Free Dark Exorcist by Tim Miller Page A

tonight.
         “Bobby!” I yelled, this time. “Answer me!”
         “He can’t hear you Doctor,” a voice said from behind me. It was a man’s voice. I turned and saw Chloe standing there, glowing yellow eyes trained on me. “None of them can. They’re ours now!” As it spoke, my spotlight went out.
     

Chapter 20
     
    Officer Roman, 3:30 a.m.    
         I ran down the hall from the direction of the scream. There were more patients wandering around, they appeared to be in some sort of trance. Their eyes glowed yellow. Among them was a young man, a few years younger than myself. He kept screaming, but his scream was so shrill and high pitched it hurt my ears. I had no idea what he was yelling at, he was just staring off into space.
         I decided Amanda wasn’t around here, so I ran to the stairwell and climbed, again, to the third floor. It was around this time I decided it was time to renew my gym membership. My calves were starting to burn. The walk up the stairs was uneventful other than my calves being on fire. I had to feel my way up each step in the near darkness. About halfway there, my flashlight went off, again. I seriously doubted that it was the batteries. There were forces at work in this hospital that I didn’t even want to understand. I used the handrails to steady my climb, one step at a time. I tried to radio the other two officers to check on their progress.
         “A-367 to units 385 and 419.” After a minute of silence, I called out again but still nothing. I reached for my cell phone and wasn’t the least bit surprised to see it was dead again. So, once again, I was on my own, so much for having backup. I hoped they weren’t in harm’s way. Once I stepped out onto the third floor, it was dead silent.
         I walked to the psych unit and tried the door, but it was locked. Then I heard a pounding sound, that seemed to come from an area near the elevator. I continued toward the noise, hoping to avoid any other creepy, glowing eyed people. Nothing so far. I reached the elevator and realized the pounding was coming from inside.
    “Hello?” I yelled. “Anyone in there?”
    “Can you hear me?” the person answered. “I’m stuck in here!”
    I wedged my fingers between the doors and pulled as hard as I could. The doors slowly worked open. In the dark, I could see the elevator had stopped a couple of feet short of the floor.
         “You there?” I asked.
         “Officer Roman?” the man said.
         “Yes, who’s there?”
         “It’s Father Pierce. I was looking for Dr. Bennett.”
         “Well, I haven’t seen him, give me your hand,” I said, reaching my hand up to the opening. He knelt down and held my hand, as I helped pull him through and guided him to his feet.
         “What happened?” I asked.
          “Father Harlan arrived to help me with Amanda. He asked me to go get Dr. Bennett, but when I got on the elevator, the power went out and I got stuck.”
         “Who is Father Harlan?”
         “He’s another priest, my Bishop sent him to come see Amanda. He’s a uh, specialist.”
         “What kind of specialist?” I asked. He was acting weird, and the 911 call had said Amanda got loose and assaulted staff. Strange events were happening here, but it didn’t appear to be an assault.
         “He’s an exorcist,” Father Pierce finally admitted.
         “An exorcist? Are you kidding? That girl is sick.”
         “Yes, I know she is. But she’s not responding to any treatment. Not to mention, have you noticed all the weird things going on? I had some evil face staring at me in the elevator.”
         “Well, I had some guy with half his head missing chase me through the ER. Then on the 2 nd floor, all the patients are wandering around and screaming.”
         “This is why I called the Bishop. Per Catholic guidelines, Amanda meets all the criteria for a person possessed by a