by P. K. Tyler
Halfway back to his row house, Nik's stomach cramped and he slumped to the ground, pressing his back against the hard brick of a nearby apartment building. The cramping tightened around his insides, pulling his body forward as if to retch. He sat up and dropped his head between his knees, taking a few deep breaths.
He expected to throw it up, be rid of the evil he’d consumed. He needed to. Even though that was no mere possession, he should still be able to exorcise it. Shouldn’t he? He only had to puke.
The church should call him a Sin Regurgitator. That would be more accurate for what he actually did.
He coughed, hoping to begin the inevitable, but nothing came.
The cold in his bones hardened and cracked, but a sudden heat flushed through his gut and another painful cramp gripped him. Tears welled in his eyes and, when he wiped them, they felt thick against his fingers.
He sniffed and wiped his nose across his sleeve, leaving a trail of black slime along his arm.
"Holy Fuck." He shook his head and looked at his hands in the dim street light. His fingers were covered in thick black ooze. He swore again and pulled himself to standing.
He needed to get somewhere safe so he could lie down. Let his body do its thing and then he'd sleep it off. The smell of cigarette smoke hung heavy in the air. When he got to the Chinese restaurant on the corner, the smell of cooking food almost got the better of him. Evil and soy sauce didn't go well together.
He struggled for a few more blocks until a cramp in his stomach pitched him forward. He heaved but swallowed the bile rising in his throat.
An uncaring pedestrian walked by, pretending he was invisible. Night on the streets of Brooklyn. Nik couldn't have been more alone.
He was going to die out there. Would Zeph miss him? How long would it take for him to find out? The man who never drifted far from his mind represented his greatest love and his greatest regret.
He struggled to get his phone out of his pocket. Inky black smeared across the screen leaving a snail's trail of evil. The nausea ebbed, but the ground and walls still seemed to tilt and jerk in his vision.
Nik dialed the one person he knew he could count on and waited. He listened to the string of rings extending out into forever. He closed his eyes and fought the urge to lie down and rest his head on the cool concrete ground.
"Hello?" A voice echoed on the other end of the line.
"Zeph?" Nik dropped his phone and collapsed onto the ground, the cries on the other end of the line fading as he passed into unconsciousness.
EPISODE TWO
Chapter One
Nik awoke to agony. His stomach spasmed and he curled into a fetal position on the sidewalk. Waves of gut wrenching cramps worked their way up from his bowels to his chest, clamping down on his breath and making him wish the demon had killed him instead of putting him through this.
A dim light shone into the dark street and Nik realized he had passed out. He tried to lift his head and look around but his stomach lurched and he retched against his will. He rolled onto his hands and knees and took a deep breath.
"One Hail Mary, 2 Our Fathers, 3 Fuck Yous, 4 Acts of Contrition..."
"Even in this state you manage to blaspheme," the familiar voice of his best friend grumbled.
"Zeph?" Nik pressed his face down against the cold cement floor. The rot within him ate at his insides. “How did you find me?”
"I went to the flophouse and when you weren’t there I drove the surrounding blocks until I spotted you. What in the world happened to you?" Zeph's strong hand pressed against his back for the briefest moment before he pulled it away and Nik sank to the ground.
A hysterical laugh worked its way out of him, slithering out like a serpent. "I may have bitten off a bit more than I could chew this time." He tried a weak smile, then the full blown impact of the evil within his gut surged. It hit him hard and fast like an erstwhile lover back for revenge. The stars shone too bright, a thousand candles bursting in his vision, turning into thousands more. The perceived brilliance had a physical effect on him as well, heating his flesh until he thought he would boil in his own sweat.
He would die here on the street, watched by a faithful priest of the church that damned him a sinner, but still relied on him to dispel the real sin of the world. He pulled himself up and faced the shop window of the building he'd been leaning against. His reflection stared back at him, his complexion gray and haggard. No wonder no one got near him.
"Shit," Zeph swore, one of the few behaviors he hadn't managed to abstain from since he took all those vows. He wrapped an arm around Nik's middle, pulling him against his side.
The touch burned like fire. Nik wanted to turn in, enjoy the moment, even go so far as to exploit what had to be his imminent death so he could feel the bliss of being wrapped up in Zeph's arms. He stared at them together in the glass, Priest and Sin Eater.
What a fucking joke.
His dried blood clung to him like a crusty black scab, and the black ooze that had leaked from his nose left a smear across his cheek. He looked like a crusty soldier in a war with hell from one of the fantasy novels Zeph read back in school. Nik never did. He had no interest in dragons and wizards when evil seemed to put out a homing beacon only he could hear. Especially now, since that evil had apparently evolved.
His hands shook, and his legs wobbled like he was about to fall again. "I have to lay down." He moved toward the ground only to be held up by Zeph.
"You aren't laying down here in the street. Let's get you home."
"Can't. Boys will freak. I look like a fucking zombie who just got in a bar fight." Nik slumped against his best friend with a sigh, the rough starched fabric of the clerical clothing scraping against his cheek. Zeph smelled like incense and powder.
Zeph hoisted Nik up and gripped his waist. It would be a turn on if he hadn’t been so thoroughly trounced by the demon. "Then we'll go to the church."
"Yeah, just put me on the altar and let me die."
"Very funny." Zeph half escorted, half dragged Nik toward a black car parked half on the sidewalk.
"Nice parking."
"Shut up, you called me at 4 in the morning and passed out on the phone. I was a little worried."
"About little ole me?" Nik ducked as he climbed into the passenger side and collapsed against the seat, closing his eyes. He barely noticed as Zeph leaned over him, buckling him into his seat. "You always come through don't you?"
"Can't let the only Sin Eater in town die on the streets of Brooklyn." Zeph shut the door before Nik could respond. The fact that he wasn’t more to Zeph than just another tool in God’s arsenal ate at him. It hurt almost as much as the bubbling evil trying to liquefy his insides.
When Zeph started the car and pulled out into the street, a powerful wave of vertigo hit Nik and he fell against the window. The glass felt good against his face and the streetlights swam in his vision, a colorful, watery illusion.
Zeph drummed his fingers on the wheel, a pounding syncopated rhythm that throbbed in Nik's head. His face ached and his body contracted. He gripped the crucifix hanging around his neck and began whispering a prayer. Soon he and Zeph chanted together, each recitation running into the next.
"I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth..."
The two men prayed, and the heat in Nik's belly swelled. The hellbeast he had exorcised writhed in his gut, pushing out, trying to break free of the prison where it now resided. He'd never been so aware of an entity he'd exorcised, or so eager to expel it’s cleansed carcass.
Zeph pulled the car into his reserved spot in the small lot behind the church. He hurried to Nik's door, pulling him out and wrapping his arms around Nik's torso to heft him up.
Nik's eyes rolled back into his head and he felt the demon within forcing its way up into his chest. This thing was trying to break free. Nik had never lost a demon once he performed the ritual, his system always managed to break it down. Exorcisims left him sick and a little worse for th
e wear, but, after all these years, he knew what to expect, and it wasn't this.
"I think I'm in trouble," Nik said as Zeph forced him to climb the back stairs of the church.
"What did you do?" Zeph asked
"You know I love you, right?" Nik slurred his words, no longer able to keep his shit together or his mouth from betraying him. How many years had it been since he'd said those words out loud?
"I know, come on, let's get you back to my apartment." Zeph led Nik toward the small chapel at the side of the church.
A roar bellowed within Nik’s mind and every muscle in his body contracted as the demon within him recoiled. "I can't. I can't go this way."
If he got too close to that consecrated ground, he would burn. The demon within him would take his life along with its own. He knew it the way children know their mothers are supposed to love them, the way fish know water is wet.
"The Rectory is just through there." Zeph gestured toward the door behind the altar.
"I fucking know that!" Nik snapped, pain gripping his insides with a spiked glove.
A group of nuns whispering late night prayers turned with lips pursed.
"Sorry!" Zeph waved with a nod at Nik and a quirk of his enchanting smile, as if he were the righteous priest and this some drunken vagrant he had set out to save.
Nik strained against Zeph's hold, pulling them back out of the ornate chapel to the hall. The pounding in his head only caused him pain out here instead of the angry drilling that tried to drown out all thought.
"I can't go in there. Whatever happened tonight. It's too strong. It'll take me with it."
Zeph frowned. "Can you make it to the rectory?"
"Will you carry me bridal style?" Nik croaked past cracked lips when they reached the Rectory.
Zeph grunted and set Nik to rest on the uncomfortable couch used for parishioners meeting with their Priest. Books lined the shelves and thick lush rugs covered the hardwood floors. Zeph's elegant wooden desk had paper strewn all over it. He still wrote his sermons by hand. No computer to be found.
Next to the couch was the door that led to Zeph's private rooms, which Nik had never stepped foot inside. Zeph may play it pretty loose for a priest, but he kept the door to that temptation slammed shut and Nik knew it.
"You're a disaster. What the hell happened?" Zeph filled a glass of water from the cooler next to the couch and handed it to Nik.
"Father Zelophehad, is everything all right?" A young nun pushed open the door of Zeph's office. She looked about 19 or 20but the habit and veil shielded any distinguishing features.
"Sister Delphina, thank you, yes everything is fine. This is my... friend Nikolai. You haven't met him yet."
"Are you sure? He looks like he may need a doctor." Her smile was soft and easy, innocent. Exactly the way a nun's should be.
Nik kind of hated her for it. "I'll be fine."
The young nun nodded.
"Sister Delphina, now that Nik is awake, would you be so kind as to heat him some broth? I think he could use something warm and nourishing as he weathers this storm."
"Certainly Father." The nun bowed and turned so quickly Nik's head swam. She seemed to twirl out of the room, a blur of black and white.
"She's pretty," Nik said with a groan.
"You aren't her type." Zeph tapped on the glass of water in Nik's hand, urging him to drink.
"Are you sure? I hear Nuns are big on exorcists."
"You aren't an exorcist." Zeph took the glass and set it on the ground next to him. "You're something much older and more dangerous than that."
"Great, just what I always wanted to be. Old and scary."
"So are you going to tell me what happened?" Zeph reached out and placed the inside of his wrist against Nik's forehead. "I haven't seen you take a beating like this since high school."
"I could have taken Jimmy Talbot if his friends hadn't jumped me."
"Maybe," Zeph smirked, "but you definitely should have been able to take one demon."
"Yeah. This thing... I don't know what it was. The call was the same as it is with demons, but when I got there, it― evolved? "
"What?" Zeph stood and ran a hand over his short hair.
"It turned into some kind of beast. Nothing I did worked. It came right for me and it was strong." Before he finished his next sentence, his stomach cramped and the sudden strength of his body’s attempt to expel the demon pitched him forward to the ground. He winced as the wood floors rubbed against his wounded hands.
Zeph jumped back, slamming the door to the rectory closed as he grabbed a cross off his desk. He held it up like a girl in a horror movie warding off a vampire.
Nik almost laughed, but the pain in his gut knocked him to his back. "Fuck, Zeph!" His eyes rolled back into his head and he could feel the scrape of claws ripping at his insides, tearing its way out of his body. "Help me."
Zeph grabbed a vial of holy water from his desk, moving his thumb over the opening to allow the liquid to sprinkle slowly when he shook it. Forming the sign of the cross, Zeph spoke the ancient Rites of Exorcism.
Exorcizo te, immundíssime spíritus, omnis incúrsio adversárii, omne phantasma, omnis légio, in nómine Dómini nostri Jesu Christi eradicáre, et effugáre ab hoc plásmate Dei . Ipse tibi ímperat, qui te de supérnis cæaelórum in inferióra terræ demérgi præcépit.
Nik writhed on the ground. Chanting along in his mind through the veil of pain.
Ab omni malo libera nos, Domine. "From all evil deliver us."
Zeph doused him with more Holy Water and each droplet raised a bubble on Nik's flesh filled with black. Nik watched in horror as his flesh boiled and gave off the putrid scent of evil.
"From all sin, from your wrath, from sudden and unprovided death."
He raged in the heat of the burning exorcism as the demon invaded his mind with screams of curses and vile insults.
"By your death and burial, by your holy resurrection, by your wondrous ascension,"
Within seconds, Nik's back and arms held raised welts with thick, black liquid inside.
"We sinners, we beg you to hear us. That you spare us. That you pardon us."
Zeph continued reciting words Nik no longer heard over the pounding inside his head. Sweat ran down his body under his heavy vestments, tears seeping from his worried eyes.
The bubbles of flesh popped, each one like a gunshot in the quiet of Zeph's office. Nik's body jerked every time. It wrenched him into contorted, painful positions. Thick, black ooze burst from his blisters and collected together in a pool near his hip. Each new wound adding to the collective until it had streamed together like mercury.
"Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses."
Nik lay unmoving on the cold floor, barely conscious.
Zeph checked his faint pulse and watched in horror as the dark ooze globbed together and slithered across the floor, seeking out a new host.
This shouldn't happen. Even in Nik's weakened state his body should have been able to digest and purge this sin. Instead, the demon had been exorcised in the most painful manner he had ever encountered.
The pulsing ooze rolled across the floor, glopping itself into a large mass and then stretching out toward its prey. First it went to the left, near Nik's still form. Just before making contact with his skin, the ooze jerked back.
It turned right and encircled the leg of a chair, climbing up in a slow slithering ascent. Globules of black fell from its form as it inched up, rolling itself forward.
Nik watched, unable to do more than moan in horror.
Zeph crept around him, reaching for the consecrated Dead Sea Salt on his desk. He knew the same rites as Nik and should be able to contain the evil. But that only solved one problem. If Nik couldn't take it inside himself and purge the sin, how would they defeat it?.
Nik watched as Zeph kept as far from the ooze as possible. Just as he reached for the salt, the door to his office opened.
Nik jumped, his body jer
king upright with a wail as he registered the Nun's entrance into the room.
"I've brought his broth, Fa―" Sister Delphina stopped abruptly, staring at the burst blisters dotting Nik's flesh. "What happened to him?"
Nik looked back to the dangerous ooze but in that short moment, it had disappeared. "Where is it?" he cried in a panic.
Zeph fell to his knees and crawled around on the floor searching with his hands for the horrid substance. "I can't find it. I can't find it!"
"Father?" Sister Delphina asked again, setting the bowl of soup on the small table by the door.
"Help me! We have to find it!" Zeph's hands fluttered in front of him feeling the lines of the floorboards as he crawled along the wall, turning over chairs. He searched the walls and peeked behind books on the bookshelves. Zeph's panic filled the room and soon he was throwing cushions off the sofa, knocking the few possessions he had off the tables and shelves.
The ooze had vanished.
Nik watched, helpless. He tried to sit up with a groan, but he felt like he'd been beaten with baseball bats and then run over by a car and then beaten again while chainsaws sliced through his flesh. He pulled himself up to lean against the front of the couch, uselessly watching his best friend scream at a bewildered nun.
Zeph spun around, searching without seeing, panic driving his actions.
"Father, what did you lose? Do you remember where you last saw it?" Sister Delphina approached, hands out.
Zeph collapsed to the floor next to Nik, his head in his hands. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
Still unable to talk, Nik reached out and placed his hand on Zeph's thigh. His muscles tensed at the contact, but, after a moment, relaxed and he laid his hand on top of Nik's.
The nun looked down, her face mostly covered by her habit, but the pink shade of her skin clear.
Nik wondered if a Nun could blush herself to death.
Zeph removed his hand from Nik's, stood and straightened his shirt. "Sister Delphina, thank you for the soup, could you please bring some clean linens and water."
She hesitated, still gaping between her priest and Nik's injuries. "Are you sure? Do you need help finding something?"