The only man who can help me now is Father Richard - the thought crossed my mind as I grabbed the car keys from the closet and ran down the stairs to the lobby.
Whoever this Mr. Frank was; Father Richard could potentially be the only connecting link between him and me. He could be the only man, Mr. Frank I mean - the man who exiled the evil, who knew how to stop this force, how to destroy this afflicting disaster who killed my friend Larry.
As I went down to the lot where my car was and started driving, a thought came to my mind.
What if he doesn't know who Mr. Frank is? Or what if Mr. Frank could never find out how to get Edward? But how could that be! He was the one who used the spell. He must know its consequences.
I started driving faster as I got my car out of the alleyway.
Men from the past, all so important. Had I ever even paid much attention to my history lessons? No, man.
Now I was dealing with the history of Reynburg - a city to which I was still a rookie. I could recall my father enlightening me about the life of cities while we were on our way to the airport to board the plane seeking Reynburg almost a year back.
'A city life can be pretty hard, my boy', he had said. 'It's like a fucking bitch. You think you're playing with her, fondling and caressing her, while it's actually her who is playing the tricks behind your back'. I could feel it well now - though not in the sense he was trying to describe me.
He must be at the Cathedral. I thought as I crossed the boulevard and got to a two-way. I steered to left which would lead me to the Cathedral.
Is it a dream? A fairy-tale? Am I dreaming within a dream? Inception?!
Not a single paranormal experience all through my life and then there I was, all helpless as a ghost was trying to hunt me down after taking down that friend of mine with whom I had spent my entire childhood. How many dreams we had! What a life we had thought of! And now I was all alone in the voyage of life without my co-pilot. Thanks to Fucking Warwick!
I slowed down as I got closer to the edifice. There was an enormous crowd up there. Morning prayer time. I couldn't take my car much into the crowd and decided to park it some yards away. As I got out of the car and started at the edifice, I could feel my heart beating fast because of excitement and, to some extent, an unknown fear and anticipation. I was rushing through the crowd, making way for myself, pushing people aside in the process, subject to their annoyed faces.
As I went in to the big hall, the morning chore was going on. I stopped by the huge doorway and started running my eyes across the hall. Father Richard was up there - on the dais, by the podium, providing annotations and discussing the doctrines apart from reading the scriptures. I couldn't interfere in between right then. So I walked down the aisle and got myself seated somewhere among the rows.
I was extremely nervous. Sweat was dripping down my temples and I was constantly juddering my feet. The old woman sitting by my side gave me a proper glance of irritation and was trying her best to ignore me. But I couldn't help. I was lost in my world of horror fantasy. Edward had invaded my brain. I could feel it. He needed help. Not that he himself wanted that. But I was so close. I had to do it. At any cost. For Edward, for me, for Larry.
As the preaching ended, all got up to their feet and started leaving the nave. I got up and started at Father. There were approximately ten long rows to my front and all of its temporary inhabitants were crowding down the aisle in my opposite direction. It took me some time to make my way through them as I finally crossed the transept and got to the dais.
But he was gone. I looked around the room. The crowd was disappearing slowly through the doorway. He was nowhere there. My eyes got a lady by the altar. She was a nun, perhaps, or someone working there.
I called out to her. 'Hey, ma'am!'. She looked back at me abruptly. 'Ma'am, do you know where Father Richard is?'. She nodded and pointed her finger at the small doorway to the left corner of the transept. 'Thank you', I said and started running.
As I got out, I squinted at the sun and looked around. Father Richard was there, by the sidewalk some yards away, waiting for the bus to come. I started running again at him. 'Father Richard!', I almost yelled out. He looked back toward me in startlement.
As I reached him, I stopped and started panting.
'Hey Liam! How are-?'. He stopped and looked at my face closely, trying to make out of my mind using his unusual art of Telepathy. The look on his face darkened. 'What happened?'. He asked. 'I can sense something terrible'.
'I know - I know, Father... who banished Edward'
'Who is it?'. His eyes widened.
'It's some...'. I was still panting. I drew in a long breath and then said, 'It's some Mr. Frank. Do you know him?'
He mused, going deep into his mind. 'Frank? Nah, I don't know one I suppose'
'Please Father. Try to concentrate. You may know him!'
'How do you know it?'
'I saw a dream'. He scoffed. 'No father, believe me. It was a lively one. I saw Edward. I saw him being possessed. I saw him murdering his family one by one. Mr. Frank; He was the one who tamed and exiled him. Please sir, think. I saw him in a Church's attire. In fact, one of the most formal attires.'
He looked amazed and I could still see disbelieve in his eyes. After all, it was Edward I had been thinking about all the time. A dream about him was not something of a big surprise but the deets were what amazing him.
He tried to think about it harder. He looked down and tried to focus. After a while, his eyes gleamed as he spoke out. 'Father Dominic Frank! Oh my God! He can be the only one who could do that'.
Seeing the curiosity on my face, he continued, 'He was the Head Priest of this Cathedral from 1917 to 1936, that is, until he died. He was the one who had started movements against blasphemy and had encouraged the fellow Catholics to actively take part in it. As of what I have heard, he could practically take over any spirit in an exorcism session. A Master Exorcist is what he was popularly known as'.
I clasped my hands and cried out. This could be him.
'Follow me', he said and turned back towards the Cathedral. After we went in, he led me up to an office upstairs. As we entered, an old man sitting there, an official, looked up to me and then glanced at Father Richard, showing clear disapproval of my presence in there. 'Nothing Gary, it's just a small matter', he told him in my defence.
As we walked further into another room, I witnessed its vast richness of book collections, all biblical I suppose. That was a big library - an old, richly designed, exquisite library. For a moment my heart wished badly if I were a Priest only so that I could spend some reading time out there. Shaking my head, I brushed aside the thoughts.
'What?', Father Richard asked me.
'No, nothing'.
I was still curious about why he brought me up there. It was when he crossed into a row, got into a small room, stopped by a shelf and searching around, pulled out an old, thick book. After dusting it off, he kept it on a nearby table and started going through its pages. I closed in on him and tried to understand what he was trying me to show. It was a record book of the Cathedral. After turning over a good number of pages, he stopped at one and giving out a sigh asked me, 'There he is. Is he the one you dreamt of?'
I peered closely at it. The image was not that clear. The details were readable though. The Reverend Father Dominic Frank... Honorary member of the Catholic Church. I could read it clearly. I held up the book in my hands and tried to focus my vision onto it.
And then there was the impulse. The impulse of triumph, the sense of being right; a chill originating from my spine and flying rapidly up to the back of my brain. My legs seemed stuck to the floor and my lips started trembling.
It was him only I had dreamt of. Father Dominic Frank - the Master Exorcist. I could see him right under my eyes, on the old sheet of paper. I was right. Now there was no reason to run behind. The destination was set. Only the way was to be found out.
My eyes widened and my mouth opened as I realized who it was. Father Richard, being anxious, asked me again, 'Is it him?'
'The fu-'. I shook my head. 'Yes, he is!'
Father Richard moved back a little and sat down on a nearby chair running his palms across his face. I put the book down on the table and looked at him.
'Brilliant!', he said. 'So many years and for the first time I see something like this. So many victims and for the first time one gets this close. Amazing!'
'We must find something about him, Father. Some clue, some evidence... Something which could lead us to the demolition of the evil.' He nodded. 'What can we do?', I asked. He leaned back on the chair and started pondering while I started walking across the room, trying to pull out some idea.
'One thing can be done', he said after some minutes. I moved closer to him.
'What?'. I asked.
'We can search for something written by him, you know, some letter or report, or something. After all, Edward's should be an important case for him. He used to write reports on all his cases. He also must have on him too'.
'Gotcha!', I said as he beckoned me to follow him downstairs.