Speak of the Devil (And He Shall Appear) - Oneshot (1/2)
Title: Speak of the Devil (and He Shall Appear) (1/2)
Chapters: Oneshot
Pairings: Kai/Luhan
Rating: R
Genre: AU, angst, romance, horror
Warnings (SPOILER WARNINGS! highlight to see): religion, indoctrination, drug-use, violence, homophobia, major or minor character death
Summary: Luhan has a slight problem and his parents hire an exorcist to fix it.
Kim Jongin came to see him one evening after he received an upset and rather frightened call from his parents. He was a boy living in the northern part of town that the river ran through, past the wheat fields in a community that belonged to the Sacred Souls Church. The Devil's Child, they called him. The Spawn of Satan. Jongin hadn't heard much apart from those names and what the parents of the boy had told him over the phone including claims of unusual behaviour with satanic and blasphemous undertones.
When he pulled up his Jeep in their driveway all the gravel was covered in orange and red leaves, autumn in full swing and the cold temperature kicking in. Their house was large and white, a perfect little picket fence home where the only thing missing was a window with a steaming apple pie somewhere. There was no apple pie, but there was a husband and wife at the door ready to greet him, embracing each other as they shivered in the windy September air. He walked up their porch and greeted them warmly, shaking their hands and smiling brightly.
"Kim Jongin?" The woman asked, who was tall and willowy and had sunken cheeks below rather beady eyes. "The exorcist from Cheyenne?"
Jongin nodded proudly. "The one and only."
The man and woman looked at each other before they beckoned him inside, locking the door shut and leading him into a cozy living room. There were heavy, mustard curtains hanging in the windows, and two velvet couches with a coffee table in the middle. They offered him a seat and then sat down opposite him, having already prepared some tea which was on the table. He was poured a steaming cup, the woman offering it to him with shaky hands.
After the first sip Jongin sat the cup back down on the saucer and clasped his hands together while he leaned forward, regarding the man and woman gravely. "Now, what seems to be the problem?"
The two eyed each other again before the woman pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and looked him directly in the eyes. She reminded him of his own mother but more of a nervous wreck. "It's our youngest son, Luhan. He hasn't been the same since his fifteenth birthday about a year ago. He's been acting...strange."
"Strange how?" Jongin questioned, pulling out a little notebook and pencil from his jacket pocket, getting ready to scribble down information.
The woman cleared her throat, and her husband reached out to hold her hand. "He's been having these...fits, I suppose. Episodes where his body locks up and he starts shaking on the ground. He's never had those before." She paused, the expression on her face making her features hollow even more as her eyebrows knotted in grief.
"Go on," he said, noting down the symptoms.
She nodded, fixating her eyes on her tea cup. "He also has these instances where his voice changes and he speaks as if it were the devil himself speaking. He says things, cruel things, and sometimes it comes out in what sounds like a different language."
Jongin nodded, scribbling furiously. He'd dealt with stuff like that before. People spewing scary satanic stuff. Luhan was definitely possessed, but nothing he couldn't fix. Though Jongin was very young and hadn't been a professional exorcist for too long, he had confidence that he could help this boy. He only needed to present to him the power of Christ and then the demon would be scared right out of his body.
"Anything else?"
"Yes. We've found bruises and scratch marks all over his body, and he seems to have no recollection of getting them. And sometimes he looks at you like wants to hurt you, you know? Like the devil is in there smirking and ready to spill blood by Luhan’s hands. He's gotten a hold of our kitchen knives and has held them against us, but before he's been able to hurt us he drops them and convulses on the floor. He killed our cat with his bare hands last year. Twisted her head right off. We found a trail of blood leading to Luhan's room and that's when we knew we had to restrain him. That something was so terribly wrong. P-please...please help us. The devil is in our son." The woman clasped a hand over her mouth and sobbed, tears springing to her eyes. Her husband put an arm around her and eyed Jongin pleadingly.
Jongin stopped writing, looking up at the man and woman. He could feel his palms sweat. He hadn't encountered something like this before. Not so violent. Not to this extent. Their son really did sound like the spawn of Satan, and he hadn't even seen him yet. What had gotten a hold of these good peoples' son? What could possibly have found its way into his body?
"Where are your other children?"
The woman sniffed, pulling out a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbing her eyes with it. "Our oldest son has moved out and our middle one goes to boarding school in Clearmont. He comes home on the weekends."
"So for the most part you're here with Luhan alone?"
"Yes."
He scribbled a few more notes down and then sighed, closing his notepad and sticking the pen in his shirt pocket. "Well, why don't we get right to it? Let me see him," he said, standing up and waiting for the man and woman to follow.
They nodded quickly, getting up and walking ahead of him back into the hall. "Right this way, Mr. Kim," the man said over his shoulder as they walked down a stretch of corridor deeper into the house, dim lighting coming from old lamps that hung on the wall. "We keep him down in the basement."
"The basement?” Jongin remarked, scanning the walls and seeing pictures of two boys that he supposed were the couples’ sons. He had a slight hunch telling him that neither of those boys were Luhan, and that Luhan’s picture wouldn’t be found on the wall at all.
"It's the only place we can deadbolt the door. We're scared he will lose control and harm us or himself. He's better off isolated from the world."
Jongin followed them in silence, watching them approach a dark, wooden door and get out a set of keys for it. He wondered what he would see down there. Would he find a monster, bloodthirsty and brutal? Would he find a broken body with no soul? Look evil in the eye? The only thing left for him to do was find out.
He walked up to the door as the parents pulled it open, revealing a long staircase downwards and a dim light coming from the bottom. The air that hit him was stale, and he looked back to the man and woman who only nodded for him to proceed. The atmosphere was a little colder as he took a few steps down, watching the two of them follow him and lock the door behind them. Taking a deep breath, he turned his head back around and began descending slowly, the stairs creaking under his feet like they were hundreds of years old.
"He shouldn't be dangerous right now," he heard Luhan's mother say behind him. "We give him sedative pills in the mornings so that his body becomes weaker and he is less likely to harm anyone."
Jongin just continued walking down, holding his breath at this point and making sure he didn't fall down the steep stairs by holding onto the banister the best he could. At that point he noticed the air was not only stale, but it smelled a little off...almost toxic. Maybe they had rats in the house and needed to poison them. Jongin shuddered at the idea of keeping a kid in conditions like that.
As they reached the bottom, Jongin's whole body tensed in anticipation. There was a lone light bulb hanging above him that cast a glow over the whole basement, which seemed to have been turned into a makeshift bedroom of some sort. There was a mattress on the floor with a pillow and duvet, a few books laying in a pile at the foot of the bed, and a small desk with papers and colouring pencils standing up against the wall. A sliver of a window cast some natural light in, but it was barred.
"Luhan? Someone's here to see you!"
Jongin realized he had yet to see the boy. Soon after his mother had called him, Jongin heard a rustling sound. Someone was stepping out from under the stairs, as if coming out from hiding. As the figure emerged into the light, Jongin was able to make out what he looked like.
Small. The boy was short and skinny, as if he hadn't eaten for days, sunken cheeks alike that of his mother taking up most of his face. He was standing stiffly and looked scared, big, brown eyes staring up at Jongin like a deer caught in the headlights. He was pale as a sheet too, smooth, white skin covering all of him except for his neck where there was a littering of purple and green bruises. He had blond, fluffy hair and a button nose, a Cupid's bow lip right below. He didn't look how Jongin had expected him to. He looked harmless and innocent. Fragile even.
Jongin walked up to him and smiled like he hand to his parents, holding out his hand. "Hi there, I'm Jongin. I'm here to help you."
The boy flinched away from him at first, eyeing his parents fearfully. His hands gripped the side of what looked like cotton pajamas.
His father spoke up. "It's alright, Luhan. He's the man from Cheyenne we told you about."
Luhan turned back to Jongin, his face more relaxed now. "Are you the doctor?"
Jongin laughed. "Well, not quite a doctor, but I am an exorcist. I'm going to get rid of the thing that's been bothering you."
"Oh," Luhan said, glancing back to his parents. He seemed nervous and very on-edge. Jongin still found it amazing how he was only a meter from a possessed person and still he felt no fear or trepidation. Had he met Luhan on the streets he would have assumed he was just a normal kid. Perhaps one that had run away from a hospital, but still not someone who carried a demon within him.
"Alright. I suppose I should examine you first, if you'll let me." He turned to Luhan's parents. "You're free to go upstairs while I question him and such. It could be quite a lengthy process."
His mother's forehead creased. "Are you sure you'll be okay down here all alone with him?"
"I'm sure it will be fine, Mrs. Lu. I have the Lord with me after all."
His parents gave in and headed upstairs, Luhan's eyes glued to their retreating backs the whole time as they did. Jongin smiled at Luhan, gesturing to his little bed.
"Why don't you sit down there while I have a look at you?" Luhan stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds before he hesitantly stepped towards his makeshift bed. His eyes looked void of emotion, but his fingers trembled. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you," Jongin said gently. He found it slightly odd how he was telling a demonic child that had held his parents at knife-point he wasn't going to harm him. He bent down nonetheless to open his bag of equipment that he'd brought along to aid him. As he fished out a small flashlight, he turned to the boy.
"So, your name is Luhan?" The boy nodded. "How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Do you still go to school?"
"My parents home-school me."
Jongin closed his bag and turned his flashlight on, crouching on the floor close to Luhan. The boy was watching him intently, his body cautious as if he were suspicious of Jongin's intentions.
"I'm going to shine this in your eyes, okay?" He said, waving the light around. "Try not to blink for me."
Luhan sat still as Jongin moved in closer, raising the light up and shining it into Luhan's left eye. His eyelid fluttered a little, but he did a good job of keeping it open.
"That's weird," he said after a while, switching from Luhan's left eye to his right one and back again. He turned the flashlight off to look for something else in his bag.
While he was rummaging he heard Luhan's soft voice behind him. "What's weird?"
He pulled out a flat wooden stick and walked back. "Your pupils stay dilated instead of constricting properly."
Luhan frowned. "Is that...bad?"
"Well...it's not good. It's not exactly normal."
Luhan remained silent after that, and Jongin took the opportunity tell him to open his mouth and stick his tongue out so he could check his throat. He wasn't sure why he was checking for bodily defects when the boy was host for a demon, but it was best to get the basics out of the way in case he found trails of damage or even sulfur that would help him determine what exactly he was dealing with.
"Do you go to church, Luhan?" He asked, pulling the stick out of his mouth.
"Every Sunday, sir. Well I did; I don't anymore. They've banished me."
Jongin raised an eyebrow at him. "Banished you?"
Luhan's expression changed and his eyes dropped. "I'm not allowed within fifty yards of the holy ground. If I do show up they scream names at me and throw rocks. One hit me on the head a few weeks ago. It hurt a lot. My brother was getting married so I really wanted to go, but my parents got angry when they found out I had tried to sneak in to see the ceremony."
Jongin sighed as he looked into Luhan's dim eyes. He looked tired. Jongin also couldn't get it out of his head how stale and stuffy the air down there was. Surely it couldn't be good for the boy's health.
"Do you have God in your heart, Luhan? Do you pray to him every day?"
Luhan nodded avidly, his hair bouncing with him. "Every morning and every night. My parents are in the church committee. I even have my own cross, look." The boy pointed behind himself where there was a wooden cross hung up on the bare wall. "I love going to sermons too. At first my parents begged a few pastors to come by on Sundays and give me the word of God here, but nobody will come near me now. I know the bible by heart, though." Luhan pointed to the floor, and Jongin followed his finger. He realized that the books he'd seen piled there weren't novels or school books as he'd initially thought, but six to seven different copies of the bible, new and old testaments, picture books and pocket versions. Even one in French.
“Well that’s...good to see. I’m sorry your church treats you so ill, Luhan,” Jongin said. “If you lived with me in town I’m sure our pastor wouldn’t mind you coming to God’s house.”
Luhan looked away from him, twiddling his fingers. “I doubt it. Nobody would deliberately invite the devil to their doorstep.”
“Do you think you’re the devil?” Jongin asked, scooting closer to the boy in hopes of catching his eyes again. He did. Jongin had faced a lot of evil, but he could pick none of it out in Luhan’s deep hazel.
“I don’t know. It’s what people keep calling me.” Luhan was picking at his nails now, staring down at them.
“What is it you’ve done to deserve that title? What makes people call you that?” Jongin asked, throwing some of his stuff back in his kit bag. He wanted to hear from Luhan himself what he was experiencing.
“I don’t know. I usually don’t remember it. But my parents have told me they can see a demon in my eyes where my soul used to be. Sometimes I’ll wake up and there will be blood on the floor. Sometimes I feel really ill. Sometimes I get irrationally angry and sometimes I wake up to my whole room tumbled over like a hurricane has destroyed everything. And then there are the voices in my head telling me to do things. Bad things.”
Jongin tried to mask his discomfort by running a hand through his hair, glancing back to the...
He gasped in horror, his heart getting stuck in his throat. He couldn't believe it. He got up quickly from the floor with trembling limbs, his eyes glued to the wall behind Luhan. The cross. “It’s upside down! Luhan, your cross is inverted!”
Luhan turned around to glance behind him. The boy’s wooden cross wasn’t right side up anymore. Jongin was certain that only minutes ago it had been normal. Luhan faced him again, a frightened expression on his face.
“What does that mean?” Jongin asked Luhan, backing away from him slightly while pointing at it.
“I-I don’t know,” Luhan said anxiously, his wide eyes going even wider. “Is it supposed to mean something?”
“An inverted cross is a symbol of the Antichrist, Luhan! How did that happen?” He gestured towards the cross with his hand, the damned thing already making his mind full of unease. “How did it turn around like that with neither of us touching it?”
Luhan looked between him and the cross in quick successions, beginning to tremble where he sat and clutching his hands together. “I don’t know! I really don’t know, sir!”
Nothing was happening, so Jongin’s plan to run up the stairs and alert Luhan’s parents came to nothing. Instead he just stood there and stared at the boy who was shaking in his boots, staring up at him like he was the one causing evil.
“Sorry,” Jongin said quickly. “It’s just...it scared me. Let’s fix it before you attract evil spirits. This isn’t a good sign.”
He walked over to Luhan again and leaned over to push the cross around so it hung as it should. He felt relief wash over him as he stepped back from it, like he had just avoided something terrible.
“It wasn’t me, I promise,” Luhan said quietly, gripping onto Jongin’s pants as if begging for forgiveness. “I didn’t do anything.”
Jongin nodded at him, removing his hand from his pants and holding it in his own. “It’s okay, Luhan. Maybe the demon inside you is up to some havoc, but it's not able to fully control you because I’m near you now. I have the power of Christ, you see. Demons fear that.”
Luhan gripped his arm tight and pulled on it. “Please stay with me,” he begged, looking up into Jongin’s eyes like a starved child asking for a bit to eat. “I don’t want the demon to control me anymore. I want the Spirit of God to expel him! Don’t leave me alone with it!”
Jongin’s eyes softened when seeing the despair in Luhan’s own. It was a shame how demons targeted the weak. Luhan seemed like such a nice boy. “I'm sorry, Luhan. I only came here today to assess the situation. But I’ll be back tomorrow to see to your symptoms and maybe perform the exorcism.”
“You’re leaving now?” Luhan stammered, almost looking upset. Jongin felt a little bad for him. It couldn’t be pleasant to be locked down in the basement when you were scared and all alone. It must be terrifying for him. Especially when the thing he was terrified of was himself. But Jongin had a job to do and other people to serve.
“Yes, I have to. I’m returning to my Church to be blessed by the Pastor so that I can come back tomorrow and attempt to force the evils from your body. Until then, may God be with you.” He rested his hand on Luhan’s head.
Luhan looked like he was about to protest, but it died down before it came to fruition. He just lowered his head, remaining seated on the mattress as Jongin walked away from him.
He went back upstairs and bid goodbye to the parents before he headed back to his car, sitting still in it for a little while before he finally decided to start the engine. Something creeped Jongin out about the place. He wasn’t sure if it was the incident with the cross or just the knowledge that he was in the presence of someone possessed who might strangle him at any moment, but there was an ill-feeling he got just thinking about the house. Regardless, he couldn't get the boy's desolate face out if his head for many hours. It even haunted him in his sleep that night, and he awoke in tears.
*
Jongin returned the next day like he had promised, walking with the worried parents down their hall again and heading down to their son when they opened the basement door for him. They’d asked once again if he would be okay alone, and alike before he said it would be fine.
When he got to the bottom of the stairs everything looked the way it had yesterday. Luhan wasn't hiding when he came down this time; he was sitting at the desk by the wall, colouring on a piece of paper. Jongin only had a view of his back, and he glued his eyes to the boy’s blue pajamas, which made him passingly wonder why Luhan never wore normal day-clothes.
"Hello, Luhan," he greeted, waiting for a few long seconds but got nothing in response. He continued nonetheless, wanting their meeting to be over with so that he could head back home and plan his treatment of the boy. "I met with the pastor of our Church yesterday and he gave me some good words. I have confidence that I can rid you of the evil in your body. The process is tiresome and takes a lot of energy, patience, and bravery from both you and me, but I think we can pull through it. Would you be up for that?"
Luhan was quiet. Jongin sighed. Perhaps he was tired of hearing he could be helped and then being let down. Perhaps he was scared. All he knew was that the boy was hunched over in deep concentration of whatever he was drawing. Almost like he was working with full commitment on some school project that he didn’t want to hand in late. Kai certainly remembered pulling all-nighters when he’d been in school.
Jongin put his bag down and took off his coat. He should perhaps spend some more time with the boy to figure out details concerning his particular case. Every person was different and nobody had the same demon in them. He also had yet to see bigger signs of demonic possession. So far the only clues he had were his blown pupils and the turning cross, which he glanced over at and was thankfully hanging right side up this time. As well as the words of his parents, of course.
Jongin headed over to Luhan, watching his shoulders move as he drew. A part of him really wanted to see what Luhan was drawing. Was he making sad drawings? Happy ones? What colours did he use? Luhan seemed like he would be the kind to draw real artistic stuff like rivers and mountains. Perhaps in longing for freedom from being stuck in a cellar. Jongin wasn’t a psychologist by any means, but he was a rather curious person. Luhan didn't seem to notice he was there, and slowly, Jongin leaned over Luhan's shoulder to take a peek at the drawing.
He shouldn't have. As soon as he leaned over he was met with darkness. Black, black, black, everywhere. Luhan had used the black colouring pencil and had coloured in the whole paper, still running the colouring pencil over it so that it began tearing and getting holes, like he wanted to mutilate it. But the weird thing was that he hadn't stopped at the paper; there were black lines all over the desk, etching into the wooden surface, even some carrying on to the walls which he had failed to notice before.
"L-Luhan?" He croaked into the silence, listening to the sound of Luhan's colouring pencil scraping over paper and the wood underneath it. He reached out and touched Luhan's shoulder, which made him stop colouring. Jongin pulled his hand back, retreating a few steps out of an unprecedented fear.
Luhan pushed his chair out so it chafed the floor. He turned around slowly, and Jongin had expected to see something gruesome of scary, but Luhan's face was straight and he was only closing his eyes.
"Doctor...I can't see..." Luhan said, reaching out his hand as if hoping he would take it. There were trails of tears down Luhan's cheeks, his closed eyes red and sore, like he had been clawing or rubbing at them.
"Just open your eyes," Jongin said quietly, almost holding his breath. "All you have to do is open them."
"I can't open them!" Luhan cried, running clawing fingers down his neck area. He left screaming red marks down his paper-white skin.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean my eyes are stuck like this!” Luhan cried, getting hysterical. “I can't see a thing!"
Luhan started crying, a low howl that reverberated throughout the entire room. He sank to the floor, his hands out in front of him. Jongin felt bad and rushed to him, pushing him up before he his upper body sank to the floor.
"I'll help you," he said, quickly moving his hands to the boy's face. He ran his fingers up to his eyelids. Surely they couldn't be stuck like that. The devil must be at work again, trying to tear the boy down.
He told Luhan to sit still and he proceeded to try and force his eyes open, peeling his lids upwards. He managed to in the end, but no matter how far up or down he forced the eyelids, he couldn't find Luhan's pupils. His eyes were rolled back in his head like we was having a seizure.
"Luhan..." He was lost for words at this point. Luhan was just holding onto him like he was his savior.
"Doctor...my skin..."
Jongin stopped touching Luhan's eyes as he picked up on what he was saying. His voice sounded hoarse.
"What about your skin?" He asked worriedly, looking over the boy and seeing nothing wrong.
Luhan reached for Jongin's face, touching it like a blind person would to figure out what someone looked like. "There's something under my skin. It's crawling under there, moving around my body. Please...help me..."
Jongin looked at him incredulously, eyeing his skin once again. There was nothing wrong with it. It was as pale and smooth as ever, on his hands and face and down his neck, aside from those dark bruises that were there.
"Help me, doctor!" Luhan cried, and suddenly he was scratching at his flesh, tearing his pajamas off so that the buttons on his shirt popped and scattered to the floor. He stood up, knocking Jongin backwards as he did so.
"Luhan-"
"They're eating me! They're eating me!"
To Jongin's big surprise, Luhan's eyes had rolled back and he seemed to be looking around the room for something, finally able to see again. They rested on Jongin, staring right at him. Before he knew it, Luhan hand climbed on top of him, and was tracing his body with violently shaking hands, like he was a drug-addict who was missing their fix. They rested on Jongin’s shirt pocket where they pulled out his trusted pencil, and all Jongin could do was lay there in shock while Luhan fumbled with it.
The boy got off of him and gripped the pencil hard in his fist before he stabbed it into his arm, digging it down his skin and drawing blood. Jongin had sharpened it yesterday before dinner. Luhan kept stabbing his arm until the exorcist finally came to his sense and leaped for it, trying to pull it away from the boy.
"Stop it! You're hurting yourself!" He yelled at him, wrestling Luhan down to the ground and pinning his pencil-armed hand down on the floor. "Fight it, Luhan! Fight him!"
Luhan started screaming and thrashing on the floor and he must have bit his tongue at some point because streams of red started oozing out the side of his mouth. Jongin didn't know what to do. He was terrified.
After a while Luhan seemed to lose control of his shaking and it turned into full-blown convulsions as his body locked up and went into a seizure-like state. The bloody pencil fell out of his hand and Jongin just tried to hold him still. He heard rushing steps behind him and knew it was Luhan's parents coming down after having picked up on the ruckus.
"What’s happening?" He heard his father ask loudly.
Jongin turned around helplessly. "I don't know! I think it's the demon!"
To his surprise, Luhan's convulsions stopped almost as suddenly as they had started, and he was left holding his arms around a limp body. His heart broke because he remembered how sad the boy had looked as he'd seen him with closed eyes, and he couldn't bring himself to be as scared of him as he should be. He still held his body close while Luhan's father placed a hand on his shoulder.
"We're sorry. We probably should have reminded you not to bring any sharp objects down to him. Where did he hurt you?"
Jongin furrowed his eyebrows, finally letting go of Luhan and turning to face the man. "He didn't. He hurt himself."
Luhan's father looked surprised, and turned to his wife, who shrugged. "You're lucky then, I suppose. My husband and I are usually his favourite targets. He often hurts us when we come down here so we tend to stay away from him," she said, walking over to Jongin and helping him up, pulling him away from their son. "Let me take you upstairs and give you a cup of coffee. You must be terrified."
Jongin shook his head, glancing back at Luhan who looked like a corpse with blood down his chin and on his arm, his skin paler than ever before. “He needs me.”
"Don't worry, my husband will take care of him,” the woman insisted, ushering him towards the stairs. “You look like you need some coffee."
He left the basement with the image of corpse-Luhan lying completely still on the ground and his father sitting crouched beside him, peering at him just like Jongin was.
*
The china set Luhan’s family owned was beautiful. Jongin was served a cup of steaming coffee in a small white mug with pretty flower patterns on it. Every sip he took made him feel more relaxed, just like Luhan’s mother had said. The warm liquid ran down his throat like liquid fire before it settled comfortably in his stomach like a soothing medicine.
The boy’s mother was sitting right in front of him with her hands flat on the table, looking at him with knitted eyebrows. He wondered why she wasn’t having any coffee of her own but concluded she was just offering good hospitality and perhaps hoping Luhan hadn’t scared Jongin away for good.
“I want to proceed with the exorcism, ma’am," he said. "The sooner the better. Your boy really needs help.”
Luhan’s mother looked up at him with a hint of relief on her face, smiling like he had just offered her the greatest kindness she could ever ask for. “Thank you. Oh, thank you so much. That would really make my husband and I happy. And Luhan too, of course. We’ve been waiting forever for someone to help him. Only now have we been able to afford a proper exorcist. And all the way from the city at that.”
Jongin nodded his head to her politely, sipping his coffee in small gulps. So he was really going to do it. He was going to exorcise Luhan, The Devil’s Child that everyone had been talking about. Jongin knew he was possessed, but people could really be cruel. It wasn’t Luhan’s fault he’d been chosen as a vessel for evil. Luhan was a victim, and he shouldn’t be defined by his illness. Maybe when Jongin freed him from the demon everyone would be able to see him as a normal boy again, one of God’s children like all the others. He wanted Luhan to be let back into church. He seemed to really like church.
"I think I should take my leave now," Jongin said, pushing the half-empty coffee mug away from him. "I have a lot to prepare and I don't think Luhan is in the right state to talk right now. I'll be back tomorrow with all my equipment and try to fix your son for you."
Luhan's mother got up and reached for his hand to shake it in hers. "God bless you. God bless you, sir."
*
Jongin spent the night readings books about demons to try and figure out which one was inside Luhan, praying to God for luck tomorrow, and last but not least digging up all the crosses he could find in his apartment. Some were big and he shoved them in his bag while others were small and in the form if necklaces or rings. He wore as many as he possibly could because he wouldn't take any chances, and he definitely couldn't risk the demon jumping from Luhan's body and into his own while he was performing the exorcism.
*
The day he arrived at Luhan's house to perform the exorcism was a particularly chilly day. The wind was biting and the sky was clouded over, none of it a good omen for his task ahead, but he stepped up to the porch anyways.
Before he got to knock on the door it was yanked open, Luhan's mother standing there with a disturbed look on her face. Jongin frowned.
"Is everything okay, Mrs. Lu?" He asked her, sensing something off about her demeanor. Luhan's father was nowhere in sight.
The woman stepped forward and clutched onto Jongin's hands, her eyes looking on the verge of tears. "It's Luhan. He's...gone."
Jongin raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Gone?"
The woman nodded, still clutching his hands. "We forgot to lock the door last night and when we went to check on him this morning he wasn't there. I know this isn't in your job description but please, please help us find him. We can't call the police or ask anyone else for help because everyone is afraid of him. But he could be in danger. Or worse, he could be dangerous."
Jongin's eyes widened. Luhan was gone? Good heavens, where was he headed? And just when Jongin was about to free him from his suffering too. Jongin could only imagine what was happening to Luhan as they spoke. Strangely enough he only imagined him coming to harm rather than hurting other people, because so far, well...Jongin had only really seen Luhan hurt himself. He was a victim of his own evil.
He pulled his hand away from the woman and dumped his bag on the doorstep. "Alright. I'll help you."
"You're God sent, Kim Jongin. Do you have any idea where he could be?"
Jongin thought about it for a few minutes before he remembered something, looking out over the family's garden. "I think I might have a vague idea, actually."
And it was vague, but Jongin went with it. Luhan's mother had offered to call Luhan's father so he could come with, but Jongin had brushed her off, saying it was probably better if he went to look for him alone. He was better equipped after all and Luhan's parents would only be put in harm's way.
He trudged over the moist grass as he closed in on his destination. He'd headed through Luhan's yard and further down to the village, following the trail and small roads that bound where he wanted to go. He had taken a wild guess, but something told him he was headed in the right direction. Something was pulling him there.
He cursed when he realized he'd forgotten his phone in the case he got lost or worst came to worst. Something had told him to leave his bible back at their house too. He was unprotected and unprepared, but that didn't stop his feet from moving forward, stepping over everything from rocks to grass to mud and hay. He'd passed a farm on his way there, and he tried to remember it as a landmark for his way back.
He was almost through to a flat clearing when he spotted what he'd been looking for all along. Standing no more than forty yards away from him all the way over at the edge of the woods was a pale boy with blond hair. He was holding onto a tree, gaze unbroken and fixated on the church in the clearing that was letting people inside for a sermon.
He approached Luhan warily, taking slow steps and hoping he wouldn't startle him in any way. After walking along the forests edge he neared him, and in a few seconds he was within arm's reach of the boy, observing him observe the churchgoers.
"Luhan," he said quietly, hoping the boy would hear him but still praying he didn't scare him. "I need to take you home to perform the exorcism on you."
Luhan didn't respond, as if he hadn't heard him at all, and Jongin turned to see what Luhan was looking at instead. There were cars parking outside the church grounds, many with families and children spilling out of them and Luhan was almost looking at them longingly. But the clouds above were making the evening even darker than it was, and so Jongin tried to get his attention again, tapping him on the shoulder this time.
"Luhan." To his relief, the boy turned to face him, and his expression was inquisitive but still very calm. "What are you doing out here?"
Luhan stared at him some more before he replied, "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Jongin said in disbelief.
"I don't remember walking here," Luhan replied, and he sounded so honest that Jongin could do nothing but believe him.
"Alright, well, can we head back? I'm supposed to perform the exorcism on you, remember? And your parents are very worried about you."
Luhan looked back towards the church as if he hadn't heard him, and stared in that direction for a while, still as a statue. Jongin gave in and looked on with him again, almost all the people having packed themselves inside the little church now, like a pack of sardines.
"Do you know those people, Luhan?"
Luhan nodded, and a little smile formed on his face. "I used to sing for them when I was in the church choir, you know. That boy there is my former best friend," Luhan pointed to a tall and lanky looking guy that towered just about a head over everyone else. "His name is Chanyeol. I miss him." Jongin watched Chanyeol help a person who looked like his mother carry a large basket over the grounds, before he too disappeared inside the church doors. "He hates me now. They all hate me."
"It's alright," Jongin stepped in, watching the space around them dim more and more as evening came. "After I make the demon go away you'll be able to go back in there again. And your friends will like you again, I promise."
Luhan turned and looked at him elatedly, his eyes swimming with emotion. Jongin wanted him to keep that emotion. "Really?"
Before Jongin could answer him, he heard a soft thud and his eyes widened as he realized Luhan had fallen to the grassy ground without a single warning, almost like he had fainted. He was still in his blue pajamas and he looked so clean and pure next to the muddy ground, almost like an angel. Jongin shook the thought, taking caution as he dove to the ground and touched the boy, trying to shake him awake. He was unresponsive.
The exorcist ran a hand through his hair and realized he would have to carry the boy all the way back to his house alone. It was his own fault for forgetting to bring his cellphone, which had been reckless of him.
He scooped Luhan up in his arms, and to his surprise he was heavier that he'd initially thought, weighing more than the bones and skin that met the eyes. For some reason, this made Jongin really happy, even if he knew it would make his trip back home even worse.
He cradled him like a child, making sure he wouldn't tip out of his hold, and also trying to carry him as quietly as he could. He didn't want to think about what the people would do if they saw the boy there by the church grounds. After what Luhan had told him about them he couldn't be sure they would just look away.
The trek back was an upwards hill, and his legs were almost giving out when he passed by his landmark farm, but he told himself he needed to persevere to save a life. He couldn't leave a possessed boy in the middle if the woods or the village because he wouldn't be able to survive on his own. The demon in him would probably make him kill himself at some point, as demons did, or kill everyone around him.
Just when he felt like he'd lost his way in the puzzling countryside Luhan lived in, Luhan's body started to shake like he had hypothermia, and to Jongin's horror he started to speak in tongues. Words and sounds he couldn't recognize spilled out of Luhan's mouth like a dam had just been opened, and Jongin knew he had to act quickly or it would escalate. He recited a prayer out loud as we walked to drown out Luhan's satanic mumbling, picking up his speed as Luhan's voice grew louder. Thankfully it was just Luhan's normal voice and not some deep distortion.
He was relieved beyond compare when Luhan's house finally sprang into view, and he sprinted up to it with the all strength he had left, hauling Luhan with him even though he was shaking like something wanted to come out of him.
He shouted for his parents, and thankfully the two of them opened the front door as he came running with Luhan, their faces shocked as he carried him past them in the state he was in.
"Where can I perform the exorcism?" Jongin asked loudly, looking around wildly for somewhere to put the boy down. He couldn't wait any longer.
"Just lay him down on the couch in the living room," Luhan's father said, both parents following Jongin as he took a swift turn into the open door.
"My things," he ordered absentmindedly, putting Luhan down and trying to keep him down. Luhan was restless. He was thrashing and his eyes were wide open, his mouth equally so. The sight was terrifying.
Luhan's father came up to him with his bag before backing off, letting Jongin go to work and pull out what he needed. He picked his bible out, opening it to a random page and taking Luhan's hand.
"Please hold him down. He will only get wilder while I try to force the demon out of him," he told the parents, and they rushed to Luhan's side, his mother holding his arms and his father holding his legs. Luhan had stopped talking nonsense and now and instead he was crying, looking between his two parents in alarm. The shaking went down, but Jongin proceeded, standing up from his crouched position.
"Demon, I demand you to be silent!" he said, squeezing Luhan's cold and bony hand. Luhan looked like he had just come back to full consciousness and he looked terrified, staring up at Jongin. "You will try to scare us, but we won't be afflicted. Luhan will not listen to you any longer." Three pairs of eyes were now on him, and he tried to focus so that he said the words correctly. "I command in the name of Jesus Christ that you leave Luhan's body immediately!" He shouted, staring straight in to Luhan's teary eyes like the demon was right there within, looking back at him. "God is almighty, God is powerful! Leave the flesh of the innocent!"
He placed his hand on Luhan's forehead, repeating the words he had just said. Luhan didn't react he just lay there trembling, tears spilling down his face continuously.
"Most cunning serpent, you shall no more dare to deceive the human race, persecute the Church, torment God's elect, and sift them as wheat!" He yelled, keeping his sweaty palm glued to Luhan's sweaty forehead. He tried to control his voice, which was beginning to shake. "Stoop beneath the all-powerful hand of God; tremble and flee when we invoke the holy name of Jesus, this name which causes hell to tremble, this name to which the virtues, powers and dominations of heaven are humbly submissive, this name which the Cherubim and Seraphim praise unceasingly repeating: holy, holy, holy is the Lord, the God of Hosts."
Jongin stood still after finishing his recital, catching his breath and looking down at the boy under his hand.
"Is the demon gone?" Luhan's mother asked quietly. His father's eyes were begging for the same answer.
Jongin looked down at Luhan, taking in his sweaty and tear stained face along with his focused eyes and only slightly trembling body. "I think so," he told them, releasing Luhan's cold hand. "Luhan is in God's hands now. The demon was scared away by the power of our Lord and savior."
"God bless!" Luhan's mother cried, leaning down and embracing her son tightly.
His father looked equally glad, taking Jongin's hand and shaking it. "Thank you."
Jongin smiled at them, wiping sweat off his own forehead. "No problem. I'm glad I could help. I hope Luhan stays healthy and recovers well. Be sure to take good care of him."
"Oh, we will," his father insisted, still holding his hand.
Jongin bid them all goodbye and moved to collect his things, ready to leave that place and collapse on his bed from exhaustion. He left the room with the man and woman waving goodbye, and Luhan just staring at him, his body limp of the couch.
(part 2)
Chapters: Oneshot
Pairings: Kai/Luhan
Rating: R
Genre: AU, angst, romance, horror
Warnings (SPOILER WARNINGS! highlight to see): religion, indoctrination, drug-use, violence, homophobia, major or minor character death
Summary: Luhan has a slight problem and his parents hire an exorcist to fix it.
Kim Jongin came to see him one evening after he received an upset and rather frightened call from his parents. He was a boy living in the northern part of town that the river ran through, past the wheat fields in a community that belonged to the Sacred Souls Church. The Devil's Child, they called him. The Spawn of Satan. Jongin hadn't heard much apart from those names and what the parents of the boy had told him over the phone including claims of unusual behaviour with satanic and blasphemous undertones.
When he pulled up his Jeep in their driveway all the gravel was covered in orange and red leaves, autumn in full swing and the cold temperature kicking in. Their house was large and white, a perfect little picket fence home where the only thing missing was a window with a steaming apple pie somewhere. There was no apple pie, but there was a husband and wife at the door ready to greet him, embracing each other as they shivered in the windy September air. He walked up their porch and greeted them warmly, shaking their hands and smiling brightly.
"Kim Jongin?" The woman asked, who was tall and willowy and had sunken cheeks below rather beady eyes. "The exorcist from Cheyenne?"
Jongin nodded proudly. "The one and only."
The man and woman looked at each other before they beckoned him inside, locking the door shut and leading him into a cozy living room. There were heavy, mustard curtains hanging in the windows, and two velvet couches with a coffee table in the middle. They offered him a seat and then sat down opposite him, having already prepared some tea which was on the table. He was poured a steaming cup, the woman offering it to him with shaky hands.
After the first sip Jongin sat the cup back down on the saucer and clasped his hands together while he leaned forward, regarding the man and woman gravely. "Now, what seems to be the problem?"
The two eyed each other again before the woman pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and looked him directly in the eyes. She reminded him of his own mother but more of a nervous wreck. "It's our youngest son, Luhan. He hasn't been the same since his fifteenth birthday about a year ago. He's been acting...strange."
"Strange how?" Jongin questioned, pulling out a little notebook and pencil from his jacket pocket, getting ready to scribble down information.
The woman cleared her throat, and her husband reached out to hold her hand. "He's been having these...fits, I suppose. Episodes where his body locks up and he starts shaking on the ground. He's never had those before." She paused, the expression on her face making her features hollow even more as her eyebrows knotted in grief.
"Go on," he said, noting down the symptoms.
She nodded, fixating her eyes on her tea cup. "He also has these instances where his voice changes and he speaks as if it were the devil himself speaking. He says things, cruel things, and sometimes it comes out in what sounds like a different language."
Jongin nodded, scribbling furiously. He'd dealt with stuff like that before. People spewing scary satanic stuff. Luhan was definitely possessed, but nothing he couldn't fix. Though Jongin was very young and hadn't been a professional exorcist for too long, he had confidence that he could help this boy. He only needed to present to him the power of Christ and then the demon would be scared right out of his body.
"Anything else?"
"Yes. We've found bruises and scratch marks all over his body, and he seems to have no recollection of getting them. And sometimes he looks at you like wants to hurt you, you know? Like the devil is in there smirking and ready to spill blood by Luhan’s hands. He's gotten a hold of our kitchen knives and has held them against us, but before he's been able to hurt us he drops them and convulses on the floor. He killed our cat with his bare hands last year. Twisted her head right off. We found a trail of blood leading to Luhan's room and that's when we knew we had to restrain him. That something was so terribly wrong. P-please...please help us. The devil is in our son." The woman clasped a hand over her mouth and sobbed, tears springing to her eyes. Her husband put an arm around her and eyed Jongin pleadingly.
Jongin stopped writing, looking up at the man and woman. He could feel his palms sweat. He hadn't encountered something like this before. Not so violent. Not to this extent. Their son really did sound like the spawn of Satan, and he hadn't even seen him yet. What had gotten a hold of these good peoples' son? What could possibly have found its way into his body?
"Where are your other children?"
The woman sniffed, pulling out a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbing her eyes with it. "Our oldest son has moved out and our middle one goes to boarding school in Clearmont. He comes home on the weekends."
"So for the most part you're here with Luhan alone?"
"Yes."
He scribbled a few more notes down and then sighed, closing his notepad and sticking the pen in his shirt pocket. "Well, why don't we get right to it? Let me see him," he said, standing up and waiting for the man and woman to follow.
They nodded quickly, getting up and walking ahead of him back into the hall. "Right this way, Mr. Kim," the man said over his shoulder as they walked down a stretch of corridor deeper into the house, dim lighting coming from old lamps that hung on the wall. "We keep him down in the basement."
"The basement?” Jongin remarked, scanning the walls and seeing pictures of two boys that he supposed were the couples’ sons. He had a slight hunch telling him that neither of those boys were Luhan, and that Luhan’s picture wouldn’t be found on the wall at all.
"It's the only place we can deadbolt the door. We're scared he will lose control and harm us or himself. He's better off isolated from the world."
Jongin followed them in silence, watching them approach a dark, wooden door and get out a set of keys for it. He wondered what he would see down there. Would he find a monster, bloodthirsty and brutal? Would he find a broken body with no soul? Look evil in the eye? The only thing left for him to do was find out.
He walked up to the door as the parents pulled it open, revealing a long staircase downwards and a dim light coming from the bottom. The air that hit him was stale, and he looked back to the man and woman who only nodded for him to proceed. The atmosphere was a little colder as he took a few steps down, watching the two of them follow him and lock the door behind them. Taking a deep breath, he turned his head back around and began descending slowly, the stairs creaking under his feet like they were hundreds of years old.
"He shouldn't be dangerous right now," he heard Luhan's mother say behind him. "We give him sedative pills in the mornings so that his body becomes weaker and he is less likely to harm anyone."
Jongin just continued walking down, holding his breath at this point and making sure he didn't fall down the steep stairs by holding onto the banister the best he could. At that point he noticed the air was not only stale, but it smelled a little off...almost toxic. Maybe they had rats in the house and needed to poison them. Jongin shuddered at the idea of keeping a kid in conditions like that.
As they reached the bottom, Jongin's whole body tensed in anticipation. There was a lone light bulb hanging above him that cast a glow over the whole basement, which seemed to have been turned into a makeshift bedroom of some sort. There was a mattress on the floor with a pillow and duvet, a few books laying in a pile at the foot of the bed, and a small desk with papers and colouring pencils standing up against the wall. A sliver of a window cast some natural light in, but it was barred.
"Luhan? Someone's here to see you!"
Jongin realized he had yet to see the boy. Soon after his mother had called him, Jongin heard a rustling sound. Someone was stepping out from under the stairs, as if coming out from hiding. As the figure emerged into the light, Jongin was able to make out what he looked like.
Small. The boy was short and skinny, as if he hadn't eaten for days, sunken cheeks alike that of his mother taking up most of his face. He was standing stiffly and looked scared, big, brown eyes staring up at Jongin like a deer caught in the headlights. He was pale as a sheet too, smooth, white skin covering all of him except for his neck where there was a littering of purple and green bruises. He had blond, fluffy hair and a button nose, a Cupid's bow lip right below. He didn't look how Jongin had expected him to. He looked harmless and innocent. Fragile even.
Jongin walked up to him and smiled like he hand to his parents, holding out his hand. "Hi there, I'm Jongin. I'm here to help you."
The boy flinched away from him at first, eyeing his parents fearfully. His hands gripped the side of what looked like cotton pajamas.
His father spoke up. "It's alright, Luhan. He's the man from Cheyenne we told you about."
Luhan turned back to Jongin, his face more relaxed now. "Are you the doctor?"
Jongin laughed. "Well, not quite a doctor, but I am an exorcist. I'm going to get rid of the thing that's been bothering you."
"Oh," Luhan said, glancing back to his parents. He seemed nervous and very on-edge. Jongin still found it amazing how he was only a meter from a possessed person and still he felt no fear or trepidation. Had he met Luhan on the streets he would have assumed he was just a normal kid. Perhaps one that had run away from a hospital, but still not someone who carried a demon within him.
"Alright. I suppose I should examine you first, if you'll let me." He turned to Luhan's parents. "You're free to go upstairs while I question him and such. It could be quite a lengthy process."
His mother's forehead creased. "Are you sure you'll be okay down here all alone with him?"
"I'm sure it will be fine, Mrs. Lu. I have the Lord with me after all."
His parents gave in and headed upstairs, Luhan's eyes glued to their retreating backs the whole time as they did. Jongin smiled at Luhan, gesturing to his little bed.
"Why don't you sit down there while I have a look at you?" Luhan stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds before he hesitantly stepped towards his makeshift bed. His eyes looked void of emotion, but his fingers trembled. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you," Jongin said gently. He found it slightly odd how he was telling a demonic child that had held his parents at knife-point he wasn't going to harm him. He bent down nonetheless to open his bag of equipment that he'd brought along to aid him. As he fished out a small flashlight, he turned to the boy.
"So, your name is Luhan?" The boy nodded. "How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Do you still go to school?"
"My parents home-school me."
Jongin closed his bag and turned his flashlight on, crouching on the floor close to Luhan. The boy was watching him intently, his body cautious as if he were suspicious of Jongin's intentions.
"I'm going to shine this in your eyes, okay?" He said, waving the light around. "Try not to blink for me."
Luhan sat still as Jongin moved in closer, raising the light up and shining it into Luhan's left eye. His eyelid fluttered a little, but he did a good job of keeping it open.
"That's weird," he said after a while, switching from Luhan's left eye to his right one and back again. He turned the flashlight off to look for something else in his bag.
While he was rummaging he heard Luhan's soft voice behind him. "What's weird?"
He pulled out a flat wooden stick and walked back. "Your pupils stay dilated instead of constricting properly."
Luhan frowned. "Is that...bad?"
"Well...it's not good. It's not exactly normal."
Luhan remained silent after that, and Jongin took the opportunity tell him to open his mouth and stick his tongue out so he could check his throat. He wasn't sure why he was checking for bodily defects when the boy was host for a demon, but it was best to get the basics out of the way in case he found trails of damage or even sulfur that would help him determine what exactly he was dealing with.
"Do you go to church, Luhan?" He asked, pulling the stick out of his mouth.
"Every Sunday, sir. Well I did; I don't anymore. They've banished me."
Jongin raised an eyebrow at him. "Banished you?"
Luhan's expression changed and his eyes dropped. "I'm not allowed within fifty yards of the holy ground. If I do show up they scream names at me and throw rocks. One hit me on the head a few weeks ago. It hurt a lot. My brother was getting married so I really wanted to go, but my parents got angry when they found out I had tried to sneak in to see the ceremony."
Jongin sighed as he looked into Luhan's dim eyes. He looked tired. Jongin also couldn't get it out of his head how stale and stuffy the air down there was. Surely it couldn't be good for the boy's health.
"Do you have God in your heart, Luhan? Do you pray to him every day?"
Luhan nodded avidly, his hair bouncing with him. "Every morning and every night. My parents are in the church committee. I even have my own cross, look." The boy pointed behind himself where there was a wooden cross hung up on the bare wall. "I love going to sermons too. At first my parents begged a few pastors to come by on Sundays and give me the word of God here, but nobody will come near me now. I know the bible by heart, though." Luhan pointed to the floor, and Jongin followed his finger. He realized that the books he'd seen piled there weren't novels or school books as he'd initially thought, but six to seven different copies of the bible, new and old testaments, picture books and pocket versions. Even one in French.
“Well that’s...good to see. I’m sorry your church treats you so ill, Luhan,” Jongin said. “If you lived with me in town I’m sure our pastor wouldn’t mind you coming to God’s house.”
Luhan looked away from him, twiddling his fingers. “I doubt it. Nobody would deliberately invite the devil to their doorstep.”
“Do you think you’re the devil?” Jongin asked, scooting closer to the boy in hopes of catching his eyes again. He did. Jongin had faced a lot of evil, but he could pick none of it out in Luhan’s deep hazel.
“I don’t know. It’s what people keep calling me.” Luhan was picking at his nails now, staring down at them.
“What is it you’ve done to deserve that title? What makes people call you that?” Jongin asked, throwing some of his stuff back in his kit bag. He wanted to hear from Luhan himself what he was experiencing.
“I don’t know. I usually don’t remember it. But my parents have told me they can see a demon in my eyes where my soul used to be. Sometimes I’ll wake up and there will be blood on the floor. Sometimes I feel really ill. Sometimes I get irrationally angry and sometimes I wake up to my whole room tumbled over like a hurricane has destroyed everything. And then there are the voices in my head telling me to do things. Bad things.”
Jongin tried to mask his discomfort by running a hand through his hair, glancing back to the...
He gasped in horror, his heart getting stuck in his throat. He couldn't believe it. He got up quickly from the floor with trembling limbs, his eyes glued to the wall behind Luhan. The cross. “It’s upside down! Luhan, your cross is inverted!”
Luhan turned around to glance behind him. The boy’s wooden cross wasn’t right side up anymore. Jongin was certain that only minutes ago it had been normal. Luhan faced him again, a frightened expression on his face.
“What does that mean?” Jongin asked Luhan, backing away from him slightly while pointing at it.
“I-I don’t know,” Luhan said anxiously, his wide eyes going even wider. “Is it supposed to mean something?”
“An inverted cross is a symbol of the Antichrist, Luhan! How did that happen?” He gestured towards the cross with his hand, the damned thing already making his mind full of unease. “How did it turn around like that with neither of us touching it?”
Luhan looked between him and the cross in quick successions, beginning to tremble where he sat and clutching his hands together. “I don’t know! I really don’t know, sir!”
Nothing was happening, so Jongin’s plan to run up the stairs and alert Luhan’s parents came to nothing. Instead he just stood there and stared at the boy who was shaking in his boots, staring up at him like he was the one causing evil.
“Sorry,” Jongin said quickly. “It’s just...it scared me. Let’s fix it before you attract evil spirits. This isn’t a good sign.”
He walked over to Luhan again and leaned over to push the cross around so it hung as it should. He felt relief wash over him as he stepped back from it, like he had just avoided something terrible.
“It wasn’t me, I promise,” Luhan said quietly, gripping onto Jongin’s pants as if begging for forgiveness. “I didn’t do anything.”
Jongin nodded at him, removing his hand from his pants and holding it in his own. “It’s okay, Luhan. Maybe the demon inside you is up to some havoc, but it's not able to fully control you because I’m near you now. I have the power of Christ, you see. Demons fear that.”
Luhan gripped his arm tight and pulled on it. “Please stay with me,” he begged, looking up into Jongin’s eyes like a starved child asking for a bit to eat. “I don’t want the demon to control me anymore. I want the Spirit of God to expel him! Don’t leave me alone with it!”
Jongin’s eyes softened when seeing the despair in Luhan’s own. It was a shame how demons targeted the weak. Luhan seemed like such a nice boy. “I'm sorry, Luhan. I only came here today to assess the situation. But I’ll be back tomorrow to see to your symptoms and maybe perform the exorcism.”
“You’re leaving now?” Luhan stammered, almost looking upset. Jongin felt a little bad for him. It couldn’t be pleasant to be locked down in the basement when you were scared and all alone. It must be terrifying for him. Especially when the thing he was terrified of was himself. But Jongin had a job to do and other people to serve.
“Yes, I have to. I’m returning to my Church to be blessed by the Pastor so that I can come back tomorrow and attempt to force the evils from your body. Until then, may God be with you.” He rested his hand on Luhan’s head.
Luhan looked like he was about to protest, but it died down before it came to fruition. He just lowered his head, remaining seated on the mattress as Jongin walked away from him.
He went back upstairs and bid goodbye to the parents before he headed back to his car, sitting still in it for a little while before he finally decided to start the engine. Something creeped Jongin out about the place. He wasn’t sure if it was the incident with the cross or just the knowledge that he was in the presence of someone possessed who might strangle him at any moment, but there was an ill-feeling he got just thinking about the house. Regardless, he couldn't get the boy's desolate face out if his head for many hours. It even haunted him in his sleep that night, and he awoke in tears.
*
Jongin returned the next day like he had promised, walking with the worried parents down their hall again and heading down to their son when they opened the basement door for him. They’d asked once again if he would be okay alone, and alike before he said it would be fine.
When he got to the bottom of the stairs everything looked the way it had yesterday. Luhan wasn't hiding when he came down this time; he was sitting at the desk by the wall, colouring on a piece of paper. Jongin only had a view of his back, and he glued his eyes to the boy’s blue pajamas, which made him passingly wonder why Luhan never wore normal day-clothes.
"Hello, Luhan," he greeted, waiting for a few long seconds but got nothing in response. He continued nonetheless, wanting their meeting to be over with so that he could head back home and plan his treatment of the boy. "I met with the pastor of our Church yesterday and he gave me some good words. I have confidence that I can rid you of the evil in your body. The process is tiresome and takes a lot of energy, patience, and bravery from both you and me, but I think we can pull through it. Would you be up for that?"
Luhan was quiet. Jongin sighed. Perhaps he was tired of hearing he could be helped and then being let down. Perhaps he was scared. All he knew was that the boy was hunched over in deep concentration of whatever he was drawing. Almost like he was working with full commitment on some school project that he didn’t want to hand in late. Kai certainly remembered pulling all-nighters when he’d been in school.
Jongin put his bag down and took off his coat. He should perhaps spend some more time with the boy to figure out details concerning his particular case. Every person was different and nobody had the same demon in them. He also had yet to see bigger signs of demonic possession. So far the only clues he had were his blown pupils and the turning cross, which he glanced over at and was thankfully hanging right side up this time. As well as the words of his parents, of course.
Jongin headed over to Luhan, watching his shoulders move as he drew. A part of him really wanted to see what Luhan was drawing. Was he making sad drawings? Happy ones? What colours did he use? Luhan seemed like he would be the kind to draw real artistic stuff like rivers and mountains. Perhaps in longing for freedom from being stuck in a cellar. Jongin wasn’t a psychologist by any means, but he was a rather curious person. Luhan didn't seem to notice he was there, and slowly, Jongin leaned over Luhan's shoulder to take a peek at the drawing.
He shouldn't have. As soon as he leaned over he was met with darkness. Black, black, black, everywhere. Luhan had used the black colouring pencil and had coloured in the whole paper, still running the colouring pencil over it so that it began tearing and getting holes, like he wanted to mutilate it. But the weird thing was that he hadn't stopped at the paper; there were black lines all over the desk, etching into the wooden surface, even some carrying on to the walls which he had failed to notice before.
"L-Luhan?" He croaked into the silence, listening to the sound of Luhan's colouring pencil scraping over paper and the wood underneath it. He reached out and touched Luhan's shoulder, which made him stop colouring. Jongin pulled his hand back, retreating a few steps out of an unprecedented fear.
Luhan pushed his chair out so it chafed the floor. He turned around slowly, and Jongin had expected to see something gruesome of scary, but Luhan's face was straight and he was only closing his eyes.
"Doctor...I can't see..." Luhan said, reaching out his hand as if hoping he would take it. There were trails of tears down Luhan's cheeks, his closed eyes red and sore, like he had been clawing or rubbing at them.
"Just open your eyes," Jongin said quietly, almost holding his breath. "All you have to do is open them."
"I can't open them!" Luhan cried, running clawing fingers down his neck area. He left screaming red marks down his paper-white skin.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean my eyes are stuck like this!” Luhan cried, getting hysterical. “I can't see a thing!"
Luhan started crying, a low howl that reverberated throughout the entire room. He sank to the floor, his hands out in front of him. Jongin felt bad and rushed to him, pushing him up before he his upper body sank to the floor.
"I'll help you," he said, quickly moving his hands to the boy's face. He ran his fingers up to his eyelids. Surely they couldn't be stuck like that. The devil must be at work again, trying to tear the boy down.
He told Luhan to sit still and he proceeded to try and force his eyes open, peeling his lids upwards. He managed to in the end, but no matter how far up or down he forced the eyelids, he couldn't find Luhan's pupils. His eyes were rolled back in his head like we was having a seizure.
"Luhan..." He was lost for words at this point. Luhan was just holding onto him like he was his savior.
"Doctor...my skin..."
Jongin stopped touching Luhan's eyes as he picked up on what he was saying. His voice sounded hoarse.
"What about your skin?" He asked worriedly, looking over the boy and seeing nothing wrong.
Luhan reached for Jongin's face, touching it like a blind person would to figure out what someone looked like. "There's something under my skin. It's crawling under there, moving around my body. Please...help me..."
Jongin looked at him incredulously, eyeing his skin once again. There was nothing wrong with it. It was as pale and smooth as ever, on his hands and face and down his neck, aside from those dark bruises that were there.
"Help me, doctor!" Luhan cried, and suddenly he was scratching at his flesh, tearing his pajamas off so that the buttons on his shirt popped and scattered to the floor. He stood up, knocking Jongin backwards as he did so.
"Luhan-"
"They're eating me! They're eating me!"
To Jongin's big surprise, Luhan's eyes had rolled back and he seemed to be looking around the room for something, finally able to see again. They rested on Jongin, staring right at him. Before he knew it, Luhan hand climbed on top of him, and was tracing his body with violently shaking hands, like he was a drug-addict who was missing their fix. They rested on Jongin’s shirt pocket where they pulled out his trusted pencil, and all Jongin could do was lay there in shock while Luhan fumbled with it.
The boy got off of him and gripped the pencil hard in his fist before he stabbed it into his arm, digging it down his skin and drawing blood. Jongin had sharpened it yesterday before dinner. Luhan kept stabbing his arm until the exorcist finally came to his sense and leaped for it, trying to pull it away from the boy.
"Stop it! You're hurting yourself!" He yelled at him, wrestling Luhan down to the ground and pinning his pencil-armed hand down on the floor. "Fight it, Luhan! Fight him!"
Luhan started screaming and thrashing on the floor and he must have bit his tongue at some point because streams of red started oozing out the side of his mouth. Jongin didn't know what to do. He was terrified.
After a while Luhan seemed to lose control of his shaking and it turned into full-blown convulsions as his body locked up and went into a seizure-like state. The bloody pencil fell out of his hand and Jongin just tried to hold him still. He heard rushing steps behind him and knew it was Luhan's parents coming down after having picked up on the ruckus.
"What’s happening?" He heard his father ask loudly.
Jongin turned around helplessly. "I don't know! I think it's the demon!"
To his surprise, Luhan's convulsions stopped almost as suddenly as they had started, and he was left holding his arms around a limp body. His heart broke because he remembered how sad the boy had looked as he'd seen him with closed eyes, and he couldn't bring himself to be as scared of him as he should be. He still held his body close while Luhan's father placed a hand on his shoulder.
"We're sorry. We probably should have reminded you not to bring any sharp objects down to him. Where did he hurt you?"
Jongin furrowed his eyebrows, finally letting go of Luhan and turning to face the man. "He didn't. He hurt himself."
Luhan's father looked surprised, and turned to his wife, who shrugged. "You're lucky then, I suppose. My husband and I are usually his favourite targets. He often hurts us when we come down here so we tend to stay away from him," she said, walking over to Jongin and helping him up, pulling him away from their son. "Let me take you upstairs and give you a cup of coffee. You must be terrified."
Jongin shook his head, glancing back at Luhan who looked like a corpse with blood down his chin and on his arm, his skin paler than ever before. “He needs me.”
"Don't worry, my husband will take care of him,” the woman insisted, ushering him towards the stairs. “You look like you need some coffee."
He left the basement with the image of corpse-Luhan lying completely still on the ground and his father sitting crouched beside him, peering at him just like Jongin was.
*
The china set Luhan’s family owned was beautiful. Jongin was served a cup of steaming coffee in a small white mug with pretty flower patterns on it. Every sip he took made him feel more relaxed, just like Luhan’s mother had said. The warm liquid ran down his throat like liquid fire before it settled comfortably in his stomach like a soothing medicine.
The boy’s mother was sitting right in front of him with her hands flat on the table, looking at him with knitted eyebrows. He wondered why she wasn’t having any coffee of her own but concluded she was just offering good hospitality and perhaps hoping Luhan hadn’t scared Jongin away for good.
“I want to proceed with the exorcism, ma’am," he said. "The sooner the better. Your boy really needs help.”
Luhan’s mother looked up at him with a hint of relief on her face, smiling like he had just offered her the greatest kindness she could ever ask for. “Thank you. Oh, thank you so much. That would really make my husband and I happy. And Luhan too, of course. We’ve been waiting forever for someone to help him. Only now have we been able to afford a proper exorcist. And all the way from the city at that.”
Jongin nodded his head to her politely, sipping his coffee in small gulps. So he was really going to do it. He was going to exorcise Luhan, The Devil’s Child that everyone had been talking about. Jongin knew he was possessed, but people could really be cruel. It wasn’t Luhan’s fault he’d been chosen as a vessel for evil. Luhan was a victim, and he shouldn’t be defined by his illness. Maybe when Jongin freed him from the demon everyone would be able to see him as a normal boy again, one of God’s children like all the others. He wanted Luhan to be let back into church. He seemed to really like church.
"I think I should take my leave now," Jongin said, pushing the half-empty coffee mug away from him. "I have a lot to prepare and I don't think Luhan is in the right state to talk right now. I'll be back tomorrow with all my equipment and try to fix your son for you."
Luhan's mother got up and reached for his hand to shake it in hers. "God bless you. God bless you, sir."
*
Jongin spent the night readings books about demons to try and figure out which one was inside Luhan, praying to God for luck tomorrow, and last but not least digging up all the crosses he could find in his apartment. Some were big and he shoved them in his bag while others were small and in the form if necklaces or rings. He wore as many as he possibly could because he wouldn't take any chances, and he definitely couldn't risk the demon jumping from Luhan's body and into his own while he was performing the exorcism.
*
The day he arrived at Luhan's house to perform the exorcism was a particularly chilly day. The wind was biting and the sky was clouded over, none of it a good omen for his task ahead, but he stepped up to the porch anyways.
Before he got to knock on the door it was yanked open, Luhan's mother standing there with a disturbed look on her face. Jongin frowned.
"Is everything okay, Mrs. Lu?" He asked her, sensing something off about her demeanor. Luhan's father was nowhere in sight.
The woman stepped forward and clutched onto Jongin's hands, her eyes looking on the verge of tears. "It's Luhan. He's...gone."
Jongin raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Gone?"
The woman nodded, still clutching his hands. "We forgot to lock the door last night and when we went to check on him this morning he wasn't there. I know this isn't in your job description but please, please help us find him. We can't call the police or ask anyone else for help because everyone is afraid of him. But he could be in danger. Or worse, he could be dangerous."
Jongin's eyes widened. Luhan was gone? Good heavens, where was he headed? And just when Jongin was about to free him from his suffering too. Jongin could only imagine what was happening to Luhan as they spoke. Strangely enough he only imagined him coming to harm rather than hurting other people, because so far, well...Jongin had only really seen Luhan hurt himself. He was a victim of his own evil.
He pulled his hand away from the woman and dumped his bag on the doorstep. "Alright. I'll help you."
"You're God sent, Kim Jongin. Do you have any idea where he could be?"
Jongin thought about it for a few minutes before he remembered something, looking out over the family's garden. "I think I might have a vague idea, actually."
And it was vague, but Jongin went with it. Luhan's mother had offered to call Luhan's father so he could come with, but Jongin had brushed her off, saying it was probably better if he went to look for him alone. He was better equipped after all and Luhan's parents would only be put in harm's way.
He trudged over the moist grass as he closed in on his destination. He'd headed through Luhan's yard and further down to the village, following the trail and small roads that bound where he wanted to go. He had taken a wild guess, but something told him he was headed in the right direction. Something was pulling him there.
He cursed when he realized he'd forgotten his phone in the case he got lost or worst came to worst. Something had told him to leave his bible back at their house too. He was unprotected and unprepared, but that didn't stop his feet from moving forward, stepping over everything from rocks to grass to mud and hay. He'd passed a farm on his way there, and he tried to remember it as a landmark for his way back.
He was almost through to a flat clearing when he spotted what he'd been looking for all along. Standing no more than forty yards away from him all the way over at the edge of the woods was a pale boy with blond hair. He was holding onto a tree, gaze unbroken and fixated on the church in the clearing that was letting people inside for a sermon.
He approached Luhan warily, taking slow steps and hoping he wouldn't startle him in any way. After walking along the forests edge he neared him, and in a few seconds he was within arm's reach of the boy, observing him observe the churchgoers.
"Luhan," he said quietly, hoping the boy would hear him but still praying he didn't scare him. "I need to take you home to perform the exorcism on you."
Luhan didn't respond, as if he hadn't heard him at all, and Jongin turned to see what Luhan was looking at instead. There were cars parking outside the church grounds, many with families and children spilling out of them and Luhan was almost looking at them longingly. But the clouds above were making the evening even darker than it was, and so Jongin tried to get his attention again, tapping him on the shoulder this time.
"Luhan." To his relief, the boy turned to face him, and his expression was inquisitive but still very calm. "What are you doing out here?"
Luhan stared at him some more before he replied, "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Jongin said in disbelief.
"I don't remember walking here," Luhan replied, and he sounded so honest that Jongin could do nothing but believe him.
"Alright, well, can we head back? I'm supposed to perform the exorcism on you, remember? And your parents are very worried about you."
Luhan looked back towards the church as if he hadn't heard him, and stared in that direction for a while, still as a statue. Jongin gave in and looked on with him again, almost all the people having packed themselves inside the little church now, like a pack of sardines.
"Do you know those people, Luhan?"
Luhan nodded, and a little smile formed on his face. "I used to sing for them when I was in the church choir, you know. That boy there is my former best friend," Luhan pointed to a tall and lanky looking guy that towered just about a head over everyone else. "His name is Chanyeol. I miss him." Jongin watched Chanyeol help a person who looked like his mother carry a large basket over the grounds, before he too disappeared inside the church doors. "He hates me now. They all hate me."
"It's alright," Jongin stepped in, watching the space around them dim more and more as evening came. "After I make the demon go away you'll be able to go back in there again. And your friends will like you again, I promise."
Luhan turned and looked at him elatedly, his eyes swimming with emotion. Jongin wanted him to keep that emotion. "Really?"
Before Jongin could answer him, he heard a soft thud and his eyes widened as he realized Luhan had fallen to the grassy ground without a single warning, almost like he had fainted. He was still in his blue pajamas and he looked so clean and pure next to the muddy ground, almost like an angel. Jongin shook the thought, taking caution as he dove to the ground and touched the boy, trying to shake him awake. He was unresponsive.
The exorcist ran a hand through his hair and realized he would have to carry the boy all the way back to his house alone. It was his own fault for forgetting to bring his cellphone, which had been reckless of him.
He scooped Luhan up in his arms, and to his surprise he was heavier that he'd initially thought, weighing more than the bones and skin that met the eyes. For some reason, this made Jongin really happy, even if he knew it would make his trip back home even worse.
He cradled him like a child, making sure he wouldn't tip out of his hold, and also trying to carry him as quietly as he could. He didn't want to think about what the people would do if they saw the boy there by the church grounds. After what Luhan had told him about them he couldn't be sure they would just look away.
The trek back was an upwards hill, and his legs were almost giving out when he passed by his landmark farm, but he told himself he needed to persevere to save a life. He couldn't leave a possessed boy in the middle if the woods or the village because he wouldn't be able to survive on his own. The demon in him would probably make him kill himself at some point, as demons did, or kill everyone around him.
Just when he felt like he'd lost his way in the puzzling countryside Luhan lived in, Luhan's body started to shake like he had hypothermia, and to Jongin's horror he started to speak in tongues. Words and sounds he couldn't recognize spilled out of Luhan's mouth like a dam had just been opened, and Jongin knew he had to act quickly or it would escalate. He recited a prayer out loud as we walked to drown out Luhan's satanic mumbling, picking up his speed as Luhan's voice grew louder. Thankfully it was just Luhan's normal voice and not some deep distortion.
He was relieved beyond compare when Luhan's house finally sprang into view, and he sprinted up to it with the all strength he had left, hauling Luhan with him even though he was shaking like something wanted to come out of him.
He shouted for his parents, and thankfully the two of them opened the front door as he came running with Luhan, their faces shocked as he carried him past them in the state he was in.
"Where can I perform the exorcism?" Jongin asked loudly, looking around wildly for somewhere to put the boy down. He couldn't wait any longer.
"Just lay him down on the couch in the living room," Luhan's father said, both parents following Jongin as he took a swift turn into the open door.
"My things," he ordered absentmindedly, putting Luhan down and trying to keep him down. Luhan was restless. He was thrashing and his eyes were wide open, his mouth equally so. The sight was terrifying.
Luhan's father came up to him with his bag before backing off, letting Jongin go to work and pull out what he needed. He picked his bible out, opening it to a random page and taking Luhan's hand.
"Please hold him down. He will only get wilder while I try to force the demon out of him," he told the parents, and they rushed to Luhan's side, his mother holding his arms and his father holding his legs. Luhan had stopped talking nonsense and now and instead he was crying, looking between his two parents in alarm. The shaking went down, but Jongin proceeded, standing up from his crouched position.
"Demon, I demand you to be silent!" he said, squeezing Luhan's cold and bony hand. Luhan looked like he had just come back to full consciousness and he looked terrified, staring up at Jongin. "You will try to scare us, but we won't be afflicted. Luhan will not listen to you any longer." Three pairs of eyes were now on him, and he tried to focus so that he said the words correctly. "I command in the name of Jesus Christ that you leave Luhan's body immediately!" He shouted, staring straight in to Luhan's teary eyes like the demon was right there within, looking back at him. "God is almighty, God is powerful! Leave the flesh of the innocent!"
He placed his hand on Luhan's forehead, repeating the words he had just said. Luhan didn't react he just lay there trembling, tears spilling down his face continuously.
"Most cunning serpent, you shall no more dare to deceive the human race, persecute the Church, torment God's elect, and sift them as wheat!" He yelled, keeping his sweaty palm glued to Luhan's sweaty forehead. He tried to control his voice, which was beginning to shake. "Stoop beneath the all-powerful hand of God; tremble and flee when we invoke the holy name of Jesus, this name which causes hell to tremble, this name to which the virtues, powers and dominations of heaven are humbly submissive, this name which the Cherubim and Seraphim praise unceasingly repeating: holy, holy, holy is the Lord, the God of Hosts."
Jongin stood still after finishing his recital, catching his breath and looking down at the boy under his hand.
"Is the demon gone?" Luhan's mother asked quietly. His father's eyes were begging for the same answer.
Jongin looked down at Luhan, taking in his sweaty and tear stained face along with his focused eyes and only slightly trembling body. "I think so," he told them, releasing Luhan's cold hand. "Luhan is in God's hands now. The demon was scared away by the power of our Lord and savior."
"God bless!" Luhan's mother cried, leaning down and embracing her son tightly.
His father looked equally glad, taking Jongin's hand and shaking it. "Thank you."
Jongin smiled at them, wiping sweat off his own forehead. "No problem. I'm glad I could help. I hope Luhan stays healthy and recovers well. Be sure to take good care of him."
"Oh, we will," his father insisted, still holding his hand.
Jongin bid them all goodbye and moved to collect his things, ready to leave that place and collapse on his bed from exhaustion. He left the room with the man and woman waving goodbye, and Luhan just staring at him, his body limp of the couch.
(part 2)