The Exorcism of Calvin

I was almost giddy when the priest agreed to perform the exorcism.

Father Maxi is actually fairly well-known in the area. He had completed several rather public exorcisms, one of them on a councilman‘s daughter that had changed the girls so drastically that others had trouble disbelieving his abilities. While most people believed he was just a well-meaning shyster, many people believed he was the real deal.

He seem to be just what I needed for my current problem.

Sitting in his office at Saint Marco’s, it seemed oddly humble for a man like him. There were no extravagant trappings in his office, only the humble set pieces of a public servant. The wall behind him held a picture of the softball team that he coached, of happy parishioners at a picnic, and of smiling children at a hospital where he had gone to speak. He sat behind a very normal desk that you could’ve probably found at any IKEA and his chair squeaked a little, letting me know that it had likely served him for quite some time.

Sitting across from him though, I could tell that he was anything But average.

He seem to exude power as he smiled at me, and I felt confident that I had found the right man for the job.

“One of my parishioners said you had reached out. What can I do for you today, my child?”

I tried to find the best way to start, and finally decided to be honest with him.

“ there’s an entity in my house, one who has become darker and darker the longer he stays. He has entrenched himself, and I don’t know how to get him out.”

Priest noted, pulling a notepad to him, and he took a pencil from the holder, “Go on.”

“It was nothing at first. He brought small offerings, things that didn’t need to be in my house. Then started hurting my cats and now both of them are gone.”

“It is not uncommon for entities like this to target small things they cannot defend themselves. Has this entity taken up inside someone you love? A Child or a wife?”

“ Actually, it’s taking up inside one of my cats.”

The priest looked at me as if trying to see if he had misheard me.

“I’m sorry, did you say a cat?”

I nodded, certain now he would laugh. He would tell me I was overreacting. He would tell me to stop wasting his time and send me on my way. Then I would have to go home to my apartment, look at that large orange feline, and see the realization there. He would know what I had done, know where I have been, and I would likely suffer for it.

To my surprise, the priest told me to tell him more, and I sighed in relief, glad to have someone who believed me.

I’d been living with Calvin for a year now, but the problems hadn't started until a few months ago. He was such a delight at first. He and his brothers filled my home with joy, but that was before he began bringing me the gifts. Calvin loved the extra attention, loved the treats I gave him because of these gifts, and so he kept finding them, despite my confusion as to where they were coming from. I didn’t mind, not much. Calvin was a good boy, and he was making the house safer by catching and bringing in his gifts. His brothers didn’t understand, they were jealous of what he was getting, and that's likely what led to our current state of affairs.

His brother had taken one of those gifts, and now he was gone.

Very soon they were both gone, and Calvin’s gifts became….darker.

Now he’s bringing me things that I’m going to start having trouble explaining and, so, I figured it was time to enlist the help of a professional.

As I finished, the priest furrowed his brow and circled something on his notepad.

“Are you sure it’s the cat?” he asked.

He didn’t seem skeptical, it sounded more like he wanted to be sure before he made plans.

“ I am,” I told him.

“What makes you so sure? It could very well be someone breaking in to leave these things. It could be something else entirely, something that you’re not seeing.”

I shook my head, “It’s definitely him, Father. The way he looks at me, the way he acts, it’s all so different than it was before the rats. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t know where it came from, but he’s not the same cat that I took in a year ago. The anger and the heat in his eyes isn’t something I’ve ever seen in a cat before. It’s almost human in its intensity, and I don’t know how much longer it will be content to let me wander around and its space.”

Father Maxi nodded, putting the notebook into his pocket as he reached under his desk for a leather bag that looked like a toiletries holder more than anything.

“Very well, let’s go.”

I was speechless, “Just like that?”

“My son, I’ve been in this business a long time. I’ve learned to read people, and I can see that whether the presence is demonic or not, you are terrified of it. If my presence will help alleviate that terror, then I owe it to you and to God to go and have a look. Believe it or not, my calendar is not as full as some people might think. I have to be back for evening mass in a few hours, but until then I can go and help you with your problem.”

He begged my patience for a few moments as he took out the stole of his office and checked the bag to make sure he had the things he would need. He took a tin from his desk, and I saw that it was full of the host, the wafers they used in communion. He took an old well-worn Bible from his desk, and placing it under one arm, he told me to lead the way.

He rode with me to my apartment, and the second we came to the front, I knew that something was off. The sky over Saint Marco’s had been blue and clear, but the sky over my apartment was full of angry clouds, and the wind that whipped at Father Maxi's robes felt like a hurricane. The people inside looked out the window and marked off, more than a few of them crossing themselves as we walked inside. I think they had felt a darkness gathering around the apartment as well, and they hoped that Father Maxi might be able to dispel whatever has been haunting them.

There were police cars in front of the main office, and I could see the officers inside talking to the building supervisor.

I tensed as we walked past them, not sure what fresh hell had happened while I was away.

“Gavin,” set the building super, “These officers are here about the disappearance of the girl in E12. You haven’t seen her recently, have you?”

He seemed almost hopeful, and why shouldn’t he? His own child, his newborn baby, has gone missing less than a month ago. It had put a pall over the whole building, and sometimes you could hear him, roving up and down the hallways calling for her at night. Many wanted to be angry at him, but the bottle in his hand led us to believe that the drink had driven him to do it. He hoped that maybe if they found this girl, the nine-year-old who had so often skipped down the stairs on our way to school, they would find his baby as well. They would all be safe and sound together and the girl's family wouldn’t be the only one to have a happy reunion that day.

I doubted they would ever find any trace of either of them unless the offering I had flushed made its way into the sewer somehow.

I told him I didn’t know, but I got the feeling that the priest didn’t quite believe me. Police said that if I discovered any information to let them know immediately, and I said that I would. One of them, an older cop with a salt and pepper mustache, watched me go as if he didn’t quite believe me either, and as we went up the stairs, the old priest asked me about it.

“You suspect that the missing girl is connected with your problem, don’t you?”

I didn’t look at him, but I nodded, “ I've found things in the apartment the last few weeks. Hair barrettes, small toys, a child’s shoe under the couch, and,” but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him about the little foot.

“And yet you came to me, instead of the police.”

I almost laughed, “Father, I barely thought you would believe me. Imagine what kind of luck I would have going to the cops and telling them that the missing children they’ve been searching for are being taken by a twenty-pound house cat?”

He accepted that but I started to wonder if I should have told anyone about it? I had been getting rid of the things I had found, putting them at the bottom of my garbage, and praying that no one found them. I knew what it would mean if they did. They might not believe that a cat had done it, but they would certainly believe that I had done it. They would find no evidence of my involvement, nothing besides Calvin's grizzly trophies, but that would be enough.

I’d be spending my time on death row after that, and Calvin would be free to roam again.

We came out of the stairwell, and it almost seemed like the lights on my floor were dimmer. The budget for lights had likely never been very large, but a strange haze seem to cover everything, and it made the whole floor look darker. I saw the Father take something out of his pocket, and I was unsurprised to see it was a crucifix. He had noticed it too, and he wasn’t about to walk blindly into this den of evil. When we came to the door of my apartment, can you put a hand on my shoulder as I slid the key in.

“Open the door, but let me go in first.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?”

“ I don’t want whatever this is to have a chance to take you and make my job harder. Let me go in first and follow behind me. I will do what must be done, and one way or another, your problems will come to an end.”

I didn’t much care for the implications, but I suppose there was no other way.

I turned the lock and opened the door.

The darkness in the hallway had been nothing compared to the darkness in the apartment. It was the middle of the day, even with the clouds outside there should’ve been some ambient light. Instead, the inside of the apartment was as black as midnight. It almost felt like a blackout, but only for my particular unit. I reached in to try and flip the switch, but the priest pushed my hand away and stepped into the doorway.

His crucifix sprung to life, the brightness that of a flashlight with a huge lumen count.

Inside the apartment, I could see Calvin sitting on the back of the couch and looking at us questioningly. He has his head cocked as if to ask what we were doing, and it was such a normal gesture from a cat that I almost doubted what I had felt. I had been wrong, I had miss read the situation, and now I had drug this priest away from his duties and wasted his time. I started to apologize to the old man, but one look at his face told me that he did not share my opinion.

As he began to chant in Latin, Calvin went crazy.

He fell off the back of the couch, beginning to roll on the hardwood, and as the priest advanced on him he didn’t let up at all. Calvin was writhing in pain, his eyes wide, as if to ask what was happening? The priest took something out of the bag with his free hand, his eyes never leaving the cat, and when he spritz him with the holy water, Calvin rolled and leaped at him. It was so quick that I don’t think the priest have been expecting it, and when the scratch appeared on his cheek, he dropped the bottle and reeled back in pain. He never dropped the crucifix though, the glowing talisman seeming to be a piece of his body. Calvin scampered off into the house, and I could swear that the fur he left behind was singed. There was a smell in the air like burning hair and the tufts he'd left looked like fireplace coals. As I made to go after him, the priest put an arm out and stop me.

“Stay with me, he’s a crafty old soul. He’ll have you if he’s able, now that his latest form is compromised.”

“He really is a demon then?” I asked, not sure if I had even believed it.

I was behind the priest as we tracked toward the kitchen, but I could still see his nod in the deep gloom.

“Oh yes, for certainty. He is not the most powerful I have ever seen, but he is clever, to be certain. By hiding in a cat, he has made you question your own knowledge of the matter. There are many such demons who hide in animals because they know it is not what humans expect. This allows them to work great evil, knowing that their unwitting owners will not believe that their favorite pet is capable of such things.”

As we came into the kitchen, I could see the light from the fridge as it suddenly spilled across the floor. The intrusion into the blackness made me nervous, but the priest seemed to expect it. He lifted some of the host from the tin, holding it like he meant to throw it. The harsh light was the only thing illuminating the space, but I instinctively looked up as we came in, catching the eyes just before he leaped.

Calvin had always had a thing for being up high, and not a day went by that I didn’t have to shoo him off the top of the cabinets.

For an old guy, the priest was amazingly agile. He spun before I could even warn him, pressing the host to Calvin's face as he came screeching down on us. As it disintegrated, he grabbed him by the throat and bore him to the ground, pressing the crucifix to his brow as the cat clawed at him. I could see the priest's arm growing red as his skin was torn, but he held him against the linoleum as he chanted Latin at the flailing beast. The cross glowed brightly, the harsh fluorescent sending steam up from my fluffy tom, and when his hand suddenly released, there was nothing left but some flying bits of fur and the harsh jingle of his collar as it fell to the ground.

The priest sucked in a pained breath but smiled as he shook the remaining ginger strands from his fingers.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “it appeared that the demon wasn’t inside your cat.”

I looked at him strangely, not quite getting it.

“The demon WAS your cat. I don’t know why it took him so long to manifest or even what brought it on, but your furry friend was of Hell. I have sent him back, but if you notice anything strange in the future, don’t hesitate to call me.”

He took his leave then, refusing any form of payment, and I’m happy to say that most of the oddities around the apartment have ceased. The girl from floor E was the last one to go missing and some of the gloom that had hung around the apartment has faded. No sign of the children was ever found, but I pray that their parents find some solace as time goes on. I got a dog to replace Calvin, a German shepherd that was looking for a good home, and he seems pretty happy to be my new friend. He does bark at nothing from time to time, especially in the kitchen, but I’m sure that's just a normal thing for dogs to do.

I miss Calvin sometimes, and I still mourn his brothers and the lives that were lost to this hell kitty, but I’m sure that he’s where he belongs now.