by Tom Lewis
“Yeah,” she hollered back. “I can. I’m ready.”
Sean nodded. He was ready too. He opened the missal. “We exorcise you, each unclean spirit, each power of Satan, each infestation of the enemy from Hell, each legion, each congregation, each Satanic sect...”
A ferocious growl thundered through the room and froze Sean mid-sentence.
“Don’t stop, Father,” Justin said. “Keep going.”
Sean nodded. “In the name and by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be uprooted and put to flight from this soul who was made in the image of God. And be cast into the infernal wasteland...”
Sean looked up from the missal and over to the flames. “Behold your fate, unclean spirits. The eternal fire that awaits you...”
A disturbing new sound now arose and filled the air. And this sound was the demon’s sound, and terrifying beyond anything a sane mind could imagine. It came from nowhere and yet was everywhere all at once. It was neither high pitched, nor deep, and neither male nor female; it simply sounded — and disturbed — and was something no human ear was meant to hear.
And with it came a message, conveyed in its unnatural resonance — the message was of absolute dominance and superiority. It held no trace of kindness, or empathy, or mercy for these puny creatures that stood before it. It was brute uncaring force.
It was the sound of evil.
Sean swayed back on his feet at this realization. He gripped his crucifix tighter and turned back to the missal.
“By the power of God. Depart now, unclean spirits!”
It launched itself at him again and tore deep into the core of his determination and person. He dropped to the floor like a wet rag as tentacles of filth poured through him like venom. It pillaged every nerve and cell and thought and left them corroded in its toxic bile. Memories of growing up as a kid and playing sports; of his family and brothers; pranks he had played with Conor; and the times he and Amy had shared — they were all painted over in a grotesque canvas of horror. Every hope and thought of love and joy was brought to unbearable despair, and he teetered on the edge of a deep gulf into which he would be forever lost...
Then he smelled it —
Amy’s perfume.
His eyes opened and he staggered to his feet. “Depart!” he shouted, “and cease your torments of this child! It is God Himself who commands it!”
A large generator broke from its floor mount and skidded across the room into a wall.
“You, who were forever banished from paradise. You, who were defeated by Christ’s victory...”
Another deep groan shook the room. But there had been another shift in the Presence that they all felt — it was weakening.
“Depart! And be gone! It is God who commands it!”
A long crack spread across the ceiling above Cassie and chunks began to fall. Justin was the first to see it. “Cassie!”
Justin rushed forward and leaped through the flames. He landed on the far side and rolled across the floor to snuff out the fire from his clothes.
“Cassie! Move!” He grabbed her arm and tugged her back, just seconds before a large chunk crashed down where she had been.
“Are you okay?” Sean hollered from across the room. He couldn’t see anything through the flames.
“Yeah,” Justin shouted back. “Keep going. I think it’s weakening.”
“God of Heaven!” Sean shouted with a new forcefulness in his tone. “God of Earth! God of Angels! God of Archangels! God of Prophets! God of Apostles! God of Martyrs! God who has the power to give life after death and repose after labor: There is no god but You. Nor could there be a true god but You. Creator of Heaven and Earth. You are a true King. Your Kingdom is without end. Humbly, I supplicate Your majesty and Your glory: that You deign to free your servant Cassie from the unclean spirits. Through Christ our Lord.”
And God heard his plea.
All at once they felt it — like a storm surge pulling back out to sea, everything evil was receding from around them. The noises, and whispers, and Presence — all of it receding into a point of darkness in a vast infinite distance.
The wall of fire simmered down to a tiny flame then disappeared into the chasm.
And then it was gone. All of it. Every trace of supernatural horror was gone.
It was over.
Cassie looked around at the sudden calm that had descended on the room. It was gone. It was really gone.
“Oh, God. It’s gone. It’s really gone.” She broke into deep sobs and threw her arms around Justin.
Across the room, Sean sank to his knees. His muscles and bones ached with a weariness he had never felt in all his years of sports. He scooted over to the wall and propped his back against it. He would be able to rest now. He buried his head in his hands and breathed deeply. Even the air felt fresh. The smells of decay and rot and smoke were gone...
Then he felt a sudden warmth and the sweetest smell he had ever known brushed his nose. He opened his eyes and there stood Amy, bathed in a radiance like the moon.
“Sean,” she said with a warm smile, and for a moment he could only stare. She was so perfect. And pure. Like so many sunrises they had shared.
“Are you real?” he finally asked.
“What does your heart tell you?”
It told him yes. Somehow, in some way, God had sent him this gift for however brief it might be. A tear trickled down his cheek.
“And in my dream that night? And the letter on my desk? That was also you?”
She smiled and nodded.
“Is it over?” he asked, looking around the room.
Again she gave him a smile and nod. “It is, Sean. Cassie’s clean. It won’t be back.”
Sean exhaled. “I couldn’t have done this without you, Amy.”
This time she shook her head. “No, Sean. I only reminded you of the boy I fell in love with. And who I fall more in love with each day. And who I’m so proud of.”
He choked back a sob. “I miss you, Amy. God, I just miss you so much. And I’m so in love with you too.”
He could see that radiant light beginning to fade, and Amy with it.
“I miss you too, Sean. But we’ll be together again one day.”
There was one final smile and then she was gone, fading into that golden light.
He sat there staring for a moment as the smell of her perfume slowly faded. He took a last final breath of it.
Then he looked across the room at Cassie and Justin. He wiped the tears from his eyes then walked over to join them.
Cassie’s face broke into a smile as Sean approached. She pulled him into a hug with her and Justin and kissed his cheek.
“Thank you,” she said, through eyes filled with tears. “Both of you guys. Thank you.”
“It’s over?” Justin asked Sean, but it was more to reassure himself of what he already knew.
Sean smiled and gave him a nod. “It’s over. It won’t be back.”
Cassie sniffed back a tear and wiped her eyes. But there was one last person she needed to thank.
Across the room stood Katie, who Cassie had spotted over Justin’s shoulder. Cassie turned to her and whispered a heartfelt “thank you.”
Katie returned a smile and then she too faded away as Amy had.
Sean and Justin both looked back in the direction Cassie was staring. “Who were you talking to?” Justin asked.
“A friend.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Ten Years Later
“Arise my beloved, my beautiful one, and come.
For behold, the winter has past, the rain is over and gone.”
— Song of Songs 2:10
****
It was springtime in Capetown. The rain had ended shortly after dawn, and morning sunlight now glistened off grass and leaves. A fresh smell filled the air, combined with the sweet scent of pines and the songs of nature.
An SUV pulled up to a warm little cottage nestled in the woods. Justin climbed from the driver’s side and went
around to the passenger door to open it for Cassie. She climbed out, followed by a pretty little girl who had just turned four. Her name was Katherine, but they just called her Katie. She had her mother Cassie’s soft brown hair and her father Justin’s green eyes.
Following high school, Cassie and Justin had attended college together in Boston. He proposed to her their senior year and they married the summer after graduation. Katie was born just over a year later.
Justin had gone on to attend law school, and was now a new associate at a corporate law firm in Boston. Cassie was a full-time mom, and was working on her first novel.
Father Sean became a close friend of the couple over the years and had presided at their wedding and Katie’s Baptism. They always got together for drinks or dinner or to catch a game whenever they were in town.
Alison peeked out the front window of the cottage and saw the kids heading up the walk with her granddaughter. She hurried to the front door, where she greeted them with a big smile.
Alison had remarried several years earlier to a restaurant owner named Ted. Although he could never be her dad, Cassie still welcomed him into the family and asked him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding. This had meant the world to her mom. Ted made her mom happy, and that made Cassie happy.
“Say hi to Grandma, honey,” Cassie said, releasing Katie’s hand. With a big smile, Katie raced over to Alison and grabbed her in a hug.
Alison, of course, smothered her in kisses. She loved playing the role of grandmother more than she ever could have imagined.
Ted joined her in the doorway. “Cassie. Justin,” he said with a welcoming smile, nodding to each of them in turn. Cassie returned the smile and clenched him in a hug.
“Hey, Ted,” Justin smiled back as the two men shook hands.
“Well, come on in,” Alison said, finally breaking from her granddaughter. “We were just fixing breakfast.”
“You guys go ahead and start without me,” Cassie said. “I just need to do something first.”
“You want me to come with?” Justin asked, fishing the keys from his pocket and handing them to her.
“No. I’m good. But thanks.”
They waved goodbye before heading inside, then Cassie drove off.
****
The SUV turned off Pioneer Road and onto the winding drive that curved through the cemetery. Cassie pulled over to the side of the road and parked. She climbed from the car and pulled a bouquet of daisies from the backseat. Then she headed off across the lawn.
She was always happy to see the grass freshly cut and the grounds well-tended. Two important people in her life had been laid to rest here.
“Hey,” she said with a soulful smile as she strolled up to her dad’s grave. She fished through her pocket and removed a wallet-sized photo of her daughter, Katie.
“So, I brought you this new picture of your granddaughter,” she said as she knelt down and placed it at the base of the gravestone. “They were taking them of the kids at preschool, so I got an extra one for you.”
Cassie took a look at the picture and shook her head with a smile. “She’s growing up really fast.”
She sat down in front of the gravestone and stared at it for a moment. Then she looked off at the trees and the sky.
“Mom seems like she’s doing good. I know she’ll always miss you, but I’m glad she has Ted around so she’s not so lonely. We try to bring Katie up here to see her every chance we get. Let Mom do her grandmother thing.” Cassie chuckled. “She’s actually really good at it.”
She turned back to the gravestone. “And Katie has you as this awesome grandfather, always watching over her from up there.”
She wiped a tear from her eyes.
“Anyway. I just wanted to stop by and say hi. And let you know I’m doing good. And that I really miss you.”
She climbed to her feet, then kissed her finger and touched it to the gravestone. “I love you, Dad. Don’t stop looking out for me, okay?”
She picked up the daisies and walked across the lawn to another grave site beneath a tree. It was Katie’s grave, and the epitaph on her gravestone read:
KATHERINE “KATIE” DUNNE. SLEEP WITH THE ANGELS, BABY GIRL
It gave Cassie a warm feeling in her heart every time she read that. She had no doubt Katie was with the angels. Along with her dad.
She set the daisies on top of the gravestone, then stepped back and just stared at the little grave. A lump filled her throat. It never failed. Every time she came here, she became so swept up in emotions that it was a struggle to find the words to express her enduring gratitude to that little girl. But she would try.
“I brought you some flowers, Katie,” she finally said. “Daisies, of course. Your mom said they were your favorites, and they’ve become mine too. It’s how I would know you were around — when I smelled them. And it let me know the darkness would go away.”
She paused a moment to give her emotions time to settle.
“So, I have a daughter now. She’s four. We named her after you. Someday when she’s older, I want to tell her about you.”
She took a deep breath.
“I owe you so much, Katie. You didn’t have to help me, but you did. And you showed me what forgiveness looks like.” There was no stopping the tears now as she wiped them with her finger.
“I hope you think I was worth it.”
And with that she kissed her fingers and touched them to the gravestone right above Katie’s name.
“Goodbye, Katie,” she whispered to her little angel.
The Author
Thank you so much for reading my book, and I hope you enjoyed the read. I’m working on a prequel called “The Necromancers,” which tells the story of the coven of teens that was touched on in Jenkins’ story in Chapter 29.
If you have a few minutes, please consider posting a review on Amazon. It helps readers find us indie authors. And hit me up on Facebook and Goodreads. Flip to the next page to see my other book.
Thanks again!
Tom Lewis
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Tom Lewis is an entertainment attorney and former Marine. He’s a graduate of Arizona State University and the University of San Diego School of Law. He lives in Santa Monica with a bunch of squirrels that mooch off him for food.
If you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic action and thrills, check out my other novel “Aftermath.” It follows the story of a young girl searching for her brother in the aftermath of an alien conquest. You can find it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VD66QYO
