JOHN CALVIN KNEW what he had to do, but that didn’t make it easy. He stood over the scratched bag of bones that had once been Jeremy Mason and looked for the will to begin. In his right hand he held a medical lancet, a three inch needle with a plastic grip on one end. They were used for healing, for draining infection and bringing single drops of blood for tests. A simple thing. A small thing. With his extensive knowledge of the human nervous system, Calvin could use the lancet to turn the boy’s nerve endings on and off in combinations that would plunge the boy into a symphony of pain.
The demon slitted its jaundiced eyes at Calvin. “Don’t do this, priest,” it croaked. “We will vacate the meat in due time.”
Calvin rolled the lancet between thumb and forefinger. “Leave now.”
“You won’t hurt that which you’ve come to save.”
“I already told you, I couldn’t give two shits about some gangster’s brat.”
The demon ran its sandpaper tongue over cracked lips making a sound like a newt scampering through leaf litter. “Lies,” it said, gyrating. “We smell your lies.”
Calvin took a deep breath. He might as well get started. “Smell this.” He leaned in and snatched the boy’s wrist, manacled to the bed post. The demon roared like the lowing of a buffalo run backward through a tape recorder, and the room filled with foulness from all of its orifices. Calvin ignored the show and pinned the boy’s hand against his own chest. He held the lancet poised above Jeremy’s wiggling fingers. “Last chance.”
“Your punishment will be worse than a thousand—”
“Uh-huh.” He inserted the lancet between the first and second fingers where they joined the palm.
The demon shrieked, a wolf with its throat being torn out.
Calvin twisted the needle, grinding it between the finger bones. Closing his mind to the demon’s noise, he concentrated on its face. The boy’s eyes fell back in his head, the whites a rolling mass of capillaries. The boy’s screeching finally ran out after what seemed an impossible exhalation for so small a chest. Calvin removed the lancet and checked the wound. A tiny pink hole was the only evidence of his attack. It wasn’t even bleeding. Calvin dropped the hand and stepped back.
“You ready to leave yet?”
Tie burst into the room, all eyes and panting. “I know you told me to stay out, but…”
The boy tried to sit up, his voice reverted back to that of a frightened child. “Help me, lady! He’s crazy! Stuck me with a needle!”
“Tie.” Calvin went to her, moved her out of the room. He pulled the door shut behind them as the demon began to weep. “Listen, you’ve got to stay away.”
“I know you said,” she started, her eyebrows almost comically bent, “but…” She held out her palm, those sounds.
“I know.” He took her hand and held it. “It’s bullshit, though. The kid’s not in there. That voice might have come from his mouth, but that’s not Jeremy Mason. Whatever’s in him is just trying to mess with your head. You can’t listen. And every time you come in there, you’re giving it more ammunition, making it easier for it to stay.”
She put her head against his chest. “I know, but it’s just so hard to hear.” She buried her face in him, muffling her voice. “Makes me feel like I’m goin’ crazy.”
Calvin wrapped his arms around her, careful not to stick himself with the lancet he was palming. Her hair smelled like lilacs and warm dust. And just then, he wanted to take her back into the other bedroom. But this had to happen first. He had to teach the demon that Jeremy’s body was no longer its suit of play clothes. “Would it help if I told you that nothing I’m doing will cause any permanent damage?”
She sniffed. “Not really.”
Calvin chuckled and gently pushed her back a step. He made eye contact. “Go for a walk, Tie.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Get out of the cabin for a couple of hours. There’s all kinds of trails and paths around here. By the time you come back it might all be over.”
“Might?”
“Depends on how quick a learner this thing is.”
“And how much it can take, right? How much pain?”
“Yes.”
“I hate this. You dig me? This is the worse thing ever.”
“No shit.”
Tie nodded and leaned up on her toes. “Be careful, okay?” She said, and whispered a kiss onto his cheek.