“You will join us!” It delivered another heavy blow to the same area.
My body instinctively tried to spin onto its other side, but the demon prevented that from happening.
“Speak!” Father Demetrius shouted. “Talk to your mother.”
“My mother?” I said, confused by the concept. “She…hated me.”
“Do you hear us?” the demon shouted. It threw one more solid punch.
I cried out, but tears still wouldn’t run. “I… loved her.”
“You will give in.” Another solid, pulverizing blow to the same spot.
My body jerked, and I moved like a fish out of water because I couldn’t breathe. “She…never…loved…me.”
I squiggled in place, expecting another blow. I cringed, waiting, anticipating…but it never came. I snapped up one gasp after another. Whenever I’d managed to steal a dozen or so breaths, I opened my eyes, fearing the demon would be ready to launch another volley of kidney shots.
Hovering over me, my mother shook her head as tears scrawled down her cheeks. “I’m,” she squeaked, “so sorry.” She reached out for my face.
I flinched, fearing another attack.
“No, don’t!” she said, crouching to the ground a couple of feet away from me. “I won’t hurt you. I promise. I’ll never hurt you again.” She used her good hand to prop herself up while cradling the other against her shirt, now splotched with blood.
I was shocked to hear Lilah speak without the academic pretense. She now sounded like a real person. Not the shell she’d been for so long. She spoke from somewhere deep inside, a place she hadn’t shown me in nearly two decades. A place where she didn’t put me at arm’s length. I was stunned and captivated. I wanted to hear more. I needed to hear more. I tried to move, to see more of her, rather than just part of her body due to my slanted position on the ground, but pain pierced my side again. I groaned and slipped to the ground.
Lilah reached out with both hands.
But I shrank away from her again.
She backed off. “I’m so sorry, Jocelyn. I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know why I turned against you that day so long ago. It was stupid. I was stupid. And I thought you hated me. I tried to pretend that I didn’t care, all so you would come to me, and we could make up. But you never did. You were always so stubborn. Just like me. As the years passed, I got worse. I convinced myself that you needed to apologize for loving your father more than me, that only then would I accept you. It was horrible and cruel. All those wasted years…because I was stubborn and resentful. It was all my fault. Do you hear me, Jocelyn? It’s all my fault. I love you. I always have. Please forgive me.”
Her guilt-ridden expression vanished.
Oh no. Not again. Please.
The demon’s smirk settled on its face. It worked on gathering itself, so it could continue to pound away on my kidneys and drive them straight through my abdomen and into my chest.
I couldn’t let that happen. Not after what my mother had said. Not after she explained herself. Not after she’d apologized. Not after she’d finally said…I love you.
“Yes, you will join us.” Saliva slipped from its mouth and clung to its lower lip, a long line slipping down onto its chin.
I could no longer contain my frustration and anger. I needed to do something, anything. I yanked my hands from my pockets, pulling out the flask of holy water and the crucifix, and rushed toward the demon, screaming in pain as I lifted the arm on my bad side. I slammed into it, and we crashed to the ground.
Knowing that it would need only moments to regain its balance and charge me again, I slipped off the cap on the flask and flicked the holy water across its injured hand.
Steam sizzled on its palm. It shrieked in pain.
I hurried over to the demon. I kicked its leg out from under it, stretching it out in a Dead Man’s Pose. I scrambled over, leapt onto its chest, and pressed the crucifix against the demon’s forehead, which made even more steam rise from its flesh, the kind that would rise from a hot iron under a wet pair of pants.
The demon howled and kicked its legs out from under me, trying to throw me off. I jostled left and right, back and forth as if I was riding a bull. I hopped higher up on its chest, so its movement wouldn’t spring me in every direction, and then I set my knees against its arms, pinning it to the ground.
With my other hand, I angled the canister toward the demon’s face. Once I neared its lips, I tilted the flask and poured the Holy water down its throat.
The demon swallowed and coughed. Steam lifted from its tongue as water spewed from its mouth and slid across its cheeks. Wheezing, it thrashed in all directions.
“Drink, demon!” I pulled on its lower lip, prying its mouth open even wider, forcing even more holy water into its throat. “Drink, you fucker!”
Gurgling, trying not to suck down more liquid, but doing so in an effort to capture more oxygen into its body, the demon squiggled in every direction, kicking its legs, whipping its arms about, coughing and spitting up water as steam sifted from its open mouth.
I wobbled from side to side but held firm and poured the Holy water across the demon’s face and hair, sprouting even more steam and sending the remaining liquid back into the demon’s throat.
“You have no authority to take this woman,” I shouted at the demon. “She sought forgiveness and God has forgiven her. He has claimed her.”
A moment later, Father Demetrius appeared at my side, startling me for a second, although I maintained my position. Only now did I realize the vortex had vanished. So had the scent. The thick, heavy sensation clinging to the air had dissipated. It felt so much lighter and fresher than the past few days.
The holy man removed the purple stole from around his shoulders and pressed it against the demon’s mouth, keeping the blessed water in its mouth.
I had precious seconds remaining to discover why it wanted to possess me so badly. Soon it would leave my mother’s body and vanish. “What did you want with me?”
To let it respond, Father Demetrius removed the stole.
The demon gurgled, spewing holy water across its cheeks. It sucked in air but tried to speak, as though obeying a reflex. “You’re…important.”
I tried to make sense of that but couldn’t. “What do you mean? Explain yourself.”
“We’ve foreseen you’re power. We wanted you for ourselves.”
“What power?” I asked, puzzled. “What does that mean?”
“We’re…leaving now!”
My mother’s body stopped moving, and she lay limp for a moment with open eyes. Then she blinked, stirred, and jerked upwards. She scooted backward, but after splaying her injured hand against the floor, she screamed and fell to the ground.
Father Demetrius grabbed the stole, rushed over to her, and wrapped the garment around her palm. He turned toward Eloise, who was already on the phone, asking for the paramedics.
I smiled at my mother. “It's okay, Mom.” My mouth dropped open, and I was prepared to correct myself, fearing retribution, but I shook off the idea. No, I would never call her Lilah again. “You did it, Mom. You’re back.”
She wheezed. Her brow scrunched up as she smiled and grunted through the pain. “Thank you, Jocelyn. Thank you for saving my life.”
At that moment, the adrenaline in my body disappeared, and the jarring pain in my side made me tilt over to the ground. The impact made me cry out. My gaze fell upon Eloise. “Don’t forget Noelle…upstairs.”
Eloise passed on the message that the paramedics should expect to assist three women upon arrival.
From this awkward angle, my eyes began to lose focus, but I saw something rushing across the family room floor as soft tapping sounds, reminiscent of a dog’s toenails against the hardwood floor. It trotted toward me on four legs. Was that…J.D.?
My dog stopped beside me, got down on the ground, the nametag on its collar jingling. A thick, wet tongue found my face and licked my cheek as if it was a strawberry sucker.
&n
bsp; “That’s right!” my mother said. “I let him out when I felt my identity slipping away and that thing taking over. John Doe was quaking, cowering, and whining. It was the last thing I did before the demon took over. Which reminds me, do you think we could call him a different name? John Doe is—”
“No longer an option,” said a sleepy voice from the stairwell. Noelle, rubbing the exhaustion from her eyes, ambled down the stairs, her knees practically giving way after every step. “You can call him J.D. if you want, but we can’t rename him.” When she removed the hands from her eyes, she surveyed the mess all around the family room and stopped mid-step, her mouth dropping open. “I heard the raucous, but I was scared to come down. What happened?”
“A showdown between God and Satan,” I said nonchalantly. But in a broader sense, based on the demon’s morose comments about me before it withdrew from my mother’s body, I got the impression that God may have won this battle, but the war would rage on.
Hearing J.D. whine with excitement, his tail wagging tirelessly, I let out a tiny cry of appreciation. He hadn’t left me. Neither had Eloise, Father Demetrius, Noelle, or my mother. Tears of gratitude spilled from my eyes.
My family was safe. We were all together. And I would do everything humanly possible to make sure that never changed.
Author Note
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Sneak Peek - The Damned
1
“No way is this mansion haunted,” I said, stopping before the porch and sidling up beside a psychic medium named Nona and her protégé, a psychic named Eloise.
“Whoa!” With her back to me, Eloise’s shoulders spiked upwards. “Thanks for sneaking up on us, Jocelyn.” She spun toward me, her turquoise eyes appearing wide and troubled. She placed a trembling hand against her velvet cashmere sweater directly above her heart.
“You’re not spooked because it’s Halloween night, are you?” I placed a hand on her shoulder to show I hadn’t meant to frighten her.
“No!” At eighteen-years-old but wiser than her age dictated, Eloise lowered her dark lashes, hunched over, and slid both palms on the blue jeans at her knees. “It’s the house.” She heaved for air, and her black pixie cut featuring red highlights, barely shifted from left to right as she caught her breath.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, guilt cutting into me for unsettling her. After all, I’d parked my car beside the other two along the circular parking lot about twenty yards away. Hadn’t she seen my headlights?
On my way to this two-acre property three hours west of Chicago, I’d marveled at the darkness along the bumpy one-lane road because I’d long since passed the last traffic light. For that matter, I couldn’t recall the last time I’d spotted signs of life: a gas station, a convenience store, or even a street sign. It had taken all my concentration to find the small opening to the premises without veering off the road and driving into a ditch.
For that reason, I now took a moment to scrutinize the property. Dried leaves trickled across the diamond inlaid concrete walkway, which led visitors toward the two-acre property and directed them to the front door, where we all stood. The breeze swayed the lush green grass before speeding past the perfectly clipped lilac shrubs and getting gobbled up by freshly trimmed massive evergreens that surrounded the premises on four sides.
The secluded nature of the estate made it seem like the owner wanted to keep intruders out. Or possibly even to keep them in.
Now, after having taken in my surroundings, I could see why Eloise found the area ominous. I glanced up at the building. “Aren’t haunted places supposed to have boarded up windows and scraggly vines?”
None of the numerous styled windows on each of the mansion’s three levels contained so much as a spider-web, and they reflected the brilliant sheen of the moon’s glow from behind us.
A gust of chilly air lashed against me, making me shiver. “It can’t be the house,” I said, referring to her statement. “This place is immaculate.”
“Something’s inside that mansion,” Eloise said in a timid voice that cracked. “Something powerful. Something dangerous.”
Her discomfort and the look of dread on her face made my pulse speed up. “What exactly?”
“We don’t know yet,” said Nona, a fragile ninety-five-year-old woman who appeared to weigh one pound for every year she’d lived on this planet. Due to her short stature, she didn’t need to crouch beside her young partner as she placed a hand to her back and rubbed it to comfort her. “It’s too early to tell.”
“So you were already inside?” I asked.
Nona nodded and her copper-tinted hoop earrings jiggled even after she stopped moving her head. “For no more than one minute.”
I just stared at the deep crevices at the edges of the woman’s dark eyes, astonished that Eloise had that reaction after having only been in the mansion for sixty seconds. Granted, both women had paranormal gifts, but for my younger friend to regroup so quickly after entering the house made it clear that she suspected something sinister dwelled inside.
I didn’t question their sincerity because Nona and Eloise had assisted me with a demon infestation three weeks ago inside my home. For that reason, I trusted them implicitly, but even when Eloise had visited my house, she hadn’t doubled over in an attempt to regain her breath. It most likely meant that whatever she’d sensed inside the mansion made the demon that had attacked my family seem like nothing more than a nuisance.
But the demon, an evil biblical creature that sought my family’s demise, had lacerated my kidney, resulting in agonizing back pain that persuaded me to pop pain meds like they were Skittles. So to discover that Eloise feared whatever hid in the house made me anxious to move.
Just not toward the house, but in the opposite direction.
Don’t forget about the one million dollar payout cut three ways if you walk! That’s if the other paranormal investigative team doesn’t claim the winnings by ridding the mansion of spirits. You better not leave. You need that money!
I’d recently obtained my Masters in business management, and now that interest payments on my exorbitant school loans would begin accumulating, I was even more determined to pay down that debt. I was also on the hook for the mortgage and utilities for the home my twin sister and our mother also lived in. The demon situation killed my chances of getting my repair business off the ground, and since I had very little in my bank account, showing up was a no-brainer.
“Thank you for coming,” Nona said with an appreciative smile. “The owner’s real estate agent, Lacey Lambert, contacted us about removing unclean spirits from this home. When I hear that multiple spirits might be involved, I always wonder if a demonic entity might also be at work.”
“Why?” I asked. When Eloise had called to see if I wanted to accompany them tonight, I suspected that a demon may have infested the mansion. Since I’d never encountered a ghost, Eloise had no reason to seek my assistance to help in that arena.
Nona’s shrewd gaze settled on mine for what felt like ten minutes. “One never knows what she’ll walk into…in this line of service.”
Service. Not work. Neither Nona nor Eloise asked for payment to cleanse spirits from any given place. They believed God had graced them with their otherworldly skills. For that reason, they never turned away anyone in the Chicagoland area who contacted them. While Nona had been cleansing homes and vanquishing demons for half a century, she had only begun working with Eloise over the past six months, but her apprentice was hardcore into all things supernatural.
I was on the other end of the spectr
um: I’d only been exposed to that one case of demonic activity. But unlike them, I appreciated that I had no otherworldly abilities of my own. Although it would be helpful to know when evil lurked nearby, the constant awareness would probably paralyze me with fear and paranoia.
“I hope a demon isn’t involved,” Nona said, “but if that’s not the case, I thought it would be helpful for you to distinguish between different supernatural entities. Not only that, but we could use a relatively inexperienced person with regard to the paranormal. An impartial witness, if you will. Sometimes I find it best to rely on those who cannot see or communicate with spirits. It prevents me from taking things for granted and allows for different perspectives. It may help Eloise and I differentiate one spirit from another. Is that something you’re prepared to help us with?”
I’d suspected as much. That’s why I’d agreed to come. “Yes. Totally.” Despite my assurances, I couldn’t stop my thighs from shaking.
Nona studied my expression. “Are you mentally and emotionally prepared for that?”
I’d struggled in the aftermath of my contest of wills with the demon, but I couldn’t tell Nona about all that I’d endured. She might reconsider and ask me to leave. And if I hoped to fully regain a healthy state of mind, I’d need to face my fear to get a chance to claim the prize money.
She continued to analyze me.
Even though I liked and admired Nona, her direct stare unsettled me. I tamped down on my emotions to not give away my apprehension. My breathing became shallow and, as foreboding sensation overloaded my mind.
“Seriously,” I said, hoping doubt hadn’t crept into my tone. “I’m good to go.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell if my indecision stemmed from the possibility of entering a mansion filled with ghosts, or if I truly hadn’t recovered from my ordeal with the demon.
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