Dark Exorcist (10 page)

Chapter 27

Officer Roman, 5:15 a.m.

     I walked down the hall and out of the unit. There was another stairwell in the other direction, so I figured I’d use that one. Hopefully that door won’t be jammed. I wondered what kind of house of horrors I’d encounter on my way there. Thankfully, it was quiet. I got to the stairwell without incident. Stairwells seemed to be where a lot of weirdness took place in this hospital, and I wanted no part of it. Enough was enough. Maybe I’d be suspended or something for leaving this mess in the state it’s in, but it wasn’t worth people digging into my mom’s death.

     I still couldn’t understand how this crazy girl, or possessed or whatever, had to do with my dead mother or how she even knew. Not that it mattered. There was no evidence of anything. And a crazy girl who talked funny and jumped through ceilings wasn’t exactly a star witness. Finally, I found the other stairway entrance. I turned the handle and that one opened just fine.

     “Thank God,” I whispered to myself. I started down the stairs and made my way down each flight until I reached the ground floor. I came out in the ER, which earlier was crawling with ghouls and weirdos. Now, it was dark and quiet and really cold. The temperature must have dropped twenty degrees since I was here before. I had no idea why, maybe the demon found the air conditioning controls. Actually, I didn’t care. I found the exit and headed for it. My nightmare was finally about to end.

     “Going somewhere Peter?” A familiar voice called out. I turned to my right and there was Amanda. She was crouched on a countertop, just a few feet from me, as if she was about to pounce.

     “What are you doing? How’d you get down here?”

     “I am everywhere. Haven’t you noticed that by now?”

     “I guess so. You can have this place, whatever you’re up to. I’m leaving,” I said, as I took slow steps backward. Her empty eyes were locked on me.

     “This hospital, and everyone in it, is mine! Especially you.”

     “Look, if Amanda is still in there, why not let her go.”

     “And why would I do that? I’ve been in her family for generations. I get stronger with each one, as you can tell.”

     “The priests told me you were a liar.”

     “Fuck the priests! And fuck you! You really want to save the girl?”

     I was afraid to answer. Yes, I wanted to save her. At the same time, I felt like I’d done enough for the night.

     “Yes, I want to save her.”

     “I know you killed your mother.”

     “So what if I did? I bet you don’t know why?” Yes, I did kill her. I poisoned her. She was in pain. We’d never been that close anyway. I was up to my neck in gambling debts. I’d managed to keep it hidden from the department, but it was just a matter of time before they found out. So I poisoned her while she was in the hospital. I’d covered my tracks. There was no evidence.

     “It doesn’t matter why. If you want me to release the girl, and set the hospital free, this can all end right now.”

     “Really? How? You want me to turn myself in?”

     “Not at all. Just say the word, ‘paradosi,’” the thing inside Amanda said.

     “Paradosi? What does that mean?”

     “Don’t worry about it. Just say it, and it will be all over.”

     “Okay, paradosi.” It started laughing as soon as I said it, though nothing happened. It just sat there looking at me. I looked around, the power was still out, and Amanda was still in her current state. “So, you gonna let her go?” I asked. The demon continued laughing. Finally it stopped , just as I felt my arm moving.

     I couldn’t control my hand, as it took my gun from its holster.

     “What’s going on?” I asked, but Amanda just watched me. First my hand stretched out, pointing the gun at her. It was as if someone else were controlling me. Had I become possessed? I didn’t feel like it, I was still me. I tried to turn and run, but my feet wouldn’t move.

     Slowly my arm turned toward my head. I tried to resist but couldn’t, as my hand was now pointing my own gun at my temple.

     “What are you doing to me? Stop this now!” I shouted it.

     “I can’t Peter, you agreed. Paradosi means ‘surrender.’ You gave me consent.”

     “Bullshit!” My finger started to squeeze the trigger. I tried to move my head, my hand or my legs, but nothing was under my control.

     “No! Please!” I pleaded, but she just watched, and the last thing I heard was the loud crack of my gun going off. There was a bright flash, then nothing.

Chapter 28

Father Harlan, 5:20 a.m.

     I sat in the empty room, gathering my thoughts while trying to clear my head. The last session with the girl had been intense. The power in that room was insane. At times, her screams almost knocked me off my feet. Father Pierce was like a deer in the headlights most of the time. It was okay though. Not many would have hung in there as long as he had. After spending some time praying alone, I went to the sink to rinse my face.  The cool water was refreshing as I splashed it across my cheeks and forehead.

     I dabbed my face with paper towels, and walked back into the unit. Father Pierce was talking to the lady officer. Officer Roman wasn’t anywhere around.

     “Father Harlan,” Pierce said. “How are you feeling?”

     “Tired,” I answered. “Not sure how much more I can handle.”

     “What should we do?”

     “Same thing we’re doing. This demon is incredibly powerful. We may need to come back. I don’t know if we can do it all tonight.”

     “We have to deliver her tonight. If we don’t, we could lose the hospital completely.” Pierce’s voice trembled with desperation.

     “Look around Father,” I said. “We’ve already lost the hospital.”

     I walked back into Amanda’s room where she was sound asleep. I knelt down next to her, and held her hand. Her skin was warm and moist. Brushing her hair back, she looked like any normal teenage girl. Behind me the door swung open as Father Pierce stepped in.

     “She sleeping?” he asked, I nodded. “Should we wait?”

     “No, this is actually the perfect time. The demon is still there, but dormant.” I stood, just as a scream and gunshots came from the hallway. There were at least five shots that rang out. Father Pierce tried to stop me as I ran into the hall to see what was going on. When I got there, the woman officer had her gun drawn and was surrounded by several hospital staff, and was firing on them. Among them I saw Dr. Bennett, Dr. Karras, and an officer I hadn't seen before. All of them looked as if they’d gone completely mad. Their eyes glowed white as they surrounded the woman.

     “Officer!” I shouted. “What are you doing?”

     “Father, get back in the room!” she yelled, between shots.

     “Why are you shooting them?” I ran out and grabbed her arm. She pushed me away as I lost my balance and fell to the ground. More shots rang out as I got to my feet. I saw one of the nurses standing near me and looked to see if she was okay. What I saw was hideous. Her face was twisted and distorted the way Amanda’s had been earlier. She was smiling at me through bloody lips that were split open in several places. Her eyes were hollow whites. I wanted to run, but couldn’t look away. Suddenly someone grabbed my arm and pulled me away.

“Father! Let’s go now!” It was the officer, Sanders, I think her name was. I turned and ran with her, toward the unit entrance where Father Pierce was holding the door open. We all three ran out as the demonic hospital staff ran along behind us. We sprinted into the hall and Officer Sanders fired off more rounds. We reached the top of the stairwell and pushed the door shut as Sanders stopped to reload.

     “What the hell is going on?” she asked.

     “I don’t know. I think the demons have taken over the entire place,” Pierce said.

     “We’ve lost the hospital.”

     “I thought you were an exorcist!” Sanders yelled.

      “I am, it’s not like surgery. You don’t just go cut the demon out. It’s supernatural, not science. I’ve never seen this before.” I didn’t know what else to say. I had failed. God had failed.  Either that or he threw us to the wolves. Either way, it wasn’t good for us. “Were you hurting them at all when you shot them?”

     “I don’t know,” she said. “I just fired, but more kept coming.”

     “Are they zombies?” Pierce asked.

     “What? Zombies? No. I don’t know. They are all chewed up like Amanda is when the demon is active.”  The banging on the door intensified as Pierce and I tried to hold it closed. The force became too much as I felt it give way. “We can’t hold it,” I said. “Let’s get out of here!”

     For whatever reason, Sanders began running upstairs. Maybe she knew something we didn’t. Pierce and I followed her, as the door burst open behind us. We ran up two flights, then four, before opening the door to the fifth floor. Part of me just wanted to keep going up the stairs instead of facing whatever was beyond that door.

Chapter 29

Amanda, 5:40 a.m.

     The sound of gunshots shook the bed as I jumped up. I usually had trouble sleeping, but this night was the worst. There was screaming outside of my room and shouting. I was still in the hospital. The room was ice cold and dark. I had been hospitalized earlier in the night. They brought me here because The Doctor was angry. He’s the one who lives inside of me. I guess that’s his name. He just calls himself The Doctor.

     He first started talking to me a few years ago. I was watching a TV show where a guy called himself The Doctor. He would travel all over the universe and help people. I must have been ten or eleven years old. One night, I felt him. He took over my body and sometimes made me float over my bed. It was really scary, but he told me not to be afraid.

     “No need to fear, I’m The Doctor!” he said, in a British accent. He always spoke to me with a British accent, so I figure he must be nice, like The Doctor on TV. I couldn’t believe he was real, but there he was. No one believed me though. All of the foster homes and group homes I’d gone to thought I was crazy. Though, in the past year, I couldn’t really blame them, The Doctor had become more violent.

     He used to come to me at night. When we talk, it’s all inside my head so no one can hear us. But lately he started coming out during the evening, and sometimes during the day. When he did that, I did horrible things. Sometimes, I’d hit and bite people. It was really scary when he’d take over. People would talk about me as if I weren’t there, but I was always still there. I was there and fully aware of everything that was happening. I just could do anything to stop it.

     This past week it’s been really bad. Not only would The Doctor make me hit people, but furniture around me would move, glass would break and doors would open and close. I had a feeling he was doing it somehow, but I had no idea how. Earlier tonight, he started talking to others like him. I could hear them around me, they seemed really scary. Then The Doctor went nuts.

     I don’t know what set him off, but before I knew it, I had police putting handcuffs on me, shooting me, fighting me. I was climbing all over the hospital through the vents and everywhere else. Needless to say, I was feeling very sore. The noise outside my room had died down. The Doctor was leaving me alone for the moment, but I wasn’t sure why. Earlier there were a couple of priests in here. I think they were trying to help me. They were saying something about a demon. So maybe The Doctor is a demon. I never believed in anything like that. But then again, I never believed in time traveling spacemen either.

     The Doctor didn’t leave though. I don’t think he ever will. He’s been with me for too long, and he is way stronger than those priests. I could tell he didn’t like their holy water and prayers, but it didn’t really hurt him either. I climbed out of the bed and peeked out into the hallway. There were some people lying on the floor, covered in blood.

     I saw a guy in a patient’s gown walking up to me.

     “What’s going on? Where is everyone?” I asked. As he got closer, I could see he wasn’t well. His face was cracked and bloody, his eyes glowing yellow.

     “What are you doing you little cunt! You shouldn’t be out here!” he said. Before I could reply, I heard The Doctor inside my head.

     “Get back in your room. You don’t need to be walking around. You need rest.”

     “What’s happening? Did you do this?” I asked him.

     “No, my dear. They did. These other monsters you see running around. I’m trying to get them under control. Please, has The Doctor ever done you wrong?”

     “Well, the police shot me.”

     “Yes, that was a slight miscalculation on my part. I am sorry. I’ll be more careful. I need you to rest though, please. It’s difficult for me to keep you safe and deal with these guys with you wandering around.”

     “Okay,” I said. “I guess I can go back to my room.”

     “Good, none of them will hurt you. I’ll deal with this one who was rude to you,” The Doctor said, as he grew silent again.

     I stumbled back into my room and climbed onto the bed. As I did, I heard a man screaming, then silence. There was also no sign of the police officers, doctors or priests who had been helping me earlier. Maybe they really were bad, and The Doctor was just trying to help me. Anymore, I didn’t know what to believe. I closed my eyes to try and sleep again. Everything was so much easier when I wasn’t awake for it. They gave me some drugs earlier that helped me sleep. I wished I could have more of that. Thinking about this night only made me scared.

     Through my closed eyelids I could see things as if they were a dream. I saw the police officer who shot me earlier. He was in the ER and I was talking to him, then he shot himself in the head. I didn’t remember that, but I was seeing it as plain as day. Then I saw one of the priests and the woman cop in the stairwell. I knew that guy officer was bad. He killed his mom for money. How horrible. My mom had been dead for years. I’d bring her back if I could. Maybe The Doctor could bring her back. This is why I had to listen to him. He was very strong. He was trying to help.

Chapter 30

Officer Sanders, 5:45 a.m.

     After running up the stairs, I checked to make sure both priests were still behind me. I had no idea what just happened. Hospital staff and patients started coming out of nowhere, attacking me. One of them punched me in the side of the head. I’d tried to hit him with my baton, but it had no effect on him. So I shot him. Then others came and I had to shoot them too. They all acted as Amanda had earlier, but with even more violence.

     Once at the fifth floor, I slowly pulled on the door handle. The creatures behind us were still a flight or two down, but their screams were plenty loud.

     “Get behind me,” I said to both priests, as I pulled the door all the way open. It was pitch black and dead silent. My gun was aimed in front of me, as I scanned the hall from one side to the other. It was as if the whole floor was abandoned. We stepped inside and pulled the door shut. The screams behind us died down, as the door closed.

     “Is anyone up here?” Father Harlan asked.

     “I don’t know,” I said. “It doesn’t look like it.”

     “Why’d we come up here? Why not go down and get out of here?” Harlan asked.

     “When I came in, those things were all over the lower floors. So I figured we’d buy some time up here.”

     I walked along the corridor, to each room, clearing each individual room. After
checking all of one side, there was still nothing.

     “Maybe they all went downstairs,” Father Pierce said.

     I checked the end of the hall toward the elevator.

     “Officer,” Harlan said. “Look!” He pointed toward the top of the elevator. There one of the lights was on, highlighting the floors. The power was still off, so there was no way the elevator could be moving.

     “What the hell?” Taking several steps back, I pointed at the elevator door as it slowly went up, lighting up at each floor.

2…3….4

     It felt like an eternity between each floor. It was hard to keep my hands from trembling, as I waited for the elevator.

5

     The elevator sounded with a
ding
as the doors slid open. My finger began to squeeze the trigger as the doors opened all the way.  Standing there was a man in a police uniform, but something wasn’t right. Half of his head was missing. There was a small hole on the right side of his head, with blood caked around it. The left side of his face and head was completely missing.

     “Roman?” I asked. I couldn’t read his name tag since it was also covered in blood.

     “Yes, it’s me,” he replied, as he stumbled out of the elevator. He reached his hand out to me, but I stepped back. He stumbled toward the nurse’s station and leaned on the counter. I had no idea how he was even alive, or why the elevator was working.

     “What happened to you?” I asked.

     “The girl, Amanda. She has a demon with her. A very powerful one. He did this to me.”

      “Not to sound insensitive, but how are you still alive?”

     “I don’t know. Somehow it made me hold my gun to my head and shoot myself. Next thing I knew, I was on the elevator headed up here. But the demon is inside me, I can feel him.”

      “What does that mean?” I asked.

     “He’s in control here. The demon. There are thousands of them in the hospital, they control everything and everyone. They said that’s why I’m not dead, and they won’t release me until they’re ready.”

     “Ready for what? Why aren’t the rest of us possessed?”

     “Because you’re with the priests. They hate the priests. They’re trying to kill them.”

     “What do they want?” Roman sounded strange. It was his voice, but he sounded distant, almost like an echo. I wondered how much of him it actually was.

     “They want to destroy,” he said.

     “Destroy what?” Nothing he said was making any sense. From behind me, Father Harlan spoke up.

     “Everything,” Harlan said. “They want to destroy everything, and everyone.”

     “Why?” I asked.

     “It’s just what they do. Why do bees sting? Why do lions attack? Demons are destructive beings. They are usually harmless because they are limited in the spiritual realm. Since they’ve had an opening into our world, they can wreak all sorts of havoc.”

     I turned to look back at Roman, who had his gun out, pointing it at me.

     “What are you doing?” I asked.

     “It’s not me. It’s them. I can’t do anything they don’t allow. I’m sorry.” I dived to the ground, just as he pulled the trigger. Fortunately Father Harlan was standing off to the side. He jumped back as I hit the ground. The shot exploded through the silence, sounding like a cannon as it went off. I drew my weapon and fired at Roman’s legs, striking his kneecaps. He toppled over, losing his gun as he fell. I fired two more rounds into each of his legs as he lay there looking at me.

     “They’ll still kill you,” he said. He rolled onto his stomach and began to crawl toward his gun. I walked over and picked it up. Using his gun, I shot each of his arms several times until he was lying there motionless. “You bitch!” he screamed. “You know what you’ve done? They have no use for me now! They’ll just let me die!”

     “Good,” I said, as I handed Father Harlan the other gun. I knelt down and took the extra magazines off Roman’s belt and put them in my pocket.

     “I’m gonna cut your tits off you bitch!” Roman screamed. It was his voice, but I knew it was no longer him. It was the demons talking for him. By disabling his body, I at least made him useless to them. He was already dead.