The Last Customer

by Daniel Coughlin

  Winny’s breath quickened. His prayers had been answered and he was swept with relief. His brother was back and he looked okay and in good health. Winny darted toward the door. The wooden floor bounced as he made his way. He reached down to the floor and opened the staircase leading to the hallway and then began to descend. He was suddenly halted. Gardner grabbed his arm and pulled him upward forcefully.

  Too eager to care about the aching pain that shot through his shoulder from where Gardner gripped him, Winny looked up at Gardner’s stern face and said, “its Garth. He’s fine. We need to let him in before those evil bastards get to him.”

  A frown took Winny’s face when he saw the intensity of Gardner, and then Winny pulled himself free from Gardner. Quickly, he descended the small staircase. His shoes squeaked when he hit the hardwood floor. He jumped halfway down, skipping the rest of the stairs. He ran toward the next staircase at the far end of the hallway and sprinted to the first floor. Then he ran to the front door.

  He stopped.

  Knocking, drifted into his ears. The flower vase that had been set in back of the door fell over. It spilled dirt onto wood flooring. From behind, Gardner hustled down the stairs. He nearly tackled Winny before he fully opened the door.

  “That’s not your brother. Do not let him in. You’ll be endangering us all,” Gardner said. The authority in his voice was strong.

  Reaching for the doorknob, Gardner swiped at Winny’s hand.

  “I just saw him. He looked up at me and smiled. I know that it’s hard for you to understand, but you’re wrong. I swear it. You’re wrong. That’s Garth out there. It’s okay, really.”

  The knocking grew louder. Garth’s voice drifted in. “Winny, open the door. I don’t want one of those things to get me.”

  Convinced, Winny grabbed for the door again. This time, the door flew off the hinges from the outside and Winny was knocked to the ground. His stomach cramped. He felt as though he’d been kicked. The pain was brutal. Gardner was pushing his way forward and punching at Garth.

  Winny sprung to his feet. Gardner was tossed backward toward the foot of the stairs and a huffing sound pumped from his mouth when his back hit the stairs. Winny pushed Garth out the door.

  “Winny, it’s me. What are you trying to do? I need your help.”

  Winny knew that Garth had been taken. This wasn’t his brother. Pain washed over him. He was devastated. He wanted to know where and when Garth had been taken. How could this have happened? How would they fix it? He looked to Gardner as he stood from the floor, hunched over and gripped his throbbing love-handle.

  “Get out of this house you retched thing! I command you in the name of all that is good! Go to your distant land.” Gardner shouted, as he stood, proud, face to face, and ordered Sammael out.

  Looking to Gardner for help, Winny moved toward Sammael. When he turned to face him, Sammael grabbed at Winny’s throat. He squeezed, digging his bony fingers into Winny’s neck. Winny locked eyes with the monster and began to pray. He hoped that some semblance of his brother was alive and would help him. His airway was constricted and breath shortened. His chest pounded. He heard Gardner scurry out of the room.

  Winny was frightful. The end of his life was near. Beginning to feel faint, he slumped to the floor and looked up at what used to be his brother. A tear spilled from his eye. Around the eyes of Sammael, the white fire of hell burned the radius of his pupils.

  About to pass out, Winny saw colors flash before his eyes. His neck felt weak. His head bobbed and threatened to fall forward. All sound diminished and there was only silence. Then, a sizzling noise seeped in. It sounded like water dripping onto a hot skillet. Forcing his eyes to open, with all of his might, Winny came too. The sizzle was, in fact, some kind of liquid. It bubbled on Sammael’s forehead. The grip that Sammael had around Winny’s neck quickly fell. Winny gasped for breath and he received it. His strength began to grow. Adrenaline pumped through his system and coursed through his arms and legs.

  Winny rolled away from the monster that wore his brother’s skin and darted behind Gardner, who now stood in front of Sammael throwing water upon him from a small vile that resembled a flask. It must be holy water. Gardner was saying something, but Winny was too wound-up to understand it.

  “I cast you out of this body that you have wrongfully stolen.” Gardner was saying over and over. Then he looked to Winny and pointed toward the stairs. “Go to them.”

  Winny nodded. He ran toward the staircase. He jumped, step-by-step, to the second floor hallway and then raced to the small staircase hanging down from the attic. He pulled his way up and jumped into the attic.

  He was alone. The attic was empty.

  4

  The enormity of thunderous footsteps struck loud and Cherri and Donna could hear the fighting coming from downstairs. They quickly nested behind the larger stacks of boxes in the darkest corner of the attic. They crouched down low and waited in silence. The shouts, stomping and pounding that came from downstairs had frightened them both and they anticipated the worst. Cherri wanted to go downstairs. She wanted to help the men, but Donna had prevented her and convinced her that Gardner didn’t want them to go. That they’d only get in the way of what needed to be done. That Gardner was protecting them.

  Cherri listened to her. From what Cherri knew—Gardner was some kind of holy man and he’d dealt with the likes of these creatures and had done so for many years. Therefore, he knew best and Cherri understood. She had faith in him.

  When heavy footsteps grew louder and threatened to lurch into the attic, Cherri’s first reaction was to stand and get ready to fight. She would face the enemy, courageous. She had had enough and she was mad as hell. Maybe she’d grab a box from the back of the attic and she could throw it at whatever came at them. It probably wouldn’t do anything except make the demon mad. But hell, the demon would probably enjoy it. Her throbbing heart slowed. The square in the floor filled with the shape of a man. It had to be Sammael, coming to finish them off. It wasn’t.

  Winny burst from the floor and jumped into the moonlit attic. Cherri held her hand to her chest and focused on her breathing.

  “Winny, what’s happening?” She asked.

  Winny looked around the attic, confused. He didn’t know where the voice was calling from. Cherri stood and revealed herself.

  “It’s Garth. Well, it’s not Garth...it’s that thing. He’s possessed Garth…”

  Cherri watched the frightened form of Winny’s eyes. Grief had struck him. Cherri could sense that he’d already written his brother off as dead and she was saddened.

  “I don’t know what to do. I’m scared for Garth, he must be in so much pain…I don’t know how he let that evil piece of shit take him, but we need to help him. There’s got to be a way we can help him,” Garth pleaded.

  Donna went to Winny. She gently touched his shoulder with her fingers. “We need to help them both. They need us. I know how my husband works. When he wants us to go, we’ll know it. He’ll call us.”

  “He needs us now!” Winny screamed at her.

  Shaking her head, slowly, from side to side, Donna calmly said, “What was the last thing my husband said to you?”

  Cherri could see that Winny wanted to argue with Donna, but in the end he nodded and said, “He told me to come up here—that I should stay with you.”

  “Then he wants you to be with us, up here. Strength in numbers, remember?”

  Cherri was scared by how intense Winny had become. He was angry. He couldn’t sit still and he wanted to do something. Still, he seemed to know that the right thing to do was stay in the attic, with them.

  “So, we should just wait here until something happens? What if he kills Garth or your husband? What then? Should we stay up here until he kills us?” He said, intensely sarcastic.

  Donna closed her eyes and nodded.

  “We’ll wait for my husband to tell us what to do,” Donna finished. She opened her eyes and looked at Winny. There was an understandin
g in the way she gazed at him.

  Shaking his head, obviously disappointed, Winny stepped back from Donna and said, “That’s weak.”

  5

  Gardner stood near the cracked frame of his front door. Wood splinters angled out from all sides of the rectangular doorway. He was standing above the demon, Sammael. He frowned upon the snarling beast that he was defeating. Although he was defeating the demon, he had not defeated him. The holy water had hurt the demon, dazed him, and thrown him out of commission for the moment. The demon was temporarily blinded. He hissed and growled.

  “I command you…in the name of all that is good, to leave this body. Leave this house. You are not welcome. Go to your distant land.”

  Standing slowly, unable to look at Gardner, Sammael wobbled like a drunkard. He stumbled to his feet, frantically wiping the sizzling water from his face. The holy water left dark red lesions on his forehead and the skin on his face bubbled and burned downward and across the side of his nose.

  Gardner watched-on, confidently, as the demon slowly shifted his gaze. Sammael’s eyes rolled over to the back of his head. They were bulbs of pure white and they were flickering fiery white halos. They burned brightly. Stepping backward, Sammael smiled, maniacally.

  “I will leave this house, but I will destroy the flesh which I wear, and I will…” he looked up, seemingly toward the ceiling. “…destroy those who you love…and they will destroy you and each other in turn.”

  And with that, Sammael whisked out the front door.

  Gardener’s first instinct was to run after Sammael. The demon hadn’t been concurred and the sinking despair that Gardner felt, in the pit of his stomach, was incredible. His focus was on Winny. He knew that Winny’s anger would consume him. Gardner wouldn’t be able to convince Winny of otherwise. His rage would build. Sammael was right. It would turn Winny against what was good and what was right. It would turn him against the group.

  Gardner quickly made his way up the stairs. His lower back groaned with each step. Sharp pains exploded from all of his joints. He yelled to the girls as he hobbled stair after stair, “It’s me! I’m coming up!”

  He made it into the attic and Donna ran to him. She wrapped her arms around his beaten torso and held him tight. Winny stood in the corner of the room biting his nails and kicking his foot at the wooden planks that made up the floor. A thin layer of dust jumped up each time his foot landed. Gardner looked to the dust-rumbled floor and it reminded him of the desert during the beginning moments of an earthquake. He’d once witnessed an earthquake caused by the hand of God. That had been an angry tremor. It was a recorded six on the Richter scale.

  There had been a small cult in the Arizona desert that practiced black magic and witchcraft. They’d defiled the property where they resided. They’d kidnapped children and done awful things with them. Gardner had been called in and there had been a short investigation. The spiritual battle had been brutal. The fighting took place on not only the living world, but the spiritual plain that existed beneath the surface of human acknowledgement.

  Gardner feared telling Winny what he knew, but he knew that he must and he needed to do it quick. He needed assurance that Winny wouldn’t fight them. That he wouldn’t be of risk or get in the way of what needed to be done. But, if he were going to fight them, then they could deal with him by restraint. Once they knew if he was friend or foe, they could strategize their defense.

  “I couldn’t save your brother, Winny. He’s gone. He’s been taken. I know that you’re hurt, but we need to find the demon and destroy it before he hurts others. It’s the right thing to do, Winny,” Gardner said as he took a step toward Winny. Winny turned pale. He looked grim. Gardner was hesitant to proceed. The need to intimidate Winny was necessary. It might win his attention and as Gardner half expected, Winny wasn’t fazed. He moved past Gardner, toward the door in the floor.

  Gardner grabbed Winny’s arm and twisted it backward. A look of terror took Winny’s face as he was driven to his knees. Gardner wrapped his arm around Winny’s neck, placing his elbow in the inner pocket of his trachea. Gardner pulled, hard, behind Winny and squeezed with all of his might. He wanted to render Winny unconscious. If Winny were out-cold then he could be restrained and Gardner could hunt Sammael.

  Winny swung his head backward, piling it into Gardner’s face. Blood exploded across the top Winny’s head as it drained from Gardner’s nose. Gardner was going to lose him. He wouldn’t listen and his mind was made up. There was no stopping him and he escaped the dazed Gardner.

  Winny dove down the hatch, into the hallway.

  6

  Winny tumbled down the hatch. Losing control, he fell fast and landed on his shoulder. The pain was sharp and intense, but the brunt of it fled quickly. He felt his shoulder pop out of place, but the bone quickly knocked back into its joint. Without wasting a moment, he took off away from the attic. He needed to find Garth—his brother needed him. In Winny’s mind, the bond of brotherhood was stronger than any evil that could possess Garth. There was a way to get through to him—to save him and to beat the demon. There had to be.

  Fumbling to his knees, pain shot upward through his body. His teeth chattered. Not stopping, he stood and ran toward the stairs and then down them and out the front door. He ran into the night. Realizing that he didn’t know where he was going or what he was going to do, but that didn’t stop his legs from pumping hard and fast. He felt as though he were being guided by something unseen.

  Before he hit the mouth of the driveway, he heard a voice call to him. It sounded like Cherri’s. There was a sweet tone to it. He turned and looked out into the night. He saw that she was standing near the corner of the house. She stood still, staring at him. She didn’t look frightened—as she probably should have. She looked delighted to see him. Suddenly, he felt that he needed to go to her.

  Relief washed over him. Then fear struck when he saw Garth. Garth was possessed. Still, there was something different about his appearance now. It was Garth. Not just his flesh and blood, but his brother. He stood behind Cherri and there was nothing evil about him. The evil presence that radiated from him was gone and his eyes were sullen. It was really Garth.

  Maybe Gardner had somehow cast the demon out?

  Garth looked sad, yet cautious, as if he didn’t want anyone to see him.

  Winny went to his brother and Cherri.

  7

  Jezebeth burned. Her existence had grown weak and the pain was intense. It was sharp and she savored it. She hadn’t been sent back yet. For one reason or another, the matter in which her existence was consisted of was not in a solid state. She was a presence, particles of searing pain. Each particle more intensely tormented than the other. But she remained in the world of the living. She still possessed strength. Not the level of strength she’d possessed when she arrived in this realm, but enough strength to present images to those she wished to possess. The red-haired beauty, Cherri, would be a good image to project upon Winny. Winny’s optimism was Jezebeth’s strength. She could make him weak and his guard would fall and then she could wear his body while she tormented his soul. Earlier, when she inhabited the body of Patty, she’d seen the attraction that Winny held for Cherri. It was unmistakable. Now, she would use this attraction, this weakness, in order to take his body and destroy it.

  She would possess Winny first. After she had a body, she’d destroy the others. She would be rewarded in Hell. She didn’t care what happened to Sammael. Yet she acknowledged that he was strong. He was better at this sick game than her. Rightfully so, Sammael had existed for many centuries. He’d been around much longer than she had and therefore he was more experienced. But given what had happened tonight—being able to escape the power which the priest carried—she knew that she could continue on her path of destruction. She could be rewarded by the Dark Master.

  Now, as Winny walked toward—what looked like—Cherri and Garth, Jezebeth smiled. Winny looked comforted. He thought he was seeing Gath and Cherri. Too bad
it wasn’t them; too bad for him. Winny thought he’d found his brother and Cherri. He slowed down as he neared the edge of the house.

  “Garth…Cherri, what are you doing?” he asked.

  Jezebeth could sense his defensiveness. That he was probably contemplating whether or not she and his brother were in fact who they claimed to be and obviously they were not. They were here to destroy him. Naivety was a pleasant weakness about the human race. When people want something bad enough, they’re willing to justify their thinking to suit their wants.

  8

  Winny shivered as the cold morning air surrounded him. The temperature had dropped significantly. It had been hot during the day, warm in the evening, and was growing bitter cold in the night. He rubbed his shoulders as he walked toward his brother, but couldn’t take his eyes away from Cherri. She was beautiful. He wanted to be with her. He felt guilty because he didn’t want to be thinking about her—like that—now. He couldn’t help it.

  How did she make it down here so fast? He’d just seen her in the attic a few moments ago. He didn’t care. She was here and so was Garth. His faith continued to build. He didn’t recognize any evil within his brother. It just wasn’t there as it had been before.

  Maybe Garth had been able to get rid of the demon on his own. He lacked the glazed eyes and the sinister grin. There was life behind his eyes now that reflected goodness. He looked, strangely, apologetic. The humanistic gleam in his eyes expressed his regret. He was sorry for leaving earlier.

  “Hey bro, look, I’m sorry I took off like I did. All of this…that happened tonight…it’s just too much. We shouldn’t deal with this on our own. We need help. We need to get out of here. You need to come with me. I’m not leaving without you—that’s why I came back,” Garth explained as he stared apologetically at Winny. “And before, at the door, that wasn’t me. That thing was in me. After you took off, Gardner did something…he made it go away,” Garth said, and everything he said made sense. It paralleled his assumptions.