Tor looked at me oddly, her head tilted to the side. “What do you mean?”
I sat down. I was getting tired of the two of them expecting me to know everything. “You do realize that there have been exorcisms that have lasted years, right?” I asked.
Will swallowed loud. “I was hoping…”
Tabby rolled her eyes. “You were hoping Jimmy could work a miracle, but it doesn’t work that way.”
She sat down beside me and put her hands on the table a little too hard. The sound was scary for a moment, with the glass topped table.
“Every time Jimmy does something, both of you either interrogate him or you want him to create miracles, and I’m tired of it. You wouldn’t have to ask how it went if you watched the feed. Both of you are too chickenshit to watch.”
Tabby has said it all for me; everything I wished I could say. I had to wonder if God was trying to tell me something about Tabby, but I just didn’t want to know.
What I wanted to know about was this “mark” business.
“Jimmy?” Tabby asked.
I looked at her. “Yeah?”
“Tor asked you if Lucy was okay,” Tabby looked at me, puzzled. It was almost as if she was wondering if I was okay instead of Lucy.
I turned to Tor. “Lucy is Lucy. Physically, she seemed about the same. Otherwise, I don’t think you want me to speculate on her mental state.”
Will ran his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry, Jimmy. We don’t mean to pester you, and I know you’re trying your damnedest. It’s just so fucking hard.”
“I imagine it is. Just keep in mind that I’m flying by the seat of my pants. There are parts of the official Catholic exorcism I can’t even do because it would be sacrilegious to use it without being a priest.” I closed my eyes and calmed myself. It wasn’t good for me to be this irritated. The stress was getting to me.
“Would you like a drink, Jimmy?” Tabby asked.
I opened my eyes and nodded.
“What do you want?”
“Some bourbon and coke would be nice.”
I just sat there, completely ignoring Will and Tor even though I was in the same room with them. If they didn’t stop asking me everything, I was going to blow, and Will would be lucky if all he got was a punch in the mouth.
Tabby set my drink in front of me. I took a sip. It tasted good. Soon the alcohol warmed me a little.
“Would you like a steak, Jimmy?” Tor asked.
I nodded. “That sounds great.”
“Are you done for the day then?” Will asked.
“Probably not,” I said. “Tabby and I need some strength, then we’ll do what we can for the evening.”
“Given what Lucy’s done before at night, this should be interesting,” Tabby said.
I smiled. “Oh, I’m sure she’s got something planned.”
Chapter Twenty Nine
Take Two
After dinner and after Tabby and I were able to let our food digest to the point that it would be hard for us to make a mess, we went back upstairs.
When we got to Lucy’s room, there wasn’t even a foul smell. I opened the door and switched on the overhead light.
Lucy was sitting up in bed. She watched us come into the room with those awful eyes of hers.
“Good evening, Lucy,” I said.
“Where am I, Jimmy?” she asked, but it wasn’t Lucy’s voice, and it wasn’t the demon’s voice.
“Who are you?” I asked.
Lucy buried her head in her hands. “How could you let him do this to me, Jimmy?”
Then I knew. The damn demon was copying again. It was pretending to be my sister. While that bothered me, it bothered me more than the demon was resorting to using tricks from movies.
“Candy is dead, Lucy,” I said.
It smiled. “But she’s with us, Priest. She’s always been with us. Suicide is a direct trip to Hell.” Then it laughed.
I motioned for Tabby to sit down. She did. I followed. We sat at the end of the bed on the floor, facing Lucy.
“One, God does not punish the mentally ill. Two, give it up. You are more original than that,” I said.
Lucy grinned. “But you can’t be sure,” she said in a sing-song voice.
“Candy has been gone for almost twenty years. The Candy I knew was dead before she killed herself.”
It smiled. “If you let us take you, you could see her again.”
I laughed. “I can see her anytime I want. I remember her.”
“And you,” Lucy turned to Tabby. “Don’t you think God is overjoyed that an itchy witch is trying to chase me out. Evil can’t move evil.”
“I’m not evil,” she said.
It laughed. “You know the words: ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!'”
It was Tabby’s turn to laugh. “Too bad that was a poor translation. The original text doesn’t say that at all. That passage talks about charlatans who charge money. They want to bilk people out of money by proclaiming to know the future or do spells for them to make them rich. It does not apply to me.”
The demon smiled. “Oh really?”
Lucy moved the index finger of her right hand around. An image appeared, hovering over her head. “Itchy witchy thinks she’s smart. She thinks she’s good at heart, but her heart is marred by the devil’s lie, making her sure to die.” As she said the riddle, a little Tabby replica walked across the bed until a large hand squashed her to nothing.
“That isn’t scary,” Tabby said.
Lucy grinned. “Really?”
Then the hooded figure suddenly appeared, looming towards the floor. It floated across the floor towards Tabby.
I stood in front of Tabby. “Back.”
It paused.
“Back, I said.” I held my hand up. A beam of green light shot out of my hand and wound around the dark figure like a rope. “You will do no more bidding for the thing that lives inside Lucy. So back!”
The figure rippled for a moment and disappeared.
“Jimmy, what the Hell?” Tabby asked.
I looked at her and smiled. “I’m a ‘marker’.”
Lucy made a sound like a pig.
I turned to Lucy. “What is your name?”
It flopped on the bed and rolled around, laughing.
Tabby grabbed me by the shoulder. “We need to talk later.”
Lucy sat back up. “Talk now, I won’t bite.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know, you’re just a little pedantic.”
Lucy flung me across the room with her mind. My head hit the wall. The pain was crushing. My sight dimmed for a moment.
“You stop that!” Tabby grabbed a pouch from her pocket. “You thing.” She threw holy water on Lucy. Lucy screamed.
I sat up slowly, my head was swimming. Lucy was trying to fling Tabby like she’d done me, but somehow Tabby remained rooted to her spot. I could see red light bouncing off Tabby.
I focused on Lucy and began to probe.
“No!” Tabby yelled.
I stopped.
“Don’t link with her mind, it will get you,” Tabby said.
While Tabby’s attention was focused on me, Lucy threw her I.V. pole at Tabby, hitting her in the head.
Tabby cried out. A gash opened up on her head. Blood ran down into her eyes. She fell over unconscious.
I jumped up and ran over to Tabby. She was still. I felt for a pulse; there was one.
I looked up at Lucy. “You fucking bitch!”
Lucy smiled. “Not nice words for a priest.”
I stood up and smacked her across the face with my hand. “I’m not a priest!”
The whole room began to shake. It felt as if the earth shifted and then righted itself again. I fell down and covered Tabby’s body with my own.
I heard knocking at the door.
“Don’t come in, whatever you do, don’t come in.”
They ignored me. Will came into the room, staring at Lucy. Then he looked down at Tabby. “I came to take her t
o the Emergency Room.”
The shaking stopped.
Lucy let us leave the room with Tabby. After Will and I got Tabby into the car, I went back in with Tor and helped her clean up Lucy’s broken I.V. and fix Lucy’s feeding tube for the night. The entire time, Lucy watched me with a huge grin on her face.
Just before we left the room, Lucy said, “You’re all alone, Priest.”
I ignored her and shut the door.
Chapter Thirty
Solution
1950
“It’s happened before, you know?” the voice said.
The old priest stood up straighter, his wizened old hands hanging loosely at his sides. “What is it that you are referring to?” the priest asked the demon.
The darkness of the room suddenly drifted into one corner. The bookcase was easily visible now; the silver objects seemed to glow with a faint blue light. “Many have tried and failed, Priest.” It laughed.
The old priest reached into his breastcoat pocket and pulled out a flask of holy water.
“Do you really think that will hurt me?” it asked.
The priest threw the water on the darkness in the corner of the room.
Wind began to blow about the room, tossing books from the bookcase.
The priest looked around—and then, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He whipped around. Mr. Black’s ruined face stared at him. “You didn’t think it would be that easy, now did you?”
The priest swallowed. “This will not scare me. There is nothing scary about the dead.”
The broken face smiled at him. “And the undead?”
The black mass surrounded the priest and covered him. The pain was massive and it felt like a large pole was being rammed down his throat. He didn’t even have time to scream.
The priest’s body slumped to the floor. The visage of Black disappeared. The darkness disintegrated. The laughter ceased.
Chapter Thirty One
Come What May
Tor and I sat in the kitchen. She couldn’t stop moving around. When she’d got up and wiped the counter for the fourth time, I’d had enough.
“Stop,” I said. “You’re making me nervous.”
She sat down at the table. “I’m so sorry about Tabby.”
I nodded. “She’ll be okay. Will called us and told us she came to on the way to the hospital. If they don’t release her tonight, they will release her tomorrow.”
“I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt,” she said.
“It could be worse. At least she wasn’t seriously injured.”
Tor sighed. “She’s going to die, isn’t she?”
I grabbed Tor’s hand. “Stop talking about that. We know nothing. I’m doing what I can. If it doesn’t work, you can wait for the priest.”
Tor shook her head. “I don’t think she’ll last that long.”
“When is her next M.R.I?” I asked.
“I canceled it. I can’t risk anyone else getting hurt.”
I nodded. “Maybe it won’t be too much longer,” I said, hopefully.
“Maybe.”
###
A couple of hours later, Will came back with Tabby in tow.
I jumped up and hugged her. I couldn’t help myself.
Tabby coughed. “I need to breathe sometime.”
I let her loose and chuckled.
“She’s supposed to stay awake for the next twenty-four hours, just to make sure she’ll be okay,” Will said.
“That won’t be a problem,” I said. I pointed my finger at Tabby. “No more exorcism for you.”
Tabby jumped up, and we had to grab her because she almost fell.
“Dammit, Tabby,” I said. “You got hurt. Enough already.”
“But don’t you need witnesses?”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “I have the camera. All three of you can watch the feed. That’s three witnesses.”
“No more tonight,” she said.
“Of course not. I’m going to keep you up for twenty-four hours. Lucy can wait.”
Tabby looked me in the eyes. “I hope so.”
###
Tor made a pizza and we all hunkered down in the library for the night. We refilled the cooler with ice and drinks, readied the bucket and Tor filled our plates.
Tabby was sitting on her sofa.
“What do you think is going to happen tonight?” Tabby asked.
I scratched my head and finished chewing. “I don’t know.”
Will and Tor were listening, but they had sequestered themselves to the other side of the library playing chess. I looked over, even though they looked like they were playing, I could tell that they were listening to the conversation—no one had made a move.
“So, what are you going to do?” Tabby asked.
I shrugged. “The best I can I guess. I mean, it’s not like I can do anything else.”
“Well, tomorrow we’ll—“
“No,” I glared at Tabby. “You are not going back in with Lucy. I don’t care if I have to drag Will in there whining like a baby, you are not going back in.”
Tabby shook her head. “How else are you going to trap the demon, genius?”
She had a point. I was flying by the seat of my pants. The only thing I seemed to really know how to do was piss the demon off. I hadn’t gotten it to do anything, let alone tell us his name.
”I could always move the site of the exorcism,” I said. The energy in the room increased and seemed to crackle around us.
“What are you talking about?” Tabby asked.
“I could move the exorcism into the attic room.”
It seemed like time stopped. I could hear nothing, no wind outside, no ticking of the clock, I couldn’t even hear them breathe.
“What?” I asked.
Tabby stared at me. “That’s either the stupidest thing you’ve ever said, or you are a freaking genius.”
I sighed. “The way I figure it, if I manage to get it out of Lucy, then it will jump the ley line and get the Hell out of here.”
“What if Lucy brings other things in?”
“That hasn’t stopped her in her own room, I don’t see what difference that would make in the attic. Anyways, I can do the green bally thing.”
Tabby stared at me like there was something wrong with me. “What green bally thing?”
I pointed. “Up in Lucy’s room, the hooded thing. You didn’t see it?”
“Oh I saw the hooded thing alright. I saw you yell at it until it left. I saw no green bally thing.”
I scrunched down in my chair. “That must be my marker stuff.”
Tabby sighed at me. “I think you are losing your mind, I really do.”
I laughed. “Tabby, when was I ever sane?”
She smiled. “Good point.”
“The marker thing. Even I don’t know what it is exactly. Just that old guy—the one that probably shit in front of your car, talking about the things I’d been doing lately.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What things?”
“Seeing the colors of your magic.”
She stared at me. “Think we’ll ever wake up from this?”
###
A couple of hours later, Tor was sitting with Tabby. They were looking over some catalog.
Will had made a fire earlier and the light from the flames danced over the leather bound books in the shelves around the room. It made the library look cozy, sort of.
I was standing next to one of the windows, looking out over the grounds.
Will walked up beside me. “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing. Just looking.”
“You know what you were talking about earlier?”
I looked at him. “I was talking about a lot of things.”
He held his chin, then let his hand drop. “No, about moving Lucy.”
“Okay.”
“Do you think it would work?”
I placed a hand on the window and peered out into the darkness. “I don’t know.”
/> “Do you just want to try the attic, or do you want to be in that room?”
It was a good question. It would either work because it’s a crazy assed idea or it would be the death of me. “If we’re going to do this, we might as well really do this. Yes, I would want to be in the room.”
Will nodded. “We can move the camera easy. Lucy is going to be the hardest to move.”
I turned back to Will. “I don’t know about that. I think whatever is inside Lucy came in through that room. I think if it thinks it will have the advantage, it will go willingly.”
“And if it does have the advantage?” Will asked.
I looked him in the eye. “Then one of us will probably die. This thing is violent. Look what it’s done to all of us.”
Will sighed and sat back on his heels.
“I promised you I would do everything I could for your daughter. If it takes my death to save her, so be it.”
“What if it kills you, and Lucy is still possessed?”
It wasn’t something I wanted to think about, but Will was right. I could croak and it would all be for nothing. It was a risk I was going to have to take. This had gone too far. “Then call the church. Tell them. Tell them that they have to bring Lucy to the front of the line.”
“Would they do that?”
I shrugged. “I really don’t know.”
###
Will and Tor went to sleep sometime before eleven. Tabby and I sat on her sofa, reading. I looked up now and again to make sure she was still awake. So far, there had been no problems with Tabby. She seemed okay, and I was thankful for that.
Finally, Tabby caught me peering at her. She was peeping out over the top of her book. “Are you really going to do it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I think it’s reached the point of no return. Even if I quit now, the demon knows us and would try to come after us someday.”
“How are you going to do the ritual this time? Are you still going to use the Roman Ritual?” she asked.
I shook my head. “It doesn’t seem to be working too well for me. I can’t do parts of it and I just don’t feel right wearing the vestments. You kind of need those to do it the Catholic way.”
“Why don’t you feel comfortable?” she asked.