The Legend - Watty Awards 2012

Chapter Eight

Francis found Cathy huddled up in a corner of the dining room. Fear and despair was written all over her face. Another piercing scream sounded through the house.

“It is awake,” she whispered.

They stood together in silence with Francis’ arm draped protectively across her shoulder. After a few minutes of silence, footsteps were heard and a young tired looking man entered the room. He pulled out a chair and dropped his head onto his arms and rested on the table.

Cathy moved from her spot and headed over to the oven. She took out a roast chicken and placed it on the table along with some bread and vegetables.

“Let us eat.”

Francis sat down and looked at the brother and sister in front of him. He took in their angst ridden expressions and noticed how exhausted they looked.

“You must be Bill”, he said, “I am Francis.”

Bill looked up and gave him a small smile.

 “Nice to meet you Father.”

“How is she?” asked Cathy hesitantly.

Bill just nodded and continued eating.

“Today seems to be a good day,” said Cathy sadly.

“Good day?” asked Francis perplexed.

“Yes Father. A good day. You see, there are days when whatever is inside her takes complete control. Those are the days when I wish we could all just kill ourselves and end this misery. Then there are other days like today where apart from a few restless outbursts, it lays still and quiet. “

“Where is she?”

“In the upstairs bedroom. Bill here stays up most of the time. I cannot match its strength. Neither can Bill but he is a lot stronger than me. Will you help us Father? Will you save our sister? Will you chase away the beast?”

I will do my best” replied Francis. “But I first need to ascertain whether it is a real possession or not.”

“What do you mean ‘ascertain’?” burst out Bill. “Maggie is suffering up there. That thing inside her is eating her up. That poor child is covered with bruises. Bruises that she has no idea off. A few nights ago that thing lifted her off the bed. She kept screaming and when we went in, we found her floating mid air. It then started throwing her against the wall as hard as possible. I quickly pulled a mattress against the spot so that she wouldn’t get hurt but that sonofabitch threw her just next to the mattress, repeatedly. Her head was bleeding and she was unconscious. When she finally came to, she did not remember a single thing that happened. And this is just one of the instances and you still have to ASCERTAIN if she is possessed? What is wrong with all of you people?”

“Calm down Bill,” said Francis. “I just need you’ll to answer a few questions before we head up to look at her.”

“The first question is – Has she demonstrated any unnatural physical strength? And that answer I already have from what you mentioned earlier. The next is – Has she spoken any language that she had no idea of earlier?”

“Well, that thing in her speaks a lot of things that we don’t understand. Sadly, I know only English and Bill has some understanding of French. Maggie knows only English but when that thing is in control off her, it screams out a lot of things that neither of us can understand.”

“How long has this been happening? Since when have you noticed this unnatural behaviour?”

“It has been a little more than a month now. It all began when she returned from spending the weekend at one of her friend’s place. I remember when she came home she was so happy because that was the first time that she had stayed anywhere other than home. She came back and told us about all the fun things they did and how they watched movies and sang songs and danced. After a few days we noticed her getting quieter and quieter.”

Bill took over the tale from there, “It was a Sunday when things got really weird. We were all dressed up to go for Mass. As we walked towards church, Maggie was unusually excited. She seemed to have more energy than she had in a long time. When I asked her what was up, she grinned and said that she had spoken to mummy and daddy the previous night.”

“You see Father,” Cathy interrupted. “Our parents died when Maggie was a few days old. They were returning from the hospital and a car rammed into theirs and both of them died on the spot. Maggie was miraculously unharmed and ever since then Bill and I have looked after her. So when she said that she had spoken to our parents, we thought that she must have dreamt about them or something. But she said that it was the second time that she was meeting them. They had apparently sat with her on her bed that night. When we asked her when else had she met our parents, she replied that it was the night when she went to Suzy’s house. Suzy was the friend’s house where she had spent the weekend.”

Bill continued, “She refused to say anything more after that and just smiled at us. When we reached the church gate something started happening. She began trembling and crying. She refused to enter the Church. The more we tried to get her in, the more aggressive she got. She bit me really hard and ran away from us. We searched for her everywhere and when we finally returned home, we found her sitting here and watching TV. She turned to us and asked us why had we gone to church without taking her!

Her behaviour worsened day by day. We took her to every doctor; every specialist that we could find and you already know what all of them said. I went and met Suzy to find out what happened that night. She told us that Maggie had left her house at around 10.30 pm saying that Cathy wanted her to be home that night. Now this wasn’t true because Cathy had told her that she could spend the night at Suzy’s.

Where she went from 10.30 pm that night till 9 am the next morning, no one knows. She refuses to tell anyone. When we ask her, she just smiles at us and then starts giggling to herself.”

“And in the last 2 – 3 weeks, her condition has just worsened,” continued Cathy. “She has become very violent and abusive. The other day we found the Bible in her room torn to pieces and it smelt of urine. She tries to hit us if we go near her. She threw her bedside table at Bill once. I then went to our Parish priest and asked him to pray for her. It was then that he suggested that this could be a Demonic possession and he suggested that we contact you.”

“I have just one more question seeing that you have already answered most of things I wanted to know with what you’ll just told me. Has she shown signs of knowing things that there was no way that she could have known? Has she said anything or revealed anything?”

Bill and Cathy looked at each other in confusion.

“Umm... I don’t think so,” said Bill and Cathy nodded in agreement.

At that moment the light in the dining room began flickering and one of the bulbs burst. The three of them looked at each other in confusion. Francis again felt a cold chill go down his body, much stronger than the ones before.

A loud manly voice floated down from upstairs, “Why Father! Won’t you come say hello to me? I have been waiting for you!” and eerie giggles followed.

“Did you mention to her that I was coming or that I am in the house?” Francis asked Cathy and Bill.

Both of them shook their heads in fright. “We haven’t mentioned it to a single soul” whispered Cathy in fright.

“Well then,” exclaimed Francis. “Let the games begin!”

And with that he headed towards his room to collect whatever he required to face the evil forces in Maggie’s room.

A/N : Chapter Eight!!! What do you think? Let me know!! and Don't forget to Comment and Vote!!!