Status: Redo of my old story

Silence Falls

Chapter 109: Exorcisms

His family’s first night in the Psychiatric Hospital was handled without too much strife on their end. That soothed his heart...if he had one. He was never really sure if he did, because he hadn’t ever pondered on it until now. Residing in that Electronic Store in the Mall had been an evolving trial for his mind. Unfortunately, fate made it to where his family couldn’t linger there. It broke their hearts, he could feel it from even this distance across the swamps. But soon he’d make everything right again for putting them through this. He’d get his family back and make their world even better than it had been before the Mall.

As for him, Subject V’s first night away from his family hadn’t been that inconvenient for him either. At least, in his opinion though he’s sure the others would disagree most earnestly.

He currently sat in a small decayed medieval torture cage that was kept suspended in the air from an ancient pulley system. At the moment, the cage was a quarter of the way submerged in the icy murky waters below. Chunky chains had been bound around his torso and his legs to keep him stationary even within his tiny cage, and the iron mask harnessed to his face didn’t have any holes to peer through or breathe through. It had been ordered to remain on him at all times in fear of his eyes glowing through.

His eyes, as long as Subject V could remember, was what primarily differentiated him from traditional folks when he was growing up, as well as his powers too, but they were never practiced in public. These people were no different. They believed that when his eyes illuminated, his powers would manifest next. They were almost right about that.

His new family. Subject V wasn’t certain exactly where they were being kept from him at the moment, but he knew they were alive and well, and that’s what mattered the most. Thinking back to the last time he had laid eyes on them...he was ashamed of himself for he couldn’t forestall these people from learning his weakness when their lives were being threatened right in front of him. No, he’d dare not jeopardize their lives as if they meant nothing to him in front of all those people and just like now he didn’t intend on endangering it even further by making a glorious escape from this Asylum. He couldn’t foresee the future lucidly for some odd reason, and so he wasn’t going to make a move until he could. Besides, it’s been a while since he’s been surrounded by these...people, and he could tell that they believed themselves to have become stronger since they last met.

The holding cell Subject V was contained in was constructed of thick slabs of stone like you would identify in a castle’s dungeons. There was only one window in the high ceiling walls, and it had a depiction of a man on a cross illustrated on it. It was a splendid glass work, but he didn’t understand why they felt the need to fit it within this particular room that had been meticulously designed for him over the years while he’d been incarcerated underground. All it did was look sorrowful to him in this already dismal room.

At present, there was a congregation of Italian men sporting robes of black and red, and small red caps on top of their heads. Only a few were draped in white robes with towering white hats perched on their heads.

Yes, their garments have also been modified since last we met, Subject V noted through the iron mask they believe would obstruct his vision. He knew exactly why these holy men were there. In fact, this wouldn’t be the first time he was subjected to their religious exorcisms, and it wouldn’t be the last if it were left up to them. They always recite the same questions as they preached words from identical bibles they all toted with them everywhere, then they’d splash water on him and ask for his true name etc. The first exorcism startled him, but since then he’s found amusement in behaving as if he were this eerie devil that they condemned him to be…perhaps that’s another reason why they fear him so much?

Out of the corner of his eye, the Italian men all stepped forward in solidarity, each opening up their duplicate books to begin their religious mumbling. Subject V inwardly sighed to himself, and leaned his head back against the cage in apathy.

Why can’t these men just give up on these travesties and just leave him alone once and for all?

Do they not get fatigued of this monotonous ritual decades after decades?

One of the men in white took out a small vial from within his robes and unscrewed the top. It was holy water time and it caught the lights from the dim lanterns on the walls. He hoisted the vial high above his head, blessing it. Beneath the mask, Subject V lips moved, mouthing the exact words the priest were reeling off from memory.

As if on cue, the priest began to shout at him while flinging the holy water from the vial onto him. Subject V knew what they expected to witness from a ‘demon’ being exorcised, and so for his entertainment he gave them what they wanted.

The second the liquid touched him, Subject V dramatically recoiled into the back of his cage away from the priests, howling as if his flesh was scorching from the liquid’s contact. He could sense their fear and some small comfort that he was enclosed in a cage and couldn’t invoke them any harm from inside. Another priest in white stepped forward, demanding to him in latin what his name was. Subject V snarled, roared, and shook his suspended cage while sloshing the water around him for dramatic effects. Internally, he was giggling like a child at his exemplary performance.

“What is your name, demon?! Speak!” The priest yelled again in Latin.

One more time was all he was waiting for before he’d finally free the laughter he’d been fighting to keep from bursting past his lips to reverberate throughout this dungeon. It was always fascinating to him how they concluded him to be a bona fide demon!

Personally, Subject V had never met a demon before, so he didn’t know if he truly was one or not until he overheard what these people always prattled on about behind his back when they thought he wasn’t listening. He felt positive that he couldn’t be one of those sinister beings they spoke of. It didn’t matter to these religious kooks, anyway, what he had to say on the subject. In the beginning, Subject V had to either be a demon or an angel, one or the other. They soon after declared him to be a demon.

“Speak your name now, demon! Reveal yourself to God!” The priest spat out one more time, his face unafraid. It was exactly what a priest should resemble in the face of evil.

Subject V finally spoke, baring his teeth as he pressed his face against the cold bars of his cage. Continuing to play along, he chanted out his ‘name’ that was made up of gibberish words for as long as he could before finally losing his composure and bursting out into laughter.

The priests all stopped reading to take a step back in fear of the demon who has demonstrated to be unaffected to the bible’s words. The priests in white all look at each other before each nodding towards a man standing behind them near a lever on the wall.

The man wasn’t a priest like all the others. No, he was the head manager of the laundry room in the Asylum, except that for today he was asked to attend the holy men to this very room in the basement of the tower he worked at. This room had never been used before until this young man had arrived, but had clearly been erected with a sole purpose in mind. It was never announced what for, because everyone that navigated throughout the hall navigated with sealed lips. Gossips and reports didn’t exist about the patients, the staff members, or people that ran the place.

With all eyes on him, the young man gave the priests an uncertain nod in answer to their mute request. Reaching out, he grabbed a hold of the lever on the wall and gave it a hard tug that took all his might. He listened as the gears clanked to life and the chain holding the torture cage with the rumored demon inside descended completely into the dark waters, it’s laughter cutting off into bubbles.