Joan could hear her heart beating in her ears. It raced so fast she couldn’t believe that it hadn’t worn out from over use. Had it been in anyone else’s chest, she thought, it most likely would have. Her breathing made a high pitched whistle, and made her sound like an asthmatic that had just run a marathon. All she wanted to do was sleep, for she had been awake for three days straight, but she forced herself to stay awake, weary of nightmares.
She kept her eye’s tightly shut, terrified of what she might find if she opened them. She told herself that it was her keeping her eye’s closed, but she knew that wasn’t true. They controlled what she did, and they made sure she knew it.
A blood chilling scream emanated from her lips as boiling water suddenly rushed through her veins. Her screams slowly morphed into a guttural, deranged laughter. The sores on her wrists and ankles released a fresh stream of blood as the ropes around them reopened the wounds as she convulsed.
She sobbed uncontrollably through the laughter as the pain began to subside. Why had this happened to her? That was the question she had asked herself over and over for the past seven months. What sin had she committed that was so terrible that it deserved this as punishment?
She could hear her mother crying on the other side of the wall.
Open your eyes… They whispered to her in a snake-like voice. She shook her head violently as they forced open her eyes, “NO!” she screamed. The ceiling above her was engulfed in flames, as were the walls around her. A burning beam fell as the ceiling started to collapse, creating a large hole. A wave of black spiders emerged from the opening, and she screamed as they fell from the ceiling and landed on her.
She looked down at the foot of her bed, and standing there surrounded by smoke was the same creature that had tormented her for the last year of her life. It’s black eyes pierced through her, a sadistic smile on it’s face that reveled it’s razor sharp teeth. Belial it called it’s self. Deep black trenches lined it’s pure white head.
An old woman came from the smoke, her grey skin damaged only by the gaping hole that had been blown in her head. She stared at Joan with wide, white eyes. Azazel. Next was the young boy with the slit throat. Beelzebub. Then the little drowned girl. Lillith.
More and more came from the smoke, all with the same piercing, white eyes; The manifestations of the demons inside of her. She screamed again, only this time no sound was made. Instead, a wave of flies poured from her mouth.
The demons laughed at her fear, her helplessness.
Without warning, the laughter stopped. As did the fire, and the room returned to it’s untouched, unburned state. The demons disappeared with it.
Tear’s ran down her face, Father Ross must be here, she thought with relief. The demons only relented in his presence.
As the priest entered her room, the doors and windows began slam open and closed, and a low growl came from a source unseen by the holy man. But Joan, she could see the massive, black, dog like creature that guarded her door, crouching with it’s teeth bared. It’s red eyes glowed like burning embers.
“Hello Joan,” the priest said, setting a hand on her bare arm. It burned like red hot medal. “Shall we begin?”
Belial laughed maniacally in her head, We will never leave you! He whispered in his snake voice, and his fellow demons joined in his laughter.
Joan started to cry again; for she knew they were telling the truth. They would never leave her.