The devil had vacated his body. Reid fought the urge to continue screaming and forced himself to think logically. He walked into his front room and started scanning his bookshelves searching for anything that could help him right now; anything that could explain what was happening. He wasn't asleep yet this creature couldn't really be here. It certainly seemed real though. It was now hovering in front of him, it's empty black hole eyes bore following him as he paced around the room looking at anything but the demon. Demons. Demons. What did he know about demons.

"For certain minutes at the least, That crafty demon and that loud beast. That plague me day and night, Ran out of my sight; Though I had long perned in the gyre, Between my hatred and desire. I saw my freedom won And all laugh in the sun. William Butler Yeats". He recited.

Even his eidetic memory was failing to bring him any useful information. Except that wasn't the problem here he realised. He was searching the wrong area. It was impossible for an actual demon to be in his house, which meant…

"This is a manifestation produced by my mind as a result of drug withdrawal."

"What if I'm not?" A low voice asked. Reid presumed it came from the demon but couldn't be certain as it didn't actually have a mouth.

He ignored the voice, it didn't exist and therefore couldn't be talking thus it would be irrational to respond. He needed to concentrate on the situation at hand and resolve it. This was easier said than done as the hallucination had now begun following around the room. Thin wispy tentacles had formed and were constantly trying to wrap themselves around his legs. He continued his efforts to ignore them but the "demon" seemed to become more and more persistent until eventually Reid had to grab his sofa to avoid crashing to the floor. He lowered himself onto the sofa – he couldn't be tripped up if he was already sitting. What did he know about drug induced schizophrenia? It could happen during withdrawal. The chance of it happening was…

"It could be schizophrenia".

"No! It can't be." Reid snapped unable to ignore the apparition when it spoke aloud the fear hidden in the corner of his mind.

"Why can't it be? There's no reason it can't be".

Reid refused to answer and closed his eyes in an attempt to block out reality and think clearly about the situation. The demon continued relentlessly.

"Schizophrenia. You knew it was coming. You always knew. You tried hiding from it but here it is".

"Only 1.2% of Americans are diagnosed with schizophrenia. It's statistically improbable!" Reid reasoned covering his ears with his hands.

"But that increases when a parent is diagnosed and you are in the average age for onset". The voice goaded as clearly as before.

"It's not schizophrenia!" He shouted. He grabbed his cushions and held them tightly over his ears.

"You can't block me out, I'm in your head. You know this." It growled. "Why have you suddenly stopped thinking? Could it be the schizophrenia ruining your brain? Why are you so scared of accepting it?"

Reid jumped up angrily, all attempts to ignore the demon abandoned, and stared into the black hole eyes, "Because I've got too much to offer! I can do so much more. If it's schizophrenia then it'll ruin everything!"

"The world doesn't care about fairness!" The demon laughed callously.

Reid sat back down shaking and forced himself to inhale and exhale slowly. "What you have to say doesn't matter. You aren't real."

"Are you sure?"

The smoky figure billowed towards him at an alarming rate until he blocked everything else from sight. Reid closed his eyes and covered his ears once more, determined to ignore it until it disappeared but he could feel the wispy tendrils pulling at his fingers and the smoke pushing behind his eyelids.

"Arghhh!" He involuntarily screamed as his eyes suddenly burned as if someone had poured acid onto them. He ran towards the kitchen, blindly searching for water to pour on them. The pain felt like it had travelled through his whole body and every muscle twitched as if trying to shake out the pain causing him to fall to the floor heavily. THUD! He caught his head on a unit on the way down. He lay on the floor stunned. The pain in his eyes had disappeared as quickly as it had arrived but his vision was blurry and a throbbing headache had already begun to form.

The smoky demon appeared above him. "Now do you accept I'm real?"

"No." Reid spluttered.

The smoke descended on him. Tendrils grasping his throat and smoke filling his mouth, ears, nose and eyes. Reid flailed helplessly on the floor as he struggled to breathe but it was in vain, the grip didn't even loosen. He desperately tried taking a breath but every time he opened his mouth more smoke flooded in. His vision blurred further until he could barely see the unit just inches away. He was going to die. He knew it. He tried to fight, fear and an instinct to survive kept him going right up to the moment his body abruptly became limp.