The Raven

Different Fight

At least that time we went prepared. We knew what was waiting for us, more or less. The demons were not strong enough to come out again in their true form, so they possessed the poor innocent animals. 

As soon as they arrived, the ravens started attacking us, trying to peck our eyes out with their beaks and to bite our flesh off. There were so many of them that it made the graveyard look like a scene from a horror movie. 

We decided, long before they arrived at the cemetery, not to kill the animals. After all, it wasn't their fault that they were possessed by the awful demons. Instead, we decided to use the exorcism as our weapon. It was a less safe version for us, but we couldn't bear to have any more deaths on our conscious, human or animal. 

We used the time we spent recovering at the seaside, to research some potential methods of exorcism and decided to try all of them before killing any ravens. We weren't sure any of them would work, but we had to try something. 

Exorcism was much more complicated than I thought. There were many things we had to learn and many rituals we had to perform. The problem was that the ravens kept attacking us, and it was difficult to both defend ourselves and perform the rituals. 

To make it a bit easier for us, we constructed a defense wall using our powers, but since our concentration was divided, some ravens did manage to go through our defenses. Not wanting to kill any of them, we tried constraining them or stunning them, while we went on with the rituals. 

As far as I was concerned, there were too many rituals, but we had to do everything by the book if we wanted it to work.

"I exorcise you, Most Unclean Spirit! Invading Enemy! All Spirits! Every one of you! In the name of Our Lord Jesus † Christ: Be uprooted and expelled from this Creature of God. † He who commands you is he who ordered you to be thrown down from the highest Heaven into the depths of Hell. He who commands you is he who dominated the sea, the wind, and the storms. Hear, therefore, and fear, Satan! Enemy of the Faith! Enemy of the human race! Source of death! Robber of life! Twister of justice! Root of evil! Warp of vices! Seducer of men! Traitor of nations! Inciter of jealousy! Originator of greed! Cause of discord! Creator of agony! Why do you stay and resist, when you know that Christ our Lord has destroyed your plan? Fear him who was prefigured in Isaac, in Joseph, and in the Paschal Lamb; who was crucified as a man, and who rose from death." I chanted quoting the exorcism address to evil spirits, in this case, demons from the Roman Ritual of Exorcism that we read and memorized beforehand.

As I did that, one raven managed to break through the barrier. I didn't have enough time to defend myself. Its sharp beak gouged my eye out. I cried out in pain and heard the horrible popping sound as it went out of its socket. Blood splashed the raven's dark feathers and its eyes seemed satisfied as it devoured my eye with fervor. 

My friend noticed what happened to me, and paralyzed the demon-possessed raven. With blood pouring out of my empty eye socket, I started towards the culprit planning to rip its head out. I pictured my self, snapping its neck and enjoying watching the light drain out of its eyes. 

"Stop!" my friend screamed in my head. 

She showed me a mental picture of a terrible monster covered in blood and raving mad. It was obvious from the expression on its face that it was a terrible beast. 

Then I realized it was me. 

My friend just sent me what she saw, and it was enough to stop me in my track. Had she done or said anything else, I wouldn't have stopped, but that was sobering enough for me to go back to my chanting as the pain enveloped both my empty eye socket and my head. I was going to finish what I started even if it killed me. It was difficult to see clearly with only one eye, but my friend took it upon herself to protect both of us, so I continued doing my job. 

"I will do this the right way. Pain can be controlled! I can push through the pain and finish this, once and for all!" I thought to myself because somehow I knew that if we won, it would all be over.

The exorcism rituals were very long and complicated but as we were nearing the end I could see that it was already working. The demon, red eyes of some of the ravens turned back to their normal color. After that happened, the ravens that were free from the demonic possession, looked confused for a moment, but then they shook their heads off and flew away.

It seemed to me as if they were disoriented about how and why they came to be at the cemetery in the first place. As we neared the end of the rituals, more and more ravens went back to normal and flew away not giving us a second glance. 

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to me all the ravens were back to their normal selves and flew away. My friend and I were the only ones left at the cemetery and it was eerily quiet. I didn't trust the quiet because I didn't think that it would last. 

Seeing my friend's face, I realized that she was far more relaxed than I felt. I decided to trust her judgment. I sank to the ground tired and in pain, the gaping hole where my eye used to be, was bleeding heavily. On my face, there was a layer of encrusted blood, but the fresh one was also pouring out. 

My friend had only a few small cuts and bruises, so she decided to try to help me out since it was obvious that I couldn't focus on healing. After a while, she managed to help me stop the bleeding, and we just sat on the ground thinking about the future. 

I wanted to go away from the damp ground of the graveyard, but I didn't have enough strength to move. So we sat there waiting for the sunrise, wondering about the future. 

Was it over? I guessed we would soon find out, and I was right.

Author's note: *Disclaimer The exorcism chant is taken from the Roman Ritual of Exorcism, I don't own the rights to it.