I rushed out of Janet’s room and made it downstairs before being pulled back by a grip on my arm. “Whoa, slow down,” she urged. “What are you gonna do? Just knock on her door like an exorcist and expect her to let you in?”

“Yes, I’ve done this before. If she doesn’t let me in, I’ll break in.”

I dashed out of the house and across the street to Candice’s front door. My finger smashed on the doorbell repeatedly until the door opened to Candice’s gloomy expression.

“Why are you here? Get the hell away from my house. Bad things always happen when you’re around.”

“Shut up and move out the way.” I pushed her to the side and walked into the house, looking around at the somewhat fancy interior. The lack of purple mist meant the demon wasn’t strong and Candice hadn’t been influenced yet, but the task of finding it would be a little more difficult.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” she yelled. “I’m calling the police.”

“Yeah, like we need you getting someone else killed. Go hide somewhere and get your emotions in check. Lord knows if your desire manifested it would be some sort of superficial crap like wanting to be the prettiest girl in the world.”

“What are you talking about?” she questioned, stomping in place. “You really are loco, aren’t you?”

Janet walked into the house, her eyes shifting between me and Candice. “What I missed?”

“Great, now you’re here,” Candice complained. “What could the two of you possibly want from me other than makeup advice that you both desperately need? Go watch my tutorials online for goodness’ sake.”

Ignoring her comment, I used my senses to try locating the Shadow. Candice argued against my intrusion as the three of us made our way upstairs and into the pink room seen from Janet’s window.

“It’s in here,” I managed to say before feeling a heavy force smack me across the room. The impact of my body against a shelf caused a few makeup kits and mannequin heads to tumble to the floor.

The Shade Crawler’s sudden attack made me manifest a chakram and fling it at the creature before it launched another assault. Thankfully, all it took was one hit from my weapon to vanquish it.

“Okay, something obviously hit you just now,” Janet acknowledged with excitement, conjuring a ball of fire in her palm. “Now I’m fully convinced. Where’s the demon? I can’t see it.”

“I purged it, and I’m the only one in here who can see them. It wasn’t the one tormenting Candice, anyway. The Shadow is still somewhere in this house.”

Candice’s jaw dropped at the sight of the flames in Janet’s hand. “H-how are you doing that? What the hell is happening? Is this all some kind of prank? It is, isn’t it? I—”

“Shut up, Candice,” both Janet and I shouted.

The Shadow had to be purged no matter what, so I continued searching the cerulean home until Candice pushed me away from what I assumed was her parents’ room.

“This tour is over. Unless you pay me to explore more, I want the two of you out of my house. Now.”

“And of course it comes down to money with her,” Janet said, looking away with an eye roll.

“Is that all you think I’m about?” Candice scowled and pulled us to the room down the hall. She placed her index finger on her lip and cracked open the door, allowing us to peek in and view an elderly woman resting in a bed.

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“Is that your grandma?” Janet questioned in a low voice. Candice quietly shut the door and pulled us a few feet away from the room.

“Everything I do, I do for my abuela,” she retorted. “So you can shame me for loving money all you want, but I’m gonna keep being me so that we can have a roof over our heads.”

My head tiled to the side in confusion. “Candice, are you paying the bills in here?”

“Yes. So when that sophomore was about to kill me, I cried not just for my life, but for my abuela’s sake as well. The money I get from sponsors is the only revenue keeping this place afloat, but after what happened, it’s hard putting on a fake smile and pretending everything is okay. It’s not okay. But I have to do it because we need the money and all everyone wants is more content from me.”

She pouted before speaking again. “Hashtag Candice Forever is not just a trend online. It’s a brand created by me, a real person with emotions. But people don’t understand that. They think because I’m an influencer that I’m a freakin’ robot. That day at school was the scariest moment of my life, and I’m paranoid, okay? I’m afraid something’ll happen to me, and my abuela will have no one to care for her.”

The Shadow made itself visible after Candice’s venting. It hung from the hallway ceiling and greeted me with a sinister smile, the inside of its mouth nothing more than a hollow abyss.

“Who’ll be here for her if I’m gone?” Candice continued in a louder voice. “My mother died from the stress of taking care of my abuela, and my deadbeat father is somewhere selling drugs or dead. I’m the only member in my family who has a future, and I don’t wanna lose everything. You could never understand my life, so don’t even try to.”

Her words came with an aggressive tone, enticing the demon more as it leaped off the ceiling and slithered by her side. I used the opportunity to release a beam of light that lit up the entire hallway, its radiance only taking a few seconds to disintegrate the creature.

Janet’s eyes widened after the flash. “So cool. Did you get it?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t a strong one. We’re done here.”

Candice’s story was a sad one, but it was hard for me to sympathize with her because one, she was a bully, and two, all I wanted to do was purge more demons. It was the only thing running through my mind.

Janet and I made our way downstairs before Candice stepped in front of us. “I don’t know what you just did, but unless you want me to call the police, you better make a deal with me,” she said directly to me with a condescending smirk. It made me wonder if her speech was all an act. “Never, ever mention anything I said here to anyone. Not about me, my family, nothing. Deal? Because I could have you arrested right now for trespassing.”

“As much as I hate siding with her, she’s right,” Janet agreed. “You can’t barge in someone’s house like that. You’re gonna get locked up, or worse.”

“Whatever. Deal. Just leave me alone.”

I didn’t have to explain myself to them. They wouldn’t have understood anyway. All that mattered was that I vanquished another demon before someone else was manipulated. I didn’t care to hear the consequences or discuss my reasoning.

Saving people was all I had going for me. What else did I have to look forward to? Certainly not a love life. That was gone in the wind. A career? In what? I had no idea. Putting smiles on other people’s faces was all I could do.

And maybe, that was all I needed to do.

I walked out of Candice’s house and ran across the street with Janet following behind. “Listen, I get that you wanna save the world and everything,” she began, “but I feel like you’re using this whole ‘demon hunter’ hobby to distract yourself from something else that’s going on. You can’t help others with their problems until you help yourself. You know that, right?”

Her words hit me like a truck, smashing my resolve and causing me to stop in place before sitting on her stoop with downcast eyes. “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, Janet. It really don’t. And here I thought I was the one who could read people’s emotions. You saw right through me.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you’re making it obvious that something’s up. How about I drive you home so you can relax? We can finish the math assignment another day.”

I sighed. “Alright, thanks.”

“Okay, I’ll let my grandpa know I’m leaving and then I’ll grab my keys and your purse. Stay right here and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

She walked past me and into her house, leaving me outside on the quiet street to think about my life. Both Candice and Janet’s words reminded me of the promise I made to Lucas regarding my safety and making better decisions. Was I reverting to my old ways? Charging into dangerous situations without worry of repercussions?

Hell, did I even change in the first place?

After contemplating the events that transpired, it was becoming clear that having the light to purge demons wasn’t enough to get me back to normal. I needed the one person who gave me the strength to keep going. I needed Lucas now more than ever.

“Daydreaming?” Janet asked, stepping back outside. She locked the front door and handed me my purse.

“Something like that,” I replied, taking out my cell phone. Multiple missed calls and texts from Lucas covered the screen. “What the—”

“What’s wrong?”

“We have to get to the hospital. Right now.”