by Tim Miller
Chapter 11
Father Pierce, 12:45 a.m.
The sound of my phone ringing woke me from a deep sleep. I had to be at the hospital by 8 a.m., so I was usually in bed by 10 p.m. I thought I heard it ringing a few minutes ago, but ignored it. The third time it started ringing, I finally answered.
“Hello?” I mumbled.
“Father Pierce?” a female voice asked.
“Yes?”
“This is Jackie, in the ER. I’m one of the nurses.”
“Yes Jackie, how can I help you?”
“The police just brought a girl in, a patient. They are taking her up to the psychiatric unit right now. But I think she might be demon possessed.”
“Demon possessed?” Now I was wide awake. This was new. “What makes you think something like that?”
“Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but this girl shows all the signs. She has super strength. She talks in gibberish, which sounds like another language. It’s a real mess Father. I think only you can help her.”
“Jackie. Calling me like this is highly unorthodox,” I said. Even though I’m a man of faith, I have to follow hospital guidelines. Being called in by a nurse to perform an exorcism wasn’t in the hospital’s protocols.
“I understand Father. I just think you should come take a look at her, see what’s going on. If I’m wrong, then I apologize. I know at my church they talk about these things. One of our missionaries said he’s helped cast out demons before, and from what he described, they were acting like this girl,” Jackie explained.
Some churches blamed demons for everything under the sun and held exorcisms as part of their Sunday service. The Catholic Church has strict guidelines on what they consider possession, and when they would allow an exorcism. Since I was awake anyway, I figured I may as well see what was going on.
“Okay Jackie. “I’ll come and take a look.”
“Thank you Father.”
I hung up and got dressed. I only lived a few minutes from the hospital. When I arrived, I went straight to the psychiatric unit, where I found the girl restrained to a bed. A police officer was present, with Doctor Bennett. The doctor didn’t seem very pleased to see me, but I assured him I wouldn’t interfere. At his request I changed out of my clerical clothing and into hospital scrubs. This way, if the girl had some religious fixation, the sight of a priest wouldn’t upset her further.
It didn’t do us much good, because she managed to break out of her restraints and escaped through the ceiling panels. The officer got word that she was on the fifth floor, the pediatric unit, so I went up there with him. We had to take the stairs since the power was still out. On the way up, we thought we saw the girl at the top of the stairwell once, but only for a split second. Officer Roman even asked if I needed to give him a blessing. Not that I was against blessings, but I didn’t hand them out to non-Catholics to ease their fears.
Once at the unit, we found a little girl, who appeared terrified. She told Officer Roman he was going to die tonight. It was a very strange situation. The officer reacted as if he had no idea what she was talking about. It could have been nonsense, but it made me wonder. As a priest, I’ve taken confessions from people in all professions, who’ve confessed everything under the sun. I’m bound by my vows, to keep all confessions confidential, no matter how bad it is. It can be tough sometimes, but it is a sacred rite that must be protected.
We split up, and I headed farther down the hallway, checking each room as I went. There had been no sign of the girl from my end. I felt my cell phone buzzing in my pocket. It was a text from Dr. Bennett. Apparently the girl had called Officer Roman a murderer while they were down on the psych unit, and said that he’d killed his mother. Dr. Bennett looked up Roman’s mother’s medical record. She had died of cancer, yet part of her record was missing. He told me to be cautious, both with the girl, and around Officer Roman. I was always a big supporter of the police, even volunteered as a police chaplain at times, but police officers are people, and none of us are perfect. If Roman had something to do with his mother’s death, there’s no telling how far he’d go to cover it up.
No sooner did I reply to Dr. Bennett, then my phone went completely dead. Before I could figure out why, I heard a gunshot. I ran toward the front of the unit. There was Officer Roman, standing with his gun pointed at the ground. A nurse was standing behind him, and Amanda, our patient, was lying on the ground with a gunshot wound in her stomach. I thought I was going to be sick at the sight of this little girl bleeding from a gunshot wound.
“She came at us!” Roman explained.
“So you shot her! She’s a kid!” I shouted. “I’ll go get help. They’ll probably have to take her back to the ER.” I left them and headed back to the stairwell. Not only did I want to get her help, but also to get away from that cop, before he hurt me or anyone else.
Chapter 12
1:30 a.m.
I was out of breath by the time I reached the ER. I spotted one of the doctors, and let him know what had just happened. He spent five minutes trying to figure out why I was in scrubs. I figured I may as well change back into my regular clothes, as I was tired of explaining the scrubs. I should have worn jeans and a t-shirt.
The young doctor asked a nurse and some technicians to grab a stretcher and a bag, and they followed me up the stairs to the fifth floor. I was really wishing the power would come back on again, so I wouldn’t have to continue using the stairs. When we arrived, the girl was still lying on the floor. The nurse was applying pressure to the wound, while Officer Roman was standing there, but at least he’d put his gun away. The doctor who came with me is Karras. He glared at Roman, as the nurse began tending to the patient.
“So you shot this child?” Dr. Karras asked.
“Yes, and ask the nurse, she wasn’t the sweet little girl you see now. Go look in room 534 down the hall. There is a dead body hanging in there, one of your hospital technicians. You think she hanged herself?”
“That, or you did it. How about you get out of my hospital?”
“Look! The department will investigate the shooting and everything else that happened here tonight. I could very well get in big trouble for my actions, but I did what I felt I had to do to protect myself and the rest of your staff. If you have a problem with it, you’re welcome to file a complaint. For now, the power is out and none of the phones work, so as far as the police, I’m all you’ve got, and I’m not leaving. I’m especially not going anywhere until I know what’s happening with this kid, and someone can make sure she doesn’t flip out again.”
Officer Roman was shouting at this point. Dr. Karras ignored the outburst, and began working on the girl. While they did that, I went back downstairs to the psychiatric unit to change back into my clerical clothing.
The only person at the unit was the young technician. He was sitting at the desk, playing games on his phone.
“Have you seen Doctor Bennett?” I asked.
“No, not for awhile. He’s probably in his office. Or he left. He only comes in to do rounds sometimes.”
I went to the restroom, which connects from the med room, where my clothes were still hanging. I changed out of the scrubs and left the unit. As I reached the hall, I heard banging coming from Dr. Bennett’s office. I went over to the door and heard someone pounding from the inside. I turned the handle and it opened right up. Dr. Bennett was there, looking mortified. His white hair was sticking out from the sides.
“Father Pierce, thank God,” he said.
“What’s going on? Why are you in there pounding on your door?”
“It was locked.”
“No it wasn’t. I just turned the handle and it easily opened.”
“Then someone was messing with me. It was locked from the inside. Someone is messing with all of us. When I was stuck in there, and when I was in the basement looking at records, I saw this creepy white face. It was like some kind of mangled ghost face.”
“That’s crazy,” I said.
“Yes, I know. That’s why I said someone is trying to mess with us. Did they find the girl?”
“Yes, upstairs. Officer Clint Eastwood up there decided to shoot her when she ran at him.”
“Jesus Christ! Did he kill her?”
“No, luckily. She has a stomach wound though. Dr. Karras and a team from the ER are working on her right now. They’ll probably take her back down there. I doubt she will do anything else tonight with a hole in her gut.”
“Well, let’s hope not. I’d like to go check on her. Care to come along?”
“Sure. I hope you know, I didn’t come in to interfere in any way, you seemed kind of put off by my arrival.”
“I was at first. But I realize that you don’t exercise blind faith. You rely on science before any other conclusions. So I’m sure you’ve been helpful tonight.”
We made another trip down the stairs. By the time we arrived, they had the girl back in an exam room in the ER. Some auxiliary power for the ER had come back on, at least. It was a start. Hopefully the rest of the hospital lights would be back on soon. A nurse was with them, prepping the girl for surgery. We stepped in, as the nurse went through her checklist. The patient was already unconscious. I walked over to her and took her hand. Since she was asleep, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to say a prayer with her.
“St. Gerard,” I began, “who, like the Savior, loved children so tenderly and by our prayers freed many from disease and even death, listen to us who are pleading for our sick child. We thank God for the great gift of Amanda and ask Him to restore this child to health if such be His holy will. This favor, we beg of you through your love for all children and mothers.
Amen.”
I looked over to Dr. Bennett, who nodded to me. When I glanced back to Amanda, she remained motionless. I released her hand, as her eyes snapped open, and she let out a loud scream and punched me square in the nose, knocking me to the floor.
Chapter 13
2:00 a.m.
I awoke on the floor of Amanda’s room. Dr. Bennett and Karras were kneeling over me, while a team was trying to get Amanda back under control.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The girl knocked you out,” Dr. Bennett answered. “You prayed over her and she woke up and clocked you.”
“Wow.”.
“Don’t worry. You’re in good company, she punched the officer out earlier too,” Dr. Bennett said. After a couple minutes, the screaming stopped and Amanda was back asleep.
“What’d they do?” I asked.
“They finally got her 5 mg of Haldol. That should keep her out for awhile,” Dr. Bennett explained. “I spoke to Dr. Karras as well. While she’s out, we’re going to run some other tests on her. Her gunshot wound appears stable. The bullet went straight through. Dr. Karras will take her up to surgery, but first we’ll run a CT. He suggested the possibility of grand mal epilepsy causing her behavior. We’ll also do some blood work, to rule out any substance abuse. It’s most likely one of the two, if not a combination.”
“That’s comforting,” I said. “I hope you find something.” The two men helped me to my feet, as I brushed myself off. “Where is the officer?”
“He went to the group home where Amanda had been staying. He’s going to see what he can find out from them.”
“I suppose that’s a good idea. Just hope that lunatic doesn’t shoot anyone else.”
“No kidding,” Dr. Bennett said. “I will stick around here. You’re welcome to stay if you’d like. You’ve hung around for this long.”
“Thank you.” I said. “I think I will.”
As I stood, the transportation staff came to take Amanda to surgery. In the meantime, I figured I’d make some phone calls, in the event of a worst case scenario. Some of the power was back on. My office wasn’t far from the ER, so I headed that direction. Down one hallway and to the right, I unlocked my door and stepped into the room. I tried the light switch, it worked. Maybe things would finally start settling down. Thankfully, the phone was working as well. In light of the night’s events, I called Bishop Laurel, and woke him, as I knew I would. He wasn’t happy to receive the call, but after he calmed down, I explained the situation.
“So why are you calling me about this now?” he asked.
“Have you heard anything I said?”
“I have, but maybe I’m missing something.”
“Years ago, I attended a seminar on demon possession. I know it’s rare and the church is trying to avoid dealing with it. Yet this girl meets all the criteria we learned about. She spoke in Greek. There is no way a girl of this age would know Greek. She ripped a door from its hinges, she climbed through the ceiling as if she was Spiderman. They are going to run more tests to rule anything else out. But, I figured I would let you know what is going on. If the tests all come back clear, I won’t know what to do.”
There was a long silence on the other end.
“Bishop?”
“I’m still here, I’m thinking.” “All right. I’ll need to call the Archbishop. Call me back once the tests are complete, and we’ll go from there.”
“Yes, your Excellency, thank you.”
I hung up and leaned back in my chair. I opened my desk drawer, and dug around until I found the flask. I wasn’t a heavy drinker by any stretch, but a little nip here and there kept the edge off. This was one of those times. I kept some Sailor Jerry’s spiced rum in the flask. I took a few sips and sat back, eyes closed. In a moment, the soothing calm of the drink came over me. I put the cap back on the flask, and set it back in the drawer. All I could do now was wait.
Chapter 14
Officer Roman, 2:00 a.m.
My cruiser slowed and stopped in front of the quiet group home. It looked like any normal house, maybe larger than most of the rest in the neighborhood. A lot of non-profits set homes like this up, through the community. The idea is to integrate troubled kids back into society. In Amanda’s case, there’s no telling how she got here to begin with. She had to have a family or something. These homes usually have a twenty-four hour staff, so someone should be awake inside. If not, someone isn’t doing their job.
I walked to the front of the house and rang the doorbell. After a minute, the door cracked open to reveal a woman’s face.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Yes ma’am. I’m Officer Roman. You had a girl run away from here earlier, Amanda Ross?”
She opened the door and stepped outside onto the porch, gently closing the door behind her. The woman was short, and even in the low light of my flashlight, I could see she was in her late forties or early fifties. She looked incredibly tired. I suppose I would too if I worked the graveyard shift at a group home for a bunch of troubled kids. I never had kids of my own, so I couldn’t imagine having to care for someone else’s kids.
“Amanda,” she said. “You find her?”
“Yeah, she’s pretty messed up though,” I began.
“Yeah, no kidding. She hurt anybody?”
“As a matter of fact she did, several people. She possibly killed someone too.”
“Doesn’t surprise me,” she said. “Can you guys keep her?” She obviously didn’t care for Amanda at all, although if she was anything like what I witnessed tonight, I can’t blame her.
“Well, she’s not going anywhere for a while. What can you tell me about her?”
“Let’s see. She got here a few months ago, and has always been a little off. She didn’t get along with anyone. Though at first she mostly kept to herself, stayed in her room and wouldn’t eat with anyone else. Didn’t like to do her chores either. She smelled too, the kid didn’t like to shower.”
“How did she get here? Any info on her family?”
“I heard her parents were both killed, but not sure how. They’re from out of state, I think Maine. She was in juvie up there, after her parents died, but they brought her clear out here for some reason.”
“Any idea how the parents died?” I asked.
“
Her dad was killed in a car accident. Mom committed suicide shortly after. Not sure how, though.”
“Are there any records of any of this?”
“Probably, in Maine. After she was here for a month or so, she started getting even more crazy. She’d talk in her sleep at first. Then, she started screaming in her sleep, and finally sleep walking. One night she assaulted a staff member, while sleep walking. I never saw that before. Everyone here was afraid of her.”
“Why didn’t they send her away?”
“She’s fifteen. Unless she nearly kills someone, the county facilities can’t keep her, they are overflowing already with the violent ones. Earlier tonight she completely lost it. We went to get her for dinner and she came bursting through the door like a rabid dog. She bit one kid and knocked a bunch of furniture over and took off out the front door. We called the Sheriff’s department and made a report, but to be honest, I hope she never comes back. If she’s hurt the people you say she has, she will hopefully go away for good. There’s no helping that one.”
“Yeah, I’m sure she won’t be back here. Anything else you can tell me, any other info you might have?”
“No, I need to get back inside though. The rest of the kids seem much happier now that she’s gone.”
“Okay, thank you,” I said. She went back into the house, as I walked out to my car. Standing by my vehicle was a teenage girl, wearing a nightgown. I was not in the mood for this. I’d had enough of cryptic messages from creepy kids for one night.
“You okay young lady? You shouldn’t be out here.”
“Did you catch the devil?” she asked.
“The who?”
“The devil. She used to live here, but she got away. Did you catch her?”
“If you mean Amanda, yes, we caught her. She won’t be back to bother you again.” The girl just stood there, looking at me. “Did she hurt you?”
“She hurts everyone. She’ll hurt you too.”