by B. Groves
Kyle opened the doors to the storage closet, which was organized thanks to Miranda, and spotted the old coat hanger and some folding chairs stacked in a corner.
He brought the items out of the closet and closed the doors. He hoisted the hanger over his shoulder and held the chairs against him while he made his way back to the basement.
Miguel was waiting at the edge of the basement to help him bring the stuff down.
Miguel grabbed the chairs and was more than happy to set the one next to Alison. She thanked him and waited for Kyle to place the coat hanger next to the bed. Kyle tried to hide his disgust about the smell. He had a lot of work ahead of him when Miguel and Olivia went home.
“I hope this works,” Kyle said, setting down the coat hanger next to her.
“It’s perfect, thank you,” she said.
She hung the IV bag on one hold and then shook her arm saying, “Thank you again, my arm was falling asleep.”
“You’re welcome,” Kyle answered. “How is she?”
Alison glanced down at the sleeping little girl. Kyle did the same and couldn’t believe the change since he left the basement.
Her black hair had a shine to it. The ashen tone to her skin returned to its olive tone. Her lips were still dry and cracked, but not as horrible as they were earlier today. Her eyes were closed and her deep breathing showed she was sound asleep.
“So far, so good,” Alison said, sitting in the chair and swiping through her cell phone. “I told Miguel he can take her home once she finishes the IV bag.”
Kyle felt the relief rush over him. “That’s great to hear.”
Kyle leaned against the table as the relief coursed through him. He rubbed his face. It had been an exhausting few weeks, and what he was most relieved about was Miguel had hope again for the future despite just losing his wife in such a horrific manner.
Although Miguel looked weary in the chair he was sitting in, his shoulders were squared and not slumped, his facial features were much more relaxed, and his mouth wasn’t turned down any longer.
“How long will the bag run for?” Kyle asked Alison.
She glanced at the bag and said, “About two hours. I want her to take the whole thing.”
Kyle nodded and glanced over at Simon who was lounging next to Alison in a relaxed position.
Kyle didn’t know what to do with himself now. He’d spent the last three weeks with this little girl, and now that demon was exorcised within minutes of Alison Stark arriving.
Kyle noticed how she’d let down her thick honey blonde hair. It was layered just below her shoulders and shimmered under the dull basement light.
Kyle turned away not wanted to notice any more about this woman.
“Kyle?” Miguel asked, thankfully taking Kyle’s attention away from Alison’s hair.
“Yes?”
Miguel looked in between him and Alison. “Do you think there are more people in this town that are… affected? Or was Olivia the only one?”
Kyle didn’t answer the question. There was and he didn’t want to scare Miguel but leave it up to Alison to chime in.
“Oh, definitely,” she answered, looking up from her phone.
Miguel’s eyes widened in fear. He stiffened in his chair and his hand reached for his daughter’s in a protective motion.
“If there is, then what happens? Could they possess my daughter again?”
Alison placed the phone on the bed and leaned forward to Miguel. “That is not something you need to worry about. Your daughter is safe now.”
Miguel frowned in disbelief. “Are you sure?”
Alison stood and gently turned Olivia’s head further to the side.
Kyle walked closer to see what Alison would show Miguel. Alison turned on her cell phone flashlight and pushed back Olivia’s hair. There was a red circle that looked like a first-degree burn just under Olivia’s hairline.
“Don’t worry,” Alison said. “It will fade in time. Think of it as her protection the rest of her life.”
Kyle stood back in amazement and Miguel looked at Alison with wide eyes.
“Are you an angel from Heaven?” Miguel asked.
Alison chuckled and fixed the sleeping child. “If I was, then my wings would have been clipped a long time ago.”
“But you must be something…” Miguel said.
Alison stayed in a standing position. Kyle could tell from her body language that this wasn’t the first she’d been grilled about her powers. Kyle had planned on asking her about it later, but Miguel was already working on some answers.
“Last time I went to the doctor, my blood work said I was all human,” Alison said.
Kyle said nothing, but a whole lot of questions popped into his head when Alison answered, but it was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it so Kyle decided not to press her for answers. He wanted to know how she knew more demons were inside the town. A certain person came to Kyle’s mind but he didn’t want to ask it out loud.
Kyle waited to see if Miguel had any more questions, but Kyle realized he took the hint and sat back in his chair. He heard Miguel mumble in Spanish and recognized the prayer about guardian angels.
“Alison,” Kyle said. “You mentioned there were more demons in town. How do you know that?”
Alison turned to face Kyle. She pushed her hair back and then realized her scar was showing and covered it again.
“Call it a feeling,” she explained. “There is nothing neither of you needs to worry about unless you have another situation like Olivia.”
Alison looked at Kyle, but Kyle said nothing further about it. He realized Alison was only interested in helping Olivia and leaving after Olivia was ready to go home.
He didn’t even know if the problem Markus told him about was even a possession anyway.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Kyle answered.
Alison nodded and did one more check on Olivia before she sat back down in the chair with Simon at her side.
“I don’t know if I like that,” Miguel said looking towards Kyle. “What if something happens?”
Kyle didn’t know what to say. The man just buried his wife and now his daughter needed to recover from her experience. Miguel didn’t deserve to live in fear, although Olivia was somehow protected from demons according to Alison.
Alison leaned forward to Miguel and said, “As I said, there is nothing to worry about.”
“I don’t believe that,” Miguel said gesturing to his daughter. “One of them murdered—”
Miguel couldn’t finish his sentence, and he rubbed his eyes. Thankfully, Alison’s features softened. She wasn’t the coldhearted bitch Kyle first thought she was. She seemed to care about Olivia and tried to reassure Miguel.
“I am so sorry about your wife,” Alison said as Miguel wiped his eyes. Alison made Simon move out of her way and she stood and walked over to her bag sitting on the table.
Kyle and Alison’s eyes met. Her eyes turned hard with him and it made Kyle wonder what he did to deserve that stare. Was it because he showed up at her door out of nowhere? It was stupid, but he was desperate or was it something else. Kyle tried to remember back to their conversation but couldn’t think of why she would look at him with contempt.
Alison turned away from Kyle and rummaged through her bag pulling out a card. She walked back over to Miguel and said, “This man lives in California. He’s a doctor. He not only can help you in case Olivia remembers what happened to her mother, but he can also set you up with a new life out there.”
Miguel took the card from her and relief played over his features. “He speaks Spanish.”
Alison nodded. “He’s a hunter. He can help you. All you have to do is mention my name.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” Miguel said with emotion in his voice.
“You don’t have to,” Alison said with a smile.
Alison looked at the IV bag and grinned. “You can take her home now.”
Chapter 9
Jou
rnal entry June 25, Mid-2000s
Brady and I are a team. For the past year, he’s been training me on how to handle these things. I’ve learned how to defend myself and obtained my concealed carry permit.
It’s been tough, I won’t lie, but not only is Brady my friend, but I’ve fallen in love with him.
He is my light shining through the darkness. He is my savior, and I wouldn’t know what to do without him.
Brady is taking me on my first real case soon. I’m so nervous but excited.
Brady and I are testing my powers.
I look back on the last four years and it’s like a black cloud hung over me. I feel like I’ve turned a new and better direction.
I’m keeping this a secret from my family. My mom worries about these changes in me since my accident, but if I told her she’d never believe me, although she is a good Christian woman. I tell her not to worry. I’m fine.
She mentioned my voice has sounded much lighter and she already met Brady. She said she likes him. He seems sweet.
I hope I can tell her the truth one day.
Chapter 10
Miguel lifted a sleeping Olivia over his shoulder. He approached Alison again and said, “I wish I could do something for you.”
Alison was never tired of successful exorcisms. Seeing a family reunited after this kind of nightmare was the best feeling in the world, and there were times she missed that feeling. It made her heart swell and less cynical about what she could do.
“There’s nothing you can do for me,” she said. “Take her home and raise her to be the strong person I know she’ll be.”
Alison wasn’t lying when she said that Olivia was a strong little girl.
Olivia was a warrior. When Alison found her soul, she was trying to pry her cage open, and she was making progress. The demon hadn’t been a strong one, but he should have been strong enough to hold her in her cage inside her mind.
The cage—as Alison nicknamed it—was the part of the mind where the demons held the human souls until they were ready to combine with them, but Olivia wasn’t letting the shadow anywhere near her and Alison swelled with pride when she found the little girl.
Alison, Kyle, and Miguel left the basement, and Alison couldn’t wait to breathe the fresh air again.
It was almost midnight by the time the trio left the basement when Alison felt comfortable enough to allow Miguel to take his daughter home.
Alison glanced at Kyle, who conversed with Miguel, and thought how different he was from most men and women of the cloth she’d met over the years. She never liked them. They were old, stuffy, and arrogant in thinking they could rid the world of the shadows on their own, and they never wanted to admit defeat even when they had to give up and call in a hunter for help.
Kyle not only looked defeated, but he also looked grateful and it made Alison wonder if she was too hard on him.
As Alison waited for Miguel and Kyle to finish their conversation, her eyes roamed around the area to become familiar with her surroundings.
She made a face when she glanced at the sky and saw the flickers of lightning over the Smoky Mountains. The storms had been threatening for hours, and the air was heavy with moisture, creating a perfect mix for a bumpy ride home.
She sighed in resignation knowing she would have to get a hotel and spend the night in this town.
When she’d driven in earlier that day into Wolfpine, she found what looked like a quaint town with summer tourists walking up and down the main drag, eating ice cream, and enjoying some shopping. She appreciated the huge red barn she passed on her way to the church with cows grazing in the field next to it.
But, it was the feeling that swelled inside of her as she passed neighborhoods that made her think something in this town was not what it seemed to be.
A murder of crows flew way too close to her car when she made her last turn onto the street. A regular person wouldn’t think anything of that, but when you see what Alison sees, you take the signs as they come to you.
As she parked at the church, she spotted an unusual number of spider webs woven through the branches of the trees that dotted the parking lot, suffocating them with their thick webs. With the evil entity removed from the vicinity, the trees could shed their invaders and thrive again under the natural weather.
Feeling safe enough, Alison walked Simon near a small pond so he could pee. She always kept extra food for him in case something delayed them from going home, and she was sure he was hungry and thirsty.
She didn’t feel like searching for a hotel that welcomed pets. She would find the first chain she came across from the highway and sneak him inside the room. It wasn’t her first time and certainly wasn’t her last.
While Simon sniffed around the property, Alison heard the car door close, and the car engine start. She smiled knowing that a relieved father would sleep a little better tonight, but knew deep down that these kinds of cases were few and far between.
Alison heard the car pull away and again the area was blanketed in darkness except for a floodlight coming from the entrance to the church.
She glanced over at the church with its white clapboard exterior, stained glass windows, and steeple at the top.
It was a medium sized building, bigger than Alison thought, with the house where Kyle lived nestled in some trees behind it.
The house was much smaller. A two-bedroom country style home with a porch, dotted with two hedges on each side of the house and some bushes around the edges. The style was neat and simple.
It surprised her that a house that small had a basement, but she had a lot of surprises over the years.
The basement must have been a man-cave at one time since it had been well lit and carpeted with older wood paneling covering the concrete walls.
It didn’t look like Kyle spent a lot of time inside the basement until recently, although it looked he tried to keep Olivia as comfortable as possible with the queen-sized bed they had tied her to.
Alison looked up and saw a silhouette walking towards her. Simon stopped his sniffing and raised his head while wagging his tail.
Kyle’s face lit up for a second when he flicked his lighter, and Alison got a whiff of fresh tobacco.
She wanted to groan as her nicotine cravings came back.
“Smoking is bad for you,” Alison commented when Kyle walked up beside her.
She heard a scoff as Kyle’s face lit up from the drag he took from the cigarette. “Why? Do you want one?”
“I quit six months ago,” she said, wanting it, but trying to fight the urge.
“After the last few weeks, I don’t know if I’ll be able to try again for a while,” Kyle answered with another drag from his cigarette.
Alison waited for Simon to pee and said, “You’re not like other preachers I’ve met over the years.”
Kyle laughed lowly. “I try not to be so old-fashioned to keep a younger crowd interested in attending on Sundays. Besides, I’ve had my doubts over the years.”
Kyle turned to face Alison. “I thought I wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps until…”
Alison was curious at what Kyle was saying. She never heard a preacher speak like this before. She never heard one who questioned his own faith.
“Until what?”
The darkness made it hard to read his facial expressions. She heard a shaky intake of breath.
“Until I joined the army and became a chaplain. When I was in Iraq and standing over kids with body parts missing, I secretly prayed they would die so they would stop screaming for their mothers,” Kyle said.
Alison softened. She didn’t know why Kyle chose her to confess that part of his life, but it must have been difficult to talk about.
She saw Kyle wave his hand around. “But this… this is a whole new level of… I don’t know. I have never seen anything like it, and I’ve never seen anything like you.”
Alison liked Kyle more with each passing moment. More than she wanted to admit. She felt guilty for turni
ng him away earlier that day. She had made it clear through The Network she wanted peace. However, it didn’t always work that way, and now she was glad she changed her mind.
“What are you, Alison?” Kyle asked.
Alison’s lips turned up into a smile. “I’m as human as you are. At least, that’s what my blood work says.”
She heard a small chuckle and Kyle flicked his cigarette into the nearby pond. Both looked up when they heard a rumble of thunder in the distance.
