of the books possess a multitude of colours. It's entropy. There is blinding white light, darkness darker than black, fearsome green, chaotic red, and others. Gods, demons, angels, and other creatures known to mankind all crafted something majestic in these books.

Terri did tell me that I have less chance of dying in this plane than on Earth. I take a deep breath.

Can't believe I am doing this.

I hear Terri asking me "What [I] am doing", but I block him out. I focus on the energy and make my spirit become a magnet. I mean, I draw their energy in like how Blathnaid talks to me about how psychic vampires steal peoples' energies. They focus on a person's energy and pull it into themselves.

Jolts enter my spirit, syphoning my soul. Bright light emits out of my spirit, shaking like it's about to explode. I close my eyes. I absorb more energy much faster, despite the power growing exponentially than what I can handle like electrocution gone overboard. This is too much for what a mortal can bear. If I was in the mortal world, I would've blown up by now.

"Naomi, what are you doing?!" Terri yells at me out of panic.

I don't answer. When I absorbed all the five books' power, they vanished. My eyes spasm back into my head. I feel myself being lifted into the air. All I see is bright light like death itself, but my eyes are at the back of my skull. So much energy that I manically twitch.

"Naomi, stop that! You don't know what will happen! Give the power back now!" Terri demands.

I see a vision. Terri's eyes turn white again and send another shockwave. My eyes return to normal. I quickly turn towards Terri. My arms go in a criss-cross position before I swing them outwards, cutting the shockwave. The shockwave only hit my arms, yet only a breeze. I can see a bright white glow around me, brighter than the sun.

"What the hell did you do?!" Terri asks, baffled.

"I did what you told me to do. Transform myself," I reply plainly.

"By a ritual! Not absorbing power!" He spat.

"You want me to transform myself, in order to take Markus down!" I retort, "You got it fast."

Before he can finish, I feel myself lifting up with immense force, something beyond my control. A hook to a fish in a pond. The library is gone and all I can see are white stars in the distance. I fly faster and faster before I see darkness once again.