Dark Exorcist (4 page)

Chapter 9

Doctor Bennett, 12:45 a.m.

     I was sitting in my office at the hospital when the lights went out, and I’d heard some commotion in the hallway. The ER had called earlier to let me know they were bringing up a new patient. I hadn’t had time to go down and do a consult. She was apparently pretty much out of control, so they wanted her secured as soon as possible. After the lights went out, I figured I’d take a look around.

     In the hallway I’d stumbled upon a police officer, lying on the floor. The patient had punched him, knocking him to the ground. After speaking with him about her possible condition, and some searching around, he heard that security had found her at the other end of the hall. Officer Roman had Taser’d her, and we were able to admit her into the psychiatric unit. That’s when things got really interesting.

     She was restrained to her bed in the seclusion room. The girl looked completely wild. Her eyes were a strange, milky yellow color, while her face was scratched. It appeared that she’d been beaten. She spoke in several different sounding voices, and odd languages. None of this was completely unusual. In thirty-five years as a psychiatrist, I’d seen just about everything. However, there were a few things about this girl I’d never encountered. For one, she kept yelling at Officer Roman, calling him a murderer, saying something about killing his mother. He acted as if he had no idea what she was talking about. The officer told me his mother had died of cancer, but there was no way the patient would know that.

          In the middle of all this, Father Pierce, our chaplain showed up. Some nurse downstairs had called him, telling him our patient was demon possessed. Father Pierce has a degree in psychology and is a very sensible man. He’s never been the kind to interfere with treatment or to suggest religion over medicine. I’d never seen him show up without a specific request from the patient, or the authorities. Yet, here he was. He agreed with me to change out of his attire and into scrubs. I didn’t know how the patient would react to seeing a priest. Though, not long after that, the young patient, Amanda, managed to knock the door off its hinges, inject our nurse with medication meant for her, and climb through the ceiling tiles. Officer Roman and Father Pierce left the unit to look for her. I stayed to tend to Chloe, our nurse who was reeling from the injection of Geodon.

     The tech assisted  me to walk Chloe into a vacant patient room, and we placed her onto the bed. The only thing we could do was let her sleep it off. It would take a few hours, at a minimum. I’ve seen it happen a time or two on the unit, where a nurse gets injected with her own shot. As far as needle sticks go, I’d prefer it happened this way instead of her being stuck with the needle, after the patient was injected.

     Once I got Chloe settled, I went back to my office to check on some things. The power was still out, so my computer wouldn’t power up. I pulled out my laptop, which still had an operating battery. It powered up fine, so I was able to do some searches. I looked through hospital records, and found that Peter’s mother had been a patient here several years ago. I tried to find more information, but she’d been a patient here before the new computer system was put into place. I’d have to go into the basement to pull her actual records. I was curious to see how she actually died.

     On my way there, I tried not to get angry at Father Pierce's interference. I know he means well, and he's not the kind to put his faith over science. He generally stays out of the way, unless he’s called for a consultation. As far as priests go, he's always been fairly progressive, since I've known him. This talk about demons was nonsense. I sensed that there was some kind of connection between the girl and Officer Roman, and I needed to find out what it was. There's something the officer isn’t saying. Amanda would be asleep for awhile, so I had plenty of time to do some research.

     The elevator was still out, so I took the eight flights of stairs to the basement. It was pitch black, except for the small flashlight I carried. This time of night, there was no one down there. The charts were stacked on large metal shelves, rows and rows of them. I weaved my way through each row, until I found the R’s. Her name had been Norma Roman. When I found the chart, I brought it to the table toward the back of the room. It was strange being down there. It was so dark and eerily quiet. I assumed I’d hear some kind of noise in the basement, pipes clanking, or steam from the boilers, but there were none.

     I set the chart on the table and flipped it open, just as. I heard what sounded like footsteps from behind me. I turned, shining the light in that direction, but there was nothing there. Then, in  an instant, there was a white face, inches from mine. I jumped, let out a short scream. As soon as the sound left my mouth, the vision of the face was gone. With everything else weird that had been happening tonight, I chalked it up to imagination. The human mind is a complicated machine, and it can, and will, play tricks on people, myself included.

     As I shined my light back on the chart, the pages began to flip … on their own. It was as if a breeze was blowing them. They flipped one by one and came to a stop. The chart was suddenly
opened to Norma Roman’s lab work. I studied it. Much of it was normal for a woman in her 50’s, with cancer. The labs were obviously abnormal, but things such as white and red blood cell counts were in the range for a cancer patient. Further down the page, however, it was torn. Half the page was missing. It was the half that showed any other substances in the blood.

     I tried to think where else I might find this information. It was almost ten years ago, so it wouldn’t be in any current database. Why would a page be missing? I’d always trusted and respected our men in blue. However, the patient had screamed at Officer Roman, called him a murderer. Now, part of his mother’s blood work missing, and it had me thinking. Between the weird way the chart had flipped itself to the lab results, and other strange events, there had to be an explanation. I was determined to find out what was going on.

Chapter 10

1:15 a.m.

     I left the dark basement and climbed the stairs to the third floor. In the psychiatric unit, the unit tech, Bobby, was still at the desk.

     “Everything okay?” I asked.

     “Yeah,” Bobby said. “Been quiet since the girl took off. That was really freaky. I keep waiting for her to fall out of the hole in the ceiling.”

     I looked up, and saw the spot where the ceiling tile was missing, where the patient had escaped. I went into the room to look in on Chloe, She was still sound asleep. I wasn’t sure if she took the full injection or not, but it knocked her out hard. I walked back out to the nurse’s station to Bobby.

     “Bobby?”

    “Yes Doctor?”

     “Have you moved from that spot since I left?”

     “Umm, yeah. I, uh—“

     “Don’t worry about it. Would you do a quick walk through the unit, make sure everyone else is okay. Then take care of that door and the mess by the seclusion room? I don’t want anyone to hurt themselves on any of that. Just set the door out in the hall for now. Maintenance will take care of it in the morning.”

     “Sure, doc,” he said, as he went back to playing with his phone.

     “Bobby?”

     “Huh?”

     “Now please.”

     “Oh, right.”

     He jumped from his chair and waddled down the hallway toward the mess. I went back into my office. I wished there was direct access to my office from the unit, but I had to walk out of the unit, then into my office. It made things tricky sometimes, but it was an old design. I stepped inside and sat at my desk, wishing the lights would come on. I reached for my laptop and powered it back up. It really bothered me about the missing lab page. I had no idea where I’d look, either. Since Norma Roman was in hospice care when she died, there would have been no autopsy. I was able to access the county vital records from my laptop.

      The death certificate had been scanned into their database. It just said “Cervical cancer as complicated by heart failure”. She hadn’t been sick very long. Only three months. From what I had seen in her records, it wasn’t advanced when they found it. Yet it took her so quickly, she had just barely started chemo. The doctors ordered hospice rather soon, as well. The only reasonable conclusion was that something caused her illness to accelerate. But what? Could her son have done this? 

     I did a Google search for Officer Roman. His name tag said “P. Roman.” After a short search, I found his name was Peter Roman. I looked up his address, even found his Facebook page. It was mostly private, but some of the photos weren’t. He lived in a small apartment, and drove a Ford Focus. It didn’t appear as money was  a motive. I closed the laptop and leaned back. Something wasn’t right. Maybe the girl really was crazy. Roman’s mother’s death didn’t add up, but he didn’t kill her for money, from what I could tell. I took out my phone and sent a text to Father Pierce. I wanted him to know what I’d found out, and to be careful. If Roman did kill his mother, he might kill again.

     In the meantime, I wanted Amanda back in custody. This time I’d insist they take her to the jail. I can treat her there. It’s more secure and she’d be less likely to hurt anyone. Father Pierce texted me back and asked what he should do. I told him to play it cool for now, and see what else he can find out. After I hit send, my phone went completely dead. The screen went blank and it wouldn’t power back on at all. I took the battery out, and reinserted it, but nothing. Without power, there was no way to charge it. The battery indicator showed over half a charge, it was strange that it just died, but I was beginning to believe that anything was possible tonight.

     I stood and started toward the hall, when the office door slammed in my face. I tried to open it, but it was locked. It only locked from the inside, but it wouldn’t budge.

     “What the hell?”

     I checked my desk phone and it was still out too. Great. I was trapped into this tiny little office, with no power, and no communication. I opened my laptop, but it snapped shut on me, pinching my fingers. I jerked my hand up, shaking it, as my fingers throbbed. I tried the door again, but nothing. I thought of yelling for Bobby or anyone who might be in the hall, but that would be useless. No one would be around this time of night, and the walls were too thick for Bobby to hear me.

     I sat there in my dark office, cut off from the rest of the hospital. This was even more strange than what happened in the basement. The power failure must have caused some other kind of surge, affecting other electronics, but that wouldn’t explain the door. There was no explanation for the door. As I looked around, for a moment, I saw that same white face. This time it was smiling, and as quickly as it appeared, then it was gone again.

Chapter 11

Father Pierce, 12:45 a.m.

     The sound of my phone ringing woke me from a deep sleep. I had to be at the hospital by 8 a.m., so I was usually in bed by 10 p.m. I thought I heard it ringing a few minutes ago, but ignored it. The third time it started ringing, I finally answered.

     “Hello?” I mumbled.

     “Father Pierce?” a female voice asked.

     “Yes?”

     “This is Jackie, in the ER. I’m one of the nurses.”

     “Yes Jackie, how can I help you?”

     “The police just brought a girl in, a patient. They are taking her up to the psychiatric unit right now. But I think she might be demon possessed.”

     “Demon possessed?” Now I was wide awake. This was new. “What makes you think something like that?”

     “Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but this girl shows all the signs. She has super strength. She talks in gibberish, which sounds like another language. It’s a real mess Father. I think only you can help her.”

     “Jackie. Calling me like this is highly unorthodox,” I said. Even though I’m a man of faith, I have to follow hospital guidelines. Being called in by a nurse to perform an exorcism wasn’t in the hospital’s protocols.

     “I understand Father. I just think you should come take a look at her, see what’s going on. If I’m wrong, then I apologize. I know at my church they talk about these things. One of our missionaries said he’s helped cast out demons before, and from what he described, they were acting like this girl,” Jackie explained.

     Some churches blamed demons for everything under the sun and held exorcisms as part of their Sunday service. The Catholic Church has strict guidelines on what they consider possession, and when they would allow an exorcism. Since I was awake anyway, I figured I may as well see what was going on.

     “Okay Jackie. “I’ll come and take a look.”

     “Thank you Father.”

      I hung up and got dressed. I only lived a few minutes from the hospital. When I arrived, I went straight to the psychiatric unit, where I found the girl restrained to a bed. A police officer was present, with Doctor Bennett. The doctor didn’t seem very pleased to see me, but I assured him I wouldn’t interfere. At his request I changed out of my clerical clothing and into hospital scrubs. This way, if the girl had some religious fixation, the sight of a priest wouldn’t upset her further.

     It didn’t do us much good, because she managed to break out of her restraints and escaped through the ceiling panels. The officer got word that she was on the fifth floor, the pediatric unit,
so I went up there with him. We had to take the stairs since the power was still out. On the way up, we thought we saw the girl at the top of the stairwell once, but only for a split second. Officer Roman even asked if I needed to give him a blessing. Not that I was against blessings, but I didn’t hand them out to non-Catholics to ease their fears.

     Once at the unit, we found a little girl, who appeared terrified. She told Officer Roman he was going to die tonight. It was a very strange situation. The officer reacted as if he had no idea what she was talking about. It could have been nonsense, but it made me wonder. As a priest, I’ve taken confessions from people in all professions, who’ve confessed everything under the sun. I’m bound by my vows, to keep all confessions confidential, no matter how bad it is. It can be tough sometimes, but it is a sacred rite that must be protected.

     We split up, and I headed farther down the hallway, checking each room as I went. There had been no sign of the girl from my end. I felt my cell phone buzzing in my pocket. It was a text from Dr. Bennett. Apparently the girl had called Officer Roman a murderer while they were down on the psych unit, and said that he’d killed his mother. Dr. Bennett looked up Roman’s mother’s medical record. She had died of cancer, yet part of her record was missing. He told me to be cautious, both with the girl, and around Officer Roman. I was always a big supporter of the police, even volunteered as a police chaplain at times, but police officers are people, and none of us are perfect. If Roman had something to do with his mother’s death, there’s no telling how far he’d go to cover it up.

     No sooner did I reply to Dr. Bennett,
then my phone went completely dead. Before I could figure out why, I heard a gunshot. I ran toward the front of the unit. There was Officer Roman, standing with his gun pointed at the ground. A nurse was standing behind him, and Amanda, our patient, was lying on the ground with a gunshot wound in her stomach. I thought I was going to be sick at the sight of this little girl bleeding from a gunshot wound.

     “She came at us!” Roman explained.

     “So you shot her! She’s a kid!” I shouted. “I’ll go get help. They’ll probably have to take her back to the ER.” I left them and headed back to the stairwell. Not only did I want to get her help, but also to get away from that cop, before he hurt me or anyone else.