“I just never thought I would see something like that in my lifetime,” Gail said finishing her cup of tea.
“Do any of you think that we might be a bit outmatched here? We are basically taking on the forces of Satan. You don’t think it would be wise to get a bigger group together or at least people who have a lot more experience in this sort of thing?” Blair asked.
“I’m not sure there are people out there who have experience in this sort of thing. At least not in this exact type of problem. I know of several demonologists I could contact about it, but I’m not sure they would believe me about this being the end of days or if they would get here in time before it was too late.”
Gail looked somber and a bit scared. This scared Blair in turn because Gail seemed like she was on top of everything and did not strike her as the kind of person who scared easily. She offered comfort and protection, so to see her look a bit frightened was not what Blair wanted to see right then. She had a feeling the older woman was a little bit full of it and did not know half of what she purported to know, but she was all they had right now and Blair was desperate for help.
“So, what is the plan?” Blair asked.
“We need to conduct an exorcism. But we are going to need a bit of help to make sure it goes right and to make sure that it is effective. Remember that the rite of exorcism has been around since the dawn of man but there are no real cures for things like this. It doesn’t always work,” Gail said.
“Tell me about it,” Kira replied.
“Why? What happened?” Blair asked.
“My exorcism did not work. It turned violent and we were almost killed.”
“OK, then why don’t we take a second and examine another option?”
“Because there is no time. Kira’s exorcism did not work because it was too late. The demon had already secured its attachment to Kira and the child.”
“Why can’t we find the bastard who did this to us? The Miracle Man. This is all his fault.”
“Because he is difficult to track down and we would have to force him to recant the curse. There is no way he will do that. He would just kill himself if cornered into that position. Otherwise he would risk losing his place in hell and he would most likely be tortured and killed either by a demon or by a cult group that carries out these sorts of punishments in the name of The Dark Lord.”
“Sounds like he deserves what’s coming to him. We could make him talk,” Blair insisted.
“It would be a waste of time. And as I said, time is of the essence.”
Blair got up and poured herself another cup of hot tea. The tea always helped settle her stomach and it always soothed her when she was having a bit of anxiety, which was an understatement in describing her current state right then. She was feeling a bit panicky, but it wasn’t just fear. Most of what she was feeling was excitement and anticipation of this thing going down. She had no idea if it was going to work, but she felt that it would be the most amazing thing she had ever seen regardless. It had to happen and she was ready. Even after what had happened to her she was determined to not give the demon the satisfaction that she was even remotely scared. She was not going to let it see her sweat.
“So, when is this going to happen?” Blair said.
“We need some more supplies and I need to contact my friend Father Josephs to assist in the exorcism. I tried to handle it myself last time and it is a much bigger job than I originally anticipated. Besides having a priest here would definitely make everyone feel stronger and more connected to God. And it will irritate and cause the demon pain by his presence.”
“OK, tomorrow then?”
Gail glanced at the clock. It was almost eight o’clock, but not quite.
“There is an occult store about five minutes from here. We need to get there before it closes. We need sage, and a few other important things.”
“I’m surprised that you don’t have that stuff already,” Blair said. She hoped her comments were not sounding too snotty but she was starting to feel that this outfit had no idea what they were really doing and that they were all going to be killed soon.
“Our primary focus was to find you before it was too late. I failed to find these two in time. I did not want to make that same mistake again.”
She wrote down a list and handed it to Janie, who instantly headed out the door. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Great. I’ll call Father Josephs. He is expecting me,” Gail said.
Gail picked up the phone and dialed the priest.
“So, how are you two holding up?” Blair asked.
“I’m OK,” Kira said. “Do you remember anything about the night we were cursed?”
“No, just bits and pieces that don’t make any sense.”
“I remember quite a bit. That old man killed a chicken on top of me and let the blood drip all over my chest while he recited some sort of mumbo jumbo. It was the sickest thing that has ever happened to me.”
“Oh, wow. That is horrible. I’m glad I don’t remember that,” Blair said.
“I remember a bit of it too, but mostly just bits and pieces like Blair said,” Jessica added.
“I keep asking myself why me? Why me?” Blair said.
“I’ve been there. It just keeps echoing in my mind. I see all of these other people who wanted children and got children without any issues. I tried this one little harmless sounding thing and this happens. I guess it had to happen to somebody, but I still don’t know why it was me,” Kira replied.
“Do you think we can really beat this thing? I’ve got to be honest, I have my doubts.”
“I don’t know. What else can we do? We have to try,” Kira replied.
“I know we will win,” Jessica said. “I have utter faith that we will find a way to beat this thing and all of us are going to be saved.”
Blair smiled. Hearing the hope in her voice was rather inspiring and she felt herself getting motivated to kick the crap out of some demons. They had picked the wrong group of women to get involved with.
“I think it’s OK to be scared, but Gail knows what she is talking about,” Emily, Kira’s sister, spoke up. “I’ve known her for a while and I can say that if she doesn’t know something then she will find the answer or she will hunt until she finds someone who does know.”
“OK, I’ll do my best to have faith,” Blair said.
“That’s all you can do.”
“What do you guys know about this priest? Has he worked with you before?”
“Gail said that he is a bit of a rogue from the Church. He is basically retired from the Priesthood, but he still substitutes sermons and does a lot of work in the community. And he assists in exorcisms now too. He is one of the few in the country who does that, so to find him here this close to town is pretty lucky.”
“I can’t believe we are sitting here talking about exorcisms. It makes me want to think we all have a few screws loose. But I know what happened to me. I’m sure you all know what happened to you. If you had told me this sort of stuff a few months ago I would have said you were crazy,” Blair said. She couldn’t stop thinking about how hard the past few months had been and how things had escalated so slowly, until they reached a certain point. Then they just exploded and were completely out of hand.
“I know what you mean. You just don’t see it coming for you until the monster decides to let its presence be known,” Kira said almost reading Blair’s thoughts, word for word.
That was creepy, Blair thought.
Blair thought about running out the door and never looking back. She could leave these women to deal with this problem while she stayed away from it all. But she was a part of it and she had to be here or else they had no chance. There was only a slim chance that this would work even with her, but it was doomed to failure if she didn’t stay. Then her baby would be doomed as well. This was the only hope.
“So, what happened at the last exorcism?” Blair asked Emily and Kira.
The two girls look
ed at each other for a second as if debating what they should say. Blair took this to be a bad sign.
Finally Emily spoke. She told Blair about the experiment with the Ouija board and how the demon had breached the plain and came across to their side, even though that was not supposed to happen. Gail had been very surprised, but she had admitted she was wrong and they were too late to save Kira from the attachment of the demon.
Blair wondered if Gail knew all along that it might not work and that she might be too late, but did not want to tell the girls anyway. She knew that there was a chance they might be killed doing this and she did not warn them. Blair felt a huge mountain of uncertainty about this woman. There was something just a bit off in her character.
But for now Blair would go along with it.
Chapter Three
Father Josephs was a man of about sixty-five with thinning silver hair that lay as flat on his scalp as could be, as if it were a tight knit hat of some sort. His eyes were intense looking with a hint of wisdom showing through them. He could not have been more than five feet six inches tall, but he carried himself as if he were a much larger man taking long strides and possessing a power swagger to him. However when he spoke his voice was kind and soft, almost grandfather like. He seemed to be a mix of contradictions.
He walked into Blair’s house and made his introductions without waiting for Gail to do it for him. He smiled blandly, but not without affection or warmth. It just seemed to be his permanent expression. It was a bit odd, but Blair thought that Father Josephs reminded her of Robert De Niro, the way he was now in his later years.
“Father, thank you so much for being here,” Gail said.
“It’s no problem. I’m glad to be here. Are we ready to get started?”
Gail seemed to be taken a bit off guard, but she nodded and smiled all the same. Blair liked to watch her squirm. She wasn’t sure what it was about Gail that just didn’t sit right with her. Blair wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she seemed like a charlatan to her. However, Father Josephs seemed to be in total control and knew what he was doing right off.
“Yes, but you don’t want the history of the case first?”
“You covered enough over the phone. I know exactly what we are dealing with. I’ve been expecting it to happen for quite some time. I’m just glad we have a chance to thwart it before it fully materializes. Did you get the things I asked for?”
“Yes, I have them,” Janie said grabbing the bag off the floor and handing it to him.
The priest examined each item while he quickly rearranged them. There was a book of Exorcism, then a few special chalices, followed by a strange looking dagger, a few more ceremonial plates, a few heavy looking Tibetan singing bowls that Blair recognized from a field trip to the museum when she was twelve, some sage sticks, an incense burner, and finally in a little container with a clear lid was a hamster. Blair shuddered to think what was in store for the hamster.
“What about the Ouija board like we used last time?” Kira asked.
Father Josephs cocked an eyebrow at her sarcastically, but he saw she was serious.
“We won’t be using a board this time. It can be an effective communication tool, but I’ve always felt it gives too much power to the spirit. Things can quickly escalate and besides that you never really know who or what you are contacting. Things like that can ruin lives real fast.”
Gail looked downward momentarily. Blair liked the fact that the old woman was taken off her high horse a bit. She had made some mistakes. Father Josephs was going to rectify it. At least Blair hoped that was going to happen. As of right now she just didn’t know what to believe. But it was going to be an interesting show at the very least.
Father Josephs sat down in front of his display. He motioned for the others to sit with him. They followed suit and took their seats at the table around him. Blair felt a little weird being directed around by this man, but she felt like she was probably just scared to start this thing. Maybe that was the reason behind her hostility towards Gail. The woman had not done anything to make her feel a certain way, but her gut instinct was telling her to not trust her. Or was it herself she did not trust? She was starting to feel jittery and scared about what might be expected of her during the ritual. So far no one had explained what exactly was going to happen here. She was hoping that Father Josephs would get on with it.
“OK,” Josephs began. “Now you all know what is happening and you all know why. Gail has filled me in and I’m sure she has discussed with you at great length what is going on. Today we try to stop this vicious cycle before the minions of the Devil can latch onto these babies—these children of God—and twist them and torment them to do his bidding to bring about the war of Armageddon. That must be stopped at all cost. Now, we have a very short window of time to work with here. So we must be fast and we must be vigilant.”
Blair took a few deep breaths and looked around at the other women seated around this circle. They all looked terrified and she could see for the first time how sick and frail Kira and Jessica looked. They were so tired and beaten down from their struggles. Blair knew this all too well going by her experience earlier. If that had happened every day then she knew that eventually she would be broken too. No one had that amount of strength and energy. The demon had a never ending supply because he was using your energy to keep going and to break you down farther. Eventually you would become too weak to resist and then the demon was able to take your body. Then you would be a puppet of the Devil. She was not going to let that happen to her. Just the basic thought of it was enough to make her want to vomit. She would never allow her baby to be taken from her that way. She was a mother. Even though the child had not been born yet, she was still taking care of that child’s every need. She was a mother from the moment of conception, no matter where the child’s creation happened or how it came about.
Blair gritted her teeth. She was ready for anything.
“I am going to attempt to communicate with the demon, to draw it out. It may not come out right away. Sometimes they like to play games and sometimes they like to influence those who are fighting against them. This is a power play and their main focus is to take power away from us and keep it for themselves. That is really all they do. They have been doing this to Kira and to Jessica for a while already. They are both getting weaker by the day, even if they can’t really tell. It is there. Eventually the demon will just take what he wants from them and they will cease to be.”
Josephs took a container of salt and walked around the table creating a circular barrier for them to remain inside of. This would protect them.
He sat back down and then Father Josephs kissed the Rosary beads around his neck and said a prayer silently to himself before refocusing on the task before him. He then grabbed a piece of communion wafer up off the small, gold plate that sat before him. He held it up in the air and blessed it before eating it and finishing another silent prayer.
Then he stood up and grabbed a small bottle of holy water from the table. He sprinkled a bit into his palm and began to walk around the table saying a blessing and making the sign of the cross on the foreheads of everyone with the holy water on his thumb. The water felt cold and Blair allowed herself to draw strength from it. She had never been especially religious but she was happy to stand behind it now. It was empowering. She felt like a warm blanket was being draped over her.
After making his way around the table to everyone, Father Josephs sat back down. He picked up the book of Exorcism and began to read from it in Latin. The words were poetic and cryptic sounding, reminding Blair of old Gothic literature almost. She was not sure she had ever heard real Latin spoken before, but she wished she’d understood it better. It was a powerful and very romantic sounding language. She remembered she’d heard it called the Father of all Romance Languages. And now she understood why.
Josephs' voice echoed off the walls of her modest home, rising above the roar of the air conditioning. She was surprised he h
ad not requested to have that shut off since it might affect his concentration, but it was still ninety degrees outside even since the sun had gone down several hours before. Blair had no intention of doing this exorcism while sweating to death, as strange as that sounded.
“We call to you, unclean spirit. Reveal thyself and surrender to me. You are beaten by the righteous hand of the Father. He commands that you kneel before the Righteous Hand.”
Blair watched the other women intently. Father Josephs had insisted on the lights being dimmed and now he struck a match and lit one of the several candles that he had brought and set up. They were long slender candles all embroidered with the sign of the cross.
“Unclean spirit, reveal yourself and face the judgment that the Lord God has set aside for you. You will not hurt these children of God. He has commanded you to depart from them and to release your hold on them. You have no right here. This is not your place.”
Father Josephs picked up a small incense burner on a chain and began to move it back and forth over the table, spreading sweet smelling incense all around the room. Blair could feel the heat from it as it moved back and forth from her to the others around the table. The whole process was very intriguing to her. She had always been easily hypnotizable and the reason was because she had always been drawn to rituals.
Father Josephs watched the candles in front of him as he sat the incense burner down and lowered his head to pray. The candles began to flicker as if someone was running a finger through each flame individually from one side to the other. Blair saw the lights flickering in the priest’s eyes and an eerie smile come over his face.
Josephs picked up the hamster from the container and held it up tightly over top of a small bowl. With his other hand he picked up the dagger and sliced the hamster’s head off. Blair grimaced as the blood flowed out of the hamster into the bowl.
The priest sat the hamster aside and picked up a small padded mallet. He struck the Tibetan singing bowl that was closest to Blair. It was the larger one and it emanated a thick, rich resonance in the room, vibrating with emotion and ringing in her head and her chest. It was hypnotic and a beautiful sound. It made everything around her feel much less scary and intense. She could just curl up and get lost in the sound of the bowl.
Thriller: Horror: Conceived (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 9
