Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26

26TRAVISS STORYAugustus drench sat in one of the banging leather chairs in front of his fire view, drinking red wine from a b in alloon goblet and puff tabuside(a) on his meerschaum. He had promised himself that he would afford alone one methamphetamine of wine, mediocre to overhear the edge saturnine the adrenaline and caffeine jangle he had worked himself into during the kidnapping. Now he was on his tercet glass and the wine had infused him with a warm, oozy feeling he let his reason drift in a dreamy vertigo before attacking the task at hand interrogating the demon limiter.The throwow looked spotless enough, propped up and tied to the other wing chair. But if Gian Hen Gian was to be be consistved, this dark fresh military man was the most dangerous human on Earth. souse considered washing up before waking the demonkeeper. He had caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror his beard and clo amour cover with flour and soot, his struggle caked with sweat -streaked goo and decided that he would grade a more intimidating impression in his live condition. He had found the smelling salts in the medicine cabinet and sent Gian Hen Gian to the bathroom to bath epoch he tranquillityed. Actually he wishinged the Djinn verboten of the room enchantment he questioned the demonkeeper. The Djinns curses and ravings would merely complicate an already difficult task.Brine set his wineglass and his pipe on the end table and picked up a cotton-wrapped smelling-salt capsule. He leaned over to the demonkeeper and snapped the capsule rarifystairs his nose. For a moment nonhing happened, and Brine fe atomic number 18d that he had hit him too hard, thusly the demonkeeper started coughing, looked at Brine, and screamed.Calm down youre all in good order, Brine say. bewilder, help me The demonkeeper struggled against his bonds. Brine picked up his pipe and lit it, affecting a bored nonchalance. After a moment the demonkeeper settled dow n.Brine blew a thin stream of smoke into the air between them. make up isnt here. Youre on your own.Travis proposemed to impede that he had been beaten, kidnapped, and tied up. His concentration was focused on Brines last statement. What do you call seat, bewitch isnt here? You fall in near put one over?Brine considered giving him the Im-asking-the-questions-here line that he had heard so many propagation in detective movies, barely upon reflection, it seemed silly. He wasnt a hardass why play the role? Yes, I chouse slightly the demon. I get hold of that he eats peck, and I complete you be his master.How do you bang all that?It doesnt matter, Brine said. I also whap that youve lost control of Catch.I harbour? Travis seemed truly shaken by this. matter, I dont make out who you are, save you cant keep me here. If Catch is erupt of control again, Im the besides one that can break dance him. Im really close to ending all this you cant stop me like a shot . wherefore should you sustentation?What do you mean, why should I care? You big businessman know most Catch, tho you cant imagine what hes the likes of when hes out of control.What I mean, Brine said, is why should you care somewhat the damage he causes? You called him up, didnt you? You point him out to kill, dont you?Travis shook his principal sum violently. You dont understand. Im not what you sound off. I never treasured this, and now I permit a chance to stop it. Let me go. I can end it.Why should I trust you? Youre a murderer.No. Catch is.Whats the difference? If I do let you go, it allow be because you lead catch told me what I want to know, and how I can use that information. Now Ill listen and youll talk.I cant put you anything. And you dont want to know anyway, I promise you.I want to know where the Seal of Solomon is. And I want to know the incantation that sends Catch back. Until I know, youre not only ifton anywhere.Seal of Solomon? I dont know what you re talking near.Look what is your predict, anyway?Travis.Look, Travis, Brine said, my associate wants to use torture. I dont like the idea, but if you jerk me around, torture aptitude be the only way to go.Dont you have to have two guys to play good peck, bad cop?My associate is taking a bath. I wanted to see if I could causality with you before I let him near you. I really dont know what hes capable of Im not even sure what he is. So if we could get on with this, it would be better for the both of us.Wheres Jenny? Travis asked.Shes fine. Shes at work.You wont hurt her?Im not some kind of terrorist, Travis. I didnt ask to be involved in this, but I am. I dont want to hurt you, and I would never hurt Jenny. Shes a friend of mine.So if I signalise you what I know, youll let me go?Thats the deal. But Ill have to make sure that what you tell me is true. Brine relaxed. This young man didnt seem to have any of the qualities of a mass murderer. If anything, he seemed a little naiv e.Okay, Ill tell you everything I know about Catch and the incantations, but I swear to you, I dont know anything about any Seal of Solomon. Its a pretty strange story.I guessed that, Brine said. Shoot. He poured himself a glass of wine, relit his pipe, and sat back, propping his feet up on the hearth.Like I said, its a pretty strange story.Strange is my middle name, Brine said.That must have been difficult for you as a child, Travis said.Would you get on with it.You asked for it. Travis took a chummy breath. I was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania, in the year nineteen hundred.Bullshit, Brine interrupted. Youre not a twenty-four hours over twenty-five.This is way out to evolve a lot more m if I have to keep stopping. Just listen itll all fall into place.Brine grumbled and nodded for Travis to continue.I was born on a farm. My parents were Irish immigrants, black Irish. I was the oldest of six children, two boys and four girls. My parents were staunch Catholics. My mother wante d me to be a priest. She pushed me to study so I could get into seminary. She was working on the local diocese to recommend me darn I was politic in the womb. When World War I broke out, she begged the bishop to get me into seminary early. Everybody knew it was alone a matter of time before America entered the war. My mother wanted me in seminary before the Army could draft copy me. Boys from secular colleges were already in Europe, driving ambulances, and some of them had been killed. My mother wasnt acquittance to lose her chance to have a son become a priest to something as insignificant as a demesne war. You see, my little brother was a bit slow mentally, I mean. I was my mothers only chance.So you went to seminary, Brine interjected. He was be flood tide impatient with the progress of the story.I went in at sixteen, which made me at least(prenominal) four years younger than the other boys. My mother packed me some sandwiches, and I packed myself into a threadbare blac k suit that was three sizes too small for me and I was on the train to Illinois.You have to understand, I didnt want any part of this stuff with the demon I really wanted to be a priest. Of all the people I had known as a child, the priest seemed like the only one who had any control over things. The crops could fail, banks could close, people could get sick and die, but the priest and the complete were unceasingly at that place, calm and steadfast. And all that mysticism was pretty nifty, too.What about women? Brine asked. He had resolved himself to sense of hearing an epic, and it seemed as if Travis needed to tell it. Brine found he liked the strange young man, in spite of himself.You dont miss what youve never known. I mean I had these urges, but they were sinful, right? I however had to say, Get thee behind me Satan, and get on with it.Thats the most incredible thing youve told me so far, Brine said. When I was sixteen, sex seemed like the only reason to go on living.That s what they conception at seminary, too. Because I was younger than the others, the prefect of discipline, Father Jasper, took me on as his special project. To keep me from impure thoughts, he made me work constantly. In the evenings, when the others were given time for prayer and meditation, I was sent to the chapel to polish the silver. While the others ate, I worked in the kitchen, serving and washing dishes. For two years the only rest I had from dawn until midnight was during classes and mass. When I send packing behind in my studies, Father Jasper rode me even harder.The Vatican had given the seminary a set of silver candlesticks for the altar. Supposedly they had been equip by one of the early popes and were over six hundred years old. The candlesticks were the most prized possession of the seminary and it was my hypothecate to polish them. Father Jasper stood over me, evening aft(prenominal) evening, chiding me and berating me for being impure in thought. I polished th e silver until my hands were black from the compound, and still Father Jasper found fault with me. If I had impure thoughts it was because he unbroken reminding me to have them.I had no friends in seminary. Father Jasper had put his quarry on me, and the other students shunned me for fear of invoking the prefect of disciplines wrath. I wrote home when I had a chance, but for some reason my letters were never answered. I began to suspect that Father Jasper was property my letters from getting to me.One evening, while I was polishing the silver on the altar, Father Jasper came to the chapel and started to lecture me on my slimy nature.You are impure in thought and deed, yet you do not confess, he said. You are evil, Travis, and it is my duty to vex that evil outI couldnt plight it any longer. Where are my letters? I blurted out. You are keeping me from my family.Father Jasper was furious. Yes, I keep your letters. You are spawned from a womb of evil. How else could you have come here so young. I waited for eight years to come to shrine Anthonys waited in the cold of the world while others were interpreted into the warm bosom of Christ.At last I knew why I had been singled out for punishment. It had zip to do with my spiritual impurity. It was jealousy. I said, And you, Father Jasper, have you confessed your jealousy and your p unfreezee? Have you confessed your cruelty?Cruel, am I? he said. He laughed at me, and for the first time I was really afraid of him. There is no cruelty in the bosom of Christ, only tests of faith. Your faith is wanting, Travis. I will show you.He told me to lie with arms outstretched on the steps before the altar and pray for dominance. He leftfield the chapel for a moment, and when he move overed I could hear something whistling by the air. I looked up and saw that he was carrying a thin whip cut from a willow branch.Have you no humility, Travis? Bow your head before our Lord.I could hear him moving behind me, but I coul d not see him. Why I didnt contribute right therefore I dont know. Perhaps I believed that Father Jasper was moually examen my faith, that he was the cross I had to bear.He tore my robe up the back, exposing my bare back and legs. You will not cry out, Travis. After each blow a Hail Mary. Now, he said. then I felt the whip across my back and I thought I would scream, but instead I said a Hail Mary. He threw a rosary in front of me and told me to take it. I held it behind my head, feeling the pain come with every bead.You are a coward, Travis. You dont deserve to serve our Lord. You are here to avoid the war, arent you, Travis?I didnt answer him and the whip fell again.After a while I heard him laughing with each stroke of the whip. I did not look back for fear he might strike me across the eyes. Before I had finished the rosary, I heard him gasp and fox to the floor behind me. I thought no, I hoped he had had a heart attack. But when I looked back he was kneeling behind me, gasping for air, exhausted, but smiling.Face down, sinner he screamed. He draw back the whip as if he were going to strike me in the face and I covered my head.You will tell no one of this, he said. His voice was low and calm. For some reason that terrified me more than his anger. You are to incumbrance the night here, polish the silver, and pray for forgiveness. I will return in the morning with a new robe for you. If you speak of this to anyone, I will see that you are expelled from Saint Anthonys and, if I can manage it, excommunicated.I hadnt ever heard excommunication used as a threat. It was something we studied in class. The popes had used it as an instrument of political control, but the reality of being excluded from redemption by someone else had never really occurred to me. I didnt believe that Father Jasper could really excommunicate me, but I wasnt going to test it.While Father Jasper watched, I began to polish the candlesticks, rubbing furiously to take my mind off the pain in my back and legs, and to try to forget that he was watching. Finally, he left the chapel. When I heard the door close, I threw the candlestick I was holding at the door.Father Jasper had tested my faith, and I had failed. I cursed the Trinity, the Virgin, and all the saints I could remember. Eventually my anger subsided and I feared Father Jasper would return and see what I had finished and done.I retrieved the candlestick and inspected it to see if I had done any damage. Father Jasper would promise them in the morning as he always did, and I would be lost.There was a abstruse scratch across the axis of the candlestick. I rubbed at it, harder and harder, but it only seemed to get worse. Soon I realized that it wasnt a scratch at all but a seam that had been concealed by the silversmith. The priceless artifact from the Vatican was a sham. It was mantic to be solid silver, but here was evidence that it was hollow. I grabbed both ends of the candlestick and twist ed. As I suspected, it unscrewed. There was a sort of triumph in it. I wanted to be holding the two forgathers when Father Jasper returned. I wanted to wave them in his face. Here, I would say, these are as hollow and false as you are. I would expose him, ruin him, and if I was expelled and damned, I didnt care. But I never got the chance to confront him.When I pulled the two pieces apart, a tightly trilled piece of parchment fell out.The invocation, Brine interrupted.Yes, but I didnt know what it was. I unrolled it and started to read. There was a passage at the top in Latin, which I didnt have much trouble translating. It said something about calling down help from God to deal with enemies of the Church. It was signed by His Holiness, Pope Leo the Third.The imprimatur part was written in Greek. As I said, I had fallen behind in my studies, so the Greek was difficult. I started reading it aloud, working on each word as I went. By the time I was through the first passage, it had started to get cold in the chapel. I wasnt sure what I was reading. Some of the words were mysteries to me. I just read over them, arduous to glean what I could from the context. indeed something seemed to take over my mind.I started reading the Greek as if it were my native language, pronouncing the words perfectly, without having the slightest idea of what they meant.A wind whipped up inside the chapel, blowing out all the candles. Except for a little moonlight overture through the windows, it was completely dark, but the words on the parchment began to glow and I kept reading. I was locked into the parchment as if I had grabbed an electric wire and couldnt let go.When I read the last line, I found I was thigh-slapper the words. Lightning flashed down from the roof and struck the candlestick, which was lying on the floor in front of me. The wind stopped and smoke filled the chapel.Nothing prepares you for something like that. You can spend your living preparing to be the inst rument of God. You can read accounts of possession and exorcism and try to imagine yourself in the situation, but when it actually happens, you just shut down. I did, anyway. I sat at that place trying to figure out what I had done, but my mind wouldnt work.The smoke floated up into the rafters of the chapel and I could make out a huge figure standing at the altar. It was Catch, in his feeding form.Whats his eating form? Brine asked.I assume from the deal with the flour that you know Catch is visible to others only when he is in his eating form. Most of the time I see him as a three-foot imp covered with scales. When he feeds or goes out of control, hes a giant. Ive seen him cut a man in half with one swipe of his claws. I dont know why it works that way. I just know that when I saw him for the first time, I had never been so frightened.He looked around the chapel, then at me, then at the chapel. I was praying under my breath, begging God for protection.Stop it he said. Ill take c are of everything. accordingly he went down the gangway and through the chapel doors, knocking them off their hinges. He turned and looked back at me. He said You have to open these things, right? I forgot its been a while.As soon as he was asleep(p)(p) I picked up the candlesticks and ran. I got as far as the front gates before I realized that I was still wearing the torn robe.I wanted to get away, hide, forget what I had seen, but I had to go back and get my clothes. I ran back to my quarters. Since I was in my leash year at seminary, I been given a small private room, so, thankfully, I didnt have to go through the dormitory ward rooms where the newer students slept. The only clothes I had were the suit I had skeletal when I came and a pair of overalls I wore when I worked in the seminary fields. I essay to put on the suit, but the pants were just too tight, so I put the overalls on and wore the suit pileus over them to cover my shoulders. I wrapped the candlesticks in a blanket and headed for the gate. When I was just foreign the gate, I heard a horrible scream from the rectory. There was no mistaking it was Father Jasper.I ran the six miles into town without stopping. The sun was coming up as I reached the train station and a train was pulling away from the platform. I didnt know where it was going, but I ran after it and managed to swing myself on board before I collapsed.Id like to tell you I had some kind of plan, but I didnt. My only thought was to get as far away from St. Anthonys as I could. I dont know why I took the candlesticks. I wasnt interested in their value. I guess I didnt want to leave any evidence of what Id done. Or maybe it was the influence of the supernatural.Anyway, I caught my breath and went into the passenger car to pick up a seat. The train was nearly full, soldiers and a few civilians here and there. I staggered down the aisle and fell into the first modify seat I could find. It was next to a young woman who was read ing a book.This seat is taken, she said.Please, just let me rest here for a minute, I begged. Ill get up when your blighter returns.She looked up from her book and I found myself staring into the biggest, bluest eyes Id ever seen. I will never forget them. She was young, about my age, and wore her dark hair pinned up under a hat, which was the style in those age. She looked sincerely frightened of me. I guess I was wearing my own fright on my face.Are you all right? Shall I call the conductor? she asked.I thanked her but told her that I just needed to rest a moment. She was looking at the strange way I was dressed, trying to be polite, but ostensibly perplexed. I looked up and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at me. Could they know about what Id done? I wondered. Then I realized why they were staring. There was a war on and I was obviously the right age for the Army, yet I was dressed in civilian clothes. Im a seminary student, I blurted out to them, causing a breeze of incredulous whispers. The girl blushed.Im sorry, I said to her. Ill move on. I started to rise, but she put her hand on my shoulder to push me back into my seat and I winced when she touched(p) my injured shoulder.No, she said, Im traveling alone. Ive just been saving this seat to ward off the soldiers. You know how they can be sometimes, Father.Im not a priest yet, I said.I dont know what to call you, then, she said.Call me Travis, I said.Im Amanda, she said. She smiled, and for a moment I completely forgot why I was rill. She was an attractive girl, but when she smiled, she was absolutely stunning. It was my turn to blush.Im going to New York to stay with my fiancs family. Hes in Europe, she said.So this train is going east? I asked.She was surprised. You dont even know where the train is going? she asked.Ive had a bad night, I said. Then I started to laugh I dont know why. It seemed so unreal. The idea of trying to explain it to her seemed silly.She looked away and start ed digging in her purse. Im sorry, I said, I didnt mean to offend you.You didnt offend me. I need to have my ticket ready for the conductor.Id completely forgotten about not having a ticket. I looked up and saw the conductor coming down the aisle. I jumped up and a wave of fatigue hit me. I more or less fell into her lap.Is something wrong? she asked.Amanda, I said, you have been very kind, but I should find another seat and let you travel in peace.You dont have a ticket, do you? she said.I shook my head. Ive been in seminary. Id forgotten. We dont have any need for money there andI have some traveling money, she said.I couldnt ask you to do that, I said. Then I remembered the candlesticks. Look, you can have these. Theyre worth a lot of money. Hold them and Ill send you the money for the ticket when I get home, I said.I unrolled the blanket and dropped the candlesticks in her lap.Thats not necessary, she said. Ill loan you the money.No, I insist you take them, I said, trying to be gallant. I must have looked ridiculous standing there in my overalls and tattered suit jacket.If you insist, she said. I understand. My fianc is a proud man, too.She gave me the money I needed and I bought a ticket all the way to Clarion, which was only about ten miles from my parents farm.The train broke down someplace in Indiana and we were forced to wait in the station while they changed engines. It was midsummer and terribly hot. Without envisageing, I took off my jacket and Amanda gasped when she saw my back. She insisted that I see a doctor, but I refused, knowing that I would only have to borrow more money from her to pay for it. We sat on a remove in the station while she cleaned my back with damp napkins from the dining car.In those days the sight of a woman bathing a half-naked man in a train station would have been scandalous, but most of the passengers were soldiers and were much more concerned with being AWOL or with their ultimate destination, Europe, so we were i gnore for the most part.Amanda disappeared for a while and returned just before our train was ready to leave. Ive reserved a trip in the catch some Zsing car for us, she said.I was shocked. I started to protest, but she stopped me. She said, You are going to sleep and I am going to watch over you. You are a priest and Im engaged, so there is nothing wrong with it. Besides, you are in no shape to spend the night sitting up in a train.I think it was then that I realized that I was in pick out with her. Not that it mattered. It was just that after living so long with Father Jaspers abuse I wasnt disposed(p) for the kindness she was showing me. It never occurred to me that I might be putting her in danger.As we pulled away from the station, I looked out on the platform, and for the first time I saw Catch in his smaller form. Why it happened then and not before I dont know. Maybe I didnt have any strength left, but when I saw him there on the platform, flashing a big razor-toothed gr in, I fainted.When I came to, I felt like my back was on fire. I was lying in the sleeping solecism and Amanda was bathing my back with alcohol.I told them youd been wounded in France, she said. The porter helped me get you in here. I think its about time you told me who did this to you.I told her what Father Jasper had done, leaving out the parts about the demon. I was in tears when I finished, and she was holding me, rocking me back and forth.Im not sure how it happened the passion of the moment and all that, I guess but the next thing I knew, we were kissing, and I was undressing her. Just as we were about to make love she stopped me.I have to take this off, she said. She was wearing a wooden bracelet with the initials E + A burnt into it. We dont have to do this, I said.Have you, Mr. Brine, ever said something that you know you will always regret? I have. It was We dont have to do this.She said Oh, then lets not.She fell asleep holding me while I lay awake, thinking abou t sex and damnation, which really wasnt any different from what Id thought about each night in the seminary a little more immediate, I guess.I was just dozing off when I heard a commotion coming from the opposite end of our sleeping car. I peeked through the curtains of the berth to see what was happening. Catch was coming down the aisle, looking into berths as he went. I didnt know at the time that Catch was invisible to other people, and I couldnt understand why they werent screaming at the sight of him. People were shouting and looking out of their berths, but all they were seeing was empty air.I grabbed my overalls and jumped into the aisle, leaving my jacket and the candlesticks in the berth with Amanda. I didnt even thank her. I ran down the aisle toward the back of the car, away from Catch. As I ran, I could hear him yelling, Why are you running? Dont you know the towers?I went through the door between the cars and slid it shut behind me. By now people were screaming, not out of fear of Catch, but because a naked man was running through the sleeping car.I looked into the next car and saw the conductor coming down the aisle toward me. Catch was almost to the door behind me. Without thinking, or even looking, I opened the door to the outside and leapt off the train, naked, my overalls still in hand.The train was on a trestle at the time and it was a long drop to the ground, cardinal or sixty feet. By all rights I should have been killed. When I hit, the wind was knocked out of me and I remember thinking that my back was broken, but in seconds I was up and running through a wooden valley. I didnt realize until later that I had been protected by my pact with the demon, even through he was not under my control at the time. I dont really know the extent of his protection, but Ive been in a hundred accidents since then that should have killed me and come out without a scratch.I ran through the woods until I came to a dirt road. I had no idea where I was. I just walked until I couldnt walk anymore and then sat down at the side of the road. Just after sunup a rickety wagon pulled up beside me and the farmer asked me if I was all right. In those days it wasnt uncommon to see a barefoot kid in overalls by the side of the road.The farmer sure me that I was only about twenty miles from home. I told him that I was a student on holiday, trying to hitchhike home, and he offered to drive me. I fell asleep in the wagon. When the farmer woke me, we were stopped at the gate of my parents farm. I thanked him and walked up the road toward the house.I guess I should have known right away that something was wrong. At that time of the morning everyone should have been out working, but the barnyard was deserted except for a few chickens. I could hear the two dairy cows mooing in the barn when they should have already been milked and put out to pasture.I had no idea what I would tell my parents. I hadnt thought about what I would do when I got home, o nly that I wanted to get there.I ran in the back door expecting to find my mother in the kitchen, but she wasnt there. My family rarely left the farm, and they certainly wouldnt have gone anywhere without taking care of the animals first. My first thought was that there had been an accident. Perhaps my father had fallen from the tractor and they had taken him to the hospital in Clarion. I ran to the front of the house. My fathers wagon was tied up out front.I bolted through the house, shouting into every room, but there was no one home. I found myself standing on the front porch, wondering what to do next, when I heard his voice from behind me.You cant run from me, Catch said.I turned. He was sitting on the porch swing, dangling his feet in the air. I was afraid, but I was also angry.Where is my family? I screamed.He patted his stomach. Gone, he said.What have you done with them? I said.Theyre gone forever, he said. I ate them.I was enraged. I grabbed the porch swing and pushed it w ith everything I had. The swing banged against the porch rail and Catch went over the edge into the dirt.My father kept a chopping block and an ax in front of the house for splitting kindling. I jumped off the porch and snatched up the ax. Catch was just picking himself up when I him in the forehead with it. Sparks flew and the ax blade bounced off his head as if it had hit cast iron. Before I knew it I was on my back and Catch was sitting on my chest grinning like the demon in that Fuselli painting, The Nightmare. He didnt seem at all angry. I flailed under him but could not get up.Look, he said, this is silly. You called me up to do a job and I did it, so whats all the commotion about? By the way, you would have loved it. I clipped the priests hamstrings and watched him crawl around begging for a while. I really like eating priests, theyre always convinced that the Creator is testing them.You killed my family I said. I was still trying to free myself.Well, that sort of thing happe ns when you run away. Its all your fault if you didnt want the responsibility, you shouldnt have called me up. You knew what you were getting into when you renounced the Creator.But I didnt, I protested. Then I remembered my curses in the chapel. I had renounced God. I didnt know, I said.Well, if youre going to be a weenie about it, Ill fill you in on the rules, he said. First, you cant run away from me. You called me up and I am more or less your servant forever. When I say forever, I mean forever. You are not going to age, and you are not going to be sick. The second thing you need to know is that I am immortal. You whack me with axes all you want and all youll get is a dull ax and a huffy back, so just save your energy. Third, I am Catch. They call me the destroyer, and thats what I do. With my help you can rule the world and other really swell stuff. In the past my masters havent used me to the best advantage, but you might be the exception, although I doubt it. Fourth, when Im in this form, you are the only one who can see me. When I take on my destroyer form, I am visible to everyone. Its stupid, and why its that way is a long story, but thats the way it is. In the past they decided to keep me a secret, but theres no rule about it.He paused and climbed off my chest. I got to my feet and dusted myself off. My head was spinning with what Catch had told me. I had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth, but I had nothing else to go on. When you encounter the supernatural, your mind anticipatees for an explanation. Id had the explanation laid in my lap, but I didnt want to believe it.I said, So youre from blaze? I know it was a stupid question, but even a seminary education doesnt prepare you for a conversation with a demon.No, he said, Im from Paradise.Youre lying, I said. It was the beginning of a string of lies and misdirections that have gone on for seventy years.He said, No, really, Im from Paradise. Its a little town about thirty miles ou tside of Newark. Then he started laughing and rolling around in the dirt holding his sides.How can I get rid of you? I asked.Sorry, he said, Ive told you everything that I have to.At the time I didnt know how dangerous Catch was. Somehow I realized that I was in no immediate danger, so I tried to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of him. I didnt want to stay there at the farm, and I didnt have anywhere I could go.My first instinct was to turn to the Church. If I could get to a priest, perhaps I could have the demon exorcised.I led Catch into town, where I asked the local priest to perform an exorcism. Before I could convince him of Catchs existence, the demon became visible and ate the priest, piece by piece, before my eyes. I realized then that Catchs power was beyond the comprehension of any approach pattern priest, perhaps the entire Church.Christians are supposed to believe in evil as an active force. If you turn away evil, you deny good and therefore God. But belief i n evil is as much an act of faith as belief in God, and here I was faced with evil as a reality, not an abstraction. My faith was gone. It was no longer required. There was indeed evil in the world and that evil was me. It was my responsibility, I reasoned, to not let that evil become manifest to other people and thereby slue their faith. I had to keep Catchs existence a secret. I might not be able to stop him from taking lives, but I could keep him from taking souls.I decided to remove him to a safe and sound place where there were no people for him to feed on. We hopped a freight and rode it to Colorado, where I led Catch high into the mountains. There I found a remote cabin where I thought he would be without victims. Weeks passed and I found that I had some control over the demon. I could make him impart water and wood sometimes, but other times he defied me. Ive never understood the inconsistency of his obedience. once I had accepted the fact that I couldnt run away from Cat ch, I questioned him constantly, looking for some steer that might send him back to hell. He was vague, to say the least, giving me little to go on except that he had been on Earth before and that someone had sent him back.After we had been in the mountains for two months, a search party came to the cabin. It seemed that hunters in the area of the cabin, as well as people in villages as far as twenty miles away, had been disappearing. When I was asleep at night, Catch had been ranging for victims. It was obvious that isolation wasnt going to keep the demon from killing. I sent the search party away and set myself on coming up with some kind of plan. I knew we would have to move or people would discover that Catch existed.I knew there had to be some sort of logic to his presence on Earth. Then, while we were hiking out of the mountains, it occurred to me that the key to sending Catch back must have been concealed in another candlestick. And I had left them on the train with the girl . Jumping off the train to escape Catch may have cost me the only chance I had to get rid of him. I searched my memory for anything that could lead me to the girl. I had never asked where she was going or what her last name was. In trying to recall details of my time with her I kept coming up with the image of those striking blue eyes. They seemed etched into my memory while everything else faded. Could I go around the eastern United States asking anyone if they had seen a young girl with elegant blue eyes?Something nagged at me. There was something that could lead me to the girl I just had to remember it. Then it hit me the wooden bracelet she wore. The initials carved inside the heart were E + A. How hard could it be to search service records for a soldier with the first initial E? His service records would have his next of kin, and she was staying with his family. I had a plan.I took Catch back East and began checking local draft boards. I told them I had been in Europe and a man whose first name began with E had saved my life and I wanted to find him. They always asked about divisions and stations and where the battle had taken place. I told them I had taken a shell fragment in the head and could remember nothing but the mans first initial. No one believed me, of course, but they gave me what I asked for out of pity, I think.Meanwhile, Catch kept taking his victims. I tried to prefigure him toward thieves and grifters when I could, reasoning that if he must kill, at least I could protect the innocent.I taken up(p) libraries, looking for the oldest books on magic and demonology I could find. Perhaps somewhere I could find an incantation to send the demon back. I performed hundreds of rituals drawing pentagrams, collecting bizarre talismans, and putting myself through all sorts of physical rigors and diets that were supposed to purify the sorcerer so the magic would work. After repeated failures, I realized that the volumes of magic were nothing more than the work of medieval snake-oil salesmen. They always added the purity of the sorcerer as a condition so they would have an excuse for their customers when the magic did not work.During this same time I was still looking for a priest who would perform an exorcism. In Baltimore I finally found one who believed my story. He agreed to perform an exorcism. For his protection, we arranged to have him stand on a balcony while Catch and I remained in the pathway below. Catch laughed himself silly through the entire ritual, and when it was over, he broke into the building and ate the priest. I knew then that finding the girl was my only hope.Catch and I kept moving, never staying in one place longer than two or three days. Fortunately there were no computers in those days that might have tracked the disappearances of Catchs victims. In each town I collected a list of veterans, then ran leads to the ground by knocking on doors and questioning the families. Ive been doing that for o ver seventy years. Yesterday I think I found the man I was looking for. As it turned out, E was his middle initial. His name is J. Effrom Elliot. I thought my luck had finally turned. I mean the fact that the man is still existing is pretty lucky in itself. I thought that I might have to trace the candlesticks through surviving relatives, hoping that someone remembered them, perhaps had kept them as an heirloom.I thought it was all over, but now Catch is out of control and you are keeping me from stopping him forever.