by Michael Todd
The young man watched as two demons, only slightly reminiscent of humans, ran across the parking lot and leapt onto the side of the church. Their long talons penetrated the stone, sending dust and pellets falling to the ground. The demons were everywhere, from the front to the back of the church. The two exited the SUV and paused on hearing a loud crash inside the church.
Damian opened the side door and handed him the wooden-handled daggers. “Figured if I got here and it looked like this that you might want to have these.”
Max took the knives carefully and stared at them, reluctant to even imagine using them on any of the people he could see. He’d thought he had prepared himself, but seeing old ladies, young men, and everyone in between slinking around the grounds with snarling teeth and red eyes came as something of a shock. He stuck the daggers in the breast pocket of his jacket.
The priest glanced at the pocket. “Be careful. Don’t accidentally grab the wrong end.”
He smiled and pulled a pair of leather gloves from his pants pockets. “I had these from last winter. Figured they would come in handy.”
Damian unzipped his duffel and grabbed two more pistols, sliding them into holsters farther back on his waist. He grabbed two more knives from the bag and slipped them beside the guns. Max looked at him with wide eyes. “You need that many weapons?”
He shrugged and tossed the bag back in. “I don’t know. I hope not. I hope all I need is my bible and my cross, but I’m not taking any chances with this crowd. They look wild and wooly.”
Max understood, even if it made him uncomfortable. The older man could see that on his face and stopped, putting his hand on his shoulder. “I’m going to do my best to do it by the book, but if it’s between our lives and demons that have taken over their human, I’m choosing our lives. Don’t be nervous.”
The trainee straightened his shoulders. “Oddly enough, I’m not at all. I want to help these people.”
Damian smiled and patted him. “You truly are a good priest; you know that? I like it. It’s refreshing. Now, grab your bible, and let’s get this party started, shall we?”
Max gave him a thumbs-up and snatched his bible from the front seat of the car. They walked slowly side by side through the parking lot and up the cobblestone walkway to the front door. He watched as several infected darted past them into the yard and around back to the cemetery. “They are just going to let us walk right in?”
“They aren’t paying attention to us because generally speaking, low-level demons aren’t the brightest crayons in the box. They smell demon and haven’t paid much attention to the fact that we are carrying weapons to kill them.”
They got to the front door, and the priest pulled out his cross. “You ready, kid?”
He held up his bible. “Let’s get this done. I’m looking forward to a glass of whiskey.”
His companion laughed. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
Damian kicked his foot out and slammed the front doors open. They took two steps into the entryway and stopped, looking around at the chaos. Demons were everywhere, running down the halls, scurrying across the ceiling, and jumping from windows out into the yard. He shook his head toward the main area of the church, and they stepped inside the doors. “Well, that’s a lot of demons. All right, kid. You go right, and I’ll take the left.”
Max pulled out the cross. “Yep. I’m on it.”
The older man turned left and headed across the back of the church with his cross gripped in his gloved hand. Two demons dropped from the wall in front of him and growled loudly. They still had their human bodies intact, which was a good sign for exorcism. He could tell, though, simply from looking around, that not all of them did.
He turned his head to look at the demons. “Now, you don’t belong in there. Go ahead and lie down. I’m not a man you want to fight with.”
The demons lashed out, lunging toward Damian. He branded the closest on the arm with his cross and threw the beast to the side. In seconds, he reached out and grabbed the other by the neck and slammed it onto the floor. He held the cross in its face and began screaming the shortened exorcism prayer in Latin. “Domino per caelum operatur per me. Dimitte populum liberat de manu bestiae daemones uidet inferos. Oro te, ut de malo et salvum facere quod depelle est homo in animam. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.”
The demon screeched as the human struggled, pushing the intruder out. The beast rose into the air, its eyes wide and red. Light blossomed around it before it burst, the remnants fluttering down in a soft breeze of ash. Damian turned to the other still writhing in pain from the metal burned into its arm. He held the cross in front of it.
The demon tried to lash out, but the claws had retracted. The priest grabbed the human’s hand and finished its exorcism. “Domino per caelum operatur per me. Dimitte populum liberat de manu bestiae daemones uidet inferos. Oro te, ut de malo et salvum facere quod depelle est homo in animam. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.”
Max watched as the demons burst into light over Damian’s head, the remnants turning to ash. The people lay on the ground, alive but unconscious. He turned, making his way down the right side, watching for any approaching demon. Suddenly, one toppled from the rafters above and landed right in front of him. Both their eyes went wide, and they screamed in sync, the window to their side bursting from the demon’s high-pitched voice.
He shook his head and jutted out his arm, slamming the demon right in the chin. The beast wobbled back and forth for a moment before toppling over, half conscious. Max looked at his hand and down at the demon, shocked at how powerful he was and the fact that he actually got the move right.
Wasting no more time, he dropped down beside it and held out the cross. He went for the shortest exorcism in his book, not wanting to screw it up. “Hoc daemonium Dominus. Eius mulieris ingenio restituere animam meam. Mitte bestia in infernum. Per Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum. Amen.”
Max stood up and took a couple of steps back, watching the infected shake and foam at the mouth. He glanced down at his bible, wondering if he’d done something wrong. Suddenly, the demon rose high in the air, leaving the human behind. It screeched and wailed as light shimmered all around him. He held the cross toward it until it finally burst, ash flying everywhere. Excited, he jumped and turned to see if Damian had noticed.
He saw the priest in the corner, running halfway up the wall and flipping over backward as he slammed his fists into the faces of two demons. The creatures fell to the floor, unconscious. He landed on one knee and held his cross out, yelling his exorcism into the church. Both the infected writhed and shook as their demons were exorcised from their bodies. The demons burst to dust, and the humans curled up, unconscious and weak from the cleansing ritual.
Max looked at the trail of unconscious bodies Damian had left behind him, then he glanced at his single body. He turned and made his way farther down the aisle of the church. As he reached almost to halfway, a demon crawled quickly down the wall. Without thinking, as if he had done it a million times, he whipped a knife from his pocket and slammed it into the demon’s claw, pinning it to the wall. His target disabled, he held the cross up, looking into the infected’s bright red eyes.
He swallowed hard, hoping that his exorcisms continued to work. “Hoc daemonium Dominus. Eius mulieris ingenio restituere animam meam. Mitte bestia in infernum. Per patrem et filium et spiritum sanctum. Amen.”
Just as the previous one had, the demon shimmied and shook, eventually freeing the human it had infected. Max reached up and pulled the knife from the person’s hand, holding on to them as he laid their unconscious body down on the floor. “Sorry about your hand. It’ll heal, promise.”
Damian watched as the trainee placed a human down on the floor. When he straightened and glanced over, he waved his arm in the air. “Meet me at the pulpit!”
He nodded and started forward. The priest turned to move toward the center when two demons jumped off the wall and landed on
his back. At first, the weight sent him to his knees, but he wasn’t about to allow himself to be pinned down. He grunted, pulling up first onto one foot and then the other. Widening his feet for balance, he reached up and grabbed one by the head, flinging it over him and onto the floor ahead. He jammed his foot onto its throat while battling the other.
His body jerked back and forth as he tried to throw the infected off him. Finally, he reached back and grabbed it by the shoulders to throw it into the pews. “Get off of me, devil!”
The demon on the floor tried to buck, but Damian pushed harder with his foot. He leaned forward and placed the cross right in front of the infected’s face. The creature turned its head to the side and let out a loud shriek, the metal coursing and fuming right in front of it. The priest screamed out the exorcism, pushing the demon into retreat.
As the beast fought against the words and the power behind them, Damian lifted his foot. “Amen, jack-off.”
The demon screeched and howled, flying out of the infected body and turning to ash almost immediately. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stomped over to the body in the pews. This demon had given up the fight and lay whimpering inside his human host. The person’s skin had smoothed back to normal, and the only sign of the beast was the red glowing in the old man’s eyes.
Damian knelt beside him and crossed his chest, whispering the exorcism in a low voice. He held out his cross and watched as the demon slowly evacuated, spiraling back to hell. The old man shuddered and passed out right there, half on the pew and half on the floor. The priest lifted him carefully and placed him down in a comfortable position. He knew that one would hurt in the morning.
As he stood, he grunted and punched his hand out to the side and into the face of an oncoming demon. The beast flew back and hit the wall, sliding unconscious down onto the floor. Damian went through the process, quickly exiled the demon back to hell, and left the young lady slumped over on the floor.
Step after step, he exorcised and fought back, feeling the exhaustion starting to take hold. Just then, a surge of energy vibrated through his veins, and Damian smiled, knowing Ravi had thrown him a bone. But he wouldn’t call her on it. He didn’t want her to stop.
Eventually, the two priests made it to the front of the church and looked out over the scene. Neither one of them said a word. They merely watched as infected moved through the church, climbing on walls and bouncing around the rafters. Bodies lay strewn across the floor, open to anything that came their way.
Damian turned to Max. “You all right?”
The young man looked at him and smiled. “I managed to exorcise five people. How about you?”
His mentor looked over to his side of the church, and Max’s eyes followed. There were at least a dozen passed-out humans, if not more, lying around the church.
He pursed his lips. “Oh.”
Damian chuckled as he put his cross back in his pocket. “You are doing amazingly well. I’m more seasoned, so you can’t compare the two. I’ll continue to exorcise, but I need you to start moving the humans who are unconscious into that small meeting room to the side. Try to place them comfortably and then lock the door behind you. We want them to be safe from further infection.”
Max drew in a deep breath and put his cross back in its pouch. “I can handle that one, boss.”
The priest watched as the trainee hurried through the church, kneeling down at the first body and saying a quick prayer before picking the woman up and slinging her over his shoulder. Ravi sniffed. You got a lot of work to do, old man. Stop stalling.
Damian snorted. Got any more energy for me?
I think I can manage that.
He moved quickly through the church, heading for a large group of demons gathering in the back.
Max laid the woman down in the room and folded her hands carefully over her stomach. He went back into the church and grabbed the next one, saying a small prayer for them each time. “Lord be with you. Heal fast and grow in his grace. Amen.”
He glanced up as he carried an older gentleman to the room, watching as Damian plowed into a group of demons at the back. Two of the beasts went flying, and he could hear the priest shouting in Latin, exorcising more than one at a time. Flashes of light erupted through the church each time he said the prayer, letting the younger priest know there were more saved souls every second.
Max moved through the church, collecting every person he could and bringing them to the safe place. He walked to the back corner to find a young girl, no older than twelve, curled up in a ball and half-conscious, a brand of a cross on her arm. He leaned down and scooped her up. “Shh, we’ll get you help. For now, I’ll put you somewhere safe.”
He carried the girl into the room and laid her next to one of the nuns. He smoothed the hair off her face and stared at her for a moment. A gunshot rang out, breaking the silence, and Max turned in shock. “I guess not everyone will be saved tonight.”
Chapter Seventeen
Max ran out into the church and watched as Damian fought back against a horde of demons. They rushed at him from all sides, and he had no choice but to use lethal force. The priest jumped onto the back of a pew and balanced there as he pulled his guns and began to fire. The bullets struck two demons right between the eyes. They screeched and fell back, hitting the floor and turning to dust.
Without thought, he flipped through the air and landed strongly, his arms out to each side. He blasted bullets into approaching beasts, sending them flying into the walls. Black goo splattered against the stained-glass windows right before both demons burst into dust, floating down onto the rich red carpet of the church.
Damian glanced up, watching as Max made a run for the front of the church. Three demons attempted to prey on one of the unconscious he hadn’t collected yet. He screamed, throwing one of his daggers into the shoulder of a beast. The three demons backed off enough for him to pull the woman out and down into the pews. As he turned, the demons lunged, jumping on top of him.
“Not today,” he yelled as he threw two of the demons off him and up onto the altar.
The third held on tightly, and Max grabbed the knife in its shoulder, twisting it deeper until it released its grip. He grabbed it and tossed it over with the other two, pulling out his notebook. He found the exorcism prayer that would stun a demon and hold them still.
He grabbed the cross from the pouch and held it out in front of him. “Hos retine daemonibus certa. Domine ab homine removere eorum captivi. Tolle eas in profundis inferni. Libera animas liberos habent. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.”
The demons screeched, unable to lift their arms or heads from the altar where they lay. His attackers momentarily disabled, he leaned his head to the side, breathing heavily, and watched as the demons rose from their human bodies and writhed in anguish in front of the large crucifix above them. Light flickered around them, casting wild shadows over the walls and floors. Max turned his head as all three burst into ash, and the screams faded from existence.
He stepped forward, then stopped and stared at the three people in front of him. Their bodies were mangled, their bones twisted, and he realized that he was too late. His heart fluttered in his chest, and he could feel a lump in his throat.
Astaroth could tell he was starting to lose it but he knew he couldn’t fall apart quite yet. Buck the fuck up! This isn’t over.
Max took a deep breath and turned away. Language!
The demon held back a laugh. I’m a demon, motherfucker. It’d be weird if I didn’t curse.
He couldn’t argue with that. Wearily, he glanced back, looking at the first dead bodies he had seen since Incursion Day.
“Max,” Damian called.
He whipped around to see his mentor holding two demons down with his hands and one with his foot. The priest nodded at the struggling bodies. “A little help here.”
He smiled and hurried toward him. They stood in the church back to back, exorcising the last of the attacking demons. There w
ere still infected around, but they made a run for the outside grounds.
The two priests finished their prayer at the same time. “Amen.”
Damian reached down and picked up one of the unconscious humans. “Let’s get them in the room. We need to find the church leaders and get them out safely.”
Max grabbed the two other humans and carried them back to the room. They locked the door and headed out of the main hall, then stopped and looked down at the small map Damian had drawn in his small pocket pad. He looked up suspiciously for a moment. “Do you smell smoke?”
The priest nodded, not looking away from his drawing. “One of the demons set fire to the main area of the church. We need to find the priests and get them out of here. Right now, they are like ducks in an oven down there.”
Max’s eyes grew wide. “What about the people we just put in the room?”
Damian did a doubletake and sighed. “Fuck. Okay, there is a door to the outside in that meeting room. The best we can do is drag them out. We do that, then find the priests.”
“Got it,” the trainee yelled, already bolting back toward the meeting room.
The priest put the notebook in his pocket and shook his head. “Kid has way too much enthusiasm.”
By the time he reached the room, Max was pulling the last two people out into the side yard of the church grounds. Damian looked around, shocked. “Uh, that was fast.”
The young man shook his hands. “I had a burst of adrenaline, I think.”
His mentor looked over his shoulder at the escalating fire. He grabbed Max by the collar and pulled him out. “Good, let’s adrenaline our asses downstairs and get these priests.”
They made a mad dash down the hallway until they reached the door to the catacombs below. It took them both kicking at the lock before they were able to open the door. They raced down the stone steps into the darkness below. Damian pulled a flashlight from his coat pocket and clicked it on, looking at the map. “Down this corridor and to the right. We should find the room.”
