Exorcize This by Julie Steimle (sad books to read .txt) 📖

saying ‘Get out.’

I replied, trying to ignore the voice and heavy presence. “Garlic. But that’s an anti-parasitic. Sunlight—though all natural light is abhorrent to vampires. They don’t mind electric light for some reason. And of course a wooden stake through its heart.”

“Then what can drive them away?” Deidre asked.

I shrugged. “Someone who actually listens to God and not just believes in Him?”

The house moaned louder now. Both of us could hear it breathe, “Get Out!”

“You get out!” I snapped back, trying not to shake. My palms were sweating. Hardly anything scared me, but this did. “This house belongs to the Bales, and you are a squatter.”

A painting rattled and fell off the wall. A chair that was sitting upright tipped over. The cup in Deidre’s hand got ripped out and thrown against the wall by an invisible hand.

She screamed.

The air got freezing around her.

“This is not a ghost,” I whispered. “It’s frightening the ghosts.”

Looking to me with wide eyes, Deidre breathed back, “What do you mean?”

“The ghosts are protecting you,” I said, looking to her.

Shaking, her eyes raked over the ghosts who had stayed. I could not see them, but I could hear the itch of their whispers. They were calling for me to help her.

This presence wasn’t a ghost. It was an evil spirit.

And it attacked me.

For a moment my vision went dark. It pressed against me, trying to push inside me, desperate to have a body. Any body. And my body was powerful. I could feel its malevolence as it tried to possess me, to take me over if it could. I could feel it lift me off the ground, shaking me when my own spirit fought back.

Deidre screamed in terror as I struggled against this unseen force who then tried to choke me as I was not giving in. This was my body. This was my life. And though I was born a demon, I was determined to live like angel. And I begged God for help.

It dropped me, shrieking.

I hit the floor hard, no time for my wings to come out.

Deidre ran up to me. “Are you ok?”

I nodded, getting up. I could feel one of my wounds had opened up again. The evil presence was above us, and I could see it now.

It looked like a man, and yet not. It had no solid form. It was mostly darkness trying to take shape.

That second, we heard a knock at the door.

“Go away!” it shouted, its voice not quite there but in the ear nonetheless.

I hopped to my feet. Deidre scrambled up with me as I rushed to the front door to open it. “Who is it?”

I could sense a heavy presence on the other side of the door akin to a death angel. Its imposing presence was much stronger than this evil force that lingered in the room like a squatting tarantula on the roof.

“Hi! I’m Elder Condie and this is my companion Elder Stephenson. We’re missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we would like to share with you a message today.”

I blinked at the door. Was this for real?

Deidre paled, as if thinking “If it’s not one thing, then it is another.”

Smirking, with a glance to the evil presence, I pulled open the door. “Come on in.”

Sure enough, the two missionaries with back packs, white shirts, and name tags stood on the stoop, grinning at us—and behind them was a huge shining angel with a sword. Their eyes fixed on me (including the angel’s), and they grinned.

“Eve McAllister! I didn’t know you lived here,” one of them said, stepping aside as if instinctively giving space for the angel who immediately walked between them with his sword and charged down the evil spirit. It swept up after it driving it away as the dark spirit wept, wailed and as far as I knew, gnashed its teeth as it fled that building. The house automatically felt lighter. The walls looked immensely cleaner.

“I don’t live here,” I replied, stepping aside, gesturing to Deidre who was staring after the angel who now stood on guard near the couch, his sword in his hands. It had no wings. “This is my friend’s house. Deidre. She’s new to this town.”

“Are any of your parents home?” the missionaries asked, peeking around the door.

Of course, mission rules. Young ‘elders’ were not allowed to hang out with the young ladies. I smirked at them, shaking my head. They were a breath of fresh air.

Deidre was trembling, her eyes looking to me, to the elders, and to the angel in her living room. She looked again to the elders, realizing that they could not see the angel. So she asked, “Do you believe in angels?”

The blinked at her, staring.

“Why, yes,” one of them said. “We even believe in all kinds angels. We even believe that angels will protect us while on the Lord’s errand. It is a promise given to missionaries. Angels will be your right hand and on your left hand…”

“But anyone can be an angel,” the other one said, winking at me. “Did you know the word angel really means messenger?”

I didn’t know that.

“Can we leave a small message with you and schedule another time to come by for a visit?” the first elder asked. “When your parents are here?”

Deidre looked pale, still shaking, though she smiled at them. “Uh… I don’t know if my father would approve.”

“Can we leave with a prayer then?” the other suddenly asked, peeking into the house. It was like he knew what had just been there, what the angel had driven out. “Elder Condie, would you lead it?”

The missionary from Idaho nodded then looked to me, folding his arms and bowing his head. I copied him as his companion nodded to Deidre who glanced around awkwardly at the angel in the living room. She put her hands together, though she did not look natural doing it. I got the feeling that Deidre did not pray much.

Elder Condie prayed with simple words. He asked that the house be blessed so that it could be filled with the Holy Spirit, and he asked also for the family to be blessed with peace and hope and protection. He thanked God that they got to meet with me again and meet Deidre, whom they called a new friend. They expressed hope that in the future that either of us would be ready and willing to listen to their discussions… but mostly I noticed how he prayed for our safety as we parted ways. He finished the prayer with a funny remark though—

“Though we do not know all things, Father, we do know that thou hast a plan for our happiness. And thou art watching over us. We are grateful.” And he closed his prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, which startled Deidre whose imps were still telling her that ‘Mormons’ were a cult.

“Amen,” he said.

“Amen,” his mission companion chimed in.

Lifting my head to meet their eyes, I said, “Amen.”

They grinned at me.

Man, I was glad they did not know I was a demon.

Deidre had tears in her eyes. She looked into the house, but the angel was gone.

I peered in also.

The room itself felt cleaner. The air, it was lighter, and the evil presence was gone. I leaned near Deidre and asked, “Was that a death angel?”

She shook her head. “Guardian.”

The elders stared at her. I could see shivers go through them also, but they were not creepy chills. They were the kind of chills that made you go ‘WOW’.

We had a silent moment. Then we all decided to go outside.

Deidre and I walked with the elders to their next stop, which happened to be the Pickles’ house. They knocked on the door, and Deidre and I stepped back.

Mrs. Pickles opened the door.

She nearly moaned when she saw the missionaries, but when she set her eyes on me, she rushed out. “Eve! McAllister!”

I halted, looking back as I had intended to head home from there with Deidre.

Rushing up to me, Mrs. Pickles said near a whisper, “Thank you. I realize you have been watching out for my daughter for a while. Melissa told me how you have been, uh, sitting next to her in class on purpose and it has kept her for trying to kill herself before. So really, thank you.”

Deidre stood there, watching me. So did the elders, walking back to the curb. Mrs. Pickles eyed them with some pain. Her own imps told her to shout at them, but she was restraining herself.

Then she hugged me.

Seriously. In all my life, no one but family and Jane ever hugged me—excusing my friends in the Seven, of course.

She shot the elders another look before rushing back into her house and shutting the door.

“Eve,” Elder Condie said to me, “You have been one busy bee.”

I laughed.

Then a notion came into my head. My mother would approve, Dawn might have a fit, but I was not sure what my father would say. Yet I decided to follow the impulse as I said, “Do you guys want to come over to my house for dinner tonight?”

The two missionaries blinked at me.

“My mom won’t mind,” I added. “And we’ll all be there.”

They grinned at me, exchanging looks.

Dinner with the Guests

Deidre walked home with me as the missionaries went on their way to continue knocking doors. She begged to stay over this time, even if meant enduring a dinner with two ‘Mormon’ missionaries who would most likely preach at us. I had a feeling she did not want to go back to that house.

The funny thing was, after that prayer with those missionaries, I doubted that the evil spirit could return. The Ouija board may have invited it in, but it had been banished. I could feel it. The angel had driven it away, but that prayer of faith was what truly kept it away. And it amazed me.

When we got home, I announced to my mother that I had invited the missionaries and a friend over for dinner. Then I asked if it was ok. She stared up from the potato casserole she was making, blinked at me. Then she shrugged. “Sure. No problem.” She then smiled at Deidre. “We are always happy to have new friends.”

Deidre then texted her father to let him know she was sleeping over at a friend’s house. I had a feeling she did not tell him where.

But when Dawn got home from dance class, she looked likely to scream. Yet the moment she stepped in the door, her eyes rested on me with Deidre at the computer where we were watching funny videos about kids throwing temper tantrums in stores, waiting for an email from Rick. I had told Deidre all about Rick, who was fascinated that werewolves existed and more that they actually ran multi-national, billion-dollar businesses and had set up secret schools for the haunted and unwanted in New York City. Not that all of them did, but the message got tangled up somewhere, and it took me a bit to explain that just Rick and his father did that sort of thing. I could not account for all werewolves.

Dawn huffed when she saw us, “You have got to be kidding me.”

I waved her