Cowboys and Angels

30. Into the Mystic

COUNT CORK, IRELAND - 30 YEARS AGO

A record was spinning on a record player. A hand reached over and places the needle on the record.

The Shirelles' 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow?' played.

A man was in the living room of a house. He was wearing pajamas and a robe while snapping his fingers and dancing around the room to the music. It was raining outside. Behind him a woman carrying a briefcase entered the door.

"Padraic? Oh, what are you doing?" the woman asked.

Padraic looked across the room. "She loves this song." He and the woman looked over at a baby laying in a crib and smiled. "It's the only thing that will put her to sleep. Oh, besides..." He twirled the woman around and they started dancing. "This is our song."

"It's good to see you smiling, mo chuisle."

"I'm trying, Maura. I'm trying."

The baby was crying in her crib. Alongside the crying there was a high-pitched scream.

Padriac squeezed his eyes shut as if in pain and said, "Ohh! Do you hear that?"

Maura scoffed. "That would be our daughter."

The crying continued. "No. I hear..." There was a scream that quickly intensified. "It's," Padraic grabbed his head and bent over in pain, "-ohh! Ohh! Ohh!"

"Hold on, Padraic! Just hold on!"

Maura ran across the room and grabbed a tray with some bottle on it from a cupboard and put it in a table. Padriac turned around and was bleeding from his eyes and nose. He was still holding his head in both hands and groaning.

The screaming continued.

Padriad whimpered and yelled, "Get it out of my head!"

Maura grabbed a bowl, dropped it on the table and started emptying the contents of some of the bottles from the tray into the bowl.

Padriac groaned.

Grunting. Padraic started banging his head against the wall as a spirit with glowing eyes and mouth, wearing a red dress appeared behind him.

"Hold on!" Maura cried.

The spirit growled and flew towards Padraic while Maura continued mixing.

"Aah!" Padraic exclaimed as he grunted. "Ugh!" He knocked himself unconscious and fell backwards onto a table. The spirit hovered with her face directly over his head, a long, thin tongue slithering towards Padraic's face.

"Get away from him!" Snarling, the spirit looked at Maura, waved an arm and Maura flew backwards into a piece of furniture, breaking the glass doors. "Oh!"

The baby cried out and the spirit raised her head from the man to look in the direction of the baby. The spirit flew over to the baby while Maura crawled across the floor towards the table. She picked up a piece of the broken glass.

"No!" Maura shouted as she made a slice on her wrist with the broken glass and held it over the bowl. As her blood dripped onto the powders in the bowl there was a flash of bright light and the spirit vaporized and disappeared. The baby stopped crying and looked around. Maura, her face cut and bloodied, pulled herself up the side of the crib and looked at the baby.

"Shh," Maura consoled as the baby started to cry again. "It'll be okay, sweet. It'll be o...kay." She collapsed to the floor with a thud.

The crying continued.