The Tenth Ward

by Rockwell Scott

  The priest had commanded the entity to reveal its name, which he said was Karax. He used the name to send the demon away, and for a few weeks it seemed to have worked, and there was peace again. But then the strange occurrences happened again. The family eventually had to move out of the house.

  Miller leaned back in his chair. This was why he farmed the internet daily for people’s accounts of their hauntings and kept a record of them. With enough shared information, cross references were possible.

  Karax, Miller thought. He ran a search for the name, but still the only result was the story he’d already read.

  The physical description and the habit of going after children were two identifying factors that were too strong to pass up.

  Miller picked up his phone and tried to call Rand. It went straight to voicemail again.

  “Come on, pick up,” he muttered as he tried once more. Since the ICU had to be evacuated, he knew his friend was probably in the middle of an all-out battle.

  But he needed to get through. Rand was using the wrong name.

  The demon meant to fool you, and it worked.

  35

  Rand led the way into the room, pushing open the door and going to stand at the foot of the bed. Calvin was behind his right shoulder, Katie at his left.

  Georgia looked even more like the demon. Her hair had changed from blonde to white and, the flesh over her entire body had turned scaly and reptilian.

  Shindael gave his fanged grin. “Oh. Is it time?” Father Calvin was the first to move. He held his Bible out toward the demon, who recoiled from it, the grin replaced by a glaring scowl. “Fuck off!”

  “Lord in heaven,” Calvin said, continuing his bombardment of prayer, “deliver Georgia Collins from this servant of evil. Reclaim her for your kingdom and expel this wretched creature from inside her.”

  “Not going to work, Father!” Shindael spat at him, although Rand could see that the prayers still pained him.

  “Shindael, I command you by name,” Rand said. “Depart from the body of this girl.”

  Shindael turned his attention to Rand. “Who the fuck is Shindael? Ha ha ha.”

  “You are. You are a liar and a coward and a monster, and you must do what I command of you.”

  “I command you to fuck this priest!” Shindael threw his head back and roared in laughter.

  Rand had heard all the clever comebacks before. He held the crucifix out, which instantly made Shindael cease his laughing. He stared at it as if waiting for Rand to plunge it into his heart.

  “Yeah, you know what this is,” Rand said. “And you know what it means. It has power over you.”

  Shindael regarded the cross for a few moments before turning to Katie, acknowledging her presence for the first time. “Aren’t you pretty,” he muttered.

  Rand knew what was happening. When faced with something that made him feel threatened, a demon would always try to exploit some other weakness in the room. Demons he’d faced in the past usually assumed Katie would be the weakest among them.

  Katie did not flinch when the black eyes landed on her. “I’m not afraid of you,” she said, not a hint of fear in her voice.

  “Maybe not,” Shindael said. “But they are.” He nodded his head, gesturing past Father Calvin and out into the hall.

  Katie looked and froze. Rand had seen that look before. He followed Katie’s gaze out to the main section of the ICU and found nothing. But he already knew what she saw.

  The other children. Shindael knows they affect her.

  “Yes, you see them now, don’t you? I called them here. They do whatever I say. They are my slaves.”

  “They’re here,” Katie whispered. “All those kids.”

  “I collect them,” Shindael said. “They die, and I capture their souls. They belong to me, because they’re weak and stupid.” He laughed again.

  A sudden fury coursed through Rand, reminded that Georgia was not the only one at stake.

  He’s trying to make us angry. Provoke us.

  He held the cross out toward Shindael again. He stepped around to the side of the bed, bringing the crucifix closer. Shindael recoiled away, not wanting to be burned. Rand gripped it, knuckles turning white. Anger flared through him at the thought of all the children that had not been allowed to move on because of this creature. “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to leave this place and free these spirits from your hold.”

  “No! They’re mine!”

  “They do not belong to you. They belong to God.”

  “Then tell him to come and get them!”

  Shindael turned toward Father Calvin, who had been praying ceaselessly since he’d begun. “The forces of hell are of no match for you, Lord, and we have faith that you will intervene and protect us from this evil.”

  “Shut up, old man!” Shindael shouted. “I’ve heard enough out of you!”

  “This demon, Shindael, is a servant of Lucifer, and has no power here where your Kingdom reigns.”

  “You’ll hang yourself after this,” Shindael said. “You’ll finish what you started twenty-five years ago. Because you are weak and pathetic, and your God knows it too!”

  Calvin’s prayer hit a sharp bump.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Rand said.

  “Little Betty. You remember her, don’t you? She was never the same after that night. She’s dead now, you know. No, you don’t know, because you never cared about her. Only about yourself!”

  “Lord, please—”

  “Enough of that. Where was your God when you last did this? Where was he when you wanted to kill yourself? Where was he when he let Betty get taken?” Shindael laughed. “Not there. He doesn’t care about you. You remember my friend Ezu, don’t you?”

  At the mention of the name, Father Calvin ceased praying. Ezu. Rand figured that was the demon who’d Calvin had encountered before.

  “Yes, you do remember. And he remembers you very well.”

  “You’re a liar,” Calvin said, voice trembling.

  “Am I? Come with me to hell. You can meet Betty and Ezu and be one big happy family.”

  “That’s enough,” Rand said. If he let Shindael go on about Calvin’s past, he knew they’d lose ground.

  But Shindael only looked to Katie, fixing her in his cold glare. His dried and broken lips spread into a menacing grin. “And what are you doing here? Did your old boyfriend drag you into this?” He chuckled.

  “I won’t listen to you,” Katie said.

  “Did you ever told him the truth?”

  Katie’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “There is no truth that could ever come from you.”

  “Fine. Be selfish. Don’t tell him about your miscarriage.”

  Katie’s entire body tensed.

  “Why haven’t you told him? Don’t you think Daddy deserves to know?”

  “Stop it!” Katie shrieked. But Shindael only laughed.

  Miscarriage? She was pregnant?

  “Oh yes. It was yours, Randolph, and she never told you,” Shindael said, as if reading his thoughts. “Then she lost it. Now that baby is down in hell with me. I know because I’ve seen it. A little boy.”

  When Rand looked at Katie, he saw the brokenness in her eyes. The guilt was clear on her face, and Rand knew that everything Shindael had said was true.

  The memories came flooding back to him. The abrupt end of their relationship. She’d called it off with no explanation, disappeared, stopped returning his calls. Then when he’d finally gotten in touch with her months later, she’d told him she could no longer work as a medium.

  His own tears formed in the corners of his eyes. Pictures of him with a son, a baby brother for Libby, flashed through his mind. A future that was possible, but he’d never known. Because she kept it from me.

  “Rand, I’m so sorry,” Katie said through her sobs.

  Seeing her despair snapped him back into the moment. He saw what Shindael was trying to do. Anger coursed through him so strong and so sudd
enly that Rand shoved the crucifix onto Shindael’s forehead. It sizzled like raw meat on a frying pan, and Shindael wailed in pain. Smoke billowed from the spot where the wood pressed into his skin.

  “In the name of Jesus Christ,” Rand said through gritted teeth, into the demon’s ear, “I command you, Shindael, evil spirit, to leave this girl forever. Go back to hell.”

  “Fuck you!” Shindael shouted through his cries.

  Rand pulled the cross away. It left a red mark on the black, scaly skin.

  Shindael recovered from the pain of the burn and glared at him. “Give it up, Randolph. It isn’t going to work. This is the end of the road for you.”

  Georgia’s body looked less and less like herself as the demon spent more time inside her, taking over.

  He’s right. It’s not working. This bastard isn’t budging.

  Rand caught the negative thoughts in his head and pushed them away, hopefully before Shindael could sense that he was having them.

  “Rand…” Calvin said.

  Rand could see that Calvin was thinking the same thing. Nothing was working. They needed a new approach. A new idea.

  Then Katie fled from the room, crying, the trauma of her secret being exposed getting the best of her.

  My team is falling apart, Rand realized.

  Shindael only chuckled. “You’re a failure, Randolph. Now, can you untie me so I can play with myself before I kill the girl? Ha ha.”

  Ignoring him, Rand left the room, pulling Calvin along with him to the main section of the ICU. The lights were out now, leaving them in a shroud of darkness.

  “Rand,” Katie said.

  “It’s okay,” he said, though he wasn’t sure just how okay it really was. It has to be. We cannot change it. Shindael wants us to get emotional.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. It was years ago. I was—”

  “You don’t need to explain,” Rand told her gently. “We can talk about that later.”

  “Nothing we do is working,” Calvin said. “Shindael seems immune to all prayers. He won’t budge.”

  “He’s very strong,” Rand said, keeping his voice low, not wanting Shindael to overhear.

  “We must be missing something,” Calvin said.

  Rand scratched at his chin. The priest was correct. The demon was showing a huge amount of resilience, a level that Rand had never encountered before.

  I can’t let the self-doubt into my head.

  Because once that slippery slope began, there was nothing left but a glide to the bottom. Then, he might never get Georgia Collins back.

  Miller, he remembered suddenly.

  He fished his phone from his pocket and saw a bunch of missed calls from Miller.

  Odd. He hadn’t felt it vibrate. His phone must have been messed up along with all the other electrical equipment in the ICU.

  Rand tapped the screen and called him back.

  “Who are you calling?” Calvin asked.

  Miller answered on the first ring. “Rando! Thank God!”

  “Is everything all right?”

  “You tell me. You’re doing an exorcism at St. Mary’s, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah. How did you—”

  “They’ve evacuated and it’s all over the news.”

  “We’re dealing with a full-on possession now,” Rand told him. “He’s so strong. Nothing seems to—”

  “Rand, it’s not Shindael.” Miller spoke fast and breathlessly, as if he’d just run a mile.

  Rand turned to face the other two. “What?”

  “It’s what I’ve been trying to call you about. That demon is not Shindael.”

  Rand paused for a moment. “How do you know?”

  “I searched the description you sent me. A cross between a bat and a dragon. Bat head, dragon body.”

  “That’s it,” Rand said.

  “His real name is Karax. He’s a known servant of Shindael, one of hundreds. And he likes to hurt children. I found a story of another priest who encountered him at the site of a preschool that burned down a decade ago.”

  That bastard, Rand thought. He gave me the wrong name.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Miller said. “Why would he have given you his name? Because it’s the wrong one. He gave you his master’s name, not his own. So if you’ve been trying to command him to leave by invoking the wrong name, then you’re not using your full authority.”

  “Karax,” Rand said, the word tasting like poison on his lips. Calvin and Katie exchanged an uneasy glance.

  “That’s it,” Miller said. “Next time you face him, try commanding him with his real name.”

  “All right, I’m going back in there.”

  “Good luck, Rand. Be careful. Have faith.”

  Rand hung up and glared at the door of room 316. The blinds were drawn, but he could still hear the demon muttering to himself.

  “Who was that?” Calvin asked.

  Rand stormed over, crucifix gripped in his hand.

  “Rand!”

  “You two wait out here.” He knew his anger was getting the best of him, that he should not face down this creature alone. But Karax had already gotten into their heads and thrown them off.

  Rand stepped through the door and threw aside the curtain.

  “Welcome back,” the demon said, grinning at him, an evil mirth in his blackened eyes. “Are you here to untie me now?”

  “I don’t believe we’ve ever met before, Karax.”

  And for the first time, the smile faded from the demon’s lips.

  36

  His eyes bored into Rand and a low growl rumbled from the back of his throat.

  “Karax,” Rand repeated.

  “Don’t say that!” he snapped.

  “Why not?”

  “Because—”

  “Why don’t you want me to say it, Karax?”

  “Fuck you! Eat shit!”

  “Not today, Karax.” Rand walked around to the side of the bed, getting closer to Karax, who, for the first time, looked afraid in his presence. His black eyes went to the cross in Rand’s hand. “This is over.”

  “You’re right,” Karax said, his voice low and dark. “I’m done. But I’ll take the girl with me. I can stop her heart whenever I want. I’m inside her, remember? And it’ll be all your fault that she died.”

  Now that Rand knew Karax’s name, the demon was running out of defenses. He had to end this now, or it would be too late.

  Rand held up the crucifix and Karax recoiled. “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you, Karax, to leave the body of this girl.”

  Karax had nothing to say in return. He trembled underneath the presence of the cross.

  Rand reached for the nearby box Calvin had brought from the chapel. He took a bottle of holy water and yanked the cork out with his teeth.

  “No,” Karax said. “Look at the door!”

  Rand ignored him, figuring Karax was only trying to distract him. But then movement at the entrance of the room caught his eye.

  Oh my God…

  The ghostly apparitions of children filled the room like a solemn procession. Their bodies were a soft blue light, half transparent, their expressions hollow and empty. They seemed to glide through air rather than walk. They surrounded Rand and the bed, crowding him.

  Some were tall, others were short. Some looked to be about fifteen, while others as young as four or five. Some wore hospital gowns, some wore clothes from the 70’s and the 80’s, as well as the present day.

  Rand had never seen so many apparitions at once. They all seemed so lost and hopeless.

  There are hundreds of children here, Katie had said. Now he fully understood why she had been so upset that night.

  “All of them are mine,” Karax said, grinning again. “Some have been here for decades.”

  The faces of even more apparitions peered at him through the window outside the room. All looked longingly at him, as if desperate for his help.
r />   They are, Rand thought. I’m their only chance of moving on.

  Rand tore his eyes from those of the ghostly children and glared at Karax. “You will free these souls. They belong to God.”

  “Wrong again!” Karax shouted. “They stay because God does not want them. Ha ha!”

  Rand threw the holy water at Karax in the sign of the cross. Georgia’s body trembled and writhed under the fiery pain.

  “I can go inside you next!” Karax’s voice was now high and shrill, a desperate scream. “I’ll make you a pedophile! I’ve done it so many times before. It’s too easy!”

  Rand knew it was an empty threat. Karax was finally feeling cornered.

  “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to let these children go and to leave the body of this girl!”

  Rand threw the holy water again. He touched the cross to Georgia’s heart, and the demon convulsed underneath it.

  “Take it away! Make it stop!”

  “You know what you have to do if you want it to stop,” Rand said.

  “Fine! Fine!”

  “Do it, Karax.”

  And then the apparitions of the children around Rand turned into balls of blue light, little orbs that hovered in the air. They lingered there for a moment before blinking out like a flipped light switch.

  They’re moving on.

  They disappeared one by one until they were all gone.

  “There!” Karax shouted.

  “And now you,” Rand said, the crucifix continuing to burn the demon. “Leave here now, and your pain will end.”

  Karax, amidst his bellowing, found new strength and broke the restraint on his right wrist. He swatted the cross from Rand’s hand and it clattered to the floor on the other side of the room.

  Karax used his free hand to tear the other restraint, and in an instant, he was loose.

  No!

  “Take them all,” Karax said, his voice low and grumbling. He glared at Rand through his black eyes. “I don’t need them anymore. But the girl is mine. Her time is up.”