by Nina Smith
Kat flipped open her phone and filmed them. “I’m going to distract them. Follow me in and grab the girl at the first opportunity. Then we run.” She put her phone away, pulled a notebook out of her bag, knocked loudly and walked in with a big smile.
Magda followed. She was so frightened her stomach had hit the floor.
“Hi!” Kat shook the hand of the exorcist and then of the woman. “I’m Kat Catrall from the Hailstone Herald. I’m doing a report on the work the Congregation is doing in the community, I believe you were expecting me?”
The pair, who had been too stunned to talk up until that point, recovered their voices. The exorcist still had his bible in midair. Magda edged toward the girl.
“What is the meaning of this intrusion!” the man yelled. “Nobody is permitted in this part of the Centre without prior permission!”
Kat’s eyes widened. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I talked to the lady at the front desk, what was her name – Karen?”
“Mary,” the woman said in a frosty voice.
“Yeah, Mary, that’s right! She said to come right down here and interview you about what you do. Is this a bad time? What exactly is it you’re doing?”
“Get out,” the man said between clenched teeth.
The woman turned her attention to Magda. She looked at her closely. “What are you doing here?”
“Preacher sent me to accompany the journalist,” Magda said in her brightest voice.
“Satan sent you to destroy God’s work,” the woman hissed. She tugged on the exorcist’s sleeve. “That’s her, that’s Magdalene McAllister. You mustn’t let her leave.”
Magda and Kat glanced at each other. “Gosh,” said Kat. “I guess we did come at a bad time after all. Maybe next time then.” She put away her notebook and removed another object from her bag.
The exorcist moved toward them. Kat sprayed him in the face with something that filled the room with a foul, choking smell. Magda’s eyes stung. Kat turned the spray on the woman.
Magda knelt by the girl. “Are you okay?” she said.
The girl gave her a blank stare.
“Hey.” Magda gently slapped her cheeks. “Over here. Are you with me?”
The girl blinked a couple of times and nodded. “Help,” she said.
“Come on.” Kat took one of her arms, Magda the other. They helped her out of the room. Kat pulled the door closed behind them, but since there was no way to lock it, they just kept going.
“Can you walk?” Kat asked.
The girl shook her head. “My legs feel strange,” she said. “And I’m dizzy.” She burst into tears.
“Christ,” Kat said.
Magda hugged her arm in mute sympathy. She knew exactly how the girl felt. They reached the end room and made it into the hall before the enraged exorcist and his faithful helper stumbled out after them.
Magda and Kat half-carried, half-dragged the girl to the back door. Kat kicked it open and they carried her down the stairs.
The exorcist bellowed like an elephant and burst out after them.
“Sweety you’ve got to help us,” Kat urged. “Run.”
The girl did her best. She put her feet on the ground and tried to move, but her steps were uncoordinated and sluggish. Magda felt like the three of them moved through a nightmare when they turned into the narrow alley.
Kat let go of her arm, turned back and sprayed more chemicals in the man’s face. The move gave them thirty seconds space.
“I’m going to get the car,” Kat said. She thrust the cylinder into Magda’s hand. “This is pepper spray. There’s at least one squirt left. Go as fast as you can, I’ll meet you at the end of the lane.” She bolted.
“Shit.” Magda tightened her grip on the girl’s arm and picked up the pace. The girl’s weight wrenched her back and the exorcist closed in quickly even though he was still choking and gasping. She waited until he was right on their shoulders and sprayed him in the eyes.
He screamed and fell back, but the woman pursued. She grabbed Magda and the girl by the shoulders. “Magdalene McAllister, you wait till Preacher hears about this!”
“You wait until the goddamn police hear what you’re doing to these kids!” Magda yelled. She elbowed the woman in the ribs, broke her grip and gained some distance. “What’s your name?” she panted.
“Ellen,” the girl said. Her voice slurred. “They got nearly all of us now.”
“All of who?” Magda glanced over her shoulder and hurried Ellen on. The woman was on the phone. That couldn’t be good.
Kat squealed to a halt at the end of the alley and pushed open the rear door. Magda helped Ellen into the car and followed her in. Kat hit the accelerator almost before the door shut.
“Hospital,” Magda said.
Kat nodded, face grim, and put distance between them and the Centre.
Ellen burst into tears again. Magda put a seatbelt around her before fixing her own, and tried to soothe her. “We’re out now,” she said.
“For now.” Her words were still thick. “They’ll come for me.”
Kat took several corners at speed and only slowed when they reached the hospital. She parked outside the emergency entrance and the two of them helped Ellen inside.
“I need Doctor Baker,” Kat said to the nurse who met them. “This girl has been forcibly drugged.”
“I’ll need some ID,” the nurse said. “Are you a relative?”
Kat glared at her until she went in search of the doctor.
They helped Ellen to a seat and waited in silence until Doctor Baker appeared. She looked over the group. “You two again?”
“This girl needs help,” Kat said. “She’s been drugged.”
“What with?” The doctor crouched down and shone a light into Ellen’s eyes.
“We’re not sure,” Magda said. She took the bottle of holy water from her pocket and handed it to the doctor. “But whatever it was will be in this. I’m sure of it. Get it tested.”
“Holy water?” Doctor Baker looked from her to Kat. “Are you people winding me up?”
“Absolutely not,” Kat said. “Please get it tested.”
The doctor knelt down in front of Ellen again and gentled her voice. “What’s your name?”
Ellen’s eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped over.
“Get me a bed!” The doctor yelled.
Two orderlies picked Ellen up, laid her in a wheeled bed and took her away. The doctor turned back to Magda and Kat. “Drugged?”
“Look,” said Kat. “This is going to sound crazy, but we need you to just trust us. The Congregation of the Holy Bible are out there conducting some kind of brainwashing program on these kids. We saw them force her to drink something, and they started what looked like out and out abuse, but Magda says it’s what they call an exorcism. That girl has been drugged and traumatised. She needs care. She needs to be kept away from anyone from that church, including her parents.”
“I don’t have that kind of authority, especially not on pure hearsay.” The doctor looked Magda up and down. “You look better than last time I saw you. Aren’t you from the church?”
Magda shook her head. “Not anymore.”
“Are you relatives of the girl? Do you have identification?”
“No,” Kat said. “Please, please just do what you can for her. Promise me.”
The doctor threw up her hands. “I’ll try. Don’t go anywhere, either of you.” She went after the orderlies who’d taken Ellen away.
Kat jerked her head at the door. “I think we’d better go.”
“But she said to stay,” Magda said.
“And the police may be along soon to arrest us for kidnapping.”
*
They went back to Kat’s house. Kat locked every door and window and closed all of the curtains so no light would get through. She unplugged the phone.
Magda sat on the lounge and watched her silently. “Do you think the police will come here?”
“I did tell that ass
hole exactly who I was. They might. I want to get this story out to the world before they arrive.”
“How will we do that?” Magda leaned forward.
“I’m going to start a news feed. We’ll post this on twitter, facebook, you tube, anywhere else we can think of.” Kat sat in front of the computer. Once the screen blinked to life, her fingers raced over the keys. A slight frown furrowed her brow. “Give Adam a call,” she said. “See if he’s okay. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he becomes a target.”
Magda flipped open her phone and dialled Adam. It rang for a long time with no answer. Finally, she sent him a brief message instead, then handed Kat her phone to take the videos off.
Kat took it without comment. Magda watched the news feed build on the screen. Within ten minutes the site began to rack up viewer hits. “Do you think this will help?” she asked.
“I sure hope so,” Kat said. “If the Hailstone police force is as controlled by Congregation nuts as I think it is, outside help may be our only hope.”
TUESDAY
Magda couldn’t remember where she was when she opened her eyes. A steady beeping sound had woken her from a nightmare
of Preacher forcing her to drink holy water; she blinked at a dimly
lit room. Nearby were a TV and a computer on a cluttered desk. A
little further away, a bookshelf was crammed with what looked
like a hodge podge of spy thrillers and books about politics.
She rubbed her eyes. Yesterday she’d woken up at Adam’s house. This morning she was at Kat’s. She’d actually spent two whole nights away from home. That in itself was worth celebrating. She felt good. Maybe there was hope for the future after all. Maybe she’d really escaped. At least she hoped she had, because if they caught her now, there’d be hell to pay.
The steady beep came from Kat’s computer. Magda wrapped the blanket around herself against the ice cold morning air and shuffled over to the desk. She moved the mouse to wake the screen up.
Kat had left her news pages open all night. A flashing box in the bottom corner of the screen announced 127 unread messages, which accounted for the beeping. Magda scanned the page. The website counter said there had been over 16,000 hits since last night. The comments section was already 20 pages long.
She let out a long breath and scanned the page before turning to the comments. Kat had done a good job. The main article was terse and to the point; there were links to the reports in the Hailstone Herald. Addresses of all the outreach centres. A podcast of her last phone conversation with Preacher. Magda scanned the pictures; Ellen, with shadows under her eyes, pale lips and slack jaw. The exorcist pushing his bible down on her forehead. There was a photo of the list of names and several photos of the protest, the police treatment of protesters, even of people crowding the church on Sunday. The one that really arrested her was of Magda herself. Another screen grab, she thought, from 3CE’s live coverage of her exorcism. In the photo, her mouth was open in a frozen scream. Preacher’s hand hovered near her face.
A door opened and shut behind her. Kat leaned over her chair and rested her hands on her shoulders. “Like it or not, Mags, you’re right at the centre of this. It was important you be in there.”
“That’s okay.” Magda scrolled to the first page of comments; the pair read in silence. Most of the comments were outraged. Some offered advice. Some poured out vitriol on those who disagreed with the Congregation.
Kat’s sigh warmed the back of Magda’s neck. “The important thing is everybody knows what’s going on now,” she said. “Maybe help will come. I don’t know about you, but I can’t function without coffee and breakfast two mornings in a row. How about you skim all those messages while I make breakfast, see if there’s anything important there?”
“Okay.” Magda opened up the messages, which finally made the beeping cease. She frowned. One after another, they all said much the same thing. “Kat!” she called, when she’d finally read the last one.
“Just a minute!” Kat appeared soon after with two mugs of coffee and then a tray of toast and eggs. She pulled over a second chair and sat next to Magda at the desk. “Alright, shoot.”
Magda took a sip of strong, sweet coffee. She bit into her toast, but could barely taste it because already her gut had rebelled at the thought of more danger. “All those messages were from people in Hailstone,” she finally said. “They’re going to hold another protest against the new laws. And against the Congregation.” She bit into her toast again. “Apparently practically everybody who’s not in the Congregation is going out on the street today to close down the outreach centres.”
Kat chewed on her lower lip. “That could go either way. The question is do we outnumber the Congregation, and do they really have thugs?”
Magda gave up on the toast and drank her coffee. “I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Alright.” Kat pushed aside her plate. “First things first, did you call Adam last night? Was he okay?”
Magda shrugged. “He didn’t answer.”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Your Preacher has it in for him and I want to know he’s safe.” Kat reached for her phone, dialled and waited.
Magda watched her face. She found the tic in Kat’s left eyebrow quite charming, but the longer Kat waited, the more pronounced the tic grew. Finally she hung up the phone. “He’s not answering.”
“He might be asleep,” Magda pointed out.
“No. Monday mornings he always goes out to oversee things at the factory.”
Magda swallowed her last mouthful of coffee. Kat’s anxiety had affected her. Preacher seemed to blame Adam for her defection from the church, and that could mean all kinds of trouble with the way things were going lately. “Let’s go find him,” she said.
*
They went to the factory first. Magda had never before been to the home of Hells Bells Vodka. It was in the industrial area, a part of the city she’d never had a need to go into.
Her eyes widened when she saw the huge double gates. The entire wooden expanse was painted with the product logo and a picture of a young man grinning at a vodka bottle. She wondered if Preacher had seen it. If he had, he’d have been furious. The fact he owned the land it was on would have made him bust a brain cell.
They were buzzed through the gates into a small car park shaded by a few trees. A reception area fronted the big, grey factory.
Magda and Kat went to reception. Magda hung back while Kat spoke to the girl at the desk. “We need to see Adam Seymour, please,” she said.
“Hold on, I’ll tell him you’re here.” The girl picked up the phone and pushed a button.
Magda breathed easier. They hadn’t needed to panic after all.
The girl furrowed her eyebrows after a few minutes of sitting there with the phone to her ear. “That’s strange, he’s never late.”
“He’s not here?” Kat asked.
“I guess not. I’m sorry. Can I take a message?”
“Yeah. If you see him, tell him to call Kat. He has my number.” Kat rejoined Magda and they hurried back out into the rapidly warming morning.
“We’ll try him at home,” Kat said when they were back in the car.
Magda folded her hands under her chin and leaned her forehead against the window. She watched the streets go by. They looked no different to any other day, but today she found them hostile. Every closed curtain, every car that followed them, every head turned away on the street seemed a threat. She looked hard for any sign of a Congregation uniform and found bits and pieces in every person, until the sight of just a tie was enough to set her head pounding.
When they pulled into Adam’s driveway everything was just as it had been when they left. They got out of the car and hurried to the front door.
Kat pushed the bell. When there was no reply she pounded on the wood panelling.
Silence greeted them. Not so much as a wall creaked.
“God damn it,” Kat said. “Round
the back.”
Magda followed her down the side of the house. Out the back, they ventured into a walled area in which expansive palms swayed over a fenced swimming pool. The water was glassy in the still morning.
Kat fished a key out of a potted rose by the back door and let them in. “Adam!” she yelled, once they were in the dim back room.
No reply.
Magda imagined Adam stranded and alone somewhere at the mercy of the exorcist. Worse, abducted by Preacher and forced to sit through ranting at the church. Made to drink holy water and brainwashed. Her head pounded. She followed Kat upstairs to the big light room they’d stayed in two nights ago. Kat hurried past the bar and pushed open a door on the other side. “Adam!” she yelled. “God fucking damn it!”
Magda peered over her shoulder into a room painted in shades of vibrant red and purple and dominated by a king size bed covered in a leopard-print doona.
Adam sat bolt upright, shirtless, and blinked like a startled rabbit. “What??!”
Kat turned around. “Put some goddamn clothes on and come out here.” She stomped back into the outer room.
Magda sighed and flopped down on a couch. Relief flooded her legs and made them heavy. She could have used a drink, but she hadn’t paused for long enough since running away to even think about buying vodka.
Adam walked out after about ten minutes, wrapped in a hot pink and crimson dressing gown. His hair was still tousled. He rubbed his eyes and went for the coffee machine behind the bar. “What are you two all uptight about?”
“Jesus Christ Adam, we’ve been trying to ring you for a whole day, where have you been? You didn’t even turn up for work this morning, we thought something happened to you! It’s a goddamn war zone out there!” Kat glared at him.
Adam blinked. “War zone?” He sipped at a thick black coffee.
Kat flopped down next to Magda. “Where’ve you been?” she demanded.
“Funny story that.” Adam sat across from them, plonked his coffee on the table and looked sharply at the two of them. “What have you two been up to? You look like two little girls who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Do we have us a romance yet?”