and Brittney told her firmly she wanted to keep playing), Sharon went ballistic, yelling and throwing a fit. The commotion reigned supreme throughout the house, and the one prevailing word that dominated over the rest was the one word she wanted everyone to hear:
“GREGORY!”
*****
Melissa thrashed about in supernatural agony. She tossed her head violently, screaming in Hrvatski, a language she never could have known. Reacting to a terrified cry from the other side of the house, Father Thomas halted his ritual and stared at Greg.
“Is that your wife?”
Greg, flooded with nervous tension, acted on impulse and dashed to his wife’s rescue. He was torn, of course. His daughter, his sweet and wonderful Melissa had a demon coursing through her veins. However, his wife’s anguished cries sent him over the edge.
“Bobby, watch your sister,” he raced out the door. Father Thomas and Monty both went with him, sprinkling holy water and reciting revered phrases and pledging to return.
“No problem,” the scheming kid grinned. As soon as the others left the room, he started shooting video from the best angles he could. What he captured stunned his fifteen-year-old brain.
The features on his sister’s face had altered to the point of becoming a totally different person. Not ugly by any means, only different. He wanted to scream, but the beauty of this ethereal being shocked him into silence. And though the loveliness was beyond the comprehension of such an immature, selfish little mind like Bobby Hardgrove’s, the one prevailing emotion he felt was fear. Terror, in fact. It started as a tightening in his sphincter, then spread up his vertebrae. But he controlled it. In fact, he laughed at it. Laughed in the face of his own fear, and in the face of this stranger who was holding his sister hostage.
“You’re gonna be cast out of my sister’s body,” he watched the thing’s reaction through his recorder’s screen. “Whatever you are…What are you, anyway? A demon?”
“I am not a demon!” the spirit inside Melissa was terrified. She didn’t know where she was or this strange boy with the odd contraption. “I just want to find my husband!”
“Satan, right?” laughed Bobby. “You’re married to Satan? Oh, this is so good.”
“Stop teasing me! Don’t you know he’s in trouble?”
“Awesome!” Bobby’s agenda was clear. “My YouTube channel’s gonna blow up!”
Just when Bobby’s dreams of internet stardom were at their slimy zenith, several alarming events burst his bubble. First, the temperature dipped to where he could see his own breath. During several moments in the exorcism he felt chilling winds and temperature fluctuations. This one, though, was different; it had an accompanying cloud formation that sent rivers of ice through his bloodstream. Nearly vertical, the cloud kept feeding on itself, rolling and curling in a strangely familiar shape. A man. One of distinction and style. A smooth strong jaw and impeccably pomaded hair, fashioned in a timeless way. Green eyes offset a black suit jacket, stunning silk shirt, and manly but gorgeous slacks. Even Bobby, steeped in teenage naivety, appreciated the obvious sense of style and taste. This was why he found it difficult to harbor any sort of fear. More than anything, he felt a sense of wonder, even admiration.
“Who are you?”
“I’m a ghost, Bobby,” Rev widened his emerald green hypnotic glare, waving a semitransparent hand. He also produced a filtered aurora around his whole frame, for added effect. “Scared?”
“Uh, no,” the pimply teen stepped back, resuming his photojournalist’s stance, camera high, red tally light on to show he was recording. “Why should I be afraid of you?”
“Fair enough,” Rev had a certain smirk. Using his thumb, he pointed over his shoulder. “But I bet you’re afraid of him !”
As he uttered that last word, the atmosphere behind Rev became a violent storm, as if a