Possess

It’s better that way. Trust me.
    She started to get out of the car, but Matt grabbed her hand. “You’re sure you’ll be okay?”
    “I’ll be fine,” she said with a smile. “Don’t worry. It’s okay now.”
    Bridget checked in at the main security desk of Sonoma State Hospital. Her mood was so different now than it had been the last time she came here. She smiled as she showed her ID and pinned a visitor’s badge on the front of her hoodie.
    A woman in a brown tweed suit clacked down the long hallway. “You must be Miss Liu.”
    Bridget took the outstretched hand and shook it, strong and confident. “I am.”
    “Excellent. I’m Ms. Parker, the lead administrator for Sonoma State Hospital. We’ve been anxiously awaiting your visit.”
    “Thanks.” I just bet you have.
    Ms. Parker motioned for Bridget to follow, and they hurried down the familiar corridor. “A meeting like this is highly unusual.”
    Bridget didn’t say a word, just waited for Ms. Parker to continue her spiel.
    “A patient with Mr. Undermeyer’s history,” she paused. “If the district attorney’s office hadn’t arranged it, an unsupervised visitation would not have been permitted.”
    Bridget remembered her last encounter with Milton Undermeyer and smiled grimly. “Oh.”
    Ms. Parker stopped at the elevator and pushed the up button several times. “I must tell you, Miss Liu, I find this whole arrangement to be highly irregular.”
    Bridget held her smile. Ms. Parker’s annoyance bled through every gesture: the tapping foot, the repeated pushes at the elevator button. Bridget guessed the real reason for her irritability was that no one had consulted her on the day’s “arrangement.” Too bad, so sad, Ms. Parker.
    “It’s true?” Ms. Parker continued. “They’ve reopened your father’s murder case?”
    A few weeks ago, the mention of her dad’s murder would have been a kick in the gut for Bridget, but she felt a new sense of calm about it. “Yes. Mr. Undermeyer is innocent.”
    Ms. Parker stepped into the elevator. “Hmm. Perhaps he can be moved to another facility then.”
    “Oh, I have a feeling you’ll be able to release him entirely.”
    Ms. Parker turned to her with a look of horror on her face. “I doubt that very much. Mr. Undermeyer suffers from one of the most acute cases of paranoid schizophrenia and multiple personality disorders I’ve ever seen.”
    Bridget smiled to herself. Not for long.
    Milton Undermeyer sat at a table in the recreation area. He was still in his straitjacket, and he stared with unseeing eyes at a small television mounted on the wall. She wondered how many hours a day he was confined in that thing. Maybe this would be the last time.
    Ms. Parker stood at Undermeyer’s shoulder and addressed him as she would a small child. “Mr. Undermeyer? There is someone here to see you.”
    His eyes never left the television, and he gave no indication that he’d heard a word she said.
    “Mr. Undermeyer?”
    “It’s okay,” Bridget said. As soon as she spoke, she saw Undermeyer’s eyes flicker in her direction. “I’ll take it from here.”
    Ms. Parker looked from Bridget to Milton Undermeyer and back, then shrugged and clacked her way back to the nurses’ station. Bridget watched her go. What was about to happen would throw that woman’s years of study and research right out the window. Oops.
    Bridget pulled a chair close to him and sat down. “Mr. Undermeyer, do you know who I am?”
    It took a moment for his eyes to focus on her face. He sucked in a quick breath and his eyes unclouded.
    “That’s right. I’m Dr. Liu’s daughter. I’m a Watcher.”
    Tears welled up in Undermeyer’s gray eyes, spilling down his ashen cheeks. “You’re—you’re here to release us?”
    Bridget smiled. “A deal is a deal. You delivered your message.”
    “Amaymon?”
    “Defeated.”
    Undermeyer closed his watery eyes and sighed. “Yes. It is now time.”
    Bridget leaned forward and placed a hand on either side of his sunken face. “Your service to the Watchers is complete. Your penance is done.”
    Bridget paused. She could feel the demons inside, their joy and their longing. Instead of banishing malevolent demons back to Hell, this time she was releasing something good, something repentant. It felt nice.
    “I release you.”
    A shudder rippled through Undermeyer’s body; he went rigid, then he crumpled. Bridget caught him as he slumped forward, pushing his shoulders back against