Fear the Wicked (Illusions Series Book 2)(63)
“We’re not,” Elijah answered.
Both the sheriff and Richard turned to look at him, their expressions shocked and questioning. “We can’t let the women and children see this. They can’t handle it.”
Elijah bent down to do something out of my sight, but the scream that tore across the room let me know there was somebody lying on the ground beneath them. Fear shot through my heart, both that I wouldn’t be able to handle whatever it was they were doing, and also that I’d get caught watching when I was supposed to be back in the room sleeping.
Despite my brain shouting at me to shut the door and go back to my room before anybody saw me, I couldn’t step away. I was too curious to know what they were doing, too damn scared to move and find out later the hard way. If I learned anything in the months I’d spent as Elijah’s wife, it was that secrets and surprises would hurt me more than anything else.
I didn’t understand why he kept so much from me, as if I were a weak little woman who couldn’t handle the truth that, sometimes, he had to destroy the evil infecting this town.
Tired of being alone and stuck in a room waiting for him, I stayed by that door and watching, hoping with everything I had that he wouldn’t turn around and notice I could see what he was doing.
ELIJAH
“I hate to admit this, Father Hayle, but I had my doubts about what you were telling my brother. Now, seeing this for myself, I don’t doubt any longer. I think you may be on to something.”
James spoke as I tended to our possessed man, readying him for the moment we would free him of his evil, regardless of the fact it would strip him of life. He screamed and wailed, begging for someone to believe I wasn’t actually a priest. Richard laughed it off, and so did the sheriff, one who knew the truth, and the other sinking deeper into the illusion that I was a good man.
Splashing out another few drops of the holy water onto the wounds left behind by the lashings of a whip, the idiot beneath me screamed bloody murder swearing to anybody who would listen that he was just some perverted jerk and not a demon like I claimed.
Sadly, he was being honest, but the sheriff wouldn’t believe him. Why would plain water cause so much pain if there wasn’t a demon inside?
I’ll tell you why that water hurt, and it had nothing to do with the fake blessing. I’d added bleach just to ensure it burned as it soaked into the lacerations and scrapes left by the beating and whipping he took after we had to fight to drag him back out here.
The sheriff was steadfast in his belief that holy water was cleansing the body, meanwhile I was hoping the son of a bitch wouldn’t get too close and wonder why the condemned man now smelled like a house that was freshly cleaned.
I hadn’t used too much, just enough to make it burn. I doubted it would be a problem.
“So, what do we do next? How to get rid of the demon?”
Richard smiled when I shot a glance at him, shrugging his big, bulky shoulders and waited for me to answer the question.
“We crucify him. Kill him in the same way our Savior was killed by the Romans who were infected with just as much evil as this man. It’s God’s way of getting even for what was done to the Son.”
The sheriff grunted out his approval. “Sounds a hell of a lot easier than that shit you see on television. What’s the point of exorcisms if it’s easier just to nail their asses to crosses and leave them there to die?”
Face practically purple, Richard fought not to laugh. One would think I’d drugged the sheriff for as easily as he swallowed down the lies I was feeding him. Didn’t anybody ever think for themselves anymore? Or was the Faith crammed so far down their throats that it somehow compressed the arteries and cut off the blood flow to their brains?
“Don’t believe the lies Hollywood tells you, Sheriff. All of that stuff is put there by the Devil to deceive you. That’s why there’s so much graphic sex and violence in the big blockbuster movies. The world has slipped in to the depths of Hell and nobody realizes just how bad it’s become.”
“Not in my town,” he growled out. “I won’t let this place fall to the Devil. Not now that I know the truth.” Glancing up from the man on the floor who was writhing over himself and crying, James locked his eyes with mine. “When do we involve the rest of the townspeople? When do we let them know how much evil surrounds them and what can be done about it? I think the sooner the better. I don’t want to see another young woman die like poor Annabelle. I was there when they cleaned up the scene-“
I smiled and placed my hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me, James. I was there, too, remember?”
He nodded his head, the grief of that girl’s untimely death still weighing on his shoulders.
Having never intended for Annabelle to die, I didn’t feel guilty for being the one that pushed her to it. In fact, if I’d known then what I knew at this moment, I would have shaken her hand and thanked her for the favor. Without her, this town wouldn’t have been so stunned as to be deceived. Sure, they may have believed eventually that evil was what affected their fields and had the banks breathing down their necks with the threat of foreclosure, but Annabelle’s death only broke them down more, making my job a hell of a lot easier.
“I guess there’s nothing to do now than to grab the nails and string this poor bastard up.”