Deliver Us From Evil (Demons Beware Book 2)

by mike Evans

  Tony looked at the officer waiting to rush through, and when the sergeant looked up and met his eyes, the red glowing, no matter how light it was, was bright enough to know he was possessed as well. Tony took a big breath, springing off his foot, hoping he wouldn’t get the spins again. When he heard the click of the door, he hit it with everything he had grunting in pain when his head began to throb. The door slowly started to open and Tony felt like Hulk Hogan running against Randy “The Macho Man” Savage and jumped in midair letting his feet land against the bars of the door. It slammed open hard enough that the officer flew backwards four feet, but not until the door cracked him in the skull. The demon’s hands flew out and he stumbled backwards. Tony never quit running, he saw the guard’s desk with a stack of envelops in a bin listed as personal belongings. He took his items and his work boots and barely stopped moving.

  The guard at the desk saw the wild-eyed looking boy sprinting toward him and jumping into the air. Tony leapt over the desk right past the man as he was pulling his nightstick from its place. Tony yelled, “Get down!” but it was too late and a single bullet blew out the side of his skull.

  Tony’s stomach turned when the desk officer’s brains and pieces of skull landed in his lap. Tony reached up blindly for the personal belongings. He realized he’d not had his wallet on him last night so when he saw a Jon Smith folder he ripped it open with his teeth wasting no time letting the contents pour into his hands. He threw the change on the floor only taking the crosses which he wore. He smiled a little, never happier before in his life to see them as right now. He took the now dead man’s nightstick wrapping a crucifix around the handle. When the sixth shot from the revolver clicked and then went empty he jumped to his feet bringing back the nightstick and sending it bearing the cross directly toward the officer who’d been shooting. By now he was not the only possessed officer and Tony was aware he needed to get the hell out of dodge. The guard didn’t understand what Tony was doing and he threw it with all he could muster. It struck the man in the gut making him buckle. The demon normally would not have felt a thing, but when he looked down, saw a trickle of blood. He reached for his stomach, but hit the crucifix on accident screaming in a language he didn’t understand.

  Tony crawled out from the side of the guard’s desk, ignoring the commands from the other officers. He reached back to the guard’s desk officer stealing a pair of handcuffs, unsure what he was going to use them for but seemed like a smart idea. Tony was shaking his hands trying to get the nerve he needed to run from bullets, demons, and prisoners; all who would be trying to get away. He sprinted for the doorway, not stopping for anything. Shards of wood peppered his back as he ran. The bullets were missing him by mere inches and when he was within four feet of the doorway dived into it, only coming up two feet short as he hit hard. Tony heard someone yell freeze and he scrambled to his knees the last few feet. The door was beginning to open as he approached it.

  Dursky looked out the window of the plane. The flight was having massive turbulence and many people were mumbling, most looked like they were praying or if they weren’t they were trying to. He always smiled at how non-believers finally found God in their final moments. He’d spent enough time in the military that shaky planes did little to make him nervous, but when a young boy yelled to his mom that the city was on fire it caught his attention. Dursky raised his privacy shade looking down seeing Chicago and even as the last hints of the sun kissed the earth goodbye, he could see that the clouds were freakish looking. The normal white, or dark was gone and replaced with clouds that resembled clouds you would expect to see in hell… given hell had clouds he thought to himself.

  When a nervous stewardess walked by him, he took her by the arm. “Excuse me, can you tell me if there is something going on in Chicago? Has their tower radioed you, are we going to try and fly through that mess down there?”

  She smiled, pulling his hand off gently and said, “Sir, we are turning on the seatbelt signs and we are going to do the best that we can. The pilot didn’t say he’d heard any messages, but he’s been flying longer than I’ve been alive and there is nothing he says that compares to what he is seeing now. Quite frankly, he doesn’t have a damn clue what is going on. Now put that belt on and be ready to go.”

  Dursky nodded slowly thinking that this was not a good thing. When the plane descended, the roaring sound of the jet’s engines went out. The plane felt like it was dropping in midair. There was nothing keeping it aloft soaring to the ground below. Dursky tried to look out, but all he could see were the red clouds and knew not what they meant. Dursky tried not to connect the two, but wondered if this would still be happening if he wasn’t on the plane. He debated if there was something bigger going on, something unexplainable or unearthly. The stewardesses got on the intercom yelling to put your heads between their legs. Dursky sat back looking at the rest, what he saw next would only be believed by an insane person, but the red clouds parted and a blue light filled the plane. He watched and could only explain it as a cloud or a hand, something that engulfed the plane, slowing its fall. He looked to the rest of the passengers, but they were doing what they’d been asked to do.

  When the blue lights faded until they were no longer there, he looked around seeing that they were on the landing strip in Chicago. His heart felt like it would explode out of his chest at any minute. Cheering came from the front and made its way throughout the entire plane. By the time things had settled down there was a definite showing of faith going on in the plane.

  Dursky undid his belt not caring about the rules and pulled out a fresh pack of smokes, he tried to get one out, but when he looked at his hands he saw that they wouldn’t stop shaking long enough for him to get one. The captain came over the intercom announcing that they would be departing the plane soon. Dursky who had nothing he had to carry on the plane, but what was on his person skipped ahead of the crowd showing his badge and advising it was of the utmost importance that he got off first. When he walked off the plane he’d never felt so lucky in his life.

  Dursky walked through the gates until he saw an officer who was already waiting for him in the Chicago Airport. He held a picture of Dursky with directions to do what he needed to do. Dursky was carrying nothing but a folder filled with blurry images someone had been able to print from the church’s security system. Dursky said, “You here for me?”

  “Yes, sir, Detective Dursky, I’ve been told to do whatever you need, short of breaking the law.”

  He shook hands and said, “Point me in the right direction, officer…”

  “Bohall, Sergeant Frank Bohall, or Bohall, or Franky, like he shot the bow down the hall minus the, the…well-”

  “Can we go through the list of name options in the car, please? If we don’t get moving, this son of a bitch is going to decide if he wants to go after another church or if he has bigger goals. Do you know if the security here was able to do anything about finding him when he got off, to verify that he did get off?”

  Bohall nodded, handing him the blurry images. Dursky wasn’t sure if he felt better or worse for the fact that it means he might be a dead man. He was used to running into danger, but this definitely felt like it had every bit the potential to be a million times worse.

  They raced through the airport. The younger Bohall almost lost Dursky a few times. Dursky could feel his gut going up and down and this rookie was making him wonder if it was time to go on a serious new regiment…given he lived through the rest of the weekend.

  Dursky was having issues sitting still in the car. “So how much longer till we get to the church?”

  “We aren’t going to the church; my captain wants to speak to you before he lets you run around his city. Said it was important that you come in.”

  Dursky was going to try and think of some reason why he needed to go to the church, but he wasn’t even sure where it was and knew that Bohall was more than likely his best chance of where to go and get there. When he pulled up to the front of the station
, gunfire was all that could be heard. The two officers looked at each other, neither caring what they were running into.

  Bohall pulled his pistol, as did Dursky. With the pew pew of bullets making their way through the metal, Dursky yelled for him to get down but heard a thud behind him. He spun while running seeing the rookie on the ground. A single blood droplet running down the center of his forehead and disappearing into his dark hairline.

  “Son of a bitch!” Dursky had the hammer already pulled back and went to pull the door open and begin firing when it opened on its own. Tony came out looking half insane. He knocked into Dursky sending him backwards onto his ass, not expecting the doors to open but they did. Tony didn’t ask him if he was okay. He spun around as quickly as he could pushing the doors shut and attaching a pair of oversized handcuff chains through the door handles praying that he wouldn’t be the next bullet wound victim. Tony clicked them tight and ran down to the fallen officer removing his nightstick and sprinted, jamming it into the spot and wrapping the extra chain with it.

  “We gotta go!” Tony screamed, trying to put a hand on Dursky.

  Dursky slipped to the side gripping onto Tony’s arm and throwing him to the ground safe out of the way of the possessed who were currently sending lead through the door as quickly as they could. “Who the hell are you, what is going on inside of there?” Dursky yelled in about the most authoritative voice Tony had ever heard.

  “You’ll think I’m insane, if I tell you. Tell you what, how bout we get out of here first before we get killed.”

  “I’m a cop they aren’t going to-”

  The door exploded open before the two of them could finish talking. Three police and two criminals each had a pistol and were aiming directly for the two of them. Dursky pulled Tony back to his feet dragging him behind. Dursky looked over his shoulder, seeing confidently that some of the men with guns shouldn’t have them; the men who should have them were pointing them at a fellow officer. It didn’t take two looks to know Dursky had been on the job for decades but what stood out more than anything was the five men’s eyes. They practically burned like embers, and when the doors shut as they stepped out of their way, they seemed to glow even brighter.

  Dursky didn’t wait any longer because they aimed and the five started firing the pistols. Tony thought about them knowing that the crosses would not protect the two of them from bullets screaming across the pavement toward them. Dursky screamed in agony when a bullet tore through his thigh. Tony saw him going down toward the ground. He leapt forward ducking low, almost duck walking for a moment and got under him before he could completely fall to the ground. Dursky wrapped his arm around Tony’s shoulder. Tony wasn’t ignorant and knew that they’d not be going far. The two of them made it to Bohall’s squad car and he dumped him into the passenger seat. He slammed the door shut just as bullets dug their way into the door.

  Dursky screamed again as Tony had to put his weight on his leg by accident to make his way into the driver’s seat. “I’m sorry, are you going to be okay, are you all right?”

  Tony looked over to him seeing his eyes looking a bit red, until he saw it was from the traffic lights in front of them. Tony took one of the thicker crosses and slid it over Dursky’s head without asking. “You keep that, you keep that on you.”

  “I need a doctor you little shit, not a cross!”

  “They can take you, you might not want them to, you could fight, but trust me, once they get their claws on your soul there’s nothing you can do.”

  Dursky pushed up out of his seat, but immediately ducked back down. Tony did his best to keep it straight, bullets riddled the back of the car. The glass in the rear of the car shattered. Dursky undid his belt ripping it off and put it around his thigh. From the pain that was burning in his leg he could tell the bullet had entered and exited. “What in the hell was wrong with those people, why were they shooting. I need some goddamn answers before I lose my mind!”

  “I don’t have any answers that are gonna make any sense. My name’s Tony, Tony Parker. I- “

  “Parker, your last name is Parker. You got a brother by chance that wears the cloth?”

  Tony looked over not too sure of what to say or how this guy knew anything about his brother. He saw the badge on his neck and the bold embossed gold letters he had seen in movies shown across it LAPD. “You aren’t from Chicago? Who the hell are you and why are you talking about my brother, what do you want?”

  “Hopefully to save his life, kid.”

  “From what, you didn’t have a cross on, you aren’t in with the church.”

  “Look, get me to a doctor first, would ya? This isn’t going to heal itself and I need it stitched up, and a shot of painkillers wouldn’t break my heart.”

  Tony nodded hitting the gas and Dursky flipped the lights giving him a straight shot to the all night medical clinic. Tony drove right up to the front laying on the horn. The clinic wasn’t a stranger to gunshot wounds and within seconds a large black man was running toward the car with a wheelchair which had a long piece of duct tape going up the middle of it. Dursky looked at the state of the chair and then the building and said, “You are telling me this is the best thing that they’ve got in town?”

  “Best thing we are going to make it to. The last thing you probably want to do is bleed while I drive across town, right?”

  Dursky debated this and nodded. “Thanks for driving kid, I'm not going to lie, I'm feeling a little light-headed. You think you can get me in there?”

  The door opened and the man looked at Dursky and his eyes. He ducked beneath the steel doorframe getting Dursky under the armpits. When his hand touched beneath his thigh he came right back around screaming at the top of his lungs. Tony saw the look of pain and knew he wasn’t messing around. He set him much gentler into the wheelchair and the two disappeared. Tony parked the car and found Dursky by his yells echoing down the hall. He felt a sense of relief as he walked down room by room and a plethora of crosses and religious relics were everywhere. When he found the room he was in he disappeared, finding the hospital’s chapel and took a cup from a water dispenser and found the holy water. He scooped up a cup and sprinted to the main entrance dipping his fingers into the water and making a cross on it. He ran a line across the front and ran fingers down the edges. Nurses were looking at the young man thinking he looked like a lunatic. Tony wanted to explain, but much like the detective, didn’t think that they would believe him until they had seen the hell in a demon’s eyes.

  Tony ran back to the room hoping that it would be enough, that they would survive and they’d be gone and not leave any reasons for the demons to come into the room. When he ran around the man who’d wheeled him in, he was holding him down. Dursky had a belt in his mouth and at first, thought that the doctor and orderly had been possessed, but upon getting closer saw that Dursky looked like the crazy one. “Would you hold him down please, he has the strength of a crack head!”

  The orderly practically lay atop of Dursky to keep him down. When he had him still the doctor brought out a needle and put it in his leg just above the wound as gently as he could. Dursky spit the belt out yelling, “I hate freaking needles, get that thing out of my leg!”

  The orderly looked at Tony and even with his huge size was still unable to keep him on the table properly. The doctor said, “There, we are done, can you relax now, god damn? I’ve met people who don’t appreciate needles, but this son of a bitch takes the freaking win. Good lord, I thought he was going to kill himself on that needle. All we were trying to do, sir, was keep your leg from getting infected. I’ve never seen someone fight that hard. Now sit still, I just need to stitch it and wrap it and you can get checked in after that.”

  Tony said, “Does he need to stay here overnight, doc?”

  “He should, but I have a suspicion that he isn’t smart enough to listen to doctor’s orders.”

  Dursky wiped at the spit on his mouth. “You don’t understand what is going on. If you can just get me
back into a wheelchair after you fix me up, we will be good.”

  “What do I know, I only have a decade of schooling and then doing this under my belt, what would I know. You want to bust through those stitches you be my guest. I frankly don’t give a damn.”

  “I just need to make it through tonight, and I’ll come back and let you stick all the needles that you want in me. You think you can do that?”

  “Whatever you say chief.”

  Within ten minutes the doctor had his leg stitched close. Dursky was waiting impatiently, but the man took his time making sure it would stay closed. He wrapped it as tight as he could with bandages and Dursky was already half way off the table when Tony said, “You uh forgetting something?”

  Dursky looked down at his Spiderman boxers and realized quickly he didn’t have any pants on. The orderly laughed lightly. “When you passed out, I cut them off. You want a pair of scrubs, or you want to go look in lost and found? I wouldn’t suggest the latter if you don’t want bed bugs or head lice though.”

  Dursky pointed to the scrubs the man had on. The orderly was back in a few minutes with a pair of green pants that Tony and he held up for Dursky to slide into. Dursky had beads of sweat populating his forehead. “Where’s your brother kid?”