Eddie raised his eyebrows and endeavoured to comprehend the notion he had died and somehow come back to life.
“The other side? As in, like, beyond?”
“Exactly! What happened, is – when you crossed over to the other side, you came in contact with something from… the other world. A world where you don’t belong, Eddie, as you are part of the living. But I also believe there is a reason it latched onto you specifically, and why it is that you were able to cross into this other world whilst still live, something I have never known anyone else to be able to do.”
“So I was in heaven?”
“Oh, Lord, no.”
Eddie looked around himself, relaxing a bit, finally seeing a bit of sense creep in.
“Maybe ever so briefly, but… my boy, you were in hell. In a demon world. A world that belongs only to demons, along with the worst souls that have ever lived, suffering their eternal fate, and the devil himself.”
He froze.
“Eddie, we believe that you are paranormally vulnerable.”
“Paranormally vulnerable?”
“You have a gift, Eddie. A remarkable gift only one in a trillion, to a hundred trillion, people have. You have what we call – ‘the sight.’ It means you have the ability to see things, feel things, that the rest of us cannot.”
Jenny audibly scoffed and turned her face away. “This is bullshit,” she muttered to herself, but loud enough for everyone else to hear.
“So when you crossed over to this demon world,” Derek continued, ignoring Jenny and focusing on Eddie, who was listening attentively with a dropped jaw. “This thing, this entity – it saw that it could latch on to you, and that’s what it did.”
“So this thing has, what, stuck itself to me?”
“Yes, I imagine that would be a good way to put it. You see, when you crossed over the first time, it was only for a few days. It didn’t have nearly enough time to fully attach itself to you. But when you crossed over the second time, it was for months, you properly died, and, well… it had enough time. It had enough time to see you were paranormally gifted, stick its nasty arms around you, hold tight and never let go. And now it’s left the beyond. You have brought it back to our world. And it doesn’t intend to leave.”
Eddie sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. It was 5.00 a.m., far before his normal morning wake-up time, and he was tired. This was a lot to take in. He truly did not know what to make of it. It would all make a lovely explanation, but rational thought would lead to him believing he just had mental health issues. Psychosis maybe? Schizophrenia? Not that he was some sort of gifted ghost person, crossing over to the other side.
“There’s more,” Eddie admitted. He hadn’t told anyone about what he saw when he was there. Not anything more than the entity. But maybe these guys could offer him some explanation, some hope.
They raised their eyebrows expectantly, yet with an air of patience.
“There was more than just this demon woman entity thing. There was something else. It said its name was Balam.”
Derek exchanged a cold look with Levi, as if sharing an unspoken concern.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, but there’s more… this entity said it was Balam’s slave.”
“Who is Balam?” interjected Lacy.
“Balam,” Derek answered, “is one of the princes of hell. One of the devil’s generals, who commands legions of demons. This entity that has attached itself to you will be but a mere slave to Balam – you see, if it is in fact Balam, that is what you are up against. He has three heads –”
“One of a human, a bull, and a ram,” Eddie finished, nodding. “I know. I saw him.”
“You mean,” Levi’s eyes become wondrous with anticipation, “you actually saw Balam?”
“And he had my sister. My dead sister. He had her and he tormented me with her.”
Jenny exhaled with exasperation, rubbing her sinus and fidgeting uncomfortably. Lacy put her hand on her arm in an attempt to calm her, but even she could feel that she was about to blow.
Derek and Levi leant back in their chairs exchanging apprehensively eager looks. Levi looked to Derek as if in need of guidance as Derek rubbed his beard gently, twisting the end of it with his finger. He loosened his tie and undid the top button on his top, the first sign of willing untidiness he had let himself show in all of the commotion.
He leant forward and looked Eddie directly in the eyes.
“Listen, Eddie, because this is of the utmost importance. We can help drive out this entity. We can help detach it from you. I can’t guarantee anything, but we can certainly try. But as for Balam… for what you saw of your sister…” he glanced at Levi, whose eyes said the same thing. “Well, I imagine if you saw her, it was her soul. And if Balam has her soul, there is little we could do to come up against such a demon as that.”
“But I thought you were a university scholar? A demonologist who’s scared of demons?”
“A lion tamer will still leave be an untamed lion, Eddie. We can help with this entity, the slave of Balam, but as for Balam himself… I’m sorry.”
Eddie looked away. He felt a tear form in the corner of his eye and he used all the force he had in his body to quell it. He longed for his sister. He longed for that empty void, and he was used to that; but to leave his sister being tormented in hell was not an option.
Then he tried to remember that he didn’t believe in this stuff. Tried to convince himself it wasn’t real. But he had seen it.
It’s just made-up games. The booygeyman ain’t real, he assured himself. They were empty thoughts made from empty words, concealing the true thoughts of his mind that filled with angered confusion.
“One thing I could say, is that you are gifted, Eddie. To have been able to go into the demon world, not once, but twice, and return… it is something no man has ever done. If we can face this entity, maybe I could help you.”
“How?”
“Harness your gift. Teach you how to use it. Then we can see the extent of what this ability can reach. I mean, if we can control your ability to flicker into that world, imagine –” He curtailed his words, getting ahead of himself.
“Is that a promise?”
Derek looked down. His thoughts grounded himself, reigning his ambition back in.
“First, we face a mighty challenge, Eddie. A challenge with this entity that has taken you over. That’s new ground for us all, also.”
They shared a few moments of uncomfortable silence, all reflecting on the words that had been left unspoken.
“So, what now?”
“Well, that’s where it becomes difficult.” Derek took a long pause, gathering his thoughts, deciding on the best way to articulate what he needed to say. “This thing, this – ‘entity’ – it does not belong in this world. It belongs in the other. And its mere presence here is unnatural, an abomination. Both you, and it, should technically be dead. And this thing has far less right to be here than you do. So it’s going to try and take it from you.”
“It’s going to take what from me?”
“Neither of you can coexist in this world, I’m afraid. It’s stuck itself to you and it wants to take your place. So it’s going to make you become weaker, and weaker, and weaker, until it takes the life you have gained back from fate, allowing it your place on this plane of existence.”
It wanted to take his life? Jesus, he thought. It can have it.
“So what can I do?” Eddie asked helplessly.
Derek said nothing. He leant back, putting his hands in his pockets, stuttering on his open mouth, shaking his head in preparation to say something that never came out.
Eddie looked to Levi, who just widened his eyes and lifted his eyebrows. He shook his head hopelessly too. Neither of them had an answer.
“So, what, there’s nothing I can do? This thing’s just going to latch onto me and take me?”
Derek exhaled and looked above hi
m to the corner of the room. Eddie grew impatient waiting for him to gather his thoughts and folded his arms.
“The only thing I could suggest, is…” he pursed his lips and looked around uncomfortably, “an exorcism.”
“An exorcism?”
“Yes. And we will perform it, in return for your permission to fully document it for our university research.”
Jenny stood forward. “That’s it, I’ve had enough, I think it’s time you go.”
Eddie scowled at her. “Jenny?”
“No, I’ve had enough. I’ve entertained this loony idea, I did what you asked – now it’s time that we, I don’t know, perhaps took some reality on the situation. It’s far more likely that you are all nuts.”
“Jenny –” Lacy stepped forward to put an arm around her, but Jenny nudged her way out of it.
“No, sorry, but no. It’s been very nice you being here, and I hope you enjoyed your coffee, but now it’s time to go. It’s time to pack up your equipment and crawl back to the university that is far happier entertaining your ridiculous theories than we are.”
Sighing with resolve, Derek and Levi rose and began solemnly packing away their equipment.
Eddie turned to Jenny with utter disbelief spread across his face. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” she screeched, her hands on her hips and her face tilted, ready for an argument. “What’s wrong with you? You need mental help, Eddie, that’s what it is – and so do they, being honest. I will help you get your help. I will drive you to therapy. But one thing I will not do is entertain a freak show in my own house. If you want that, you can get your own.”
Jenny turned on her heel and stormed out the room, slamming the door behind her, Lacy chasing after her. Eddie heard her feet stomping up the stairs and her bedroom door slamming above him. This was followed by the sound of the front door opening and closing.
Eddie darted to the living room, hoping to catch Derek and Levi before they left, but it was too late. They were gone. And he stood in the living room, alone.
As he started to make sense of all that had been said, he truly could not decide what to think.
21
31 December 1999
Eddie steps onto the porch, willing the accelerated pace of his breathing to subside. He leans against the door frame, rubs his hand over his head and through his hair. He feels inside his pocket for a cigarette and withdraws it, puts it in his mouth and lights it.
Beatrice, the girl’s mother, appears beside him.
“Do you mind?” he asks, indicating his cigarette.
“Not so long as you give me one,” she replies, and Eddie obliges. She looks to have aged even more within the last few hours. The bags under her eyes are heavier and the definition of her wrinkles becomes all the more apparent when reflected in the moonlight. Her hair is grey and tatty, almost knotted into a mound. Seeing as she has a sixteen-year-old daughter, Eddie decides she can’t be that old.
I suppose this kind of ordeal ages you.
“I can’t thank you enough for coming to help her,” she mutters quietly in a deadened tone of voice.
“Thank me when it’s over,” Eddie answers. Although he doesn’t admit it to her, or even to himself, this was the first time in almost five years that he’s feeling helplessly overcome and despondently overwhelmed. He is losing, and he knows it.
“Well, whether you help her or not, you believed me. That’s more than anyone else.”
“Ah well, in this day and age, people like to put it down to various mental health diagnoses. And in most cases, you know, they would of course be right.”
He takes a deep, inward drag of his cigarette and closes his eyes. He never usually smokes anymore, not regularly anyway; but he always has a packet stashed away for this type of occasion. He always needs it. Especially now, as this demon is one tough son of a bitch.
A huge clash resounds throughout the house. Eddie immediately turns his head. Prematurely stubbing his cigarette out, he gallops up the stairs and bursts into the bedroom.
It is calm. Uncomfortably calm. The demon-infested girl lays on the bed, breathing heavily with a croak on each inward inhale. It gazes at Eddie with a smile.
Eddie stands and watches it. He tries to decide what to make of this new-found lethargy. He knows the demon is clearly playing him, retaining control, mocking him. Still, it takes him by surprise, and he isn’t sure what to do with it.
“You seem calm,” he observes, then calls himself a twat in his mind.
‘You seem calm?’ What the fuck is that meant to do? Prick.
“I was just waiting for you, Eddie ma boy,” comes an unnaturally manly voice for the face of a young girl. It is a unique voice, one that stands apart from the earlier voice coming from the demon.
“Your voice has changed. Am I still talking to Balam?”
“The one and only.”
Eddie leans against a piece of furniture. The draws from the unit rest in pieces all over the room, as do the previous contents of the draws; but the dresser itself stands in its place, balanced precariously without the weight holding it down. Eddie uses it to support his tired legs nonetheless.
“And where did you come from, may I ask?”
“Why do you need to know?”
“As I would like to know where I am sending you back to.”
With a large grin spreading across its face, the demon simultaneously lifts its hands, breaking out of the restraints that had formerly been placed around its wrists. It sits up, opens its mouth and lets out a scream that forces Eddie flying against the back wall, along with various items that rise from the scatterings across the floor.
It reaches out an arm and slashes it like a claw, causing Eddie to fall to his knees. He closes his eyes and winces in pain, feeling his chest, the blood from three slashed claw marks soaking through his shirt.
“That hurt you?” the demon boasts.
Eddie lifts up his shirt, revealing not only the three fresh wounds, but numerous scars painted all over his chest.
“You aren’t the first demon to try to intimidate me.”
“Intimidate you? Maybe I should remind you what I did to your sister.”
“Shut up.”
“She was naked when you saw her last, right? Did you see the scars?”
“Quiet!” Eddie throws the holy water at it, smashing the bottle against the wall beside its head. At first it howls in pain, then in masochistic pleasure.
“I raped her. I tortured her. And I ate bits and pieces of her whilst she begged on her knees for me to stop.”
Eddie wipes his eyes.
“I am going to fucking destroy you.”
22
8 September 1995
Eddie sat in the waiting room twiddling his thumbs. Doctors’ waiting rooms were always so depressing. The pattern of the wallpaper was that he’d expect from a grandmother’s curtains. The toys left there to keep children occupied were usually just wooden blocks dispersed around the floor and the magazines were usually women’s magazines dated from around three months prior.
He glanced at the two other people occupying the waiting room. To his left was an old man who kept his walking stick propped up in front of him, resting both hands upon it. He coughed every few seconds; not just a gentle, normal cough, but a dramatic cough that felt as if he was bringing up a dead cat. He wore a flat cap that had more stains on it than Eddie could place.
To his right was a younger lady, heavily pregnant, with vacant eyes. She stared gormlessly at the bottom corner of the room, with grey shading under her eyes and her hair a scraggy mess. Her veins stuck out on her arms, most likely from the use of various narcotics.
Eddie mentally urged the doctor to hurry up, peering down the corridor, anticipating being called in as soon as possible. He felt awkward and out of place. He usually felt awkward in any given social scenario, but sitting amongst an old man coughing up his lungs
and a doped-up mother-to-be, he was worried about what he may catch.
Finally, the doctor came into the waiting room and called his name. He stood slowly, supporting himself against the wall, trying not to fall on his shaking legs. Using the walls and the chairs to keep himself propped up, he made his way into the corridor. He took a moment to rest, catching his breath, allowing the blurs to fade from his eyesight and his dizziness to subside. Leaning against the wall, he made his way into the doctor’s room and delicately sat on the chair opposite him.
The doctor was a middle-aged man with a bald patch on his scalp. He wore the normal white lab coat over a shirt and tie. He sat toward Eddie with a large smile, making Eddie feel at ease and comfortable.
“Eddie,” the doctor announced, glancing at his notes to make sure of his name. “How are you today?”
“I’m okay,” Eddie croaked, forcing the words through his sore throat.
“And what can I help you with?”
Eddie took a deep, wheezing inhale of breath. He was still recovering from the walk from the waiting room. It had really taken it out of him.
“I – I seem to becoming weaker, Doc.”
The doctor sat back and placed his pen in his mouth, pondering.
“How so?”
“Two weeks ago I was fine,” Eddie explained. “But now I’m out of breath walking down the corridor, my throat is always dry, and I feel dizzy when I walk. I can’t explain it, but I feel like I’m fifty years older.”
“Okay. I’m going to take your pulse, is that all right?”
Eddie nodded and the doctor withdrew his stethoscope. Lifting Eddie’s shirt up to reveal a thinner body than Eddie was used to, his weak bones clearly visible, the Doctor placed the end of the stethoscope over his heart and listened carefully.
He withdrew and thought for a few moments.
“I’m going to take your blood pressure as well, is that all right?”
Eddie nodded again. The doctor took out a pad and fastened it around Eddie’s bare arm, clasping it together through its Velcro strap. Eddie felt it squeeze against his bicep, making him flinch slightly. After a few moments it retracted, and the doctor looked upon the results.