Rachel
What do you mean something’s taken over my mother’s body?
Rachel
How is that even possible?
Gran
Because I did a terrible thing.
Gran
But I did it for you.
Rachel
What?! What did you do?
Gran
You know how your mom got so sick last year?
Rachel
Yes, but that’s behind us now.
Gran
No. The truth is she never got better.
Rachel
Is that why she’s acting this way now?
Rachel
But she was fine after she got out of the hospital!
Rachel
At least until recently.
Rachel
Come to think of it…
Rachel
She HAS been acting strange these past couple weeks.
Rachel
But I thought that was just from being sick.
Rachel
And her grief over Dad dying.
Gran
She IS different, Rachel.
Gran
And it’s all my fault.
Gran
The truth is I couldn’t let her go.
Gran
Your dad had just died too.
Gran
And I couldn’t have you lose both parents
Gran
One after the other.
Rachel
What are you saying, Gran?!
Rachel
I don’t understand.
Gran
You would have been an orphan, Rachel!!
Gran
Try to see where I was coming from.
Gran
Your mother was about to die.
Gran
The chaplain had administered the last rites.
Rachel
Why didn’t you tell me she was about to die?
Rachel
I should have been there!
Gran
Because I was NOT going to let her die.
Gran
And that was when the devil came to me.
Gran
He appeared above your mother’s hospital bed.
Gran
And he said he would make a deal with me.
Rachel
What kind of a deal?
Gran
You may not know this, Rachel.
Gran
But just as a person’s spirit slips away from their body
Gran
A blood relative can intercept it in the devil’s presence.
Gran
And act on behalf of the person who is about to die.
Rachel
They can? That seems wrong!!
Gran
Everything the devil does is wrong, Rachel.
Gran
But sometimes it’s a wrong in the service of a right.
Gran
Or what seems like a right at the time.
Gran
And so, on behalf of your mother…
Gran
I allowed the devil to take control of your mother’s spirit.
Gran
So she could stay alive.
Rachel
That’s so selfish, Gran!
Gran
It was partly for me, yes, I’ll admit it.
Gran
But it was mostly for you.
Gran
What if your mother had died that day, Rachel?
Rachel
I don’t know! I guess I might not have survived that…
Rachel
It was just two months after Dad died in the accident.
Gran
You see? It would have been too much for you to handle.
Rachel
I could have come and lived with you.
Rachel
Mom and I talked about that.
Rachel
When we thought she wasn’t going to make it.
Gran
Of course I would have taken you in.
Gran
But nothing compares to a mother’s love.
Gran
That’s what I told the devil that day
Gran
When I sold my own daughter’s soul to him.
Rachel
Gran, I’m scared to ask you this.
Rachel
But what kind of deal did you make with the devil?
Gran
The devil told me he is creating a new army of disciples on earth.
Gran
And that they will be all women.
Gran
Because women are the strongest human beings.
Gran
And they have a kind of power that he needs.
Gran
He picked your mother to be one of the first.
Gran
Because he could see how special she is.
Rachel
Oh Gran! Of course I know Mom is special.
Rachel
But why did the devil think so?
Gran
He said she has the heart of a warrior.
Gran
And that she was born in the wrong time.
Gran
He is going to make sure she has a chance to show her true strength.
Rachel
Mom IS strong, Gran.
Rachel
But now that strength will be used toward evil.
Rachel
Why did you make that deal, Gran?
Rachel
You should have let Mom die.
Rachel
Instead you let her spirit get taken over by the devil.
Gran
I know. It was a terrible mistake.
Gran
I was weak. I’m sorry.
Rachel
Is there anything we can do now?
Rachel
I’m scared just thinking about what the devil might do!
Rachel
Mom wouldn’t want to be used that way.
Gran
There IS one thing we can do.
Gran
Your mother is still part human.
Gran
Every day, the devil sucks a little more humanity out of her spirit.
Gran
Tonight, at midnight, the final piece of her humanity will disappear.
Gran
The devil will gain full control over her.
Rachel
Oh my god, Gran. Then what?
Rachel
Gran! Answer me. Please.
Gran
That noise you heard tonight was your mother trying to hang on to that small struggling piece of humanity she still has left inside her.
Gran
The devil was right.
Gran
Your mother is a very strong woman.
Gran
And yet, he knows she will be all his tonight.
Gran
Meet me at the graveyard, Rachel.
Gran
At your great-grandmother’s grave.
Just then, Rachel hears twigs cracking in the woods.
But it isn’t REALLY her mom.
And she is holding a knife.
