“What is your name?”
Never.
“You will tell us your name. God commands it.”
The planchette began spinning faster then, almost slipping out of their hands. The friction was causing heat to form under Kira’s fingers. Her whole hand began to get really hot.
“What is your name?” Gail said. She was getting louder.
A huge wind suddenly erupted in the kitchen, clanging pots and pans off their hangers and slamming doors open and shut. The pictures began to fall off the walls in the living room. The lights in the house began to flicker on and off.
Gail seemed to be expecting this to happen and she was not surprised.
“Don’t break the contact!” She yelled at them.
Kira and Emily struggled to keep their fingers on the planchette as it began to spin faster and faster.
“What is your name vile demon?” Gail yelled over the howl of the wind.
It felt like they were trapped in a tornado in Kira’s kitchen. It took extreme effort and focus to keep herself upright. Her chair threatened to collapse under her. She wasn’t sure how long they could keep their fingers in place.
“What is your name?” Gail yelled again.
Innale.
“Innale! I know thee! I command you to depart from this woman and this child. They do not belong to you. You must leave!” Gail yelled.
The wind began to howl louder. The large kitchen window suddenly burst open shattering overtop of them, cutting Kira in several places. The pain was sharp, like dozens of little paper cuts happening all at once and she felt the blood begin to flow. Still she and Emily held strong. They looked into each other’s eyes reaffirming the sisterly love and the bond that they held. They were both terrified.
Gail continued to provoke the demon.
“You must depart! Do you hear me Innale? You must depart!”
The Ouija board suddenly flung itself across the room, bounced off of the wall, and then hung suspended in the air for several seconds, continuing to spin in place. Then it suddenly caught fire and burnt to a pile of ashes falling to the floor.
The planchette flung itself across the room, smashing against the wall, and turning to a pile of dust.
The wind stopped and all was calm.
“NO!” Gail yelled.
“What? What happened? How did it do that?” Emily asked.
“It destroyed the board. That door can never be closed.”
“What? You were in control of the board. How can that happen?”
“I’ve never seen it happen before,” Gail said.
“What does this mean?” Kira asked. She already knew the answer, but she needed to hear it from Gail’s lips.
“The demon has become too powerful and it will never leave. Each board opens up a different, but very specific doorway to the other world. If that board is destroyed and the doorway has not been closed, then that doorway can never be closed.”
Kira was in shock. Every ounce of her body felt numb. She just wanted it all to go away. Why did this have to happen to her? She would have done anything to get rid of this pain and to go back in time to stop herself from seeing that shaman. Why did she not turn back when she had the chance?
“So there is no way to close the door? There is no way to remove the attachment from the demon to me?” Kira asked.
“The only way is to call the demon by name and drive it out.”
“Why can’t we still do that? Maybe do like an exorcism?” Kira asked.
“Exorcisms are so rare that a church hardly ever grants it anymore. There are fewer than five exorcists in the entire country who are sanctioned by the church. If the church doesn’t bless the ritual then it won’t be effective. It has to be done by an actual priest who is in good faith and takes part in the ceremony to have the entire procedure blessed. No lay person can do it. It is almost impossible to get an exorcism done. Besides, exorcisms only work if the spirit has taken residency in our world. This demon has not. You and your baby are not possessed—yet.”
“Then how did it just take control of the session like that and destroy the board?” Emily asked.
“I don’t know. It may have just crossed over,” Gail said.
“What do you mean you don’t know? You are the expert!” Kira said.
“There are no experts--not when it comes to the spirit world. You think human beings are hard to figure out? That is nothing compared to the ghost world.”
“Then what do we do now?” Kira asked.
“We have to do some more research. We have the name of the spirit. That is a great start.”
“Why is the name so important?” Kira asked.
“Because when you call a spirit by its name it automatically puts you on equal ground with them. It links you to them, which is why you should never call a demon by its name unless you are prepared for a war. It is basically placing yourself in harm’s way because when you know a demon’s name you give it an identity; it is no longer just some random entity of darkness. It is a real thing and you have just challenged it. That gives you power over it because now you can give commands to it. God did not leave us totally powerless when it comes to the world of evil. We have all of the tools needed to defeat it. We just have to know how to use them.”
“So, while you are doing the research then this thing can come back and do what it wants to me? You said it might have crossed over. What did you mean by that?”
“It may have just achieved the power it needs to destroy you and possess your unborn child,” Gail said.
“Jesus! I have to get out of here,” Kira said.
“The house isn’t haunted; you are. It will follow you wherever you go.”
“What about the shaman?” Emily asked.
“What?” Gail replied.
“What about that damn shaman? He was powerful enough to start all of this; maybe he can put it right again.”
“It’s possible that he could, but why would he? He has been made rich and famous by collecting souls for the Devil. He isn’t going to help us.”
“If he won’t then we kill him.”
“What? I’m not killing anybody,” Kira said. Emily was definitely losing it.
“No, we have no choice.”
“Killing him won’t stop this. He is just a tool like any other. He is not in control of this. Once it's set in motion I’m not sure he can stop it,” Gail said.
“It is worth a shot.”
“What about the exorcism? If you are right and the demon has crossed over then an exorcism would be necessary right?” Kira asked.
Gail was thoughtful for a moment.
“Yes, that is right, but like I said—it is almost impossible to get one performed.”
“Well, we have to try. I’m going to die. My baby is going to die.”
“I have a friend who is a retired priest. He isn’t ordained anymore, but he might be able to get the church’s approval. It is a long shot, but I will call him.”
“Damn right. I’m so afraid.”
“You are going to have to tell Chuck. Both of your lives might be in danger,” Emily said.
“I can’t. He will never forgive me,” Kira said.
“You don’t have a choice,” Emily replied and Kira knew she was right.
“Hey, you have to see this.”
Gail was looking at something on her phone. The other two gathered around. She had pulled up an article after googling the name “Innale”.
Gail began to read. “According to this blog post Innale is a demon of the highest order who is part of The Dark Triad, a group of three demons who are said to bring about the end of days. This is the precursor to the arrival of the Antichrist as described in the book of Revelations.”
“What does this mean?” Kira asked.
“It means that this is no ordinary demon. He is one of the worst kind; he is like a right hand man of the Devil and he has a very specific job,” Gail said.
“Oh my God. My son is the Anti—“
“No. This does not mean that. But it does mean that your son along with two others are going to be instrumental in bringing the Antichrist to fruition.”
“No! No!” Kira began to scream. Emily wrapped her in her arms.
“There is a chance we can stop this,” Gail said.
“How? How do we stop it?”
“We have to eliminate one of the attachments,” Gail said quietly. She was hardly able to let the words pass through her lips.
“Are you nuts? We can’t do that. We can’t kill innocent babies,” Emily said.
“We may not have to. We just have to make sure that one of the demons does not succeed in priming the child for this responsibility. If we can keep the demon from attaching itself fully to that child then the child will be able to resist the temptation and The Dark Triad’s objective will never happen.”
“There were two other women there,” Kira said.
“What? What are you talking about?” Emily asked.
“The day of the ritual—I was held in a room with two other women who were going through the same thing. I was just first.”
“We have to find these women. They may be completely unaware of what is happening to them. Each demon is assigned a specific child and we have to stop it from possessing them. We have to do it before the demon gets strong enough to break through like Innale has done,” Gail said.
“You don’t know their names?” Emily said.
“No—wait! I might,” Kira said. She was remembering something. It was a brief flashback, but she saw the other two women before the table. She did not realize it before because she was too upset, but she saw them.
“I don’t know their names, though. Just the faces,” Kira said.
“I have an idea. Can you describe them well enough to get a sketch composite done with a sketch artist?” Emily asked.
“I think so,” Kira replied.
“Come on. We are going down to the station. Mike can have their sketch artist work with you and then maybe run the sketches through the facial recognition software and see if it pulls up any hits. We might get lucky.”
“What if these women have never committed a crime? Their faces wouldn’t be in the database.”
“They can run it against social media pictures also. We can do this. It’s our only hope of finding these other women.”
Mike was Emily’s husband. He had been with Phoenix Metro PD for seven years. He was a good man and had always been nice to Kira. She wasn’t sure this idea of her sister’s would work at all, but they did not have a lot of options here. If Mike and his sketch artist could help then they owed it to the world to give it a shot.
They didn’t speak much on the ride down to the station, but they were all thinking the same thing. They were all wondering what the hell they had gotten themselves into. Kira had gone hoping someone could help her have a baby and now she had brought demons on the world that were hell bent on destroying the lives of three women so that they could possess their babies and bring about the end of the world. Kira’s faith was going to need to remain stronger than ever as she approached the upcoming weeks.
She had to tell Chuck that night. Whether he believed her or not this whole thing had become bigger than their marriage. This was about saving the world.
Her life would never be the same after this. She knew it. Even if they managed to succeed with their plan she knew that she would never be able to bounce back properly, but with God’s help she knew that she had a fighting chance.
Kira met with the sketch artist for about two hours listening to all of the strange questions he had asked her. She figured it would just be a very basic question of “What did they look like?” But the sketch artist had a way of asking her to describe certain things that brought the images to life in a way that she had never imagined.
Kira had no idea what Emily had told Mike to talk him into the use of the sketch artist, but Emily and Mike had a certain way of communicating with each other. It was a beautiful marriage that Kira envied. Emily and Mike had not been blessed with children, but their love for each other grew stronger day by day.
After the sketches were done, Mike scanned the pictures through the database.
Now all they could do was wait. Sometimes this could take a few days.
Kira only hoped that they had days. Every second was ticking away toward the end of the world.
God help us.
The End
Part 2
About the Book
Janie Brewer awakens to a world of darkness.
She can only vaguely remember the events of the night before. She had gone to see the faith healer called The Miracle Man and what happened next was more terrifying then any nightmare she could have ever imagined.
And it was only the beginning…
Janie had it all; a wonderful fiancé who had a good job, planning a beautiful wedding, and she just found out she was pregnant. Everything was perfect until that tragic night when she and a friend were struck by a drunk driver. Janie’s body was damaged and she lost the baby. She also lost the ability to ever have children again.
Janie and her fiancé, Hal Peterson, were devastated.
Hal sank into a deep depression, which was compounded by his being laid off from a lucrative job and he began to hit the bottle hard every night.
With their relationship deteriorating, and Hal on a downward spiral that he seemed unable to pull himself out of, Janie seeks help at The Miracle Man’s show.
But something has happened that will change the course of her life forever. She is about to learn that when you tamper with the natural order of things then there is a price to pay… there is always a price to pay...
Chapter One
Janie Brewer awoke to a blanket of utter confusion.
Her eyes tried to adapt to the darkness that surrounded her. She reached out blindly with her hands as if trying to part the thick fog of darkness that permeated her new world. The black grew with every movement she made. Her entire being was wrapped in fear that she had long since abandoned as being the irrational fears of childhood. It was the total panic that only a child can feel because they have not let go of the fact that monsters don’t exist.
But Janie Brewer knew monsters did exist.
The images that flashed through her screaming mind from the night before roared through the landscape of her emotions in a collage of frightening and painful still pictures. It was like looking through a scrapbook of torture, as if somehow every nightmare and every ounce of pain and fear she had ever felt were put together in some sort of horrid illusion that would not leave her mind.
Every time she tried to close her eyes it got worse, but the darkness remained. No matter what; the darkness stayed the same as she pushed with every ounce of strength she could muster to peel back the layers of the pain to reveal the light of the world she had once lived.
What had happened to her? She remembered the old man and the strange woman. She could see other women where she was being held also. The room was dark, but there were still flickers of light from candles that were strewn everywhere in a symbolic circle of some sort. Thinking back now it appeared to be some sort of cult ritual.
Janie felt herself falling suddenly, but only for a moment before her body collided with the surface of the floor. A wave of light and reality flooded her eyes and her senses creating waves of nausea that began to spill out of her mouth. There was no chance of making it to the bathroom, wherever that was. The master bathroom attached to her bedroom might well have been on the other side of the globe as to her right, just then. The sickness permeated through her body as her stomach lurched, wrenching the contents from her body as the world slowly started to come into view. The darkness that had been her nightmarish reality only a few seconds ago was now a flood of brightness that blocked out the shapes and contours of the material world she had come to call home, but slowly the light retreated, losing focus and allowing the shapes and moldings of the real world to sl
owly come back into focus.
The lurching of her stomach began to ease. The emptiness of her body now felt sore and cold. She began to shiver and tried to wrap herself up. She was now aware that she was naked and she was in her bedroom.
Everything was fine. Her bedroom was the same as it had been when she’d left it the day before. Before…
What happened? Her mind was still cluttered and confused but she forced herself to break through that barrier and gingerly begin to put together the events of the day.
She remembered driving to the seminar that The Miracle Man was giving. She had been terribly nervous about it to begin with and the closer she came to being there the more upset she became. But she didn’t know why. When she pulled into the parking lot and saw all of the cars for as far as the eye could see she suddenly felt relieved. She laughed at herself for being such a Nervous Nelly and went inside.
Once inside she had checked in with her ticket and was quickly escorted away from the conference hall by a strange, but alluring woman. Janie felt strange, but the woman insisted all was well. This woman held a level of persuasion that Janie had never seen in anyone. She gladly would have accepted anything the woman told her at that point. Her voice was this even and hypnotic monotone that was so soothing and inviting it would have captured anyone under its spell.
Before she knew what was happening she had been tied to a table with a strange man standing over her. She remembered blood, a strange chanting, and more blood. There was so much blood and it was falling down on top of her. It was so sticky and disgusting that she wanted to will herself to vomit as a way to process it all, but her stomach had stayed still. Her breath smelled foul as if death had hitched a ride on it and was trying to invade her body. She fought back against it ignoring the burning in her lungs gasping for air behind her tightly clenched lips.
She remembered being unable to move no matter how hard she struggled. It felt like the ropes restraining her were going to amputate her limbs if she didn’t stay still. They burnt and sliced deeply into her flesh drawing blood the more she struggled. She had no choice but to lie still and let it happen.
Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 4
