He watched as she fell in to hysterics and began to cry. Xezerom was familiar with distress and fear in humans- he was so detached from them that it never bothered him in the past- because he could simply send them off to their torment and have them out of sight. But this human- this one he had to deal with one on one. The demon instinctively acted with aggression- he became angry at her weakness. Impatiently he hissed at her,

"A body as in a human body-" but he stopped himself, knowing that explanations were useless. He sensed that she was in a state of delirium and, therefore, would be of no use to him at this point. With a flick he opened the window and slunk out without looking back. He dropped to the ground below- a gravel covered place amongst some bushes.

______

The snow was gross. It clung to him desperately as he sat amongst the bushes. He scanned the streets- currently empty no doubt thanks to this... [i] pure[/i], cold substance. As it touched his skin, however, it hissed and steamed back off of him.

"Now where can I find a body..." He wondered aloud. With care he slunk out from behind the shrubbery and, mindful to keep to the shadows, began to make his way toward the town. The lights and warmth of the houses he passed were an abhorrence to him. He noted that these homes were filled with other humans- although none of them appealed to him- nor did they seem to fill the requirements he was looking for.

"This could take ages."

But no sooner had he said this, as he scaled the side of one of the houses he was trying to get around, did he hear a growl. The demons eyes flicked down to another smaller house in the backyard of this one. From the darkness of this wooden house emerged a hound. It snarled at him and the demon simply grinned.

He dropped down to the snowy ground and stood his ground for a second. The dog, a doberman, growled a warning.

"Pup. Seems like luck is on my side."

Although he would have preferred a human body- animals were much easier to possess and, no doubt, made it easier to move about undetected. Plus, he was desperate, he had been wondering much too long out in the open. At once he was up in the dogs face- it whined out of surprise due to the demons speed and, no doubt, disgusting appearance. Xezerom gripped the dogs throat to stop its crying- which achieved nothing but the dobermans thrashing. It was making too much noise and the demon, out of desperation, turned into smoke.

The purple mist wafted about the dogs legs- it blinked, confused, and snuffled about for the demon. In its search some of the smoke shot up his nose. The dog started in alarm, snorting, trying to get the horrid smell out of his nose- but before long the rest of the smoke, upon its own accord, shot up into the dogs eyes, mouth and nose. It screeched once before its eyes rolled to the back of its head- now replaced by black ones.

Xezerom licked his snout as he trotted out on to the snow, looking about the yard for a moment to regain his bearings. This new perspective would take a few moments to get used to- he rarely ever possessed dogs. He blinked and the dogs brown eyes returned, now only slightly darker but other than that unnoticeable.

There was a door by the yard and no other exits. He skirted over toward this door and snuffled at it- pushed on it- and found that it was locked. An annoyed huff escaped his snout as he sat and stared at the door for a moment. He had no powers of telekinesis so he'd have to physically unlock it. The dog glanced about for a moment before pressing its nose to the door. A thin trickle of smoke escaped its nose and shot through the lock- solidifying into a red finger for a moment. The door creaked open and the finger evaporated into smoke again before returning to the dog. Xezerom's tail wagged, impressed with himself.

Minutes later he was running down the street toward the darker part of town. He needed to find a dark place filled with as much sin as possible- the ideal body would be found there.

____

Ty was nervous- who takes that long to open a door? Was he right in thinking that something horrible had happened to her? He knocked on her door once more, this time he called out to her,

"A-Aspen? Hey uh- its me. Ty. Sorry if this is kinda late but uh- could you open up?" Quickly he took his phone out of his hoodie pocket- he'd call her. Maybe she was sleeping. He quickly dialed her number and leaned against the way across the hall, staring at her door as he listened to the dial tone.