“A sweet one, at that! One I’d like to repeat. So, how about we get on with it?”
He wants to kill me.
“Let’s try to make the whole event shorter this time, shall we? It took three days last time. How about we manage it all in about fifteen minutes?”
“I’m not going to kill myself,” she said, almost assured that it was a fact.
Drew laughed again. “No, no, dearie. You misunderstand. This time, I don’t have to wait for you to do it. I’ve got a strapping young man here who can do it for me. Then I’ll have him either kill himself, die from ‘suicide by cop,’ or maybe I’ll just let him rot in prison. I’ll have to think it through for a bit.”
A demon. He really is a demon!
She’d been managing with Drew. But she had no idea how to deal with someone controlled by a demon!
Dear God….
Two words. Those two words, uncommon in her thoughts, opened up an entirely new avenue in her mind. Joshua.
Joshua had told her that Drew wasn’t her real enemy, that Drew was even loved by God but was being deceived by an invisible enemy.
This enemy!
She knew Joshua—Jesus—was real. He’d even told her that she would become one of his own. But when she’d awakened back in the darkroom, it had only been a couple more minutes before Drew had knocked on the door and opened it.
Elizabeth was afraid to speak, not knowing what Drew—or it—would do if she mentioned Joshua’s name.
“Fear got your tongue, girl? I was hoping for a lively conversation before you depart this realm. I don’t get to do this physical thing very often. Let’s have some fun while I’ve got use of this body for a while.”
Drew stood and approached the bed. He reached just above his belt and untucked his shirt. Then he pulled it over his head and dropped it on the floor.
“This isn’t exactly what I enjoy most, you know,” the demon said. “Sexual fun is what some others of my kind feed on. Me? Death is my dessert. But I’m willing to enjoy this a little bit too.”
Dear God, no. Please, don’t let this happen!
Then she threw caution to the wind. “Joshua told me about you!” she said fast and loud.
Drew stopped. A repugnant look crossed his face. She’d struck a nerve.
“Oh, did he, now? I’ve got it from a good source that you don’t know him at all.”
“I do too! I will!”
“Oh? How so? Going to become a good little girl now? Going to start doing life right? Help little old men cross the road? Accomplish your daily good deeds? Child of dirt, you are lost and unworthy of anything you think is good.”
What the thing said was true. When compared to Joshua … even just compared with his “boardroom,” she was just a messed-up girl with an overly aggressive sexual appetite.
“And what about your heart? Hmm? Do you think it’s pure enough to meet with God’s expectations? No, no, no.… You have the same sorts of desires that Drew here has.”
Elizabeth felt set back on her heels.
Drew began to climb onto the bed. He reached for her shirt.
“How about we just drop yours to the floor, as well?”
JAMIE STARED AT the house. There was a lone light on, probably an upstairs bedroom.
While he was glad that Jenna had placed the call, he knew that even if his dad could leave right away, it’d be a while before he could get there.
It was so quiet. Way too quiet.
What was happening in that house? Was Elizabeth in danger? Did she need rescuing?
For the moment, all Jamie could do was stand, watch, and wait.
BRENT ENDED THE call with Jenna.
He ran back to his car to use its radio; it was more dependable than what he carried at his waist when away from his own jurisdiction.
“Eldredge! Townsend! 10-19 my location!”
Within a few seconds, Eldredge’s response came. “We’re 76, Chief! Be there in two.”
Brent changed the channel on his radio, “Deputy Strapp, come in.”
“Chief Lawton, what can we do for you?”
“I’ve got a probable location on the perp. With Sheriff Fisher’s permission, we are responding to that location.”
Brent gave the deputy the address.
“You are a go, Chief. We’ve got two units en route. ETA … twelve minutes.”
Brent looked at his GPS. He hated that he’d be a minute behind the sheriff’s department when Eldredge and Townsend arrived.
No. He wouldn’t.
With a fierce and determined look in his eyes, he started the patrol car and tore onto the road.
Switching back to his frequency, he pressed the mic button and gave John Eldredge the location.
JENNA HAD FINALLY managed the courage to make her way through the trees to where he was standing and tell him that their dad was on his way, but Jamie was getting antsier by the minute.
How could he find out more about what was going on in that bedroom?
The frogs and crickets spoke of tranquility in that dark place, but Jamie wasn’t sure.
He felt edgy in his spirit.
Jenna did too. He heard her start whispering prayers.
Jamie realized he needed to do the same.
“Father, we’re here. I’m not even sure what to pray. Just please protect Elizabeth. Is she in trouble, Father? Is there anything that I should do? Please, tell me, and I’ll do it. Help me to know. Don’t let anything hap—”
Then the scream came.
And the girl’s scream paralyzed Jamie.
For a single second.
Then he was running.
He heard Jenna call after him, but a spike of adrenaline had blown into his bloodstream, and he could barely register her words.
He flew up the lawn to the porch and leapt the three steps. Whipping open the screen door, he grabbed the handle of the front door, turned it, and pushed it open. The stairs were right there to his left.
He took the steps two at a time to the landing and heard the muffled screams of the girl he loved. He rounded the door post into the room.
What he saw angered him. A man was on top of Elizabeth. It looked like he had stripped off her clothes from the waist up and now had his right hand over her mouth as he tried to unbuckle her belt.
“Hey!” Jamie’s yell was forceful and raw, and it captured the attention of Elizabeth’s assailant.
A look of astonishment crossed the man’s face. Then anger appeared in his eyes, deep and powerful.
The man released Elizabeth and slowly backed off of the bed to stand between it and the window.
“You’d better leave, boy.”
Jamie was shaking with the amount of adrenaline pumping through his system. He’d been taught to control himself, that karate was an art of self-defense, but he found himself bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting for any excuse to use his training.
The man, pretty well proportioned, rounded the end of the bed and staked out his ground. A malicious grin appeared on his face.
“Think you can take me?” he asked.
Jamie knew he was being taunted. His anger wanted him to lash out, but his training kept him in place.
Jamie found his voice again. “You will never touch her again.”
“That’s for me to decide, not you, child of dirt.”
Child of dirt? Where’d I hear that before?
Then he remembered. His dad’s story about the demons.
Was this man possessed or was it just an ugly coincidence?
“Jamie! Run!”
Jamie looked at Elizabeth. She was terrified. She found the covers and pulled them over her chest, fists of material clenched at her chin.
“You’re going to be okay, Elizabeth.” He looked again at the man. “The police are on the way.”
The man’s face flinched for a brief moment, then the grin reappeared. “Won’t make much differe
nce. All part of the plan, you know.”
“Jamie, I’m serious! Run! Get out of here! He’s … he’s not.… It’s a demon!”
That confirmed it.
And that changed the battle plan.
Karate may have been useful only for defense, but that wasn’t the case with spiritual warfare.
Jamie and his family had been through enough in his fifteen years of life to give him quite the education on demonic activity and how to deal with it.
God had recently used his sister to help shore up his relationship with him, and with that came an even stronger faith.
“Tch, tch, tch,” clucked the possessed man. “You really are out of your league, here. Why don’t you go downstairs and wait for your daddy?”
A twinge of doubt. Was he mismatched against a spirit that was strong enough to take possession of someone’s body?
Jamie was about to find out.
Chapter 78
T
ara was on her knees with Pastor Jonathan and his wife, Jenni. As quickly as she had called and spoken with them about what was going on, they had headed to her home.
Tara had Amy upstairs babysitting Kyla again, perfectly content with a video and some of her favorite toys.
But downstairs there was a war waging.
“And Father, not only are we asking for protection for Elizabeth, but we are praying for Jamie, Jenna, and Brent.”
On his way to where Elizabeth was suspected to be, Brent had called to let Tara know that the kids were in the thick of it. The very thought plunged a dagger of fear through her heart.
But then she remembered.
She remembered that they had raised two smart, godly children. Not I’m-a-good-person godly. No, they were I-lean-on-Jesus-first godly.
Right then, she whispered a prayer, not just for their safety, but also for them to use wisdom and to be guided by God in whatever circumstance they now found themselves in.
“Also, God, the men and women of law enforcement who are on their way to deal with whatever threat awaits….”
Jenni stepped in. “In the name of Jesus, we declare your word over them, that no weapon formed against them will prosper. God, we ask for you to send your angels to war against any demons that may be involved in this.”
Tara was so thankful for these two warriors of the faith. If protection and help could come from waging spiritual war, it was certainly going to come this night!
THE MAN TOOK a step toward Jamie, the annoying grin still on his face.
It’s now or never, Jamie decided.
“In the name of Jesus, I command you to stay where you are.”
This time, there was a very obvious pained expression on the man’s face. Then there was anger.
“Watch it, bag of dirt! You don’t want to face me in battle. I still exist because I do not lose.”
The comment caught Jamie off guard. Could demons somehow die?
Jamie had been taught not to engage in conversation with demons, if he were ever to encounter one that manifested. Living in the Lawton household, though, he figured he’d have a fifty-fifty shot of that taking place. He should have known that, with who his parents were, those odds were far too low.
Jamie stood his ground, silent. He knew that if nothing further happened, he could just stand there and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
But probably because he was a Lawton, something further did happen.
The man backed away from Jamie and maneuvered to the far side of the bed. He stopped and stood with his thighs against the mattress.
Jamie tensed. What’s it up to?
Suddenly, the man shifted to his right and reached across the bed, his hand grabbing Elizabeth’s thick hair. With his strong grip, he pulled her toward him and onto the floor.
Elizabeth screamed in agony.
Jamie quickly moved to the foot of the bed and was about to make use of the large space on the other side, when the demon spoke again.
“Ah, ah, ah…. Careful, child. I’m sure you don’t want your sweetheart here to suffer any more than she has to.”
Jamie looked down to see the man’s right foot begin to press down on Elizabeth’s right leg.
She screamed with such intensity that Jamie almost rushed the man to knock him down.
But the demon knew what it was doing.
“You move, and I make her nervous system endure such pain, the likes of which humans rarely encounter. It just might do her in. You see, I know these things … death being my specialty and all.”
Jamie shivered. A demon of death.
The man looked down upon Elizabeth. “Now, where were we, you ugly killer of God?”
ELIZABETH WHIMPERED. She didn’t think she could endure much more.
She wanted rescue, but the thought of just dying was beginning to sound good to her too.
Where was Joshua in all of this? He’d made it sound like he knew what she was going through with Drew. Hadn’t he known about the demon as well?
She wasn’t given time to do anything but react to the demon’s precisely targeted stabs of doubt and pain. She couldn’t think anything through. The arguments that the demon was making were mounting, and she had no means to defend herself from them. She didn’t know what the Bible said about the things the demon was speaking into her heart and mind.
Every time she tried to counter with what little knowledge she thought she had, the thing would do something to her—tear off an article of clothing, press its mouth against hers, speak of the ugly things it would do to her once she was fully undressed—to keep her from mentally processing a cogent response. She wasn’t permitted time to think.
Doubts about God’s love and his willingness to accept her were pounded into her time and time again. Everything was about her upcoming judgment and impending doom … because she fell short of what God expected in a girl and a woman.
Now the pain in her leg, exacerbated by the downward pressure of Drew’s foot, clouded her thoughts even further.
Joshua … I don’t know … maybe you don’t want me.
As if the thing could read her mind, it forced Drew to press down again.
She screamed as the outer rim of her vision began to gray. She knew she was about to pass out again. The last time she’d passed out, she’d ended up in Drew’s bed, and hell had followed.
“Demon!” It was Jamie.
Downward pressure. Another scream. She was done. The desire to stay alive was gone. She wanted to leave this world that had taken so much from her. This world that had played her like a pornographic puppet. This world that had shown mercy to other people but apparently wasn’t willing to show it to her.
“Boy, I warned you.”
With what little remaining strength and determination she had, Elizabeth looked up into Jamie’s eyes. There were tears. There was fear.
Maybe he would die alongside her; they could maybe exit together.
She began to drift away.
Seconds from darkness, she saw an expression suddenly appear on Jamie’s face that startled her. There was fire in his eyes! An anger that she would never have thought possible on his handsome face.
Her heart began to beat a little faster, and the gray at the periphery of her sight began to recede.
“Jesus, I command this demon to cease in his actions! Father, if there is an angel here with us, please order him to engage!”
Elizabeth felt the pressure ease up, as Drew seemed to stumble backward.
“I command you, demon of death, to cease in all of your actions! I command you, in the name of Jesus! You must bow to his name and the power of his blood!”
Suddenly, Drew’s body fell backward against the small table below the window, breaking it, its contents splayed on the floor. Then he doubled over and began to convulse and vomit. He seemed to fight for a gasp of air, then screamed as if something sharp was being ripped outward from his throat.
&nbs
p; Then, nearly as quickly as the scream had started, it ended, and Drew’s body became rigid.
Jamie was stuck for what to do. Was the man dying? Should he call 9-1-1? But his dad was already on his way.
He didn’t need to consider his options long, because Drew moved. The man rolled from his side onto his hands and knees, and the demon’s voice returned.
“I’m betting you thought that worked.”
Elizabeth’s heart grieved at the thought that what Jamie had just attempted had failed. She hadn’t the willpower to survive if Drew were to stand over her again. She wanted out. The sooner the better.
But apparently, Jamie wasn’t fazed, because he peered directly into her eyes.
“Elizabeth, I need you to fight with me. I need two of us doing this. Okay?”
What was he asking of her? He wanted her to do the same thing he was doing? What was he thinking? She was a nobody.
“I can’t, Jamie. I’m so sorry,” she managed to get through her lips.
“Elizabeth, ask Jesus into your heart. I know you believe in him. Do it.”
The demon roared! “Noooo! If you make any attempt to—”
“Shut! Up! In Jesus’ name!” Jamie yelled.
Drew dropped to his side without even a moan.
Elizabeth knew she had to do something. And she did believe in Jesus; she’d even walked and talked with him.
Without the demon’s influences, her mind began to clear, and she tried the best she could to talk to the one who had shown her such kindness and acceptance in that other world.
“Joshua … I mean, Jesus, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m such a mess. I’m sorry that you made me and that I didn’t become who you wanted. Please, forgive me for what I’ve done. Please, forgive me even though I don’t deserve it. Please, please … live inside of me like you do in Jamie and Jenna. I want you. I want to be yours. I can’t do life without you any longer.”
Despite the agonizing pain that continued to course through her body, she felt something even more noticeable. It was brand new to her, and it was amazing!
Her eyes grew big and locked onto Jamie’s again, as she realized what God had just done.
That Dark Place Page 44