Evil Unearthed: Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-five

Stephen was not troubled by dreams or beating hearts or any other strange psychic manifestations while he slept, but he could not say when he woke the next morning that his sleep had been completely undisturbed. The vague feeling of unease which had permeated this place during the night was still with him though the day was bright and unclouded. Stepping out onto his balcony, he tried to let the sun and the sound of the sea wash away this gloom, but it was to no avail, so that when Vangie came to find him, her smile seemed to mock rather than to encourage him. A sarcastic jibe was on the tip of his tongue when he suddenly looked into her eyes and found something there which reflected a struggle even greater than his own.

"So," she said softly, "the day has come at last. Has it not?"

"I suppose it has," said Stephen. "I hope that when it is over, things will have changed for the better."

"Changes are coming, Stephen," said Vangie, "whether for better or for worse is beyond my knowledge to say. I came to tell you that Kathleen wants to have a last council in her office at nine. There is some new information which we must talk about."

"You still carry Barrett's staff," said Stephen, looking at the whiteness of her knuckles where she gripped it.

"I do, yes. It may be your task to wield it again, but for now, I think holy water and crucifix must be your weapons of combat."

"But I've foresworn myself in the matter of celibacy. Can I even call myself a priest of Christ?"

"You must, or we are all doomed! Do you regret what we have been to each other?"

"No," said Stephen, "but that in itself frightens me. Is everything I know to be true wrong?"

"You are on a journey, Stephen, a journey whose ultimate end cannot be foreseen, and so are we all. This island is enslaved to a terrible and ancient power which must be destroyed, and I knew long ago that someone of your calling was needed for us to win the fight."

"My uncle tried and was killed."

"Yes," said Vangie, "but if we had stood together, if he and I had not let suspicion drive us apart and if I hadn't left in the midst of the battle, together we would have vanquished this evil and freed Jean Paul from its grip. Now, you and I have forged a bond between us of spirit as much as of flesh, and now, we have a chance to put right the wrong. Tell me now, Stephen, if you cannot continue!" She took his hand in a grip of iron, and for an instant, a wild look came into her eyes such as his uncle had described seeing in his journal just before her supposed death.

"I can continue, Vangie," he said. "I can continue. Please don't--don't succumb to this thing!"

"I will not succumb while there is a breath in my body, Stephen, but I will not lie to you. The struggle is terrible!"

"Come then," he said, taking her into a fierce embrace. "We'll do it, Vangie! We'll do it together!" The sea beat against the shore in its eternal rhythm but beneath the breaking waves he thought he heard a mocking laughter.

"Do you hear him, Stephen?"

"I do, but I don't care! He'll be driven out! I swear it!"

"I too am resolved, Stephen, and your determination encourages me. Now, we should get ready for the council. From now on, I think you should be in full priest's garb, and I will dawn the trappings of my office as well."

"What about this?" He withdrew the serpent pendent he still wore at his breast.

"Keep it, Stephen! You are fighting for Christ but you are also carrying Robert's part in this battle forward. He was freed, yes, but he was also laid low by this evil. We must avenge him and all those touched by it over the centuries!"

"Alright then. I'll do as you say," he said, replacing the pendent beneath his shirt and walking back into his room. Following him, Vangie closed the French doors to the balcony and then left him to himself without another word.

When he emerged from his room, prayer book, censer and holy water firmly in his possession in a small bag, he was amazed to find Vangie in her robe. It was true that they had appeared to each other in their respective official uniforms only the day before, but now he saw a difference in her. It was as though he was meeting her in her cabin for the first time, and in a way, he did see her now in a new light. Before, there had always been a part of his mind which viewed her as a cultural anthropologist would view any native practitioner of an ancient and half-forgotten faith, with curiosity and a little skepticism. However, as he saw her step from her door across the hall to join him, he saw her as he thought one of the devotees of that faith might see her, and he stared at her in awe and with not a little fear.

"Well, Fr. Dawson?"

"Well, Conjure Woman?"

"Let us go, if we're going," and taking his hand in hers, she strode purposely toward the north tower and the waiting Kathleen.

"Good," said that woman as they entered her office. "You're both here."

"Were we late?" Stephen was puzzled by the franticness of her pacing and the relief in her voice.

"No, not late," she said, "but--well--I can't explain."

"Please try, Kat," said Vangie, regarding her with a strange expression on her face. "What has been happening to you this morning?"

"Well--well first, I think you both should sit down," and pointing to the chairs across from her desk, she took her usual seat behind it and attempted to compose herself before continuing.

"Alright," she said after both Stephen and Vangie were seated, "it's like this. I slept very well when I finally did sleep, but ever since I woke up this morning, I've been on edge. It's because of this," and reaching into a desk drawer, she withdrew something and passed it to Vangie.

"A conjure doll, is it not? And it looks suspiciously like it's meant to represent me."

"So it does," said Vangie. "Have you seen it before?"

"When I first came back after Bill's death I saw it, only that time, a pin was lying next to it. Then it disappeared, but it was back again when I woke up this morning. Only this time, there was no pin with it. I'm afraid I know who has it and I'm afraid of what she'll do with it."

"This is not a true conjure doll," said Vangie, turning it in her hands as she spoke. "It was meant to frighten you, Kat."

"Then what about the other doll I saw? It was like Bill, and it had a pin through its heart."

"I wouldn't know unless I saw it, but although Bill Temple did die of a heart attack, the power that killed him needed no conjure doll to accomplish its goal. Still, I'll keep this with me just in case."

"I hope you're right," said Kathleen. "Now, have you told Stephen about our little adventure last night?"

"Adventure? What adventure?"

"Kat and I discovered that the passage leading to the laboratory was not damaged as it appeared to be. When we explored, Kat found some pain medicine belonging to Julia."

"We think we can use it to help us," said Kathleen. "We think that Erica hid it behind that plywood so that Julia in her right mind wouldn't be able to get it."

"There is some evidence," said Stephen thinking back through various books and papers on the subject, "to suggest that drugs such as strong pain medication can paralyze a possessing spirit or at least disrupt the suggestion that the spirit is possessing the body, depending on the school of thought to which you subscribe. It would at the very least allow Julia's mind to move beyond the limits of the possession and to block communication between Erica's spirit and her body. I'd be able to act then."

"We're hoping for even more, Stephen," said Vangie. "We're hoping to bring Julia's own will into the exorcism."

"Good! The more help we can get, the better, but how are we going to begin?"

"I've thought of that," said Vangie. "We will all go to the great hall and I will summon Erica. Then, you will have to begin the exorcism so that Erica may retreat deeper into Julia's mind. Then, I will bring Julia forward and hopefully she will feel the pain which must be assailing her body. That will help her mind to become clear and will allow us to reach her. With luck, she will give her permission for the pain medication and then, even if Erica regains control, the medication will do its work and you can truly do your own."

"So when will we start?"

"As soon as may be," said Vangie. "However, practical preparations must be made first. We must eat, for one thing."

"A last meal before the battle?" Stephen couldn't help this cynical comment.

"Is it not said that an exorcism is like a prize fight?"

"That's true," said Stephen.

"And I too must be in top form," continued Vangie, "and besides, we must meet once more as friends before going into battle."

"Alright then," said Kathleen. "You and I will get the breakfast, Vangie, shall we?"

Stephen watched the two women leave the room and then reached into the small bag he carried and removed his purloined copy of The Roman Ritual, opening it to the Exorcism section. Looking over the rubrics, he made some notes in the margins and then, as he heard Vangie and Kathleen coming down the corridor, he shut the book, replaced it in his bag with the other tools of his trade, and sat still to await whatever would come. He was ready as he would ever be, he thought, and he knew that Vangie would do her best, but Kathleen was still a mystery. What would she do when push came to shove? Could she be counted upon? For Vangie, this seemed to be a closed question, but his mind was not so easy. He felt that he could not afford to let his mind be easy, even if the story that Kathleen had told him last night was true. Reincarnation was not a belief that he would have espoused a few weeks ago, but before he met Vangie, he would not have believed that a human could approach anything like immortality. So, perhaps he was wrong about his suspicions and distrust, but Kathleen had hurt Vangie, his beloved, Barrett's friend and confidante. Then, of course, there was his own resolve to contemplate. What if that heartbeat came again? Could he hold out against it? All these questions burned in his mind, and as the two women rejoined him, he found himself unable to look either of them in the eye.

The meal they had prepared was simple but sustaining, and Stephen ate heartily enough. However, as he watched and listened to them, their laughter and their professions of the friendship and sisterhood which had grown up between them over these past weeks, he could not help growing more and more angry. How could Vangie trust Kathleen now? She was not a naive person as a rule, but he couldn't help thinking of her as such when faced with this greatest of betrayals.

"Stephen," she said now as he was draining his cup of instant coffee, "something is troubling you. What is it?"

"It's me," said Kathleen, tears welling in her eyes. "It's me! He hates me and thinks you're a fool to trust me after what I did yesterday."

"Is this true, Stephen?" Vangie's gaze was stern and pitiless. "After all you've heard about this power, after all you've seen in this place, are you so hard-hearted?"

"She almost killed you! I can't--I can't forgive that!" By now, he was on his feet and so was the Conjure Woman. Kathleen, however, still sat behind her desk, eyes cast down and tears falling freely.

"Come with me!" said Vangie, and he found he had no choice in the matter, for she had taken his hand and had propelled him from the room in less than five seconds.

"Stephen," she said when she had closed the door, "if your heart isn't in this, you have to tell me now! We are all on edge and it is only going to get worse from here, so tell me now if you truly cannot trust Kat. Does not your faith have a story about a prodigal son who is welcomed with open arms after his misguided deeds? I am not dead, Stephen, nor will I be until the Great Serpent so wills it, and I beg you to think about why you are refusing to trust Kathleen or to forgive her. You and I are bound with a great bond now, but you cannot let your emotional attachment to me cloud your purpose here."

"But if you had died! If I had lost you!"

"Death is no loss, Stephen. Neither your faith nor mine counts it as such. Remember the loyalty that Kat has shown you! Remember the help she has been to you, and to me! Open your eyes and your heart, Stephen, and put aside your anger, or else channel it to a better object and a nobler end!"

"I'll try, Vangie. I'll try."

"That is all I can ask. Now, let's go back in there!"

Stephen opened the door and preceded Vangie back into the small office, and there, a sight to melt the hardest of hearts met his eyes. Kathleen was sobbing uncontrollably and convulsing with the violence of her tears.


"Go to her, Stephen! She is strong and we need her strength, but she needs comfort now. I'll take care of the dishes while you talk."

"No, Vangie! No!" Stephen was taken aback by the desperation in Kathleen's voice as she said this, but Vangie, after whispering to her and putting an arm around her, left the room with the remains of the breakfast.

Stephen went to her and took her hand.

"I'm sorry, Kat," he said. "I'm a foolish man. Please forgive me!"

"You have to know, Stephen, that I want to save Julia, and I don't want either you or Vangie hurt by what's going to happen here. I'll do whatever I have to to help. You have to believe me!"

"It's alright, Kat. It's alright." He found a handkerchief in his bag and gave it to her to wipe her eyes. This done, she stood up and came to him.

"You're a good man, Stephen," she said, "and I think you're a good priest."

"I'm an idiot, Kat," he said, "and I'm only a passable priest. However, it's lucky that whether or not I'm proficient in my vocation doesn't ultimately matter. The ritual of exorcism is given power by God, and He surely must be on our side against this--this thing!"

"Our side?"

"Yes, our side. I know where your heart is. I'm sorry I doubted you!"

"Alright then! Let's do this!"

"I'm glad to see you two on the same side again," said Vangie as she came back in. "It's time for us to go to the great hall."

"Already?" Stephen stared at her in surprise.

"Already, Stephen? Haven't we waited long enough?"

"I agree with Vangie," said Kathleen. "Finally we're doing something!"

"I have to pray first," said Stephen.

"So do we all," said Vangie, "but we'll do it in the great hall."

"I hate the idea of doing anything in front of that portrait," said Stephen, "but I suppose it's part of the evil too."

"It is, and the great hall was the scene of the fire. It was the scene of great evil and even greater courage, so we must use that to our advantage. Come now!" and taking up the serpent staff, she led the way out of the tower and toward the place where the battle would truly begin.

Once in the great hall, Stephen prayed and asperged the room with holy water and then lit some incense.

"Are there any rituals that you need to do, Vangie, before we start?"

"It is not mine to officiate here. I will stand against any manifestations of power, but beyond that, it is you who are the priest during this ceremony. Kathleen and I are acolytes."

"Very well. Then if you feel you can summon Erica, I suppose there's no time like the present. Are you ready with the meds, Kat?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, yes."

"Then we'll begin," said Vangie, and standing to her full height, she spoke in a firm, commanding tone. "You who have taken the name of Erica Desmond, I conjure you to come and meet us here! By the ancient rulers of this island and by all that is holy, I command you to show yourself!"

"And me, little Evangeline? What about me?"

Stephen turned from his preparations and looked at the portrait. The voice had come from it just as it had on the day of his arrival, but the portrait itself looked as lifeless as any other painting.

"You will be dealt with, Jacques Eloi Des Mondes," said Vangie.

"Unless you are dealt with first, of course!"

"Now now! Let's not have impoliteness here! I'm the mistress of this house, and I am eager to provide hospitality to my guests." Julia stood framed in the doorway, her dress the colour of fire and her hair braided and dripping with gems.

"I am pleased to see you all gathered here! Now, we can better understand each other. Can we not, Fr. Dawson?"

"We can, yes," and taking a deep breath, he made the sign of the cross and began to say The Lord's Prayer in what he hoped was a voice as clear and strong as Vangie's had been.