Demons Beware

by mike Evans

  Michaels screamed, “Go to hell and leave this soul alone,” as he delivered a straight punch that would have made Ali proud. The hit connected so hard, it echoed down the street, as did the sound of the demon as it left his body, screaming all the way back to hell. Michaels turned to look at the garbage man and Michaels began to smile, his faith was not only enough, it was pouring from his aura.

  He kissed his cross, doing the sign of the cross on the man, and holding the cross against his chest until the uniform beneath it began to burn. The man screamed as he was forced from the body. When the demon felt he could take no more of it, he let go, thinking the pain would be over, but Joseph did the same thing, pressing his cross against him. The demon released the garbage man, who instantly passed out, falling to the ground. His chest was bleeding and immediately beginning to welt and blister.

  The two priests dropped to a knee not realizing the demon was not gone, only out of the body. He picked up Michaels throwing him into oncoming traffic. Joseph saw this, and a confused bewildered Michaels, and hobbled as quickly as he could to save him. Joseph got out into the street, pushing Michaels and himself free of the oncoming cars.

  The demon laid eyes on Billy and James, unsure which soul it wanted. Both of them had been an equal pain in the ass today. It said, “If the two of you would have just come with me, none of this would have been necessary. You should have taken the high dead king’s offer, for you will not be offered it a second time. When he rules everything, you are going to wish that you were dead.”

  James yelled, “Well, if we are going to be taken over by the Devil, then I prefer death over being in a world made to be hell.”

  “Me too, demon! You don’t scare us! We aren’t going nowhere!”

  The demon lunged for the two boys, deciding that Billy was going to be its new host. Father Andrew floated between Billy and the demon. He rose both hands in the air, pulling them back like he was going to do a push up, standing. When the demon was within a few feet, he pushed the force with all the power that he had, sending a blue light almost as bright as before into the demon. He did not send the demon to hell, no this time he sent all the power that he could muster into it, killing the demon, and leaving nothing but smoldering smoke drifting in the air.

  The cars coming towards the two men slammed on their brakes. Joseph said, “Let's get out of this street before anymore demons come to try to kill us.”

  Michaels didn’t have anything to say, he wanted nothing more than the temporary safety of the sidewalk. The two made it, looking at the boys, who were both wondering how great of an idea it had been to come to the house in the first place. The demons spirit coming directly for them, and thinking about the children who had been taken by them and made to kill themselves, gave both of them the chills.

  Joseph smiled uneasily at the rest of the group. “So, should we get going? This isn’t going to be any easier the longer that we sit out here, is it?”

  The four of them approached the stone steps slowly. The light shining over their shoulder felt warm, as if God had a hand on each of their shoulders. Joseph walked up to the door, dropping a line of salt across its doorway. He looked over his shoulder to Andrew and had to ask, “This won’t keep you from going in, will it?”

  “It only keeps the bad from leaving. Salt will do nothing to one of God’s warriors, but thanks for thinking about me, I appreciate it.”

  They checked the door, but the lock was on. Michaels twisted the handle and put a shoulder into it. There was no give to the door. Joseph placed a hand on his shoulder. “We need to go about that a different way, Father Michaels.”

  Joseph took the jug of holy water sprinkling some on the door, doing the sign of the cross on it, and then on the handle, repeating the action. The door’s protection by the demons released, and Michaels hit it hard one more time, splintering the door jam, and took a step back, bringing a foot up and hitting it as hard as he could. The door burst open, and the five of them entered with the boys in back.

  Father Joseph let Andrew go in first. When they entered, they had not expected to see Ralph and Joan in the state that they were. Joseph said, “Oh Mother Mary, please tell me they are okay, that we weren’t too late. Why did they not wait outside? Why didn’t they wait for us? What were they thinking?”

  Andrew said, “They might not have had that luxury my old friend. Their chests are moving, at least that is a good thing, right?”

  Joseph was moving his head slowly up and down. He was getting flashbacks of the old man and the mother from forty-five. “Father Andrew, we must keep this family safe. We cannot let anything happen to them. Please, I beg of you to do whatever you can that is within your power and does not break your faith.”

  “If father did not want us doing this, I assure you we would not be here. He sees and knows all.”

  Michaels saw Ralph and Joan and ran over to them. Billy could feel warm tears running down his cheeks when he saw his mom, sweat drenched hair and face, blood dribbling from her mouth. What appeared to be part of the coat rack had been turned into two giant spears, one of which was lodged into his mother’s shoulder. Billy sprinted past Michaels, not fearing anything at this point. He was filled with rage that made him blind to the dangers that were still present within the home. Billy gripped her hand opposite of the shoulder with the stake in it. “Mom! Mom, are you okay? Say something, ma.”

  Joan didn’t move for a moment but started mumbling something with her lips. Billy bent closer to hear her. When he turned around, his face had gone to a shade of white, no one thought was still possible for the living. “She says that the path to hell is in our room. She said that he’s going to let the Devil come through and take over Tony. They are going to take over Earth, and bring down heaven.”

  The two men and the ghost looked at each other, unsure what to do next. Michaels said, “Is that little prayer you told me earlier going to be enough to send Satan back to where he belongs? I fear that is quite a task, yes?”

  “We are on unchartered grounds, father, I have no answers. We can’t let this happen though, do you concur?” Joseph said.

  “Well, of course I do, but what are we going to do? I mean it, we can’t go running up the stairs without a plan. We won’t last two minutes,” Michaels said.

  “Geez, I was thinking less.”

  Ralph jumped, coming back, awakening from his blood loss. “Get the woman out of here, now. Don’t worry about me, I'm old.”

  The two priests stared at him for a minute before Ralph finally asked, “What? Why are you just standing there? Do something! Get her and the kids out; get them somewhere safe.”

  Michaels pulled his bible out and rosary beads, as did Joseph. Joseph said slowly and without question in his voice, “We have to deal with this now. There is no reason in trying to buy you minutes, if the inevitable is going to happen anyways.”

  “I don’t understand what you are saying, just spit it out straight.”

  “If we don’t stop him, then I fear there’s going to be nowhere safe left to hide. We need to stop him or—like I said—it’s only going to be for a minimal time that you are out of his grasp.”

  “So, you’re giving up?”

  Joseph smiled, “I’m just getting ready, Ralph. I got one more fight left in me, and many more if that is what it takes. I’ll give my life for this world and the next, if it means that we can keep the worse thing ever from happening on Earth. Unfortunately, I fear they will do their best, or worst, to keep us from succeeding, as well. Have faith, Ralph, we haven’t given up.”

  A laughter filled the stairway, startling the group. They spun to see what or who it was. Tony was standing at the top of the stairs. “Did you want something, fathers, or did you just come to collect those near death?”

  Joseph said, “You aren’t the first demon I’ve dealt with.”

  The demon laughed. “Oh, what short memory you have, father. Do you not remember me? You have not aged well. How did your leg heal? How was it, walk
ing the boy past his mother with a slit throat?”

  “Are you...? No, there’s no way.”

  Tony said, “Oh, but there is a way, especially if we have faith, isn’t that what you jokers of the cloth say? That you need to have faith; that you must believe to step up to the next level?”

  Joseph tried to say something, but Michaels charged for the stairs. “We have all the faith that we need, demon, and we will send you back to hell where you belong. You seem to have a history with my friend here.”

  “Yes, and what of it?”

  “That just means that you know how to lose, and we will have you do so again!”

  “I’m confident that you will not be so cocky once you have lost. I promise you that when I give up this body to my father—the one that I believe in and fear—that I will let him know that you need to burn in hell forever; but not until we have peeled every last inch of skin from your body, and fed it to our demon children who are on their way to heaven now!”

  Joseph said, “Yes, the ones who are killing themselves all across the city? The ones who are throwing themselves in front of cars?”

  Tony’s face scrunched up, not happy that he had such details as this. “How do you know what is happening? What are you talking about? Tell me now!”

  Joseph said, “You do not know this I would assume, but you have failed. If you weren’t so busy terrorizing this family, you might have noticed a blue light. Well, that blue light was from my Father—not one that I fear, but that I love and respect. He sent his spirit down, curing every single child and exonerating their bodies of the damned. There has been no entry to heaven by the dead and the damned. You have done nothing today but fail. I am sure you will want to pass that onto your father when you see him.”

  “You lie damn you! You know nothing of what you say. I will rip your tongue from where it wags. Do not try to anger me, I have more control of my emotions than the two of you could ever pray to your silly God for possessing.”

  “Try to contact them; I'm quite confident they are either in hell or worse. I don’t know anywhere else that God would have sent them, but if you have a direct line to them here on Earth, maybe you should reach out and make sure your brothers are okay. I'm sure that they’d let you know if there were any issues arising, no?” Michaels said.

  Joseph whispered, “I'm pretty sure that he is going to lose it here pretty soon. You make sure you are ready for it.”

  Tony squinted his eyes shut looking like he could not have been trying to focus more on anything else in this world. A minute later when he opened them, his eyes burned brighter than they thought they were before. “What did you do?! What trickery is this?”

  Joseph, who was ready for what was coming next, he was sure, smiled widely. “Why don’t you come outside and see what kind of joke this is? I'm sure that a God such as ours is only playing a trick on you. I am sure that he didn’t move heaven and Earth literally to send your fellow warriors back to hell, to your master. How do you think the Devil will deal with you, once he sees that I have defeated you not once, but twice? Twice, by a mere human. Has he ever given anyone a third chance? On the other hand, do you think that he will banish you to such a depth of hell that you yourself would not ever want to consider how dark it could be? He might have to invent a new way of torturing, just to make himself feel like you are being punished. Your god wouldn’t do such a thing, though, would he?”

  Tony flew down the stairs, not soaring, but jumping each step three at a time. He screamed as he ran towards the two priests. Joseph waited until he was on the final six and had no way of stopping before gripping Michaels by the back of the neck, pulling him off balance. Michaels arms waved in the air as he tried to reach something to catch himself, but there was nothing but Joseph’s force and his foot behind his legs. Michaels hit hard, rolling to the side. Joseph took the last holy water bottle, tossing it into the air.

  Tony’s holder screamed, “You will not trick me twice with this stupid water, priest. You are not going to be victorious today!”

  Tony rose his arms holding Joseph in place as well as Michaels. Billy and James came rushing into help, but he waved them away quickly, sending them into each other and then flying back into the wall, each hitting with a grunt. The demon smiled, feeling like control was coming back to him and that this effort might not have been a complete waste. Joseph smiled ever so lightly, and the demon yelled, “What do you have to laugh about? Are you ill in the head, father?”

  Joseph said, “You should have dumped the water, you fool.”

  “I should have what?”

  Father Andrew flew into the bottle and with all of his force that he had to muster, sent out an energy wave like no other. The bottle exploded. Joseph and Michaels both closed their eyes; they would have shielded their eyes had they had the use of their arms. The gallon of water covered Tony and his small, frail frame. He curled up, and waves of smoke rolled off him. The water sizzled, never making it to the ground.

  Tony screamed in pain, the demon being temporarily powerless. Father Joseph gripped the boy by the neck, lifting him off the stairs, and slammed him down into the hardwood floor below. The demon let out an ‘oomph’ when it hit. Father Joseph didn’t have to look to Michaels; he was already on his way.

  The demon—now weakened—tried to rise, but he held him down with a firm, angry grip on his bicep. Had he not seen it before him, he would have thought Tony was a thirty-year-old marine. The boy’s small arms were almost impossible to keep down, and he was writhing in pain and in anger. “You will both die! You will both die! You have just made your last mistake you sons of bitches! How did you do that with the water? What trickery was that?”

  Joseph yelled, “Okay, Father Andrew. I know you are bigger than revenge, but don’t tell me you aren’t praying to be able to send this one back to hell where it belongs and restore paths of righteousness to this boy and his family?”

  Andrew emerged into a blue light. When the demon saw him, he kicked wildly, but it did nothing good for the effort because the priests were holding tight. Andrew turned into a vapor no denser than a puff of smoke. He shot into Tony’s small mouth and the boy started to buck up and down, his legs kicked and jumped.

  The battle was strong within him, but Andrew fought with all that he had, and the power of God and faith still within the boy was enough. Michaels and Joseph both placed their rosary beads, bibles, and crosses upon the boy's chest. At first, smoke began to rise from his chest.

  Joan screamed, “You’re hurting him! You’re hurting Tony.”

  Joseph held up a hand, one that she didn’t need to get again. She knew to be quiet, that the two wouldn’t do anything in their power to hurt the boy if they could help it. The boy’s eyes burned brighter and brighter until, all at once, they went dead. The fire went out of them and he rose into the air.

  Andrew came flying out with a demon in hand; he was smiling as wide as Joseph had ever seen him do so before. Andrew pointed to the items, pushing the demon into what water had hit the ground from a minute ago. The demon screeched in agony, and Joseph and Michaels moved the items off Tony and onto the demon’s spirit. It was weak enough that it was close to being sent back to hell.

  Joseph yelled to the boys. “Get over here, now!”

  “What is it, Father Joseph? Is there something that we can do? Is something wrong?” Billy asked.

  Joseph smiled uneasy, nodding. “Yeah, besides hell coming through your closet, and the Devil wanting your baby brother, I guess everything is perfectly normal.”

  “No, really, what do you want me to do? We’ll do anything if it is going to help,” Billy said.

  “Yeah, Father, just say what you need,” James said.

  “I want you two to run to your room and rip open the shades, and then I want you to put this gold cross in the window, and the both of you get out of there and back down here.”

  The two boys sprinted up the stairs. Billy looked back at his brother, seeing him slowly start to turn
back the normal shade that he was used to. “Is he going to be okay, father? Is he going to go back to normal? Can you save him?”

  “You get upstairs and open those windows. Go now, before it’s too late. If you go do it, then we won’t have to worry about him coming back. There won’t be any reason for any of us to worry about anything after that. Go!”

  The two boys took them two at a time, both looking and wondering if they had lost their mind over the course of a few days. “I don’t think this is a good idea… I don’t think this is a good idea,” James said.

  “Well it doesn’t seem like we have any choice do we. They’re all kinda busy with a little thing called a demon.”

  Joseph watched as the two boys rushed the stairs like it was their mission in life, which, currently, it was. He said, “You remember your prayer, Father Michaels? Say it like you mean it, please!” Joseph looked down at the demon, spirit weakened, fearful of what might happen, and angry. “You tell the Devil we said hello. I hope he has something wonderful in store for you.”

  “I’ll be back. I will be back… I only hope it is while you are of this earth, and you have not moved on.”

  The two began with Father Andrew circling around the demon, forcing him with all of his light to remain where he was. The demon was writhing with anger, unable to move.

  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.