Love & Exorcisms | 18+ | COMPLETE |

- Chapter 38 -

I sat uncertainly. With a second small towel he began to dry my hair, surprising me yet again. "You don't have to do all this," I said. He paused, then resumed his work.

"Working with my hands eases my mind," he said. "These are not easy conversations, Samara. I don't like to remember what I've told you. I've spent...years...trying to understand what happened to my mother. Trying to understand why. There are still many answers I don't have. But you're right: they are called Legion, for they are many. And Legion is within you. It is incredibly rare, something an exorcist would never expect to encounter."

"Why is it rare? If one demon can...infect...a host, why couldn't many?"

"There is a boundary between our world, our dimension, and the world beyond. It is treacherous and near impenetrable: an amalgamation of energy and matter. It is incredibly difficult for one being to cross over, let alone dozens or hundreds. For a feat such as that to occur, a gateway must be opened: an easy path by which they can enter our world. I do not say this to frighten you, but when a host of demons infests a human, it is almost always to their death. The fact that you are alive, and aware, and in control, is nothing short of utterly stunning." He paused, and his voice softened. "They overwhelmed my mother utterly. The moment they had her completely in their clutches, she was consumed. Her body became but a shell for them to maneuver."

I pulled the towel tighter about myself, shivering. "Why hasn't that happened to me?"

"That is one of the answers I do not have. But I intend to find out."

"How did you escape, Damian? They had you trapped..."

"One could say it was to my good fortune that demons are wildly vicious, particularly when having just made the crossing between our world and theirs. When my mother charged at me with the knife, and I managed to slip past her, she did not hesitate to start in on the first warm body she encountered: those of the very people who meant to worship her. It is so strange to remember...I didn't look back. The alcohol in my system - and whatever else they had drugged me with - came in waves where one moment my mind seemed to have perfect clarity and the next, all was swimming again. There was chaos. With the demon freed and now armed, it could do as it pleased. Although the end goal, of course, was to finish the job: to kill me, so the ritual would be completed."

"And what was this ritual?" I said. I felt so cold despite the towel. Everything he described was all too familiar - it was nearly identical. Save my place had not been the same as his: my place had been that of his mother's.

Damian sighed, and paused his speech to collect his thoughts. His hands felt like heaven on my head, working the towel slowly. He hardly even seemed to be thinking of it anymore, the drying of my hair becoming like a ritual as he delved into memory.

"They were attempting to create - to open - a gateway through the divide between our world and the next. They wanted to release an army of demons amongst humans. To what end...I still do not truly know. My suspicion is that they regard them as gods, something to be worshiped perhaps...but I have found no evidence of such a religion or cult. There are no books, no passages that allude to it. Whatever it is, whatever belief they follow, it is tight-knit and fed to them by one of their own. Someone they follow and trust."

"Carnickey," I said firmly. "It has to him. It has to be. He would lead them to do this."

"It very well may be," Damian said. "Where was I...let me see...I had made my escape from the cellar while the "guests" faced the wrath of a hungry demon. I can still hear them screaming. To this day it sends shudders through me. I didn't know what to do, where to go. In my drunken state I kept thinking my Amma would save me, that surely she would come. But how could she know? I knew not even how to get to her, only that she was likely still in the little house on the outskirts of the city. Then, at the top of the stairs, I ran face-first into yet another stranger: a red-haired man."