1.

'Excuse me', said a sharp voice in Ba'al's mind – the kind of voice that didn't sound like it really wanted to be apologetic about anything. 'What are you doing here?'

Ba'al looked around with its new human eyes but didn't see anyone else in the room.

'Hey, don't spin on those heels so hastily. They are my favourite shoes.'

'Who are you?' asked Ba'al, returning the annoyed tone. 'And why are you talking to me?'

'Now that is nice. You grabbed me, hurt me a lot, and now you ask me who I am and what I'm doing here. I'm living here! It's my body!'

'You're not living anywhere,' retorted Ba'al. 'You're dead. I killed you, got inside your body and took your place.'

Ba'al was sure this point made enough sense to discourage the voice from any further argument but the voice just snorted.

'Funny you should mention it, because it feels just like I ate you. You taste horrible, by the way.'

'Not that you taste any better. Now do keep quiet, I have an important job to do.'

'And what is that?' asked the voice, ignoring the part about keeping quiet.

Ba'al didn't want to encourage the voice by answering, but the question was about Ba'al's duties and there was nothing that made Ba'al feel more proud than talking about its duties.

'To prepare the way for the Great Malevolence himself. To open the gates of Hell. And to make sure no human gets in the way,' announced Ba'al. Then added: 'If you were here all along, you must have heard most of it.'

'I did. I was just too bothered by other concerns. Having your insides squished and twisted usually does this to you,' said the voice sulkily.

This time Ba'al resisted the temptation to answer back and concentrated its will to keep the voice quiet. Fortunately, the voice obeyed rather easily. Had the voice insisted on talking, Ba'al wasn't sure how to keep it quiet without destroying the body. And the body was essential for the plan, so, for just a while, the presence of the voice had to be put up with.

Surely the small voice of a dead woman was no threat for an ancient powerful demon, there couldn't be any doubt about that.

Author's comment:

Just uploaded 2 first chapters. I'll upload more when I've done basic spell-check and editing, it won't take long. The story IS finished, no worries about that. I won't make the mistake of uploading unfinished stories, ever, I promise.)

Whoa, I'm finally trying to get back to writing! Life has been very busy and messy throughout the (previous) year and it's thanks to the luxury of Christmas holidays that I was finally able to enjoy myself and write something fun and non-work-related.) I also hope to catch up with the stories I missed during the year. ^^