Dark Exorcist (3 page)

Chapter 6

12:15 a.m.    

     Father Pierce stepped back into the room, wearing scrubs. He looked slightly younger than Doctor Bennett, but had less hair. Amanda’s screaming had calmed, and she was now lying there growling. For some reason, having the priest in the room made me more nervous.

     “You think we should step out for a bit?” I asked.

     “Not a bad idea,” Dr. Bennett answered.

     We walked out of the room, locked the door and headed to the nurse’s station. There was a nurse and a hospital tech, who’d been watching us earlier. They were pretending to be absorbed in some paperwork. The nurse looked too young to be a nurse.. She had to be fresh out of nursing school. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail that bounced every time she moved her head. I couldn’t see her name tag. Apparently the graveyard shift on the psych ward was the best job she could get. Seemed like ten years ago, medical facilities couldn’t hire enough nurses.

     “Everything okay back there?” she asked. “That girl is scary.”

     “She’s definitely an interesting one,” Bennett said.  “Chloe, go get her 20 mg of Geodon IM. We’ll go in with you to administer it. Also, .5 mg of Ativan, if she’ll take it. I want to get her calmed down.” The nurse, Chloe, nodded and began making notes in a chart. When she finished writing, she walked into the med room to prepare the medications.

     “So, what do you think it is?” the tech asked. He didn’t look much older than the nurse, but he was heavier set, with thick black hair. He was playing with something on his phone as he spoke.

     “Too early to tell. Right now, I just want to keep her from trashing the hospital.”

     “One of the nurses from the ER said she’s possessed.”

     “We need to have another class about confidentiality. It’s difficult enough without the staff freaking each other out,” Bennett said.

     “What do you think Father?” the tech asked.

     “I haven’t seen enough to convince me it’s anything other than mental illness,” he said.

     “Hey Father, I wanted your thoughts on something,” I said.

     “Sure.”

     “Sometimes she yelled a bunch of gibberish, but some of it sounded like another language. The one nurse said it was Greek. Doc didn’t know what to make of it. You ever heard of that?”

     “Not associated with a mental illness, no. This isn’t the movies though, so it’s not necessarily demon possession either.”

     I didn’t mention the murderer comments she’d made. No point in bringing any more attention to that than necessary. Chloe stepped out of the med room, with a syringe, wearing a pair of rubber gloves.

     “We ready guys?” she asked. Just as she spoke there was a scream from Amanda’s room, then a loud crash. We all turned that direction, at the end of the unit, as the door flew off its hinges and crashed against the wall. Amanda leapt from the room, turned and faced us. She began running straight toward us.

     “Motherfucker!” Chloe yelled, as Amanda charged at her. I jumped at Amanda, knocking her to the ground, before she reached Chloe. She flung me off her as if I was a rag doll, and punched me in the face, again. She grabbed the syringe from Chloe’s hand and stabbed at her with it. Chloe put her arm up to block it, and took the injection in the forearm. Amanda let go, as the syringe stuck out from Chloe’s arm, the plunger had been pushed down. Chloe pulled it out, and stumbled behind the nurse’s desk.  The doctor and chaplain stepped away, and Amanda circled around, growling at them.

     “Forgive me father,” she said to Father Pierce, “Gia eímai amartía.” She jumped onto the desk, leapt up at the ceiling and knocked away one of the ceiling panels. As she sprang again, she pulled herself up and disappeared into the vents, through the ceiling.

     “You gotta be shittin’ me,” I said, looking at the opening where she’d just disappeared. “You okay?” I asked Chloe, who was already falling asleep. She took a strong dose, and she’ll probably sleep all day and night.  I looked at Doctor Bennett, who, for the first time, looked concerned. “Well doc?”

     “I guess we need to find Amanda. Again.”

     “What kind of design is that?” I asked, pointing at the ceiling.

     “Not a good one obviously. But I’ve been here for over twenty years, and no one has ever jumped up like that.” He scratched his chin, looking up at the opening. “She could be anywhere now.”

     “No way any of us can go up there,” I said. “We’re all too heavy. The  ceiling would come crashing down.”

     “That was Greek,” Father Pierce said.

     “What?” I asked.

     “That thing she yelled at me. In English she said ‘Forgive me father,’ then in Greek she said ‘For I am sin.’”

     That’s just great. My shift wasn't even half over. This night showed no sign of being over. Ever.

Chapter 7

12:35 a.m.    

     I asked Father Pierce to join me in the hallway. Fortunately, there were some extra flashlights in the nurse’s station, so he had one too. We went back to the hallway, and listened for any strange sounds. There hadn’t been a peep from the girl since she disappeared into the ceiling.

     “Unit A-367,” my radio squawked.

     “Go ahead,” I replied.

     “You still at the hospital?”

     “Affirmative.”

     “We just received a 911 from there. On the fifth floor, the nurse advised there was a female subject running through the hall. Subject attacked another nurse.”

     “10-4,” I said. Shit.

     “Fifth floor?” Father Pierce repeated, “That’s the pediatric floor.”

     “Fuck me,” I looked at the priest, who had no reaction. “Sorry Father.”

     “Don’t worry about it,” he said. With the power still out, we’ll have to take the stairs to the fifth floor.

     “You know where the stairwell is?” I asked.

     “This way, follow me.” We walked down the long hall, and through a doorway, into the dark stairwell. As if total darkness wasn’t enough, our every movement echoed throughout the concrete walls and metal staircase. It was dark and loud. I don’t creep out easily, but chasing a possessed girl through a dark hospital, in the middle of the night, wasn’t at the top of my list of cool things to do.

     We’d walked up several steps, when the lights came back on. At the top of the stairwell, the girl was standing, snarling at us. The lights turned back off, and then came back on again. This time she was gone, in total darkness.

     “What the hell? Did you see that?” I asked Father Pierce.

    “I sure did.”

     “Do you need to give us a blessing or something?”

     “You watch too many movies, officer. She might just be trying to freak us out.”

     “Well, she’s off to a good start.”

     We climbed a few more steps and up the next few flights, with no problem. When we got to the fifth floor, I realized I needed to start doing more cardio. As we pushed the door open, someone screamed. It was coming from the other end of the hall. I shined my light in that direction, and there was a nurse standing about twenty feet away.

     “Everything okay ma’am?” I asked.

     “Who’s there?”

     “I’m a police officer. Officer Roman. You called about a disturbance?”

     “Oh yes.” She walked over to us. “You scared the crap out of me when the door opened. You got here fast.”

     “I was already on the third floor. I brought the girl in earlier. She escaped from the psychiatric unit,” I explained.

     “That’s crazy. She’s here somewhere. She attacked Maggie, but she’s okay. Knocked her to the ground. That kid is strong.”

     “Tell me about it,” I said, as I rubbed my eye where she’d punched me earlier. “Any idea where she was last seen?”

     “She ran down this way,” she said, pointing behind her. “I’m not sure where she came from, she just appeared. The lights went off, and she was just there.”

   “Okay, thank you.”

     “Is that Father Pierce with you?” she asked, as she approached us.

     “Yes, it’s me,” he said. “You doing okay Jolene?”

     “I’m fine. What are you doing? And why are you in scrubs?”

     “It’s a long story. Just trying to help Officer Roman out.”

     We turned and continued down the hall before she could answer. So far, Amanda hadn’t harmed any of the patients. Hopefully she wouldn’t hurt any of the kids. We walked through the dark hall, shining the light across each doorway. The door to one of the rooms was cracked part way open. I slowly eased the door open, and saw a little girl standing inside. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old, and she was staring up at me with a dead gaze. Either
she was sleepwalking or was heavily medicated, or god knows what else. Father Pierce knelt down beside her.

     “You okay sweetie?” he asked. She never took her eyes off me, however. “Little girl, I’m the chaplain, Father Pierce. Why aren’t you in bed? Are you okay?”

     “You’re going to die tonight,” she said, still staring at me. “He knows what you did. He’s gonna get you.”

Chapter 8

12:50 p.m.    

     Father Pierce turned and looked at me, in disbelief.

     “What’s she talking about? He knows what you did. What did you do?” he asked.

     I had no idea how this girl or Amanda knew anything about me, but it had become disturbing. My past had nothing to do with the current situation. I needed to keep the focus off me, and on finding the girl, and getting her under control. This craziness had gone on long enough.

    “I have no idea what she’s talking about,” I answered. “I doubt she does either.”

     “Come on honey,” Father Pierce said to the girl. “Let’s get you back in bed.” He took her by the hand and walked her back to the bed, where she climbed in. Once she was in bed, he approached me.

     “You still think I watch too many movies?” I questioned.

     “Perhaps,” he said, as he started walking away.

     I bit my lip, as I followed behind him. What the girl said had obviously unsettled him. Nothing I could do about it now. I wasn’t sure why it was even bothering me. There was no need to worry, because there was nothing for him to find out. I shined the light along the ceiling and other parts of the hallway. On the other side of the hall, there was another door, partially open. I was afraid to see what was behind that door. This was turning into some kind of nasty game, like  “Let’s Make a Deal” from hell. I walked over and gently eased the door open. As I stepped into the room, I could see that the bed was empty, but in the corner, there was a body hanging from the ceiling. Next to the body was a little boy, looking at me with the same dead eyes as the little girl in the previous room.

     “See what you did?” he said. “More people will die.”

     “What are you talking about?” I asked. “What did I do? Who is going to die? Who did this?”

     “He did.”

     “He who?”

     “The Doctor.”

     “What doctor?” I asked. The kid’s expression hadn’t changed it all. He just spoke in this creepy monotone.

     “He’s everywhere.”

     So, that wasn’t helpful. I looked at the body. It was a young woman in scrubs. She was either a nurse or a tech. I had no way to get her down. I grabbed the boy by the hand and walked him out into the hall. Father Pierce was returning from the other direction.

     “There’s a body in there,” I said. “One of the staff is hanging from the ceiling.”

     “My God. What did you bring to this place?” he asked.

     “Me? How was I supposed to know she’d go on some rampage? I’ve never seen anything like this.”

     “I have, once. Though it wasn’t this bad, I didn’t want to jump to that conclusion.”

     “You serious? What happened?” I asked.

     I never believed in all this devil stuff they  kept talking about, but this night's events were starting to play with my head.

     “I was working at a mission in Haiti back in the ’90s. There was a young man who acted like this. He terrorized a whole village. Eventually we realized that he was actually possessed by demons.”

     “I thought you said that was almost impossible?”

     “It is. But it does happen. I didn’t believe it at the time either. Not until I watched him float off the ground, and tear a goat in half.  It scared the hell out of me. I was working with Father Gomez, who did an exorcism. It took several sessions. They continued ten hours a day, for three weeks. We saw the boy, prayed over him, repeated the Rite of Exorcism. Finally, the demon left him, but it took its toll on both of us. Father Gomez was old at the time, and he had a heart attack shortly after. He lived, but had to retire. I had nightmares for years. I probably will again, after tonight.”

     “So you think she’s possessed?”

     “It’s starting to look that way. The effect she has on those around her. That’s not just mental illness. And I’ve seen everything. Are you a man of faith officer?”

      “No, I’ve seen everything too. At least I thought I had, until this crazy shit.”

     “After tonight, I bet you believe.”

     “Don’t count on it. If doing an exorcism makes her think the demons are gone, then great. Now we have a homicide on top of everything else, which reminds me, I have to call this in.”

     I got on my radio to call dispatch, but there was nothing but static. I checked my radio and the battery still had a charge. I tried a few more times, but there was nothing. I took out my cell phone and it was dead. It was almost 3 a.m., at this point. There was no backup coming, and I couldn’t call out. I went to the nurse’s desk to use the phone. Jolene was there, still looking worried.

     “Is everything okay?” she asked.

     “Not really. Is your phone working? She took the receiver off the hook and hit a few of the line buttons. After a minute she hung it up, shaking her head. “What the hell?”

     “What? Did something happen? I haven’t seen our tech, Lisa since you got here. Have you seen her?”

     “No,” I lied. “I think the girl is still on the unit though, and I’ve seen evidence she is dangerous. Can you—”

     There was a scream, as Amanda burst from one of the rooms and hopped onto the nurse’s desk. She crouched on all fours, snarling, as she looked back and forth at each of us, waiting to pounce. Amanda faced Jolene, a twisted grin on her face, and leaned back as if preparing to leap. Before she could, I pulled my gun and shot her once, sending her flying off the counter. I ran around the desk, keeping my gun trained on her. I’d resisted shooting her earlier, but she’d proven herself to be so dangerous, I had no choice.

     I walked around the counter. She was lying on her back, holding her stomach. Blood was everywhere. She looked up at me, and this time her eyes were brown, not the weird yellow I’d seen earlier.

     “Why’d you shoot me?” she pleaded, in her own voice. Amanda was back to herself for now. Father Pierce came running down the hallway. When he arrived, he looked at me accusingly.

     “What did you do? You shot a child!” Jolene was sitting in a chair behind the nurse’s station crying, her face in her hands. I couldn’t seem to catch a break.