"Well, then... go! Please! Help her!" Roger said. Jeff nodded at the pair and turned to approach the house when the mom interrupted.
"Her name is Kelsey. Our daughter..." Mrs. Cooper said. She stepped forward and handed Jeff a picture. "She's only 18. She just graduated the top of her class. She's an athlete also. She ran track, and she was on the swim team. She's... she's an incredible daughter. She's so kind and sweet. She volunteers at the church... she loves helping people... everyone loves her. She doesn't deserve this! Please! Help her!"
Jeff and Alice studied the picture. She looked as nice and sweet as her mother said, a bright, beaming smile on her pretty face. She was a brunette with bright, friendly eyes, a good tan, and a slim, fit frame, belying her athletic experience. She was clearly her parents' pride and joy. This was a girl with a future. This was a girl that was going places. This was the girl they were going to save.
"We'll save you daughter," Jeff said with a confident firmness. His confidence assured Roger and Darlene, and somewhat eased their fears. Jeff was calm and unwavering, despite everything. While the nun they had dealt with seemed a bit unsure, both Jeff and Alice seemed ready to help. Ready and able.
They were the right people for the job.
Turning, the married demonologists approached the front door. They glanced at each other, as they always did before things like this. Alice looked up at Jeff. His confidence always reassured her. He gave her a small half-smile that warmed her heart. He was a handsome man of 32, and he was the man of her dreams. Most of her friends had thought she was kinda crazy for her desire to work in the field she did, but not Jeff. He was the one person who not only heard her out, but wanted to take part in it. He had been interested in the same field as well, so when they met, it seemed like fate. It seemed like these two belonged together. Getting married seemed like an obvious conclusion for two people with so much in common, which they did. And it didn't hurt that he was darn cute as well.
He was a tall, mid-western man. He had worked on a farm in his youth, giving him a good build that he had maintained into his adult years. He was never the type of guy to have much of a tan, but it worked for him. He also had a nice head of brown hair, a warm smile that you had to earn, and an infectious laugh. Also, he happened to have a nice butt and a sizable package. Alice couldn't have felt any luckier. And, on top of all that, he was brave, courageous, never letting anyone else see his fear, even in the craziest of situations.
They would need that tonight.
Jeff was strengthened by his wife in the same way. She was a cute brunette, a head shorter than him. She wasn't flashy like most other girls. She was a girl with substance, with an intelligent mind and a whip-sharp sense of humor. Her deep knowledge of the paranormal and her always-ready attitude always gave him more strength and courage. Alice always told him he was the brave one. The strong one. But he knew the truth. Alice was the strong one. She was the backbone of their marriage. And if they were gonna succeed here, it wasn't gonna be because of him. It would be her.
Nodding at each other, Jeff opened the door, and the couple stepped inside. Closing the door behind them, they studied their surroundings. The home was dark, as most of the inside was bathed in shadow, the only glow coming from the lights outside. It would seem like a normal, suburban setting, based on looks, but both of them could sense something was wrong.
Something was in the air, literally.
"Lights don't work," Jeff explained, flipping a switch on a table lamp futilely. Alice nodded, noting this fact.
The air was heated, tinged with something they couldn't quite put their fingers on. They weren't alone. Something was here. Something dark. And both of them could feel it.
They were startled by noise coming from upstairs, the sound of muffled voices and thumping through the floorboards. Glancing at each other, they headed upstairs, towards the source of the noise. The stairway was dark, but they were able to make it upstairs without stumbling. Arriving at the second floor, they found the one room with light emanating from within, a closed door at the end of the hall. As they approached, the noise from within got louder. Resting his hand on the warm brass doorknob, Jeff turned the knob and pushed the door open.
As they stepped inside, they could feel waves of darkness in the air, pulsing outward from the source of the disturbance. Closing the door behind them, Jeff looked up, laying his eyes on the source of that disturbance for the first time.
She was lying on the bed, or to be more accurate, tied to the bed, each limb connected to a bedpost with a thick, strong rope. It was the girl from the picture.
Kelsey.
"Ha! There they are! The ones you warned me about! The great, demon fighting couple I'm supposed to be afraid of... right?" Kelsey called out, full of teenage arrogance, looking right at them. "I'm shaking in my boots." Her voice sounded odd, as if her normal, teenage cadence was combined with the voice of someone else. Someone far more insidious and animalistic. Even though it was her, the daughter of those two people outside, she was unrecognizable. There was something in her, a darkness emanating from her. She was the source of the evil in the air. But, to be honest, it wasn't really her.
It was the creature possessing her.
They had gotten the call earlier in the day, and they had quickly made their way here. This girl had been possessed by a demon. At least, that's what the parents had claimed when they had called the Church for help. Jeff and Alice had taken part in a few exorcisms, so they had some experience in these things. Plus, they had a deep knowledge of demons and demonology, which they had compiled over the years. So, they were the ones to call. And the Church had done that, reaching out to them when their early efforts with this girl had failed. The Proctors had come here to help out, verify that this was indeed a possession case, and if it was, do what they could to get that demon out of her.
So far, everything supported the case that this girl was possessed. Not only the behavior of the girl, and the energy in the room, but something as simple as the lights being out. In cases like these, when the demon fully takes hold, a surge of dark energy will pulse out of the possessed person, taking out all the nearby lights. The only reason this room was lit was thanks to the portable lamp the nun had no doubt brought with her.
"Are you gonna do anything, you stupid cunt bitch? Or are you just gonna leave me tied up here?" Kelsey spat out. Her words were directed at the other occupant of the room. Standing on the far side of the room was a nun. The woman that had called them when her efforts had failed. The woman who sounded so overwhelmed over the phone, and needed help from experts in the field. The woman who looked terrified now.
"You must be Sister Marie?" Jeff said.
"No! She's the spineless, wimp pussy bitch!" Kelsey cackled from the bed, but the couple tried to ignore her. Jeff and Alice approached her.
"Yes, Jeff... Alice... I'm the one who called you. And thank God you're here." Marie said. She did indeed look scared. Her eyes wide, sweat covering her face, a stray blonde hair escaping her habit, she seemed completely overwhelmed. She looked about the same age as the couple, but she seemed far less prepared for what was going on here than they did. She looked terrified. Jeff couldn't tell if the sweat on her brow was from the heat in the room or from the exertion of this exorcism. Jeff also couldn't help but notice the unusual habit she was wearing. Tight and figure forming, it hugged her slim body. She looked uncomfortable wearing something that tight.
"Have you made any progress?" Alice asked.
"A little. I was able to attach the holy ropes before she really, uh... fully woke up, to keep her at bay. I did few basic invocations also, but... nothing beyond that. Whatever's possessing her... it's a nasty one. It's said some truly... awful things," Marie said, looking away.
"Oh, fuck off!" Kelsey screamed out, annoyed. "You are a pathetic excuse for a nun. You probably only joined the church because you couldn't get laid, you flat, plain, ratty bitch!" Marie's cheek twitched, the young woman's words hitting deep.
For the first time, Jeff turned to study the young woman on the bed more closely. The pictures Mrs. Cooper had shown him had showcased her innocence. But the woman in front of him on the bed... there was something dark inside her. That innocence was gone. Clad only in a thin cotton blue and white nightshirt. With the heat of the room, or the evil in her blood, her tanned skin was coated with perspiration. Her nightshirt was heavy with her sweat, making it cling to her slim, athletic body. Something was not right with her. That much was clear.
