Demonspawn (20 page)

Damn cameras. So many people setting up, and
I forgot all about them.

“Hold on. It gets better,” Judy said.

Dan resumed the video. It was at the part
where Doug's bedroom door closed. I walked away from the camera,
down the hall, and stopped to talk to Cindy. I faded away slowly,
replaced by that ball of static, and went into Doug's room. The
video was only a few minutes long, but it felt like forever when it
happened.

“Now the only real eyewitness we have is
Danielle. She says she didn't see anything strange. She woke up,
and you were already there checking on her. But she was tired, and
maybe she actually saw something else. What did she see, Alex?”

I didn't like her tone. Not quite accusing,
but angry curiosity.

They had everything on camera. There was no
use coming up with an elaborate lie. But I didn't need to tell the
truth either. I was angry myself. I just wanted to leave. I
shrugged. “Does it matter?”

I thought I saw a vein in Judy's neck. “Of
course
it matters.”

“Why? There was something in the house trying
to hurt that family. I got rid of it. Shouldn't that be the end of
the story?”

She sighed. “How many houses do you think we
study a year?”

“I have no idea.”

“This house will be our sixty-seventh this
year. I've been there for every single one of them. We do the same
thing, each time. We study, study, study, for weeks. And as much as
we've learned, only one time were we able to figure out exactly
what kind of spirit we were dealing with. It took three different
exorcisms to get rid of it. Now here you come, in less than a
night, help the Bakers, and it's obvious you don't know what you're
doing.”

I wasn't sure if she was insulting or
complimenting me.

“Are you asking me something?”

Now she was mad. “
Who
are you?

I looked at Dan. “It was nice meeting
you.”

“Hell, do you want a job?” Judy asked.

I paused and gave her a look. “I'm still
trying to figure out a bunch of things right now. Shit, if you
study that tape, and learn something,
you
let
me
know.”

“Look me up. University of Virgina, if you're
ever in the neighborhood.”

I gave them both a smile and left the van.
Cindy and Beth were both waiting by the car. Cindy kept an eye on
me as I climbed inside.

“Everything cool?” she asked.

“Oh yeah. They just wanted to show me the
highlights of the night.”

I was quiet on the way back to Beth's house.
Still tired, I guess. Cindy however, wasn't, and she did a great
job of filling Beth in on the details. Beth seemed impressed, but
not surprised, and again I had to wonder what this long lost
relative knew about me.

It was finally time to find out.

After returning to her house she poured a
glass of tea while Cindy and I sat at her dining room table. She
was going painfully slow, like she was trying to make this whole
thing longer than it needed to be.

Or maybe she was nervous about something.

“Do you want something to drink?” she asked.
Cindy did, I did not.

“So I did what you wanted,” I said, trying to
push things along. “Now would you mind telling me about my family
and who I am?”

She put the iced tea away. “That you did. The
Bakers are one of the only families around that will actually treat
me nice, ever since, well, forever. So I owe you. You're ready for
this?”

I laughed. “After last night, I think I'm
ready for anything.”

“We'll see.”

Her tone scared me.

She leaned against the counter and took a
deep breath. She sat across from us and stared at the notes she had
taken the day before. It was a while before she spoke.

“Alex, you're not really human,” she said.
“You can't be. No human can do the things you do.”

I gave Cindy a look, not quite believing what
I was hearing. “That's it? That's all you can tell me?”

She held up her notes and started reading.
“Walking through walls. Disappearing from normal sight. Getting
attached to a person or place.” She gestured to Cindy. “These are
all things a ghost or demon does. Not a person.”

“Ghost or demon?”

“Look, this is how it works.” She pulled a
piece of paper out of her notepad and held it up. “This is the
living world,
our
world.” She placed it on the table and
ripped out another sheet. “Now, this here is the spirit world.
Spirits and souls usually find their way here when they die. It
lays on top of our world. But the boundaries are different, which
is why they walk through walls and we can't see them.” She placed
the
spirit
piece of paper on top of the
living
. She
started dabbing holes into both sheets with a knife. “Now, these
pinholes are the places that are like a gateway between the two
worlds. These are your haunted houses, your mass murder sites,
hospitals, places like that. This is where normal people can
sometimes get a glimpse into the spirit world. Psychics can usually
peek in when they want, although they don't get the whole picture,
like they're wearing sunglasses. You understand so far?”

I looked at Cindy. She shrugged and gave me a
half smile.

“Yeah, we're with you.”

She ripped out a third piece of paper. “This
is the demon world. It's not a good place. Luckily it's a little
harder to get to, even from the spirit world.” She placed it on top
of the other sheets and only punched a few holes, to get her point
across. “There's far few gateways, thankfully. Demons aren't
pleasant, as you've seen. They feed off of energy and fear. They'll
try to possess anything, human or spirit. And once they get a
foothold into the spirit or living world, they're nearly impossible
to get rid of.”

I thought back to Tammy's house and dealing
with Richard. He was possessed by a demon while alive, and that
possession continued while he was a ghost, till I showed up. What a
nightmare.

“I don't think you're just seeing into the
spirit and demon worlds,” she continued. She tapped her pieces of
paper. “You're actually
moving
into them. Out of our world,
and into theirs. That's how you can touch ghosts and demons, and
move through walls. It's almost like you're half-living, half-”

She didn't finish her sentence, but she
didn't need to. I could guess how it ended. Half-ghost. Half-demon.
Something along those lines. I didn't like the sound of either
one.

I had to fight it, even if it made complete
sense.

“I've never seen any demon world,” I
said.

“Be thankful for that. You don't want
to.”

I had more questions. “How can I hurt demons?
Fuck, how did this even happen in the first place? Does it have
anything to do with my parents?”

Beth looked hesitant. “I can answer some of
that. I guess I should show you instead of talk. Follow me.”

We all went upstairs to a tiny bedroom. Bed
neatly made, nice curtains. No pictures, which I thought was a
little odd. There was actually a TV in the corner.

“Have a seat.”

As we sat on the bed she searched through her
closet. After a minute she pulled out what looked like an old shoe
box. She blew off a layer of dust and popped the lid. Inside was a
video cassette. She took it out very carefully, like it could hurt
her.

I did see a pained look in her eye.

“I've watched this a few times, but not in a
long time,” she said, then looked at me. “I used to wonder whether
I'd show it to you one day.”

I gave Cindy a glance. A lot of drama over a
simple video tape.

I saw her hand actually shaking as she put
the tape in the VCR.

The first thing I heard was a woman's scream.
It scared me at first, but then I heard some other people, all
talking over each other. There was a woman laying on a bed
screaming her head off. The camera was shaking all over the place,
obviously a homemade video. I started to recognize the scene.

“Is someone giving birth?” Cindy asked.

Beth nodded. Her face was starting to turn
white. “Alex's mother, Sarah. My sister.”

My jaw dropped and I stared at the TV.

My first glimpse of my biological mother. In
excruciating pain, giving birth to me. There were people all around
her, lending support. I didn't see any doctors, though. In fact, it
didn't look like a hospital.

Cindy looked at me with a smile. I'm not sure
why. Maybe she felt like we were finally getting some resolution. I
felt kind of weird. I'd never seen a pregnancy video before. Never
thought I'd see my own.

There was another voice out of camera
view.

“You're doing fine, honey. Be strong.”

Some strange chanting started. The camera
panned over to a man who looked like an older version of me. There
were men standing on each side of him. They were all dressed alike,
wearing black robes.

“What the hell is going on?”

Beth paused the video. She was visibly
shaking and almost looked sick. She pointed to the man in the
middle.

“This is your father,” she said. “Mark
Fuller.”

“What's he dressed weird for?” Cindy
asked.

“He was the leader of a cult. Your mother
was, too. Those guys you see there, his best friends. You can't see
them, but your mother is surrounded by them.”

“
What
?”

She resumed the video. To be honest, I wished
she hadn't. The camera panned back down to Sarah Fuller. She
continued to scream in pain. One of the scary things, as if I
needed to think more scary thoughts, was that the sounds of the
chanting almost drowned her out. I've heard the voices of demons
and ghosts, and the sounds of a haunted house. They don't compare
to the sounds of that chanting over my own birth.

The video showed me being born into the
world, a disgusting mess. My father cut the umbilical cord. Beth
paused it once again.

“Are you sure you want to see the rest?”

Cindy and I looked at each other. She looked
as disturbed as I was. ”There's more?” she said.

“Where did you get this?”

She hesitated. “I'm the one filming it.”

She pressed play. My father cleaned me off
with another black robe. Then he carried me over to a table. The
camera followed his every move. I heard my mother's voice off
camera.

“I love you.”

Mark Fuller smiled. “I love you too,
Sarah.”

The chanting grew louder. I couldn't count
them, but a lot of people surrounded the table I was put on. They
all wore hoods, unlike my father.

He pulled a huge knife out from under his
robe.

“What the fuck?” Cindy said. She grabbed my
arm.

He raised the knife over my little baby body.
Cindy buried her head in my shoulder.

Before he could thrust it down, there was an
inhuman scream. My father was stunned. All the other members of the
cult jumped to their feet and looked around. Then the camera
started moving as well, searching for the scream.

There was only a single voice, my mother.

“Mark? What's going on?”

A body flew in front of the camera. Following
that were some more screams.

The camera went wild, moving all over the
place. I heard my father screaming at his followers to find the
demon and trap it. I could hear people dying. Beth's screams were
the loudest, being right next to the camera. She dropped it to the
floor.

“This is where I ran,” she told us.

A stream of blood fell down the camera lens.
A female body fell just inches away. My mother. Her eyes were wide
open, staring right at me.

The carnage lasted maybe three or four
minutes. Then all went quiet. The only thing you could hear were my
cries in the background. The camera angle barely showed the table I
was on.

It looked as if the shadows in the room
actually started to crawl toward the table, toward me. I watched in
horror as they crawled up the table. My crying turned into
something inhuman for a few seconds.

Beth stopped the video.

“There's nothing else. It's just you crying
for another ten minutes before I get there with the police. This
was in a run-down church on Patt Street.”

I didn't speak for a minute. Cindy dug a hand
into my shoulder.

“What...
was
that?”

Beth sighed. “Alex, I was in a cult that your
father was the leader of. He and Sarah decided to have a child for
one reason. To capture a demon, and take its power.”

Cindy stood up. “I can't listen to any more
of this.”

She left the room. Smart woman. But I had to
hear the rest of it.

“Go on.”

“It was some kind of ritual. You were the
sacrifice. Then your father would steal a demon's powers. But
something went wrong.”

“Gee, you fuckin' think so?”

A tear rolled down her face. “Something that
we couldn't see, killed them all. Ripped their throats out. Tossed
them around like they were nothing. I'm only alive because I ran
away.”

“I can't believe this.”

“I was your legal guardian after that. And I
gave you up for adoption.”

I can only imagine the look on my face. “At
least you did something right.”

She pointed at the TV. “Your father was very
convincing. We all followed him, even Sarah. I was a stupid kid. I
have to live with that for the rest of my life.”

I wanted to throw up. I was having trouble
thinking clearly. I sat there like a zombie. Beth kept on
talking.

“The town knows I had something to do with
it. It's a local legend now. They all hate me. I can't say I blame
them.”

That image was still stuck in my head, the
one of my own father holding a knife over me.

“The church was supposed to be a very rare
gateway, one that ran through all three worlds. I really don't know
what happened. Your father must have underestimated the power of
the demons on the other side. Or the ritual was wrong somehow.”