The Soul Healer

by B. Groves

  How do I tell her I am gone for days because I get a message from someone who needs help and I travel the world to exorcise demons?

  I can’t tell her. She thinks I’m in some kind of pharmaceutical sales job, although I majored in accounting. I lied and said that was all that was available because of the economy crashing. She believed my story for now, but for how much longer?

  She mentioned my dad today. She didn’t say why. I never knew my father and our searches for him all came up empty-handed. We’ve never been able to locate him and never will. I don’t worry about it anymore. My stepdad, Dan, has been more than enough for me. He was the one who raised me when my dad disappeared.

  Brady still worries me. We’re fighting a lot. We used to be a team, but now we can’t agree on how to approach our cases. I am more cautious while Brady makes a big deal out of our jobs. I hate it when he pulls his stunts.

  We had a case where a mother claimed her daughter was possessed.

  Brady couldn’t figure out why the demon wasn’t leaving the girl’s body. She was screaming at him to stop touching her head. We can’t hurt humans. Nothing happens when we touch them, but I couldn’t blame the girl because he scared her.

  I had to go to the bathroom and my instinct told me to check the medicine cabinet. I realized this mother kept her daughter sick. This was an obvious case of Munchausen by proxy.

  I confronted the mother and she tried to deny it, but the evidence was there.

  When Brady and I left he said he knew all along that the girl wasn’t possessed. He was playing the mother. I said neither of us saw the shadow. I knew all along, and he didn’t bother checking first.

  It's time to move on.

  Chapter 17

  Simon was restless. He paced the house back and forth while Alison kept an eye on the church through the kitchen windows. She told Kyle to keep calm and act as if nothing was wrong and go through his duties like he would any other Sunday.

  That meant he would be awhile while he hosted his congregation for lunch after services, and that was fine with her.

  She rubbed her eyes and yawned. This wasn’t the first time Alison didn’t sleep, but as she grew older it became harder to go without rest.

  She kept an eye on every part of the house and the surrounding property, but no one even looked her way and she didn’t sense a presence close by. Simon paced around because he felt Alison’s tension, although she was sure he sensed the shadows nearby.

  Alison looked around and admired the cozy home. Kyle had made it his own after he mentioned that he moved in after the previous Reverend passed away years ago.

  Alison liked the small house and thought about purchasing her own. She sighed, thinking she never gave up on her dream to marry and have children one day and that she only pushed it back into the deepest depths of her mind while she sought a normal life.

  She stepped away from the curtains and took a break. Her mind was turning over different thoughts at high speed and that was exhausting her more than the lack of sleep. She would have to drive back to Charlotte and pick up more clothes and supplies at some point.

  Alison plopped down on the sofa and opened her laptop. She’d put in an alert to The Network for help about this situation.

  John answered her first.

  “How much evidence is there for an infestation?” He asked.

  “I had one last night and more that are beyond help. There have been missing persons in the area turning up months later out of the forests. That’s all I know until I can talk to the Reverend again,” Alison answered.

  “Will you need back up?” John asked. “I can throw a team together, but it’ll take time.”

  “I’m hoping to find the leader,” Alison typed. “Then I’ll call for a team.”

  “There’s a leader. One of them is organizing a takeover,” John typed back.

  “The Reverend knows this and hid it from me, but that’s my fault,” Alison said.

  “Find the leader and we’ll send out a team. Be careful, Alison,” John typed. “Welcome back.”

  Alison smiled and thanked him. She received more messages of encouragement and many told her to stay safe. She’d almost forgotten about how much she loved her fellow hunters. They were a family, and even though families disagreed, they stuck together to take out the evil that infested their world.

  Alison closed the laptop and gave Simon a pat on the head. He would not leave her side as he lay between the sofa and the coffee table.

  Alison sat back and found she was dozing off when someone knocked on the door.

  Alison learned never to ignore strange sounds. This was not a familiar setting but she stayed long enough to know when the house was settling and other noises such as the refrigerator kicking in or the central air turning on.

  Her eyes flew open and she reached for her knife. Simon stood up. She could always count on him to alert her to friend or foe. He didn’t bark or growl.

  Alison didn’t want to take her chances. Her eyes scanned the living room. She turned to set her gaze outside but nothing caught her eye.

  She heard Simon let out a friendly bark at the back door. That’s when she heard the small knock again.

  The back door’s blinds were closed. Simon looked at her and then back at the door with another friendly bark and wagged his tail.

  Still, Alison readied herself and carefully pulled back the curtains on another window to catch a glimpse of the person at the back door.

  A small person with dark hair stood waiting on the step.

  “Olivia?” she asked.

  Alison walked over to the door and beckoned Simon to step back. She opened the door and through the screen stood a frightened little girl.

  “Miss Alison? May I come in?” Olivia asked when Alison opened the door.

  Alison looked around, wondering where Miguel was. She didn’t see him and she didn’t see Kyle anywhere around.

  She held the door open for the young girl to enter, her leg blocking Simon from approaching her.

  The little girl took one look at Alison and her eyes welled with tears.

  Alison bent down in front of the girl after letting the door close behind her.

  “Olivia? What is it? Is your dad okay?”

  Olivia sobbed and collapsed into Alison. Alison wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl and tried to soothe her with soft words.

  She caressed the girl’s hair as she trembled in Alison’s arms.

  Alison gently made Olivia face her. “Tell me what’s going on. Where’s your dad?”

  Olivia still had bruises and scratches all over her face and arms. Her lips were dry and cracked, but less so from the night before. Her eyes were red and puffy, but from crying. The child had been through hell.

  “He’s…” Olivia turned and pointed to the church. “He’s looking for Reverend Ellis.”

  “I’m here,” Alison said. “Did you need to tell me something?”

  “Daddy said you left,” Olivia answered. “Then he saw your car and told me to come find you.”

  Alison nodded and said, “I’m here now. What did you want to tell me?”

  Fresh tears fell down Olivia’s face. She trembled again underneath Alison’s hands.

  “I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t stop myself from killing my mom,” she sobbed.

  Alison looked down and tried to find the right words to reassure the little girl that what happened to her mother was not her fault.

  Alison always hoped after an exorcism that the victim would not remember their possession, but there were times the victim remembered everything they did, and it was never pretty.

  She hoped Olivia wouldn’t suffer that same fate because the victim always ended up with mental problems. She knew first hand.

  Her own thoughts turned to Heather, but she needed to push them aside for now. She didn’t want Olivia to suffer as Heather did.

  Alison took a deep breath. “Olivia listen to me. A demon inside you killed your mother. Not you. Do y
ou remember? Do you remember when I freed you from your cage? You were trapped. You couldn’t stop the evil inside you and that’s not your fault.”

  Olivia’s hazel eyes flickered with hope and her facial expressions relaxed slightly, but Alison knew what she was telling her was hard to believe.

  “You did nothing wrong. It was the black thing inside of you. It’s gone, and now you have to take care of your daddy,” Alison finished.

  Olivia didn’t believe her, and Alison understood the doubts in the little girl’s eyes. When Alison spoke to Miguel again she would tell him to contact the doctor soon or Olivia could face years of torment, and no one deserved that kind of pain.

  “There’s something else,” Olivia said.

  Alison cocked her head and nodded waiting for Olivia to speak.

  “One of them came to my room one night,” Olivia said. “Then two. They were talking to me.”

  “Two?”

  Olivia nodded. “One said I would move to the house where they could fix me up. The other said something else, but I can’t remember right now.”

  Alison’s eyes widened. She hated to think about it, but Olivia’s information was proving invaluable for their hunt. She couldn’t wait until Kyle was available so they could talk this over.

  “Go on,” Alison urged Olivia. She needed more information, but this was a huge help.

  “He said, ‘Everything will be all right. We’ll take care of you.’”

  “Olivia, did you see his face? Did he tell you his name?”

  Olivia shook her head. “No. He stayed in the shadows and never said his name.”

  Alison tightened her grip on Olivia’s shoulders. “Do you think if you heard his voice again, you would recognize it?”

  Olivia looked unsure, but said, “I don’t know, but the demon inside told me something, too.”

  “What?”

  “He said this was part of a big takeover, and that Father was ready to move.”

  Olivia sobbed again, her facial expressions turning to fear. “Did he mean Satan, Alison? I don’t want to see Satan.”

  Alison embraced the little girl. She didn’t know how to answer that question. Hunters debated about that possibility for years. They questioned the higher powers such as God and Satan because none of them knew how they gained these powers. Demons often refused to give that kind of information to hunters.

  And what did the demon mean by the big takeover? A takeover of the town? Perhaps more? Cities? States? Countries? Hell… Continents? If so, then they were in serious trouble.

  Hunters had to take out their leader to keep control over the demons.

  Alison faced Olivia again and said, “Reverend Ellis is finishing up his service and your dad will be with him. We’ll all sit down and talk about what you told me. Do you think you can tell Reverend Ellis your story again?”

  Olivia nodded wiping her nose. Alison stood up and looked around for a tissue. Not seeing one, she led Olivia into the house and sat her down at the chair.

  Olivia was eyeing Simon and Alison had to remember that the night before she may have felt the fear the demon had of the dog.

  Alison called Simon over and he sniffed Olivia a few times. She placed one hand on Olivia’s tense shoulder.

  “Relax,” Alison said. “He knows the demon is gone. He wants to be friendly.”

  Olivia looked at Alison with fear still etching her features. That’s when Alison took her hand and guided it to Simon’s head and placed it on there.

  “Pet him,” Alison said.

  She thought Olivia would run away screaming. Instead, she sucked in a breath and rubbed Simon’s head.

  Olivia was hesitant, but when Simon wagged his tail, Olivia’s lips turned into a faint smile.

  “See? He knows,” Alison said. “Have you ever had dogs?”

  Olivia shook her head. “No. Mom was allergic to them.”

  Alison felt comfortable enough to leave Simon with Olivia while she went searching for tissues.

  She smiled and said, “He likes you. I’ll be right back.”

  Alison walked through the house and found a box of tissues in the guest bathroom. She grabbed it and returned to Olivia, her gaze never leaving the windows, hoping that Kyle finished up his duties soon.

  Simon’s eyes were half-open with Olivia petting him and Alison laughed. “He’s loving the attention.”

  Olivia’s smile grew wider as Simon made happy noises.

  Alison glanced out of the window and breathed when she spotted Kyle and Miguel walking back to the house with another man dressed in a navy-blue suit and tie with his head covered in a blue ball cap. She guessed the man was the chief of police for Wolfpine.

  Alison couldn’t help but feel a rush when she saw Kyle approaching. She hated that feeling because she pushed those emotions into the darkest parts of her mind a long time ago. She was here to do a job. Alison was here to help save a town from the entities that wanted to control it. She was not here to get personally involved with someone, especially a Reverend. She never had good experiences with men of the cloth, no matter how open-minded they were with hunters.

  Alison turned away and shook her head and turned to set her gaze on Olivia. The child was smiling now, but how long would that last? How long before they were battling an evil so old and so dark that their lives would change forever, as hers did all those years ago.

  Chapter 18

  Kyle finished his duties. After services, he ate his lunch, did his usual mingling—what he secretly called “kissing ass for money”—with his congregation, helped Miranda clean up the church, and locked it down. None of the people he suspected were possessed showed any signs he might have been in danger.

  What he wasn’t expecting was a visit from Miguel. They had their appointment for the next day so Olivia could receive counseling about the death of her mother and perhaps receive some help with any memories of her possession that might have lingered after Alison exorcised her.

  Miguel sent Olivia to find Alison since he spotted her car in the driveway right away. Miguel told him that Olivia remembered her possession. It scared the poor kid out of her mind. She also remembered valuable information about what the demons were doing and information about their end goal.

  Kyle wasn’t surprised. All the missing people turning up alive weeks, sometimes months later with changes in attitudes and personalities. Most would blow that off to a traumatizing experience, but Kyle didn’t buy that explanation.

  This all led back to the mayor—Samuel Manes as Kyle had been suspecting for years.

  Kyle had Miguel, Chief Markus Carter, and Alison with him. They would all sit down and talk about what their next move would be. Kyle wanted to avoid involving Miguel. That man had already looked into the face of the devil, and he didn’t need more darkness surrounding him or his daughter, but Miguel insisted that he wanted to help and even said Olivia was the key to stopping this problem.

  They would get the information they need out of Olivia and then Kyle would do everything in his power to keep Olivia and Miguel safe.

  But before they did that, he would recruit the men to help him dispose of that damn mattress and bed in the basement. Alison was right, they needed to burn it. They would take it deep into the woods so no one noticed.

  Kyle had a trail behind his house. He explored that trail several times and it only led to a small pasture near the base of one mountain. He never measured the distance, but he estimated the trail was about three miles into the deep forest. That was more than enough distance that no one would call the fire department.

  Kyle looked up to see Alison waiting for them inside the screen door. He tried not to stare too hard at the blonde woman. She looked showered and changed clothes. She was wearing a simple white T-shirt, jean shorts, and a black belt. Her hair tied back in a ponytail.

  Kyle didn’t want to acknowledge what was stirring inside of him. He tried to push back thoughts of her scent and what kind of soap she used. He didn’t want to think
about it, but he had no choice. She would stay with him for a while they worked together to end this nightmare.

  Right now, she was a business partner of sorts and after they eliminated the threat, they would return to their separate lives.

  Alison opened the door and stepped outside. She turned to Miguel and said, “Olivia is fine. She’s watching TV with Simon.”