Dangerous Illusions

Chapter 9

Leila’s POV

To the monster I was meat he was meeting, a simple matter of matter to be consumed once the fear had consumed me. That is a monster. That is all of our monsters. They see us for a utility, to meet an addiction or need they have and to them our needs are nothing. So when we are regarded this way we re-guard, and we should. What and whom we love is worth protecting, including the self.

Our family tradition is taking the names of monsters and sending them straight to hell. We walk in, all smiles, and leave with evil in chains. We are experts at extraction. We take hold of the beast by the jaw and remove his tongue. After that it's easy to subdue and defeat the scaled ones. Then we go for ice-cream and jump on trampolines. Who said defeating evil wasn't going to be fun? But it was not once I had been marked.

My parents were also in the same line of work but when I had lost them to darkness I had promised that never again was I going down that road. But destiny is something that you can never win against. However how much I tried and no matter what I did, I had to come to back to confront the darkness once more.

My Grandma had always said that I was special but not even for one beat she had known that it would make me the target for something so dark. But that was not what I was going to think about at this moment. I was going to try and help a person who had unwittingly become a host to something very dark. Now what it was, that was all that needed finding. Sleepless nights were really not what I had been going after this morning but I had no option of staying longer in bed. I had called the girl to let her know where we would be meeting. It was the coffee place which was a block away from my apartment.

I was still walking when the girl called. She had already reached. I said that I shall be there in two minutes. True to my word I was at the place in two minutes. I moved and turned around to see who was the one waiting for me. One girl with blonde hair and the bluest eyes that I had seen stood up and waved in my direction. I proceeded towards her. She was a really beautiful one…I could see why the darkness had chosen her boyfriend to be its host.

She was exactly the kind that demons loved. Blonde, and blue eyed. But I was not going to scare her even before she had spoken a word.

I sat down opposite to her and then smiled at her,” I am Leila Hopkins and you are?”

“I am Bethany Baldwell. I am the one who had called you last night. I am really sorry for bothering you at such an odd hour but I know that you were the only one who could help me out at that point of time,” she said. The girl had dark circles underneath her eyes and for anyone who looked at her carefully they could see that something was haunting her and haunting her bad.

“I have one question to begin with before we delve into the details, Bethany….may I?” I asked. She nodded.

“If you knew that there is some kind of problem with him. That he is trying to kill you or whatever else it might be that he is attacking you every month then why did you not leave him? You could have broken up with him and no one would have batted an eyelid…I mean, you do get what I am trying to say, right?” I asked.

She nodded again and said,” Of course I could have done that. I mean, you surely understand that you are not the first person who is telling me this right? All my friends and family and every single person who knows how is Albert they have told me to get the hell away from him but I can’t….”

“Ummmm….that is the most intelligent thing to do…so why not?” I asked. This woman did not seem to be too impractical, and she was a doctor as well so if she was talking to me then something must have happened which had really shocked her to the core.

“Because he is a victim. I know that I may be hurt but I cannot see him being hurt as well. He has been talking to himself for quite a few months now. So I thought that since this is the perfect age for the onset of hebephrenia, I would get him checked out at my hospital only. But nothing came out, and even his scans and all reports were squeaky clean. Then one night I heard him talking again…he was standing in front of the refrigerator, open and he was speaking to someone. As if he was having a conversation on phone. I came down waking up at his voice and then stood by the stairs….he suddenly turned to look at me and then I heard someone else speaking,” Bethany said and I could feel that a chill suddenly went down through her spine.

“What did the other person say?” I asked. I knew very well what was going on here, if she had not been murdered then it was her extreme good luck that she was still alive and sitting before me.

“It was not exactly a person speaking. I mean, I don’t know what it was but it was not even remotely human…it said,’ That one right there is a waste of space…..finish her..’ and then he snarled at me like a rabid animal and ran with full force….I mean I was so scared that I thought he had gone completely mad and I ran up and locked and called 911, they came and locked him up but he was absolutely normal and they let him go. Everything was fine again and next month again this happened. Yesterday was the third time…” Bethany said and I nodded.

“When did you start researching this as something not natural or psychological? I mean, you are a doctor, it is pretty obvious that this is not the first choice that you will be looking at…so that was one incident and then how did you feel after you looked at it in a different way?” I asked. I needed to know her thoughts and what she knew which had led her to me.

“I had seen Donald three weeks ago. I knew that the condition of his health, I had monitored it and the chances of coming back were close to none but then a miracle happened and suddenly he was back to his normal health. Whatever happened to his father, how he got a heart attack at his work place, that was unfortunate. It was one massive attack and he was dead but seeing Donald I knew that there was some hope for Albert. You see, Ms. Hopkins…I love him…I really do and I just don’t want him getting hurt,” said Bethany.

“Leila is fine by me. You know my charges, I suppose?” I asked her. She nodded.

“Right, so first things first…I need to know what has really happened to him. I need to understand that what is it that is plaguing you…even though I have some thoughts on what it might be but I am not going to tell you something before firsthand without checking up,” I told her. Her eyes were wide when I said that I had some idea about what was plaguing them but she did not question me.

“I would need to talk to Albert and I would also need to visit your home. You have to be present and I would need to check your body as well if you have been marked in some way…I mean I am sure you would have seen something like that but still if you don’t mind, I would like to check it. Does that sound alright to you?” I asked and then suddenly I noticed that there was something she was wearing in a chain round her neck. I raised my brows and said,” Are you wearing some kind of pendant?”

She looked at me and raised it to show me a gold cross,” This was my grandmother’s…she had given me when I had gone to the church where I had been baptized in my childhood. I have always worn it since then…I mean, I am not very religious or regular church going type but this feels like a comfort…it feels as if I am close to home.”

That must be it!!

That must be the reason why he was trying to attack her but was not being able to do something heinous to her. I smiled. Even though I was not sure about the demon who had attacked her boyfriend, Albert I was sure of this that the pendant that she was wearing is a talisman which is acting for protecting her.

“Make sure that you never open it, Bethany. That might be the only thing that is standing between you and death. And if you are dead then the demon is going to become unstoppable and more women are going to be in danger. I am glad that you came soon. Shall we do this now?” I asked her and she immediately took her bag and phone and started walking. I followed her.

“Are you telling me that thing is going to kill me?” she whispered as she unlocked her car.

“There are chances that it might happen but I am going to try to not let that happen. I mean, it depends on the strength and the level of the creature that we are going to encounter, Bethany. I don’t want to grant you any assurances about saving the life of your boyfriend. I am going to try but he might be too badly infected to bring back. In that case you have to let him go,” I informed her as she started the car.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked looking at me in horror.

“It means that he might die. There are chances of that happening. I am telling you beforehand because things are looking grave and I don’t want to give you any false hope. If it is possible to exorcise the demon and send it back to where it belongs then I shall do that but there is also a chance that Albert might be already dead and the demon is the one who is controlling the body is using his body like a meat suit. That is one probability. There is also a chance that we are dealing with something else altogether,” I said and she was crying. Tears were running down her cheeks and she was slowly sniffling.

I knew that Bethany did not want it to be true but truth was a lot worse than what we wanted things to be…