“When I bought it, the house looked miserable.” When his family moved to their modern estate villa in Mexico, David Shatner, a forensic professor at the city University, said to his spouse, and the two children, John and James.

              “I had to get it decorated by an interior designer before we could move in today.” David sat on the couch boastfully with a beer mug in his hand. His one leg crossed over the other. His children meandered around their new house. Sophie Shatner, his wife, sat with him. She ran a small business that offered internet and cable services. David Shatner had a traditional-modern theme used to decorate his villa. His love for his heritage and desire to live in a stylish modern space were both reflected in this style. A perfect fusion of the traditional and modern, ethnic embellishments, furniture, and wall hangings could be seen throughout the modern layout. A small wooden wall-mounted bar was on the left side of the corner and two bedrooms opened diagonally to the spacious living room, which featured lavish and comfortable sofas. The modular kitchen, painted in a vibrant shade of green calmed any beholder’s eyes. A short flight of stairs took visitors to the first floor with two bedrooms and further to the terrace. The stairs had carved wooden handrails.

The next morning, at 7:30 am sharp, both boys awoke and quickly came downstairs from their first-floor bedroom to join their parents at the dining table for breakfast at 8:00 am.

              “Hope you both slept well at night,” David asked them as he spread butter on the toast with a butter knife. He quickly cut one slice for each of them and slid their glasses of milk with chocolate syrup toward them. Their mother cut an apple into four pieces and placed one portion on each plate.

               “Dad!” James, the youngest of the two sons, said. He had a dreadful look on his face. His speech fumbled.

              “What?” His father questioned.

              “A doll-like girl walked into our bedroom at night,” He said.

              “What?” His father inquired again with a spooked look and widened eyes.

              “A doll-like girl entered our bedroom at night.” He repeated. David stopped chewing the morsel in his mouth. Sophie, too, solidified.

              “Hah! You helped your mother in packing the day before, so you must have got exhausted. What you saw is named a ‘dream’.” While his mother ran her hand through her son’s hair, his father said with a fatherly smile spread across his face.

              “No, I saw a girl, or rather a mature lady. She was about three and a half feet tall, a midget.” James was in the tenth grade and mature enough to describe a lady.

              “How come you didn’t wake me up?” John, two years elder to him and in grade 12, questioned his younger brother.

              “I did.” James’s voice shook as it emerged from his epiglottis. “But you said she had come for you. You had your eyes closed, but you knew what she wore. You asked if I looked at a petite lady dressed in a black T-shirt and white pants?” The conversation moved in a creepy direction which their parents could not understand how to react to.

              “Hah, I don’t remember speaking to you last night, brother.” John burst out laughing.

              “Dad is right; you must have dreamt.”

               “James, my son, look at me.” Their father stepped in. “When we sleep and when we are too tired, our brain hallucinates. So, I believe we should set all of that aside and enjoy our Sunday. Let’s go out for boating and have a delicious lunch in a nice restaurant before returning home.” Both boys jumped joyfully. Their mother, Sophie, smiled as she saw how happy her sons became. Both children ran upstairs to get dressed, while the parents went to their rooms on the ground floor, minutes after the family got into the car and sped off towards the lake. 

“Oh, my goodness!” Sophie Shatner screamed as she unlocked the front door and pushed the planks inside the house to open when they returned in the evening. Her husband and both her sons rushed to her aid. Sophie’s palms covered her mouth evading a further scream, her eyes opened widest ready to leap out of her skull. Her face had turned purple because of an unknown fear, and her heart beat rapidly collided with her rib cage several times.

              “Goodness. What’s all this?” David yelled. The artefacts rolled on the tiled floor with a squeaking sound, dismantled paintings from the walls swayed like pendulums, couches toppled upside down, and all the drawers from the expensive wooden decoration cabinets stood pulled out.

               “Robbery,” He murmured. “We must immediately inform the police.” David reached into his trouser pocket and took out his cellphone.

              “Wait.” Sophie intervened. “First, let’s go inside and see if anything has gone missing, or was it just someone trying to search for something?”

They went inside. David was first in line, followed by James, Sophie, and John. They gathered in one spot and scrutinised. Their pupils raced violently inside their eyes, not wanting to miss anything. Sophie screamed once more, this time piercing everyone’s ears. All three men turned to face her before observing her direction of gaze. It startled everyone when they noticed a bloody mark on the wall of a tiny palm with all its fingers bent awkwardly. Sophie caught her head with both her hands as her legs wobbled. Her kids helped her to get to a chair nearby, preventing her from falling. While David skulked closer to examine the wall mark, James hurried into the kitchen and quickly grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator. As David gazed intently, a face with severe skeletal dysplasia with underdeveloped upper lips, stained antique bronze teeth, bleeding gums, elevated cheekbones, and swollen eye sockets emerged from the impression. He backed up a few steps in horror. A tiny hand from the wall grabbed his throat and drew him to the wall. His legs flailed as he got lifted into the air. His body affixed to the wall. In a whisper, a voice said, “John is mine.” David looked at the face as he turned his head. A moment after, the virtual face laughed and disappeared in the background. David fell to the ground. That none of her sons attempted to assist surprised him. Moving toward his wife and sons, he got to his feet. He saw himself talking on his cellphone at the threshold of the main door, and his children busily comforting their mother. David rubbed his eyes to see once more. He couldn’t believe what he saw.

              “Was the experience a delusion?” he murmured. His head whirred as he collapsed.

              “If the voice had not mentioned my son, I wouldn’t have been the slightest concerned.” Speaking to the man who had sold him the villa, David said. The house owner sat across from David at a table in his university cabin after he was summoned by him.

              “Sir, you are a professor; do you believe in all these?” The man enquired with a sinister grin on his face. “Some people warned that the property once housed a cemetery. Despite their naïve fantasy, I purchased the land.” He said as he sipped his coffee.

              “That makes sense to me. Although I, too, wouldn’t believe a myth if it were told to me, I saw it for myself yesterday.” David Shatner gave a nervous laugh and shrugged.

               “Do not worry, Mr professor. Just relax. You’ve moved into a lovely home.” As the house owner got up from his chair and moved the chair away from him with his legs, he offered his hand for a shake. “I believe I should leave,” he said as he turned and walked away, leaving David behind, pondering.

At 2:00 p.m., David came home for lunch as usual. His wife had prepared his preferred lunch, Chicken curry with hot steamed rice. All of them sat around the dining table. Rishi scanned the room with his eyes.

               “Hmm…! You all cleaned the house incredibly well.” As he bit into a piece of the chicken leg on his plate, he said. Slurping the large portion in his mouth and running it down his throat, he observed a sizable dark blue swell on John’s face. His spoon fell onto the plate with a clanking noise.

              “What’s that on your face?” He questioned as he got up from his chair and made his way over to his son, who sat at the far end of their dining table of eight chairs.

              “In the middle of the night, something bit me,” John answered in a raspy voice.

              “I visited the doctor with him. There is nothing to worry about. Mountains have far too many toxic insects.” His wife informed him. 

              “That’s fantastic.” He replied, looking at her spouse, but swiftly shifted his vision to the vast region of blue on his son’s face. Being a forensic expert, he could distinguish between an insect bite and a human bite. He saw human teeth marks where the swelling had been.

              “Why didn’t the doctor notice?” He wondered to himself as he returned to his chair and sat down. He took quiet meals. Everyone ate in silence. It appeared he and his family had fallen into a trance.

              “Umm…John!” After distantly observing his son’s face, David broke the silence.

               “Do you recall a friend of yours who had a diminutive mother? Do you remember her name?”

 John reclined in his chair. He looked up at the ceiling.

              “Hannah!” to his father, he responded. “She was a kind woman who was a single mother. She always treated me like I was her son. I remember, Dad.”

              “When the mother and daughter got killed in their home, you were only ten years old. Nobody was ever aware of what transpired.” David groaned. “Are you able to recall her face?” David asked his son another question before he could take another morsel into his mouth.

              “Just a little, dad.” He responded.

               “Yeah!” In agreement with what his son said, David nodded. “A single mother who loved young boys, a frustrated and unsatisfied petite woman. She had a history of child abuse I am familiar with because we interacted frequently. Though, at work, she was among the best lab assistants the college had.” Their father’s comment baffled the two boys while Sophie turned to face her husband. After eating their lunch, both boys got up and went upstairs to study.

              “Do you doubt her?” Sophie Shatner inquired with a spooky extension on her face, the result of a fear of a ghost who lived in the house with them and losing her son to the dwarf lady. As her husband nodded in agreement, her heart sank. She sobbed.

               “Don’t worry, honey; I will handle this. I have already summoned an exorcist from the Church who should arrive any minute.” David wrapped his arm around his wife’s neck. He stroked her cheek to comfort her.

The doorbell rang shortly after. Sophie quickly picked up all the utensils from the table and sprinted into the kitchen while her husband hurried to the front door.

              “Good afternoon, Mr Williams!” David wished the priest who wore a cassock and whose head was clean shaved. 

              “Peace be upon you all.” The priest blessed him.

               “Please come in.” David extended a welcome. But the exorcist got a little reluctant to enter. He closed his eyes and smelled something in the air. Moments later, he opened his eyes and looked at David who still stood in front of him with folded hands.

              “Any problem, father?” While his wife just stared from inside, David asked him.

              “Call the boy to me here,” The priest said vehemently.

              “John!” Sophie called for her son from the living room. John exited the bedroom and came to a halt at the wooden railing. His reddened eyes were turbulent. Tightly clasped fists showed his ferocity and clenched jaw with gritting teeth displeasure with the priest’s arrival. Sophie turned to face her husband, who had his stare fixed on the exorcist’s face. The priest once again closed his eyes and murmured something holy, which prompted John to walk. He climbed down the staircase, but instead of walking towards the main door where the priest waited for him, he turned to his left and opened the backyard door. James, meanwhile, dashed down the stairs and clutched his father’s body, scared. A dreadful atmosphere permeated the air. Everyone stood stunned except the priest who quickly stepped into the house with his right foot first. James walked through the tiny kitchen garden in the backyard on an inhibited footpath. After opening the small steel gate, he entered the field while the exorcist and his father followed him through the trees. As the sky turned into a gloomy shade of grey, a thunderclap caught everyone’s attention. Without further delay, it rained. Until John entered the long-vacant servant’s quarters, the two of them continued to walk. As they neared the servant’s barrack, the priest gestured for David to stay at home as the unseen might harm him. David turned around and walked into the house. Thereafter, the priest followed John alone. As he entered the quarter, he experienced the shock of his life. The stale-looking barrack was a tastefully furnished living room inside, a well-illuminated hallway filled with the essence of a seductive lure.

              “Oh, my dear young man.” Out of nowhere, a midget with a body crooked at awkward angles appeared. She lay on a couch, a seminude.

              “Do you remember how we used to touch each other when I was alive? I was about to explode that day, but your mother’s call made you run home. You disappointed me. I had planned to woo you again someday. But unfortunately, I perished. I lived without a man and looked for love everywhere, but everyone hated me and my looks. The only person who came close to me was you. You must have always liked the way I touched you.” The lady directed her gaze at John, who shook his head in approval. The priest watched silently and hid underneath the window sill.

              “Come have some fun with me. Kiss and caress me all over my body.” In a gurgling voice, the lady commanded. John walked, took a step, stopped, and then walked again under a spell. The lady drew her small frame halfway up and rested her back on the couch’s armrest. As John got too close to her, she spread her arms sideways to embrace him. He knelt and sat on the edge of the couch, transfixed. The lady’s unusually large face, humpback, and irregular body seemed to emit the scent of a pleasurable fusing of two naked bodies; the room instantly became warm, clean, and inviting for the priest as he waited for the holy celestial alignment of the heavenly bodies to move him closer to eliminating the evil dwarf soul. However, he also knew the ‘holy time’ was five minutes behind, and if the bonding occurred, there would be no way to separate them from each other. They were already past the point of no return. It began innocently enough until the lady took command. John struggled against her petite frame. She growled at him, covering his mouth with her own. Transfixed eyes of John stared helplessly at his tormentor. He coughed and felt choked. Suddenly, she came to a halt. Squatting on the couch with both her hands still on John’s bare chest, the sinister lady lifted her head in the air and smelled something before facing the window. The midget had no pupils, socketless eyes, and horrifying cracks with dried bloodlines on her face. She took a step down from the couch and tilted her head at an improper angle. Her head detached from her body and rolled on the floor. It stopped near the window sill. It came to a halt right in front of the priest, who recited ‘verses from the Holy Bible,’ out of fear. The exorcist returned the stare of the socketless eyes. Scared, the priest forgot all the holy verses and stood frozen at a loss for what to do. He hurriedly lifted his cossack and jumped over the head on the ground. The body of the lady, however, out sped him and blocked his path to the door. Exorcist yelled,

              “Help... help...help! Oh, almighty Jesus, please help your child.”

The head on the floor hooted. The priest kicked the head with his leg, causing it to fly and strike the wall behind. Meanwhile, John jumped off the couch and dashed out of the servant quarter. The cry for help seemed to have broken the spell.

              “Ah… ha… ha…!” The head on the floor laughed again. “He can never come out of my spell. I sent him out to bring blood for me, and now you will be my partner for life.” The head on the floor screamed. The noise echoed from the four walls and returned, piercing Priest William’s ears. He covered them with his hands. The head flew over the midget lady’s body. Drenched in sweat, he understood no way to save his life. A creepy smile covered the dwarf’s face. Her hand grabbed the priest’s hand and tossed him to the ground. He yelled in pain. His verses appeared to have failed against the unholy hymns. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst. But nothing happened, and the grip on his hand loosened. Suddenly, the servant quarter dipped into blinding darkness. The only dim light that came in from a nearby lamp post enthralled the exorcist. He got up and ran towards the door, assuming she set him free. As he ran blindly, his cossack loosened, oblivious. He tripped and fell but quickly rose to his feet and dashed again. He wanted to reach a safe place as fast as he could. An emerging shadow broke his marathon. The shadow grew longer as it got closer. The priest tried to run through it but collided with John at the door.

              “If you want to live, run with me.” He babbled to the young boy.

              “No, if you want to live, you must come inside with me.” John pushed him inside the barrack. James joined his elder brother. Priest Williams looked at both boys and instantly realised the evil midget had taken control of them. The faces of both boys were painted white, as if they had remained frozen in a refrigerator for an extended period. Their eyes had vanished into their sockets, leaving two holes behind. Insects crawled in and out of the holes. They only had two slits for their noses. Their teeth were long and pointed, covered with fresh dripping blood. The dwarf pulled both the boys down to her height level and licked all the blood from their teeth. The two boys lunged at the exorcist with a bloodcurdling scream. John reached for his throat while James opened his mouth to gobble him down his throat. The priest fell as he tried to walk backwards, away from them. His eyes were wide open, jaw dropped and widely opened, horror-struck. He wanted to yell for help, but his voice froze in his throat. The midget drunk off of her love grabbed him from behind and threw him on the couch. She sat on top of him and trapped both his hands above his head. When she opened her mouth, a green fluid sputtered out and fell into his mouth. A foul-smelling jelly fluid rolled inside him. He spat to the left of him. Quickly, she filled the man’s throat with her long green tongue that fluttered out of her mouth. He choked and tried to scream incoherently. The pungent smell of the lady’s body was overpowering. Her forbidding gaze appeared to be that of any slayer who looks at its prey before cutting it into pieces for pleasure. Priest Williams lay helpless beneath the midget. She scratched his naked chest with her long metal nails. John and James chuckled as the man screamed with unbearable pain. She yanked her long tongue from her prey’s mouth and wrapped it around his neck. His eyes popped out because the grip was so tight. The lady then bit and chewed on his nose, covering his face in blood. Enjoyed. She bit his ear, chewed, and gulped it down her throat. The priest cried and lay half-dead beneath her tiny frame.

              “You came to take my love away from me. Whoever gets in the way will pay with his life.” With her fat lips, she howled. She dug her forefinger into his eyes and extracted it. The small hand crept under his Cossack.

               “No…no…please!” He begged. “Please let me go. I am a father.”

               “Ah... ha... ha... ha... Wow, a virgin!” She gloated.

Finally, the holy celestial alignment appeared. Thunderous white lightning roared in the sky, briefly lighting up the servant quarter. The midget, John and James looked up at the sky with their pupilless eyes before turning to face the exorcist. They laughed at him.

               “We’ll meet again. Next time, come more prepared.” The midget said before the three of them vanished within a swirl of wet mud from the fields outside.

Priest Williams gathered the strength to walk out of the room. Outside, the night pursued him. He made his way to the back door of the house, from where John had led him, and pushed inside the half-mesh door, which squealed on its hinges. As he walked with his ailment and bloodied face, he tripped over something and landed face first on the concrete floor. He screamed in pain. He quickly rose to his feet and turned to look down. David and Sophie lay dead in a pool of blood.