‘Possession is 9/10’s of the law’

By: Walter G Esselman

FBI Internal Memo:  Welcome to the city of [Redacted].  As part of your duties with the FBI, you will probably encounter citizens that come from a small enclave that is quite hidden.  The enclave is called Happenstance, though you might hear it referred to as ‘Monster Alley’.  That is because the citizens are supernatural in origin.  That is not a typo.  This community has its own police force, but does interact with the local police and our agency.  In fact, there is one human detective that transferred there.  Her name is...  

***

Sophie Frost stared with bright green eyes at the reflection in the storefront window.  She watched as her partner, Rafe Howler, ordered dinner from a person who had the feathers and features of a bird, almost like a feathered Velociraptor.  But in this case, a velociraptor who wore a brightly colored apron that read ‘Wen’s Palace Of All Night Takeout’ in English, Chinese, and another language she had never seen before.  

Sometimes, she still found herself taken aback by the...unique citizens of this little enclave.  

“The usual detective?” asked the bird man named Wen in a thick Chinese accent.  He stood behind a wooden cart that included an ancient black wok, and vegetables hanging from the cart’s roof.

Sophie’s partner just grunted.  For Howler, this was almost a rambling speech, she thought a little nastily.  Noting the bitterness in her thoughts, she targeted the problem and recognized it right away.  Howler still treated her like a kid sister who was tagging along, rather than as a full fledged partner. 

Focusing on her reflection, she noted her mousy brown hair and petite figure.  A part of her felt like a kid sister sometimes.

Howler was suddenly off at a brisk walk away from the bird man’s cart.

“See you tomorrow,” said Wen, but there was no reply from the detective, so Frost gave a kind wave to the bird man as she followed.

Howler strode quickly along the cement sidewalk holding his Chinese takeout box in one hand.  With his other hand, he reached into his blue-gray coat.  The movement showed a leather rig with four knives, two on either side, that encircled his trim waist.  Each knife had a distinct color: red, blue, green and black.

Pulling out a pair of metal chopsticks, Howler peered at them in the fading light.  He suddenly stopped, and tucked the takeout box in the crook of his arm.  

“We going to talk about the Windigo case?” asked Frost, and she cursed the slight tremor in her voice.

Howler just drew the red knife.  

The weapon came from its scabbard with a blade that was red hot.  Running the scorching blade over the metal chopsticks, Howler turned any residual food into ash.  The metal chopsticks turned red hot before the detective sheathed the red knife and headed off again.

When he dipped the hot chopsticks into the takeout box, Frost could hear the noodles sizzling.  But Howler’s hands did not seem to be bothered by the heat.

“So we’re not going to talk about the Windigo case,” said Frost growing frustrated.  She began to weigh her future job options when there came a call from above.

“Alert,” called out a voice.  A crow swooped down and started to land on Howler’s shoulder, but the detective gave the bird a scowl.  Struggling to gain air again, the crow moved away from Howler.

“Here,” said Frost as she held up an arm.  The crow gratefully flew over and landed.

“Thank you,” said the crow without looking at Howler.  Then the crow cleared its throat.  “There is a possible 207D in the Shrangra-La building.   Fifth floor; just look for the fuzz.”

“207 is a kidnapping,” said Frost.  “But what’s the ‘D’ for?”

“Demon,” grunted Howler.  Suddenly, he was off at a dead run.

“Shoot,” said Frost as her partner ran off.  She looked at the crow.  “Thank you.”

“Good luck,” said the crow as he zipped back up into the air.

Frost took a quick breath and then ran after Howler.  Soon, she caught up with the other detective and Howler glanced over at her, as if in surprise.  Frost just lifted her chin in defiance.  He faced forward and kept moving.

As they were reaching the red brick building, she noticed that the Chinese takeout box was missing, but she had not seen him drop it.  Frost was going to comment when they stopped, and now she did not trust her shortness of breath.

Inside the Shangri-La apartment building, there was a myriad of competing smells, some were recognizable like Indian food, and others that Frost had never encountered before.

Up the dingy stairs, they soon heard a rush of noise from the fifth floor.  Through the fire door, they found several Happenstance police officers waiting outside an apartment.  One look at Howler, and the officers made room for him as he and Frost went past, and into a tiny apartment.

The plush chair in the center looked newer, but the couch and rug looked like they had been found dumpster diving.  By an old TV stood a young looking mother with long white hair and a cheery peach shirt.  Her pitch black eyes were puffy from crying. 

A sergeant looked up at Howler when he and Frost walked in.

“Detective,” said the Sergeant Hozen differentially.  He did not appear to notice Frost.

“What?” asked Howler simply.

“The mother, Rea, called thirty minutes ago because…,” started the sergeant.  

“She’s a good girl,” burst out the mother.

“We’re not questioning…,” started the sergeant.

“That depends,” responded Howler, and the sergeant and the mother looked in shock at the detective.

“What he means,” said the sergeant quickly.  “Is that we want to find your daughter as quickly as possible to keep her from harm.”

Frost mentally shook her head at this.  Howler had been quite clear, but she was not going to go in and clean up for him.  

“Now, can you tell us what happened?” asked the sergeant.

“Again?” huffed the mother.

“For us?” asked Frost with a gentle voice.

The mother nodded at that.  “My daughter, Zelda, had gone to her room.  Slammed the door actually.  And, after a short while...there was this...scream.”

“Like she was in pain?” asked Frost.

“More like anger,” said the mother.

“Has she been angry lately?”

“Well, after her father left to take up with that...thing,” said the mother, Rea, while scrunching up her tiny nose.  “Zel’s been acting out more.  Here, and at school.  She got caught shoplifting in the Alley of the Broken Djinn last week.  But really, she's a good girl.  She’s just…”

“Demon?” asked Howler of the sergeant.

“We’re pretty sure, but Officer Disreali is examining the girl’s room right now,” said the sergeant.  “He dealt with some of that stuff back in the Old Country.”

“My ears are burning,” called out a kindly voice from down a narrow hallway.  Frost took a step further into the room, and saw a gorilla walking upright down the hall.  In fact, a six and a half foot tall gorilla in a Happenstance P.D. uniform.  The gorilla stepped into the room and took in everyone, even Frost.  Then he focused on the sergeant.

“There was definitely a summoning through a Ouija board,” said the gorilla, Edmund Disraeli.  Everyone's head instinctively turned to look at the mother who took a step back.

“I...I didn’t know she had a board,” stammered the mother.  “She knows better than to use a board here.  I mean, they even talk about it in school.”

The sergeant turned to Howler.  “Ideas?”

“Anger,” suggested Howler.  “Demons can latch onto anger most easily.”

The sergeant turned to the mother.  “You said she’s been acting out more?”

The mother sighed.  “Her father left six months ago to live with that…that whatever it is.  And Zelda took it pretty hard.  And she’s been having trouble at school.  I’ve tried to help, but…”  She seemed to deflate.

“It’s hard being a single parent,” said Frost softly, and the mother just nodded.

“So we look for a focus for her anger,” said the sergeant.

“Father, school, shoplifting,” said Howler.  “I’ll take the Father.”  Howler looked at the mother. “Who? Where?”

“Zac Cardiff is her Dad.  Are..are you going to hurt him?” asked the mother with a tremble in her voice.

“No,” said Howler.

The mother looked unsure of how to take that news.  But she rattled off an address.

“Wait,” said the sergeant.  “If it’s a demon...I mean, it is a demon, so we’re going to need something to stop it.”   

Officer Disraeli looked at Howler.  “What about your knives old boy?” 

Howler shook his head.  “Not while it’s still inside the girl.”

“So we need to get it out of her first,” mused the sergeant.

“I don’t know of any relics at the museum that can do that.  So we need a symbol of the OneGod,” said Disraeli.  The gorilla resettled the silver spectacles on his nose.  “But does anyone even have such a thing here.”

Everyone shook their head quickly, but Frost was confused.

“The what?” asked Frost.

“The OneGod,” said Disraeli.  “Symbols of faith for Judaism, Christianity or Islam.”

“Oh, like this,” said Frost as she reached into her shirt and pulled out the small silver cross from around her neck.  

And everyone in the room, except for Disraeli and Howler, took a step back.  Frost saw this and looked uncertain.

“What?” she asked.

“You must understand that,” said Disraeli gently, with a little British accent in his voice.  “During the Spanish Inquisition, the church did not just go after other faiths, but our kind as well.  Many fled the European continent with only the clothes on their back.”

“More did not make it that far,” added the sergeant gravely as he eyed the cross apprehensively, so Frost put it back under her shirt.

“My Dad said a cop needs all the help they can get,” explained Frost, and realized she was being defensive.

“It’s not you,” said Disraeli.  “But what that symbol represents.  Anyhow, it looks like you will have to do an exorcism, when we find the girl.”

“Me?” asked Frost.  “But...me?  Wouldn’t a priest be better?”

And the faces of the people in the room turned chilly, except for Howler who looked distantly amused.

“Okaaaay...no priests,” said Frost carefully.

“For one, we could not guarantee their safety,” explained Disraeli.  “Some the citizens here are the same refugees who fled Europe.”

“Right,” nodded Frost.  “I’ll...I’ll do my best then.”

With that, Howler turned and walked out the apartment door.  Frost did a double take, and then turned to follow.

“Save her,” called out the mother in a desperate voice.

Frost looked back.  “We’re going right now to find her.”

Turning, Frost headed out the door, and saw that Howler was already on the stairs going down.  She chased her partner down to the street where he was moving at a brisk pace.  There was little foot traffic at this time of night, and only a few carts in the road.  No motor cars were allowed in Monster Alley because the streets were already too claustrophobic.

Frost had to start jogging to keep up with Howler, but he kept speeding up.  She was starting to get annoyed, and was about to say something biting when he screeched to a halt.  She had to jog a little forward to slow her momentum.  When she turned back, Howler was already going into an apartment building named Stonehenge Heights.

A part of her wanted to head back to the station house and demand a new partner, but there was the little girl.  She made an unconscious growl and she went into the building.  Digging out her Iphone, she looked up ‘Exorcism ritual’ in Safari and found the Rite of Exorcism on Catholic Online.  

“Umm, this really says a priest should do this,” she muttered.  But Howler was already up the stairs, a floor above, so he did not reply.  She put one hand on the railing as she tried to read and walk up the stairs.  “It says here that you're supposed to have just gone to confession, luckily I did that last Sunday.  Wish I could bring Father Simon here.”

Howler suddenly leaned over a railing above and just glared at her.

“I know, I know!” spat Frost testily.  “But this is big stuff.  What if I mess it up?”

Howler just disappeared from view.

“Thanks for the encouragement,” grumbled Frost.  She looked down and started to read.  Then she scrolled quickly down to the bottom.  “Wow!  An exorcism is long.  Like really, really long.”

Frost stopped reading at the seventh floor because she saw Howler waiting on the landing.  Once she arrived, he went through a fire door and down a corridor with an expensive carpet.  Following Howler, Frost tried to keep reading while they walked.

Suddenly, there was a crash from further down the corridor.  

Howler and Frost ran.  Raised voices came from an apartment.

“That’s the Dad’s address,” said Howler, and he hit the door with his body.  The wooden door had no chance and crashed open.  Frost saw Howler move and his blue knife flew across the room at a little girl.

As Frost’s mouth opened, she saw the hilt of the blue knife smack into the wrist of the thirteen year old girl, Zelda.  The hand, which had been holding a pair of bloodied scissors, went limp and the scissors dropped to the floor.  The spot on her wrist, where the knife hilt had struck, had a fine layer of frost on it.

Howler was suddenly across the room and picking up the thirteen year old, by the throat, to pin her to a wall.  There was a thud as the girl hit, and the fine china cabinet, further along the wall, rattled nervously.  

The girl, Zelda, had white hair and black eyes like her mother, but a blue tinge to her skin.

“What the hell are you doing?” cried a middle aged man as he grabbed Howler’s arm.

Covering the middle aged man’s arms were shallow defense cuts.  The man, presumably Zelda’s father, tried to move Howler, but with little luck.  

“Happenstance P.D.” called out Frost, feeling like it was a little late.

“What’s going on?” demanded the father.

Frost stepped up to Howler and the father.  The girl was looking dazed.

“Mr. Cardiff?” asked Frost.

“Yes, what’s going on?” replied the father, Zac Cardiff.

“Sir, you’re going to need to step back,” said Frost, but the father would not let go of Howler.

“Let go of my daughter,” hissed Cardiff who, despite his pedestrian name, had dark blue skin and no visible hair.

“Sir, your daughter has been possessed,” said Frost.

“What?” 

“We just came from your…,” started Frost, but faltered at naming the mother.  “From her mother’s place.  Zelda had been playing with a Ouija board.”

“Bullshit,” snapped Cardiff.  “She’d never do that.”

Frost now realized that someone was huddled behind the father.  But the person was obscured by his body, and even the parts that showed were vague and intangible.  

“My name is Detective Frost, and this is Detective Howler,” said Frost.  “We’re trying to help your daughter.”

“By slamming her against walls?” asked the father.

Frost winced inwardly at that, but the father was bleeding.  “By holding her until we can get her free of the demon.”

“This is nonsense,” said the father.

The person behind Cardiff tugged on his arm.  

“Please listen to her!  Something isn’t right here,” urged the hushed voice of the person hidden behind him.  The Obsured One’s voice was neither deep, nor light, which would possibly hint to their gender.

The father turned to the Obsured One, but spoke more gently.  “I can’t let him do this in our home.”

“Daddy,” said the young girl suddenly, and everyone looked at the thirteen year old girl.  Zelda was looking at her father with terrified eyes.  “Why is this man holding me?”

“Zelda,” said Cardiff desperately.  And he started to pull at Howler’s arm aggressively.  Frost could see her partner growing irritated.

“Why do they think there’s something’s wrong with me?” asked the girl.

“I don’t know,” replied the father.

“It’s me Dad,” said Zelda.  “Your little marshmallow.”

“I’ll get you away,” promised Cardiff.

“Daddy, help me!” said Zelda.

The father’s hands clenched into fists.  Cardiff was readying to fight.  And Frost knew that her partner would retaliate.

Darting to Howler’s other side, Frost reached under her shirt and pulled out her cross.  She held it awkwardly towards the thirteen year old girl.

Out of Zelda came an inhuman shriek like metal tearing.  And just for a moment, there was another face outlined over the little girl’s.  The other face was twisted and horrifying.  Then it was gone, but the person behind the father gave an involuntary cry.

Cardiff was staring at his daughter.

“What...what was that?” he asked.

“What?” asked the girl innocently of her father.  “What’s wrong?”

“Your face,” said the father.

“Oh that, I’ve always had that,” said Zelda.

“Oh no you haven’t,” said the father.  He looked over Howler’s arms at Frost.  “What?”

“That’s why we’re here,” said Frost quickly to maintain their momentum.  “To save your daughter.”

“I don’t need saving,” insisted Zelda.

“What will you do?” asked the father.  “Are you going to hurt her?” 

“We’re here to stop her from getting hurt, or hurting anyone else,” said Frost.  “We’re going to have to perform an exorcism.”

“A religious ceremony?” asked the father as his face twisted in revulsion.

“It’s the only way,” insisted Frost.  “I’m not happy about it either, but if it can free your daughter...”

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” sing-songed Zelda.

“Quiet you,” growled Howler to the demon inside the girl.

The Obscured One tugged the father’s arm from behind.  

“They’re right,” said the Obscured One.  “This is not your Zelda.  Zelda hasn’t been really happy about...well, us, but she never would have attacked you.  Never!”

 The father nodded slowly and looked back at the detectives.

“Okay,” said the father.  “Are you going to do it here?” 

Frost looked at Howler who gave a slight nod of his head.  She looked back at the father.

“It’s not safe to travel with her like this,” said Frost.  “We need to do this here, but probably somewhere more private.” She nodded her head at the broken door.

“My study,” said the Obscured One.  “It will be more private.”

“Where?” asked Frost.

Cardiff pointed down a hallway.  “On the right.”

Howler pulled the girl close, bound so that she could not easily get away.  He started to take her down the hallway.

“Don’t hurt her,” said the father.

“We’re doing everything we can,” said Frost, but her stomach felt like it was knotted in a thousand places.  She followed Howler who shoved the door open with one shoe.  There were books along one wall in a mahogany bookcase.  A fancy desk sat in the middle of the room.  Frost looked at that and then leaned back down the hallway.

“I’m going to move the desk aside to give us more room,” she called out.

“Okay, but be careful.  It's heavy,” said the Obscured One.

And the Obscured One was not joking about that.  The desk weighed a ton, and Howler could not help.  But Frost moved a little bit here and there to get the desk out of the way of the exorcism.

“I’m bored,” cried out the demon.

Howler just let out a deep growl that reverberated throughout  the room.

“What?” replied the demon.  “I am!” 

Having moved the desk, Frost closed the door and opened up Safari on her phone.  The double window had been lifted up, but no cool breeze came through the open bottom half.  Frost looked at the beginning of the Rites of Exorcism.

“It says here that the other person is supposed to recite stuff as well,” said Frost uncertainly.  She looked up at Howler who just gave her a hard look.  “Okay, I’ll do that part too.”

“I’d help, but I’m kinda opposed to all this,” said the demon companionably.

“Shush,” said Frost absently.

“You know, a priest is really supposed to do an exorcism,” said the demon in the little girl.

“That’s what I said,” replied Frost.  “But I was outvoted.”

“You really think you can do this?” sneered the demon.

Frost raised an eyebrow at the demon.

“You want me to put that cross back in your face?” asked Frost, and she saw, for just a moment, Howler’s face tick up in a smile.

The demon pouted with the girl’s face, but kept quiet.

“Right,” said Frost as she took the silver cross from around her neck and wrapped it around her right hand.  “This might take a while.”

***

Frost put her coat on a chair and turned back to the demon.  It was straining against Howler who held the girl by her upper arms so that she dangled a little ways away from him.  

Howler seemed bored.  Frost, on the other hand, felt like a sweaty mess.  The room had turned into an oven as she had read through the exorcism.  And she did not feel confident, just nervous.  What if this didn’t work? She wondered.

“You look nervous,” taunted the demon.

But Frost was a cop and let the taunt go past her.  Her Dad always said, ‘Focus on the law, focus on the job, and you’ll be okay’.  She did not think he was talking about exorcisms though.

Frost looked a little ahead on the web page and saw that they were almost done.  She felt relieved, and then nervous because the demon was not out of the little girl.

“You don’t have the juice to send me back,” sneered the demon.  “You don’t have it in you.”

That last taunt was harder to dodge.  She continued and wondered if they would have to go through the exorcism twice.  But her gut said that they almost had it out of the girl. 

“And those who have done good shall enter into everlasting life, but those who have done evil into everlasting fire,” she read while clutching her cross.  “All this is Catholic faith, and unless one believes it truly and firmly one cannot be saved.”

Frost looked up at Howler who arched an eyebrow at that.

“Glory be to the Father,” continued Frost with a little falter.  “As it was in the beginning.”

And then she realized that now she had almost reached the end of the Exorcism.  She glanced worriedly at the demon ridden girl.

“More?” asked Howler.

“That’s…,” started Frost when the girl went limp.  Both detectives looked at the girl.  Frost started to lean down when the girl suddenly swung her feet forward.  The girl’s sneakers nearly caught Frost on the chin.

And the demon ridden girl kept swinging upward.  Feet spun over her head as both shoulders became dislocated with twin pops.  The girl flipped over and kicked Howler hard in the face.

It was just enough to make Howler lose his grip for a moment.  Free of his grip, the girl dropped and hit the floor running.  Frost saw her, trailing her two dislocated arms, running for the open window.  

“She’s coming with me!” cackled the demon.  

As the demon ridden girl jumped out of the window, a hand grabbed her ankle.  Swinging down, the demon hit the outside side of the building hard and looked back up.

Gripping her ankle, with the hand that held the cross, Frost glared down at the demon.

“You aren’t taking her anywhere,” snarled Frost though her muscles burned with exertion.   Her other hand still had the phone.  She glanced at it, and then braced her knees against the inner wall under the double window.  Distantly, Frost was glad that the demon had not jumped higher and gone through the two panes of glass on the upper half of the double window.

Thumbing her phone, she saw that there was a little more to be said after.  And purpose blazed through her.  She leaned out the window and looked the demon square in the eye.

“Almighty God, we beg you to keep the evil spirit from further molesting this servant of yours, and to keep him far away, never to return.  At your command, O Lord, may the goodness and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, that possession of this woman.  May we no longer fear any evil since the lord is with us; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.  Amen!” cried Frost as the words poured out of her.  “Get Out Of Her!”

There was a snap of air pressure and the girl suddenly opened her mouth.  Like smoke, out came a twisted form that hung in the air.  It coalesced into a demented human shape that looked at its hands in surprise.

“You kicked me out?” it said in shock.  “How’d you do that?”  But then it grinned with shark-like teeth.  “Ha!  You couldn’t send me back home.  No, you couldn’t do that.  Need a priest to send me back.  Now I’m going to find someone else.  Yes I will.  Then we can dance again...over and ov…”

Its taunting speech was cut off by a sound behind Frost.  It sounded like the roar of mighty animal.  

While Frost held on to the girl, Howler dove over her.

The detective smashed through the upper part of the window sending wood and glass rocketing like shrapnel.  As he flew over her, Frost saw Howler pull the green knife from his belt.  The blade had a sickly pallor.

Grabbing the demon by the throat, Howler bore it down towards the ground.  As they fell, Howler began to stab the creature with his green knife over and over again.  The demon, with the detective on top, hit the cobblestones below with a teeth-rattling crash.

Howler drove the knife down once more, piercing right through the demon and scraping the cobblestones below.  Then the detective drew the knife out and stepped back.

“Fool, is that all you got?  Your weapons can’t…”

Suddenly the demon stiffened and blinked.

“Your weapons…,” started the demon, but it seized up.  “What?”

Howler moved back just a hair more.

The demon turned to its side and threw up noisily.

“What did you…?” tried the demon, however it began to throw up again.

Howler chuckled and he knelt near the thing.

“Now, I couldn’t burn you, or freeze you, and killing you was not possible, but I could infect you,” grinned Howler with a horrible smile.

“You...you…,” sputtered the demon as its body began to deflate.

“Remember that if you ever come back to My Town,” growled Howler as he stood up.

There was a terrible sucking noise, and then all that was left of the demon was a dark stain on the cobblestones.

“Um, that was really satisfying,” said Frost from above.  “But I could Really use some help up here.”

Howler looked up to see Frost still holding the girl outside the window.

“Coming,” said Howler quickly as he put away his knife.

***

Frost stepped out of the hospital and Howler walked forward to meet her.

“The girl will be okay,” reported Frost.  “They had already popped one arm back into the socket.  Both parents were there.  I’m not sure how that is going to go, but they both seem to be focused on Zelda for now.”

As she reached him, Howler turned down the street.  She saw him pull out the Chinese takeaway box, and his metal chopsticks, to continue eating.  Frost wondered absently where he had kept them with all that running about.

Dawn was beginning to peer over the buildings in Happenstance, and there was a crisp chill in the air.  But she was okay to just walk right now.

“I don’t think it was Windigos,” said Howler suddenly.

Frost blinked and looked at him.  “What?”

“The case,” said Howler.  “Windigos can’t stop eating, and our victim was mostly still there.  I think someone wanted us to think Windigos though.”

“Red herring?” asked Frost.

Howler grunted in agreement.

And Frost gave a content little smile as they began to pick apart the case to find the truth.