Battle of the Soul

by Carl Alves

  The syringe shot out of the nurse’s hand. Spit flew from his mouth. He grunted and shook his head. Before he could prepare to defend himself, Lucas delivered a series of compact punches to the man’s ribs.

  The nurse seemed to gain his bearings as he took a couple of steps back and raised his hands. He bobbed his head and threw a couple of jabs that Lucas avoided, however he could not dodge a front kick to his abdomen.

  Lucas winced. Keeping his hands high, he worked his way in with a jab and followed it with a body punch, then an uppercut that snapped the nurse’s head back. The nurse banged against the air conditioning unit lining the wall and came back with a roundhouse kick that Lucas checked with his forearm.

  If his life wasn’t in the balance, Andy would have enjoyed watching this fight. This nurse was a skilled fighter, and Lucas was a straight-up killer.

  Lucas feinted with his left hand and followed with a kick to the nurse’s left leg. The nurse landed a straight left and an overhand right. Then Lucas connected with the most telling blows of the fight, a straight right followed by a spinning back fist that staggered the Legion operative. Lucas grabbed the back of the nurse’s head and brought it downward, simultaneously driving his knee into his jaw. The nurse grunted in obvious pain. Not letting go of his advantage, Lucas landed another knee to the man’s forehead. Still holding the back of the nurse’s head, Lucas sent another knee upward, this time to his nose. Blood spurted from his nose like a faucet. The fourth knee crumpled the nurse to the floor. On his way down, Lucas landed a fifth knee that sent him into la-la land.

  Andy went wide-eyed. All he could manage to say was, “Wow!”

  Lucas locked eyes with him for a brief moment before turning his attention to his fallen opponent.

  “Is this dude still alive?” Andy asked.

  Lucas felt for a pulse. “He’s alive. I need to find out everything he and his organization know.”

  “He’s part of Legion. I saw his tattoo.”

  “I don’t need to see his tattoo to realize that. He’s clearly one of their field operatives. Can’t say that I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with this scumbag before. Are you okay?”

  “Think so. He busted my nose. It hurts like a bitch, but I’ll live.”

  Lucas took out his phone and punched a couple of numbers. “Ezekiel here. We have a breach. The package is still intact. I’ll need you ASAP for a cleanup and interrogation. We need to relocate to SF3.” He put his phone away.

  Andy’s brow furrowed. “What the hell did you just say?”

  “Not now. I’m extracting you from the hospital.”

  Holly entered the room and gasped. “What’s going on?”

  Lucas gave her a sharp look. “Close the door behind you.”

  Holly did as she was told. “What happened?”

  “Does any of the hospital staff have any idea that something out of the ordinary took place here?” Lucas asked.

  Holly shook her head, staring at the nurse that attacked Andy. “No. The floor’s busy right now. Who’s this guy, and why’s he bleeding?”

  Andy gingerly slid out of bed. “He, um, tried to kill me just now.”

  Holly’s jaw dropped. “What? Are you serious?”

  “Lucas took him out before he finished the job.”

  Lucas walked across the room, opened the door slightly, and scanned the corridor. He closed it and went back to the fallen nurse. “All right, Holly, we’re getting Andy out of here. I’m not going to wait for the doctors to discharge him. We also need to remove this Legion operative for questioning. Can you get me a hospital gown about his size and a wheel chair right away?”

  “Sure.” Holly left the room.

  Andy stared at Lucas in awe. He had this amazing ability to take control of the situation. It was impossible not to follow his lead.

  Andy jumped when the door to his room opened since it was too early for Holly to return. He tensed until he saw that it was Jeremiah, one of the operatives working with Lucas. Besides Jeremiah, two other members of Lucas’s team were protecting Andy. With all these secret agents guarding him, he almost felt like somebody important.

  “Have any of the staff seen our special guest?” Jeremiah asked.

  Lucas shook his head. “Just Holly. If we’re quick, it’ll stay that way. Remove his clothes. I’ll find something to clean the blood.”

  Jeremiah began to remove the nurse’s bloody shirt while Lucas went to the supply closet next to the bathroom to get towels.

  “Anything I can do?” Andy asked.

  “Yeah,” Lucas said. “Put on your street clothes.”

  Andy frowned. “Aren’t the doctors supposed to give me, you know, a clean bill of health and send me on my way?”

  “There’s nothing they can do at this point to help you. Right now, they’re treating you like a rat in a maze, giving you this test and that test.” Lucas began cleaning the blood off the nurse. “They have no idea how to treat you, so you’re their little lab experiment. Meanwhile, you’re getting better on your own. You’re walking around, eating regular food. If I thought you needed to be here, we would stay, and I would double the security. I can protect you better at the safe house.”

  Jeremiah removed the nurse’s clothes, and Lucas finished wiping off his blood. When Holly entered the room with a hospital gown and wheelchair, Andy scrambled to put on his pants.

  Holly turned away from Andy. “What are you going to do with this guy? Shouldn’t we call the police?”

  Lucas shook his head. “Absolutely not. It would only complicate matters. We’re going to interrogate this bastard and find out everything he knows about Andy, who’s giving him his marching orders, and if they’re planning additional hits on him.”

  Lucas and Jeremiah put the hospital gown on the nurse.

  Lucas looked up at Holly. “If anyone comes this way, I need you to run interference until we’re ready to cart him out. Then we’re going to pack our stuff and go to a safe house.”

  Andy shook his head. “No way. I’m not goin’ anywhere without Kate. If she goes under, I gotta be there to exorcise her.”

  Lucas looked at his watch. “She should be back with Monsignor Curran any minute now. He’s picking her up from school. We won’t leave until she gets here. Then we all go together.”

  “I need to stay until the end of my shift,” Holly said.

  “After your shift, Jeremiah will take you to the safe house. I don’t want you to go by yourself to ensure nobody is following you.”

  As Jeremiah finished buttoning the hospital gown on the Legion nurse, he looked up at Holly. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe. This isn’t my first rodeo.”

  “I’m not worried about me. I don’t want to be away from Kate.”

  Lucas relaxed his tone. “Jeremiah will stick around until the end of your shift, and then you can go together. Andy, Kate, Monsignor Curran, and I will leave as soon as they arrive. The safe house is about thirty-five minutes south of here. We won’t be far. Between Andy in her soul and my team topside, she’ll be as well protected as she can possibly be.”

  “Elijah has his car waiting,” Jeremiah said. “Hopefully, this guy will stay unconscious until we get there. Then we’ll sedate him.”

  Lucas nodded. “Return as soon as possible.”

  Holly peered out the door. “What’s he going to do if someone stops him?”

  Lucas said, “He’ll figure something out. He’s resourceful.”

  Holly tugged at Andy’s arm. “So what happened?”

  By the time Andy finished giving her an account of the nurse attacking him and the fight between Lucas and the nurse, Kate and Monsignor Curran arrived.

  Andy picked up his backpack from the chair near his bed and slung it over his shoulder. “Ah, Monsignor Curran, you got some KFC. Sweet. Too bad we can’t eat now. Hey, Lucas, you got like a microwave at this safe house?”

  “It’s fully furnished. We can heat up the food when we get there.”

  Monsignor
Curran stared at Andy. “They’re already discharging you? It didn’t seem like they had any inclination to do so.”

  “I’m sure they don’t. While you were gone some…” Andy spoke in a low tone. “Some a-hole from Legion tried to take me out, so we’re busting out of this joint. I’ll explain to you on the way.”

  A deep frown formed on Kate’s face. She pulled on Andy’s arm and spoke in a small voice. “Can I go with you, Andy?”

  Andy scooped her into his arms, the action nearly making him collapse from exertion. “Of course. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

  Chapter XXXIV

  “Hmm, that was good fried chicken.” Andy licked his fingers after polishing off his sixth piece today. Hours after everybody else ate their dinner, he still had some appetite left. Monsignor Curran had wisely bought two buckets of chicken along with six large sides, another example of how smart the dude was.

  Holly looked at her watch. “It’s getting late, Kate. You need to go to bed.”

  Kate grabbed Andy’s hand. “Can you read to me first?”

  He smiled. “Of course I can.”

  At the hospital, they started reading the third installment in the Harry Potter series since Kate had already read the first two books. Andy had never read Harry Potter, wasn’t much of a reader other than comic books, but he was enjoying it. Maybe it was because he was watching the story unfold through Kate’s eyes and they could share the experience.

  “All right,” Holly said. “Brush your teeth and put on your pajamas. Andy will meet you upstairs.” Prior to going to the safe house, they had stopped at Holly’s for supplies.

  Lucas smiled. “Your daughter’s a real charmer. Makes me wonder if I missed the boat by not having a family of my own.”

  “It’s not too late to start a family,” Monsignor Curran said. “You’re not an old man.”

  Lucas shrugged. “It’s not easy to meet people in my line of work. I’m all around the globe, never in the same place for long. When I’m on assignment, it’s strictly business.”

  “Kate makes things easy for me,” Holly said. “Before this whole possession thing, she was always a breeze to take care of. Hardly ever gave me any trouble.”

  Andy washed his hands in the kitchen sink. “I’m going to read to Kate. I’ll be back.”

  Monsignor Curran smiled. “Maybe this will make you literate after all.”

  “Real funny,” Andy said. “Maybe you ought to quit your day job and become a comedian.”

  When Andy got to the room in the safe house in which Kate was staying in with her mom, she was already in her pajamas brushing her teeth. He and Monsignor Curran were sharing a room down the hall. Lucas apparently didn’t sleep or at least didn’t have a designated bedroom. He and the other team members were patrolling the perimeter and guarding the inside of the house in shifts. They were armed to the teeth with pistols, automatic weapons, knives, and who knew what else. If there was going to be an attack on the safe house, they would be ready for it.

  When Kate finished brushing her teeth, Andy got the book, and they sat side by side on her bed.

  “I’m glad you’re here with me, Andy. And I know my mommy’s glad. She doesn’t show it all the time, but she likes you.”

  “Really?” Andy didn’t want to get his hopes up. Maybe that was wishful thinking on Kate’s part.

  “I don’t think my mommy did at first, but she’s starting to like you. At first, she didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about you, but she does now. Maybe you and mommy can get married. She had a couple of boyfriends before, but they were all jerks. None of them were nice like you.”

  Andy didn’t know how to respond. He could think of nothing better than to be with Kate and Holly in something other than a life and death situation, but the chances that someone like Holly would go for someone like him was remote.

  “Well, your mom’s got a lot on her mind now.”

  “I know, but wouldn’t it be super awesome if we could all live together?”

  Andy imagined the possibilities. “Yeah, that would be awesome.” Perhaps someday that could happen, or at least he could dream.

  Andy opened to the page set by the bookmark. “All right. Where did we leave off?”

  “Harry saw the dementor for the first time.”

  By the time Andy finished reading a half of a chapter, Kate’s eyes began to close. “All right. Time for bed.” He tucked her under the covers. “Sweet dreams, Kate.”

  “Good night, Andy.”

  He turned off the lights and closed the door. Would tonight bring pleasant dreams for her or would she lapse back into possession?

  They had already spoken about what she needed to do the next time the demons came. She was to call his name as loud as she could, and he would find her. Thinking about that depressed him as he returned to the living room where the others were gathered.

  Monsignor Curran’s expression darkened. He took a deep breath. “I was waiting for Kate to go to bed before bringing this up. I didn’t want to upset her. God knows she’s been through enough, but the reality is that Kate will fall into possession again. When she does, we have to be prepared. I have a strong feeling that this will be the final battle.”

  Andy nodded. “I’m playing for keeps the next time. There won’t be an escape. Either I’m going to kill them, or they’ll kill me.”

  “Which is why we must ensure the former and not the latter happens,” Monsignor Curran said. “Before, you mentioned that you can’t fight these demons by yourself. The four of them, in particular your latest adversary, were too much to deal with on your own.”

  Andy raised his hands. “Yeah, but it’s not like there’s much I can do about it. There’s four of them and one of me. I just gotta suck it up and deal with it. You said I’m getting stronger.” He hesitated, not wanting to mention Monsignor Curran’s theory that being near his father was making him stronger. “Maybe it will be enough to tip the scales in my favor.”

  Monsignor Curran folded his hands. “Maybe, but I wouldn’t count on that. You’re going to need a better plan in order to succeed.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Andy asked.

  “Before I go into that, you also mentioned that having Lucas with you would be of great benefit. You could use someone with not only his fighting skill but also his battle planning.”

  Andy nodded. “Hell yeah. You seen this guy fight? He’s amazing. I mean I got super powers in the world of the soul, but this dude’s the real deal. No super powers needed.”

  Lucas’s brows furrowed. “So what are you getting at? Obviously, I’ll help in any way I can.”

  “And I would like to help as well,” Monsignor Curran said. “What if you could bring Lucas and me with you the next time you entered Kate’s soul?”

  Andy took a deep breath. “I guess it could help, but you also might get killed. It’s pretty dangerous.”

  “It’s dangerous for you too,” Lucas said. “If such a thing is possible, then I’m in. I’ll help you fight these demons. You’ve shown a lot of courage, Andy. I’ll have your back any day.”

  Monsignor Curran folded his hands. “As you know, I’m no stranger to exorcisms. I know full well the danger involved, but it is a risk I am willing to take.”

  Holly raised her hands. “Hold up. If anybody’s going to help Andy against these demons, it’s going to be me. Kate’s my daughter.”

  Andy vehemently shook his head. “No way. Holly, trust me. I know how much you love Kate, but you have no idea what it’s like down there. I have to deal with some scary shit. These demons thrive on torturing people. They would slaughter you.”

  Holly scowled at him. “It’s not up to you to decide.”

  “Please, Holly. I don’t want you to do this. With Lucas and Monsignor Curran, I should be all right. If we don’t succeed, then you’ll just wind up getting killed.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Holly said. “You’re not the only one playing for keeps. One way or the other,
we have to finish it. Kate can’t go on like this. I can’t go on like this.”

  Lucas turned those ice-cold eyes on Andy. “Holly’s right. She has every right to be there. Not to mention, I think she can be a valuable asset. She may not have my combat skills or Monsignor Curran’s experience with demons, but she has more motivation than any of us. She has intangibles that could help. Don’t doubt the power of love. It’s something these demons don’t have, but we have on our side.”

  Andy lowered his head and ran his fingers through his course hair. He didn’t want to see Holly get hurt, couldn’t bear to think about it, but Lucas was right. She had as much right to fight the demons as any of them. He raised his head. “Okay.”

  Monsignor Curran smiled. “Then we’re all in this together. They have four. Now we have four.”

  “This is probably just a crazy pipe dream anyway,” Andy said. “That’s a giant leap of faith you’re taking here.”

  Monsignor Curran nodded. “It is a leap of faith, but one I’m willing to make. Do you know why?”

  Andy shook his head.

  “Because I believe in you. You have always been able to rewrite the rules of the soul. Before you could shoot blasts of energy from your fingertips, you had no idea you were capable of such a thing. Before you conjured a sword or force shield, you didn’t realize you could do that. Who’s to say that you can’t bring us with you into Kate’s soul? Who’s to say that you couldn’t bestow some of your power upon us when you do? I believe in your goodness, your loyalty, your courage. You can do this. You can defeat them, and we can help.”

  Lucas nodded. “That’s right. We can do this. We’re all in it together.” He put his hand in the middle of the table, and the others put their hands there as well.

  Andy didn’t know if this would work, but he couldn’t think of a group of people he would rather have at his side.

  ***

  As Andy was walking downstairs to get a glass of orange juice, Holly intercepted him.

  “Hi, Andy.”

  “Hey.”

  “Look, I appreciate you trying to protect me. I really do. And you’re right. I have no idea what it’s like inside someone’s soul fighting demons, but this is something I have to do. If Kate dies, and I hold no illusion that she might not make it through this, then there’s nothing left for me. There would be no point in going on.”