EPISODE (CHAPTER) 2

Holy Fire, Unholy Hound

Jesse was scared. He thought they would bump into the wall. He could see through Amichai's eyes. The only thing he could compare it with is like being in a car. He felt as though he were the passenger when once he had been the driver. It felt like watching the driver crash the car into a lake or a wall. He was surprised to find them already inside the Garners' residence.

His parents were there, his dad's associate Pastor Gene, his uncle Yule, and some of the elders of Oldwood Village Church including one who lived an hour away. His dad was the one mainly doing the exorcism, Pastor Gene and JF's dad were helping with casting the demon out, and his mom and the other elders were praying—fervently.

He looked up from that beautiful, encouraging scene of believers praying, one in the Spirit like the Christians in Acts long ago. He was horrified at what he saw when he removed his eyes from that scene and looked at the possessed girl. He could see the silhouette of a creature that looked like it might've been taken from the Donny Darko movie, manipulating the girl. He was horrified. Frozen. The shrieks from the tortured demon did nothing to help. The more it was being cast out, the more the demon clung to the girl and refused to leave. Jesse was quaking in his boots, so-to-speak. And so was his angel Amichai.

"Amichai!" Michael shouted, his sword drawn, "Now!" Amichai was the only one who had not yet advanced. They were to close in on the demon. Adara was the boldest of the group, advancing, her sword drawn, taking aim at the demon. The second to take action was Zeev, hacking at the strings the demon was using to control Kayla's mind and soul. Eyal was behind Zeev, and Raanan was behind Adara. Michael was by her side.

"Now!" the mighty angel repeated his command, his voice threatening to make a charge of insubordination.

Amichai finally gathered up his courage and soared through the air, encouraged by the people's prayers. It was working. The demon was weakening. But something caught his attention. As the demon weakened, so did one of the elders—Romeo Chase Sr. He fell to the ground, unconscious. The demon controlled the girl, the unconscious man on the floor controlled the demon. That was the only theory Amichai, Zeev, and Adara could think of. A demon controlling or commanding another demon. Distracted, Amichai kept watching the proceedings below. They were in the air.

Zeev flung himself between the demon and Amichai. "Amichai!" he shouted as he dived, covering Amichai with one of his wings, damaging it. He fell to the floor of the Garners and materialized right before their eyes, which frightened them. The whole time, the angelic band was invisible to them—that is until Zeev damaged his wing and fell.

"Do not be frightened," Zeev said, reassuring them, "The battle is the Lord's."

By this time, the whole angelic band and the demon possessing Kayla had already materialized. This frightened some of the people but encouraged the pastor.

"The battle is the Lord's," he said, echoing the angel's words. The elders and their wives prayed more fervently than ever, all except for the Chases. Mrs. Chase was nowhere to be seen and Romeo Chase was still on the floor, knocked unconscious. But it was an advantage. With its controller out of the way, the demon was considerably weakened. But it would not give up the fight easily. It let go of Kayla; she would've fallen to the floor had her mother not caught her. Once it had let go of the innocent girl, it focused on another target—Zeev. It was coming in for the kill.

Amichai saw this as a diversion, a distraction, and immediately acted, leaping into the air, diving, slicing the demon's neck, cutting its head off with one blow. It dematerialized in an explosion of black, sulfurous smoke. Then the archangel approached the unconscious elder, and to everyone's surprise, stabbed him in the shoulder with his sword. He did not dematerialize, but the same black smoke emanated from the wound. Mrs. Chase had just come in when she saw this and ran, screaming at the angel. Michael turned in time and stabbed her in the abdomen, smoke emanating from the wound. Seeing this, Ulysses Vale backed into a corner, to everyone's surprise, cowering in fear. Michael stabbed him in the chest with his sword. Same black smoke. Same sulfuric smell. A hush fell over the group in the small house. Everyone's gaze was fixed at the mighty angel. Sometimes one of them would look at the unconscious couple, sometimes at the man in the corner, slumped, seemingly dead.

"Are they—" Sandy, a wife of one of the elders asked, but she could not finish her question.

"No," Michael said, simply, and vanished.

The others were about to vanish as well when they heard the baying of a hound. Zeev got up, picking his sword up off the floor. Amichai and Raanan turned.

"That was the baying of a hellhound," Eyal whispered, "I heard it eons before—near the entrance to Gehenna."

Another howl.

"Have you ever battled one?" Amichai asked.

"I had only heard it—not seen it."

"You never ventured to fight it?"

"I had not the courage to do so. My job at the time was to deliver evil men to the mouth of Gehenna—not to fight such creatures!"

"Well, now it is," Zeev said.

The howling grew louder. Closer. Some of the members of Oldwood Village Church had already left except for the Joneses, Pastor Langston Parker, and his wife Lisa. Together with the Garners, they made a protective circle around the child. Suddenly, there it was, the demonic hound materializing before them. It was unlike any hound either mortal or angel had seen. It was bigger than a horse. Pastor Langston advanced toward it, trying to ward it off but it charged at him, picked him up by the neck, and hurled him across the room.

Dad! Nooooooo! Jesse thought as he watched.

Then it turned to its next prey—the still-weak Zeev. He raised his shield to protect himself but to no avail. His shield was hurled across the room, resounding with a loud clang. He stood up to fight but was thrown down and bitten, his tunic torn, his left arm bleeding. He had a bite. He screamed, the pain searing his wounded arm. His face was also bleeding, his helmet gone. He had scratch marks on his right cheek that burned (excuse the pun) like hell. The others moved in to strike but they could barely make a scratch on the hound. It was too powerful.

"I'll take him to Beulah," Eyal suggested, "You three take care of the hound."

With that, Zeev and Eyal vanished, leaving the three to finish the job. Amichai plunged his sword into the creature's heart but it shook him off. He let go of his sword and was flung across the room, breaking a table leg in the Garners' dining room. Raanan moved in to strike, aiming for its neck, but it snapped at him, wounding his neck.

"It's off to Beulah for you now," Adara said.

"No! I can still fight," Raanan said, "Zeev's wounds were great. This is only superficial." He covered his neck with one hand and fought using his sword with the other.

Suddenly, a little boy that looked to be 10 or 11 materialized before them. To Jesse, he looked like the boy from the video of Martina McBride's Concrete Angel. But as for Amichai, he recognized him. It was his good friend Luke. He was a cherub.

"Luke!" Amichai exclaimed with delight, overjoyed to see his old friend, "What brings you here?"

"I have a message from the Lord. Uriel was to deliver it to you but he is being hindered by the Prince of Persia."

"What message do you bring?" Amichai said.

"The Lord Himself shall be a wall of fire around the city and He shall be its glory within."

Jesse remembered a sermon his dad preached during one of their evening services. Zechariah 2:5 "'And I myself will be a wall of fire around it' declares the LORD, 'And I will be its glory within.'"

"Holy fire," Amichai said, thoughtfully, and Luke vanished.

He emerged from the dining room and said to Raanan, "'And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,' declares the Lord…"

"Are you suggesting we use Holy fire?" Adara asked.

"Maybe."

"It just might work," Raanan said, touching the tip of his blade, "The thing will refuse to come near it."

The blade glowed red and caught fire. Raanan flew around the room in a circle, the flames visible only to them but encircling even the small group of believers around the child.

"There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling!" Adara said, reassuring the Garners, the Joneses, and the pastor and his wife. The hound howled in agony as the flames licked its form.

"You come against me with sword and spear and javelin," Raanan said, quoting David of old, "but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty…"

The hound made a leap for Pastor Langston but yelped and howled in agony as the flames licked its evil form once more.

"Touch not the Lord's anointed!" Adara said, as flames engulfed the demon. It exploded in a confusion of fire and smoke. The battle over, the flames died down and the girl woke up as if from a bad dream.

"Did I miss anything?" Eyal said, returning from Beulah.

"You missed the whole thing. Shame," Adara said.

"Yeah. Too bad I wasn't here."

"Where's Frankie?" Kayla said, sitting up.

"Who's Frankie?" her grandmother asked.

"Frankie's the puppy I always used to keep under my bed."

"Puppy?" Adara asked.

"It's her imaginary friend."

"No, he's not!" Kayla said, indignantly, "He's not imaginary! You always kept saying he was, but he wasn't."

"I believe you," Amichai said, "Unfortunately, we had to kill him. I'm sorry." Jesse's brain was working fast the whole time. He spoke and moved as Amichai but thought as both Jesse and Amichai—so with the others. His angelic comrades looked at him. He had seen something on the girl's Facebook before. A quiz. He remembered. What Kind of Ghost Follows You Around? She had gotten "Ghost Dog." It said that if she loved it, it would protect her and be loyal to her. But if she gets on its bad side… Apparently, Kayla had angered it by renouncing it a few days ago. Now it was back—for retribution.

"I think there is something you should see," Amichai said to the family and to Pastor Langston, "The rest of you can stay here. We'll be back."

He navigated the house as if he had lived there and knew every feature. He led the way to the girl's room. It had the usual teen/pre-teen style. A mix of girly and womanly things. Not quite a woman just yet, but neither a girl any longer. Vogue and Seventeen magazines were on the shelves, a wide variety of romance novels, posters on the wall… But upon closer inspection, there were Ouija boards, tarot cards and such. The poor old man, loving his granddaughter dearly, almost had a heart attack.

"Looks like we have some more casting out to do," Pastor Langston said, looking around.

"What do you mean?" Pastor Gene said.

"Look around, man!" the younger pastor said, "We need to burn these. Every. Single. One. Of them. We'll do an impromptu casting out ceremony tonight."

"Good idea," the associate pastor nodded.

They turned to look at the angel for any suggestions, but he had already vanished.

-oOo-

Peter and Jesse led the way to the Garners. Peter rang the doorbell. Peter's best friend Victor (not the Victor from the youth group; he was a backslider), Kayla's uncle, opened the door.

"Pete," Victor said when he saw it was Peter.

"Vic."

"Come in. They're…doing some sort of…I dunno. Ceremony?"

"Is…Kayla alright?"

"She's fine now."

Kayla ran to Jesse as soon she saw him and hugged him. She looked up to him like a big brother and wished she was more like him. He felt the same about her. He thought of her as his little sister.

"You okay?" Esther asked.

"Yeah," she said, her voice still shaking, "But I was scared. It was so dark… And..and…and..f-f-f-fiery…"

"Sssshhh…" Jesse said, as he and the other members of the youth group comforted her.

"Let's go to the back for the ceremony," JF said, "Your dad's startin'."

"We'll be out in a sec," Jesse said, as he and the others comforted her.

Author's Notes: Sorry if it took a long time for me to update. School and church has been keeping me busy. Anyways, enjoy!