Lief's gaze moved away from the doll and descended toward the foyer, landing on Mia, who was waiting at the foot of the stairs with her face contracted by anxiety and simply offered her a firm nod from above.
That simple movement seemed to inject Mia with a necessary dose of courage, filling her lungs with air, and she crossed the foyer with quick steps until grabbing the doorknob with trembling hands and turning it abruptly.
On the threshold, a man and a woman waited, radiating a silent authority.
The man, who appeared to be about forty years old, possessed a robust build and wore a dark jacket; his serene face and sharp gaze transmitted an immediate sensation of reliability, while his right hand firmly held a black box that seemed quite heavy.
The woman beside him, of a similar age, wore a long, simple, and elegant dress complemented by a soft cardigan; her temperament was evidently gentle and empathetic, but her complexion looked pale and her eyes seemed to look not only at the physical world, but also at what was hidden behind the veil, revealing an insight that transcended the common.
However, the exact instant she crossed the threshold and set foot in the house, the woman's steps stopped as if she had hit a wall. Frowning, her gaze quickly swept the heavy atmosphere of the living room and, finally, shot upward like an arrow, locking onto the figure standing in the gloom of the staircase landing.
There was Lief, standing with a relaxed posture and his hands buried in the pockets of his trench coat, observing them from his elevated position with tranquility.
"You... you are the Warrens?" asked Mia, with her voice oscillating between uncertainty and expectation.
"Yes, ma'am, I am Ed Warren, and this is my wife, Lorraine," replied the man with a soothing tone of voice, "We received your call and came as fast as we could, Mia."
"Oh, thank God! You've finally arrived!" exclaimed Mia, feeling her knees go weak with relief at finally finding a pillar to lean on. "Please, come in! Don't just stand there!"
Ed and Lorraine walked through the door, bringing with them a sense of order.
Ed placed the heavy black box on the floor with care, preparing to work, but Lorraine's attention was not on the equipment; her gaze drifted intermittently and magnetically toward Lief.
That boy was... too calm.
The house had already been eroded to the foundations by a cold and malevolent aura that would make any common person, even without having psychic sensitivity, feel sick with fear and infected by Mia's panic, but this young man not only lacked the slightest trace of fear, but his mere presence emitted a strange and potent field that forced that surrounding malevolent energy to retreat, creating a vacuum of calm around him.
"And who is he?" asked Ed, noticing the direction of his wife's gaze and adopting a slightly protective stance.
Mia blinked, suddenly remembering Lief's existence, and introduced him with a nervous gesture: "Oh, he... he is Lief Connor. He is... well, he also came to help when he heard what was happening."
Unable to explain Lief's strange appearance or the magic door in her wall without sounding insane, Mia opted for a vague and hurried explanation.
Lief began to descend the stairs with a slow and deliberate rhythm; he didn't take the initiative to extend his hand, he simply nodded with respect toward the couple.
"Lief Connor."
"Hello, son," replied Ed, sketching a kind smile, trying to soften the tense atmosphere that had formed.
For her part, Lorraine looked deeply into Lief's eyes once more, remaining silent while her senses analyzed what was in front of her.
She could feel it... that boy's body was a container for an energy as pure, vast, and blinding as the sky itself... and the most unsettling thing was that it didn't feel like power derived from faith, but like a much more essential power.
It was as if he were... the light itself.
"Let's talk about the matters at hand first," Lief interrupted and pointed to the living room sofa. "I think you need to understand the full situation before going up."
"..."
Ed and Lorraine exchanged a quick look and both saw a trace of surprise and curiosity in the other's eyes, but decided not to question it for the moment and followed Mia into the living room.
The four people took seats in a tense circle.
Mia's erratic emotions stabilized a bit under the influence of the Warrens' calm presence and, guided by Ed's methodical questions, she began to narrate in detail once again the nightmare she had lived: from the innocent purchase of the doll at the antique shop, passing through the autonomous movements and changes in posture, until arriving at the terrifying climax of the inexplicable "bleeding" and the notes asking for help.
Ed listened with the attention of a detective, assimilating every word and posing key questions to rule out rational explanations.
"Apart from you and your family, has anyone else physically touched that doll or moved it? After the phenomena began, have you noticed if your daughter has had any abnormal behavior, like talking to imaginary friends or sudden mood swings? And you mentioned that a priest came to bless the place... what exactly did he do and did he leave any sacred object in the house?"
His questions were building, brick by brick, the complete picture of the paranormal event.
Meanwhile, Lorraine, from the moment she sat down, had closed her eyes and placed her hands gently on her knees, entering a state of light trance to perceive the story impregnated in the walls of the house in a way that transcended the five senses.
Leaning comfortably on the arm of a single sofa a little apart, Lief watched them in silence.
'So these are the famous Warrens...' he thought noting the seriousness and lack of charlatanism in their procedure, 'It seems they really have some skills.'
"I have a pretty clear picture, Mia."
When the woman finished her story, Ed nodded gravely, processing the data, and then turned gently toward his wife.
"Lorraine, what are you really perceiving here?"
Lorraine opened her eyes slowly, as if emerging from a deep and exhausting trance, and the color had left her face almost completely, leaving her with an expression of fragility that contrasted with the firmness of her voice.
"It is... extremely negative, Ed. I can feel an ancient and dense malice entrenched on the floor above, waiting," she whispered, "We are not dealing with a resentful human spirit or a residual ghost, this... this is something inhuman. Mia, listen to me carefully: under no circumstances should you allow your daughter to touch that doll again."
"But... what exactly is that thing?" asked Mia with fear.
"It is a demonic entity that has never walked the earth in flesh and blood," Lorraine explained with precision. "The doll itself is just an object, but this entity is using it as a conduit, a beacon to anchor itself in this reality. Its goal is not to scare you, it wants to manipulate your daughter's innocence to gain her trust and erode her will little by little, seeking the final possession of a human body."
!
Mia covered her mouth with both hands to stifle a sob, while her body began to tremble uncontrollably.
"T-Then what should we do? Is there any solution?"
"First we need to perform an evaluation of the room," said Ed, standing up and picking up his equipment box. "We must confirm the intensity of the infestation before proceeding. If my suspicions are correct, it is very likely that a formal exorcism rite authorized by the Church will be required."
"I understand... it's upstairs, in the room at the end of the hall," indicated Mia, getting up on shaky legs to guide them, but Lief helped her.
The group began the ascent to the second floor.
This time, the atmosphere felt infinitely more oppressive than before; with Lorraine's "official validation," the invisible fear permeating the house had become concrete and tangible.
Upon pushing open the door to the child's room, a wave of icy air and a subtle stench of rot rushed over them, such a density that it made it difficult to breathe.
Ed and Lorraine's expressions changed instantly.
"There it is," Lorraine pointed out, indicating the doll sitting on the white chair in the center of the room, which seemed to observe their entrance.
Ed placed the black box on the floor and opened the metal latches with a snap.
The interior revealed wooden and silver crucifixes, glass vials with liquids, bibles, rosaries, and a tape recorder.
With quick movements, he took out a glass vial containing liquid, unscrewed the cap, and, reciting a prayer in Latin in a low voice, threw a few drops directly toward the doll.
Hiss!
The sound was identical to boiling oil falling, and a wisp of black smoke rose from the fabric of the doll's dress, impregnating the room with an unbearable stench.
!
The doll jerked in the chair, and those glass eyes, previously inert, seemed to come to life, turning slightly to fix a "gaze" directly on Ed.
The room temperature plummeted in a second, and the pictures on the walls began to vibrate and bang against the plaster with a maddening rattle.
"The entity has been provoked and is manifesting!" Ed shouted to make himself heard over the noise, holding up a silver crucifix in front of him like a spiritual shield. "Lorraine, stay behind me!"
Lorraine's body swayed, overwhelmed by the psychic vision that assaulted her.
"I see... I see blood..." she gasped, her face contorted with pain. "I see a girl... a terrible death... her soul is being mimicked and imprisoned... she is screaming!"
The situation was escalating rapidly into chaos; Ed was reciting prayers, Lorraine was fighting the visions, and Mia, paralyzed by terror, cowered in the doorframe, not daring to breathe.
It was then that a calm voice cut through the noise from behind.
"Well, this is dragging on too long. My turn."
Everyone turned their heads sharply toward the source of the voice and froze at what they saw.
Lief was standing behind them, but he was no longer the quiet young man in the trench coat.
A soft golden halo had begun to expand slowly with him as the epicenter, a tide of warmth that physically pushed the cold and darkness toward the corners of the room.
The light intensified exponentially in a matter of moments, passing from a faint glow to a blinding brilliance, until a column of solid and pure light seemed to burst from his being, condensing above his head to form a perfect sacred halo that floated and spun majestically.
The whole room was illuminated with absolute clarity, as if the sun had exploded!
"Oh... my God..." Mia whispered, covering her mouth, her eyes full of tears, but without fear.
The warm light enveloped her like a physical embrace, instantly dissolving the terror in her heart and replacing it with a deep and absolute peace she had never felt.
But Lorraine's reaction was the most visceral.
As a medium, what she was "seeing" far transcended the visual spectacle. Where others saw light, she perceived the essence.
Amidst that golden glow, she couldn't detect any trace of ritual, prayer, or borrowed faith; what emanated from Lief was... His own power!
It was as if an angel... no, as if the very will of God, had torn the veil of reality with His own hands to pour a drop of the Kingdom of Heaven directly into the bedroom.
The headache and nausea caused by the evil entity evaporated instantly under the authority of that presence.
"Ed... Ed, look at him!" exclaimed Lorraine, her voice trembling with emotion, pulling hard on her husband's sleeve.
Ed, the veteran who had looked evil in the eye a thousand times, had his mouth wide open, and his fingers had lost their strength, almost letting the silver crucifix slide from his hand.
He looked at Lief, crowned by that halo of light and bathed in those particles, and his rational mind went completely blank.
He had traveled all over the world, had documented miracles, stigmata, and relics, but the scene unfolding before his eyes shattered all his paradigms.
A human being generating his own holiness? A person shining and manifesting a tangible halo without reciting a single verse?
'What kind of living miracle is this boy?'
Completely ignoring the petrified figures of the Warrens and Mia behind him, Lief advanced step by step toward the doll, wearing that shining halo above his head as if it were a natural crown that had always belonged to him.
However, his internal reality was much less solemn and much more human, he felt incredibly proud.
Having the opportunity to deploy his power in front of the Warrens, the legends of the paranormal world, and seeing them in awe... it was simply incredible!
The sensation of showing off and gloating in his own superiority was, sometimes, that simple, direct, and wonderfully vulgar.
Upon arriving in front of the chair, he extended his right hand.
The light condensed in his palm quickly, covering itself with a layer of golden light so dense that it looked like molten metal.
He ignored the hatred and fear he felt from the doll's glass eyes and, slowly, pressed his hand directly onto the synthetic hair.
"Oh, poor lost lamb..." He began, adopting an expression of compassion as he started his performance. "Feel the embrace of this light, the Lord... well, the energy is with you."
"Amen... no, wait... Jesus Christ on high, purify all the sins and the filth that corrupt this vessel!"
He tightened his fingers, digging them into the rag head.
"May your soul find eternal rest and stop being the toy of hell."
!
The instant he applied real pressure, the golden light, which had accumulated in his hand until becoming blinding, broke the dam and rushed frantically inside the doll's body like a torrent of sacred lava.
A black and red light burst from inside the doll, uselessly trying to resist the golden invasion.
"AAAAHHHHH!"
A sharp, absolutely inhuman shriek suddenly erupted from the doll, a wave of pain that hit with such force that the window panes vibrated dangerously with a threatening buzz.
________
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