Hound

The priest

9:20 p.m.

Victor sighed purposefully. His head fell in his hands on the sofa trying to avoid the heat of the stare she was giving him. She was burning with anxiety but he couldn’t tell her, not yet. He looked up from the palm of his hands. She was sitting across the table staring at him intently. His silence at this point was only giving her chill bumps in all the wrong places. Steeling his blue eyes against her gaze, he heard her say,

“Are you going to explain what is happening”

“I am, but you just have to be patient for a few more minutes. She will be here any time soon.” He laid back in his chair stalling her as best as he could. There was an awful beat of silence. Then they heard it, the knock on the door, right in the neck of time.

“She is here” he turned to her as he jerked to his feet. He hurriedly paced the length of the room to the front door. A teenage girl stood there. A pony tail on her head, a pink top and a grey sweater tied to her waist.

“You called for a babysitter?” she asked with uncertainty. Her voice even more innocent than her look.

“Come on in.” he scanned her with his eyes, “Aren`t you a little too young for the job?”

“I am turning sixteen this year.?” She countered.

“Thankfully you won`t be doing any heavy lifting. You just have to stay here till we come back” he instructed as he led her to the living room. Cecilia, with eyes of uncertainty, turned to Victor still claiming an explanation.

“Cecilia, this here is….”

“Victoria Greyson” she chimed in preening herself as she came into the light.

“She will baby-sit Sam until we get back. I promise I will explain everything soon” his voice still rippling steadily.

‘something is wrong’ she said to herself. The last time Victor acted this way was when Jason had an accident a few years back. Grabbing her coat from the hunger, she followed him unwillingly. She couldn’t tell whether it was pity she was seeing in his eyes. He was definitely hiding something

As soon as they stepped outside, she looked to the sky. It wasn’t the usual July night sky speckled with bright stars. This time there were clusters of thick black clouds giving the sky a f*******n grimness awaiting the light from the rising moon. Something about this evening felt like Halloween’s eve. Her eyes flittered with the sound of the whispering wind as she went down the stairs. Victor already had the car door open as if asking her to hurry. He threw his gaze to the ground as she approached, informing her that a conversation was not necessary. It wasn’t always like that between them. They used to be close, very close, up until she got married to Jason, his best friend and from there, they rarely met eye to eye. But this had to be important. She could tell.

* * * * *

He hardly said one word to her. Cecilia turned to her side resting her head on the cold glass watching as the shadows hustled past her. She could hear the car engine running and the radio playing inertly in her ear. Two hours now and the car was still moving. The fuel gauge was beginning to tip away from the center. This lonely road was endless. Finally, the car pulled over on the side of the road. They both stepped out of the car. Cecilia wondered what they were doing here. She looked around her. It was pale and desolate. It was pallid in its most dreadful form.

A grassy hill overlaid the landscape towards the horizon. Withering dandelions in the grass watched in sinister silence as they trudged up the hill. The crimson light from the moon was just beginning to peek a little over the hill. Cecilia followed him wearily as he kept walking with heavy steps.

“Victor, what are we doing here?”

“You`ll see” he said. Suddenly she didn’t feel safe with him. Walking over the hill she was beginning to see her answer.

A disturbingly tranquil breeze washed over her coming down the other side of the grassy slope. She squinted she squinted over the light of the moon trying to catch clearly the unclear forms standing motionless ahead. She could make out five figures, men she presumed, all dressed like medieval priests. The crimson light only displayed them as malevolent, bloodthirst fanatics.

The malice in their eyes was confirming her fears. Right there before them stood an odd shaped, termite eaten wooden table with clasps on either ends for fastening ropes. Her heart jumped to her throat just looking at it. Judging from Victor`s reaction she could tell that he was aware of what was about to happen.

The one she presumed to be their ‘high pries’ greeted Victor with a nod before turning to his men and instructing them with a hand gesture. They pulled out the ropes, the stakes, holy water, wooden crosses and something like a moth eaten scroll.

“Victor, what`s going on?” she whispered in full fright mode with her gaze fastened on the ‘priests’. He turned to her giving her the pitiful look again.

“It`s for your own good” he said. Her heart instantly fell to her stomach. Suddenly she felt like an animal about to be sacrificed. Nothing good was going to come out of this experience.

“Are you sure Darius has gotten to her?” one of the ‘priests’ questioned Victor.

“Am not sure but am not taking any chances. If Darius has gotten to Jason then he will surely come for her, if he hasn`t already.”

“Very well then” the ‘high priest’ agreed. Judging from his voice, he should have been more than fifty years old possessing a slight stoop as he paced to the table. “Bind her” he ordered. His men reached for the ropes and gave her a possessive look. There was no way she could run from this. She figured fighting at this point was useless so she threw herself completely at their mercy.

They bound her wrists and twisted until she could fell the blood draining from her fingers turning them purple and cold.

They handled her roughly to the table ripping her light dress half way in the process. “They are about to r**e me” she said within herself. “I never imagined it would be like this” she mused. Suddenly she felt cold water being sprinkled over her. One of them held her down as the others fastened the ropes on the clasps.

“By the power harvested in me, I speak.” The high priest stood over her body, continuously sprinkling the holy water all over her and reciting incantations. “Acte divin sire. Elmeda acte sina demo nica.” Victor stood at a distance, hands crossed to his chest. She caught a glimpse of him when she turned to her side and begged him for help with her tear filled eyes. She heard those words again and the liquid drizzling all over her.

“Acte divin sire. Elmeda acte sina demo nica.” He frowned turning to his companions seeming shocked. Noting was happening. No smoldering smoke, no screaming or convulsions, nothing.

It was an exorcism. Her lack of compliance only made them try harder to remove the demon that was not in her. “Acte divin sire. Elmeda acte sina demo nica” his voice now agitated. “Be gone fowl spirit!” he rolled down the scroll and vainly impelled his eyes down the unclear writings.

“Mont Cain, she is clean,” one of them addressed the high priest, “she has no unclean spirit.”

The high priest turned to Cecilia and back to the scroll. He squinted as if seeing an answer on the leather thing. It wasn’t helping. Cecilia turned to her side again locking eyes with Victor. He paced a little closer to the table. He could see the fear in her eyes, the ‘bowel sickening’ fear. The priest turned to Victor finally, they exchanged words with their eyes then he lowered the scroll in his hand. She could feel the tension subsiding. She was going to live.

“Unbind her,” he said. “This is not the end. The night of the bleeding moon is almost upon us. We must find Darius before the prophecy is fulfilled. Before the monster roams the earth.”

* * * * * *