“I need your help badly,” Tomas said desperately. He walked in uninvited and began to pace the room, frantically. He seemed to be looking for the right words. “Mother, I...” he stopped in midsentence, his eyes on the carpet as his mind worked.
The images of the future spun around in her mind. The cold, cold gun; the blood flying; the pale girl wearing what looked to be a long pillowcase. It had to be wrong!
It’s never wrong.
Her mind went over the vision a second time. Tomas had been kneeling and facing away, it could have been someone else. It had to be someone else.
He’s wearing the same shirt, a voice inside her said. It’ll be today.
“I don’t think I c-can hel-hel-help you that way,” Adrina stammered, her voice still with only the strength of a whisper.
He looked at her sharply. “What way? What do you know?” he demanded and this question focused her quickly. She couldn’t tell him of her vision, no matter what. How this could get worse, she didn’t know, but it would be, if she tried in any way to avert his fate. Somehow it would be worse.
“I, I, I don’t have any money for you, if that’s what you want.” It was all she could think of to say. It was a poor cover up and Tomas saw through it.
“Why would I want money? Don’t play stupid with me, Mother! I know you have a gift...powers...or clairvoyance or something. That’s the reason why I’m here.” He was angry and stared hard at her. In a moment however, his exhaustion doused the anger and his shoulders slumped. “You know things you shouldn’t. You see the future, right? I’ve known since I was a kid,” he added quietly.
“You call it a gift?” Adrina’s voice became strident. “It’s not a gift, it’s...”
“You can tell me in the car,” Tomas said cutting her off. He gripped her shoulders with both of his hands and gave her a slight shake. “I need you to come with me. You’ll come, right? It’s Emily.” His red eyes looked suddenly very sad, his face drooping in misery. “She needs you... your kind of help.”
Adrina didn’t think she would be much help to Emily. In the vision, the body on the floor had to be her granddaughter and Adrina was sure she was dead at that point. She’d been so pale that Adrina hadn’t even recognized her, and she wondered again how this could get any worse.
She drew in a long breath. “I’ll come and I’ll do what I can, but...but, I won’t, I can’t...” There was no way she could kill her own son. How was she supposed to help? She didn’t even know what she was supposed to do, other than pull a trigger. Her mind started to replay the vision and she shook her head, hard.
“Good. Do you need anything to...to...you know, bring anything?” he asked. Adrina was confused and thought Tomas meant luggage.
“Where are we going?” The image of the heavy gun had never left her, its grip had been like ice. “Is it cold there? Should I bring a coat?”
“We’re going to my base on Governors Island,” he paused, thinking. “It will be cold, yes, you’ll need a coat. Bring your heaviest coat and your...do you need anything to, you know...” He looked at her expectantly, his red eyes darting about her face. “You know, to cast a spell or something”
“A spell?” she cried. First with the vision and now with Tomas talking spells, Adrina suddenly worried that Tomas might have gone insane. He certainly looked it. She also realized with dawning horror how this could get worse. If she interfered in some way, even by accident, he might go on a rampage, killing who knows how many others. “No. No I don’t think I’ll need a spell,” she said calmly with a forced smile.
Her abrupt mood change caused Tomas’ brows to come down in consternation. “Mother, listen to me. Something has happened to Emily. I don’t know what exactly.” He paused blinking repeatedly, trying to hold back tears. “I think maybe... she might be possessed by a...” he looked away from Adrina now, shaking his head back and forth slowly as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying. “By a demon I think,” he finished in a whisper.
He wasn’t crazy and worse he was telling the truth. Adrina knew it. For the second time in ten minutes, she knew. Goose bumps broke out down her arms and back and she shivered momentarily. There was a demon. How was this possible?
“It’s important you tell me everything you know,” she said.
“Everything? Ok, ok, well, there’ve been weird things going on in that house for a while. Really, since we first moved in. Small things, like the furnace wouldn’t stay lit and things would go missing and sometimes there are odd sounds in the house. Like that. But...but it was the other day, Friday? What day is today?” he asked her.
“Monday dear,” she replied calmly. Her voice was calm but her body was beginning to shake. It started in her arms and hands, but soon even her chest felt like it was vibrating. She went to the couch and sat down.
Tomas blinked a few times and then rubbed at his eyes. Adrina could imagine how gritty they must feel. “Lord, it was Friday night. That long.” He sighed, a deep tired sigh. “Emily had a friend spending the night, and I guess something happened.”
His mouth hung open and he shook his head in bewilderment. “I don’t know what. I was in bed with Mary, when I heard a scream. It was a scream like someone was scared to death...and...and...and it was coming from the attic where Emily’s room is. I was up and running out of my room when I heard racing footsteps on the backstairs. I stopped. I figured the girls were going to come tell me about a mouse or spider or something. However, it was Emily’s friend. She sped down the stairs right past the second floor landing and down the next set of stairs in a blur.”
“I went to the landing and was about to call down when I felt the cold coming from the attic. It was like winter up there. I was shirtless, because it had been a warm night, but the cold made me start to shiver. I went up the stairs and everything was dark, so I turned on the hall light at the top, and... and.” He stopped talking. Adrina saw that he too was shaking. His eyes were large and far away, seeing whatever it was in the attic. “And the hall is only about fifteen feet long. And Emily’s room is on the far right. And there are a couple of other rooms and...and...and.”
“And what was in Emily’s room?” Adrina prompted him.
“I went to her doorway and there she was lying on the floor and it looked like she was on fire, you see?” He turned to his mother, nodding his head to get her to agree with him.
Adrina was horrified at the thought of her granddaughter on fire. “Why was it so cold if she was on fire?”
Tomas shook his head. “I thought she was on fire, so I ran to her, thinking to smother the flames, but there were none, there was only smoke. I was just putting my hands out to grab her when I touched it.” He had his hands out in imitation of himself, they were shaking badly, and for the first time Adrina noticed that he had a bandage on his left hand. He balled them up and held them to his chest. “I screamed. I know I screamed. It was the coldest thing and...and...the deadest.” His eyes were far away again. He started to weep. “It sucked on my hand. It was dead, it wanted me.”
Adrina watched him cry, feeling bewildered. She didn’t know what he meant by his last sentence and she was sure she didn’t want to. Her arms reached out for him and he cried against her for several minutes. When he had settled somewhat she said, “What happened next, I need to know.”
He blubbered again but this time savagely, “I am such a coward! I almost ran away and left Emily. I had fallen over when...when I touched it. If I hadn’t I would have ran, I know it.”
A dreadful thought occurred to Adrina. “Did you get her away from it?”
“Yes.” The exhaustion was back, sucking the energy out of him and with it came an uncaring attitude. “It was like smoke that seemed to start about a foot over her. It was over her...her...her chest. So, I sort of crept to her feet and pulled her to me. I was so scared. I just picked her up and ran.”
Adrina slid closer to her son. “You did everything you could. No one could have done better.”
“But wha
t do I do now?” His red eyes looked into her black ones. “How do I save her?”
“Save her? I thought you said you grabbed her and ran.”
“I did, I did, but she hasn’t woken up... she’s in some sort of coma. It’s the demon! Emily is freezing cold to touch. They have these electric blankets on her constantly, but she doesn’t get warm. And when you touch her...” He paused, his fingers in the air touching something that wasn’t there. “You feel the heat pull out of you, like she is sucking it from you somehow.”
Adrina’s head overflowed with too much unwanted information. She felt like throwing it up or crying it out. She wanted to make some tea, then go to bed and stay there where it was safe. Instead, she spoke the words that she would later regret, “I’ll go with you, and I’ll do what I can. I fear it won’t be much.” Besides killing her son, she didn’t know how she was going to be any help at all.
2
The trip from Queens through the city was actually slower in the car than if they had taken the subway. Traffic had them crawling along and Adrina had nothing to do, but stare out the window as anxiety built up in her. Every few seconds, her hand would wrap itself around the ice-cold grip of an imaginary gun. The gun would be loud. Would it wake the neighbors? Would the police be called? Did she care? She decided that she didn’t. She was on her way to kill her son, how could she care about anything else?
There was just one part of the trip when the anxiety left her mind.
It occurred during the short ferryboat ride from the southern tip of Manhattan to the Army base on Governors Island. She got out of the car and stood looking out at the beautiful view while the last light of day was setting just to the side of the Statue of Liberty, which looked toy-like with the distance. The other view, down the length of the boat, was of New York City, brightly lit just for her enjoyment or so it seemed.
The lights made the city look alive and inviting and she wished momentarily that she was young again, and that her worries would just flit out of her and drift out to sea. Adrina breathed in the sea air and felt joy at the weather, which was perfect, just the right shade of warmth. She wanted it to last, but the ride was short and Tomas honked his horn in a hurry to be killed.
The day had been one of the longest in her life, however now that the end was drawing near, time sped up with a dizzying pace. In what felt like seconds they had docked and so quickly after they neared the church to collect the priest. Right away Adrina knew he was not going to attempt a real exorcism.
Tomas pulled up to the little white church and hopped out without killing the engine. “Are you all ready?” he asked the priest, who stood outside.
She felt it then. It came in little bursts: Tomas had pressured the priest into doing an exorcism. The priest didn’t really believe in demons or Hell for that matter; the priest would go through the motions and perform Last Rites but in Latin and wouldn’t do the needless exorcism; he would then go home and have some strawberry ice cream and watch the late news.
Father Menning was a small slim man; he wore the simple black attire of his calling and carried nothing but a single book and a black bag that reminded Adrina of a time when doctors made house calls.
He gave the appearance of concern, nodding gravely and was just about to speak when Adrina asked, “May I help you with your things?” She climbed out of the car slowly hearing her knees pop. Father Menning looked confused at her question. “I can carry your vestments and maybe the censer?” Adrina didn’t wait for the priest but started to move directly toward the church.
Tomas hurried to catch up. “Right, just tell me what I can carry for you.” The priest stood for a moment contemplating and then sighed moving with some reluctance to unlock the doors.
Once they entered, the priest bustled about with Adrina always nearby offering suggestions; she unfortunately knew the basics of exorcism. “Do you have an olive branch? Holy water is best used with an olive branch, rather than this...ah?”
“That is an aspergillium, and it’ll work just fine.”
“You should wear the proper vestments, you know. The violet from the Easter service will be good. Besides it’ll be cold.” Her mind strayed again to the cold gun and she rubbed her hands together as if they were already freezing.
“She’s right, you’ll want to bundle up,” Tomas agreed.
The priest almost started to protest the wearing of the Easter Vestments, but stopped. For the first time he looked to be taking this seriously. Father Menning, with Adrina’s supervision gathered his necessary accoutrements and piling into Tomas’ car, they made their way to the islands one small hospital. As before Tomas left the car running and hopping out, disappeared into the building.
Father Menning tried to make small talk, which aggravated Adrina to no end, but again Tomas was quick and back in a wink. How he was able to get the girl out of the hospital, she had no idea. He laid the cold dead body of Emily across the long back seat of the Buick, and Adrina recognized the pillowcase that the girl wore, but now saw that it was only a hospital gown.
“She’s still alive...I know she may not look it, but she still is,” Tomas assured the priest, who had shrunk back away from the girl’s body looking disgusted. Adrina reached out and touched her granddaughter, but pulled her hand away, rubbing it.
It was there beneath Emily’s skin. The demon lay hiding just below the surface and the touch had been as cold as sin.
Time seemed to compress in on itself, like the cars of train in a head-on collision. Adrina had barely put on her seat belt before she saw Colonels Row, where her son lived. All the other homes on the Row were lit up and pretty in the night, but his was completely dark and foreboding.
As they pulled up to it, she could see that Father Menning finally understood. Just touching the unnaturally cold bricks of the house left no room for doubt and he marveled at the frost, which continually formed and evaporated on them.
He was a brave man and seemingly firm in his faith and at the urging of Adrina, he baptized them and heard their confessions. Adrina wanted to confess about the gun and about her plan to shoot Tomas in the back of the head and drench the wall with his blood, but she couldn’t. She kept reminding herself that it’d be worse if she mentioned anything, though more and more she hoped and prayed her vision had been a mistake. It was Tomas’ only chance.
Before they entered the house Father Menning had a censer smoking, sending up grey plumes of fragrant smoldering spices. He swung the brazier about the kitchen and began exhorting loudly in Latin.
Adrina didn’t speak the dead language, however she had been a part of four exorcisms in her time, two of which had been real. They had been terrifying, hair-raising experiences, but she knew it was the priest and Emily, who were in the most danger. Still she shook with fear.
The house had a cold sinister feel to it. The kitchen was far darker than it had any right to be and Adrina took solace in the small glow of the brazier. She followed around after the priest carrying the silver container of holy water. Every few seconds he would dunk the aspergillium in it and liberally splash the water on the walls and floors.
Tomas, who stood in the near freezing dark holding his daughter, became impatient. “The demon is in the attic.”
“Colonel, it’s best to be cautious. We’ll be up there in a few minutes.”
Father Menning was a man of his word and he slowly went up the back staircase still going on in Latin. They followed him despite the growing cold and the steadily escalating fear.
Their fear slowly ramped up, however the priest seemed particularly immune to it—that is until they reached Emily’s room and saw the demon. Then Father Menning ceased speaking and stood in mute horror.
The demon appeared to be a tremendous column of black and grey smoke. At first Adrina thought it had a vague spiderlike shape with many thin arms and legs, but that was an illusion. What she had at mistakenly thought to be arms and legs, were actually tendrils of smoke. These started as barely visible wisps a few feet
from it, but then they seemed to gain mass and thickness as they streamed toward the “body” of the demon. It looked to have a head too, and that was the worst. In the head was a terrible opening, a hole from which nothing could escape.
It seemed to drink from this world through that void.
“Do the prayer again,” Tomas demanded. The sound of his voice seemed to be muffled and far away.
The priest jumped a little at the words and then started his incantations once more, “Exorcizote, omnisspiritusimmunde, in nomine Dei...”
The Latin barely registered on Adrina’s ears; she felt lost and useless, and had stark terror running through her. She had no purpose there, except to die horribly. She wanted to look away, she wanted to run away, but neither was an option.
Forced by a power greater than her pathetic self, Adrina stared into the black pit of the demon’s face. She would stare and stare until she was used up and what would happened after that, she was deathly afraid to find out. She hoped she’d die before that could happen, but she was certain the demon wouldn’t allow it.
From the moment she had walked in, the demon held her in its gaze and she could only stand there and see what the demon wanted her to see, and think what the demon wanted her to think. For the moment, it wanted her to see the surprise it had for her. She was allowed to see the smoke of its body flowing up into the pit of its face. The smoke was all chaos and madness yet what lay beneath it was worse—it came together, congealing to form a streaming liquid gruel. In the foul gruel there were shapes and it hurt Adrina deep in her chest to see these. An arm, a face, part of a torso. These would form out of the vile fluid and then sink back in.
The face was the worst.
Pain gripped her heart when she saw the face. It was the face of her granddaughter Emily, contorted into a silent scream of agony. The demon had Emily’s soul and was letting it surface so that Adrina could feel her pain too. The demon enjoyed this, but it was a malicious evil joy and it was horrible to feel that sort of joy.
The Undead World (Book 5): The Apocalypse Renegades Page 38