by Wood, Rick
One minute he was calling me their saviour, the next he’s calling me a cunt.
“Take off!” Eddie screamed at Levi’s urgent face visible through the window.
The rotor blade batted around furiously, rising the helicopter off the ground, hovering over the grass. Wind and leaves hit Eddie in the face, the aerodynamic resistance pushing him back. Amongst the various elements working against him and his aching muscles, he managed to dive into the helicopter and throw Billy’s body onto the floor, pinning him down with all his weight.
Looking up, he saw the mother jump on too. Derek grabbed hold of the landing skids and, as they rose into the air, wrestled himself onto the helicopter, allowing him to watch the two men from social services come to a halt.
Eddie felt smug, but it didn’t last long. The boy was still continuously thrashing out at him, and the helicopter had no doors shielding him from disallowing the boy to throw himself out of the helicopter entirely.
Derek strapped the mother into the helicopter seatbelt and turned to Eddie. They shared eye contact for a moment, the urgency of the situation silently confirmed.
“Where we going?” Levi shouted over his shoulder, straight to business.
“Social services!” Derek screamed back and turned his head to Eddie. “Let’s go, Eddie.”
“How?” Eddie shrieked.
“Look, we have five minutes before we have the police cars chasing us, police helicopters trailing us. We aren’t going to be able to sustain this for long. We have to give him up.”
Eddie nodded. Derek spoke sense.
“How long have I got?” he requested.
“Levi,” Derek aimed at the pilot. “What’s our ETA?”
“Seven minutes.”
“You have seven minutes, Eddie.”
Seven minutes?
He had never done an exorcism in seven minutes before. These things took hours. This wasn’t a challenge, this was impossible.
“Derek, I can’t do it. Even me, with this gift, I can’t pray a demon out of a child’s body in seven minutes.”
The demon had ceased thrashing and just lay there cackling. It knew they had no chance; it knew it wasn’t going anywhere. It had this child’s body. It knew they couldn’t do anything to get out of it. It didn’t need to thrash, it could just lay back and enjoy.
“You stand no chance…” the deep voice croaked.
Eddie bowed his head. All that effort getting to the helicopter, being chased down, for nothing. He could taste defeat; the bitter, old saliva of dehydration in his mouth.
The sound of the boy’s mother whimpering faded into the sound of the violent rotor blades keeping them in the air.
“You should lead us,” the demon aimed at Eddie. “You are destined to lead us.”
“Fuck – you!” he cried out. He was sick of demon’s saying this stuff to him, constantly. He wished he could make it stop. That, mixed with despairing anger at failing this boy, made him feel sick.
“You can do it, Eddie,” Derek decided.
“No I can’t!”
“Not through prayer. Through other means.”
Other means? What on earth was he on about?
“Eddie, you have been practising those spells, right?”
“Yes, but they all failed. I couldn’t even do the chest thing to Jenny.”
“Do it now.”
“It won’t work!”
“Then you won’t lose anything.”
Eddie bowed his head and closed his eyes. He couldn’t stand letting people down. But it hadn’t worked, and he’d tried it a fair few times.
“Three minutes,” pointed out Levi.
Eddie looked to Derek. He looked so optimistic, looking at him expectantly, with such faith.
“You can do it,” he whispered. Despite his voice getting lost in the sound of the helicopter, Eddie knew what he had said.
With a reluctant sigh, Eddie turned to the demon and put his hand on the boy’s chest.
“De medio tollere, toll de medio. Manum tuam et peccator.”
Nothing. As expected.
“Try it again!” Derek demanded.
“Two minutes,” announced Levi.
He placed his hand on Billy’s chest, ignoring the demon smirking at his failed attempts, feeling Derek approach him and watch over his shoulder.
“De medio tollere, toll de medio. Manum tuam et peccator.”
The demon sniggered.
“You’re saying it wrong.” Derek placed his hand on Eddie’s back.
“What?”
“You’re saying ‘man-oom’ tuam. It’s ‘man-um’ tuam.”
Eddie’s face dropped. Of course. How could he be so stupid?
He turned to the boy again, forcing his hand against the heart of this poor, possessed child once more, pressing with ferocity.
“One minute!”
Taking in a deep breath, Eddie prepared himself, then looked into the eyes of the demon.
“De medio tollere, tell de medio,” he began once more. “Manum taum –” he spoke, correctly this time “- et peccator.”
The demon screamed out in pain, the boy’s chest rose into the air, gasping, thrashing, grasping.
Eddie saw a gush of grey air leave the boy’s mouth, flying out continuously, echoes of hooves and horns within the mix of smoke.
Then nothing.
The boy lay down. Still. His eyes opened slowly, focussing on Eddie, then on Derek, then on Jane.
“Mum?” he spoke. “Mum, is that you?”
Jane peeled off her seatbelt and practically leapt toward her son, grabbing him into a hug, holding him tight, furiously crying, telling him how much she loved him.
And, as the helicopter began its descent, ready to give the boy up and hope to avoid any reprimand from the law, Eddie looked to Derek.
Derek smiled proudly and gave Eddie a gentle nod. He had done it. He couldn’t believe it.
18
3 December 2001
The heat in Kelly’s room was intense. Palpable. She could feel lust in the air.
Doug was on top and she was clawing her fingers into his back, tightly grabbing his skin. Sinking her fingers in, grabbing onto him, begging him not to stop.
She looked into his eyes.
A face appeared behind him.
She closed her eyes and ignored it.
She knew it was a dream. It was one of those weird situations where you know it’s a dream, but you don’t care. As it was just too damn good.
Suddenly, she was falling. Her bed opened up like a trap door and she was plummeting downwards. When she landed, she was lying on a wooden box, wearing nothing.
She was surrounded by pitch-black, perched upon a wooden crate, the only dimly lit object in the room.
Footsteps approached, along with what sounded like a belt buckle, a chink that reminded her of cowboy films her dad used to watch when she was young.
“Who’s there?” she shouted out into the darkness, wishing to herself that she could wake up. “I know this isn’t real, you don’t frighten me.”
“Even in your dreams…” came a hissing voice, “you can’t escape us…”
She felt herself drop again.
Her eyes sprung open.
Her head lifted groggily and she forced her eyes wider, making sure she was now awake. She did not want to fall back asleep, as she knew she would likely return to her nightmare.
Leaning her head back, she noticed her pillow was gone. That’s when she realized there was nothing supporting her back. In fact, there was nothing beneath her at all.
She turned her head as slowly as she could, dreading what she was going to find. She saw the wall to her side; that was still there at least. But her bed was below her. Far below her.
She pinched herself. It hurt.
Darting her head around herself with more vigour, she yelped. She was floating, mid-air, around five feet above her bed.
How am I doing this…
She panicked. Her
heart pumped faster and the blood soared uncomfortably through her veins. She felt a breeze against her skin and smelt the early morning air as she noticed the window was open from the top, and she was right beside it.
She threw her hands out frantically, clambering, hoping to grab onto something. She reached her hand out to the wall, but as she did she moved slightly away from it. She was moving. Not only was she levitating, she was now being moved away from anything that could support her.
Tears ran down her cheeks and her arms lashed out again, with more ferocity, frantic attempts to grab onto something, or feel for something that would help support her.
“Let me down!” she cried out, her voice wavy from her tears.
Her whole body was kicking and grabbing out now, furiously attempting to do something to stop her.
Was this even real? Sure as she could feel the breeze from the window against her face, she was floating. She believed it. But she had believed so many things, like voices, images, people; and none of them had been real.
Or so she had been taught.
“Let me down!” this time she screamed it, fighting through the tears in an attempt to find a commanding tone of voice, demanding whatever was toying with her to let her go.
With a sudden rush, she was thrown back down to her bed, landing with a thump that went into her back and caused a stabbing pain.
She wriggled and she writhed, moaning and crying. For what, she didn’t even know anymore. It could have been the pain shooting through her back. It could have been the fact she was just levitating, or it could have just been the simple truth that she really didn’t know what was real anymore.
Either way, she did not stop crying until her alarm clock went hours later. Even then she relied on her shower to wash her tears away.
*
Kelly picked up a sandwich and shuffled her way through the corridors of the university. She had barely managed to stay awake through her morning lectures and, if she was honest, she probably couldn’t recollect a single thing that had been said.
As she was walking to find somewhere to have her lunch, a sign caught her eye. It was indicating the direction to the Parapsychology and Paranormal Science Department.
Paranormal Science? What kind of subject was that? As in, they were investigating the paranormal?
Maybe they could help…
She entered the department, looking around, not entirely sure what she would expect. After all, aren’t people who studied parapsychology normally nut jobs?
She entered a bare lecture theatre, finding an office at the end of it. She gently knocked and nudged the door open.
“Hello?”
A man with an open waistcoat, an open top button and a puzzled look on his face looked back at her. He rested his chin on his hand, softly stroking his goatee.
“Can I help you?” he requested, with a weary voice and tired eyes.
A few men in suits barged past her and into the office with boxes and collected a number of files, barging past her again as they removed them.
“Is this a bad time?” Kelly asked, slightly perturbed as to what they were doing.
“It’s not a great time; as you can see the university are putting us under investigation thanks to –” he halted, realising this was information she didn’t need to know, and composed himself. “Sorry, miss, how can I help you?”
“Erm, I don’t know really. If this is a bad time…”
“It’s fine, best time as ever. My name is Derek, let’s start there.”
“Mine’s Kelly.”
“Nice to meet you, Kelly. Why don’t you come in, take a seat, and tell me what’s on your mind?”
Kelly entered the office and sat opposite Derek on the edge of her chair. She hesitated, not sure where to start.
“I… I’ve been having a few, like, disturbances.”
“Disturbances?” Derek mused, sticking out his bottom lip to demonstrate his consideration. “And you consider these disturbances to be of paranormal origin.”
“I… I don’t know. I was sectioned before, and I thought it was done, but…”
“If you were diagnosed with mental health issues and treated for them, I think that probably gives you your explanation I’m afraid, Kelly.”
“I woke up last night and I was levitating five feet in the air above my bed.”
Derek fell silent. She had just blurted it out, hoping that this would be the person who did not believe she was crazy. Surely, out of everyone she had ever been honest with, this man would be the one to not have her sectioned. Following a moment of silence, she instantly filled with self-doubt and regretted telling him.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you that, please forget I did.”
She went to get up, but Derek waved her back down.
“It’s okay, I’m not going to run off telling people. You’ve come to the right person. Why don’t you explain to me what exactly happened.”
“I don’t know… that’s the thing. I just woke up and I was mid-air and I couldn’t get down. I went to touch the wall but whatever was doing it moved me away. I – I don’t even know if it was real.”
“Did it feel real? I mean, in your gut, real?”
No one had ever asked her that before. Anytime she was honest about these things, people’s expression would immediately turn sombre and they would recoil in awkwardness, not sure what to say. This man didn’t. He seemed intrigued, almost fascinated. This only made her more curious.
“I guess so.”
“Kelly, this isn’t something that people understand, or often even believe in. You see, people will hear you say this and assume you are crazy. I don’t.”
Kelly smiled, finding acceptance like she hadn’t before.
“Listen,” he told her. “Ninety percent of the time it is mental health issues, but if you want to be sure…”
“I do, I really do.”
“Then we can perform some tests, see what we find.”
She grinned. She wasn’t entirely sure why she was so elated, but she was; finally, somebody who didn’t think she was mental.
“Come back tomorrow at nine and we’ll get started.”
“Thank you,” she said, standing up and shaking his hand, giddy. “Thank you so much.”
He returned her smile and she practically danced out of the room.
That was, until it dawned on her that the idea of being haunted by the paranormal was far scarier than any mental health diagnosis.
19
4 December 2001
Kelly shot out of bed, brushing her hair and teeth as quickly as she could. In fact, she arrived at the university so early that she had to hold back, worried she may appear overly eager. Then she wondered why she was trying not to seem overly eager; it wasn’t a date, it was a few tests. Surely there was no reason to seem overly eager about a few tests?
As 8.50 a.m. came around, she decided it was close enough that she wouldn’t be weirdly keen to turn up. She drank her coffee she had been slowly sipping to pass the time and made her way to the Parapsychology and Paranormal Science Department.
She poked her head around the corner of the lecture theatre to find Derek and another man setting up a contraption that looked a lot like the beds she used to be restrained to in the mental health unit.
“Sorry I’m early…” she said weakly to gain their attention as she tiptoed in.
“Ah, Kelly,” Derek greeted her with a welcoming smile. “We’re not quite ready yet, but feel free to have a seat.”
She meandered slowly to the front row of the lecture theatre, decided the front row was overly keen, and made her way to the third row, watching with fascination what they were doing.
They had a large area at the front of the lecture theatre to set up in. They had a bed – well, it was like a bed, except it looked more like a propped-up plank. Next to that was a machine, a camera with a tripod at the foot of the ‘bed,’ and a number of lights in a circle.
“What is all thi
s?” she asked, but too quietly for either of them to hear, so she decided not to ask again. They were completely immersed in what they were doing, and it looked like anything else was tuned out. It seemed far more professional than what Kelly was expecting, though she wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting. Either way, the manner in which they set up the equipment was like clockwork, efficiently collaborating to get everything ready. They had clearly done this before.
Bang on 9.00 a.m. and they were ready. Derek turned to Kelly with a smile.
“I know this may seem intimidating from looking at it, but trust us, we know what we are doing. If you would come down here please.”
Kelly nodded and walked toward them. Her knees felt suddenly weak. Her stomach twisted. She felt butterflies. Acknowledging she was nervous, she did her best to calm herself.
“This is my partner in the paranormal, Edward King.”
The other man offered his hand and Kelly shook it.
“Call me Eddie,” he told her.
“Have a seat,” Derek instructed, and Kelly complied, sitting on the edge of the make shift bed.
“What is all this stuff?”
“Good question. Please allow me to explain.” He darted to the camera at the end of the bed as Eddie continued to set up and program the equipment. “This is a camera triggered to flash and take a picture when something interferes with its ultraviolet light, or is of a certain frequency, as malevolent spirits often are.”
He made his way to the machine Eddie was setting up. “This is a heart monitor. If you have ever been to a hospital, I am sure you will have seen one. This is as a matter of safety. We want to make sure your vitals are okay throughout, and if there is ever an irregularity, we will cease the experiment immediately. Speaking of which, place these on yourself please.”
He handed some pads to Kelly. Funnily enough, she didn’t need explaining to about what they were; she’d had her vitals monitored many a time. She attached them to her forehead, over her heart, and to her wrist, as Derek dashed around to the lights.
“These are our lights, We won’t be using the house lights today. Each of them is a different colour, allowing us to see any interference picked up by a different wavelength – gamma, what have you – it is all very complicated, but basically put, these lights pick up various things that indicate to us whether something is present that is of the paranormal. Satisfied?”