Experiment in Terror 05 On Demon Wings (38 page)

sheepish. “The little one cal ed me. I was the only one who

believed what was wrong with Perry.”

“What was Perry’s state of mind before al of this

happened?”

Dex opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.

He clamped his lips shut and looked at Ada with a pained

face. She raised her brow at him and gave Roman a sadly

sardonic smile.

“Perry’s state of mind?” Ada repeated. “She was emo

as shit.”

Roman shot a look at Bird, who shrugged.

Ada stuck her finger underneath Dex’s scruffy chin. “This

asshole broke up with Perry in November. Broke her poor

fucking heart right in two. I’m only tolerating him because he

was the last chance we had.”

Dex didn’t protest but he did look away at some

imaginary spot on the floor. Roman mused that over,

looking bothered.

“I see,” Roman said slowly and with a heavy sigh. I

wondered if our history was going to complicate things for

him. I hoped not. Things were already complicated enough.

“Yeah,” Ada continued, not done yet, “basical y slept with

her and ditched her, used her...”

“Hey, OK, wait a minute,” Dex said, stepping away from

Ada’s finger. “That’s not exactly what happened.”

If I could have control ed my own eyebrows, I would have

raised them.

She glared at him, her eyes hard in the low light. “Oh

yeah, perhaps you better explain what happened. Why

Perry cried in her room for days wondering what the hel

went wrong. You weren’t there. You didn’t have to help her

day in and out, hoping that one day she’d come out of it and

realize what a goddamn asshole you are. You didn’t see

the way you left her. You didn’t have to help her pick up the

pieces.”

She looked at Roman with conviction. “Plus, there was

the whole him getting her pregnant and miscarriage thing.”

The words
miscarriage
hung heavily in the air.

Roman sucked in his breath.

Bird froze.

And Dex...he looked like someone had backhanded him

with a shovel. He swal owed hard and his eyes went

immediately to me. They held a wealth of regret and

sadness in them.

I’m sorry I didn’t tell you
, I thought, staring across at him.

But then again, when would have been a good time? It was

over and done with and none of his business, real y. We

had other, bigger things to worry about than sex gone bad. I

didn’t have time to worry about his feelings in this, though

from the stunned, almost blue look on his blood-crusted

face, I could see he was taking it hard. Harder than I thought

he would.

“You didn’t know,” Roman said, stating the obvious.

Dex’s chin dropped and he broke eye contact with me.

Ada watched him, her face growing increasingly guilty for

the way she just dropped it on him. I guess she, like me,

had no idea how he would have reacted.

She placed her hand on his shoulder. “Hey, sorry. I’m

sorry.”

He shrugged her hand off of him. “I need to get some

air.”

“No,” Roman said. For a skinny, young guy he had quite

the commanding voice. I guess you had to have that if you

were commissioned to command demons out of people.

“You’re not going. We have to discuss this, al of this. It wil

help me figure out what happened. What’s in her.”

“What’s in her?” Dex’s head snapped up. “A demon,

that’s what.”

Roman shook his head. “No. You’re right, but it’s not just

that. There are three entities lying there.” He pointed over at

me. “One is Perry. One is demonic. The other is another

entity. It is weak and is has no power anymore. But it is a

spirit, a vengeful one. And if my guesses are correct, there

was something haunting Perry before. Something that was

wronged or ignored. It made a powerful pact, deal if you

wil , to gain Perry’s soul. But was lost before it could even

happen.”

He looked to Ada. “And this miscarriage. Perry would

have been at her lowest, most vulnerable. It’s times like

that, or pregnancy, when something foreign can grow and

latch on with the baby. Even if the baby was eventual y lost.

Though you can bet it was because of this spirit.”

At the mention of
baby
, Dex had let out a hot puff of air

and turned around so his back was to everyone, leaning on

his hands against the wal .

“It was Abby,” he said quietly, almost to himself. Roman

had to take a few steps closer to him to hear.

Dex continued, “She was haunting me when Perry was

with me in Seattle. She’s an ex...she died. Years ago. But

she comes around every now and then. You know, she died

because of me. And I don’t think she’l ever forget it.”

“She wil now,” Roman said. “The demon gained access

to Perry through her, played on her fears through her. To get

to you. This spirit is no more. Demons don’t keep their

bargains.”

Dex stil didn’t turn around. He shook his head from side

to side so his hair flopped back and forth. y,“So that’s it. It

has one ex-girlfriend of mine. And it’s not satisfied. It wants

the only person left on this earth that I...that I’d do
anything

for. Just throw her into the pot, who cares. I lost her once, I

cannot lose her again.” Dex’s voice cracked and split with

anger.

“Life is unfair for a lot of people and for a lot of reasons,”

Bird spoke up from the floor, his fingers tracing circles on

the taught drum top, his voice steady as a tree. “This isn’t

about you Dex, though I know from experience your

intentions are good. This is about Perry. This is about what

we can do to help her. We can’t waste time placing blame

on each other or being angry. That’s what it wants. We

need to help her. And we need to hurry. You can deal with

everything else afterward.”

There was little sound or movement from Dex for a few

beats. Then he raised his head up and turned around. He

walked through the smoke, which stil hung in cloying

clouds, and stopped beside Ada. His eyes were wet and

wide but held a fierce determination that brought out a rise

of hope from somewhere inside me. He offered his hand to

her.

“I’m extremely, unrelentingly sorry for what I did to your

sister. To Perry. And, by default, to you. Little fifteen.”

Ada eyed his hand like he had cooties. The reluctance

didn’t last long. She stuck out her hand and they shook

firmly. She even managed a smile.

“Good,” Roman said, looking from one to the other. “We

need a united front against this. Even with Bird acting as

my helper, I wil need you both to be strong and to have no

fear. You have to believe that we can beat it. We are

superior to this beast and we wil get out. But you must have

conviction in your beliefs. To doubt is to endanger al of our

lives, and especial y Perry’s.”

He nodded at Bird, who began a steady, rhythmic

beating on the drums, using only his hands, while Roman

brought up a smal wooden bowl from the floor. He came

close to me, looking deep into me with the most ruthless,

determined angle. He wasn’t looking for me. He was

looking for it, the thing, the
beast
.

“And so we begin the sacred ceremony.” He was talking

to me, talking to everyone. “An exorcism is a battle. I wil

lead it until the end”

He raised up the bowl and started yel ing in his native

tongue. Simple, two-word sentences that bounced around

the room like a stone in a cave.

The thing inside me did not like it.

I started writhing back and forth underneath the straps,

panting hard as if I were simultaneously trying to throw up

and catch my breath. It grew hot, then more hot, and steam

began to rise off of my body in tiny whispers.

Roman kept repeating the words and the heat in my

body grew to an unbearable level. Whatever the beast was

feeling, I was feeling too. It was exquisite agony; I felt like I

was being burned alive.

Roman kept going, relentless in his quest to purge me.

He dipped his thumbs into the wooden bowl until they were

covered black, then came forward for my face.

I swung my head back and forth, trying to get out of his

way but he managed to get one swipe down my cheek. It

felt like an acid burn. I turned to him, mouth open, and bit

his hand. Hard. I felt the crunch of bones and the taste of

blood fil my mouth and spil down my chin.

Someone in the room let out a yelp but it wasn’t Roman.

He pushed his other thumb, also anointed with the black

ash, straight into my forehead, knocking my head back with

enough force to knock a normal person out. Then he calmly

removed his injured hand from my mouth.

I grinned what was sure to be a bloody grin.

And the most vile, primordial voice, like the ones I’d

heard commanding me in my head, roared out of me.

“Think she’l be so lucky this time?” After what you did to

little Jim?” The depravity dripped out of me like the blood

onto my chest.

Roman paid me no attention, he kept repeating his

phrase, his voice become stronger and I felt a wave of

shock, pain and heat rol through me. I started screaming

and banging the back of my head against the mattress.

The drum beat of Bird became louder, faster and I felt

the synergy of the room intensify. The temperature climbed

and climbed until I was soaking wet and the bed was too.

The straps were becoming slippery and I was forced to use

them to my advantage. I wriggled and moaned and tried to

escape.

“Dex, Ada!” Roman yel ed. “Get a hold of her legs.”

My eyes were rol ing back in my head so I couldn’t see

them but I felt them. Briefly.

They both let out a whimper and withdrew their hands

immediately.

“She’s burning hot!” Dex cried out. “You’re kil ing her!”

“Do it!” Roman yel ed, and I felt their hands once more,

Dex’s long fingers and Ada’s slight ones. They were both

hesitant but their grips intensified as my thrashing

continued.

“United front, Dex,” Roman said through gritted teeth as

he came at my arms with more smudge matter. “You can’t

let your feelings get in the way. We must do this. You too,

Ada.”

I heard someone sniff like they were crying, but I didn’t

know who it was. It didn’t matter. The more Roman pressed

his marks into me, the more I felt like dying. The pain was

excruciating; it was like being branded with a hot poker.

“You kil ed him. The mother kil ed herself shortly after.

You ruined a town,” the beast said through me in scathing,

panting secretions. “You’l ruin her. I wil ruin her. You are

powerless, foolish and weak.”

I burst into horrible laughter and started thrashing again,

more strange, foreign and unbelievable sounds emanating

from me. It sounded like whole room was one entity and I

was coming out of the wal s, throttling the room with my

abhorrent threats.

“You can do what you want to her,” Roman said

forceful y, “but I am stronger and I wil win this battle. I wil

get you out and send you back to where you came from.”

There was no time to reflect anymore, no effort for

thoughts. They were meaningless. I was at the mercy of my

captor and at the strength of my exorcist.

The drums got louder. The room began to dim as the

candles al went out and the lamp in the corner faltered.

Suddenly the area around the bed erupted in flames that

rose from the floor in a thick line. Dex and Ada screamed

and let go of me, stumbling back and out of the fire. Roman

had to inch back as wel , and Bird stopped drumming.

“Keep going!” Roman screamed at Bird over the roar of

the flames.

Bird snapped to it and continued, his hands slapping

steadily on the drum.

The flames grew higher until they provided a barricade

between me and everyone else. Dex had his arm around

Ada and was holding her tight to him, both of their faces lit

up by the flames as they watched me in absolute horror.

I sat up in one swift, violent motion, breaking the straps

around my arms. I grinned at Roman and said, in the voice

of a little boy, “Why did you have to be so rough? You hurt

me. You broke my bones.”

“No!” Roman yel ed, and then bel owed a string of harsh-

sounding native words.

I tossed my hair from side to side.

“Yes, you did,” my little-boy voice said in a sing-song

manner. “You broke me in a mil ion pieces. You told me you