“It said in the journal that once it shape shifts into something it can only use it once,” Colchester explains and Mandisa adds that they will have to wear it down by making it reveal all its beings or creatures it has collected.

“But what if it has more than fifty or maybe a hundred of these things it turns into?” Jiro queries.

“If we get tired we can just run back to Fitz’s room, rest and try again the next day,” Kacey informs him.

“Do we really need to get rid of this thing? Can’t we just wait for help or something from our real parents?” Fitz asks weary.

“I honestly wouldn’t be bothered by this thing but, yes we do because we going to run out of food at this point,” Eliza tells her.

“Even if help came they wouldn’t know what to do,” Colchester adds.

“Only we know how to get rid of this thing,” Kacey finalizes.

“Well that settles it then!” Micah grunts and grips tightly onto the broom stick in hand.

“Let’s kick some Kapnos ass!” Kacey yells and the group begins to laugh as this eased the tension in the room.

They cautiously leave the room one by one eyeing the corridor as they step out as the sky took on a grey and gloomy form that could be seen from the large windows in the corridor.

“You have some explaining to do-“ Colchester starts off gripping Mandisa’s arm while she cuts him off by saying that she doesn’t owe anybody an explanation.

“You two let’s get a move on,” Akira whispers back to them.

“I’ll explain when we get back-“ Mandisa is interrupted by a screech in front of her by Fitz.

They rush up to Fitz standing against the banister, Kacey asks what happened and she explained to them a vicious black dog had growled at her and disappeared through the double doors into the kitchen.

“Did you just say dog?” Colchester queries alerted.

“Do you think it’s the Kapnos demon?” Allegra asks him and Jiro answers.

“I don’t think so,” he says and Colchester asks why he says that.

“Because it’s standing right there,” Jiro points to a figure of his mother standing below the stairs with open arms calling him.

Allegra rushes downstairs with a pair of scissors in hand, screaming at the top of her lungs and plunges the scissors on the top of its head. At that moment it takes on the shape of Micah.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Hey, it’s okay-“Micah was about to finish his sentence when a pair of scissors is struck into his neck but he manages to say, “Pocky,” before closing his eyes and fading away. A loud shriek comes from Allegra as the residents rush over to her.

“Micah! No, wake up!” she yells holding his limp body in her arms on the stairs while the Kapnos demon turns into a crow and flies away from them.

“Isn’t there something we can do to-,” Allegra begins to say and Kacey shakes her head.

“I’m sorry, his gone,” she says gripping at her t-shirt in hand.

“For the time being we should get some food in the kitchen and get some rest,” Colchester suggests and they agree.

“Can I have a moment with him?” Allegra reluctant.

“We can bury him out in the garden,” he says and just as they were about to pick up his body, it turns to dust and vanishes before their eyes.

“What just happened?” Fitz asks a question that pondered on all their minds.

“Wait, do you think that happened to Junior too?” Akira queries and Mandisa rushes down with a shovel in hand to the front garden as Colchester follows behind her.

Mandisa digs up the soil by the makeshift cross while Colchester stands close by watching her.

“You know what’s going on here, don’t you?” he says and halts her shoveling.

“Yes I do,” she admits and looks up at him. Just as she was about to say something Kacey makes her way to them.

“Did you find the body?” she queries Mandisa and she shakes her head.

“No, he vanished too,” she says something that shocks them.

“I was supposed to be a Sangoma,” Mandisa explains that she was meant to become a fully fledge Sangoma but she chose to run away instead.

“You mean the people who communicate with their dead relatives,” Colchester says.

“The ancestors,” she corrects.

“So it was you!” Kacey rejoices, hugs her and says thank you. Colchester confused, asks what they were talking about and Mandisa explains that she opened a portal to help Kacey the day of the incident in her room.

“And that’s why you had scars on your wrists when we met you,” he concludes.

“Yes and I would like to keep this between us,” Mandisa says that because Sangomas have a bad reputation and she wouldn’t want the other residents to think badly of her.

“Okay I get that but who’s the man I saw around you?” Kacey queries and she stares back at her wide eyed.

“You’ve seen him!” she yells and grips Kacey’s shoulders.

“How, only I can see him and only when he manifests himself can other people see him, which I specifically told him not to do,” Mandisa adds that she thinks Kacey has supernatural abilities.

“I hope not,” she cringes with a cheeky grin.

“Let’s get back to the others,’ Colchester begins to walk back to the mansion and they follow behind.

“Junior’s body is gone,” he tells Fitz.

“Where’s your book? Maybe there’s something in there to explain why they disappeared,” she says and Eliza passes her the journal.

They now sit in Akira and Jiro’s room, a modest room with not many décor or furniture with simple tatami flooring which they had to take off their shoes to enter. In one corner an altar can be seen with a picture of a man in the middle.

“The soul can be trapped inside a Slag Mac- Mag- Machis and will return to the body once it is turned to dust,” Fitz reads aloud though stutters and adds that he’s glad that they not dead.

“The body can live without a soul, but will be in a comatose state until the soul returns,” she continues to say.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, how many times can you butcher the word,” a man with An African accent states.

Gherro appears standing behind Mandisa. Everyone is taken aback at the sudden appearance of a tall slender man, ruggedly handsome features with dark supple skin, white haired cornrows, wearing a long black trench coat, pants and his bare torso filled with scarification on it.

“Who or what are you?” Akira questions though hesitant for a reply.

“His an Agma Devva I was telling you about early,” Mandisa informs though turning her attention to Gherro who now stands to the window.

“Gherro, I told you not to reveal yourself in front of any human,” she sneers, an expression uncommon to those around her.

“Exactly! You said ‘any human’ and these little friends of yours aren’t human,” He informs with a light chuckle.

“What!? Who is this and what is he talking about?” Fitz yells back at him.

“Woo, feisty, I like,” he retorts.

“Allow me to explain,” he adds and goes on to explain how he is haunting Mandisa and they are soul fragments not human beings.

“Soul fragments?” Akira repeats and asks for an explanation on what he means.

“Yes, my dear boy, soul fragments are beings who have been identified by an Impressionist and take on the form he or she has an impression on,” Gherro explains and Mandisa chimes in after.

“Kacey your grandfather was the Impressionist who ‘turned’ everyone into what we see right now,”

“Well, that is excepts for you, you, obviously you and I think you,” Gherro points his finger in a line towards, Kacey, Eliza, Mandisa and Colchester.

“So that means we look different to how we are now?” Akira queries him.

“For example, you are in fact Jiro’s little brother and the young girl Marceline is in fact an adult,” he sheds light on while pointing in Akira and Fitz direction.

“Really I’m Ankī’s older brother?” Jiro bursts out laughing and rest follow suit.

“The day you were introduced to the Old man, he had the ‘impression’ that you were his younger brother is what that actually means,” Gherro uses a toothpick to clean out his pearly white front teeth.

.