Chapter Text
“I am a lonely man.” Viktor began, the tape static in the background. Jayce began to write notes. A history of tapes being overwritten by unseen forces, cases rejected by the church due to lack of evidence. But he wouldn’t let him slip through the cracks, not this man. After all, he didn’t have anyone else to turn too.
Jayce had been warned not to become close to clients, or victims, whatever you choose to call these unfortunate souls. However this case had become personal. A skeptic scientist, whose home had become infested by a demonic presence. With nobody else to turn too, Viktor reluctantly approached the church, who referred him to an exorcist, Jayce.
“Has your leg always been bad?” Jayce asked, when Viktor began talking about his recent health decline. The anaemia like symptoms, bruising, fainting and coughing blood. He had begun experiencing night terrors, developing insomnia due to fear of falling asleep. Not being able to eat because of the pungent stench of death that lingered in his walls. The mysterious death of his cat, his new kitten lingered at his feet, purring as it circled his legs.
“Yes, I was born with a malformed leg.” Viktor explained. “My leg has been getting worse though recently. I used to be able to somewhat walk without a cane, but my body is weaker than ever and sometimes I can’t even get out of bed.”
The clicking of the tape echoed throughout the sudden silence. Even just talking weakened the frail man, who was once so strong. Jayce noticed the slight shudder of the crosses that lined the walls, clutching his cross tight in his fist and muttering a prayer under his breath. It seemed to calm the spirit, for now.
“I want to leave this apartment.” Viktor begun. “But at the same time… I can’t.” He hung his head and sighed. The demon had latched onto him, like a leech. Mel noticed the moment she entered the house. A dark shadow lingered at every corner he stood in, pressing its claws into his skin, hollow eyes staring straight through his head and into his soul. The weight was too much for him to bear, too much for her, so she had to leave. Even the mind of an esteemed clairvoyant such as herself couldn’t look the entity in its eyes.
They had never encountered a case like this before.
“Demons are leeches.” Jayce began as he packed up his equipment. “Leaving wouldn’t rid you of it, we would have to perform an exorcism on the house.” He looked around at the old walls, the peeling wall paper and creaky floorboards. The armchair where an elderly man had passed away, still in the corner of his home. A television that was stuck on static, even though it was unplugged. He couldn’t fathom how Viktor had managed to remain in this house for so long. But that often happened with hauntings, it wasn’t really him, but the demon taking over.
“Do you have any food?” Jayce asked, noticing the unplugged refrigerator.
“Fridge is broken.” Viktor kicked the bottom of it. Jayce sighed, Viktor had been an engineer. He could have easily fixed it himself if he wanted to.
“I’ll bring you some groceries when I next stop by.” Jayce lingered at the door lending the man a smile before he turned to leave. He felt a hand grab his arm.
“Please don’t leave me alone here.” Viktor’s hand latched around his wrist, slightly too hard. He was shaking, he was afraid. A bitter cold breeze washed over them, goosebumps riddled his body.
“Okay.” Jayce placed a hand on his shoulder. “I need to get these tapes to the church, I promise I won’t be gone long.” Jayce said, Viktor nodded.
His kitten Rio hissed at a corner of the room as Jayce shut the door behind him. Viktor froze. Remembering the sight he had seen, his elder cat Sky laying in the corner. Eyes glazed over and neck contorted in such a frightful, cruel way, only to torture him.
“Don’t. Please don’t.” Viktor lifted Rio in his arms, who screeched in terror and leaped into a corner. Hissing at something only she could see.
The priest looked over the evidence, Viktor’s tapes playing the background. Growling noises riddled the recording attempting to override any concrete evidence. Orbs in the photos, a ghostly hand on Viktor’s shoulder, recordings of him sleep walking and etching an unknown language into the kitchen counter. Most disturbing of all, the elderly man photographed lingering behind him, slumped dead in a rocking chair.
“The evidence is substantial enough.” The priest rubbed his temples in thought, removing his glasses. “But it’s complex Jayce, with Viktor not being baptised or a member of any church; the exorcism would have to be authorised directly from the Vatican.” The priest explained.
“Please, anything you can do. I’m afraid he… doesn’t have much time.” Jayce pleaded.
“I’ll push the request through immediately.”
Before returning to Viktor, Jayce reviewed evidence collected over the past three weeks. It was detective work, being an exorcist. Looking for clues to unveil the entities name. Demons are playful, tricksters, they leave clues to toy with your mind. But there was nothing. No trails, no clues, a silent spirit. However Jayce was persistent, stubborn, no matter how burned out he became he wouldn’t give up on Viktor.
“Viktor?” Jayce knocked at the door, answered by silence. “Viktor, are you in there?” He knocked again, louder, panicked by the silence. Then he fumbled around in his pocket, remembering the set of keys Viktor had given him. “Viktor!” He exclaimed, stopping in the doorway.
There was Viktor, asleep in the arm chair, Rio curled up in his lap. Jayce sighed in relief, reaching for a blanket and placing it over him. Although the arm chair probably wasn’t good for his back he was just glad he was sleeping. He contemplated picking Viktor up, putting him to bed, knowing sleeping in the chair would agitate his body. But he didn’t, fearing he would wake him from the little slumber he got.
“Jayce?” Viktor questioned, waking from his few hours of sleep. “You came back?”
“I wouldn’t leave you alone.” Jayce explained. Dusk was setting in, the evening light fading. He flipped the light switch, once, then twice.
“It doesn’t work.” Viktor leant on his cane, standing from where he had been sleeping, Rio curled into the arm chair.
“I can fix it, do you have a toolbox?” Jayce asked, Viktor shook his head.
“I can do it myself. I wasn’t always so… weak.” Viktor opened the cupboard door, placing his toolbox onto the kitchen counter.
“I don’t think you’re weak, Viktor.” Jayce placed an arm around his back but Viktor shook him off.
“I don’t need the pity.” Viktor fumbled with the screwdriver.
Viktor had given Jayce the bed, which he reluctantly took. Viktor explained that he couldn’t sleep there anyway, constant sleep paralysis prevented him.
There was a clanking in the kitchen, something rocking. The sound of a chair crashing to the ground.
“Viktor!” Jayce rushed to pull the covers from himself, slamming the door which crashed into the wall. A horrific sight before him, Viktor hanging from the ceiling, neck crocked as his lifeless body swayed to the side.
“Viktor!” He awoke from the nightmare, there was a clanking coming from the kitchen. He rushed into the room. Viktor was stood on the table, his crutch had fallen to the ground. He had screwed a new lightbulb in. Jayce sighed with relief, Viktor was okay.
“Can you turn on the light, please?” Viktor asked, Jayce obliged, flipping the switch. It buzzed and flickered for a moment before turning on. Viktor smirked to himself. “Still got it.” He joked, Jayce laughed, reaching out a hand to help Viktor down from the table. He was happy to see Viktor finally doing something for himself, something that made him feel good. He wasn’t weak, he never had been.
Then he turned his wrist, a moment that bought him back to the reality of Viktor’s situation. A new bruise that had appeared, he brushed a thumb over it, Viktor flinched at the touch and pulled his arm away from his grasp.
“It doesn’t hurt.” Viktor pulled his sleeve over his wrist. He had begun doing this recently, wearing turtle necks and gloves to cover the bruises that would appear.
“The entity… it’s marking you, asserting dominance, establishing its power over you.” Jayce sighed. Viktor didn’t say anything, he went back to drying plates instead. But he needed to confront it, the only way to get rid of a demon is to face it. Once a person no longer fears a demon, it weakens them.
“You should get some sleep.” Jayce stood beside Viktor, who cursed under his breath.
“I can’t.” He muttered through clenched teeth.
Jayce went over the history of the property he resided in. How an old man named Benny had once lived there. But he died alone in the apartment… in the spot where his arm chair now lived. Benny didn’t have any family or friends, police discovered him a year after his passing after neighbours reported a horrid scent. His spirit now haunting this house, haunting Viktor.
“He’s doing this to me? Why?” Viktor asked, his tone defeated and exhausted.
“It’s not him, he’s just a vessel. This activity it’s… demonic. The church has requested an exorcism, but it has to come from the Vatican itself.” Jayce lent back in his chair. “Which could take some time.”
“And… how much time do I have?” Viktor asked, a morbid question.
“I don’t know.” Jayce whispered.
“Jayce.” Viktor’s tone was stern, eyes searching his for an answer, an answer he didn’t want but needed.
“I don’t know.” He met Viktor’s gaze.
“I’m going to bed.” Viktor stood from his chair, wanting to ask again. But he didn’t, knowing Jayce didn’t want to give him the answer it couldn’t be good news.
The air grew thick as he tried to sleep, coughing as he felt a weight on his chest. Murmuring of a language he couldn’t understand whispered in his ear. He tried to speak, to call out Jayce’s name, but the words were shoved back down his throat. Fleeting moments of his life eroding before his eyes, an entity invading his thoughts and riddling his mind like a plague.
His eyes watered as he tried desperately to call out for help. A tear rolled down his cheek as his gaze fixated on the entity looming above him. An inhuman form, eyes hollow as if they had never seen life, an oppressing figure that wanted to drag him to the depths of hell it had crawled out from. It took a breath, grunting as it met Viktor’s mouth, stealing the life from him and latching itself to his soul.
In a final futile attempt Viktor let out a bone-rattling scream that jolted Jayce from his sleep. He rammed his shoulder into the door that would hardly budge. An ice cold draft from underneath it.
Viktor was contorted in such a way he had never seen, convulsing in the air and limbs twisting, almost breaking.
“In nómine Pátris, et Fílii, et Spirítus Sancti. Amen.” Jayce ripped the cross from his chest, holding it to the air where Viktor was levitating.
“Exsúrgat Deus et dissipéntur inimíci ejus: et fúgiant qui odérunt eum a fácie ejus!” Viktor’s body stopped contorting at the language, but his neck creaked to the side in a slow motion. His eyes shadowed over as he salivated. A groan of something said in a language he hadn’t heard before made the room shudder. Crosses turned upside down on the wall, the larger one slamming to the floor.
“As smoke vanisheth, so let them vanish away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God!” With his final plead with the devil Viktor’s body collapsed back onto the bed, convulsing and snapping back to its natural position.
“Viktor!” Jayce rushed over to him, turning him to his side as he began vomiting blood. He coughed and winced, clutching his neck. Thick and clotted bruises now riddling his pale skin. “Can you hear me, are you still in there?” Jayce turned his head to look in his eyes.
“I’m fine, Jayce.” Viktor sat up, wiping the blood from his chin. But he was far from fine, something was different. His eyes had changed, his soul infested. “I just need to sleep.” Viktor rolled over, pulling the covers over himself.
Jayce never left his side, settling in a corner of the room and etching Bible verses into the ground and walls. Sprinkling holy water wherever he could. This silence was eerie, a sign that something awful was to come. But whatever that may be Jayce would be there for him, he promised.