Thank you for all of the reviews! I'm glad you like the concept of Lyserg being possessed by Hao.

WARNING: The following chapter may be offensive to those who have strong religious views.

Possession – Chapter 4

It was official. I was in hell.

The first thing I did after I ate dinner was shower. Not just an 'I'm dirty I need to be clean shower'. No, I had a 'stand under a fountain of scalding water until I almost poached myself alive kind of shower'. And I stayed in that shower until the water ran cold.

I stood in front of my bathroom mirror not caring that my skin was still lobster red from both the hot water and the scrubbing. I'd never felt so dirty in my life. Hao Asakura the greatest evil I'd ever known was inside me. The horror just kept reverberating through her head.

What was I going to do? I couldn't go to sleep, because Hao would take control of my body and kill again, but it wasn't as if I could stay awake forever.

"Morphine?" I called out not surprised to find her flying into my view almost instantly. I'd been feeling her distress almost as keenly as my own. I know most would look at my tiny friend and fail to realize how strong she really was but that would be their foolishness.

"Morphine, I need you to try and help me." Looking at the fierce determination on her diminutive face I only felt pride and reassurance that she would do everything in her power to help me. "I need to put you into the pendulum and tie me to the bed tonight. I can't let Hao out with my body, but I don't know how long I can hold spirit control. Is their anyway you can try to stay in the pendulum even after I go to sleep?"

At first she didn't react. Like she wasn't really sure of what I was asking of her, then she slumped her shoulders and shook her head sadly. I could tell she was disappointed she was unable to do as I asked.

"That's alright," I tried to reassure her "I didn't really think it would work either, I was just desperate." I must have cooked a few brain cells in the shower along with my skin. There was no way she could keep the pendulum's chain around me without my aid. So now I was back to square one. Then inspiration hit me.

"Benny." I ran to the phone and dialed his cell number praying he hadn't let the battery go un-charged again. When I heard the ring on the other end I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding.

"Hello?"

"Benny? It's me; I need your help right away. Can you come over?"

"Sure kid, anything wrong?" he asked concerned.

"Yes, but I'll tell you when you get here."

He arrived at my house in record time. He wasn't three steps in my door when I asked him "I need you to handcuff me."

"Excuse me?" he asked "You want to start that story again from the beginning?"

I didn't really want to tell him, but I owed him a pretty good explanation. "I figured out how Hao came back." I braced myself to tell the man who was practically a foster parent to me and a damn good cop that I was the one killing these people but he interrupted me.

"Through you." He said soberly. When he caught the surprise on my face he asked. "What? I'm a cop. You say you know how this guy came back and ask me to cuff you; did you think I couldn't figure out?"

"He takes over my body when I'm asleep. I need you to handcuff me to my bed."

Despite the gravity of the situation, he started to chuckle. "Why Lyserg I'm flattered, but I think Liz might get jealous."

I'd been so preoccupied with Hao that it took me a moment to get the joke. Then I laughed too. I really needed the laugh.

After a little more persuasion, he agreed to cuff me to the bedpost. Originally he wanted to stay in the spare room, but I insisted he go home. "Just don't forget to come by and unlock me tomorrow morning."

"You sure kid?"

"Yeah, now go before Liz really does get jealous."

He gave me a small grin "You don't need anything else? Sure you don't need to go to the loo? I'd hate for you to have an accident."

I laughed at him again "Just go!"

I listened while he left my house and locked the door with his spare key. My whole body tensed for attack as soon as I heard the lock slide shut.

As the minutes passed and nothing happened, my muscles slowly began to loosen. After more minutes they started to feel uncomfortable. After forty-five minutes they were back up to tense from discomfort.

Let me just say that sleeping while chained to a bed is in no way comfortable. You can't move around like you normally would. It gets very annoying very quickly.

Eventually exhaustion that was probably induced by the stress of the day caught up with me and I fell asleep. I don't really remember when I fell asleep I just remember when I started to dream.

The landscape was a typical dream landscape always changing with some things mismatched or misplaced like a mountain that's really an elephant's leg, stuff like that.

But the one thing that remained constant in the shifting dreamscape was Hao standing looking at me with that same disgusted sneer on his face he always reserved for us lesser beings.

"What do you want Hao? I'm not letting you out with my body."

"I'm not worried about that. But I do think its time I taught you some manners." Quick as a flash he was on me.

One moment he was standing several paces away the next moment a bright starburst appeared before my eyes and a stinging pain on the left side of my face where he punched me. His speed was impossible. By the time my brain processed that I'd been hit, he'd hit me several more times in the face and stomach. The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth and my whole body was nothing but a mass of pain.

How the hell was he doing this? This was just a dream wasn't it? More importantly, it was my dream. How could he have control here? Did he find some way to make me think I was feeling pain in my dream? Maybe it was like hypnotic suggestion.

Whatever it was it was working. I couldn't do more than prop myself up on an elbow while he looked down on me.

"I've had just about enough of your attitude." He said adding a kick to my ribs sending me sprawling. "I am so sick… of you… calling me evil," he added with another kick in each pause "when all I was doing was trying to save the earth from what humans were doing to it. I was trying to save both the earth and our way of life and you think you have the right to judge me?"

He paced away from me which gave me a moment to catch my breath. "You're so full of shit." I wheezed at him.

He didn't bother to respond, just turned to look back at me like I had some nerve speaking without permission.

"You're so full of shit." I repeated "You may have started out with good intentions, but those were gone long ago. It's not about saving the earth anymore, it's about you! The great Asakura Hao! All the crap you put us through was about you wanting to show the world your greatness!"

Eventually I had managed to stand although I think all of the gasping and groaning I did took some of the impact away from my little speech. "Others have been given great power, but you were the only one to squander it. Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed, they used their gifts and wisdom to help guide others. You just wanted to know what was in it for you. To rule your great 'Shaman only' kingdom!" I sneered sarcastically back at him. No mean feat considering I could feel my lip was split and bleeding and my cheek was already starting to swell.

I'm not sure if what I said to him was getting through or if he was just to shocked that I had enough strength to talk back at him but instead of a clever comeback he used that inhuman speed again an gripped his hands on my throat. "Shut up." He commanded.

Humph, who did he think he was kidding? I wasn't a naïve little boy anymore. I knew he wouldn't actually kill me. After all, he needed me. Of course that didn't stop him from doing as much damage as he wanted. He was like the unwanted party guest that wrecked your home before you managed to kick him out.

"It's a Shaman's duty…" I gasped out but couldn't finish the thought before I had to try and collect more air into my lungs. Almost as an afterthought, I remembered the little bit of hand to hand Benny made me take.

I lowered my chin and turned my head to the side as much as I could. I then punched my one hand through Hao's arms clipping him in the jaw in the process. Last I swept the other arm overtop of his while spinning around and managed to free myself enough to bring much needed air into my lungs.

"The others were peaceful, kind and accepted their roles with humility. I doubt you could even find humility in the dictionary. As much as I hate you, I admit you could have been great. I've seen enough people charmed by you to know normal humans would have listened to you .You could have helped guide humans away from pollution and the stripping of the earth's resources but your ego got in the way."

Once again Hao launched himself at me but this time I blocked the punch. "You think you know everything?" He snarled at me. It appeared that his control of my dream was not as absolute as I'd thought. His control slipped a little bit the angrier he got.

Still, that left him with a hell of a lot of control.

"You weren't there. You were never forced to feel people's jealousy of you or hear their plots to kill you. Even my own parents were afraid of me. I would have been content to commune with the spirits of nature for eternity, but they wouldn't let me."

"You had a duty!" I countered.

"I didn't want my duty! I wanted to be left alone!" Hao yelled and attacked me again. But this time there was something odd about his attack.

It was like you see in the movies where a dream melts into reality. One moment Hao had my shoulder in a painful grip, and then the grip was less painful and belonged to Benny who was trying to shake me awake.

"Lyserg! Kid, are you up?" he asked peering into my face.

It took me a moment to focus my eyes on him. As soon as I did I could make out the alarm in his face along with the pain in mine. I answered him with a groan.

"Jesus kid what happened?" he asked while unlocking the cuff on my wrist.

"Hao." I answered, but it sounded more like a whimper of pain. Ugh I hurt all over. I surveyed what I could of my body. It was nothing but one big throbbing pain. My wrist was raw and bleeding where the cuff had bitten into it and I could see bruises blooming like strange flowers across my torso.

"How?"

"I'm not really sure. He attacked me in my dream but somehow he made it real." I said gently fingering my neck knowing there would be bruises there.

Yeah okay, so he kicked my ass. But I think I gave him something to think about too.

tbc