Resurrect Thy Heart (Supernatural-Romance)

Chapter 6: A Shadow in the Darkness

'Something wasn't right,' she thought to herself, 'definitely not right.'

Attempting to keep pace with the ceremony, Marcus threw his free hand over the jailed one and pressed it tightly on André's chest. He may not have powers the same as the previous exorcist priests have, but he had the devotion and the Holy Light to guide him through this trial.

A smell of sulfur and rotten fish tickled his nose for a moment. Then, it was followed by a black oily liquid seeping out of André's skin: from the head down to the foot. When it contacted Marcus' charred hand, he immediately growled in pain. The liquid seemed to have a life of its own, generating an acidic sensation. Finding it dangerous, Marcus countered it with another ancient Aramaic verse and this brought out a white blinding light which consequently surrounded the victim's body.

از طریق نور و تاریکی. من تو را متصل شوند. من تو را را خارج از بدن این مرد ! به نام پدر، و پسر ، و روح القدس . آمین.

The trio audience watched in anticipation and awe. Hope was in their thoughts, wanting for André to live through the ordeal. However, with the sudden blinding light enveloping the marble table and the two men near it, they couldn't see how the exorcism rite would end.

Black sea. Black sky. Black soil. It was a lifeless obsidian of an environment Marcus found himself in whilst standing near a sandy shore. Although it was his first time in a questionable place - if it was even called one - there was not a hint of fear in his eyes.

'Where am I?' his thoughts asked, for a moment curious.

He scanned the surrounding area, turning from right to left and found not a soul in sight. It was only him alone...together with his shadow. But weird, he thought, why would there be a shadow when there was no sun and the ground was as black as it?

"Marcus..."

A woman's voice filtered through the air without warning. It was soft and resounding, nonthreatening at all.

"Marcus!"

It called out again with considerable emphasis. More like panicking. Trying to focus as to where the sound came from, he heightened his sense of hearing by closing his eyes.

"Father Marcus!" shouted the voice once again, but this time, it had a clear effect on him. He didn't even knew that he was in a dream until he was pulled out back to reality...until Ysabelle's sweet but worried voice broke through it.

'A dream?' Marcus thought soon when he saw his interrupter standing near him with her hand on his right shoulder. She had concerned eyes and a thinly pressed lip, but as their gazes met, it immediately softened.

"Father, are you all right?" was her first question.

Finding it odd, Marcus scanned the whole area first before answering. Except from the blue and violet flames in the curtains and in André's body gone, everything was in the exact order, not to mention the master and his wife still keeping a safe distance. The unconscious André was still the same, except he had more color on his face. This, Marcus took as a good sign that the exorcism rite was a complete success. He heaved a breath and nodded slightly on Ysabelle's way.

"Yes, I am," was his calm and collected answer.

"But your hand!" she exclaimed, throwing a distressed look on the charred skin.

Marcus watched the damage and though he found it alarming, he answered anyway to lessen her worry, "This is nothing Ms. Ysabelle." He stepped backward and made a sign of the cross in his chest, kissing the pectoral cross thereafter silently, but all the while he could feel the woman's burning stare on him.