The Forgotten Angel ✔️

Chapter 14: Expelling Evil

The only time Luke kept his eyes off of Gio and Alex on Friday was when they took separate classes. Otherwise, he followed them to breakfast, to the library, to the bathroom, and kept his reasons close to his chest.

Gio and Alex were growing a bit suspicious of Luke's sudden interest in their daily routine. Alex was more vocal about it, "You know Luke, if you want the dick you can just tell me. Daddy's got plenty to go around."

After Luke gagged and vomited a bit in his mouth, Luke vehemently denied any such desire, "Ah, no thanks." Luke tried to be himself, but how can he act like his friends were not possessed when he knew they were? Luke was looking for any detail that gave away their darker side. A sudden snarl, an odd cough, a violent twitch, but nothing came about. If there were demons inside his friends, they were exceptional at staying hidden.

Gio was subtler in his suspicions, "Don't you have Archaeology?"

"Shit, I forgot. Catch you guys later." Luke ran off to his class, but kept his head tilted just over his shoulder to glance back at his friends who shrugged off his weird behavior and wentabout their day.

By sunset, Luke met up with Father Matthew after losing track of Gio and Alex after their late afternoon classes. For all he knew, the two of them could be at the Basilica at that very moment. However, he doubted they would carry out the extraction of the artifact from the walls of the Basilica while the Basilica was still open to the public.

Father Matthew was waiting for him outside, smoking yet another cigarette. Luke thought, His lungs must just be made of tar at this point. When Father Matthew saw him approaching, he welcomed him to take a seat at a picnic table outside of Campus Ministry.

Luke saw the wrinkles near his eyes fold further into bags. His eyes were red, and Luke knew Father Matthew was up all-night researching.

Father Matthew put out his cigarette, "At the rate I smoke, you may get second-hand lung cancer just by being around me so much. Who knows, this may be my last cigarette. Now, with regards to the plan, I have studied up a method for the exorcism, and I have the two main ingredients necessary in the fight." He unveiled a small canteen and swished it around to show that there was a liquid inside it.

"This is Holy Water. This will help smoke the demon out of the host if we're lucky. If push comes to shove, I may have to administer this."

He pulled out a white wafer—the bread—the Eucharist—the body of Christ.

"I've celebrated mass beforehand, so this is now the body of Christ. If the demon is persistent, I will have to administer this and allow Christ to do the rest."

Luke was impressed, "Who knew the Eucharist was that powerful."

"Every Catholic besides you apparently," Father Matthew shook his head. "Anyway, I've got access to the Basilica once it closes within the next couple of hours. The archbishop owed me a favor, so I cashed it in for a late-night prayer session at the Basilica. Whatever happens, the Basilica needs to be as we found it so that I don't get excommunicated for defacing a church. So, we need to stop them before they go on a rampage and try to keep things quiet. Best if we surprise them with the Holy Water to immobilize them before we make further moves."

Luke nodded in approval as they moved towards the side of the Basilica and sat on the steps till nightfall.

After Father Matthew stressed the necessity of preventing any damage to the church, just imagine the look on his face when they arrived inside the Basilica to see Gio and Alex using pickaxes to chip apart the walls. Father Matthew clutched his chest as if he would enter into instant cardiac arrest while molten blood spewed from his red eyes.