by Mark Lukens
He grabbed his wallet, his IPod, and his earbuds.
He was as ready as he would ever be.
†
On the drive out of Boston, Danny didn’t know how to feel. He was both scared of what might be lurking in this house that they were going to, yet he was also excited in a strange way, like this was an adventure.
Paul lectured Danny about his duties as an apprentice as they drove I-90 towards western Massachusetts.
“Apprentices are supposed to obey the exorcist’s commands at all times, no matter how unreasonable they might seem.”
Danny nodded.
“You, as an apprentice, are never to engage with a dark spirit. You never speak to a possessed person or to a demonic spirit. You never engage in conversation with them.”
Danny nodded.
Paul looked at him.
“I got it,” Danny said and smiled.
“This is serious stuff, Danny. There’s no way I can prepare you for what you might see in this house we’re going to.”
Danny had read many case studies of exorcisms and he had an idea of what could happen there.
Paul drove in silence for a moment, driving five miles faster than the speed limit, passing slower-moving trucks and mini-vans. The roar of the Bronco’s motor was loud inside the cab.
“What was in the envelope that Father McFadden gave to you?” Danny asked.
Paul hesitated for a moment before answering. “Just some background information on the assignment.”
“Can I read it?”
Paul didn’t react to Danny’s question, but Danny couldn’t help feeling that his request had bristled Paul somewhat. “Not right now,” he finally said.
“But don’t you think I should? I mean, wouldn’t that be a part of the training?”
“Not right now,” Paul said a little more forcefully.
Danny wondered why Paul wouldn’t let him see the contents of the envelope if he was training him. It bothered him, but he pushed it away in his mind to ponder later.
“What are the signs of demonic possession in a person?” Paul asked like he was changing the subject. He stared straight ahead as he asked the question, his hands gripping the steering wheel, the iron rings wrapped around each middle and third finger. He wore his usual dark clothing: black boots, black pants, and a black shirt with his silver crucifix hanging down from his neck.
The tattoos on Paul’s wrists poked out from underneath his shirt’s cuffs just a little, and it reminded Danny of sitting on the bench with Father Norman in the courtyard at St. Mathews.
Paul’s floppy hat hung over the side window in the back where their suitcases, duffel bags, and Paul’s black canvas duffel bag were stowed.
“Increased strength is one of them,” Danny finally answered Paul’s question. “Like superhuman strength.” He thought for a moment. “Speaking in languages that the possessed person would not have known before. Vomiting up objects, especially metal objects. Levitation. And …” Danny sighed. He couldn’t remember the next one.
“Gnosis,” Paul told him.
“Yeah,” Danny said. “Gnosis.”
“And gnosis is …?” Paul asked.
“The ability of the possessed person to know things about other people that they couldn’t possibly know. Like secrets.”
“Demons may know secrets that people keep. They may reveal these secrets in the middle of an exorcism to embarrass the exorcist and humble him or disable him.”
“So an exorcist should have no secrets,” Danny said.
Paul glanced at Danny, pinning him there for a moment with his dark eyes. “We all have our secrets.”
Danny nodded and then found himself looking away, not wanting to stare into Paul’s eyes any longer.
“Demons may reveal secrets, but they also tell lies,” Paul added as he passed another car. “You must be ready for both of them.”
†
Paul pulled off the highway in upstate New York. He exited down a ramp and then drove a quarter of a mile to a small gas station.
“Time to fill up this thirsty beast,” Paul said with a forced smile. He seemed like he was trying to be relaxed about this trip to a haunting, but Danny could tell that he was nervous and jittery underneath his façade. He wondered if Paul was always this nervous going to an assignment or if it was this one in particular.
Paul got out of the Bronco after parking it next to an aging fuel pump. He looked back in at Danny. “You need to use the bathroom?”
Danny shook his head no.
“You want anything from the store? Something to drink?”
“Yeah. A soda, please.”
Paul nodded like he already knew the answer. “Coke or Pepsi?”
“Either one.”
“Hungry?”
Danny shook his head no.
“We’ll stop somewhere to eat when we get closer to the house. Maybe a diner or something. Or even McDonald’s if you want.”
“Okay.”
Paul slammed the door shut.
Danny got out of the truck to stretch his legs as Paul pumped the gas into the Bronco after paying with a debit card.
A debit card from a church bank account, Danny figured. He remembered Paul telling him that the Church paid for his house, the utilities, and gave him a nice monthly income for his services.
Services I may perform one day, Danny thought as he watched Paul pump the gas.
Danny found it difficult to imagine doing something like this for a living. But then again, he hadn’t really begun his training yet. Maybe after their time in this house, Danny would feel a little more confident. Right now all of his training, which was really just a lot of reading, was all blurring together. For some reason, he found it difficult to concentrate on what he was reading, and remembering it all. But he guessed maybe that was because all of this was new to him.
Paul hung the nozzle up after he finished pumping the gas. He screwed the cap back on his tank and shut the little flap.
“You want to come inside with me?” Paul asked.
“Nah, I’ll wait here.”
Paul nodded and then turned to walk away. He hurried across the snowy parking lot to the gas station store.
Danny walked a few steps away from the Bronco and looked around at the desolate landscape—a land of gently rolling hills with a thick blanket of snow covering everything. There was a small stand of woods across the street, but everything else in the distance was snowy fields. There were a few buildings farther down the wide and lonely road to his left. To his right Danny could see the highway ramps half a mile away. The vehicles that traveled along the river of highway reminded Danny of ants traveling back and forth on their little missions.
He looked back to his left and exhaled a long breath, watching the mist cloud up in front of his face.
And then he heard a noise from his right—a soft crunching and dragging sound.
He looked back to his right, towards the highway in the distance again, and he saw an old man stumbling up to him from the road. He hadn’t seen the man before when he had just looked that way towards the highway exit, but the man was there now. He was dressed in layers of old clothes wrapped around his frail body. He held a threadbare coat closed over everything with gnarled hands that were protected from the elements only by a pair of fingerless cloth gloves.
Danny glanced back at the gas station to see if Paul was on his way back to the truck yet.
He wasn’t.
The old man was closer now, within forty feet. He was shuffling through the snow, but he was moving fast.
He’s probably going to ask me for money.
Danny felt a twinge of guilt as he hurried back to the side of the truck. He would’ve given the man some money, but he didn’t have any.
“Boy …” Danny heard the old man call out over the chilly wind.
Danny ignored the old man’s call and opened the passenger door which screeched out a squeal.
“Boy … hey, boy …”
/> Danny hopped inside the truck and slammed the door shut. He pretended he hadn’t heard the old man. He even slapped the door lock down, but then he felt silly being afraid of this old man. What was this old man going to do except give him a guilt trip?
He glanced back at the gas station store, but he still didn’t see Paul coming back to the truck. He didn’t even see Paul anywhere inside the store through the windows.
What was taking him so long?
A pounding at the passenger window startled Danny. He jumped and whirled around, staring face-to-face with the old man on the other side of the glass.
“I’m sorry,” Danny yelled before the old man had a chance to speak. “I don’t have any money!”
The old man’s face was a roadmap of wrinkles. White stubble dotted his thin jaw and pointy chin. His gray eyes were set deep in his face. The man seemed to be in some kind of pain, squinting like he had a headache.
“Don’t go to that house,” the old man told Danny.
For a second Danny couldn’t respond to the old man’s words. He couldn’t even breathe.
Had he heard the old man correctly?
“There’s danger in that house for you,” the old man said.
“What … what are you talking about?” Danny finally stammered out.
“Terrible danger for you in that house,” the old man said again, his eyes locked on to Danny’s eyes.
The sound of the driver’s door opening tore Danny’s eyes away from the old man. He turned and saw Paul opening the door.
Paul sat down inside the truck with a plastic bottle of Coke for Danny and a paper cup of steaming coffee for himself. He set the coffee cup in a cup holder in the center console and then handed the bottle to Danny.
“Thanks,” Danny whispered. He took the bottle and looked back out the passenger window, afraid of what he might see … or not see.
The old man was gone.
Danny turned around in the passenger seat and looked out the rear window of the truck, but he didn’t see the old man anywhere.
He could feel Paul’s eyes staring at him.
“What’s wrong, Danny?”
“Nothing,” Danny muttered and turned back around in his seat. He buckled his seatbelt around him.
“You saw something,” Paul said. It wasn’t a question.
Danny didn’t answer.
“You can’t fight these Gifts you’ve been blessed with,” Paul said after he closed his door on the cold air. He stuck his key into the ignition of the Bronco, but he didn’t start it yet.
“Your visions are trying to tell you something.”
Danny sighed. He knew he needed to be honest with Paul and tell him what he saw. “I saw an old man. He looked like he was homeless, I guess.”
Paul nodded. “Did he say anything?”
Danny wanted to tell Paul the truth, but at the last moment he decided not to, but he wasn’t sure why.
“Not really,” Danny finally answered. “He was just banging on the window. Scared me a little.”
Paul just stared at Danny for a long moment like he was searching his eyes for a lie, like he was looking for a tell on his face that would give him away. Danny held Paul’s gaze for as long as he could and then he looked out the window at the rolling hills of snow.
Paul didn’t press any further. He twisted the key and started the truck.
Danny couldn’t get the old man’s words out of his mind.
There was danger waiting in that house for him.
Now there were new feelings trying to creep into Danny’s mind. Thoughts that he’d never considered before. What if these visions weren’t sent by God? What if there was something wrong with his mind? What if there was something wrong with Paul’s mind, too?
He couldn’t help feeling that Paul was keeping secrets from him.
Dangerous secrets, maybe.
PAR† †HREE
CHAP†ER †WEN†Y-SIX
Danny and Paul got to the house just as the daylight faded in the western sky in soft blues and grays, the sky dying a winter day’s death. The eastern horizon was already dark with stars twinkling in the blackness. It was cold out here in the middle of nowhere, colder than it had been in town only twenty miles away.
The large house sat in the middle of a vast snowy field, like maybe there were acres and acres of farmland all around the house—or land that used to be farmland some time ago. At the far edges of the flat land was a line of dark trees.
They had driven down a long road to get to the house. The road was really more like a trail through the woods which consisted of wintery, skeletal trees.
The house was huge—three stories high with a long front porch and a big attached garage that jutted off from the left side. The house’s exterior was covered with white siding that looked gray now and black shutters hanging on each side of each window. There wasn’t much in the way of landscaping; many of the plants were now dormant for the winter. There were no trees anywhere around the house.
Two vehicles were parked in front of the garage—a gray sedan and a white Dodge Durango, and both of them were covered with a blanket of snow.
Danny could tell that the house looked old and in need of some repair even from this distance as they pulled up to it. The house gave Danny a creepy vibe; it was the only building sitting out here in the middle of this vast field with no trees or other vegetation around it. It looked unnatural to him. It looked like an aberration in the middle of nature. The structure looked lonely and out-of-place.
Paul parked his rumbling Bronco next to the gray sedan and shut the engine off. And then it was very quiet. The only sound was the whistling wind that flowed freely above the square miles of flat fields.
“You sure you’re ready for this?” Paul asked.
A little late now, Danny thought, but he didn’t say that. “Yeah. I really don’t know what to do, though.”
“Just watch me and do everything I tell you to. Okay?”
Danny nodded.
“It will be okay, Danny. The most important thing is that you keep your faith strong. Dig deep down and hold on to your faith.”
Again Danny nodded. He wasn’t sure about his faith anymore, but he would try. He could at least do that.
“Father Hopkins and Father Severino have been told that you were coming with me. They know that you’re my apprentice and they will treat you as such. As far as the owners of the home know, you’re just an assistant. No need to go into a lot of details with them when we don’t have to.”
Danny nodded, not sure why the story needed to be different for the owners of the house. But he didn’t question it.
“But what exactly are we going to do here?” Danny asked and glanced at the house that loomed in front of them. “I mean, what’s the first thing you do when you begin a …” Danny searched for the right word … “an assignment?”
“I know this is tough on you. I know you probably feel like your world has been turned upside down.”
“That about describes it.”
“I know all of this is a lot to take in at one time. I didn’t expect to have an assignment so soon. I had expected to have more time to train you, to explain procedures and protocols, to prepare you. And I wanted more time for your faith to become stronger. That’s important. The most important thing.”
Danny nodded, but then a random thought entered his mind: he had never really seen Paul pray. And they certainly hadn’t ever prayed together yet.
But Danny didn’t say anything.
“I know this is a crash course in apprenticeship,” Paul said, tearing Danny away from his thoughts. “But I believe you’re going to learn so much here. More than you could’ve ever imagined.”
Danny’s throat was suddenly dry and he forced himself to swallow.
“I’ll do everything you tell me,” Danny finally said. “I will try to learn.”
“Just follow me once we get inside. Do everything I tell you. No hesitations. No questions. Okay?”
&
nbsp; “Okay.”
Paul reached over and patted Danny on the shoulder. It was the first real show of affection from Paul since they had come to Boston.
They got out of the truck and left their bags inside. They would come back for them later, Paul told Danny as they walked towards the house.
A middle-aged priest opened a door next to the garage. He was a short man, slightly overweight, and he had thinning dark hair and large brown eyes. And Danny saw fear and desperation in the man’s eyes. He saw defeat. It was like the priest’s eyes had seen things that they couldn’t un-see.
But the priest managed a smile. “I’m Father Al Severino.”
“Paul Lambert,” Paul answered and gestured towards Danny. “This is my son and my apprentice, Danny.”
Danny climbed the few steps up to the door and shook the priest’s offered hand. The man’s handshake was soft and clammy, like he was too exhausted to grip Danny’s hand properly. Dark bags under the priest’s eyes showed that he hadn’t slept much recently.
“Father Andrew Hopkins is inside with the owners, Robert and Helen Tully,” Father Severino said as he backed out of the doorway to let Paul and Danny inside. He closed the door behind them after they were inside.
They stood in a mudroom where they shed their coats and hats and hung them on an old-fashioned coat rack carved from wood. They stamped the snow off of their boots.
“No need to take your shoes off,” Father Severino said. “The owners are in the middle of remodeling the house.” He paused a moment. “Of course, they haven’t been able to get much done lately.”
Danny looked past the priest at the doorway of the mudroom that opened up to a kitchen.
“This way,” Father Severino said, gesturing towards the archway.
Danny watched Paul as they walked through the kitchen. Paul’s eyes were constantly moving, they seemed to be taking in every detail and storing them in his memory. Their shoes clomped on the wood floors as they walked through the kitchen. It was a large kitchen with a table in the far corner with four chairs around it. Tall upper cabinets that ran all the way up to the nine foot ceiling were mounted on one long wall with the window in it and a shorter wall next to the archway that ran to a corner. The counters were cluttered with collected knickknacks, cardboard boxes of remodeling supplies, and a few tools here and there. A plastic dish strainer next to the double sink underneath the one window in the room was full of drying plates, cups, and silverware.
