Evil Unearthed: Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-six

Kathleen stood mesmerized between two awesome sights. The first was Julia's body, standing tall and commanding in the doorway, her dress hanging perfectly from her slendour shoulders and her hair a rope of gold intertwined with rubies and emeralds, but as she looked into her friends eyes, she knew beyond a doubt that what lay behind them was not her friend. She recognized Erica in a new and intimate way, for the power which pulsed from her was the same power which she had touched in the temple and she didn't like it.

The second sight which kept her transfixed was Stephen's sure and fluid gestures as he spoke the opening invocations of the time-honoured roman ritual of Exorcism over her friend. As she watched him, she realized that he was not only reciting these prayers from a book, but she knew that he too sensed the power coming from Erica and was trying to put himself between it and Julia. He was fighting for Julia just as hard as she wished to fight. However, at present, she could do nothing but watch and wait, and beside her waited Vangie, and she too exuded a power that Kathleen could sense, but where Erica's power was darkness itself, Vangie's was like the splendour of the sun. Even though she could not see it with her bodily eyes, she knew the light lay burning just behind the veil of Vangie's physical form. She felt a keen sense of trust for both of her companions, and as Stephen began the first part of the exorcism proper, it seemed to catch Erica unawares. At his first banishing gesture, Julia's body seemed to totter, and Kathleen was uncertain whether this was a mere faint, but she soon realized that Julia was beginning to regain control. Vangie was quickly at Julia's side and calling her softly from the protected corner she had made for her, and after a moment, Julia turned to Kathleen with unclouded eyes but eyes filled with pain and distress.

"Kat!" she said. "Oh God! Kat! The pain! The pain, Kat! Help me!"

"I will, Julia. I will, but come and lie down on the sofa first! Vangie, help me with her! There now, Julia! It'll be alright. It'll be alright. I have your medicine!"

"But she hid it! She--Aaaaaaah!" The scream was terrible. It frightened Kathleen so much that she almost dropped the syringe she was preparing. However, with Vangie's deft fingers to help her, she soon had the injection ready and found a spot on Julia's arm which she remembered all too well, and once Vangie had swabbed the area with some rubbing alcohol she had retrieved from the laboratory, she soon had the drugs administered and Julia began to calm down under their influence.

All this while, Stephen continued to pray and she and Vangie continued to make the appropriate responses. It was strange to see the Conjure Woman dressed in her ceremonial robe speaking words such as "amen" and performing gestures like the sign of the cross, but Kathleen could tell that in that moment Vangie was as devout as anyone could be, and that while she was praying, she was summoning all her strength to stand against the true onslaught. Kathleen did not know when this would come, but as Stephen placed his stole over Julia's forehead, she suddenly knew that something had changed. The moment he had anointed Julia's body with holy water, the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. Before, it had been comfortable, but now, a chill had crept in such as she had never felt in these islands save in one place: the crypt below.

"I said we would deal with you, little priest," said Julia, and though her words were slow and slurred, Kathleen recognized Erica's tone and cadence, "and I meant it!" These words were spoken with ferocious clarity, and soon, Erica's spirit made Julia sit bolt upright and punch the priest squarely in the stomach.

Stephen took two steps back, but to Kathleen's surprise, though he was winded, he managed to remain on his feet. This seemed to anger Erica, for she suddenly got to her feet and stood perfectly still for over a minute. The room was still around her. No one spoke, for Stephen was still getting his breath back, and she found herself utterly fascinated with the scene before her. Erica was standing as she knew she herself must have stood in the temple, and while no wind accompanied her change, Kathleen knew that she was being taken up into the centre of that dark power which held sway over the garden of evil, and now a voice came from Julia's lips such as could belong to no human being ever born, and what it pronounced was dreadful to hear, even if Kathleen could not understand the syllables, for what it shouted were words of terrible pain and rage, words of cosmic hatred and absolute malice. She had read her H. P. Lovecraft, and here at last, she knew, she was seeing, in the body of her dearest friend in the world, the unmasked demon at last, the truth behind Lovecraft's 'thing that should not be,' and it was even more horrible because it was reaching out to her and trying to draw her along with it as it had done before.

On and on went the vast and strange syllables until all at once, Stephen came to meet the thing which was now no longer properly the spirit of Erica Desmond and, raising his crucifix like a shield, commanded it to be silent. From him came no power, from him came no inhuman voice, but all the same, there was a wondrous strength in him, a beautiful determination to stand against this thing and face it down as a true servant of God.

"I command you," he said when the demon unexpectedly did fall silent, "by the Judge of the living and the dead, to depart from this servant of God, Julia Suzanne Desmond! I cast you out in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! O Lord, hear my prayer."

"And let my cry come unto thee," both she and Vangie responded, standing behind him in the room which now felt like a freezer and holding hands, and now Stephen began a litany of the saints, and while he was saying the names of those holy men and women which she recalled from her childhood, the demon in charge of Julia's body now picked him up and tossed him into a far corner where his head collided with a glass occasional table. Blood was dripping from just above his eye when he stood up, but he did stand up and return to his place.

"It's the power of Christ that compels you," he began, and then over and over, while sprinkling Julia's body with holy water, he continued saying: "The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!"

"Does it indeed, little priest? Are you truly a servant of His? And who are these who follow you? An agnostic and a native island witch? Surely you don't think they can stop me! Look at what happened to the fourth member of your little rescue party!" The voice sounded more human again by now, but not less evil. Still, as Stephen still chanted the central part of the exorcism, Kathleen noticed that Julia's body was weakening, and before long, it fell back onto the sofa and lay motionless.

Stephen concluded the ritual without another interruption from either Julia's body or the portrait, but none of the three companions felt as though they could relax when it was done. For one thing, the great hall was still very cold, and as Vangie tended Stephen's cut, none of them could forget the casual way in which the demon had thrown him across the room.

"I'm hoping the drugs have now taken a firmer hold," said Stephen after a while, "but I don't really know if they were a good or a bad idea."

"I think they have been of some help," said Vangie, and Kathleen caught a tightness in her voice that she did not like, "but however that may be, the choice has been made and We cannot turn back from it, no matter how much we might wish to."

Just then, as though in confirmation of this statement, Kathleen began to perceive a very familiar sound, a sound she had hoped never to hear again. The ancient heartbeat which had seduced her into the temple was pounding in her ears and seemed to come from the portrait over the fireplace.

"Does anyone else hear that?" She wanted to make sure she was not hallucinating.

"I have never stopped hearing it," said Vangie, "not for over forty years. That heartbeat has haunted my dreams and driven my life." For an instant, Kathleen saw a truly maniacal look in the eyes of the Conjure Woman and she wondered all at once if Vangie truly was on the side of evil, but then, her usual composure regained, she continued in more reassuring tones:

"It is the curse that I helped to loose, and I will destroy it just as its mark was destroyed on the altar of the Great Serpent!"

"Those are fine words, Conjure Woman," said the voice from the portrait, "but what if your destiny should find you first? What if you have come to Maljardin again only to fulfill it? I told you to stay away, and now I'll show you your folly in not heeding my warnings!"

"No, no you can't!" Kathleen turned suddenly from the scene before her and saw that Julia was speaking.

"Have no fear, Julia," said Vangie, going quickly to her side. "Whatever happens, we are all in the hands of a power much greater than ourselves."

"No, Vangie, you don't understand!"

"Rest now, Julia, please!"

"Rest? Rest?" Suddenly Kathleen was at Vangie's side and gazing directly into Julia's wide open eyes. They were like pools of emptiness. Nothing human seemed to live within their depths, and now Vangie realized her mistake.

"I can't rest, Vangie," said Erica in a horrible imitation of Julia's pained voice, "because I haven't finished what I started with you so long ago! You were hindering my reunion with my husband, and I just couldn't have that, now could I?" By now, both Vangie's hands were being gripped fiercely, and Kathleen could tell that Erica was doing something even more terrible to her on a spiritual level.

"What do we do, Stephen? She's killing her!"

"What happened in the library, Kat? Do you remember how you did what you did?"

"I do, but I can't sense anything from Vangie now, and it was her strength that I was able to use back in the library with Professor Barrett! Now, we have to do something! My God! Look what that thing is doing to her!"

"Great Serpent! Gods of my ancestors!" Vangie spoke these words with what breath she had left, but it was as though the demon had reached into her chest and was squeezing her very heart. Her face had gone a ghastly shade of purple and her eyes, always so piercing and firm, were becoming pale and unfocused. Then, all at once, she seemed to rally, and Julia's hands relaxed their hold as if they had been burned.

"Evil cannot touch one who has been hallowed and consecrated to the service of the Great Serpent," she said, but despite the firmness of her voice, Kathleen saw in her eyes that she had been weakened fundamentally by her struggle with the demon.

"Vangie! Are you alright?" Stephen was kneeling by her in a moment, his eyes filled with pain and concern.

"Priest," she said through clenched teeth, "attend to your office! The battle is not over yet!"

"But you! What about you?"

"I will be alright. Now please, begin the ritual again if you can!"

"Oh, I can," said Stephen, and rising to his feet, he began the invocations again and Kathleen and Vangie took their places behind him, the latter leaning heavily upon the serpent staff. However, only Kathleen saw the tears of pain in the Conjure Woman's eyes.

This can't go on much longer, she thought. I have to do something! I have to help the only way I can!

As the ritual continued, the drugs seemed to take greater and greater hold over Julia's body. The demon kept speaking, but it seemed only to have control over Julia's mind and voice, while her limbs lay outside its influence, lulled asleep and insensible. Kathleen was grateful for this development, but as she soon learned, Erica was still able to wound with her words.

"How can you be trusted, Kathleen?" She made Julia's mouth pronounce this in such a cold voice that it cut Kathleen to the very heart. "After all, you would have killed everyone here for what? For a little power? Surely your heart is not in this exercise--exorcism, I mean. Is it? Aren't you tired of fighting?"

Kathleen heard the mocking jibes as a continual undertone while Stephen continued his prayers, and for a while she found them easy to ignore, but as Stephen finished the ritual for yet another time, the voice grew more persistent.

"You've been Julia's friend all these years, Kathleen," it said. "How can you deny her her life? Do you not know that the bargain she made was that her Cancer would be cured if she would only do what was asked of her? If we're driven out of this place, your friend will not survive! Is that what you really want, Kathleen?"

"No," she found herself saying as she burst into tears. "I don't want that! Damn it, I just don't know what to do!"

"You can leave, Kat," said Stephen quietly but in a commanding tone. "You can get out of here right now and rest. You're in too deep!"

"He's right, you know," said Erica's spirit. "You're all in far too deep to turn back now!"

"Vangie, please take her out of here," said Stephen.

"We can't leave you alone," said Kathleen in a desperate voice.

"Don't worry," said Stephen. "I plan to finish this once and for all!"

"Come, Kat," said Vangie. "I too need a rest."

"For God's sake just go! Please!" When she heard that note of frustration in Stephen's voice, Kathleen was filled with even more misgivings, but now the Conjure Woman was taking her gently by the hand and together they were soon beyond the great hall, through the massive front doors and out into the sun-drenched grounds.

"I thought we were going to rest!"

"And so we are," said Vangie, "but not inside the house. I think the drugs are having the effect we desired, so I hope that Stephen may join us soon."

"Are you--are you alright, Vangie? I mean, after what that--that thing did to you back there?"

"I think that 'alright' is a relative term," said the Conjure Woman with a rueful smile. "I am still alive and in command of myself, but I will not lie to you, Kat. The struggle has been truly bitter! Still, the earth beneath my feet and the sun upon my face is doing wonders. The very island I think now understands that we are trying to free it and it is lending us its best and brightest self to help us."

"Is it true, what--it--said? Will Julia die of Cancer if we drive the demons from this place?"

"I think the question you should be asking is: how can evil create true good? How can the devil truly heal anything? The answer is that he cannot. He could no more cure Julia's Cancer than he could truly bring Erica back from the dead. The power to reanimate her body he stole from this island, from me, in fact. Had I not relinquished it, had I not feigned my death, then he could never have accomplished his task."

"But you're not God, Vangie! You can't bring people back from the dead!"

"I do not claim to be able to, but when I inherited my father's position, I was given access to some very strange and unpredictable powers which are at best neutral and which need a will to guide them aright. They are ancient powers, Kat, powers of the elements and of nature, what you might call magic. You've seen something of them in the temple when the serpent image was reformed."

"And you somehow gave these powers to the evil things here when you--when you made them believe you had died?"

"No, Kat," said Vangie, suddenly stopping and sinking heavily onto the stone seat near the serpent fountain in the garden. "The powers were taken from me and all I could do to have a chance of finding them again was pretend that I had been killed or actually be killed if I kept fighting."

Kathleen pondered this statement a while without speaking. Vangie had faked her own death even while she was being assaulted by the dark powers alive in this place. When she had first taken the bottle of cyanide from the deserted laboratory, it was with the intention of killing Julia if the need arose, but what if she could do something even better? If she were to kill Julia, she had thought last night, it would be as a last resort, a last desperate act to free her friend from the demon's grip. However, there might be another way. Perhaps she could use the poison to imprison the demon within her own body. Vangie could not go on much longer. This she could see without the aid of whatever connection had formed between them over these past weeks. Stephen likely could not go on indefinitely, and if the best they could hope for was a stalemate, then she would find a way to change the end-game, even if it meant allowing the demon to become a part of her and then finding the strength to kill herself. Vangie had said that the evil here was attracted to her. Well, perhaps she could use that to her advantage. She had said long ago that she would give her life for Julia, and now, she thought, if it had to be so, then it would be.

"What are you thinking about, Kat?"

"I just hate seeing what this is doing to you, Vangie," she said. This at least was not a lie, even if it was not the whole truth.

"Well, I knew it would be difficult, and at least the day is bright and golden. If I do not see another, this one will console me."

"You can't talk like that!"

"Kat," said the priestess gravely, "even if I live out the coming night, whatever eyes look upon tomorrow's dawning will not be the same eyes that see today's noontide. I will be changed, Kat, as we all will. Now, I believe I can return to the battlefield. Can you?"

"I can, Vangie," she said. "I must," and she fingered the small vial of poison in her pocket, finding new meaning and even a kind of freeing hope in its bitter contents.