“I’m Samuel,” said the dirty-blond
man with the boyish face, standing at the front door of the bi-level house. “I
got the note you left on my door. Can I assume your daughter is still alive?”
“Thank
you for coming so quickly,” said the older gentleman from inside the house.
“Please, come in.”
Samuel
stepped out of the bright light of the nearby streetlamp, and into the warm
light of the old Victorian house in Louisville, Kentucky. The older man’s wife
stood a little further back, wringing her hands with a nervous anxiety.
“Yes,
still alive,” said the man. “Why do you ask?”
“Because
if she weren’t, you could call the coroner, and I could go home,” Samuel said. He
noticed the perplexed expressions on the couple’s faces.
Samuel
sighed. “Sorry.”
“I
thought you’d be older,” said the man.
“You’ve
seen too many movies about this stuff, old priests and all that. Look, I don’t
handle things like this. I know someone else who does, so you should really
call him. He is a priest, though he doesn’t look old, either. Let me give you
his name and number.” He looked around for a piece of paper and a pen.
“We
appreciate that,” said the man, “but we hope that won’t be necessary. We were
told to find you.”
Samuel
turned his attention back to the man in the white button shirt. “Who told you
to find me? And how did you do that, anyway?”
“We
were given your name and address.”
“I’ll
have to remember to move, then. Again, who gave you my information?”
“It--,”
began the father.
“She told us your name,” said the man’s
wife. “And, your address.” She stepped forward from behind her husband, and
turned to her him. “Whatever is in her, she is still our daughter up there.”
The woman looked at Samuel, grabbing his hands and squeezing, as if she would
die if she let go. “Please, she gave us your name and number for a reason. Help
her if you can.”
Samuel
sighed. “Well, like I said, this isn’t really what I do, but I’ll go take a
look. How old is your daughter?”
“She’s
twenty. If I may, what do you do?”
asked the man.
“Anything
that keeps me away from people,” Samuel said with a sarcastic tone.
“Hurry,”
said the woman.
“Don’t
worry, I’ll get out of here as I quick as I can.”
“No.
That was her instruction to you. You are to hurry.”
Samuel
gave her a perplexed look, and began ascending the staircase. He stopped and
turned back. “By the way, what’s your daughter’s name?”
“Faith,”
said the woman. “She’s our only child. We’d be lost if something happened to
her.”
“Which
room is hers?” Samuel asked continuing up the stairs.
“The
last on the right,” the man said. “Though, you would have found it without
asking. You don’t seem scared. I thought you said you hadn’t done this before.”
“I’m
not scared. And, I said this isn’t my thing; I didn’t say I’ve never witnessed
it. I’ve seen it lots of times.”
The
upstairs hall light flickered as Samuel reached the top landing. Glancing three
doors down the corridor, he saw what the father meant—a tell-tale sign that the
last door on the right was the girl’s room. Blood dripped from the doorknob,
forming a standing pool on the carpet below. The door itself seemed to heave
slightly, as if the room on the other side were actually breathing. No noise
came from the far end of the hall.
As
Samuel took a step forward, the light above stopped flickering, stayed on for
several seconds, then went out, the bulb making a popping sound. Reaching the
room, the carpet squished under his weight, blood flooding up around his shoes.
The sticky doorknob turned easily as the wooden boundary to the next room
stopped heaving.
The
hinges offered no resistance as the door swung open, revealing a dark room, and
no sign of the young woman. The word ‘help’ was written in blood all over the
walls, ceiling, and furniture. The room stunk of decayed flesh and urine.
“Faith?”
Samuel called, crossing the threshold.
A
sudden scratching came from a far corner, the closet door slowly opening.
“Who
are you?” asked a demure, female voice.
“My
name is Samuel. Will you come out and talk to me?”
The
girl crawled out of the closet, her green, watery eyes darting back and forth
between Samuel and her bed. Scratches and bite marks covered her body. Slinking
over to the bed, the woman climbed on all fours on top of the mattress, and
closed her eyes.
“I
want to talk to whoever is inside Faith. Who are you? What is it you want? Why
are you in this girl, and why was I summoned?”
“You
know who I am,” said a lower voice, sounding as if both human genders and all
vocal ranges were talking at once. “Save the girl. Save us.”
Samuel
stood there, leering at the possessed young woman, confused. “I don’t
understand. Why are you in this girl’s body? What are you talking about?”
“We
are not alone.” Faith’s eyes opened, glowing red. “There is another here.”
A
sudden low growl resonated around the room as the air and walls that surrounded
Samuel vibrated. His body slowly lifted from the floor, the door slamming shut
behind him.
“Why
are you here?” growled a voice from deep within the girl, and yet seemed to
also come from every direction.
“I
was out looking for kicks on a Friday night,” answered Samuel, floating halfway
between the ceiling and the floor, “and you?” He stared at Faith’s sparkling
red eyes. “You’re not the same one who was here before.” He squinted. “I don’t
know you. Who are you?”
Samuel
slowly spun upside down. Faith lifted off the bed, floating toward the man
hanging in mid-air.
“These
are all neat tricks, but I’ve seen this stuff before. This doesn’t impress me
much.”
Samuel
quickly dropped to the floor, his head cracking the wooden floorboards
underneath the carpet, before being jerked back up, again upside down.
Immediately, he was slammed back against the wall, shaking the entire the
house.
“Okay,”
Samuel said, “I’m going to have to ask you to leave now, before things really
get rough.”
“You
will die like the rest of your kind,” said the demonic voice. “All humans will
soon die.”
“Now,
see, that’s where you’re wrong. Maybe I’ll die, and maybe I won’t.” Samuel
stared into the fiery eyes of Faith. “But, I’m not exactly human.”
He
reached behind him, pressed his hands flat against the wall, and propelled
himself forward, grabbing Faith and forcing her down onto the bed. The
furniture frame broke under the pressure exerted by the landing.
Samuel
jumped to the floor as the first demon regained its foothold within the girl,
and sat up.
“Save
the girl!” the voice of many voices said.
“What
do you want me to do?” screamed Samuel.
“You
know what you have to do.” Faith’s yellow eyes locked onto Samuel’s. “Do it.
You can get her back. You know you’re the only one who can do it. Quickly.
There’s no time.”
Samuel,
straightened his posture, stood determined, and screamed, “Get out!”
Faith
fell back on the bed as her eyes closed and reopened, exposing the glistening
red irises of the second demon.
Samuel
placed his hands on her back and chest, focusing on her lungs, and the various
anatomical parts that comprised her respiratory system, including the bronchi,
bronchioles, alveoli, and capillaries, while holding Faith down. The body on
the bed, whether under control of the girl, or the more powerful demon, gasped
and struggled to break free. Samuel was increasing the carbon dioxide in the
body, and removing all oxygen from the girl’s lungs, blood, and cells.
“Help
me,” Faith suddenly said, in a choking, panicked voice, her green eyes staring
into Samuel’s blues. “I can’t breathe. You’re killing me.”
He
didn’t flinch.
The
girl’s irises, without her eyelids closing, quickly jumped back to red. “We
will find another!” the demon screamed. “You have no hope!”
Two
screams came from downstairs as the house shook, then suddenly fell silent,
calm. Faith collapsed, struggling no more. Samuel opened the girl’s eyes to see
the color green again, surrounding black, dilated pupils. He put two fingers to
her neck, checking her carotid artery, and felt no pulse.
Samuel
placed one hand over the corpse’s chest, and the other on her head, leaving her
eyelids open. “It’s time to come back, now,” he said. He closed his own eyes, and
focused as a white light started to glow from each hand.
Several
seconds passed, the light emanating from Samuel’s hands washing the bedroom in
an ethereal glow, before he felt her heart begin to beat once more, the strong
left ventricle now sending oxygen-filled blood throughout the body, and
electrical impulses fire in the brain. Faith began to breathe again.
Weakened,
he picked the unconscious girl up from the bed, and carried her downstairs, his
legs nearly giving out, hoping to find her waiting parents, but instead found
only their mutilated, dismembered bodies. The demon’s last act before it
departed the house.
Loading
Faith into his car, Samuel drove her to the nearest hospital where he placed
her inside an empty ambulance outside the emergency department, and got back
into his own vehicle and disappeared into the night.
