There seemed to be voices floating up at him from the stream below them. He looked over to see if Stan had been awakened and saw him sound asleep. Then he heard it again. It was his name. Someone was calling to him and then laughing. Micah was frozen in place when suddenly a head began to rise up over the edge of the cliff. It was the creature but larger this time; its eyes sizably larger painting the entire room with their red glow. A scream stuck in Micah’s throat as he saw Domhnall Dubh, the creature of his nightmares. “I have come for you” the creature cried and instantly Micah heard not just one but hundreds of voices calling my name. The creature gripped Micah in his massive hands and holding him up above his head let him drop. Micah’s scream filled his lungs. I was frozen, he was scared… “Micah.” The stream called. “Micah… Micah….Mic… Wil… Will… William…”
“William” I awoke with a jerk as if I had fallen and just hit the floor. My wife was shaking me and yelling my name with a frightened look on her face. “William wake up!” I sat up and again felt the beads of sweat dripping from my forehead. “William are you okay?” she said to me in less of a scream but still filled with panic.
“I’m fine. Just a bad dream” I said in as calm a manner as I could muster even though I knew my entire body was shacking. I looked around the room waiting to see the eyes of the creature, but nothing was out of place. This was my room, my home… my eyes fell on the alarm clock. 3:00 A.M. I should have known.
“That was not just a dream. This nightmare must mean something.” My wife has a knack of not giving in. So finally after 30 minutes I realized that even though I knew sleep was futile again for me that she wouldn’t rest till I told her my dream. So I slowly began to tell her what I could remember from these strange dreams.
After I had finished she looked at me quizzically, “So in the dream you are Micah, but yet you are you at the same time? And this creature seems to be after you… I mean Micah… I guess I mean you?” “That is about it in a nut shell. Some stupid childish nightmare is all it is.” I said trying to down play this as much as possible in order to convince myself as much as calm her down. She didn’t know what to say or even think. I finally coaxed her into sleeping about 4:15 AM.
That night I finally fell asleep about the time I saw the sun coming up. After about an hour or so I awoke to see that my wife had already slipped from the bedroom. As I walked into the kitchen I saw her with her church directory on the table and a phone sitting next to it. “You didn’t?” I yelled at her accusingly. “I just thought that Pastor Ron would know what to do.” She calmly told me. “He says that it sounds like some sort of demonic oppression. The name you said this creature went by sounded really familiar to him as well. He wants to talk to you about it.”
“I will not setting one foot in that church; and your pastor better not even think of coming over here.” I was dead set against this foolishness. I didn’t mind it much when Shelly told me she was going to start taking our son to church; I just thought it would last a short while. Then when she told me she had been reborn or some stupid saying like those church people use to confuse us ‘non-churched’ and make us feel dumb, I was irate. But I let her keep going as it didn’t effect me none. If she wanted to keep a crutch, I’d let her.
“There is no way I am talking to your pastor.” I said again to rub it in. After an hour of lecturing etc... I was about ready to do anything I could to get her to shut up. “Fine! Call a priest, but I refuse to let your pastor in here.” I grabbed a phone book and found quickly a church that was near our house. I handed it to my wife and made her call. The secretary who answered told my wife in a ‘boy aren’t you stupid’ tone that local priests didn’t do exorcisms but that they had a traveling priest who did them for a small donation to the church. Just another get rich scheme by the church if you ask me, but she made the appointment for later that night as this priest just happened to be within 50 miles that day.
The priest arrived at the house that night about 7:00. We had sent our son to spend the night at a friend’s house. “Do you have your donation to the church for me” were the first words out of his mouth. “Wonderful.” He said as we handed him the check. “Now do you have a bathroom I can use before we begin?” I wanted to say something smart but held my tongue under the very piercing glance from my wife. “Down the hall, 2nd door on the left.”
The priest went down the hall and closed the door. When he returned he smiled a yellow stained grin that made me sick. Let us begin. After 2 hours of chanting in Latin and spreading water all over the furniture and in each room on the doors etc… he turned to us and said “Well, that ought to do it.” “That’s it?” I protested. “I thought the roof would begin to breathe up and down and that this dark creature would inhabit my wife making her talk like Macy Grey, gravely and hoarse. What a jip.”
With that my wife slugged me in the back of the head. “Thank you father for all of your help,” She said and took him to the door.
“You know you can be such a jerk sometimes.” Was all she said as she slammed the door to our bedroom and left me in the living room. I went to knock on the door and was greeted by a pillow a blanket and another slam. I could tell that the couch was my domain that night.
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All items contained in this story are the property of the Author and can not be copied in any form without written permission. Copyright May 2008 by Curtis Cecil
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