The Young Exorcist

PLOT SYNOPSIS

John is a young professor designated to teach students who interest themselves in paranormal studies – the studies of demons, spirits and ghosts. It is not until one day, a group of students perform a spirit invocation ritual that they find themselves in trouble. A series of events trigger as many people lie dead in the school campus and some act weird. The young students are possessed by unholy spirits. But one among them has an hideous intention. In the process of exorcism, John finds that the spirits are none but Satan's helpers themselves and from these, he finds out that the Satan has Himself descended upon the world to wreak havoc on it. Ill omens are sighted all over the world and evil is spreading. The young exorcist must now invoke the power of Christ himself to stop the Devil. Christ tells him in his dreams something that must trigger the apocalypse. And he has got a last date before which he must stop Him. Will he be able to do so? And is the crux of the story is a small love story.

PROLOGUE

"Help!" he cried, hoping someone would hear him in that desolate corridor.

It was the dead of night and he was running. His breath came in tight gasps and his eyes looked afraid. His face had become deadly white. He was tall and athletic with black curly hair that streamed down to his shoulders. He was weary; his legs could carry him no more. The thumping of his heart became louder with every step he took.

Something was behind him; he knew not what it was, something that his normal eyes could not see. The corridor was too long and he was alone. What he had seen, only he could tell. The corridor was a narrow one; enclosed by walls on either side. The walls on the right were full of small gaping holes through which one could see outside. Once and anon a window would appear, hiding behind white curtains now waving backwards due to the flush of cold air from the outside. The corridor was lit with dim yellow lamps that soon began to flicker. His heart became heavier. He started looking behind and he was appalled.

A grey figure, shaped like a huge transparent monster crashed into him. He fell down, stuttering with his hands as he tried to stand up. He could not. His eyelids started fluttering suddenly. He felt suffocated as the air around him grew heavier. The world around began to darken and he still crawled across the floor to the walls.

He sat for a while, trying to inhale as much air as possible. For some time his body was still. His eyes wavered here and there. Tired as he was, he was determined to get out of this huge palace that he had dared to venture in. His friends had disappeared, one by one. He hoped to find them back.

He took a sachet of water from his packet, cut it open and was about to drink it, when he was pushed and all of a sudden the water heated itself to steam, changing its color to red in the process. The ground below him began to get hotter but the air above was getting colder.

"Hell!" he shouted and stood up, his legs still tired and crooked. He gathered up his last strength and ran across the corridor, his hands clinging to the wall, the ground below burning his feet.

The carved ceiling above him began to freeze and layers of snow now hid it. Soon, the snowflakes began to fall on the ground, melting into water and then evaporating to steam before it formed ice again.

Hope soon rose in him as he saw a sharp left turn some way ahead. He saw images of his girlfriend dancing and beckoning on the ground. He smiled and his eyes brightened with past memories. Then a huge fire rose behind her and she vanished.

"Andrea" he shouted at the top of his voice, tears on the tip of his eyelids which had by now stopped fluttering.

The yellow lamps began flickering faster and at one point, they just blew out. Everything was now black around him. He stopped. Then a white light beckoned him, just where the turn was. The light was not that of a lamp, it was the light of a tube. The walls around the light were white and a nurse clad in white appeared, carrying a baby in her arms. The baby's eyes were deep to behold. It looked directly into his eyes. And then, the nurse turned towards him. Her face was burned and her eyes deep red. She screamed aloud. The glasses of the windows shattered into many shards, one of which scraped his right leg. He knelt, screaming aloud. Blood trickled slowly down his leg.

The lamps started flickering again but this time they were not yellow, they were red. He saw the end of the corridor. Another bright light ensued from the left, but he knew they were just visions. This time he saw his friends making merry in college.

"Roger, Shoddy, Kramlin, Veronica, Reese" he wavered his hands in front of his eyes. Then again it all blackened.

Then there was a red light with smoke in front of him. There she was, the nurse with the burned face, holding the cute baby in her arms, no, but this time, the baby had only one human leg, the other leg was clawed as if like a dog's. Its face was not what he had seen before, not cute too look anymore, there were no eyeballs, only sockets; The nose was not there, only a small hole in the middle, its lips were joined.

He took two steps backward, when something kicked him on his knees just above the wound on his right leg. He winced in pain. His face was nearly curdled. He put his hands on his heart, which began thumping faster than ever. He prayed to God, "Wish I had believed in You from the beginning. Wish I had not come to this place. Wish I had my friends back. Wish I had Andrea back. But I know I can't have them back. O God, Please Help me, O Savior of the Worlds, Please help me."

Cold winds blew aside the curtains and a bright light barged in, lighting his shocked face. He saw in the light many angels, with their white feathers, coming towards him. They brought hope to him and the strength within him rose. They spoke to him, in slow voices, "You have to die here, Solomon, you have to die. These spirits are angry, they have lingered on the borders of the other world for ages and your grandparents who built this place on a land which was previously a graveyard, disturbed their already broken peace. For your grandfather's deeds, you have to pay the price. But rest assured, dear Son, thou will find a place in heaven and ye shall sit among many with glasses of holy wine. But you have to die, you have to sacrifice. Your kin should be saved. It was your fate to come here. If it would not have been you, it would have been someone from your kith and kin. So, sacrifice yourself. They need your blood. They were denied passage to the heavens because of their sins. They only need blood to be satiated and once they have done their rites, they shall wither to the netherworld. Such is the way of spirits, dear son, they do not depart from the world unless they complete what they were here in the world for. Die in peace and look forward to the heavens."

"Why did this have to happen? Why are they against me?" he asked.

"Your grandfathers built this place and soon found it inhabited by what they claimed to be supernatural. This place was once a graveyard. Their bodies lay buried here and here they waited until one would come and then they would possess him and complete their tasks. But this was not happen. Your ancestors cleared this place and built this huge mansion, thus disturbing their peace. So, son, understand that these spirits want to seek revenge. And it is right that you do your duty by clearing your grandfather's sins. It is right that you sacrifice yourself, because Christ has decreed that your blood shall be the medium through which they shall be punished to the netherworld."

"As thou command, O Sire."

The angels smiled and vanished, with them so did the bright light. The darkness returned. He felt sad and in his heart, he knew what he had to do. Black vapors flowed around him, a hissing sound in his ears.

The curtain rods fell down with a clanging sound. He looked behind. There was no one, nothing. But the lamps further behind did not flicker, they were steady and red. The air grew lighter and he was able to breathe suddenly. The faint light near the turn grew brighter. The wall beside him turned to red. In his hands which still clung to the walls, he felt a sticky fluid. He looked at it in disgust. Dark liquid started oozing out of the various pores that began to open up in the wall. The snow on the ceilings vanished and the dark liquid started raining from above. He found that it was blood. He looked ahead and his shoulders straightened. His feet held to the ground firmly, which had cooled down.

He rushed with his feet, his strength had returned in great vigor. His eyes bulged outward in confidence and hope. He soon reached the sharp turning and as he turned, a clawed hand scraped through his face. Five huge lines of blood trickled down in streams across his face. He hid his face behind his hands, his fearsome eyes peeping through the gaps. He could see faces closing in on him. He prayed his last. When the faces reared up to strike,

Lights bluffed out, candles were lit.

"Damn, man, electricity is screwed up. What the heck! There was a nice shot that on TV. And at the most interesting point, this electricity had to be turned off. Fuck!" shouted a young teen, in dejection.

"Look, Derek, there is electricity at our neighbor's place." Said another boy, fair and short with a bald head.

"Yea! Fuck, I think, Tom, our place has been fucked up."

Tom smiled, "Well, Derek, the fuse must have gone off. Let us go and check."

Derek caught a tall figure approach their gate. In the dark, and in the faint street light, the figure was almost like a shadow. Derek grew alarmed. Tom laughed as he saw Derek's appalled face.

"You have been watching too many horror movies, dude. Don't fuck up yourself. Can't you see, that's Mortimer."

Derek shrunk from the door. He looked at Tom, who was waiting for Mortimer, and said, "Dude, do you think these horror stuff are true? I mean, these ghosts, demons and all?"

"I don't think so but I am deeply interested in learning the paranormal stuff. But I really don't think that they really mean us harm."

"Not all of them you mean." said a musical voice. Mortimer had come into the room, bearing a torch.

"What!" shouted both Tom and Derek.

"The paranormal stuff. These worlds of spirits you are talking about."

"How the hell did you know?" asked Tom.

"One, your words were too loud to hear, even on the roads. Second thing, I saw some woman behind that candle on the TV desk."

"What non sense?" said Derek.

"Look behind, she is still there."

Derek and Tom looked behind.

There was the shape of a woman lingering just behind the candle. More like a shadow.

They took their feet slowly into the living room, only to be greeted by female laughter. Silvia stood, holding her hands cup shaped over her mouth and laughing. Derek and Tom looked embarrassed, Derek more so. Silvia had stood in front of another set of candles such that her shadow was projected behind the candle on the desk on the wall.

"How in the name of God did you come in?" asked Derek.

Mortimer stood smiling behind him.

"We knew you both were watching some horror stuff. So we decided to scare you out. I pulled the fuse wire in the shed in your garden. The lights went out. Tom had left the back door open. He had been told to."

"Man, you guys gave me quite a scare. Don't do that again."

Tom laughed out aloud.

Derek punched Tom at his side. "I can never believe you again, feller. That's some cruel trick to play on me."

Tom hugged Derek. "Man, you my little brother. Ok, I won't scare you again. If that is your wish, so be it." said Tom, still laughing.

"I still do not believe you."

And they all laughed, Mortimer walking out to the backyard.

-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-