Unclean Spirit (23 page)

CHAPTER
NINETY
-
FIVE

              Mag gazed into eyes that revealed a microcosm of pain and suffering, hate and inhumanity, sorrow and desperation. Although he realized that humankind often crossed the line between good and evil, Mag had never really understood, prior to this moment, what Evil truly was. And now that he knew, he vehemently wished that he had remained ignorant of the depth and potency of true corruption. 

              "Mag!" Starr shouted. "The beads! Hold up the rosary beads!" 

              But Mag was lost in his epiphany. 

              "Mr. Palmary! Wake up! Mag needs help!" Starr implored as she shook Vincent awake. 

              Vincent, quick to his feet, rushed to where Mag stood and physically shoved him away from Paul's body. He then lifted his cross high above his head as he spoke. 

God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I invoke your Holy Name and suppliantly request you: Deign to give me strength against this and every other unclean spirit which is tormenting this creature of yours. 

Unclean Spirit! Whoever you are. I command you to retreat and do no harm to us! 

              As Paul Forsythe's body turned toward Starr, she saw the man whom she loved so dearly. 

             
“Starr, why are you letting this stranger hurt me? 

              Please, help me!” 

             
"Dad?" 

              Lukas, now awake, took hold of Starr's hand. "No, Starr, that's not Paul speaking. You know that, don't you?" 

              "But what if it is my father breaking through? That's possible, isn't it?" 

              "No, it's not possible," Vincent responded. "if your father is here, he's certainly not in his body and he can't speak to you. 

“Be gone, Ancient Serpent! In the name of Our Creator! 

In the name of Him who has power to send you into Hell! “Depart from this servant of God, Paul Forsythe.” 

             
“Servant of God? We think not! This human chamber disavowed its creator long ago.

              “We will not leave this body. We are quite comfortable here.” 

             
So, Vincent thought to himself, Paul Forsythe’s lack of faith in God explained, at least partially, why the Demonic had been able to invade his body. That fact was going to make matters even more difficult than they already were. 

              “Ms. Forsythe, Vincent whispered, ”is it true what the Demonic says about your father?” 

              “Dad is a good and loving man.” 

              “I understand that,” Vincent persisted, “but does he believe in God and have faith in Him?”

              Starr feared the ramifications of her response. “No. No, he doesn’t. 

              “You are frightening me. Does Dad’s lack of belief mean that you can’t help him?” 

              The Demonic answered Starr’s question before Vincent could.
“Foolish woman! This weak spiritualist couldn’t help your pathetic father even if God did forgive him for his irreverence!” 

             
“Mr. Palmary?” Starr needed to hear what he had to say. 

              Having convinced Marybeth and Patsy to go back into the house for the time being, Tamara, Saul, Charlie, and Cooter worked on clearing the steps that lead to the basement. It was slow-going secondary to the effects of the unremitting rain: Saul and Charlie would fill a bucket with the mud they removed from the steps; hand the bucket to Tamara for disposal; return to their work; discover a fresh mound of mud. Meanwhile, Cooter made his contribution to the group’s efforts by rolling around in the mud that Tamara emptied from the bucket. 

              Vincent chose his words carefully. “Ms. Forsythe, the Demonic frequently mixes truth with lies in order to make its assertions more believable. While it’s true that your father’s lack of a belief in God is an impediment to his deliverance from the Demonic, it is not an obstacle that is impossible to overcome.” 

             
“Well, that’s one person’s opinion.” 

             
Starr and Vincent turned their attention to Paul, who was calmly standing before them eating his own feces. 

              “Pats, there’s bound to be something we can do. I feel so useless just sitting here.” Marybeth was becoming increasingly agitated. 

              “What? What can we do? There’s nothing.” 

              “We could call someone.” 

              “Who should we call, M.B.? The police, the Pope,  Ghostbusters?” 

              “You don’t need to be sarcastic! I’m just sayin
g
” 

              And that’s when the phone rang. 

              “He
l
hello?” Marybeth answered the phone. 

             
“You are useless! You couldn’t even help Benjamin; how do you think you can help anyone else?” 

             
Mag, who had returned to the circle of salt, helped Starr clean the vomitus off her face. The sight of her father eating his own excrement had sickened her. 

              “Mr. Palmary, where do we go from here?” Lukas asked. 

              Truth be told, Vincent wasn’t entirely sure but he couldn’t allow Starr, Lukas, and Mag to know that. He needed their confidence in his abilities if they had any hope of getting through this nightmare. 

              “I need to know this demon’s name. If I can call
It
by name, I have a better chance of banishing it.” 

              Lukas had an idea. “What if we start calling out demonic names and see which one
It
responds to?” 

              “Lord, no! That might summon more demons! 

              “No, I’ll just have to keep trying to get
It
to reveal itself.” 

              Although unseen by the group gathered in the basement, Paul’s soul had continued to drift close to his body, close enough that it occasionally made contact with Paul’s physical form. During those brief moments when soul touched body, Paul became marginally aware of his environment. He sensed Starr’s presence and could sometimes hear the words that were being spoken around him. He had no real comprehension of where he was or of what was happening to him.  But he instinctively knew that there was something he needed to communicate to those around him. 

              Penelope’s chilling wail caught everyone by surprise.

CHAPTER NINETY-SIX

              Penelope, quiet now but fully alert, was staring a Paul’s forehead and the blood that was flowing from it. 

              Starr, Lukas, Mag, and Vincent were also focusing on Paul’s forehead, but were less captivated by the blood than was Penelope; they were riveted by the word that had been etched into Paul’s skin:
Gerasene.

CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN

              “What does that mean?” Starr asked of no one in particular. 

              “I haven’t a clue,” Vincent responded. 

              “I think I do,” Lukas was relieved to finally be of some use. “Gerasa was a city, near the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have healed a man, referred to as the
Gerasene Demoniac,
who was possessed by demons. According to lore, the demons that had invaded the man were terrified of Jesus and begged Him to allow them to leave the man and enter a herd of pigs. Jesus granted the demons their request: They entered the pigs and the entire herd jumped off a cliff. Two thousand pigs died that day, but the man was no longer possessed.” 

              Penelope looked up to Starr as if to say, “Don’t get any bright ideas! I’m a cat, not a pig!” 

              “Pastor Duncan, you said demons, pleural,” Vincent observed. 

              “Well, when Jesus demanded to know what was in the man, the response had been, ‘Legion. For we are many.’” 

              “That’s the same thing Dad said earlier!” 

              “That’s a pretty common claim in cases of possession. It seems to be the the Demonic’s way of concealing Its name,” Vincent shared.

              “So, it looks as though we have a good news, bad news situation here. The good news: Mr. Forsythe was probably responsible for making that name appear on his skin; the Demonic would be loathe to share any private information about Itself. That means that your father, Ms. Forsythe, has not yet been fully possessed.” 

              “And the bad news?” Mag prompted. 

              “We still don’t know the identity of the demon, or demons, we are up against.” 

              “But we do know more than we did. Doesn’t knowing something intimate about the Demonic give us some additional power over
It
?” Mag wanted to know.  

              “It might,” Vincent admitted. “It just might.”  

              “Tamara,” Saul called up, “we can finally see the door.” 

              “Good, that’s good!

              “Can you open it?” 

              “We’re going to try after we clear away a little more mud.  From what I can see, though, it’s pretty warped.” 

              “Screw this shit! I’d rather be outside in the rain than in here with that telephone! 

              “You coming?” 

              “Absolutely! I’m sure as hell not staying in here alone!” 

              Patsy and Marybeth went back outside.

CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT

              Charlie pounded on the recently disclosed cellar door and yelled to the basement’s inhabitants that help was on the way, but The Demonic had ensured that Charlie’s words could not be heard.
It
recognized that humans, weak though they were, could draw strength from one another and
It
had no intention of playing around with these swine any longer.

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE

              It had finally occurred to Charlie that the reason he had been unaware of the outside entrance to the basement was because the wall on the other side of the door was covered with free-standing cabinetry and shelving; he had never been able to see the door. He and Saul would have to destroy the door and what was on the other side of it in order to get into the cellar. 

              While Charlie and Saul worked on the basement door, the Demonic rested. Mag realized that he had done little in life that was of benefit to anyone save himself. Lukas realized that he could never really atone for killing his father. Vincent prayed for the strength he realized he lacked. Penelope and Starr approached the glistening luminosity that was now visible to them just to the right of Paul’s body. 

              “Starr, no!” Mag shouted. 

              “Wait, Mag, let her be. I think she sees something we don’t,” Vincent instructed. 

              “Bu
t
” 

              “Mag, let it play out. I can’t explain it, but for the first time since we’ve been down here I have a real sense of hope. Perhaps the bond between father and daughter will be strong enough to break the Demonic’s hold on Mr. Forsythe.” 

              Mag seriously doubted that Vincent was correct but he felt that he had little choice but to follow Vincent’s advice; Lukas silently prayed to God that Starr would not be harmed. 

              Starr realized that the luminosity that had drawn her to her father’s side
was
her father; of this, she had no doubt. And as she moved into the shimmering soul of Paul Forsythe, Starr’s essence made contact with that of her father. 

              The convergence of the spirits that were Starr and Paul Forsythe resulted in a surge of metaphysical energy that filled the incorporeal realm in which the spirits existed with an explosion of light and color, the likes of which had never been, seen by the human eye. The astonishingly blissful light and the gentle yet vibrant colors did not surround the spirits but, rather, intermingled with them.

              Starr’s and Paul’s life-forces were no longer separate entities; they had become one with the infinite number of souls that comprise the hereafter. 

              “Vincent, what do you think is going on?” Lukas questioned. 

              “I don’t know. Something is happening though, I can feel it.” 

              Mag knew what Vincent meant. Although he could neither see nor hear anything unusual, Mag was aware of a subtle change in the cellar’s atmosphere, a change that, quite literally, made the hairs on his arms stand on end. 

              The Demonic felt increasingly oppressed by the countless souls that filled the environment.
It
had no reason to fear a few souls,
It
had done battle with human spirits before and triumphed over them each and every time. But these ethereal souls had gathered en mass and the Demonic knew that the human female was somehow responsible for that. She would just have to share her father’s fate. 

              The souls that had congregated in the basement had been pulled from their spatial plane by the discharge of energy that had resulted from the unification of two spirits that were still tied to the earthly sphere of existence. While not conscious in the same sense that a human being is conscious, these souls did possess a collective awareness of all things mystical. They recognized the Evil that was the Demonic and they sought
It
out. 

              The potency of the souls that had entered Paul Forsythe’s body stunned the Demonic.
It
was accustomed to being the aggressor, not the defender. But
It
now found
Itself
being forced out of the human’s body. 

              Mag, Lukas, Vincent, and Penelope were literally blown across the room and pinned against the wall by the powerful wind that had suddenly arisen within the cellar’s confines. Cabinets, shelving, tools, broken pieces of wood, and assorted debris whipped about the basement. But the bodies of Starr and Paul Forsythe, contained within the eye of the maelstrom, remained unaffected by the riotous air that surrounded them.  

              The wind howled; it also moaned and cried and cursed. Then, without warning, the noise ceased and the wind vanished. The basement became preternaturally quiet and still. 

              Penelope tread warily across the floor and positioned herself next to Starr. Mag, Lukas, and Vincent righted themselves and watched in amazement as a dark, formless mass exited the left side of Paul’s body, idled briefly over Starr, then propelled
Itself
across the room and into the pulpit that awaited
It
.  

              The Demonic entered the pulpit with such rage and strength that the ancient structure was blown apart into thousands of fragments of wood that finally came to rest on the basement floor.

              “We’re here!” Charlie shouted as he poked his head through the hole in the cellar door.