In a small town in Oregon, social worker Emily is going through a usual day at the office, which includes lots of angry parents and abused kids. She's already got 38 cases on her plate, but her boss Wayne doesn't hesitate to give her a 39th. Emily checks the file and finds a girl named Lilith, so she decides to take it home with a few of her other cases. In the evening, she goes to a bar to meet with her friend Douglas, a psychologist that also works with problematic families. Douglas asks Emily to be more than friends, but Emily turns him down again because she doesn't think her time-consuming job allows her to have a proper relationship. When she returns home, Emily reads Lilith's file and learns her grades have gone down a lot and that she's become very withdrawn.
Emily makes an appointment with the family, and when she shows up at the house a few days later, she notices the mother Margaret looking suspiciously through the window. When Emily knocks on the door, Margaret doesn't open it completely, wary of the presence of a stranger in her house until Emily reminds her of their appointment. Lilith looks at Emily from upstairs shily until Emily shows she's friendly. The three of them get comfortable in the living room, and when Emily asks about the father, Margaret says she doesn't know where he is or when he's coming back. At that moment some noises can be heard coming from the basement, and Emily makes Margaret bring her husband to the meeting. Edward is also wary and instead of talking directly to Emily, he talks into Margaret's ear for her to repeat it.
Edward refuses to acknowledge the family has any trouble and when Emily wonders why he won't speak to her directly, Margaret explains Edward doesn't like speaking out of anger. Later at the office, Emily shares this experience with Wayne, who points out that being scary isn't abuse or illegal. Emily insists she feels something is wrong with Lilith, so Wayne allows her to bring the family for one last interview to see if they can gather evidence. On the day of the meeting, Edward is well-dressed and well-mannered as he swears they love their daughter.
Afterward, Emily tells Wayne that they're obviously acting and Wayne believes her, but he can't do anything without evidence. Emily rushes to find Lilith, bonding with the girl by making her laugh and sharing she's always wanted a sister to talk to. This causes Lilith to open up, and the girl explains she's heard her parents talk about sending her to hell. Emily finally has enough for a proper recorded interview with Lilith, but when Wayne asks the important questions, Lilith sees her father through the window and doesn't say a word. Since once again they don't have any proof, the family leaves. Later Emily goes to see her friend Mike, to ask for his help as a detective.
Unfortunately Mike agrees with Wayne and he'll only help if there's evidence. The next day, Emily shows up at the school and gives Lilith her home number so she can all in case anything happens. In the evening, Emily gets a phone call from Lilith. The girl is feeling very scared and says her parents are "waiting to get her". Then Lilith falls asleep out of a sudden. Emily rushes out of her house and calls Mike to convince him Lilith is in trouble. Edward and Margaret go to Lilith's room and find her hiding under the bed. They take her to the kitchen, where they push her inside the ov*n. At that moment Lilith wakes up and tries to escape as she screams in fear, but her parents tie her up with tape and push her back before locking the over door with more tape and turning it on.
Outside, Emily meets with Mike, who hears Lilith screaming and immediately breaks down the door. They rush inside and Emily's very disturbed by what she finds in the kitchen. She finds a knife and cuts the tape, saving Lilith. The parents try to attack them, but Mike uses his training to easily overpower them and arrest them. Later during the pretrial, the judge decides the parents will go undergo a psychiatric evaluation to decide if they're fit for a proper trial. Afterward Emily goes to the hospital and finds Douglas talking to Lilith, inviting her to join his child therapy group.
After Douglas leaves, Emily informs Lilith that she'll be taken to a children's home. Lilith wants to live with Emily, but Emily points out it's not that simple. The next day, Emily drops Lilith at the children's home and Lilith begins asking to live with her again. Emily again tries to explain why it's impossible and that she isn't mom material, and Lilith says she can't know if she doesn't try. This leaves Emily thinking a lot and she decides to apply to be Lilith's foster parent. Wayne explains she'll have to drop the case because of conflict of interest, but both he and Douglas are supportive. Later Emily makes a presentation to the committee, explaining Lilith needs to be someone she trusts and that her experience with these matters can provide the proper support. Since finding a foster home can take weeks or even months, permission is granted to Emily to bring Lilith home.
Lilith is delighted to see Emily's house and the room that has been prepared for her. Emily tries to be as comforting as she can and since she knows Lilith has trouble sleeping, she brings her tea before bed to help her relax. The next day, Emily goes to Lilith's house to pick up her things. A cop makes her sign some papers and leaves because he has lots to do, so Emily has the chance to snoop around. In the basement she discovers Edward had been digging a grave, and in the parents' bedroom she finds strange marks on the floor. She also finds extra deadbolts on the door, which makes Emily think they were crazy after all. Meanwhile Lilith goes to group therapy where she hears Diego share the bad situation he's going through at home and school. The following day, Emily arrives at the office and learns some horrible news: Diego killed his parents last night. Emily rushes to the scene of the crime and is shocked to see the slaughter as Mike explains Diego locked all doors and windows before using a tire iron to do the killing. It's hard for Emily to believe a kid could do this but Mike explains he saw how it took three cops to subdue the child.
At that moment their conversation is interrupted by a dog violently barking at them, which Mike clearly dislikes. Afterward Emily goes to see Diego at the detention center, and the kid has a breakdown when he sees her. Later in the afternoon, Emily and Lilith go for a walk at the harbor and Lilith asks Emily for details about her life, so Emily shares she never met her dad and that her mom had problems. Lilith points out that Emily must've been scared of her mother because she doesn't like to talk about her. The next morning, Emily finds Lilith hiding a picture under her pillow - it turns out to be a photo of young Emily and her mother. Emily scolds Lilith for snooping but still shares what happened: her mother was driving too fast during a rainy day and they had an accident. Afterward Emily puts the picture away in a closet she locks up.
Later Emily meets with Mike and learns Lilith's parents have been sent to a mental hospital. Mike also informs her that the phone records of Diego's house showed a call was received the night of the murder, and it came from Emily's home number. Emily swears she didn't call them and takes Mike to see Lilith, but she promises it wasn't her either. Mike leaves after telling Emily he's sure Lilith's lying, and when she turns around, Emily discovers Lilith overheard them. The following day Emily goes to see Diego again and asks him about the call, this causes him to have a panic attack. Once he's taken to the infirmary, Emily tries again, and Diego confirms that Lilith called him. However he also says it was a male voice. Later Douglas visits Lilith to check on her progress. Lilith looks bored by the usual questions and asks Douglas to get to the point in a rather rude way. Douglas asks her why she filled out her questionnaire saying she isn't afraid of anything because everyone has fears.
Lilith asks him to go first, and Douglas shares that he's afraid of hornets since he accidentally hit a nest when he was a kid. Then Lilith confesses she is scared of herself because she has bad thoughts about people, including Douglas. She begins insulting Douglas using very adult words and even offering complex definitions when Douglas looks confused. Lilith's body language shows her to be smug as she tells Douglas he should be worrying about what'll happen next. After the meeting is over, Douglas tells Emily this is the first time a kid made him feel threatened. Later during dinner, Emily watches Lilith eat her peas in a very weird way and realizes she's starting to be suspicious of the girl.
Lilith offers to brush her hair to help her relax and when Emily turns her down, Lilith wonders if Douglas told her anything. Meanwhile Douglas is at home reading about personality disorders when the phone rings. Douglas takes the call but only hears static on the other side and hangs up before going back to reading. Suddenly he starts feeling an itch on his ear which makes him think the phone is ringing again, but it's just his imagination. At that moment his ear starts hurting and he can hear a weird buzzing. Douglas rushes to the bathroom and uses a cotton swab to remove whatever is in his ear, only to discover it's a hornet. He throws it in the toilet, but as soon as he turns around, two more appear on his shoulder and one more comes out of his ear.
Soon a bunch of hornets is flying around Douglas, so he desperately kills them all with his towel and tosses them in the toilet too. However more hornets show up and Douglas finds his back covered with them. As carefully as possible, Douglas takes his shirt off and puts it in the tub before closing the door, this causes the hornets to start making a painful noise that drives Douglas crazy. Suddenly hornets begin coming out from every part of his body, and when he tries to fight them off, he falls against the bathroom door, getting hurt by the glass. The pain becomes too much to handle and Douglas decides to end things with a broken neck. Later during Douglas' funeral, Lilith tries to take Emily's hand, but Emily's even more suspicious now and takes it away.
On their trip back, Lilith accuses Emily of blaming her for Douglas' death, so Emily lets her hold her hand to convince her they're fine. Afterward Emily goes to see Mike and tells him she doesn't think this was an accident. Unfortunately Mike just thinks she's being paranoid, especially since they checked the phone records and Douglas didn't get any calls from her house. Later at work, Emily secretly takes Lilith's file and gets the tapes of the interrogation with her parents after the ov*n incident. They said that it was God's will to kill Lilith, implying she was evil incarnate. Margaret said that as soon as Lilith was born, Margaret's brothers and Edward's sisters died. In fact people died around Lilith all the time, and Lilith didn't kill her parents too because first she had to find somebody else. Afterward Emily goes to the mental hospital and learns that the nurse found a screaming Margaret on the floor scratching her own skin because she was convinced she was on fire. Now she's kept tied to the bed and can't receive visitors, but Emily is allowed to see Edward. As soon as Edward sees Emily, he guesses someone died and says Lilith is no daughter of his. She won't go anywhere until she's done with Emily, and Edward's sure she planned everything for a social worker to take her. Lilith can see and sense everything, and she wants to learn a person's idea of hell is to make them live it. When Emily returns home, she hides all her case files, phones, and anything that could be used for harm in the closet she keeps locked. At the last second she decides to keep a knife, but when she hears Lilith is coming back from school, Emily hides the knife in the couch. Lilith looks around and notices the phones are gone, so Emily tells them both broke, which Lilith finds suspicious. the girl asks about her mother, saying Emily had told her she would be visiting Margaret. Emily denies ever telling her that and Lilith blames it on a dream. The next day, Emily goes to see Nancy, the woman in charge of finding permanent adoptive parents for abused children. Nancy explains Lilith isn't her priority since she's safe with Emily, and she's shocked to hear Emily asking her to accelerate the process. Emily made a big deal when she ask for Lilith, and now Nancy thinks she needs to deal with it.
Afterward Emily goes to pick Lilith up from therapy and notices her whispering something into another girl's ear. Emily freaks out and rushes to drag Lilith out of there. The new doctor immediately calls her out for her behavior, but Lilith comes to Emily's defense saying she's just stressed. Then the two of them go to take the elevator and Emily tells Lilith she can't come to group therapy anymore. Lilith begins obnoxiously repeating "why Emily?" until the elevator suddenly stops, and when Emily sticks to her decision of canceling therapy, Lilith cuts the elevator wires to make it fall at a great speed. Emily is terrified but Lilith makes the elevator stop at the ground floor and steps out as if nothing happened. In the evening, Emily puts extra deadbolts on her door and accidentally drops a screw. Lilith finds it and hands it to her as she realizes Emily is becoming like her parents. The next day, Emily is so distracted that she can barely work. When it's time to make an important call, she loses her temper and yells at a parent with insults.
Wayne hears this and tells her to go home, causing Emily to admit she doesn't want to. At that moment, Wayne's phone rings and when he picks it up, he hears only static. However he passes it to Emily saying it's for her. Emily hears Lilith's voice telling her she shouldn't leave her alone, and Emily immediately hangs up, only to discover she's alone in the office and the phone is gone. Emily returns home and ignores Lilith to hide in her room, locking all the bolts and keeping a screwdriver at hand to defend herself. Lilith knocks gently at first, but when Emily doesn't answer, Lilith begins hitting the door with outstanding strength. Her screaming doesn't stop until Emily asks her to leave her alone, but then a strange noise comes from the closet. Emily looks inside and when she moves the clothes, she's suddenly startled by the burned spirit of Margaret.
Terrified, Emily runs outside as Margaret chases after her. There's a bus parked nearby, and Emily convinces the driver to let her in right before Margaret hits the door. The driver is confused because there's nobody out there, and when Emily turns around, she can't see anything either. Afterward Emily goes to her car and finds the key she hid under it, but as soon as she gets inside, Lilith startles her from the backseat, reminding her she has to do everything she asks for. The next day at work, Nancy informs Emily that she's found a family for Lilith. Emily doesn't want another family to go through the same thing, so she goes to see Edward again to ask for advice. Edward explains there's no choice but to kill her, and that can only be accomplished when Lilith is sleeping, which she almost never does. He also reminds Emily not to be afraid. When Emily returns home, she finds Lilith watching the tapes of her parents' interrogation. She mentions that they did what she wanted for a while, but then the secrets started, except they weren't secrets because Lilith always knew what they thought. Meanwhile at the mental hospital, Margaret begins hallucinating that she's burning again.
Edward is having lunch and notices a man eating peas like Lilith does. That man suddenly uses Lilith's voice, causing Edward to go crazy and kill the guy with a fork. The guards try to catch Edward, but he's in the middle of an outburst and in the struggle, he falls off the table, dying when he lands on his own fork. Sometime later, Emily goes to see Mike, who finally believes her because he's discovered Douglas did get a call from Lilith, and it came from Emily's cell phone. The recording has lots of static but Lilith's voice can be heard making a threat. Emily confesses she wants to kill Lilith and Mike promises to help. Afterward, Emily goes to see a doctor to get some sleeping medicine while Mike takes some weapons from the police station.
Then he goes to the parking lot to get his car and discovers various dogs growling at him. Scared, Mike tries to hide in his car, but the dogs appear next to him and attack him. Mike tries to shoot them, but the dogs disappear and the bullet kills Mike instead. Emily returns home to see her files spread all over the floor and follows the trail to discover Lilith has been keeping a collection of pictures of her victims. At that moment she hears a weird noise coming from under the bed and checks to find her cell phone ringing. Emily takes the call and after some static, Wayne's voice informs her that Mike is dead and the police believe he ended things for himself. Emily starts to cry but her grief is interrupted by Lilith pumping up the volume of the tv. Furious, Emily pushes the tv to the ground and tells Lilith to leave, but Lilith ignores her. Emily tries again by pushing the popcorn bowl, this causes Lilith to suddenly change into a more demonic face and ask with a creepy male voice not to be yelled at.
A terrified Emily runs to her room and after locking the door, she moves the furniture in front of it, making marks on the floor that explains the ones at the old home. Lilith comes to ask for forgiveness with a sweet voice, but as soon as Emily asks her to leave, the door starts being hit with supernatural force. Emily tries to keep it closed by pushing the furniture, but Lilith breaks it anyway, so Emily hides under the bed. Lilith grabs the screwdriver and stabs the floor with it before joining Emily under the bed. She sweetly asks to be loved, and Emily says she will just to make her leave. Afterward, Emily prepares the evening tea and puts the sleeping medicine in it to make Lilith drink it like every night. Once Lilith falls asleep, Emily ties the doorknob with some rope before covering the whole house with gasoline and setting it on fire. Moments later, Emily watches the house burn while the firemen arrive, but as soon as she turns around, she discovers Lilith is just fine.
Emily and Lilith leave in the car to find a place to stay. Lilith mentions she wants a hotel with a swimming pool, giving Emily an idea. Lilith is suspicious and begins taunting Emily with mentions of her mother, saying the car crash hadn't been an accident and that Emily had been scared of her. Emily begins driving faster and Lilith makes her hallucinate, causing Emily to see herself as her mother and her young self in the backseat. It's a recreation of the old accident, and when a truck blocks the road, Emily remembers Edward's advice and tells herself she isn't scared because it isn't real. The car drives right through the illusion, and for the first time ever, Lilith looks terrified. Emily suddenly turns the car into the harbor, making it fall into the water. When Emily tries to swim away, Lilith in her demonic form grabs her, so Emily pushes her back with the seat to drown her. Then Emily swims again, but at the last second, Lilith's hand comes out of the car's tail light and grabs her ankle. After lots of struggling, Emily manages to kick the hand away and swims back to the shore, where she watches the last bubbles on the water indicate Lilith is finally gone for good.
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