The Forgotten Sin (Purifiers Book 1) (4 page)

           
"What on earth is going on here?"

Startled, both men whipped round in unison and Iliana’s eyes widened. Standing there
with his blazer still open and a long thin silver sword in one hand was Kazuki. Next to him
was a priest in his late thirties dressed completely in black with the white collar. He had a
stubbled beard and short light brown hair. He was a little shorter than Kazuki and Iliana
was positively sure he was the Religious Education teacher. She had not yet a lesson with
him but has heard a lot of gossip of his ways of teaching the religious matters from fellow
students. He was holding an opened black book in one hand and quite a big silver cross in
the other.

           
"What is she
doing here?" Kazuki asked bluntly and rather coldly.

           
"I should ask you
the same question." Iliana snapped back.

Kazuki glared at her and if looks could kill, Iliana would have died twice over. But his
deathly glare seemed to also have a hint of shock and bewilderment to it. The priest
frowned curiously at Iliana.

           
"You can see him?" He questioned in a gentle and calm voice.

Before Iliana could answer the obvious question the girl strapped to the chair started to
screech loudly and the white cloth that had covered her face flew off.

           
"C-Chloe!" Iliana gasped, her hand over her mouth in complete shock.

Her face was almost unrecognizable. The only thing that probably resembled Chloe was
her dark auburn shoulder length hair. Her face was white and gaunt. Her eyes were no
longer light green but dark with black circles under them. She looked a lot worse than that
time when Iliana saw her on her first day of school. Chloe’s whole body began to shake
quite violently as she started screeching. The thick ropes around her snapped off like paper
thin twigs and she suddenly threw her head back. Black thick smoke emerged from her
eyes and mouth then floated up to the air and landed on the floor lightly, not even making
a splash on the water. The smoke then materialised into two dark figures which looked like
full grown gorillas but minus the fur. It’s arms were long with claws at the end of it’s
fingers like a big cat. And as they growled it revealed it’s set of wolf like teeth. Their eyes
were dark and fierce looking and their body was the colour of night. Kazuki launched
himself towards them, his long thin sword wielded in his hand.

           
"You need to get away from here quickly!" The priest demanded before he too
headed towards the creatures holding the silver cross out in front of him.

Iliana watched as Kazuki slashed his sword at one of the dark creatures like a warrior ninja,
but only missing it by an inch. The priest used his cross to protect Kazuki from the other
creature while reading out phrases from the book out loud which seemed to make them
agitated. Seeing Chloe collapsed on the chair in the middle of the fight made Iliana
somehow and quite miraculously slip pass the fighting scene without being noticed or hurt,
just to see if she was alright. Iliana bent down in front of her and was just about to sweep
Chloe’s hair aside with her fingers so she could see her face when the priest shouted out.

           
"Do not touch her!"

Iliana turned round but suddenly felt something hit her chest with so much force she was
thrown to one side. Her back smashed against the wall above the sinks then ricocheted to
the floor face first with a splash. Groaning from the searing pain rushing down her back
Iliana managed to lift her head up a little to find one of the creatures running towards her,
so fast it looked like it was flying. But the priest suddenly appeared in front of Iliana
holding out his cross making it stop in it’s tracks and hiss. Kazuki jumped up from what
seemed like nowhere cutting the creature’s face with his sword. The dark creature
screeched so loudly it left a ringing sensation in the ear.

           
"She needs to get out of here!" Kazuki yelled before the other creature tried to attack
him with it’s claws but he managed to defend himself by holding his sword above him.

           
The priest just
turned round to Iliana when the creature with a gash down it’s face
grabbed him and threw him across the other side of the bathroom like an unwanted rag doll.
He crashed into a couple of the wooden cubicles and the debris fell on top of him. The
creature then dashed after him as the priest tried to lift himself up from the rubble.

           
Iliana placed both hands steadily on the ground to lift herself up when she felt a
familiar tingly sensation in her hands. She looked down to the ground, the water was up
above her wrist. Iliana could feel the water all around her as if it was calling out and
waiting for her command. Iliana knew exactly what she had to do. She picked herself up
from the floor. Her uniform and her long hair was soaking wet that it dragged her down as
she scrambled to get to Chloe as quickly as she could. Iliana took a deep breath before
stroking Chloe’s cheek with the back of her fingers. The same prickly burning sensation
rippled through Iliana’s skin. A deep roar came from behind Chloe and Kazuki shouted as
the creature he was defending himself from pushed him aside and rushed to Iliana.

           
"What are you doing?"

           
Ignoring him Iliana watched as the creature flew closer towards her. She stood up
straight with her arms beside her and her hands tingling. She waited until the creature was
almost at arms length when she stamped her foot hard on the wet ground causing a big
splash. Instead of the water falling back down to the floor it was lifted up by just a wave of
Iliana’s hand. The jet of water followed her hand movement, firstly making a barrier
between her and the creature. And secondly, encircling it into a water cacoon muffling the
creatures screeches. Iliana elegantly clenched her fist and the big ball of water disappeared
with a splash.

           
Iliana spun around to find the other creature who seemed to have vanished. A growl
came from up in the air behind her and as Iliana turned round Kazuki suddenly appeared in
front of her swiping his sword. But the creature darted to one side just missing the sharp
blade. Iliana forced another jet of water up into the air before the creature attempted
another attack. The creature was completely engulfed within the water globe and it too
disappeared with a splash.

           
Chloe lifted her head up and breathed in deeply and out again as if she had been
holding her breath for so long, Iliana fell to her knees in front of Chloe.

           
"Chloe... are you alright?"

Chloe gazed into her eyes breathing heavily.

           
"Il-Iliana... wh-what is going on?"

Iliana smiled knowing that Chloe was back to normal by looking into her warm green eyes.
The priest limped over to Chloe and stood next to Iliana.

           
"You fainted, but I think we need to take you to the nurse’s office just to make sure
you are okay." He answered in a soft voice.

Chloe looked from the priest to Iliana and back, utterly confused.

           
Iliana and Kazuki sat in opposite sides of the priest’s classroom. Kazuki sat on the
window sill with his head down and Iliana sat on one of the twenty odd empty seats. Her
elbows were on the wooden table with her forehead rested on her hands and both of them
still wet from earlier. Neither one spoke so silence did the talking in the large room. The
door opened and both looked up. The priest walked in with his little black book and silver
cross in both hands. He closed the door quietly behind him, walked to his desk at the front
of the classroom. He laid down his book and cross on his desk then sat on the table next to
Iliana.

           
"Chloe is fine... just a little shaken and has been taken home with no memory of the
possession... of course." He reported, then added in admiration. "Now... we come to you.
Wow!... You have a very
unique gift... So how long you have known of the Unknown
World that we live in?"

           
Iliana took a deep breath, a little nervous of telling her story which she has never
told anyone. But considering what had happened today she could not keep it to herself any
longer.

           
"I know very little about the Unknown World... but I can tell you when I first found
out of my powers. It was when I was about five years old, Mother and Father bought a
cottage outside London, in the countryside. The cottage stood alone near the woods with a
river which passed through behind our back garden. It was there when I played by myself
that I found I had powers over water. I decided not to tell anyone of my gifts, but I
practised hard to control my powers and I learned something new everyday." Iliana
explained staring at the palm of her hands. "When I was ten I enrolled to Tai Chi classes
just to understand body movements and mind concentration. I also attended some Kenpo
classes for self defence. Mother thought it was absurd and unladylike, but Father thought it
was good idea incase I needed to defend myself, of course I had different reasons."

Both Kazuki and the priest listened to Iliana’s story quite intently as she carried on.

           
"I was about thirteen when I encountered my first demon. I was by the river when an
elderly man appeared from the woods and his demon came out of the body by itself. I was
petrified and the only thing I knew that could protect me was water. It was then I realized
my powers had... like a purifying effect. The elderly man returned to normal and I thought I
could help others... But the more I purified the more I grew scared and alone." Iliana
looked up at the priest. "So I stopped two years ago and that was when I started to get bad
dreams."

For a moment the priest did not say anything as if he was still sinking Iliana’s story slowly
in his mind.

           
"Right... now let me tell you a bit about the demons and the Unknown World." The
priest said standing up. "In our world every human being has a spirit, a soul... whatever you
want to call it... And within that spirit it has two sides... the good and the dark side. Usually
there is a good balance between the two. But depending on how strong willed the person is,
the dark side sometimes over rule and the good side of the soul is trapped in it’s own
darkness. And that is when a demon or demons is born and arises from the body in it’s own
physical form... But when that demon or demons comes out... it still needs the human body.
Because without it, they turn back into a spirit form and go into limbo... and no spirit likes
to go into limbo."

Iliana nodded as the priest paced up and down in front of her.

           
"So that is why they do not like it when you touch the human body... like with Chloe
earlier." She said remembering the priest telling her not to touch Chloe.

           
"Exactly... they are very protective of their human. That is why most of them do not
come out at all... They stay inside and take control of the human body... and that is where I
come in. I am a Chanter... and I have the power to call out the demon from the body so it is
easier and safer for the human body to purify it." The priest explained, he stopped pacing
and stood in front of Iliana. "The demons physical form needs to be destroyed for the soul
to be set free and be purified, then the human’s soul is returned to it’s body, and the human
has no memory of the possession."

           
"How does one get possessed to start with?" Iliana asked.

           
"Anything negative which darkens the soul... like depression, severe obsession with
things like drugs... alcohol and sex. Killing a fellow man, a loss of a loved one... those are
just naming the few that could trigger the inner demon... But only a holy weapon or a gift
from god can purify demons, whom we call the Purifiers."

The priest pointed to Kazuki who Iliana completely forgot was still in the room.

           
"Kazuki had been chosen by God to wield the ‘Sword of the Spirit.’ A double edged
sword that is used with his touch only... to anyone else just a blunt sword and you..." The
priest said now pointing at Iliana. "You have the power over water and also to change any
liquid into holy water. An old Italian friend of mine told me stories of the kind of powers
you possess... and I must confess until now, I had never believed him."

The priest placed both hands on the table that Iliana was leaning on, his hazel coloured eyes
gazed into hers.

           
"Recently and for some unknown reason there have been more and more people
being possessed by their own demon. I have a small team of Purifiers that purify’s as many
as we can find whilst investigating what or who is behind this abnormal amount of
possessions... and I am going to need your help and the powers that you own."

Without a minute to even think about it, Iliana gave her answer.

           
"I will help."

The priest quickly stood up looking surprised.