Free My Demonic Ghost: Banished Spirits by Jacinta Maree Page A

reaching out one bent and exhausted arm to latch onto the door handle. I twisted the knob and fell through, slamming the sun out only seconds behind me; dropping Lock to the floor in weariness. I fell onto my rear, looking over at Lock, still undisturbed from his slumber. Maybe I didn’t need to be so gentle with him after all .
                  I allowed myself a few moments to catch my breath before kneeling up and pulling the blinds down above us. I picked Lock up underneath his arm pits and walked backwards with him, his feet being dragging along the ground. The snores of deep, undisturbed slumber looped down the empty halls as we walked. I paused, waiting for Mum to wake and catch me red handed. But there was no noise coming from inside her room so, quickly, my pace now doubled with adrenaline, I dragged Lock’s body down the hallway, rolling him onto the top of my bed.  The sheets were still kicked back from where I climbed out last night and my pyjamas left flung across the floor. I stretched his body out straight and pulled the sheets up, covering him up to his neck.
    I also wanted to climb into bed, absolutely exhausted and reaching my limit, but instead I rolled myself up and sat guarding the door just in case Mum tried to walk in. I must’ve only gotten two hours of sleep when the door behind me was nudged into my back. My entire body ached. Behind me, I could hear Mum fighting to get into my room and ahead of me was Lock snoring into my pillows.
    “Rachael? Rachael, what-?” I quickly jumped up and turned to my mother, filling the small gap between the door and wall with my body.
    “Yeah, Mum? Something wrong?”
    “Oh...why were you on the floor?” Mum took a step back as I forcibly wedged myself through the door before pulling it to a close behind me. Everything was still in déjà vu-mode, as if I wasn’t really here or this really wasn’t happening. My entire body was tingling; it felt as if I was caught in an alternate reality. Sleep deprivation does weird things.
    “I was looking for something that I dropped, for umm... my sock. I was looking for my sock and I found it,” I laughed, lifted my right foot and wiggled my toes underneath the fabric of my sock. Mum didn’t look like she was convinced but, nevertheless, nodded her head. I thanked her for her ignorance with a small smile.
    “Well, I need you to send off some mail for me down at the marketplace, I’m just too busy to do it myself. I have so much organising to do.” Dianne motioned downwards as if the chores she needed to tackle were sitting there in front of us. Her hand slipped into the pocket of her sweats and she took out a small bundle of dry brown envelopes tied together with string.
    “Oh, geez.  Sorry, but to be honest, I don’t think I’m feeling up to it.” I wasn’t being honest, and I hated how I felt that I had to lie constantly. I never really was the best liar, but with Lock here as motivation, I’m sure to get a lot of practise.
    “It’ll only take a second. Please honey, I’m going out of town for a bi-”
    “Oh wait, you’re not going to be at home?” My voice accidently came off as too enthusiastic to cover myself.
    “Just for a little while.” I noticed she hadn’t questioned me about what I’ve been doing, all my sneaking around and conspiracy. Either she didn’t notice or she didn’t care.
    I took the envelopes with a half-smile. We didn’t have a car so we had to walk everywhere. I stood outside the front door, waving subtly to my departing mother, but still alert to the sleeping corpse upstairs. As Mum disappeared, I was back upstairs before the door even had a chance to close behind me.  I didn’t bother changing my clothes, not seeing the point in walking back out into the mud when my jeans were already dirtied, though the damp material was very uncomfortable. I glanced inside my bed room only once, checking on the still sleeping Lock, before lightly closing the door and