===========================

Exorcist

December 2009 Deadline Dames writing prompt.
Click to see the prompt picture.

——————————————

Catherine gritted her teeth, knuckles white where her fingers clutched the back of the pews.

Why did priests always assume their faith kept them safe from demons? Morons, the lot of them. Their faith made them vulnerable. Easier to sow seed in a plowed field than a fallow one.

Behind her, a pair of slender candelabras crashed to the ground, flames dying. The Virgin Mary shattered. An unholy wind picked up, pulling against her with enough force to lift her body into the air. Her left hand slipped on the oiled wood and she felt a fingernail tear as she scrambled for a grip on the next row.

If only Peter’d told her he’d been planning an exorcism tonight instead of their normal research sessions. She could have come prepared. At the very least, she’d have met him at the church with a bag full of weaponry instead of a meat-lover’s pizza.

Behind her, the vortex howled with an almost human voice. The fingers of her right hand began to slide across the wood, threatening to release. She dug her nails into the decorative border with grim determination.

Idiot or no, Peter was dead and the evil he’d so casually been attempting to lock away in Hell was released. The clergy never listened.

Abruptly, the wind died. Freed from its grasp, Catherine’s body fell between two pews, head slamming into a hymnal.

Someone wearing Peter’s voice began to laugh.