Fidem Ferocia
"...Before you slip into unconsciousness, I'd like to have another kiss, another flashing chance at bliss...""I'd be scared too if I were you... I'm mean, the last thing you want is for your friends to find out that you're not who you made yourself out to be, right?" It was unnerving for Reynold to sit there and hear
the deep voice of a grown man come from the body of a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl named 'Anh,' who didn't speak any English.
"Shut up," Reynold said. "I rebuke you, you're a coward hiding behind a child!"
"Indeed," Anh chuckled as she leaned forward and whispered. "Have you told your friends that you have no clue as to what you're doing? I mean, have you even admitted that to yourself yet?
Reynold ignored Ahn as he nervously turned the pages of his pocket bible, looking for the chapter regarding exorcisms. He could have sworn he marked the page just a minute ago, and now it was lost.
"I know that you're more afraid of looking like a complete loser than you are of this possessed little girl," Ahn shook her head in disappointment while inching closer and adjusting herself so that she could sit face to face with Reynold.
~
In his mind, he recalled the moment when he first received the call regarding the demonic possession of this little girl who had just immigrated with her parents to Honolulu from Vietnam. They were temporarily staying in a transient hotel on River street until they could contact some family members who lived just on the outskirts of Punchbowl. No one knows how or why, but a month after they'd been living in the downtown area, the little girl fell ill and suddenly began acting strangely. Her parents would find her smoking a rope cigar while holding a shot glass of scotch, where and how she acquired these things was another mystery. The incident, which became the motivation to call for help, was when little Ahn began to speak perfect English in the voice of a grown adult man. Several monks and priests were called, but nothing worked, whatever it was that took hold of the girl's body and possessed it, was not letting go. One could not help but feel that it was waiting for something or someone.
When Reynold received the call, it was exhilarating and exciting, and he saw it as an opportunity to prove to his detractors that he indeed had the skills to handle an exorcism. After taking down the address of the place, Reynold was able to punch it up on Google maps. "Very simple and easy to get there," so he thought. It turned out that when he and his group arrived, there was no parking to be found anywhere, and so they finally had to settle for parking at Lowe's and having to walk back to River street carrying all of their investigative equipment with them. Members of the group mentioned that it was a bit of overkill to bring all of the cameras, recorders, and heat meters for an exorcism. "We need proof!" Reynold growled back. "After this, no one will talk shit ever again!"
The family lived at the end of River Street just below the harbor village apartments. It was the middle of the day. Still, the atmosphere was strange, the homeless were verbally aggressive, and even the landlord who knew very well what was going on presented an arrogant attitude to Reynold and his group. "You sure you folks know what you doing?"
"Just show us the place, okay? We had to walk all the way from Lowe's, and I'm in no mood to have to prove anything to you," Reynold was utterly offended at the landlord's questioning of his skills. However, what the landlord actually asked was if Reynold and his group knew where they were going.
There was an irritation festering within the confines of Reynold's being, everything set him off, and everyone around him who should have known better continued to ask him stupid questions. "Where's the plug? Where do we set up lights and cameras? Where's the fuse box?" Didn't anyone of them know how to do their damned job? Right now, as much as it irritated him to do so, it was essential to talk to the landlord, who was the only one who could speak English.
He ushered them down a hallway where they could hear the screams of a child at the very end.
"That's the girl Ahn when she's not possessed, she screams; that's all she does every day," the landlord became clearly agitated the closer they got to the unit.
"I kinda figured that out," Reynold was exhausted and had no patience for a conversation. "Can you go on ahead and have whoever is in there just exit the apartment so that we can get to work, and no one gets in our way, please?"
The landlord hurried ahead and stood just outside the unit and was waving someone out. An older couple emerged, obviously Ahn's parents. They were clearly distressed and exhausted. They rattled off something in Vietnamese as they passed Reynold, but he ignored them. The landlord gave the couple a key to his apartment and urged them to remain there until everything was over. He was back in a short time, where he saw that Reynold's team was already set up. Reynold himself was now standing in front of the sizeable fold-out couch where the little girl lay fast asleep. "The screaming stopped the second we walked in,"
"That's strange," the landlord's voice was shaky and nervous. "She only stops screaming when the demon comes out."
In a few minutes, the team had everything set up, and they were ready to go, the meters were on, the recorders set to record, the videos and cameras were at the ready. Reynold stood at the foot of the fold-out couch and removed his pocket bible and took a second to turn to his team and give them the thumbs up. Turning his attention back to the sleeping girl, he found himself unprepared when he saw that she was already sitting up on the fold-out couch. She looked at him intently as if she were studying him. Holding the small Bible with the crucifix on the cover facing out toward Ahn, he began to pray aloud.
"The power of Christ compels you oh unclean spirit to leave the body of this innocent child and cast yourself back to the depths of Hades! You cannot reside in a vessel that is pure and filled with light, you leave and return no more! Out unclean spirit! Cast yourself back from whence you came! The power of Christ compels you to do so!"
"Um, you're missing a few things," came the deep voice from the little girl.
Reynold's eyes opened, and he was furious. Who was stupid enough to question him at such a crucial moment as this? "Who just fucking said that?!" Reynold growled in the direction of his team, and they all pointed behind him and over his shoulder. Reynold turned to see Ahn, who repeated herself again in a deep sonorous voice. "You're missing a few things, my friend." This was something he was not prepared for, he stumbled and fell backward and simultaneously screamed out something incoherent.
"I'm trying to help you, Reynold." Ahn's voice was saccharine sweet and condescending at the same time.
It was too tangible for him, too real. The full scope of what was happening was too overwhelming, and he fumbled with his Bible from page to page. "I'd be scared too if I were you... I'm mean, the last thing you want is for your friends to find out that you're not who you made yourself out to be, right?" It was unnerving for Reynold to sit there and hear the deep voice of a grown male adult come from the body of a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl named 'Anh,' who didn't speak any English.
"Shut up," Reynold said. "I rebuke you, you're a coward hiding behind a child!"
"Indeed," Anh chuckled as she strained to lean forward and whisper. "Have you told your friends that you have no clue as to what you're doing? I mean, have you even admitted that to yourself yet? I know that you're more afraid of looking like a complete loser than you are of this possessed little girl," Ahn shook her head in disappointment while inching closer and adjusting herself so that she could sit face to face with Reynold.
"Shut up, I said!" Reynold hissed back, and a look of hopelessness came over him. He could not find the exorcism ritual anywhere. Now, he tried to pull the ceremony from his own memory, but he was already failing; however, he couldn't let on to his cohorts that he was utterly lost.
"Oh Saint Michael, I invoke these blessings in your name and ask for your help in removing this unholy spirit!" Reynold held the Bible above his head and raised his voice.
"Reynold," the deep voice from Ahn whispered in a low tone. "Let me help you.… non-ultra audeas, serpens callidissime deciphere humanum genus...dei ecclesiam persequi ac dei electos excutere et cribrare Sicut Triticum..."
"I rebuke you vile spirit, your tongues do not tempt me!" Reynold shouted.
"A loud voice is simply a veil for weak faith," Ahn smiled and leaned even closer to the makeshift exorcist paranormal investigator. "That was the Latin that you would have to know to perform a real exorcism.…I can teach it to you if you want to learn? Right now, nothing you do or say will release me from this little girl. You have no vestment, no sacraments of blessed salt, oil, or water.….you're not even a priest. Aaaand..... you've shown up to a fight.…...without knowing how to fight. You're the victim here, not this little girl."
Reynold said nothing but simply gazed into the eyes of the possessed girl. "This group of yours," Ahn nodded to the people standing just off behind Reynold, "you've managed to assemble a menagerie of fuck-ups. Marriage issues, insecurities, empty spirituality, self-hatred and on and on.…truly a collection of the best of the best of the worst. Really, what are they good for? They're always on your last nerve, you have to repeat yourself with these guys over a million times before they finally decide to listen. All they do is complain, they don't get you, Reynold, they don't......but I do. I get you, I know who you are inside. I can help you, I can teach you everything you need to know about being an exorcist, and you'll be the best! People will go out of their way to find you, and the money? Ooooh, let's not even talk about the money!" Ahn waved her hand and shook her head. "It will be evil the money you'll have."
"And all it takes is my soul, right?" Reynold wasn't falling for it.
"No, no, I don't deal like that, I don't want your soul," Ahn shook her head and looked back at Reynold and smiled. "You do your invocation, and I'll leave this body, you'll be the face, you'll get a million hits and then maybe even your own reality show. Me? I'll possess someone now and again, you show up and save the day."
"I still don't get it," Reynold's mind was swimming, there was something brewing inside of him that hinged on what the demon was saying.
"You let me hang around the group.……of course I'll hang back, so nobody knows I'm around.. and maybe.…. I get a taste every now again." Ahn pointed her finger into Reynold's chest.
"A taste?" Reynold couldn't help but feel that that expression didn't have the right meaning to it.
"Yeah, you know? A little bit of the human essence, bit by bit so that nobody suspects, real picayune stuff." The entire time that Ahn spoke to Reynold, her eyes never once left him, her eyes never blinked. She could see that he was still turning it around in his mind, she needed to nudge him just a little before she sent him over the edge. "C' moooon... you'll be the best thing to happen since MySpace, and you'll get results every time! It won't be like these other reality shows where everything's set up because you have twenty hours of footage with nothing on it.….right?"
"Just a taste?" Reynold confirmed with a small measure of wide-eyed curiosity.
Holding the tip of her thumb and forefinger close together, Ahn replied, "Just a little."
….………
Today
Six 'o clock news report
The paranormal team that was once known as, '808 Spirits' led by former frontman Reynold Lyman, gained their notoriety and fame ten years ago when an exorcism that Reynold himself was conducting went tragically wrong. With all of their equipment running, the team was able to record the moment when a demon that possessed nine-year-old, Ahn Nguyen, left her body and took possession of Reynold Lyman. Today, at nineteen, Ahn Nguyen has no recollection of the events that transpired all those years ago. Welman Ganesh, who has since taken over the team, was asked how he felt about the new team's fortune being built from the foundation of such a tragic incident? Welman would only say that the group itself was like a lotus flower rising from the muck of adversity and that Reynold's possession provided the team with the means to blossom The organization today is known, "808PTSD."
As for Reynold Lyman, a part Hawaiian man raised in Kahalu'u who only had an AA degree in English under his belt, he is now a maintenance engineer for the state. We have not been successful in making any contact with him. Still, according to his family, he is living a quiet life in private and is no longer a participant in any paranormal circles. However, they did notice that he'd developed a strange addiction to smoking rope cigars and drinking scotch nearly every day.
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