Dave had crashed on the couch and was asleep while Rey lay on the bed. He wasn't sleeping though. He couldn't. The events were keeping him on the edge of his nerves. He wondered how much more he could take before his mind would finally snap. He knew his limits, and they were quite wide and large. He tried to find the reason why he was still sane and the only answer he could find was one word "Love".

'Love you said my angel?' the voice echoed in his mind startling him, but still Rey didn't move one muscle. He didn't even flinch to the sound of the foulness and the evil waking inside him. He thought it had gone away, but he was wrong. IT was still in him, hibernating, growing, spreading fast now…

Consuming…

Eating away his soul…

'Love' he replied stubbornly.

'Love is not the reason at all. Besides, are you sure you are still sane?'

Rey clenched his jaw tight refusing to believe what he was hearing. Still, he didn't move, instead he took the sheets in his fist and squeezed them, struggling them.

'Love' he repeated.

'No… the only thing that kept you sane is not love… it's pain…'

'No' he spoke and his voice seemed to fade

'Yes'

'No'

'YES… pure, filthy, unemotional, cold, bone-chilling, teeth-aching, flesh-eating, blurring, obscene, evil…'

'n…no'

'PAIN' the voice finished, a tone of conquer and victory painted all over its words. Its power was too overwhelming.

A single tear ran down Rey's cheek.

And this was the end.

The frightening breath was heard inside the room, blowing around the lying form of Rey.

'And I will prove it to you... my angel. Once and for all! This is where it all comes to. To the beginning; as it always has… and as it always will… You are what I have been looking for…'

One last time Rey let his tear slip on his cheek. He might have started to cry, he wasn't sure anymore. He opened his eyes wide and stared at the empty wall across the room.

'Adam… please forgive me' was his last thought.

Pain passed into his body, traveling fast, polluting every molecule of his body, eating, decaying every part of his soul. He wanted to pray, beg to God for help and forgiveness but this thought came too late… his lungs were out of air and he gripped the bed sheets tightly. He opened his mouth for help, but no sound, absolutely nothing came out. Whatever this thing was, it was in him, waking up, crawling like a spider, slithering like a snake, laughing at him, wanting him, lusting for him, for his soul, his heart.

And he was there, on the bed, helpless, alone, doomed. He closed his eyes and prayed again to God for forgiveness.

Then it was over. Rey opened his eyes. Slowly, gracefully, he got up from the bed and came close to the couch. Dave was still sleeping, unaware of everything. Rey kneeled on the floor next to Dave's face and coldly stared at the serenity of the resting man. His hand caressed Dave's hair. This wasn't enough to wake him up though. Next to him on a small tray were the remains of his breakfast, a plate, an empty cup of coffee and a knife.

A knife.

Rey smiled like he had never done before. His face wore a mischievous, evil mask. His eyes glowed dark red in the shadows.

Then Rey opened his eyes and turning his gaze back looked at Dave from above his shoulder. His mouth formed a wicked smile, and for a moment his eyes shone blood red. When he spoke again, his voice was not his own. The sound seemed to come straight from the bowels of the earth, a high iron voice causing sickness, casting a spell.

"Ssalmani-ia iti pagri tushni-illa duppira;

Ssalmani ini ishdi pagri tushni-illa duppira;

Ssalmani-ia ana qulqullati tapqida duppira"

The foulness of the words woke Dave up sharply. He watched Rey looming above him, knife in his hand, a threatening look of paranoia in his eyes. But the words were too strong for him. Dave felt his heart give out, his body unwilling to obey his desire to stand up and grab the knife from the Mexican's hands. Strangely hate was the only sensation inside… and those eyes…

'My God, those blood eyes'

that never failed to let go of his gaze. He saw his own hand reaching out taking the knife which Rey was willingly offering him. He stood up, his massive form intimidating hovering above the much shorter Rey. He gripped the knife tighter. Dave's stomach churned when he heard Rey laugh tilting his head backwards. His cold laughter that made the hair on Dave's neck stand up. Rey's breathing was coming out short and strained but the evil smile never escaped his lips. Dave was going to hurt him and there was nothing he could do to stop.

Almost in trance, he lifted up the knife and let it shine before Rey's face, reflecting rays of light on his cold face. Dave had no idea why he was doing it, he wanted to stop but his body didn't obey his will. His body didn't back down, not even when he pointed to knife straight for Rey. For one moment Dave hesitated, but soon he heard the black speech one more time.

"GIBIL GASHRU UMUNA YANDURU

TUSHTE YESH SHIR ILLANI U MA YALKI!

GISHBAR IA ZI IA

IA ZI DINGIR GIRRA KANPA!"

And it was as if the room had become darker, bathed in blackness. Those words of evil that Dave couldn't understand, but somehow knew what they spoke, this ancient language in its pure and unaltered form, unuttered for hundreds of years, they pushed his hand forth and the knife connected with flesh. The slashes formed slowly, painfully, deep cuts that bled rivers and yet Rey did not recoil or show any signs of acknowledgement.

Rey's eyes only shone brighter and brighter with each new cut and his smile grew wider and more obscure.

Little did Batista know that deep inside, Rey was crying in pain, but the evil one just wouldn't let him free. Deep inside he was begging for mercy, begging for the end to come. He couldn't take anymore all this pain and suffering. Fear, guilt and pain filled what was left of his heart, for in this hour of shadows, the only person he could think of was Adam and how he had failed him.

Blood ran freely down his chest… all this blood! It made Dave think of rivers in unknown places far away, in distant lands, in distant worlds. Then suddenly an urge came upon him, the will to taste this blood, this red thick liquid. He brought his arms and gently took Rey from the shoulders and tenderly brought his lips to the small Mexican's bare chest. Despite the feeling of emergency, the feelings of wrongness, perverseness, wickedness and sin, he couldn't deny to his soul how much he savored having the blood ran down his throat, how he enjoyed Rey's trembling body under his grip. And when he heard Rey gaps from the pleasure, he understood that he enjoyed it as much as him. The blood left an iron taste in his mouth, and yet it was sweeter that wine, sweeter than anything he had tasted in his life.

And he drank like a vampire in bloodlust. The blood made him dream again of distant lands, and distant worlds, places cloaked in shadows; it brought him feelings of power, greatness, death and glory.

Then this great feeling left as swiftly as it had came leaving Dave ashamed and covered in blood. He lifted his eyes and looked at Rey. His malevolent and sinful smile had never escaped his lips.

Rey wished for death; for salvation.

'Not yet, my angel…not yet' the voice spoke.

He could see that Dave had been under a spell; he hadn't been himself; the real Batista would never do such a thing, not to Rey. Deep inside, Rey began to understand that the passing to the second level was very near. He could already feel his body giving up and his senses abandon him. For whatever reason, this evil spirit possessing his body was the only thing keeping him alert.

Dave couldn't know. He had lost all contact with reason and reality and now the path back to reality was hard. He just couldn't grasp what he had done and why? What had made him do such an atrocity? He knew he was causing Rey pain, the traces of blood streaming from his chest were proof enough, but somehow recoiling seemed the hardest thing to do.

Then the final blow came. Again the iron voice reverberated inside the room.

"Itti kunu alsi mushitum kallatum kattumtum"

Dave took a step back, fear spreading in his eyes and heart like a wildfire, his ears pulsing, hearing his own blood running through his veins as he watched Rey's eyes shine as red as his blood.

When it was over, the voice spoke again to Rey, and to him alone.

'You see? I knew you would… You can't deny how much pleasure this pain brought to you and to him… You can't… Now…It's time.'

Dave hadn't yet fully recovered. He was still suffering the last effects of the spell when he saw Rey's body stiffen and then stretch bizarrely. He opened his mouth but his voice came out hoarse, his neck dry.

"Oscar…"

But before he could finish the question, Rey let out a hellish scream; not a scream of pleasure, but of suffering. Startled Dave took another step back and cornered himself at the wall.

Rey clutched the rim of the couch, his back arched back while his voice tore the silence of the room in agony. The second time he screamed, Dave jumped.

'What is happening?' He was surprised to finally find reason return to him. Then Rey yelled, his face distorted in some pure mask of pain, and this time it was his own voice, not the eerie one from before.

"Nooooooo"

Dave wanted to help but what followed would haunt him for the rest of his life. Rey's back arched further backwards as a whiplash appeared out of thin air across his spine. And again… and again. Time after time, like an invisible hand had grabbed a whip and was unleashing its fury upon Rey's back. Dave barely noticed the lights in the room flicker on and off and then the bulbs shatter, or the windows creaking and then smashing inwards. He just stood there unwilling to believe what had happened and worst, what was happening before his eyes. He was frozen, half naked looking as Rey kept receiving whiplashes.

He didn't count how many there were. With the last bit of reason he gathered, he picked up his clothes and rushed out of the room, running away from the nightmare behind.

Note to the readers:

--the incantations used in this story are real and taken from the Necronomicon, the book of the laws of the dead as well from the Catholic Church's Rite of Exorcism. For those of you interested, the translations of the spells are available along with the full text. Don't be fooled. These are dangerous stuff and they are certainly not to taken lightly.

--Although Satanism and Possession is a fact according to our church, it doesn't however mean that this writer embraces them.