Writing Prompt: “A priest returns home after a successful exorcism. His demon daughter is waiting for him there, angry that he removed her from someone’s body again.”
Father Gallagher stood in the girl’s bedroom as she was strapped to the bed, fighting against the restraints. She was spitting and screaming as the Father raised his crucifix.
“Get out demon! Return to your home!” He yelled as he held the crucifix out.
The girl’s eyes rolled back in the back of her head and she continued to squirm and scream.
“Get out of this girl’s body! Return to your home!” Father Gallagher yelled again. “This is not where you should be. Go home! Begone!”
Father Gallagher pulled a silver flask of holy water from his pockets. He then began to sprinkle the holy water on the girl.
“It hurts! It hurts!” The girl said in her own voice.
He had seen this trick before. Demons pretending to be hurt or in pain. Faking that the host was being hurt. All theatrics.
“Begone demon! Begone!” Father Gallagher yelled as he continued to sprinkle the holy water on the girl’s skin.
The girl then changed back to her demonic form hissing and swearing at the Father.
“I’ll never leave,” The girl hissed.
The Father crossed himself before opening a tome and he began reading from it. He spoke Latin phrases as sprinkled the holy water over and over again. He spoke of God’s power and his domain over this house, this girl, and the world. Father Gallagher then spoke one last time, changing to English.
“Begone demon! I cast you out with God’s power!” He yelled.
The demon girl struggled against the restraints and lifted off the bed for a second before dropping unconscious.
The room was silent as the Father put his supplies away and started to remove the restraints. The small girl slowly opened her eyes and looked at the Father.
“What happened?” She asked in a shy voice.
“It’s alright, my child. You were very sick but God’s words have saved you. You have been healed,” He said.
The door behind him slowly opened with a creak and two figures stood in the doorway.
“Is…is everything alright?” The girl’s mother asked.
Father Gallagher turned to them and gave them a faint smile.
“Is it alright,” He said. “I have cast out the demon causing your daughter’s illness. You should have no more problems.”
“Oh thank you Father,” The mother ran forward. “Bless you. Bless you.”
“Give your thanks to God,” Father Gallagher said. “But I apprecite it.”
“Thank you Father,” The girl’s father said as he gave Father Gallagher a hearty handshake.
“You’re very welcome,” Father Gallagher said. “I would let her rest for now. Just call me if you anything else happens.”
“We will,” The girl’s mother said.
Father Gallagher left the house and it was the middle of the night. Dark clouds overhead blocked out any starlight. He opened the passenger door and set down his bag of supplies. Then we got in his beat up car and drove away from the house.
He was pretty exhausted from the exorcism as he drove home in the middle of the night. He pulled into his driveway and then parked the car.
Father Gallagher looked over toward the front door and let out a deep sigh. He knew that this fight was not over.
After a moment of just sitting in his car, Father Gallagher opened the driver door and stepped out before closing the door behind him. He then made a slow walk toward the front door, pulled out his keys, unlocked the door, and then made his way inside.
There standing at the landing at the bottom of the stairs was a demon girl, with dark red skin, small red wings, two black horns, black hair, and black eyes. She had her arms folded and she had a permanent frown on her face.
“You are the worst,” She said.
“Do we have to do this now, Grace?” Father Gallagher asked.
“Oh you never want to talk to me when I want to talk,” The demon girl rolled her eyes.
“Have you forgotten that casting you out of people’s bodies is an exhausting process?” He asked.
“Well you don’t have to do that! You can just let me have my fun!”
“You know I can’t do that,” Father Gallagher said. “It’s my job to exorcise demons out of people. Especially children.”
“It’s easy to possess children. I would possess adults but it’s never worth it. They have jobs and responsibilities. So horrible. Children get to stay home from school and play videogames all day,” The Demon said.
“Video games, really? You keep on possessing people so you can play videogames? You understand that you hurt the people you possess.”
“Your things hurt me too!”
“You are good at playing up the drama, but I know that you are not hurt by the holy water or crucifix,” Father Gallagher said.
“UGH!” The Demon girl threw up her hands before turning around.
She began to go up the stairs, stomping her feet with every step.
“Do you need to do that?” Father Gallagher asked.
She didn’t respond but just stomped harder.
“Very mature,” Father Gallagher said as Grace disappeared from his view.
He then heard a loud slam of a door as Grace went to her room.
Father Gallagher let out a deep sigh.
“Teenagers,” He muttered under his breath as he walked toward the living room.
Father Gallagher slipped his shoes off and pulled off his Father’s garment. He sat down on the couch and put up his feet. He clicked on the television and washed infomercials before falling asleep on the couch.
In the morning, Father Gallagher woke up as sunlight began to peek in the window. He rubbed his eyes and made his way to the kitchen. In just a few minutes he had whipped up a breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice. Father Gallagher placed the food on a plate and took both the breakfast and the orange juice. He then picked up the breakfast and took it upstairs.
Father Gallagher knocked on his daughter’s door.
“Breakfast,” He said in a gentle voice.
He waited a moment and then the door opened. Grace was standing in the doorway. She glanced down at the food.
“Is that for me?” She asked.
“Nah, I thought I’d just bring it up here so I could eat it in front of you and brag about it,” He said with a smile.
“Shut up,” The Demon girl said as she snatched the breakfast and walked back into her room.
Grace sat down at her desk and began shoveling eggs into her mouth. Father Gallagher followed her in and sat on her bed.
“So is it good?” He asked.
“Pretty good,” Grace said with a mouthful of eggs and bacon.
“Glad my cooking isn’t going to waste,” Father Gallagher said. “Did you want to talk about last night?”
The Demon girl set down her fork and spun in the chair to face Father Gallagher.
“I guess,” She said.
“You know that you can’t just go around possessing me and not expect me to show up,” Father Gallagher said. “These people come to me when dealing with these sort of things.”
“What am I supposed to do? Just hang around here all day? I get bored!”
“I know. I know,” Father Gallagher said. “You know you have access to all the books in my study.”
“Books about religion and church stuff. Gross. I’d rather watch paint dry.”
“Well we can do that too.”
“Very funny,” The Demon said with a fake laugh.
“It’s important that you get an education,” Father Gallagher said and you obviously can’t go to school.
“I could if I possessed one of the teenagers,” She said.
“I’d rather you get an education around here. By reading books. Math. Science. All of that is important.”
“You understand I’m a demon right?”
“You are still my daughter. I’m not sure why I was blessed with you, but just because you are…different, doesn’t mean you can’t get an education,” Father Gallagher said.
“But books are boring!”
“Well I happen to enjoy books,” Father Gallagher said. “Maybe if you behave and stop possessing people and read the books, maybe I will think about getting one of those Nintendos.
Grace’s eyes lit up.
“Really? Really? You’d get me a NES?” Grace asked.
“I don’t know what a NES is. But sure. You have to behave, though,” Father Gallagher.
Grace jumped up from her chair and threw her arms around Father Gallagher with a big hug.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You’re the best!”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. Now I have some meetings at the church to get to,” Father Gallagher said. “You start your reading and when I get home this evening, we’ll talk about your Nintendo or NES or whatever.”
“Ok! Yeah. I’ll start right now!”
The Demon girl jumped up from her bed and ran downstairs.
“Teenagers,” Father Gallagher said as he shook his head.
Header Photo Credit to Shutterstock.com
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-illustration-exorcism-book-on-wooden-1068155102
Allen The Writer 