Last Exorcism

[SP] After his last exorcism a priest learns that he was manipulated to jailbreak demons out of humans that could contain them.

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It was supposed to be something done for the greater good. Something that was done to rid this world of the evil that festered in it, to help humans tormented by these fallen angels that inhabited their bodies. When I took the Exorcist’s Oath, I pledged to do all within my power to make this world a better place by expelling all demons that chose to possess human bodies and bring terror to the world.

As I walked down the halls of Golgotha, I couldn’t help but cry at the damage I had wrought, all because I was being played.

I was first brought into this sanctuary called Golgotha when I was just 5. My mother had died during childbirth, and my father was an exorcist who thought that the best place for me was the place he’d called home all his life. Two years later, he died on the job, and I, Abraham Kane was chosen to be his replacement once I became 18.

 I was well versed in all the chants and in all the relics required to exorcise lesser demons at the age of 12. It was all quite rushed, yes, but the world was not waiting for any one. Every day, exorcists were deployed to different places in our part of the world; every week, we lost one or two of them. Each time an exorcism failed, the demon in the host only became stronger, and the wickedness in the world only increased.

So yes, I was being rushed, but I understood why. I was going to be a priest; not the priest who prayed over your communion or offered mass, but one who lived in the shadows, who actually rolled his sleeves up and did the dirty work. There would always be the priests out in the light, in the chapels, in the churches, and then there was our order, in the homes, in the outskirts of cities.

On my 18th birthday, I was finally consecrated as a Priest, coming out as one of the best in my class. I could handle virtually all cursed spirits, and I had the strong will of my father. Every exorcist knows that an exorcism is a battle, and the chants we recite have no effect if we have not the will.

My first mission was in the deserts of New Mexico: a five-year-old girl possessed with a violent spirit. Her fits only happened when the sun had set and continued till sunrise. Heavy chains and iron fetters would have to be used to restrain her, and even then she would have to be locked in a metal barrel for fear of her letting loose.

The first time she got loose, the family managed to divert her into the pigpen, and by morning, they came to meet their daughter crying, drenched in a sea of blood and twenty-five dead pigs.

The exorcism had been a long, tiring affair, and he had his right arm dislocated, but he had managed to exorcise her, and the demon was sealed in a jar which he took back to the sanctuary. On subsequent missions, he was told by the Chief Priest that sealing the demons was unnecessary and that they would be vanquished as soon as they leave the body since they needed a host to survive.

And he believed that for the next 20 years, leaving the demons to go free and ‘die’ after the exorcism. And now, he paid dearly for that.

Yesterday he had gone for an exorcism, and by the time he reached, it was too late. The demon had completely taken over the woman’s body, such that she was undergoing some transformations herself. It was the first time he saw a physical manifestation, and he was shocked.

What shocked him the more was when the demon called out his name. He recognized that voice. San Diego, three years ago. He had exorcised a gluttonous demon that had possessed a man, forcing him to consume anything and everything within his sight. He was put in a straitjacket and dropped at the bottom of an empty well where he was fed by throwing bread down.

The last time someone tried to feed him, he nearly bit his hand off.

But I had defeated that demon. It was supposed to have been dead.

“You are a fool to have believed what your Nicholas said! When you leave us after an exorcism, we just grow even more powerful," it screamed wildly as it lunged at me.

I had to do the only thing possible at that moment. Even though her consciousness was gone, her soul was still in her body, albeit being just a passive observer. It made cutting of its head a very sad experience, but it was either her or everyone else within the area.

And that was why I was standing in front of the door of the personal chamber of Chief Priest Nicholas Isaias. For one confrontation that would leave either of us dead.

TO BE CONTINUED.