by Wood, Rick
Without a moment of hesitation, Jenny and Lacy ran up to him and flung their arms around him, hugging him so tightly he could barely breathe.
“Are you okay?” Jenny asked with a face full of concern.
“I’d murder a cup of tea,” Eddie smirked.
“I’m on it,” Lacy answered, and rushed into the kitchen.
Eddie looked over at Derek and Levi. They lay against the far side of the room, willing their heavy breathing to subside. Eddie could tell by looking at them that they had been through an ordeal. They lifted their heads back and closed their eyes, enjoying the success of the moment.
Then Eddie turned to Jenny. She was still welling up, tears filling up the base of her eyes. She smiled sadly at him, then looked to the ground.
“I thought I’d lost you,” she admitted.
“Hey.” Eddie lifted her chin up. “You didn’t. We won.”
Jenny nodded, her face welling up. She clung herself to him, throwing her arms around him and holding on for dear life. Eddie put his arms around her in return and smiled triumphantly.
Jenny abruptly leant back. “Oh, sorry, am I hurting you? I forgot.”
“Jenny, I feel fine. I don’t feel weak or anything anymore. You can hug all you want.”
With a sincere smile that sent away the tears from her eyes, she flung her arms back around Eddie and continued to hold him close for dear life.
“I’m so sorry, Eddie. I’m so sorry.”
Eddie said nothing. He just embraced her, enjoying having a friend that cared so much.
32
1 January 2000
Adeline sits over the body of her saviour and watches him grow lifeless. Balam has taken him; she is saved, but at his expense. She shakes him and shakes him but he does not move.
Eddie looks down upon her. He sees his body lying motionless. He sees her crying over it. He sees her desperately shaking him. He floats over the body, watching her think he is dead.
He is far from it.
To his left he sees his enemy, floating with him. It has three heads; one a bull, one a man, one a ram. The bull aggressively puffs air out of its nostrils. The ram sneers and the man snarls. Together, they growl, facing Eddie with eyes of pure evil and animalistic faces of angered hostility. Its horns shake and its fists clench, its body scarred with marks of war.
“Balam,” Eddie utters, as if as an ironic greeting. His fists clench and he shakes with power.
“It is you,” announces the man head of the demon before Eddie. “Commander of hell, he who attempts to take his throne.”
“And you’re a king of hell, commanding over forty legions of demons, all of which cower before me. I have grown even stronger since I defeated your slave, Lamashtu. Do you dare take me on?”
Balam opens the mouth of each of its heads and roars toward Eddie, sending him floating back against the wall of the room. He remains planted against it, flattened out, held back by the air of evil.
“Give me my sister!” Eddie commands with all the authority he can force into his voice.
Balam’s fists clench and vibrate, opening and surging red flames toward Eddie. Eddie lifts his hands and the flames lick against them, halting before reaching his body in a devastating blow.
“That the best you got?” Eddie taunts the demon before him.
Balam growls again, this time not to intimidate, but to show his aggressive displeasure at being well-matched. He throws forward more flames.
Eddie lifts his arm and swipes, causing the flames to cease. He throws his arms forward and Balam thwacks against the far wall, dropping to the floor pathetically.
Balam raises its heads and looks to Eddie.
“Free my sister!”
Eddie raises his arms, forcing Balam into midair, rotating and rotating, faster and faster, till the ram screams, the bull snorts and the face begs for mercy.
“Free my sister!”
Balam’s body turns to a blur, bashing against the wall with each vastly accelerated turn, its body accumulating the aerodynamic pain of aging wind.
“I command you, bitch of hell. Release her!”
Balam screams out, its voice getting caught on the wind of its spin. The room turns into a tornado of chaos, objects turning to weapons against Balam as they get caught in the circle of the whirlwind it creates.
Eddie even chuckles a little as the ram head squeals in agony.
“It is done!” Balam replies, and Eddie drops its body to the floor.
From within it, a body rises. It is translucent, vacantly existential, a bare form of a spirit. But to Eddie, whatever form it is, it is instantly recognizable.
“Eddie…” speaks the voice of his sister, still the age she has been kept at for her eternity of suffering.
Eddie wipes his tears and holds them out in his hand. Cassy put hers on his, but her spiritual form falls through it, unable to clasp his affection in hers.
“Thank you…” she whispers.
Tears fall down his face like upturned buckets; the emotion accumulated throughout his childhood, his adolescence, and his adult years turn into one solitary look of bare love.
With a stare and a smile, Cassy evaporates upwards, transported to the comfort of heaven; or so Eddie hopes.
You’re free.
“This is not over,” Balam informs him, clambering to its knees. “I will return. I will return with armies and we will take you down.”
“I look forward to it,” answers Eddie.
Balam drops its heads and goes up in flames; and with that, it is no more. It has disappeared. And the room is still. The objects remain floored and Eddie can return to his body.
Adeline whimpers and cries over Eddie. Eddie slowly lifts his head.
“Don’t cry for me, Adeline,” he softly instructs her.
Adeline’s eyes open. She clings to him, hugging him tightly and gratefully, thanking him repeatedly.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you! You saved my life!”
Eddie leans up, propping himself against the wall. He runs his hands backwards through his hair and over his face, gathering himself.
“Oh, it was…” Eddie goes to say ‘a piece of cake,’ then recalls it wasn’t quite that simple. “It was my pleasure,” he completes the sentence with instead.
“Thank you,” Adeline continues to urgently show her gratitude.
“Oh stop it,” Eddie smiles warmly. “Your mum’s downstairs.”
Her face lights up and she bursts out from the room. Eddie hears the rumble of quick paces down the stairs and a door open as she bursts into the living room, followed by the loud happy tears of the girl’s rejoicing mother.
He uses the wall to drag himself to his feet. He rests a hand over his back as he leans over slightly, rubbing the aching pain. He looks over the room; the mess, the chaos, the destruction. He would hate to be the one paying that bill.
He heads out of the room and slowly makes his way downstairs. He opens the door to the living room and peers in.
Beatrice clings to her daughter as if she is never letting go. Tears furiously protrude from her eyes as she hugs her daughter to her chest with sheer delight. She is too caught up in her passionate pleasure at her daughter’s safety and doesn’t even notice Eddie peering in.
Eddie decides it’s best to leave quietly. Beatrice will want to thank him, and he doesn’t do well with gratitude. He slowly opens the front door so as to be as quiet as possible and makes his way out into the morning sun.
A new year, a new millennium, the rain dripping from the sky, landing in sparse drops upon Eddie’s head. He takes a moment to breathe in the fresh morning air, to smell the rain hitting the ground all around him.
Cassy is free.
He straightens up his tie and takes it one foot at a time.
33
1 May 1996
Eddie stood over his sister’s grave with his hands in the pocket of his trench coat. He hadn’t long until Derek needed to take him back to the university for his
afternoon classes, but he would never miss his annual visit. This was the first time he had visited her with a clear mind. His hair was neatly parted, his top button done up beneath his tie and he could still smell his fresh new flat on his clothes.
“I love you, sis,” he told the headstone, laying his flowers down and walking away.
In the car park, his red Nissan Micra sat perfectly in the space where he had left it. He loved his car. It wasn’t much, but it was his.
Before he got into his car, he paused. He closed his eyes and took in the moment. He was about to go back to university to complete his demonology degree. After that, he had a very pressing commitment; dinner with his best friend and her girlfriend. It had taken him a long time, but he was there. He was happy.
“Eddie?” came a voice from behind him. He turned around to see Derek approaching.
“Derek?” he enquired, confused. “I was just on my way back now.”
“I needed to speak to you away from the university. What I’m about to say has not been sanctioned.”
Eddie’s eyebrows narrowed. He was confused. What on earth could he need to talk to him about?
As if answering his thoughts, Derek handed Eddie a newspaper, instructing him to turn to page nine. Eddie did so and, at the bottom of the page, he read the headline:
‘CRAZED MOTHER BECOMES LAUGHING STOCK OF TOWN AS SHE CLAIMS HER DAUGHTER IS POSSESSED.’
“Has anyone investigated?” Eddie asked.
“Oh yeah, the church has been, they say she’s full of it.” Derek nodded, leaning against the car next to Eddie. “They haven’t sanctioned it.”
“Well if the Church hasn’t sanctioned it –”
“I never told you this, but the Church didn’t sanction you, either.”
Eddie let this sink in.
“So why are you telling me this?”
Derek ceased leaning against the car and looked around, gathering his thoughts. He stroked his neat goatee, his mouth open about to speak for a good few seconds before he actually began talking.
“I think it’s time we stopped sticking you with books to pass a degree, Eddie.”
“What? But I’ve been working so hard.”
“Books are for people who can’t do it. We both know that’s not you.”
“You mean… you want me to come watch this girl’s exorcism?”
Derek smirked and chuckled to himself slightly.
“No, Eddie. I want you to perform this girl’s exorcism.”
Eddie’s jaw dropped. He froze. Him? Performing an exorcism? He had no field experience; besides the one occasion he was involved and ended up in hell.
“I don’t know…”
“Yes you do,” Derek assertively instructed him. “You have a gift, Eddie. And it is time we started exploring it.”
Eddie smiled. Derek was right. He did have a gift. If he could help people, he surely had an obligation to do so. No, more than an obligation; he had a desire to.
“Where do I start?”
Book Two
Descendant of Hell
1
13 February 1998
Two years before millennium night
Eddie flinched with irritation as he burnt his tongue on his coffee to go.
It was too dark to be morning.
The streaming air from the open window hit him in the face with the chill he needed to wake himself up, but it still wasn’t working. It was a grim morning, with grey clouds covering any sign of sun and the smell of fine rain in the air.
Derek turned the car down the gravel path between two empty fields. Eddie felt like empty fields were relatively redundant. Why not plant some seeds? Grow some crops? Maybe make a vineyard to help stock his shelves with wine? Instead this family had left the fields blank, dank, and depressing.
Derek pulled up at the farmhouse and switched off the engine. He remained still, in thought. Eddie looked to him with uncertainty, prompting him with his look to explain why they weren’t getting out of the car.
“Relax, Eddie, this isn’t going to work out if you’re too uptight.”
Uptight? I couldn’t be less uptight. I’m practically asleep, I’m so ungiddy.
It was true. Eddie was lethargic; not from excitement at the prospect of visiting his first haunting, which he was very excited about – to be honest, the reason he was so tired was because the excitement had kept him awake for so long last night that he ended up being woken up after a mere three hours of sleep.
“Take a moment,” Derek instructed, his voice low and calm. “Think about it. Take it in. The presence does not start with the person it’s haunting, it ends with them. The real work starts as you approach the house.”
Eddie rubbed his eyes and attempted to make sense of what Derek had just said. He knew it was true, he knew it was helpful; God, he even knew it was wise. But it was too early to be forcing his mind to comprehend this shit.
“Wh- what?” he prompted as a response.
“You have a gift, Eddie. I have to rely on inkling alone, but with you, we know you are able to pick up on these things. So pick up on it. What do you feel?”
What do I feel? Hmm. What do I feel…
“I kinda need a poo, to be honest. That coffee…”
“Eddie, focus!”
“Fine.”
He gave his head a shake, cleared his mind and locked his eyes shut. Doing his best not to fall asleep, he focussed on his breathing, on remaining calm, on thinking with clarity. It just sent him back to sleep. His eyes became heavy and his mind began to drift…
THWACK! That’s when it hit him, sending his head jolting upright as his eyes shot open and his whole body paralysed. His surroundings left him at lightning speed and all he could see and feel was the inside of the bedroom second to the right up the stairs within the house.
He saw a girl.
But, it wasn’t a girl.
At least, he could tell it was a girl’s body, but what was there was…
He retched. Whatever it was made him feel ill; it was unnatural. He could smell burning, but not normal burning – it felt like someone had lit an incense candle that was giving off a foul stench and filling him with hatred. Anger surged through his body like cocaine, filling him from the top of his head to the tip of his toes with a sense of greed and disdain for the world around him.
He saw inside this girl. He could see her in there, screaming, desperately reaching out, but she was tiny, a minuscule version of herself being oppressed by a giant red claw with rotting fingernails.
With a violent jolt, his body shuddered and he spewed up a mouthful of blood, spraying it over the dashboard of the car. Panting heavily, he lent his hand forward as he regained consciousness, his eyes shooting wide open.
“Er… sorry about the…” Eddie began, gesturing to the red liquid he had spewed moments before. Everything spun and he could feel his arms shaking like he was cold, which contradicted the sweat trickling down his forehead.
“It’s okay, Eddie, just relax. You’ve had what we call a vision.”
“A vision?”
If that’s what they were calling it, he’d rather not. He felt like he’d just gotten off a rollercoaster ride.
“Yes, they are harmless, really.”
“Harmless?” Eddie heard himself replying a pitch higher than he expected. “Fricking harmless? Have you ever had a vision?”
“No, I’m not able to.”
“Right then – no vision, no opinion.”
He burst the car door open and fell to his knees. He coughed up a bit more blood and used the car to drag himself to his feet. His accelerated breathing subsided as his shaking ceased and he regained control over his body.
“What did you see?” asked Derek, who had somehow made his way out of the car and to Eddie’s side without being detected.
“The girl, in there, it’s not her. I mean, it’s her, but it’s not. Something has her. And she’s trapped inside, and she’s scared, and she’s –”
�
��Okay, Eddie, that’s great, you did great.”
With a patronising yet reassuring pat on the back, Derek left Eddie to make sense of it all as he retrieved his bag from the boot. He lugged it over his shoulder and limped it to the door, waving Eddie to follow and producing a loud, clear knock on the front door.
Eddie’s agreement to attend this exploit was down to his pure admiration for Derek and Derek’s unfaltering belief in what Eddie was capable of. But he had never been warned about getting visions that practically gave him a seizure.
“You think I’m going to have more of them?” Eddie screeched at Derek, still not able to calm his voice.
“Yes. As you get used to them, they will become easier and you’ll gain more control.”
Gain more control?
The door opened, revealing a solemn, middle-aged man and a distraught woman standing before them. Their faces were dropped and their clothes bore patchy stains – grey faded skin drooped beneath their blood-shot eyeballs.
“Good morning, my name is Derek, and this is Edward. May we come in?”
“Please,” replied the man, showing them to the living room and closing the door behind them.
The woman obliged Derek’s request for a cup of tea for both him and Eddie as the man indicated for them to sit. They perched on the edge of the sofa as the couple introduced themselves as Julie and Dawson.
Julie handed Eddie a cup of tea that looked so weak he dreaded drinking it. It was practically milk and hot water, with a little light-brown tinge to it. He already hated it here.
“So, is it Larissa…?” Derek prompted.
“Yes, she is upstairs, in her room. We daren’t go in there anymore,” Julie managed to utter before she began crying.
“The door normally just slams in our face,” Dawson continued, rubbing his wife’s back and turning to Derek with a face full of concern. “And if we even manage to get in there, it isn’t long before it starts attacking us, or itself.”