Page 53 of Splintered
Evan blearily awoke as Donna guided Father Mathew and Dr. Kao into the living room.
“Evan. How are you feeling today?”
He buried his face in Ben’s chest and didn’t answer.
“He’s been tired all day, but his energy is fading fast. He’s wiped out,” Ben said. “He’s been sleeping for the past few hours.”
“I am not surprised. A demon will often drain their victim ahead of an exorcism to try and store up strength for the battle to come.”
“It knows what is going to happen?” Donna asked.
“Most assuredly,” Father Mathew said. “It’s known for longer than we have.”
Silence. Donna and William shared a heavy glance with Ben.
“May we speak in the kitchen?” Father Mathew asked. “Dr. Kao needs to examine Evan.”
They followed him, the three of them lining up on one side of the kitchen island as Father Mathew faced them from the other. He was dressed in his priest’s cassock, the long, black dress-like robe Ben thought only priests from overseas still wore, and he had a bag with him. He set the bag on the counter and pulled out the same red leather-bound book he’d showed Ben over the weekend.
“I want to go through the ritual with you step by step beforehand. There is nothing secret in this ritual. Nothing that cannot be explained. If you have any questions, I want to answer them for you. I want you to feel as comfortable with this as you can be before we begin.”
“Thank you, Father,” Donna said.
“The firstRoman Ritual for Exorcismwas published by the Church in 1614. Before that, exorcisms were unofficial and subject to the exorcist’s whims. They failed, sometimes badly. The Church wanted to make the process simpler and more effective. Since 1614, the ritual has been updated twice. Once in the 1950s and again in 1998. This is the 1998Revised Ritual of Exorcism.” He held out the red leather book. “This is what I will be praying from today.”
William took the book and flipped through the pages. Onionskin paper, like a Bible, flitted through his fingers. Colored lengths of thread marked sections of the book. Ben spottedI cast you out, unclean demon.
“The ritual is very simple from start to finish. To read the entire ritual would take maybe forty-five minutes. The first part is a recitation of the litany of saints, adjuring them to come to the aid of the possessed. Next comes the psalm readings, and possibly a gospel reading. The core of the exorcism are the next prayers.
“First are the deprecatory prayers. I will pray for God’s intervention and deliverance for Evan and for Evan to be saved from the demon’s wrath. We will see how the demon responds to these prayers. Some demons require a stronger show of force before they are banished.
“The next set of prayers are the imperative prayers. In these prayers, I call on God to work through me to cast the demon out. These are the prayers you imagine from television. Screaming at the possessed, commanding the demon to leave in the name of God and Jesus Christ.
“Throughout all of my prayers, the demon will attempt to fight me. It does not want to be exorcised. Its mission is to sow fear and hatred. It has been creating terror in this family and it wants to keep going. To that end, it will try to stop this exorcism any way it can. I stopped driving a car twelve years ago in Italy, when I would try to drive to my exorcisms and my car wouldn’t start. Or my brakes would give out. Or my headlights would wink off in the middle of the night. The demon might try anything to put an end to this exorcism.
“Because of that—” Father Mathew reached into his bag and drew out four hospital bed restraints. They were padded and double layered in Velcro, able to wrap all the way around a wrist or an ankle each. “And because of Evan’s history of violent outbursts, the ritual commands that Evan be restrained. If there is any possibility of violence, it says, the victim must be tied down.”
Donna gasped. “Father, surely…”
“Evan has never been violent,” William said. “He’s not a violent boy. He never has been!”
“The demon inside of Evan attacked Ben on Friday evening,” Father Mathew said. “It tried to kill Ben.”
William and Donna stared at him, mute. Horrified.
“We won’t be dealing with Evan tonight, Mr. and Mrs. Lombardi. We will be dealing with it.”
Donna leaned into her husband’s arms.
“There are things you must know about doing battle with this demon. First, it will lie. The demon will lie to every one of us, about anything. It will be vicious. It will spew hatred and vitriol. It will try to break you. It will try to convince us that it isn’t really there. It may try to hide. For some prayers, it might not look like anything is happening. But you must remember: every exorcism prayer is an attack on the demon. We are weakening it with our prayers. This ritual, and our faith, will overwhelm the demon and exhaust it, and thus defeat it.
“And as I said, we won’t be dealing with Evan tonight. Once the demon is forced into revealing itself, it will take over Evan in whole. Everything it says, everything it does, all of that is of the demon’s doing. You will hear it say things. You will see it do things. Remember:this is not Evan.” He stared them down. “What questions can I answer for you?”
Donna and William had a few, questions about what they should do while Father Mathew was performing the ritual, what prayers would be best for Evan. “You simply should pray,” Father Mathew said. “Faith and prayer are what will make this exorcism succeed. There are no perfect prayers. There is only imperfect faith and our perfect will to love.”
He turned to Ben. “May I speak with you alone? Outside?”
They left Donna and William praying together in the kitchen and headed out front. Father Mathew leaned against the porch railing as Ben crossed his arms and waited.
