“Thanks! This weather is nuts.”
Bright streaks of lightning scattered across the sky over the youth home, followed by a deafening boom of thunder. A sudden gust of wind nearly blew the umbrella out of Miss Jimenez’s hand.
“Let me,” I said. I grabbed the handle and held the umbrella over the two of us as we rushed towards the front door and under the cover of the awning. “It doesn’t look like this rain is letting up anytime soon, so we may be stuck here for a while.” I closed the umbrella and shook it while Miss Jimenez opened the door. I dropped the wet umbrella in a metal can inside that had two other umbrellas in it.
“I appreciate you coming,” the social worker said, adjusting her coat.
“I’m off duty, Maria. Just call me Aaron.”
“I’m not, Detective. You can still call me Miss Jimenez. Follow me.” She smiled and then walked up to the receptionist desk where a young man was working the graveyard shift. “Could you let Mr. Hadley know that Detective Sanders is here? I’ll be taking him up to Cody Sumner’s room now.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The young man picked up the phone and held it with his shoulder as he dialed the director’s extension.
Miss Jimenez motioned for me to follow her up the large staircase behind the reception desk. “Cody’s room is the last one down the hall to the left.”
“Okay.” As I walked up the staircase behind Miss Jimenez, I couldn’t help but notice the sway of her butt. It was as if she were taunting me, the way she eased up the stairs. Another rumble of thunder caused the lights to flicker, and shook the large chandelier hanging high above the staircase landing. The decorative crystals vibrated. “Wow! That was one hell of a blast.”
Miss Jimenez turned to face me as she reached the landing, “Don’t worry. This place may be old, but it has a good backup generator, in case we lose power. She pointed up towards the emergency flood lights hanging high on the walls. “We could lose power for days and still have lights and air conditioning.”
“Impressive.”
Miss Jimenez climbed the left staircase from the landing and said, “Plenty of tax dollars went into updating this facility.”
“Tax dollars?” I stepped beside Miss Jimenez in an effort to keep from getting distracted. “I thought this was a private facility.”
“Grants, Detective. Big ones, too.”
I shook my head and stated, “As much money as the Catholic Church has rolling in, not to mention the private donors, you’d think tax dollars wouldn’t be necessary.”
Miss Jimenez glanced at me, but didn’t add anything. As we reached the top of the staircase, she stopped and said, “Can I ask you something personal?”
“I don’t know. Depends.”
“I was just wondering…” She paused, pursed her lips, and then headed down the hallway.
“What?” I stood near the top of the staircase. “Wait a minute. You don’t get to just walk away after getting my permission to ask something personal.”
“It’s nothing. Forget I asked.”
“No, no, no. I know that look.” I caught up with her and blocked her path. I formed a playful smile and said, “And the answer is yes, I’d love to have dinner with you sometime.”
“Ugh!” Miss Jimenez protested. “You really are an egotistical bastard, aren’t you?” She pushed past me. “And by the way,” she added, “I noticed you looking at my ass.”
“What?” I responded, trying to sound innocent. “I think you have a… um…” I stopped myself before I said something she would misinterpret as sexist and insulting. “You’re an attractive woman, Maria. I can’t help it.”
She stopped, but didn’t turn around.
Uh-oh. What did I say?
“Thank you for the compliment,” she said.
“Um… your welcome?” She caught me off guard. “So… um… what about that personal question?”
“Let’s just focus on business shall we?” She continued down the hall and then pointed. “That’s Cody’s room over there… the last door on the left.”
She swiped a security card, entered a code on a keypad, and tapped on the door with her knuckle a couple of times before entering. She poked her head inside and said, “Cody? It’s Miss Jimenez. Detective Sanders is here.”
She stepped inside the room and motioned for me to follow her. The room was dark, illuminated by only a couple of nightlights. The window shades had been drawn, but the bright flashes of lightning still seeped through. There were two beds in the room, but I didn’t see Cody’s roommate Andrew. Cody was sitting at the head of his bed with his arms wrapped around his legs. He rocked slightly back and forth while mumbling something incoherent.
Miss Jimenez knelt next to him and asked, “Feeling okay?”
He didn’t answer her, but kept mumbling and rocking back and forth.
“Detective Sanders is here,” she said again. “I’ll leave the room so you two can talk, okay?”
Cody continued to rock back and forth, still mumbling.
“Can you understand what he’s saying?” I asked.
Miss Jimenez leaned forward slightly and nodded. “He’s reciting the Lord’s Prayer.” She stood next to me and whispered, “He was really frightened about something, Detective.”
“Can you just call me Aaron? Detective is way too formal.”
Miss Jimenez sighed. “Okay, fine… Aaron.”
I smiled. “Can I call you Maria, then?”
“I’ll leave you two alone now.” She glanced at me and grinned. “The door will lock behind me, so just call me on your cell when you’re done. I’ll be in Mr. Hadley’s office.”
“All right… Maria.”
She didn’t say anything further and left the room. As soon as the door shut, Cody stopped rocking, but continued to mumble The Lord’s Prayer. I scanned the dimly lit room and found a desk with a small lamp on it. I turned it on, grabbed the wooden desk chair and carried it over to sit next to Cody’s bed.
“Our Father which art in heaven,” the boy said, loud enough for me to understand. “Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Cody shifted his eyes to me and recited, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and glory, forever. Amen.”
Cody stared at me and repeated the Lord’s Prayer three times with his arms held tight around his legs. Then he stopped praying, but continued to gaze into my eyes.
“What did you see, Cody?”
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Cody stopped at that verse and stared.
“Did you want me to pray with you? Is that it?”
I joined Cody in reciting the Lord’s Prayer again from the beginning. We both spoke in unison. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” A loud crash of thunder made me jump, causing me to miss the next verse, but Cody continued. I joined the boy at “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
We said the Lord’s Prayer over and over for several minutes. I listened to the thunder rumble and the rain slap against the single window as we recited the traditional prayer. I could feel a sense of peace overcome me as we prayed. My heartbeat slowed. My breathing regulated to a steady rhythm. After several more recitations of the Lord’s Prayer, I realized that I had closed my eyes and was the only one praying.
I opened my eyes as Cody put his hand on my forearm. He sat cross-legged at the edge of his bed and focused on making eye contact with me, but he wouldn’t say anything. He released my arm and closed his eyes. His lips moved as he mouthed something, which I assumed was a silent prayer. He did it for several minutes, and then the rain stopped.
When he reopened his
eyes, he asked, “Why did you let them put me here?”
That was out of my control, but where else could he go? He was an orphan. I avoided his question with another. “What were you praying?”
“The Lord’s Prayer.”
“I mean when you were praying silently.”
“The Lord’s Prayer,” Cody insisted. He then asked again, “Why did you let them put me here? I hate it here.”
I sat back in the uncomfortable wooden chair and shifted my weight. I couldn’t blame him. “Having problems with the other kids?”
“You saw what they did to me.”
“Did what? What did they do to you?”
“You know.”
“No, I don’t.” I did have an idea though. “Tell me.”
“Could you turn on the big light? I want to show you something.”
When I switched on the main bedroom light, Cody lifted one side of his shirt, revealing large purple and black bruises.
“Who did this to you?” I grabbed my phone and scrolled through the contacts list.
“No. Don’t call her.”
“Cody, if you’re being physically abused, Miss Jimenez needs to know about it.”
“It wasn’t any of the counselors,” Cody explained. “It was Joseph and the others.” With intensity in his eyes, he added, “The football. He hit me with the football and then spit in my face. They started kicking me when no one was looking.”
I stood, disbelief overwhelming me. “That’s impossible.” My statement was more of an effort to convince myself that the nightmares were simply that, just dreams.
“You saw it happen. Didn’t you?”
I tossed my phone on Cody’s bed, ran both hands over my head, and interlocked them behind my neck. I didn’t want to believe it, especially because of what I’d seen before waking up.
“When did this happen?”
“Yesterday, after lunch.” He gazed at me. “I know you saw it in your dream. I could feel it.”
“You could feel it? What do you mean by that?”
“I don’t know.” Cody shrugged. “I just could.”
“But…” I closed my eyes and shook my head a little. “I didn’t have this dream until about an hour ago. How could you have felt me dreaming something when I hadn’t even dreamt it yet?”
Cody gave me a slight shrug with pitiful eyes. “I just knew.”
“Why didn’t you tell anybody, Cody? I mean about these boys hurting you.”
“It’ll just get worse if I do.”
I put my hand on the boy’s shoulder and promised, “It won’t get any worse, because I’m taking care of this today. Joseph will not bother you anymore.”
“No!” Cody grabbed my phone as I reached for it.
“What are you doing? Give it back, Cody.”
“I don’t want you to tell Miss Jimenez.”
“I can’t just ignore a physical assault. I don’t have a choice. I have to tell her and Mr. Hadley. I also need to find out why you were left unsupervised.”
“There was something else in your dream,” Cody said with despair in his eyes. “I had the same nightmare tonight.”
I instinctively knew what he referred to, yet I still couldn’t believe the possibility of us sharing the same dreams. “Cody, it was just a dream.”
“But what if it wasn’t?” Cody scooted back to the head of his bed. “I’ve had dreams like this before… and they were real. You believe me, right? You have too!”
“Are you talking about Cullen and Jason… and your parents?”
Cody nodded.
I sat on the chair and held my hand out. “Give me the phone.” After Cody hesitated, I said, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. At least not yet.”
“You promise?”
“Yes, I promise. Now give me the phone.” Reluctantly, he handed the phone back to me. “As crazy and unbelievable as it sounds,” I said, “I believe you. You can see things in your dreams that have actually happened, and for some weird and creepy reason we’re having the same dreams.”
“I don’t see things in my dreams after they happen.” Cody stepped off the bed and walked to the window. He opened the shades.
“So, you see them before they happen. Like a premonition? Is that how you knew about Jackson?” I joined Cody by the window. “It’s not that unusual. Clairvoyants have helped police departments with unsolved cases for years. Sometimes they help prevent crimes before they even happen.”
“When I have the devil’s nightmare, it’s already too late.”
“I don’t understand.” I leaned against the wall next to the window. “Tell me about this devil’s nightmare. You think it’s some kind of curse?”
Cody nodded and stared out the window. “I’m afraid to sleep now. I’m afraid if I sleep, I’ll have another nightmare. And you’re the only one who believes me. That’s why I don’t talk to anyone here… not even Miss Jimenez.” Cody’s voice cracked as he said, “I don’t know what to do. My mom is dead. My friends are dead. Jackson is dead. That poor tow truck guy is dead. And it’s all my fault. I wish I was dead too.”
Cody fell to his knees as tears flowed from his reddened eyes.
“Hey,” I said, kneeling next to him with both of my hands on his arms. “None of this was your fault. Don’t think that, okay? We’ll figure this out… together. You, me, and Miss Jimenez.”
“No!” Cody protested and cried, “Don’t tell her. I like her and—”
“She really cares about you, Cody. I think she can help.”
He rushed to his bed and fell onto the mattress with his face buried in a pillow. He then raised his head and said, “I don’t want her to get hurt.”
“Why would she get hurt?”
Cody rolled over on his back and sat up. “Because of the devil’s nightmare,” he said, his face flustered. “I can’t control it.”
I ran both hands through my hair and said, “You’re not making any sense. Help me understand what you’re talking about.”
“My friends. My mom. My stepdad. Jackson. You.”
“Me? What?”
“I’ve been having nightmares ever since I started reading that stupid book that Jackson’s dad gave me.”
“Whoa, wait a minute!” I sat on the bed across from Cody’s bed and pressed him further. “Are you talking about that old book I showed you? Jackson’s dad gave that to you?”
“It’s called the 666 Rites of Demon Summoning.”
“So, you can read Latin.”
“No, I can’t. I mean…” Cody sighed. “I shouldn’t be able to. I just read the words and after a while I could understand it, but I never told Jackson that.”
“Tell me about Mr. Smith. How does he fit into the whole picture?”
“He worships the devil.”
“Like a Satanist?” For some reason, that didn’t surprise me. “Did he tell you that?”
Cody nodded and revealed, “So was Jackson. Well, sort of. They introduced me to it, too. I thought it was just a joke at first until I went to a devil worship meeting with them. I watched Jackson’s dad lead a dedication ritual.”
“What did they do? Did they sacrifice a cat or something?”
“No, that would be against the tenth law of Satanism,” Cody explained with certainty. “They burned black candles and… I really don’t want to explain it.”
“You don’t have to, but didn’t this dedication to Satan thing bother you? If Jackson’s dad was a real satanic priest or something, he wouldn’t be someone you’d want to be around.”
“He was the only one that ever listened to me about my stepdad hurting me. I told Jackson about it and he told his dad.” Cody gazed past me towards the window. I sighed, realizing abuse wasn’t something foreign to him. “I know he was weird with his devil worship stuff, but he’s the only one who seemed to really care about what I was going through. My mom wouldn’t even do anything because my stepdad beat her too.” Cody’s eyes reddened with more tears. “He told me that if I woul
d dedicate my soul to Satan and read a protection spell from the 666 Rites of Demon Summoning, then no one would ever hurt me again.”
I was appalled at the information about Jackson’s father and astonished at the level of Cody’s knowledge. Robert Smith had brainwashed the kid into believing Satanism and calling on demons was a good thing. I was by no means a practicing Christian, but even I knew that calling on demons was not something to trifle with. I’d never believed in physical demons, or even angels for that matter, but I did believe in the psychological damage that certain radical beliefs in any religion could cause a person, especially to a child, if taken too far.
“You didn’t go along with it, did you?”
“Jackson’s dad told me that certain demons, just like God’s angels, could protect me,” Cody explained, avoiding my question. “He said it was like having a guardian angel, except that the angels of darkness would do anything to protect me. He said that it would make me immortal.”
“Did you perform the dedication ritual?”
Cody hesitated, and then he nodded. “Mr. Smith said that if I wanted my stepdad to stop beating me and my mom, I should summon a demon of protection.”
I remembered Cody mumbling a name in the hospital room. “Was the name of this demon Forn—”
“No!” Cody yelled. “Don’t say his name! Mr. Smith told me that you should never say the name of a demon out loud unless you intend to summon it.”
I pulled out my cell phone and opened up my notepad application. I typed ‘Fornius’ on the touchpad and showed it to Cody. “Is this the name of the demon?”
Cody nodded and said, “You spelled it wrong, but yeah. He’s a demon of protection, a great marquis.”
I had always heard of Satan’s demons as the evil-doers and God’s angels as the ones doing the protecting. It was the complete opposite of what I had imagined. I questioned Cody on the validity of Robert Smith’s claim. “So, Jackson’s dad told you to summon this demon, Forn—” I stopped myself after seeing Cody’s eyes widen. “This demon that would supposedly protect you from harm? That just doesn’t fit the description of a demon, Cody. Demons are evil, not agents of peace.”
“You’re wrong, Aaron. There are some good demons too. This demon is one of them. After I did the ritual to summon him, my stepdad stopped hitting me and my mom. It was the first time in months that Tony didn’t hit me for stupid things like forgetting to take out the trash. He even started giving me an allowance, and took me to a baseball game.”
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