The Devil's In The Water

Chapter # 1

PROLOGUE

Father Rosa staggered up as best he could, but he felt dizzy like the whole room was spinning. A warm drop of blood trickled down the side of his head, and his vision started to clear. He could see the bed where the boy lay, finally having stopped shaking, but he wasn't moving at all now. The bay windows had completely shattered outwards as if an explosion had gone off, and it certainly felt that way.

Slowly, he started to remember what happened, and horror dawned on him. The boy's parents rushed in, screaming in Spanish and full of anguish. The mother rushed to her son, cradling him in her arms as she sobbed, but it was no use...he was already gone. The father grabbed him by the collar, shaking him and screaming in his face even as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Que paso, padre?! Qué le pasó a mi hijo?!" asked the father, desperately. He had been against the ritual from the beginning but acceded when things got worse. They always did in the end.

Father Rosa had no words left, his throat was sore from all the praying and shouting he had done already. But more than that, he felt defeated. He had failed these people.

"Lo siento, yo...el demonio, el..." Father Rosa tried to say.

"Did it work?" Asked the mother, she spoke some English and was the devout of the two. She looked at him with a deep rage through her grief. She had known this could happen, and was prepared for the outcome. "Is it gone?"

He felt such shame at that moment. He had performed over two dozen exorcisms in his time, all successful, but he had underestimated this particular foe and left himself vulnerable. What happened here had never happened before, not to him, or as far as he knew, throughout recorded history since Christ himself walked the earth.

"No...I couldn't...the ritual failed. The demon left the boy, but I was not able to cast him back to hell."

"What do you mean?" she asked more urgently, fear creeping into her voice.

"I think...I think he escaped," and he pointed at the blasted windows.

The mother took a moment to understand his meaning, and then bowed her head and immediately started praying.

"Ave Maria, Madre de Dios, venga nosotros tu reino," and so she carried on as Father Rosa went to stand by the remains of the window, stepping on the crushed glass to see outside.

Nothing but the vast ocean on the horizon next to the beach house where the family lived. He thought it had been a positive thing, both for how isolated it was, but also now for his mistake. He had cast him out to sea at least, away from people, where he hoped with all his heart it could not hurt anyone again. And yet, deep down, Father Rosa knew he was wrong. He could feel it, and whatever happened next was on him.

"Dios mio, what have I done?"

CHAPTER # 1

PORT AUBREY, AUSTRALIA - ONE MONTH LATER

Father Rosa arrived just as the sun was setting on the old town by the sea. He read it had been a small fishing spot at first, but became a considerable shipping port as the years went by, with the town growing around it. It was also notable as a tourist attraction due to its proximity to the Recherche Archipelago. Many came to sail across the isles for fishing or recreation, despite having once been called almost impossible to sail when they first discovered it.

He was heartened by the salty smell of the ocean and the sound of a dozen boat engines roaring as he made his way across the street up from the docks. Though he had never been here before, he was always comforted by the familiar setting, having spent most of his life in Florida, and before that his native Cuba.