Night Light

Little Jimmy was being put to bed by his mom. She was about to turn off the light when he asked her to leave on the night light. She gave him a speech about him being too old for a night light. Nevertheless, she left it on and closed the door when she left his room. With fear in his eyes, he clung to his pillow and stared at the wall across from his bed. Shadows of scary shaped began appearing on his wall. He pulled his blanket over his head and kept whispering that the monsters weren't real.

His parents and three of their friends sat around a pentagram in the living room, busy performing a summoning ritual. Thinking of their interest in the occult as nothing more than interesting supernatural fun, they had let dark spirits into their home, all of which wanted to possess little Jimmy. The others in the circle were chanting strange words while throwing out evil energies, but none of them realized that their ritual was not going well. Their chants were becoming incoherent. One of the demons was having trouble controlling itself. It tried to possess one of the other men in the circle, but couldn't control its body and ended up falling right in front of them. Everyone stopped chanting and stared at the strange being in front of them. Some were frozen with fear. Others stared at the hideous being in awe. The demon looked at everyone in the circle before it locked its sights on Jimmy's mom. It flew straight into her chest and began fighting with her soul to take over her body.

Everyone in the group screamed just as loud as Jimmy's mom as her body was lifted off the floor and tossed across the living room. Her body struck the wall and fell in between the couch and recliner. Jimmy's dad tried to help his possessed wife while all of their friends ran out the door screaming. Jimmy's dad felt powerless as he tried to grab hold of his wife, but her body was being tossed around the room, and then tossed down the hall. Her body was heading straight to their son's room.

Jimmy heard a loud crash behind him and turned around to see what had happened. His mom's body had come crashing through his door. Lying unconscious on the floor, blood dripping from her mouth. He called out for his father. When he didn't answer, he knew something terrible had happened. He could see more shadows appearing on his wall. His father ran into his room and tried to help his mom. The man was in tears. He could see his wife's eyes glowing and heard her making a strange inhuman growling noise. When he crouched down beside her and put his hands on her, she let out a loud growl and swung her fist at him. The the sheer supernatural force of her punch sent his body slamming against the wall. His wife began climbing on top of him, trying to get at his soul.
Jimmy could hear his father crying out in pain. He grabbed his night light, gripped it tightly in his trembling hands and pointed it at his mom as he got off of his bed.

"Don't hurt him!" Jimmy yelled with tears in his eyes.

The demon looked back at the boy. Seeing him as an easy target, it let go of Jimmy's dad and turned to the boy. Jimmy's heart was racing. He saw how his mom's head began to shake so fast that her face began to look like nothing more than a blur. Holding his night light out in front of him like a sword, he somehow believed that his night light had magical powers similar to the magical powers the swords of the characters in the cartoons he watched had.

He held his breath as he prepared to strike his mother's head with the light. He swung his arm forward and the light struck his mother on her stomach. Being too small and young to have any real physical strength, he barely struck her hard enough to leave a bruise. A bright flash filled the room. Hurt and dazed, Jimmy's dad got up and grabbed hold of her from behind.

"Leave us alone!" Jimmy yelled as he struck her on the hip with the night light. "Go away shadow monster! You're not real!"

The little boy's bravery and faith in the power of his night light was stronger than the evil powers of this demon. After striking his mother's hip once more with the night light and yelling at the demon to leave his mom alone, the demon was forced out of her body. It let out screams that sounded like ten people screaming in agony as it flew down the hall and was sucked back into the portal in the middle of the pentagram.

Two weeks later, Jimmy and his parents got up early on a Sunday morning and went to church. None of his parents' old friends who still dabbled in the occult ever contacted them again.