The only time Luke kept his eyes off of Gio and Alex on Friday was when they took separate classes. Otherwise, he followed them to breakfast, to the library, to the bathroom, and kept his reasons close to his chest.

Gio and Alex were growing a bit suspicious of Luke's sudden interest in their daily routine. Alex was more vocal about it, "You know Luke, if you want the dick you can just tell me. Daddy's got plenty to go around."

After Luke gagged and vomited a bit in his mouth, Luke vehemently denied any such desire, "Ah, no thanks." Luke tried to be himself, but how can he act like his friends were not possessed when he knew they were? Luke was looking for any detail that gave away their darker side. A sudden snarl, an odd cough, a violent twitch, but nothing came about. If there were demons inside his friends, they were exceptional at staying hidden.

Gio was subtler in his suspicions, "Don't you have Archaeology?"

"Shit, I forgot. Catch you guys later." Luke ran off to his class, but kept his head tilted just over his shoulder to glance back at his friends who shrugged off his weird behavior and wentabout their day.

By sunset, Luke met up with Father Matthew after losing track of Gio and Alex after their late afternoon classes. For all he knew, the two of them could be at the Basilica at that very moment. However, he doubted they would carry out the extraction of the artifact from the walls of the Basilica while the Basilica was still open to the public.

Father Matthew was waiting for him outside, smoking yet another cigarette. Luke thought, His lungs must just be made of tar at this point. When Father Matthew saw him approaching, he welcomed him to take a seat at a picnic table outside of Campus Ministry.

Luke saw the wrinkles near his eyes fold further into bags. His eyes were red, and Luke knew Father Matthew was up all-night researching.

Father Matthew put out his cigarette, "At the rate I smoke, you may get second-hand lung cancer just by being around me so much. Who knows, this may be my last cigarette. Now, with regards to the plan, I have studied up a method for the exorcism, and I have the two main ingredients necessary in the fight." He unveiled a small canteen and swished it around to show that there was a liquid inside it.

"This is Holy Water. This will help smoke the demon out of the host if we're lucky. If push comes to shove, I may have to administer this."

He pulled out a white wafer—the bread—the Eucharist—the body of Christ.

"I've celebrated mass beforehand, so this is now the body of Christ. If the demon is persistent, I will have to administer this and allow Christ to do the rest."

Luke was impressed, "Who knew the Eucharist was that powerful."

"Every Catholic besides you apparently," Father Matthew shook his head. "Anyway, I've got access to the Basilica once it closes within the next couple of hours. The archbishop owed me a favor, so I cashed it in for a late-night prayer session at the Basilica. Whatever happens, the Basilica needs to be as we found it so that I don't get excommunicated for defacing a church. So, we need to stop them before they go on a rampage and try to keep things quiet. Best if we surprise them with the Holy Water to immobilize them before we make further moves."

Luke nodded in approval as they moved towards the side of the Basilica and sat on the steps till nightfall.

After Father Matthew stressed the necessity of preventing any damage to the church, just imagine the look on his face when they arrived inside the Basilica to see Gio and Alex using pickaxes to chip apart the walls. Father Matthew clutched his chest as if he would enter into instant cardiac arrest while molten blood spewed from his red eyes.

"Yes!" Lukeheard Alex speak with his double voice. "Lahash, I think I've found it!"

"Stop playing games Lahatiel. You said that three times already and have yet to come up with the artifact."

"No sister, look," Alex/Lahatiel said.

Those names, Father Matthew thought, where have I've heard them before?

"Let me see," Gio/Lahash slid on over towards Alex. Gio took his pickaxe and gently brushed aside more of the rubble. Luke heard Father Matthew stifle a squeal and reach for his Holy Water. Luke knew that watching these two deface the Basilica like this was probably concocting a mixture of anxiety and rage within Father Matthew the likes Luke had never experienced before from anyone,let alone a priest.

Gio removed a piece of wood, no bigger than a toothpick. His eyes widened, and his mouth spread like the wings of bird of prey into a vicious smile, "Yes! Alas we have found it!"

Alex started to dance. He hopped bowlegged on each foot and slapped his knees while cheering. "We did it sister!"

"Now we can finally penetrate the fortress and spread the real truth," Gio said.

"But sister, where is Lilith?"

"That Xester is always late. I swear she treats men better than her own sisters."

Alex laughed. "Ha, considering she uses them ever so."

"I shall not delay the moment any longer. Time to destroy the artifact."

"THIS HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH!" Like a dormant volcano erupting suddenly in a calm night, Father Matthew exploded with rage. "You demons will pay for defacing the house of God!"

The two sisters hissed and turned towards them. So much for stealth, Luke thought.

"What have we here?" Lahatiel said. "An old pathogen and his ward?"

"Not a ward, it's the humans' friend, Luke," Lahash said.

Father Matthew uncapped the holy water. "Unhand that artifact unless you wish to experience agonizing pain."

The two sisters chuckled like a pair of doors swinging on hinges that needed oil, "The old servant of Gonjá wishes to threaten us," Alex taunted.

Father Matthew flicked some holy water towards them and although it barely touched their feet, their mouths hissed like snakes.

"He has the Nujeg," Lahash shouted. "Keep your distance."

"No sister, he must be stopped," Lahatiel said.

"First strike the match. The artifact must burn. Our mission shall succeed," Gio reached his hand out.

Alex reached into his pocket and took out a matchbox. He struck the side and handed the match over to Gio, lighting up Gio's face from underneath to cast a truly demonic appearance. Gio held the match over the toothpick and watched as the flames fought to storm the breaches of the toothpick and consume the wood with flames. Once lit, Gio dropped the toothpick on the ground.

"Alas," Lahash said. "It is complete!"

"Like Hell it is," Father Matthew said as he swung more holy water in their direction, some of which landed on the flaming toothpick sending up light-gray smoke. The other two hissed as they backed away. Father Matthew took out a smaller vial than the canister he had and handed it to Luke.

"Be prepared to help keep these demons at bay," Father Matthew noted. "Make your drops count."

Luke grabbed the vial and uncapped it. Inside was a thin filter that seemed to cut the water into a spray that multiplied a single droplet of water into a multitude of smaller particles. Father Matthew charged towards Alex, constantly swinging his hand forward as he chanted, "I, Father Matthew, exorcise you, you impious demon!"

Alex cowered away witha hiss and shouted, "Sister, I was never meant to embrace the Earth."

"Don't release him from your grasps Lahatiel," Lahash addressed her sister directly. "Keep your hold on the body."

"It burns sister!" Lahatiel screamed. It was just her scream now. Alex's voice had been drowned out by the agonizing cries of the demon within.

"Hold strong!"

At that point, Father Matthew dropped the equivalent of a payload on Lahatiel. He uncapped the canister entirely and tossed a cup of holy water at Alex's body. Alex's body began to smoke, and a dark gray cloud seeped from the pores of his body accompanied by a shriek that caused a ringing noise in Father Matthew's and Luke's ears—as if a flashbang had just gone off.

Alex's body dropped to the ground as if it had gone limp. Lahash shouted, "No! You will pay for such an act."

Out of holy water, Father Matthew was armed with a couple of wafers of the Eucharist. He looked to Luke, "Subdue the demon."

Luke nodded and began flicking holy water on Gio's body. Lahash cried out in pain. Gio's body writhed like an insect about to tumble upside down as he sprawled over the ground. Father Matthew advanced while Luke continued to sprinkle holy water on Gio.

Father Matthew approached Gio's body and knelt down saying, "I order you to vacate this young man's body, for God has received him as a sinner, and you no longer have any rule over his soul." Father Matthew reached with his left hand and pried open Gio's mouth, which wasn't much trouble since it was already wide open as he cried out from the pain.

He placed the Eucharist inside Gio's mouth and had to fight to clamp Gio's mouth shut so that he knew Gio would swallow the body of Christ. As he did so he recited, "I abjure you demon, vacate the stronghold."

Gio's body shuddered like an epileptic person on LSD. His body twisted and coiled like the body of a snake. But Jesus was winning. Much like Alex, dark gray clouds seeped from Gio's pores, but it was releasing at a much slower rate. Lahash was a resilient demon.

"I will not vacate so easily," Gio spoke with his voice while Lahash's could be heard fighting in the background for control. That's when Luke took a rule from Father Matthew's playbook and uncapped the vial of holy water and doused it on top of Gio.

A final cry filled the Basilica's halls as Lahash completely seeped from Gio's pores and evaporated into the air, leaving Gio's body limp on the ground.

Both Luke and Father Matthew were breathing as if they had just finished playing a 90-minute soccer match non-stop with no breaks. Meanwhile all the physical activity they exerted was to move inch by inch while sprinkling holy water on a person.

Father Matthew held his index and middle finger to Gio's neck and then towards Alex's neck and sighed, "They have a pulse. They're alive."

"That's all a matter of perspective," Luke heard from behind him. He turned around and his heart was frozen still, caught between two acts: beat in intensity for a passionate love, or falter at the revelation of a horrible truth.

"No," Luke sobbed to himself. "No, please, not the one good thing..."

"Oh Luke, we can still be together." The moonlight pierced through the stained-glass window and shined on her red hair like threaded ruby. "In fact," Nellie smiled, "we can be so much closer."

*________________________________________________*

Author's Note

So finally the big reveal occurs. Did you anticipate Nellie being the host of the head demon in the trio? If so, what gave it away? I bet Luke is feeling like he could use the holy water on himself to erase the thought that he was dating a girl possessed by a demon.

How would you handle a possessed boyfriend/girlfriend? What would you do? (I'll probably get Father Matthew and a gallon of holy water.)

To find out how Luke deals with his possessed girlfriend, be here next Tuesday. 

Peace.

- L. A. Rivera