Irene Groves had been a classmate of Damian in high school, and she had a very serious crush on him. She was always too shy to talk to him very much, and now that they had gone to different colleges, she could see him even less. Over the past several months, she had begun to delve into the practice of witchcraft. She first read about it online, thinking she could make a love potion to cause Damian to reciprocate feelings for her. She kept this interest a secret from her parents, since they were very religious.

When she woke up on the morning of Halloween, she did her routine morning meditations and went downstairs to pour herself a cup of tea. The TV had been left on the morning news, and when she saw the report on Damian’s death, she dropped her mug, shattering it on the ground.

After crying for nearly an hour, she had an idea. She pulled out her magic wand from her pocket. She had studied a multitude of online tutorials to teach herself how to craft it, and she now wondered if there was a way to use magic to bring Damian back from the dead. In a second, she opened her laptop and began scouring the Internet for any information on the matter. After a few hours of sorting through various websites, she found what she thought was the best shot she’d have at resurrecting Damian. She wrote down a list of supplies that she would need. Since it was Halloween, she figured it’d be perfectly appropriate to wear her witch costume as she went out the door, heading toward her local metaphysical supply store.

After she bought everything on her list, she did a little investigating to locate the morgue where Damian’s body was being held. She used a magic spell to help her sneak into the morgue without being seen. She snatched the body and took it to her house, lugging it up to her bedroom.

She set up everything she needed for the ritual. She propped up Damian’s corpse beside her bed and arranged all the necessary materials in a circle on the carpet around it. After removing the battery from her room’s smoke detector, she lit her candles and incense. However, she was not alone. In the adjacent spiritual realm, invisible to the naked eye, the evil spirit who caused Damian’s death was watching her every move. The spirit had been beside her the entire day, making sure everything went according to its plan.

Irene picked up her magic wand and began reciting the incantations according to what she read on the Internet. She closed her eyes and began repeating them over and over, and immediately, the evil spirit made a move toward Damian’s corpse.

At that second, a bright light shone from the ceiling: Damian’s former guardian angel, Steve, flew down in between them, standing firmly with his flaming sword in his hand and fully clad in his golden armor and helmet. “Don’t you dare take another step!” said the angel, “If you want to possess this body, you’re going to have to get through me.”

The evil spirit laughed as it took a step back. “You again?” it said, “I thought I put you in your proper place last night! Your job’s finished. Damian’s dead. Just go home.”

Since they were in the spiritual realm, none of their conversations or actions could be perceived by Irene as she patiently continued her incantation.

“Damian, NOW!” Steve called out.

That was Damian’s cue. He was behind the steering wheel of Steve’s ambulance, hiding just outside Irene’s bedroom. He floored the vehicle, so it went through the wall straight towards the evil spirit. It didn’t leave a scratch on the wall, since it was traveling in the spiritual dimension.

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The evil spirit heard the vehicle coming and barely dodged out of its way, and Damian braked the car so it stopped beside his physical body behind the angel.

Steve smiled as he looked at the evil spirit. “I thought you liked car accidents!” said the angel.

“Very funny,” said the spirit.

Damian got out of the ambulance and looked over at his physical body laying on the carpet. He asked Steve, “What if I just jump in my own body? Wouldn’t that stop the spirit from trying to possess it?”

“I wish it were that simple,” said Steve, “That would require an immense amount of energy.”

“Which I worked hard for!” interjected the evil spirit, “I orchestrated over 10,000 drunk driving accidents last year, and now I can finally harness all that energy to get my own body!”

Suddenly, the bedroom door began to creak open. Irene immediately paused her incantations, which knocked the evil spirit back several feet onto the ground. The witch quickly pushed Damian’s body under the bed as her mother walked in. Mrs. Groves was wearing a superhero costume, having just finished passing out candy to trick-or-treaters.

“Irene,” said her mother, “What are you doing?”

“I’m working on a project for school,” said Irene.

Her mother looked at her calmly and said, “I know what you were really doing. I know because I did it myself when I was your age.”

“What?” said Irene, a little confused, having expected her mother to be upset at her.

“I heard the sad news about what happened to your classmate. I know you want to try to use magic to bring him back, but believe me, magic can’t do that. Only God can raise the dead. But I'm not going to tell you what religion you should practice – you gotta figure that out on your own. All I'll tell you is be careful when interacting with spirits you don't know.”

“But I know Damian, Mom,” said Irene.

Mrs. Groves looked at her daughter empathetically, realizing she couldn't convince her to stop trying. “Okay, well, just don't stay up all night,” said her mother as she went out the door.

As soon as she left, Irene began chanting the incantations repeatedly again.

In the spiritual realm, Damian and Steve looked back over at where the evil spirit had been laying, and it was gone.

The angel quickly turned to Damian and asked, “Did you see where it–”

“There!” said Damian, pointing behind the ambulance.

But it was too late. The evil spirit jumped into Damian’s body, and its eyes suddenly opened.

Irene gasped. “Oh my God!”

“You saved me,” said Damian as they embraced each other.

Tears of joy began to roll down Irene’s face. “I thought you were going to be gone forever,” she said, “I can’t believe the magic actually worked! It worked!”

“I owe you my life,” said Damian. He looked down at his clothing, which was tattered and bloodstained. “Do you happen to have anything I can change into?” he asked.

“I can see if my Dad has any of his old stuff in the attic,” said Irene, “Give me a second.” She went into the other room.

Of course, it wasn’t really Damian speaking to Irene. It was the evil spirit who was now in Damian’s physical body. It glanced over at where the real Damian and his angel would’ve been standing and grinned maliciously.

“What do we do now?” the real Damian asked Steve.

“Not much we can do,” said Steve, “It’s in the flesh now. That means we need someone in the flesh to fight it. Let’s talk in the car.”