The pain was still battering away on one spot on Zeke’s back.
He sat on the timber-made couch in the main room, settled in a hunched-over position. He kept his brain from babbling about the medical explanation why the position wouldn’t help the pain; in fact, it would worsen it, but it felt much better than sitting up straight.
Zeke stared at the altar with the plate near the wall at the end of one side of the main room—which he pinned as the ‘waiting room’—given if Ugo was right about the area being a hospital. Zeke’s hands felt odd without the weight of his grandmother’s book.
He bolted with the others immediately after the biblical revelation, leaving the book for dead with the infected celestial being. Not a single cell in his body was going to convince him to go back for it. Something else also felt missing in his hand, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Ugo crossed his eyeline repeatedly as he paced back and forth while nibbling on a thumbnail.
Zeke could hear AJ’s leg shake near him as it was crossed over the other. He studied her face—it was an odd mix of anxiety and simmering anger.
He wandered his mind, looking for the right thing to say, and then she interrupted his thought. “So, angels are real,” AJ said.
Zeke looked down at his hands and rubbed his knees. “I guess...”
“That means that God is real, too, huh?”
“That would be… the logical conclusion.”
AJ closed her eyes, balled both her fists, and let out a trembling breath. “Then where the hell is He?” she hissed as she opened her eyes again. “What does he do when all this bad stuff in the world happens? Where is he when innocent people get kidnapped, raped, and murdered? When natural disasters strike and destroy entire communities? Why does he let people be born with horrible birth defects, and others look like they were hand drawn by a renowned artist?”
“AJ…”
“He just lets people be born ugly and others beautiful? He allows some people to grow into freaks? Why, just for the fun of it?” She paused for a moment to sniffle. “This should concern you, too, you know. When people face terminal illnesses, why doesn’t he just cure them? Why doesn’t he help doctors and just cure the damn patient instantly? It’s all games to Him, then. Like a spoiled child with an unlimited toy box.”
Zeke opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He wanted to ramble on about why God would let him be the son of Adelmo Rosario. Why allow him to suffer the stained reputation of a blighted family of criminals? Why allow him to be a living stereotype in a country that isn’t keen on setting ignorance aside. Why let his incarcerated father not suffer from a single health anomaly while waiting to be released? Then, He curses a sweet but demented Columbian woman and kills her with a heart attack in an institution filled with indifferent staff workers and strangers whom she had to eat and sleep with, but then again, his grandmother might’ve never been crazy to begin with. So, why let her be taken away and not help her?
Zeke closed his mouth again. He decided not to contribute to the disdainful thoughts for AJ’s sake. She was already tearing up. “AJ… I don’t know,” he started talking without realizing. His mind was wordless but spilled out plenty of them as he went on. “Neither of us can answer those questions. Maybe we’re not supposed to until the right time comes.”
Zeke glanced at AJ. Her expression was the same. He wasn’t surprised; his words lacked substance. It was a cowardly answer based on a foundation of faulty faith.
“Can we save the whole where is God debate for later?” Ugo stopped in front of the two behind the table. “There’s a more distressing matter at hand!” They stared at him. “When I was carrying her in my arms, I may have… copped a feel… by accident!” And they looked away and carried on. “I’m being serious here. I’m panicking, guys! How sinful is it to do that to an angel?”
“I can’t believe I tried to barricade an angel’s path. Am I insane?” AJ said to herself.
“Man, I was rooting for her to be an alien or something,” Ugo admitted aloud.
“So, you’d feel less bad about fantasizing about her, right?”
“Yeah…”
“What is one of God’s angels doing down here, anyway?” AJ asked curiously. “Shouldn’t she be up there doing nothing as usual? Why doesn’t He just come down, cure her, and take her back home already?”
Zeke caressed the aching spot on his back. “Maybe He doesn’t know that she’s here and sick.”
“But isn’t God all-knowing? All-seeing?” AJ hissed.
Ugo squatted onto the table. “Maybe Constantine, way back when he was messing with the Bible, exaggerated some things. I mean, everybody does it when retelling a story.”
“Aren’t you worried about going to Hell for touching an angel there? Do you really think blasphemous jokes are a good idea?” Zeke asked.
Ugo’s eyes widened, and then he looked up with a nervous smile. “Sorry!”
“Oh, maybe this is a test.”
AJ glared at Zeke. “A test for what?”
“To prove our worth!” Ugo shouted in agreement while getting up. “Yes, now, I see! If we save this angel’s life, then we all get a guaranteed ticket to Heaven, right? Or, like, a ‘get out of Hell for free card.’ I lowkey still want to see some demon babes.”
AJ shakes her head. “So, we’re going to attempt to save an angel? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Oh wait, they’ve never done anything in the first place.”
“How is it even possible for an angel to get possessed by a demon?” Zeke questioned. “That makes no sense.”
“Don’t try to make sense of it. You’re not an expert when it comes to angelology.”
Ugo pointed at Zeke. “No, but he is when it comes to fantasy,” he said jubilantly. “Zeke, you’ve played and read and watched plenty of stuff related to demons and angels, right?”
Zeke squinted at Ugo. He wanted to punch him in the face for roistering about his greatest shame. Hours that could’ve been spent getting even more medical knowledge. But he had to admit he enjoyed it like Celestial Blade; playing as some overpowered demon hunter chosen by Heaven was empowering. However, he created and played a female character whom he spent customizing for a time longer than he’d like to admit out loud. What that said about his sexuality was concerning. Video games were just another source of indignity in the extremely dense ball of shame compacted into his soul.
“Just look at what happened with the door spells like in Dragon Blood. I told you it wasn’t all useless.”
How could Ugo be so impervious to shame, Zeke wondered. The more time he spends with his step-brother, the more he believes that he may actually lack a conscience as some sort of side-effect to his condition.
AJ stood up, walked away from the couch, and stretched her arms to the side. “So, video games are really going to save the day? Nothing makes sense anymore...” She brought her hands together, clasped them behind her back, and then bent forward, doing stretches to deal with the stress.
Ugo folded his arms and gave her a smug look. “And here you were wasting your time with being healthy—pffft! Like a moron.”
AJ raised her head mid-stretch and glared at Ugo. “I want to see you say that when you’re aching all over in your 40s.” She lowered her arms, straightened herself, and scanned Ugo up and down. “Or maybe, 30s.”
“Well, the only reason we’d make it that far anyway is because of our video game knowledge!” AJ didn’t respond and resumed stretching her biceps. Ugo turned to Zeke. “Remember the exorcism used in Celestial Blade?”
“That’s just gibberish.”
“Let’s give it a shot. You never know what those words could actually mean.”
Zeke stood up. “Are you crazy?’
“I can write down that exorcism word for word.”
“Okay, I’ll ask again… are you crazy?”
AJ proceeded to do hip stretches. “You do realize that there is no retry button in real life, right?”
“Well, technically, that’s just reincarnation. Respawning exists.” Ugo said.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Zeke heaved a sigh and said, “Mora, exorcisms can’t be done with just words, anyway. In the game, they used a bunch of tools like salt, crosses, and holy water.”
“Mano! Look around! Look at the symbols and stuff! When you put it all together with the things that the vieja said. This is an ancient hospital that deals with the supernatural.”
Zeke hated that he agreed with him.
“We can find items like that here,” Ugo added confidently.
“Exploring this place might be too risky,” Zeke said. “We don’t know how big it is. We may not all remember our way back like—”
“Stop using excuses. Just use trails or something,” Ugo said, “What kind of rooms does a hospital have and need?”
“A casualty department for accidents and emergencies, an admitting department where patients provide personal information and sign consent forms before being taken to the hospital unit or ward. A day room for patients to relax, a delivery room, an operating room, a pharmacy—”
“Yeah,” Ugo cut him before he went on forever. “Those are integral to hospitals, right? And labs where they keep all the medicines and the ones they are testing out, so the equivalent of that in a hospital like this would include stuff like holy water and other things to deal with possessions. Like a dispensary or something.”
AJ finished and let out a sigh of relief. “All done,” she said.
“Good, we’re going to prep for an exorcism,” Ugo said.
----------------------------------------
Zeke, Ugo, and AJ reunited in the waiting room after they scattered the medieval structure. Ugo was the only one who returned with an item; it was a small but blocky book, the kind that tricks you into thinking that it will be a short read. A Holy Cross marked the cover. They allowed AJ to go first before questioning Ugo.
AJ reported finding a big room with besmirched beds with an array of sigils on the plaster walls and lime-washed floor—the ward. She also found a large room with stone walls and flooring, crowded with gold wooden cabinets, shelves, barrels, and larders. The shelves held glass jars of all sizes. Some contained colored dust, others thick rotting sludge, and the rest she could remember had cat eyeballs floating in vinegar, severed pointy ears fixed together, yellowing talons that looked way too large to belong to a bird, and even a unicorn horn floating in a pool of oily rainbow liquid. She couldn’t recall any of the other items. There were so many.
It was the dispensary. Next was Zeke.
Zeke told them about an opulent room where the walls were covered with finely detailed light blue damask wallpaper and stunning parquet flooring. There was a large, black, solid wood table in the middle of the room covered by a black and white cloth designed with Wotan’s cross. The table was surrounded by eight black wooden chairs with high and sturdy backs and arms.
A buffet table sat at one side of the room with a rich blue drape covering stippled with food stains, unwashed plates, and cutlery sets. Multiple open chests spread across the room, flat on their sides, spilling junk. Aside from sigils, the walls were postered with parchment paper showing rough sketches of the anatomy of humanoid and monstrous creatures. The plaque on its door said: Doctor’s lounge. He also had entered a room with old lab equipment ranging from barbaric atrocities that looked no different from cruel medieval torture devices to things that seemed too simple to be effective. Dusty flasks, brass antique microscopes, bronze syringes, and small pieces of complex machinery he couldn’t identify filled the moldy elm tables—it was the lab.
Ugo held back vomit as he talked about a room with small wooden tables and a long one etched with a sinking cushion. Dark brown blood and yellow chunky liquid stained the light green ceramic tile walls and oak hardwood flooring. Along with sconces, levers and buttons were fitted into the walls. Sullied Victorian-esque surgical tools were scattered across the floor. The tools included a small saw-toothed knife, a long metal chisel, a rusty dental key, bronze wretches, and hammers. Toppled machines filled the space. They looked like they came from a parallel universe that never escaped the 19th century, yet sophisticated technology managed to be made — the operating room. And last, he mentioned a massive library. The ceiling seemed to be higher than any other place in the structure with stuffed skyscraper oak bookshelves, and not a single one had space for one more book. He waved the book he brought in his hand and explained—which was more like complaining about having to explore and speed-read through some books until he found one that was blessed with paragraphs of exorcism chants in Latin.
All the rooms they had explored featured iron sconces that ignited on their own upon entry and extinguished once no one was present.
The insane plan gained some viability but didn’t really put anybody at ease. It was the equivalent of shortening a 100-mile race to a 90-mile race. Technically easier, but still a bone-crushing feat.
But the demon had seen their faces, and if they didn’t send it back to Hell, according to their nerd knowledge, it would be game over. They headed to the dispensary to gather items. They searched through the golden cabinets and rifled through anything that seemed unnecessary. Ignoring the clumps of hair, necklaces made from the silver jagged teeth of some creatures, and crinkled deep purple severed fingers, they selected the key items that had to help: a wooden cross about the size of a large textbook, a pouch filled with salt, rosary bead necklaces, a closed jar of water marked with a cross, and a brown leather satchel. Zeke was the one who found the surprisingly clean bag, and it smelled like grass right after it was mowed. The satchel contained multiple purses, and each of them held leather gloves and polished leather surgical masks of a range of colors inscribed with symbols and two sets of belt straps and filter pockets on either side.
They huddled in the center of the room to share what they found. They all put on the rosary bead necklaces and gloves. Zeke equipped the emerald green mask and held the cross in his hand, Ugo took the light blue mask, grabbed the bag of salt, and kept the book under his arm, and AJ put on the wine red mask and grasped onto the jar of Holy water.
They returned to the door of the girl’s room and stared at the plaque. It was silent. Zeke wondered what was going through the minds of his friends and glanced at them, one at a time. He got no answers; their expressions were blank and unreadable. They ceased movement of any kind, and then Zeke realized he wasn’t trembling at all either. He believed it to be a whole new level of fear he gained.
Maybe a conformity with what’s to come? He hoped he would at least shake a little for something more familial, but his body rejected the request.
Ugo put his hand on the handle. Zeke’s mouth fell open. He saw Ugo smiling. He was pumped. This couldn’t be confidence or stupidity. It was downright crazy.
“Ready?” Ugo asked as if they were about to perform a concert. Nobody answered. He turned the handle and pushed the door open anyway.
The girl was asleep, lying on her back. Throbbing black streaks were spread across her pale face.
The stench of sulfur was mild, bearable. Zeke wondered how bad it would’ve been without their masks. He spotted his grandmother’s book on the floor nearby, a blotch of black goo. Ugo opened the exorcism book in his hand. AJ unscrewed the jar lid.
Zeke looked at the two in awe. He whispered, “So, we’re just going to start? Just like that?” Then he heard a rustling. He saw the girl moaning and wriggling softly.
“Aw, crap, she’s waking up,” AJ whispered.
Ugo gave AJ a look. He whispered back, “Well… why don’t you start? Go over there and throw the water on her face. I’ll be right behind you.”
AJ stammered.
“Oh, come on, you threw a shoe at that demon’s face!” Ugo hissed.
“We’re going together!” she snapped back.
AJ nudged Ugo on the shoulder with her elbow and then gave Zeke a look. He nodded. They plodded towards the girl. She sat up. They halted.
“Shit,” Ugo cursed under his breath.
AJ dropped the jar and bag against the floor, spilling most of the water. The girl screeched and writhed and contorted all over.
“Alright, here we go then!” Ugo shouted. He moved his eyes down to the page as AJ kneeled and picked up the jar.
The girl panicked in her writhing. “Wait, no! You can’t do this. Listen to me, stop!”
“Shut up, demon!” Ugo replied hastily.
“No, this is me talking, Naomi!”
Ugo froze. “Your name is Naomi? What a beautiful name.” He grinned.
“Would you cut it out?” AJ barked as she stood up and launched the rest of the water into Naomi. Her flesh sizzled and released steam as she screamed and howled in a deep, scrambled voice.
AJ went wide-eyed. “I didn’t think it would be that effective.”
Naomi cowered and raised her trembling hands with curled fingers as she pleaded, “Stop, you’re going to kill me!”
“Sorry, we’re just trying to kill the demon!” Ugo yelled.
“Listen to me, you humans! This way will kill me, too, and hurt all of you in the process!” Silence fell upon the room. Naomi whimpered and continued, “It’s not a Major Demon that’s inside of me. I don’t think that it’s even an Intermediate one.”
“So, it’s a low-tier demon that’s been kicking and tossing us around?” Ugo said despondently.
“I think it’s a bug.”
Zeke raised a brow. “Like… a virus?”
“I just can’t figure out which one.” Naomi coughed out a chunk of black goo, then let out an explosive hellish scream. They all took a step back. Naomi rubbed her throat and let out a low groan. She explained, “You can’t perform an exorcism… your Mana is not strong enough.”
Zeke and Ugo exchanged looks. They were more than familiar with the concept. Aside from the media, Grandma Esther told Zeke about Mana, a supernatural force spread throughout the universe like dark matter that, with proper, diligent preparation, taxing one’s soul, they could tap into the energy and compel the power of gods for their own use. Magic.
Another item for Zeke to add to the growing list of reasons his grandmother may not have been crazy in the first place or the list of reasons she didn’t have to die alone in an unkempt psych ward.
“‘Mana’?” AJ asked.
“The attribute to use magic in, like, every RPG ever!” Ugo blurted.
“If you try to perform an exorcism without strong Mana... you’ll implode.”
Zeke’s expression crinkled. “What?”
“Okay, let’s find a way to increase our Mana then,” Ugo said.
“Like… with supplements?” AJ said. “Oh, maybe in the lab.”
“No! Don’t try to augment your Mana in any way! That’s… bad.” Naomi contorted a bit more in her spot. “It’s not about how much Mana your body can contain… It’s about experience! An exorcism is not like other spells; it’s not simple at all. I can sense that none of you can do one… if it’s done wrong. The bug will get loose and attack you. I might die, too. And exorcisms are not meant to deal with Minor Demons.”
“Then how do we deal with them?” Zeke asked.
“I don’t know,” Naomi grunted. “Just let me leave, please…” She fell back onto the bed. “No…”
Zeke paused and analyzed her and then the bed. He spotted some leather straps with sigils dangling off the bed's side. Zeke put the cross down and walked up to Naomi. “Mora, come help me with this.”
Ugo put his things down and picked up quickly on what Zeke was doing. They stretched one over her ankles, legs, and then chest.
“What? No!” Naomi complained feebly.
“We can’t let you leave just yet,” Zeke said. “You’re still my patient.”
Naomi gave him a glazed look. “Wait, are you a… Healer?”
Zeke smirked. “Well, I hope to be a certified one someday.”
“Why are you flirting with her?” Ugo grumbled.
“I wasn’t…” Zeke sighed and marched towards the door. “Okay, we’ve got a diagnosis. Now, we need to come up with a procedure.”