BLACK HOST (PART 1)

Image: Shadow of a Barcelona Priest by Aza Raskin (Flickr.com)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

"Its occult time! This story has been inspired by a certain kind of mass called Mass of Sant-Secaire allegedly held during the time when trials and devil possession are imminent in western countries. I think I've read it from a pocket encyclopedia about ghosts and witches. The materials that you will found here for Quija Board seance are taken/ inspired from Mr. Tobie Abad's awesome graphic novel called "Diliman". Just a word of warning though, this is just fiction, and reader's discretion is advised because you might found some contents in the story too mature for your taste." 

The smell of incense and herbs mingle in the air inside the room of Salome as Eddie sits uncomfortably on the floor. He can still feel the heavy glare of the old woman as if she was casting an evil eye on him.

He could do the sign of the horn to ward it off but he prefers to do a sign of the cross; it's been 20 years since he turns his back away from all the things that belong to the occult.

Now he dedicates his time and strength in prayers and menial labors as a priest. He wanted to spend all that is left in his existence with such kind of lifestyle that gave him a peace that quiet down all the demons of his past.

But his placid present reverts back to chaotic past that is all too familiar and contemptible to Eddie when nightmares came flooding the alleyways of his mind whether he is fast asleep or awake.

“So can you tell what does a man of God is doing in the house of a witch?” Salome’s face is lit by a mere fraction of light from the three white candles place in a triangle formation on the floor. The shadowplay of light and darkness makes her countenance ghastly that even Eddie can’t look at it directly.

“I…need help.”

“Something that your faith can’t do?”

Eddie grit his teeth and try his best to not lash back even though this woman in front of him openly mock his faith without any remorse. Perhaps the grudge of million women who are burned to death by the church are inherited by witches and Wiccan of today; the same old wrath that Eddie must learn to understand if he wanted to have Salome’s help.

“This not about my faith but the demons that haunt me day and night.”

“And your exorcist can do anything about that?” The jeering voice of Salome is slowly getting on Eddie’s nerve but he continues to explain a holy man like him seek the aid of those deemed by the majority as playing with the devil himself.

“Alejandro. That’s the name of the demon that terrorizes me. A man from my past that wanted to return in my life.” Eddie confessed while painfully remembering the days when Alejandro introduce to him all the things that reek of rebellion during his formative years from the glamour of Jim Morrison’s “live fast and die young” attitude to the esoteric and erotic mumbo jumbo of Aleister Crowley.

It should be fun until they pull off something that made John Constantine pissed his pants; disguising themselves as stage magicians in a children’s party and summon something out of thin air as part of their performance.

The truth is they wanted to conjure just a measly imp to give the kids a little scare just for the fun of it. But what they called from their fiery pit is something beyond their wildest imagination; a true avatar of fear and carnage that tear apart every child right in front of them while dragging their innocent souls to the belly of Satan himself.

What conspires that day ended whatever connection Alejandro and Eddie have. While Alejandro disappears and never seen in their town, Eddie was left with his sanity crumbling and his conscience bleeding. It will take years of countless therapy, medications, and locking himself in an asylum to finally recover himself and another year before he heard the news that Alejandro passed away.

The bastard got himself so high with psychedelics that he mistook a bottle of bleach for an elixir of immortality.

And now  Alejandro returns once more to his life that he struggled to rebuild after it was smashed to pieces. But his friend is not in flesh anymore; Alejandro returned as a phantom that keeps on appearing to Eddie both in dreams and in his waking life; uttering gibberish empty of human meaning.

But what makes Eddie seek the help of an occult practitioner is not only the hollowed eye wraith of Alejandro but also the urgency of his creaking voice that torment him the more the day passes by without him understanding what he is saying.

“I see. You wanted to have a phone call with someone from the other side. Be thankful that your story piques my interest.” Salome gives a wry smile as she places a clear shot glass upside down atop of the Quija board in front of her and Eddie.

“We need one more participant. We can’t break the rule of three.” Eddie noticed as he recalls one of the basics of seance using the Quija playing board. There must be white three candles for protection to the wary evil spirits and three participants to call on the spirits from the other the nether.

Eddie knows too that even with all those precautions, the risk is still astronomical if they made a mistake. If Eddie didn’t respond to the call, chances are some earthbound or worst an elemental might take their body for a spin.

“Don’t worry, my Egrigore will fill in for the third man.”

“A thoughtform of yours?” Eddie’s eyes widen upon hearing from Salome that a being made from the witch's own thought that gains its owns will join them. It made him uneasy but as he felt unseen hands touch his own hands with a grip so cold yet so firm, he knows that he has no other options left but to have a leap of faith.

“Alright, now give me any object attached to Alejandro.”

Eddie handed Salmome a polaroid picture of Alejandro half-naked and exposing his well-built body and a tattoo of the Thelema motto “Do What You Will”. There is a scribble on its back that as she read, Eddie can’t help but feel his cheeks flushing and his heartburn with feverish heat with its every single bit.

“Here’s to more lovemaking under the sign of Venus…” Salome didn’t even look surprised that there is a deeper line that connects Eddie and Alejandro before; something that goes beyond brotherhood and more akin to two souls that found solace not just in magic but with each other on top of a bed.

“Come on witch, I know you’ve been itching to call me a Bible preaching faggot isn’t it?” Eddie hissed but to his surprise, Salome for the first time just give a warm, knowing smile without any trace of mockery.

“Relax…at least now I can understand you more. That will help us in connecting with your friend. Now, shall we begin?”

As Salome recited a prayer for protection and invoking the names of the seven archangels to guard for possible demonic assault, Eddie, Salome, and her Egrigore place their left hands at the shot glass. For a minute nothing happened in the Quija board and the room was deafened by the silence.

Salome keeps on calling the name of Alejandro over and over again but it seems he is not responding at all. Perhaps he didn’t even want to or he is just too busy with his affairs to the other side.

“It’s getting pointless…”Eddie mumbles after the seventh time they waited for the glass the move.

“Wait…I am sensing someone! Don’t break the circle yet!” Salome gave Eddie once more a menacing glare as she starts to recite another prayer.

At once a chilling wind filled the four corners of the room. Darkness around the corner seems to shift their shapes and position and the candle fire quiver even without the presence of air.

Then came a familiar scent that Eddie notices first; the perfume that Alejandro loves to wear when he was still alive.

“I-its moving Madame..” From the empty space beside Eddie, a male voice suddenly sprang from the Egregore as their hands were guided by an intangible force towards the letter ‘E’. A series of letters followed after that results in a whole sentence.

“Eddie, its Alejandro. Get a pen and paper.” 

“What? What for? What do are you trying to say to me? Can you just stop pestering me now?” Bitterness, anger, and fear overflow from the lips of Eddie as he screams to Alejandro to leave him alone with his own life.

Alejandro’s response left Eddie’s mouth wide open with shock. He didn’t even get it at first but it becomes clearer as he repeats the message through and through.

“I will save you from your enemy. From your death.”

“I am on it, Alejandro.”At Salome’s command, a pen and notepad starts to float beside Eddie as her other Egregore hold it with its unseen hands and ready itself to transcribe the message coming from the playing board

“I can feel that Alejandro speaks the truth…I know you two have a bloody history but there is nothing left to gain for a dead one to lie.” Salome grasped firmly the hands of Eddie that finally stir the stunned priest.

“Now, say what you want to say, Alejandro. Our ears and pen are ready.”

It was a long, painstaking seance that drains a lot from the three participants. They need to be patient as Alejandro spell out every word that will be jotted down by Salome’ Egregore. After an hour, they all both know that time suddenly becomes the enemy for the white candles are already on its last stand before its wick finally submerged in the white, disfigured wax; they can’t continue the seance once the candles run out.

Another problem was the Egregore that serves as the third participant. Due to its nature as only a thoughtform, his energy dwindles little by little with every passing minute. If suddenly it disintegrates, chances are that some spirit will interrupt Alejandro’s message. The worst scenario that they might encounter is a demon might found its way either to Eddie or Salome’s body.

Yet before those happen, Alejandro managed to relay all its message towards Eddie that consume almost half of the notepad of the Egregore.

“You know what to do Eddie…” That was the last message of Alejandro before he left that three. Eddie still can’t believe Alejandro’s persistent haunting has no relation to his hellish past but rather a helping hand from the realm of the dead for his own sake.

“What the hell is this?!” No matter how hard Salome looks on the writings on the notepad, not any single words make sense to her as the language used by Alejandro is either non-existent or exclusive only for dead like himself.

She flips the page until very last and found nothing but riddling words and phrases save from the last entry of the message wherein the name of someone was written coherently: Fatima Mcgillis.

When Eddie take his turn in reading the message from the notepad, he gripped tightly his rosary as he found himself shaking while he reads the first page.

“Do you understand it?” Salome asked.

“Yes…and I wish I could not.” Eddie replied while his eyes are still glued to all the words that Alejandro wanted to say to him. His countenance is mired with a worried sick look.

“So what does Alejandro want?”

“He wants me to kill someone…by serving a mass.”  Eddie felt once more the familiar tug of darkness that once he allowed dictating his life. He can already feel its leash slowly wrapping around his neck; covering his clerical collar.