Ch 15
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was a glaring pain radiating from between my eyes. God it hurt! After negotiating with that pain for a minute and finally managing to push it a little towards the background I opened my eyes and looked around. I seemed to be tied to a large stone altar near the back of the church that I had originally gone to. Normally it would be covered with a cloth and some other items but now it had been cleared off and I was bound to it with what felt like chains but I couldn’t be sure because I couldn’t turn my head much to look around and it was outside my range of vision.
The next thing that I noticed was that it was dark inside the cathedral, the only light coming from some lit candles placed nearby. I probably would have noticed sooner if not for my new ability to see well in poorly lit areas. As soon as I made these realizations, I began to hear footsteps coming towards me, echoing on the hardwood floors. “I see you have woken up, that is good I want to ask you some questions before I destroy you for your sins.”
I Immediately went rigid. It was that same cold voice from before, Father Blake the letter had said. My blood seemed to go cold in my veins as he approached me. Almost gently he caressed the top of my head with one hand before gripping my hair hard and making me gasp in pain. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way but, in the end, you will tell me everything you know.”
After saying this he punched me in the face with his free hand, my head still held tight in his grip had nowhere to go and absorbed the full impact of his punch. It caused my vision to spin and I started to see spots from that firs blow to the temple. He did not stop following this however, he proceeded to pummel my face mercilessly until I was crying and bleeding and spitting teeth and only after going this far did, he bother to ask me any questions.
“When you spoke to Father Hipler you said you made a deal with a succubus. Where is your mistress now?” Gasping for breath and trying to focus through the pain, fear and confusion I could only sob out that I didn’t know. He apparently did not believe me when I said this because he made a frustrated tsking sound and then picked up a bag that was sitting beside the table on the floor. I had not noticed it before because it was outside of my range of vision.
When he opened the bag, I began to feel increasing amounts of dread and panic. This was how they always started in movies, first they would start with basic beatings but once they opened up the bag of tools you could start losing pieces of yourself. I can honestly say that I was starting to panic for real now.
When he saw me squirming at the sight of the bag a cold smile swept across his face and a manic look entered his eyes. “Do you want to change your answer? Now is not a good time to show loyalty to your demon mistress.” He said this with such a matter of fact manner, but it wouldn’t do me any good. “Please!” I begged, “I really don’t know, as soon as she made me her servant she left, she said she would come back when I was a worthy servant!”
I couldn’t believe that my sobbing and screaming hadn’t brought anyone to investigate but thinking about it afterwards the church is quite large and there are no other buildings that close to it. That late at night there was every chance that there was simply nobody there to hear my screams.
“The hard way then.” Was his only response to my outburst and claim of truth? He set the bag down and rustled around in it for a minute before selecting something with a satisfied “Ah!” The item he raised into the air looked like an old silver coin, the symbols on it so faded that I couldn’t read them. When he pressed it into my swollen forehead between my eyebrows the cold metal felt a bit good for a moment but the next moment when he began to chant in Latin, I changed my mind.
“Hoc uri mea Deus in caelo daemonium de tua virtute. In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti. Amen.” All of a sudden, the coin felt like it was burning white hot and I screamed anew, the pain I had felt from the beating was nothing compared to what felt like white hot flames drilling a hole into my head. The cruel priest held it there a few moments, clearly unharmed by it and then pulled it away, still shining for a moment with some unearthly light before fading back to regular silver.
“Physical violence is not the only thing that I have to torture you with demon, I have an entire bag of goodies made just for hurting and killing your kind. It is my calling to eradicate the servants of Lucifer from the Earth!” It was clear to me that this priest had clearly lost sight of his sanity a long time ago. At the same time, I was completely at his mercy. “Please! Wait! I’m not a demon! I was just made a servant! I’M STILL HUMAN!”
I was begging and screaming shamelessly trying to convince this crazed priest not to destroy me. Unfortunately for me, my pleading had no effect on him, he even started laughing for a moment before bothering to reply. “A human? You? Oh no my boy you stopped being a human the first time you fed. The demoness may have injected you with her venom but if you had come to us before you fed there may have been hope for your soul.” He cackled a bit more after this.
“If you need any more proof than this, the very fact that the coin burned you means that you are a demon, God doesn’t give his blessing to burn his children with these prayers. They are only effective against servants of darkness.” As he was laughing, I felt like a light had been shut off from me forever. If what he said was true and despite him being a madman, I had no reason to doubt him, I was definitely going to Hell now, no matter what else I did in my life.
*****
It took two hours and a dozen more items before the priest finally believed that I did not know anything about my mistress. I don’t know why he decided to change his mind about believing me, maybe he realized that any normal person would have long since broken if they had anything to hide, maybe he knew from the start that I was telling the truth and had finally grown bored with the game, I may never know.
“I fear our time together is coming to an end Mr. Dyer. In a few hours the cathedral shall open to the public and father Hipler must be ready to give a sermon. Before that can happen, I must dispose of what is left of you.” He glanced down at me, my clothes were in tatters, still smoking in a couple of places. I didn’t have an inch of skin on me that had not been covered in burns and looked a little blackened. I had long since stopped crying but only because my tear ducts had been burned closed and I didn’t have any breath left to waste on making noise.
I didn’t even bother to answer him, after experiencing so much pain over the last couple hours I had already given up and was waiting for death. I could only hope that the church was wrong and there was someplace else to go other than Heaven or Hell. As he stood over me holding what looked like a sharpened cross made of silver, I hoped that this would finally be the end. The bastard couldn’t even let me die in peace, he started praying over me in Latin again like when he had used his anti-demon prayers and objects.
“Pater in Caelum, audite me absit huic orandi et ingressum in regnum tuum. Hoc autem est peccatum in daemonium et vixit. Semper in Gehennam demittunt. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.” The cross’s sharpened end was decending. It was too late now. Everything was at an end. Just as the tip of the blade pierced my chest the priest froze rigid and stopped moving. The blade burned like fire but at least it wasn’t moving deeper.
I heard a crash and then two steps of footsteps racing towards me. What was going on?! The priest still wasn’t moving, it was as if he had been struck with some sort of sudden paralysis that kept his body rigid and two somebodies had just joined us in the room. Was I saved? I sure hoped so but unfortunately all the pain and fear and adrenaline were all catching up to me and once again everything went dark.
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