Daiana couldn't believe what Erika had done in a fit of rage and selfishness. But she didn't have time to waste on anger, grudges and other people's problems, a possible solution had come to light in that conversation. She had to find out what the Rituals of Expulsion were. She remembered the nun's letter... she too had seen the solution, she had asked for reports of it. However, she never found out. In the two unanswered letters her despair was written. One asked a bishop for permission for the ritual, with details of the case. In the other, she begged Sister Celestina to explain in detail how to perform the ceremony and spoke of its urgency. Nothing more than useful information was contained in those last two letters.

That morning, Daiana went to talk to Erika again. She wanted to ask for her help to find out everything she could that day about these rituals, unfortunately she couldn't stay any longer, her mother needed her. She didn't even know where to start looking. She had never believed in supernatural things and had always thought they weren't real, just stories to sell amulets and books. She had even laughed at them.

Paula had told her for a long time about what she saw at home, about so many things that frightened her, but she didn't listen to her, always thinking it was nonsense. If only she had listened to her more carefully without mocking her beliefs!

When she arrived at Erika's home, she was in for an unpleasant surprise. There were two police cars parked outside the building and the door of the building was guarded by an officer, who would not let her in or give her any information. Luckily the owner of the place came to see her from a window on the first floor and started shouting for her:

"Oh, Miss! Miss! Miss!"

Something very serious had happened...

A couple of hours later, Daiana was walking as if hypnotised through the streets of the centre of Pico Alto. Her body was shivering uncontrollably and it was not due to the cold. She had to go into a coffee shop and drink a strong coffee to regain her self-control and assimilate what had happened.

Erika Ara had committed suicide.

The owner renting the flats (or rooms) explained to her in detail what had happened. The night before, when she had left, Erika went downstairs for dinner in the small dining room she had on the ground floor, which was used by the tenants from time to time. She looked normal, nothing in her countenance gave evidence of the terrible decision she was about to make or had already made. She even seemed calmer as if the weight she was carrying had become lighter. Then, that night, the owner heard her scream three times, on three different occasions. She slept right above her flat and said she yelled at her to shut her mouth.

"Did she answer her?" asked a man, dressed in civilian clothes, who was walking around. He was the investigator assigned to the case.

"No, but she seemed to be talking to herself."

"How do you know that?"

"I didn't hear any voice other than her. Anyway, that was 'normal', she used to talk in her sleep," said the lady, shrugging her shoulders.

The policeman in charge of the investigation was concerned when he heard her and did not understand why she had not come to see what was wrong with the girl, when she had not even answered her and had continued to scream. The owner shifted uneasily in the chair she was sitting in and told him that she didn't have time to take on other people's problems and that it was not uncommon for the girl to scream at night.

Erika Ara used to scream for no real reason (the woman attributed it to an addiction to some strong drug she used to take), but neither Daiana nor the police believed it. No drugs or any evidence of drug use were found in Erika's flat.

Erika had been found in a strange position, with a noose around her neck. She was wearing her nightdress and appeared to be asleep. There was no sign of a struggle and the door had not been forced. Erika, the investigator concluded, had committed suicide.

But in the position in which she was found... all contorted, it was very strange.

The policeman had never seen anything like this before. They were waiting for a doctor to see if he could shed any light on the case.

It looked as if the young woman had had a seizure before hanging herself. The body was not hanging, but the rope was tied to the bed and her body was lying on the floor. It was all too strange... If she had committed suicide, why choose precisely that way... There was a whole bottle of sleeping pills in a drawer of his bedside table, anyone would have chosen that way.

The investigator asked Daiana a lot of questions and she feared she would be detained but finally let her go, on the condition that she gave her current address and where she was stopping in the city. Daiana complied and then wanted to see Erika, but when she did she regretted it... she would never forget that bruised face and the position she was in. A thought occurred to her... what if she had been possessed by the demonic entity?

She was about to tell the policeman the whole truth but she couldn't... They wouldn't believe her, they would think she was crazy.

Erika had no family or friends and her belongings were stored in the basement of the building, in various boxes, until they were given away. Daiana asked the owner of the building for permission to see them, she wanted to get the book back.

"Take them all if you want. She didn't have anything valuable," said the woman despondently, as she lit a cigarette. It was evident that she had been rummaging around for money or anything of value.

It didn't take her long to realise, after searching through the boxes, that someone had already beaten her to it... she couldn't find the book. Frustrated, she faced the woman.

"She had a book... a big old book," she told the woman, but she shrugged, she hadn't seen it. Daiana didn't know whether to believe her or not, she seemed sincere. But if she hadn't taken it, who had? Had it vanished into thin air?

Already terrified by what was happening and with a thousand questions in her mind she discovered the abyss of wanting to find out about these things. Things she was just beginning to understand. But it was too late. Paula was dead, she was sure of it. She had been condemned to hell. And there was no ritual to bring her back to life, so why perform it? She was sure Erika had thought the same thing, judging by the abandonment of her search.

When she left the coffe shop she walked a long way, not seeing anything around her, disillusioned by her enquiries and because she felt it was too late to try to make things right. She had discovered the truth too late...

As he looked towards a window displaying different coloured curtains, she thought he saw Paula behind her. She jumped in fright and turned around. She wasn't there, of course, Paula was no longer in this world.

But as she continued walking she began to feel strange. It seemed to her that someone was following her, that she was being watched. Then she had a strange thought... Why was the boy appearing in the village? What was he looking for? Would she start seeing Paula too?...

A shudder ran through her body, but suddenly she knew... she knew the truth.

"Her child was sacrificed to the demonic entity and... so was she! When the little boy died his soul was trapped in the darkness and he was visiting his mother to help him on his way... to wherever we go after we die! And she... Paula's soul is trapped too!... But it's the demons that won't let them go... I have to do that ritual! It's the only solution," she shouted in the middle of the street.

A woman passing by with a shopping bag looked at her in surprise, but her eyes suddenly turned into dark tunnels. Like a dead woman.

Daiana jumped back in shock and backed up until she hit the trunk of a tree, which separated the pavement from the busy street. Thousands of pigeons panicked and, flying low, surrounded her. Daiana screamed and fled into the street, unaware that the birds were blocking her vision. A passing car almost ran her over, the screeching of its wheels terrifying her. People started screaming.

Shocked by the danger, she stood still in the middle of the street. Paralysed with terror.

"Watch out! Are you an idiot?" a rude and impolite driver shouted at her.

Daiana then came to her senses and, ashamed, turned back to the pavement... She could have died.

Her heart was pounding. She walked hurriedly to a nearby square. She was terrified, watching the people who passed by her with dark, demonic, eyes.

"It's them," she muttered to herself with horrified certainty.

They were following her all the time, Erika told her, that's why she was constantly moving... and screaming at night, the nights must have been hell for her. Erika knew the truth... She knew about the expulsion rituals but had been unable to find out anything about them. She had become a danger to this demonic entity and... Erika died...

She had paid for the damage she had done, she lost Franco, the child, Paula... she was left without friends and without a companion, as everyone she had had beaten her. Her life had been miserable and she died alone. The damage was reversed three times.

Don't play with what you don't believe... with what you don't know...

Sister Martha had also discovered the truth and how to reverse the damage done. Then... the demons had attacked them making her life hell. She also screamed at night. But she had been about to perform the ceremony, however, she died shortly after Paula's disappearance...

Daiana realised that she had to be very careful, her life was in grave danger, those parasites from hell had infested the village... feeding on the souls that lived there. That's why people were getting sick and dying. The child's soul and Paula's soul were trapped. The demons were using them to get to her, to attack her, to hurt her. She had to stop letting them do it.

Before she knew it, she had arrived at a place with a huge entrance door and long stairs leading up to it. What am I doing here? She asked himself, she couldn't remember having walked so far. She looked up... and there was what she was looking for, like a miracle.

In big letters it said: "Public Library". Suddenly, she felt a child's laughter and smiled. The little boy had led her there.

That night she slept at home, in the safety of her beloved village. But sleep was just a figure of speech, for she was actually sitting in the kitchen, drinking strong coffee. The journey home had been a living hell. Every hour that passed was worse than the last. When she got home she had hung a little chain with a cross on it and, for the first time in her life, she went to pray alone in church. It was the only place where she felt safe.

During the trip she was almost run over by a car twice. She was also hit by a motorbike. She almost missed the bus and was almost mugged on the spot. In the village, Mr. Oran's watchdog ran away from home and pounced on her. If his owner hadn't taken him off her, he would have bitten her neck... He was a sweet dog who had never hurt anyone but...

Daiana shivered at the memory, the dog's eyes... red, bloodshot eyes. Anyway, she had found out in the public library what she was looking for. There was a book that came before the other. Black magic was fought with white magic. There she found out about expulsion rituals and was surprised to learn that it was very easy to perform them.

It was really easy. But there were certain difficulties... I had to find a very quiet place. It had to be done on a full moon, under the darkness of the night.

She first thought of Mrs. Parker's house but quickly changed her mind. The woman would probably object. And she didn't want to disturb her. Then she thought of the woods... it would be risky as she would be alone and since Paula's disappearance the police had made a habit of passing her paths often. She remembered the trouble some teenagers had got into when they were caught carrying out rituals.

Those kids didn't even know what they were doing, it looked like a teenage game. But this time it would be for real. Daiana was already a believer.

It was only two days before the full moon and Daiana spent all her time in church. Her mother was still ill and seemed to be getting worse by the day. Unexpected accidents had multiplied and every time she looked into someone's eyes, they got darker... In another time, she would have thought she was going crazy... but she knew it was "them". Erika had unleashed, without understanding, a real inferno.

When in the church she saw two women transform into demonic beings in front of her eyes, Daiana had enough, she ran out of the place and never left the house again. Until the moon came out in all its splendour...

Paula:

The objects for the ritual were few. A handful of black candles (indicated to neutralise negative situations such as: evil eye and black magic spells). A container to burn rue leaves. That was all. Daiana put everything in a backpack, surprised at how easy it seemed what she was going to do, and left the house without her mother's knowledge. However, when she saw the darkness of the street she knew that it would not be as easy as she had imagined... the fear of the dark and the silence soon began to invade her. It didn't look like a sleeping town... it looked like a dead town.

The girl walked at a brisk pace, continually looking over her shoulder. It seemed to her that at every turn of the dark street shadows lurked, moving in her wake... She took courage and walked away from the few lights of the village, in the direction of the forest. At night it looked terrifying but the moon gave an incredible light. She could see clearly all around him.

She reached the dirt path that ran through it and walked along it until she found a place to go into the forest. She sighed and set her rucksack on the ground. She didn't want to wander too far. Getting lost was not an option. But she didn't get anywhere... a light shone down on her.

She put her hand over her eyes to mitigate it a little.

"What are you doing here, miss?" A loud voice shouted at her. It was the police.

Daiana didn't think twice, grabbed her backpack from the ground and fled into the woods. The man started chasing her, torch in hand, shouting at her to stop. She didn't listen... she couldn't miss that opportunity. She couldn't imagine surviving the next month with those demons stalking her. It was that night or never. It was not long before her energy was exhausted but she kept running. All the time she heard footsteps near her and did not wish to be overtaken. When she could run no more, she stopped to catch her breath, under the trunk of a rickety poplar tree. Then she realised that she was no longer being followed and that she had run so far that it was very difficult to recognise where she was.

She let out an exclamation of annoyance... she was lost and probably a long way from the village. At that moment she heard it... it was a child's voice. Daiana gasped and turned around... there was a small shadow nearby and... was it beckoning her to follow him?

The girl didn't know what to do, what if it was the demonic entity setting a trap? The boy waved his arms again.

"What do you want?" she asked in a trembling voice, but he moved away from her in response, then stopped to wait.

"He wants me to follow him," Daiana thought. However, she stood still, she didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, a warm breeze, strange in that place, enveloped her. It made her feel good, safe. It was so strange! So she followed him.

She walked a long way until the ethereal figure was lost on a small rise in the ground. Daiana climbed up there and when she reached the top she realised that at its foot was an ancient cemetery... The cemetery Paula had once mentioned to her! she remembered. She stared at it in ecstasy, the moon with its white mantle seemed to cradle the souls of those who rested there. It was such a warm feeling that it overcame her fear.

The boy was nowhere to be seen and, after a while, she decided that this was a good place to carry out her plans. If she kept walking through the forest she would never get out of it and there was better visibility.

She took her things out of his backpack. She placed the black candles in a circle and lit them, then stood inside it. She took the container and set it down within her reach. Then... the book she had taken out of the town's public library. It was strange that they had it there, she thought at first, but the librarian told her that Sister Marta had ordered it the day before she died. She opened it and read: "After standing inside the circle of protection, take the container and burn the rue".

Daiana did so.

"Let the smoke surround the circle and repeat..."

The sentences seemed absurd to her, yet her voice rang out in the forest, firm, powerful.

"Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, deliver Paula Varas and her child from this evil spell. Amen".

She repeated it three times, feeling like a fool. Like a child playing a prank. She waited for something to happen... nothing happened.

The tension that had built up during all that time was released a little from her system and she slowly expelled the air that had been holding in her lungs. For the first time she understood why Erika had not taken this seriously. It really seemed like a game. A game that wasn't real, but... what was real? We felt the fear, but was it real? No.

Daiana smiled, her mind quickly working against her instinct, she thought that perhaps she had gone down the wrong path, that something more... probable... real... tangible had happened to Paula. But her immediate reality would conspire against her. In a moment, a gentle breeze rose through the trees. It was so icy that it sent a shiver through her body, then... it all happened.

A shadow began to materialise almost in front of her, as the temperature dropped dramatically. She saw steam rising from its mouth. The hairs all over her body stood on end in sheer terror. A form of a man had appeared... A mirage from beyond, but as real as herself.

The figure was tall, without a very well-defined outline, until it began to approach her. Daiana closed her eyes and clutched the cross that hung around her neck.

"It's not real... It's not real... It's not real," she repeated terrified, on the verge of losing her mind.

A few seconds passed without anything happening and she decided to open her eyes... A scream caught in her throat. A figure, as dark as an abyss, was standing in front of her, outside the circle. It was featureless... like a grotesque imitation of a human being. The demonic entity had manifested itself... but was that possible? Her eyes did not deceive her.

"Go away! Go away!" she screamed hysterically. She wanted to stand up and run away, but the muscles in her body refused to move. And she just sat there in that ridiculous circle of light, which, however, saved her life.

The demon reached out a scrawny arm, a skeleton, to touch her and Daiana closed her eyes again, dead with fear, with anguish. The terror made her lose awareness of her surroundings. But she didn't feel anything, then she opened her eyes...

The shadow had vanished. The temperature started to get warmer. The breeze stopped as if by magic. The girl stood still as the air slowly returned to her lungs and her brain began to come up with more coherent ideas.

She saw the book beside her and picked it up, shaking so badly that she had to put it down to read. Apparently that was it... the ritual would be over when the candles were completely consumed. Incredibly, they almost were, although it hadn't been long since he had lit them. It was as if time had passed with paranormal speed in those few seconds. Anyway, Daiana waited... and waited, not daring to move from there... until the last light in the circle was extinguished, plunging her into darkness.

She stood up, still shaking, and began to throw everything she had brought with her into her rucksack, in a hurry, with the idea of never going back there again. And praying that the ritual would work. She would never make fun of those things again. She had become a believer. She hoped that Paula and her child were well. That it had not been in vain.

She was walking up the slope when she turned around. On the other side of the cemetery something glowed on the ground near some low bushes. The slope on that side was much higher and the shadow it cast left no treat for the eye. The girl stood puzzled, staring, wondering what it was. She almost went on but something stopped her, she never knew what it was. She went back down to the cemetery and, against her own fear and instinct, walked through it until she got there.

A bracelet? she thought in bewilderment. She leaned into the bushes and tugged at the thin jewel that was attached to something. She took the torch out of her backpack and turned it on. The bracelet was attached to one hand... Daiana, in horror, let go of the torch and the light invaded the bushes, revealing the secret of the cemetery. The secret of the dark forest. A lifeless body of a young woman lay there sleeping, eternally.

The girl recognised her instantly... it was Paula.

Her knees could not support her and she fell to the ground. In a cry of anguish, tears streamed down her face like an unstoppable torrent. And she wept for the woman who had been her best friend. For the hard life she had led, thanks to the envy of the one who once claimed to love her. Who she had once trusted. She cried because she didn't deserve everything she had been through. Paula had been a generous, considerate, hospitable woman. Now she would be with her child and her husband, in a better place.

Daiana didn't know how long she stood there, stroking her hair, only coming to when he felt them.

A soft, warm breeze ignited the dance in the trees. She smiled and looked up, it was dawn. Then she saw a white figure, with a small bundle in its arms, as if it were a child, gliding across the cemetery. The sunlight began to enter through the trees, fading the light figure in its path. Daiana stood in rapture, staring at the impossible phenomenon. Then she stood up and, with her heart calmer, started the long walk to the village. There she reported the appearance of Paula Varas' body. On her long walk she was able to guess what had happened that distant night.

The girl had been tormented by the same parasitic entity that had used her child, the same one that had made Erika's existence unbearable, the same one that had terrorised sister Marta to death, the same one... that had tried to make an attempt on her own life. Paula had run through the woods at night, either on the run or tricked into the trap that had been set for her. Her death had been as horrible as her life, but Daiana hoped that her soul was now at peace.

The discovery of the mystery of the young girl's disappearance caused a stir in the village but, like everything else, it is lost in the mists of memories and remains a simple anecdote that passes from generation to generation.

But for Daiana it would not be like that, she would always remember Paula.

She would always remember that not everything that happens in this world can be explained. That sometimes reality merges with a mirage of what we call "the beyond". That life, space and time spin in an unstoppable dance... The dance of death.

............

Author's note: Today I have finished this story, my first novel. I want to dedicate it to my mother who, although her time in this world was short, left in those of us who love her the burning mark of her memory, her affection, her kindness, her infinite love and, above all, her teachings and her passion for letters and reading, which I will carry on my shoulders until death. Where, without a doubt, I will be reunited with her.