"It's both. First a parasite, then it attaches to your soul. So it will always have a part of you with it." He looked up at Gavin and sighed. "I can get the bit of your soul back, but you need to let me have it first."

"Can't you just leave me alone?" he asked quietly, looking up at Zenis with a sort of desperate look about him. "I'd really like to try to get well..."

"Um, no, sorry," Zenis said as politely as he could. "I need my Element manifest in order to do my job. I can't just leave it here." He faced Gavin and his eyes turned soft with some sort of assurance. "Like I said, I can help you feel better if you'll just let me."

"Yeah right. You're just gonna take that, that thing and leave..."

"Well, if I help you first, I can't just take that thing and leave, can I?" Zenis cocked his head to one side. A blue sphere lifted from behind him and then hovered towards Gavin. "Here hold that for a bit, okay?"

"What is it?"

"It's my Mizushi Element Manifest. It'll help me understand what's wrong with you." The little sphere bobbed up and down. "It won't hurt you. It's just water."

He hesitated, then reached out to take the sphere into his hand.

The blue sphere melted in his hand and then gently encircled his wrist. Zenis focused on the pale ring of color on Gavin's arm. It held softly, unoffensive in its grasp. And for a long moment, Zenis was silent, eyes intense and focused.

His breathing slowed as he watched the device on his arm, a slight sweat forming on his skin. Whatever was inside of him, it didn't like Zenis' device, and he could feel its dislike for it.

"Mmh." Zenis flicked his fingers towards himself a couple times, as if beckoning the sphere back. The blue orb reformed and then zipped away from Gavin's palm almost as if it were terrified to linger in the first place.
"You're possessed," Zenis concluded. "A weak, lingering Earth spirit with no shell sought a place of refuge in you and now it's wearing away at your body due to the ectoplasmic aura it secretes. At this rate, you'll rot from the inside out."

"Did you do this to me?" he asked, shaking. "You said there was something else wrong with me before... Did you do this to me? Can you fix it?" He was starting to feel sicker, more scared.

"No, I did not do this to you," Zenis said coolly. "I have no powers of Earth specters. And I barely have sway over the Voices of my own Realm. So please, don't insult me in such a way." He stuffed the blue sphere in his pocket and busied himself with pulling the green orb into some thin twine.

"However, yes, I can fix it. I have some expertise in Earthly exorcisms. I'll need four days of your time, though. Meaning you can't leave this house during that time. Sound reasonable?" He glanced up at Gavin to see if he was still clinging to some sort of hope for himself.

"Yeah right," he said, his breath shaky. "You're just going to make it worse..." He went over to the small cage and picked it up, handing it to Zenis. "Get out," he said weakly. "Don't ever bring your hocus pocus back into my life again. This is absurd... The things I've seen from you. I'm not possessed, I've just lost my mind..."

Zenis raised his eyebrows.
"Are you giving this to me? Tell me you are. Clearly. I don't want to go tearing off a part of your soul. That wouldn't be considerate." Completely unfazed by Gavin's cruel words. It was almost as if he hadn't heard a word of it. His head tilted to one side curiously. Yellowish eyes sparkled.

"Do you really think I want to give away part of my soul? No, of course not. But if it means you'll vanish and my sanity will be restored, then just take the damn thing."

"Well then I can't take it, if that's what you're trying to bargain for," Zenis said plainly. "Because even if you give me this, I will not leave. I'll be lingering for a while. And I promise you, without a doubt, that if I take this it won't make any of your sanity return." He shrugged and turned the other way, heading towards the door with no other words.

Over the course of the next week, Gavin's condition greatly deteriorated. It was in the evening, and he had stayed home from work that day, unable to bring himself to leave his apartment.

After taking a long, hot shower, Gavin went about putting a large amount of cat food in a large bowl for Tiki, as well as putting down several bowls of water, and filling the tub somewhat with water.

"The rent money runs out in three days," he told the cat, crouching next to her and gently stroking her back. "They'll find you in a week, tops. Make sure you make your food last until then. I know Diana will take you in once she hears what's happened." The brown tabby looked up at him and meowed, unhappy with the tone of her master's voice.

"I love you," he told her, kissing her between the ears. Standing up, he went into the kitchen and got a glass of water, using it to swallow his entire bottle of prescription pain medication.

The next half an hour was hell, his body covered in cold sweat and trembling, until finally; he collapsed onto the floor, lying still.

There was a horrible, otherworldly screech from inside the apartment, the lights flickering violently and several bulbs blowing out. The spirit left Gavin's body, finding it useless now that it was nearly dead. In a fit of rage, it threw itself out the window, breaking the glass along the way as it fled to find a new host.

Zenis juggled on the sidewalk below. A middle-school boy walked by and stopped to watch for a minute.
"That's dumb. You're supposed to juggle with three, not two!" he yelled, obviously dissatisfied with the performance. He stomped away and Zenis stopped, blinking after his trailing footsteps.

And then a spectral scream filled the air and Embryr wailed. Zenis snapped his head back towards the apartment building and then shot up into the air, practically appearing inside of the building.
"Damn it!" He ran over to Gavin's motionless body and sat him up. A quick glance down at his hand and it was filmed in the Mizushi. "Sorry...."

Zenis forced Gavin's jaw open and gently pressed his fingers against his tongue. The digits pushed back, tickling delicately at Gavin's throat until that gag reflex started working.

After a few moments, he began vomiting up the medication and the water until there was nothing but bile left to come up. He left out a weak groan-like sound, but didn't regain consciousness.

Zenis breathed a bit easier. He'd managed to magically clean up all of the mess that was made, Zepharot now coming in good handy. He mopped the sweat off Gavin's brow and laid him down on the bed once again, covering him up quietly. Then he left to go into the kitchen and busy himself.

Tiki perked her ears and trotted after the stranger, peering up at the back of his head and mewing loudly to get his attention. She wanted to know who it was invading her territory.

Zenis looked down at the cat and gave it a very low and formal bow, not at all like his other awkward ones. He crossed over to the sink and turned on the faucet, drinking from it for a moment before leaving once again. He sat down on Gavin's bed and stared at him, most obviously. The other's body was covered in scars, long gashes and little cuts, but there were so many....

The cat chirped quietly then trotted after Zenis, hopping up onto her master's bed and sitting down by his pillow, staring up at their visitor.

"He'll be okay," he quietly assured the feline. "Just needs some sleep and he'll be fine. All of him."