by mike Evans
The two were barely listening, they knew taunting was something they did and that it needed to be ignored or be driven insane. James whispered, “I hate spiders!”
“Ignore them, James, this isn’t our first time,” Billy said.
Billy stopped when he didn’t hear James’ footsteps going up behind him. He was plastered against the wall brushing at his arms frantically. Billy yelled, “What in God’s name are you doing, James, what is wrong?”
“Spiders, spiders, there are thousands of them, everywhere on me. Get them off, get them off now!”
They’d tried, unsuccessfully, the demons that is, to get in the two priests heads before, but never like this. Billy wanted to help his friend, but truly was unsure what to do to help. He took one of his bottles of holy water, not wanting to throw glass balls at his best friend and pulled the cap showering where he was brushing most at his arms off. The spiders that only James could see melted away and James fell back against the wall, his chest rising and falling. He held up his hands, blinking and shaking them a few times before what he saw was gone.
“You good, James, they gone?”
“We erase that from the video later,” James said quietly seeing the two red lights pointing in their direction from the tripods.
Billy started his walk back up the steps; this time the echoes of James followed him. When they got to the top of the steps the blonde-haired girl, Hayley was already at the end of the hallway disappearing into the back room. She walked not like a little girl, but a woman that worked the streets and knew what men wanted to see.
“These things are messed up,” Billy said.
The boy came out shaking his head, “Leave, send in the breeders, we need more in our army. The two of you will never be worthy.”
James took a ball of water and lobbed it down the worn wood floor. The ball hit the wall, shattering but the boy’s feet came up off the floor missing the water. “You want to play? We can play.”
Martyn pulled his arms into his sides and pushed them both out with hands outstretched. An invisible force came down the hall, sending frames off the wall, shattering to the ground before making contact with James and Billy. They both tried to jump out of the way, but whatever force he was using to power it was enough to send the two men off their feet and backwards.
The demon child floated forward after them almost as fast as they were falling down the stairs. It was screaming at the top of its lungs as they descended the hall and staircase. Both closed their eyes, waiting for the impact. When they realized they had not hit the hard floor they opened their eyes to see the demon floating above them. He raised his arms swinging the two in a circle and into a wall. The demon’s laughter was all they could hear echoing throughout the home.
James threw a handful of holy water filled glass balls just to the side of them. When the water splashed off the walls the demon yelled words, they could only assume were not of the flattering nature.
He pulled James close to him until the demon’s eyelashes were tickling his cheek. He pushed out sending James across the living room and through the large glass bay window. James hit hard against it. The glass broke beneath the force and the shattering glass went everywhere as he went through it. His foot went through the salt line he’d made. James could feel blood trickling down the back of his neck when he tried to sit up. He tried to shake it free from his brain, but only made the dizzy spells worse.
Dale and Lorraine just watched in awe. She tried to rush toward him, but Dale gripped her around the waist. “You aren’t going anywhere, you just saw him fly out of our window, right?”
“Dale, he needs our help?” she protested.
“He needs someone’s help but it sure as hell isn’t ours. Christ, would you look at him, he flew twenty feet!”
Morty and his crew sat in the news van. The three all had their mouths agape. “Rod, Nick, if you two aren’t getting this then you’ll never work in this town again!”
“You’re kidding, right; we were already watching the mom and dad on the porch. This is great, what made him do that, Morty, did you set something up with these quack jobs?” Rod asked.
“No way, I wish I had that kind of budget. I wanted to show the world they were frauds, not make them look like God’s holy warriors. Oh my, would you look at that!” Morty practically yelled as he shook Rod by the shoulder.
“You want shaky footage or you want this to look like a pro shot it, Morty?”
“It’s Mr. Spencer to you, Rod, and I’ll like you to show me a little respect. You keep it steady and still, this is too good to pass up!”
The scene couldn’t have been better for the devil’s doing. The drapes were blowing in the wind, the clouds were dark, removing any sun from the day and a thunder in the distance began to shake the ground. “This is going to make the news, screw the show!” Nick said, bouncing up and down as he dialed in his equipment on the panel.
Morty spoke low into his microphone as if something might hear him. He said, “Folks, you are watching live recorded footage. We are following our guests from a show we did earlier today with catholic priests, Father Parker and Father Clapper. We followed them from our studio to the house here, which is the Parkes’ residence, at least that is what the mailbox says. This is never before seen footage and Morty Spencer is bringing it to you first. We just got video of Father Clapper being thrown through the window, by what we don’t know, but there is no need to worry, I can assure you for his well-being by the way he was tossed out. The chances of him not needing a doctor and hospital will be a miracle all in its own if….what are we doing sitting in the van?”
Morty didn’t have to give the two directions if they wanted to keep their jobs. He swung the van door open and charged to the downed priest. James heard the door and for a minute thought that maybe demons were on the streets and chasing him. He saw Morty smiling from ear to ear sprinting toward him. James could tell if it were just the slightest bit windier that his horrible toupee would blow free and expose his hair, or lack thereof for all to see. A scream came from the house and brought him back to life. He was going to say something, but Hayley came up to the broken window laughing and floating in place.
When she saw her two parents, she smiled and rushed out the window. James was going by instinct only at this point. He rolled to his side getting up to a knee and then stumbling forward. He could hurt later he thought, God would give him no test that he was not able to handle.
He got some momentum just as she was within reaching distance of her parents, her arms outstretched toward them, the blood from earlier covering her face and her teeth exposed for everyone to see.
James ripped his belt off pulling it out of the loops clean and slid it back through the buckle. He took her by the back of her dress and tossed the loop over her head and shoulders, pulling it tight and never stopped moving back toward the house.
The demon screamed as loud as she could at the thought of her two fresh souls being pulled just out of her reach. James yanked hard behind him, sending her back into the house with him. He swung her in a circle, taking her by the shoulder and pushing her down by the chest to the ground. He pulled a plastic bag full of salt from his pocket still moving into the living room with the demon in tow. He used his teeth to tear open the bag, and held his hand beneath it catching a handful of it in his palm as the demon tried its best to get back out of the house. James pulled her back one more time and leapt forward throwing a handful of salt onto the windowsill recreating his protective barrier against the damned leaving.
He heard his belt fall to the ground and watched as she disappeared back up the steps laughing as she did. The fact he didn’t see or hear Billy when he got his bearings back hit his sense of urgency all at once. “Billy, Billy, where are you, where are you?”
The voice he assumed was coming from Martyn echoed down the stairs, “We are going to sacrifice him to our dark lord if you do not come.”
James was anything but ignorant. He knew it was a tric
k or to be accurate a trap. He started up the stairs trying to figure out how he was going to save his friend from not one but from two demons. He didn’t like the odds and knew there wasn’t anything that he could do to better them. By the time that he tried to get reinforcements here they would have the entire block under their mind control, or have passed from these youth’s bodies to a new one.
A red light came from beneath the door. James did not waste time outside once he heard Billy’s cries from the room. He kicked the door once, then twice and it did not budge. He threw one of the glass balls filled with holy water on the knob crashing it and breaking the glass. James ran back as far as he could against the wall and came for it practically doing a flying sidekick into it, he thought of Chuck Norris and realized the man would have a heart attack if he saw this poor excuse for martial arts he was attempting to perform. Nevertheless, his foot connected just to the side of the knob and this time when he hit it the door snapped along the edge. The door flung open and James looked around for Billy.
Billy had sweat and blood covering his face. The demons didn’t usually waste their time with beating the non-possessed, but Billy must have been taunting them trying to buy time until James could come and do something. Billy saw James and tried to smile, but his cheek looked like he had a baseball in the side of it. The one taking over Martyn laughed when he saw the look of hope on Billy’s face. “Your brother’s face will not have the same hope that your face does when they go for him.”
“What are you talking about, demon?” Billy yelled.
“We won’t have to explain anything once you are one of us. Be patient priest,” the demon holding Hayley screeched.
James looked for something to help him, the crosses on the wall were burnt to a char state. The only thing that was holding it up was a rusty nail. Martyn motioned with his hand and it wiggled loose from its spot. Hayley motioned to the other one as well as two from the wall boards and it did not take a genius to know what intentions they had for him or what his plans were. They pulled the nails toward him and had Billy up against the wall pinned, unable to move and making him out to look like Jesus on the cross. The two possessed spun their hands counterclockwise and Billy very quickly began to spin until his head was down and feet up. “Our father will love this gift. You priests are truly a treat for him. We will deliver you to evil, be patient and soon you will see why he is not your God and is the one to truly fear.”
The first nail was pressing into his hand; the first drop of blood began to make its way from his palm. James tossed a handful of glass into the air as Hayley held up a hand keeping them suspended and with her free hand brought James off his feet. She sent him flying backwards until he slammed against the wall behind him twice, and then brought him slowly toward her. His feet dragged on the wood floor as she brought him toward her. She squeezed her other hand, making the glass balls break open and fall to the floor. Martyn’s demon yelled, “Be careful with those, what are you thinking?”
“Shut up, for you know nothing of what you say!” She pulled James in even closer, laughing and brought out a blackened tongue, bringing it up from his cheek to his temple. His skin sizzled as whatever power she had burned as her tongue made its way up his face. James could hold it no longer and when she saw the smile on his face after getting the burn realized something was wrong. He flexed his wrist breaking the holy water ball that was under his watchband and giving him control of it again.
Most people want to make the demons get as far away from them as possible but not Father James Clapper. He gripped onto her dirty and torn dress holding on tight and pulled her in closer to him. He released the holy water he’d taken a drink of, and had been holding in his mouth. It sprayed across her face, the veil of evil slowly came away and he slammed her to the ground. He dragged her by her hair to the old heater slamming her against it and brought his belt one last time he hoped around her neck and stuck her to the pipes pulling as tight as he could until there was no slack left to be given.
Martyn’s demon screamed and seemed to forget all about Billy letting him collapse to the ground. He looked behind him and screamed, “Stay, you little ant of God, we aren’t done with you yet.”
Billy watched in horror as the first nail finished making its way into his hand. He poked around in his pocket with his right hand wishing he had something…anything that he could use. He was trying to think of what to do, but could come up with nothing. He pulled his rosary beads from his neck, throwing them onto the demon. They hit him like a brick sending him to the floor just shy of Hayley’s feet. Billy pulled his hand free screaming as the nail tore the rest of the way through his hand. He leapt onto the boy flipping him over, pulling his Bible holding it to Martyn’s head and the two began screaming as loud as they could, the blood from his hand covering the demon’s face. Billy said, "My Lord, you are all powerful, you are God, you are Father. We beg you through the intercession and help of the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, for the deliverance of our brothers and sisters who are enslaved by the evil one. All saints of Heaven, come to our aid. My Lord, you are all powerful, you are God, you are Father. We beg you through the intercession and help of the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, for the deliverance of our brothers and sisters who are enslaved by the evil one. All saints of Heaven, come to our aid."
Hayley was screaming and thrashing to get loose. The thought of the two sending them back to hell made her want to tear their heads off…literally. Martyn began coughing as the demon left his body. His color began to come back and his body convulsed as the final hints of the demon left his body. Billy and James wasted no time turning their attention to the demon possessing Hayley. “Get away from me, you will not make me fail, you will do nothing by the time you think you’ve accomplished something, he will have taken more lives than your small mind can fathom!”
The two looked at each other trying to imagine who she was talking about, but not taking very long for either of them to conclude that it was Satan and he was making another play at Earth, a serious one this time.
“Hayley, Hayley, what is wrong with you, why do you look like that?” Martyn said, tears were filling his eyes, unable to mentally accept what he was seeing, and the sound coming from his sweet, young sister.
Her voice changed back to normal for only seconds, “Come here sweet, Martyn, come to me.”
He crawled quickly past the two priests before they could catch the small boy. Her eyes went back to their natural, unpossessed color of almond. When Martyn got within reaching distance of her, she took hold of his arm and leg and even from her angle tied to the radiator heaved the boy with no care of his well-being. “If you aren’t one of us then you can die just like the rest!”
Martyn was instantly up in the air and the window shattered when his small fame struck it. Martyn screamed as he disappeared from sight. James passed over the demon kicking it in the face as he leapt out the window with no care for his own personal safety. He landed on the awning outside their window. Martyn was dangling on the edge and his fingers were beginning to slip down the shingled space that was saving his young life. James took his hand seconds before he let go, he could see Morty pointing at the house with the news camera directly at him. James could just see the talk they were going to have with Father Michaels if they made it out of this alive.
Screams from a new body came and this time was from their mother Lorraine. “Is that you, Martyn, are you okay baby?”
Dale pushed her out of the way running out beneath the awning. “Is he okay, Father?”
“He won’t be if you don’t catch him! I can’t hold him much longer!”
James looked to his hand, it was wet with perspiration and the boy’s chubby fingers were slowly sliding from his grasp.
“Drop him, I got him, I’ll catch him!”
James opened his grasp on the boy letting him fall. He screamed, but it subsided instantly when his dad caught him with both arms and the two collapsed onto the ground. His mother
leapt down the stoop to them, stealing the boy from Dale and hugging him until he squealed. The boy couldn’t control the tears and the mother wasn’t doing much better. Morty said, “What is it in there, Father Clapper, what is it in there?”
James ignored him completely. “Dale, get that boy across the street and away from here, somewhere safe! Take Lorraine with you!”
Billy screamed for help and James quit talking, spinning and jumping up gripping the broken glass, ignoring the pain, grunting and pulling himself up. The shards of glass tore through where his fingers and hands attached. He swung his foot getting momentum and bringing an arm up. His suit coat acted as a barrier protecting him from the glass. Hayley was standing over Billy, who was holding his Bible in one hand. The other had a cross with blood dripping from his hand. The leather belt that had been holding her to the heater was ripped and on the floor at her feet.
James threw the glass balls of holy water at her feet; they shattered and smoke began to rise from her toes. The holy water made her levitate instantly and James ran leaping and wrapping his arms around her neck. The two of them flew across the room, crashing into the wall. “Let go of me you stupid puppet!”
