Who Prays For Satan?
Father Daniel pulled up the driveway, and parked in front of Father Raymond’s house. He got out of the car, and felt the cold night air wrap around him. The young priest cursed himself as he walked up to the front door. If it’d been anyone else, he’d have told them to stuff it. But Raymond was Raymond. He was an eccentric man, but not an inconsiderate one. If he called you in the middle of the night, it was because he had a good reason.
The door opened before Daniel had a chance to knock, and there stood Father Raymond in the doorway; a tall, well-built man of fifty-two, with a thick head of black hair. He had bags under his eyes and a haggard, yet enthusiastic grin on his face.
“Daniel!” Raymond came forward, and kissed Daniel on both cheeks, before pulling him inside.
“Is something wrong Father?” Daniel eyed Raymond. The old man looked exhausted, yet absolutely manic.
“Wrong?” Raymond laughed. “Are you kidding me? Let me get us a drink.”
“Father…” Daniel watched helplessly as Raymond walked into the kitchen. He shrugged, and looked around the living room. The place was a mess, covered in stacks of old books and papers. Not too unusual for Raymond; the man was brilliant but a total slob. Raymond had said those two things often went together, but Daniel was pretty sure that was just an excuse not to tidy up.
Raymond reentered the room with two glasses filled with whiskey.
“It’s way too early,” Daniel said.
“It’s never too early to celebrate.” The old man thrust a glass into Daniel’s hand. “To the greatest moment in the history of mankind. Amen.”
“Amen,” Daniel shrugged. He took a sip of the whiskey and watched as father Raymond down his whole glass. The old man sighed as he put it down on a nearby table.
“Raymond, what is this about?”
“Come with me.”
“Raymond please just tell-”
“Daniel, you have to trust me. This is not the kind of thing that can be explained. Please.”
Daniel sighed and nodded. Raymond grabbed Daniel’s hand, and pulled him toward the kitchen. A small brown door leading to the garage sat next to the refrigerator.
Raymond approached the door, and slowly began to turn the knob. He opened it and the two priests stepped inside. The garage was dark, save a large red heat lamp in the middle of the room.
Something was standing under the lamp.
It was four-feet-tall, with thin, scrawny arms hanging on either side of its sickly-looking body. Its skin was greenish-yellow, and translucent around its bony rib cage.
A pair of all-white, pupil-less eyes sat on the bulbous oval head that was too big for its body. Daniel could make out the curved horns on top of the creatures head. They were the last thing he saw before he fainted.
Daniel woke up on the couch in Raymond’s living room. He felt groggy as he sat up. Raymond sat on the coffee table next to him.
“You feel okay?” Raymond asked.
“Yeah,” Daniel said. It was a lie, but he could hear the guilt in Raymond’s voice, and didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
“I’m sorry that Patrick frightened you.”
“Patrick?”
“The fellow you met in the garage.”
Daniel’s eyes went wide. “You mean that thing was real!”
“Keep your voice down. He can hear you.”
“What is it?”
“He, not it!”
“What is he?”
“If I tell you, do you promise not to faint again?”
“Yes I promise.”
“He’s a demon that I’ve summoned from Hell.”
Daniel broke his promise.
Later when Daniel came to, and Raymond had assured him that the creature wouldn’t leave the garage for the duration of Daniel’s visit, the two priests talked.
“What would you say is the purpose of the priesthood?” Raymond asked.
“Why is there a demon in your garage?” Daniel asked.
“Daniel, not all questions can have simple answers. If you want to know what’s going on, you need to be patient and listen to me. Okay?”
Daniel sighed. He’d long ago learned to just deal with his mentor’s eccentricities. “Okay.”
“Thank you. Now, what would you say is the purpose of the priesthood?”
“To help our fellow man, and spread the teachings of love of Jesus Christ.”
“Right! And no group of beings is in more need of this spiritual guidance than demons!” Raymond had an enormous grin on his face.
Daniel blinked. “Okay.”
“Think about it. They spend their entire existence in Hell, never knowing of God, or Jesus, or the bible. And what little they do know comes from the devil, who, let’s be frank, is probably a little sore on the subject. Therefore, I think it has been a tremendous oversight that our order has not tried to reach out to these lost and desperate souls.”
Daniel nodded. “How on Earth did you get one in your garage?”
“Well…” Father Raymond said, “Our traditional, good Christian texts, have very little to say on the subject of demonic summoning. The assumption is of course that God would never want us to have any associations with the beings of the underworld.”
“I could imagine that.”
“But our holy texts weren’t written by God. They were written by man, and man is far from perfect. The only area where man felt comfortable recording the methods for communication with the underworld was in the literature of the occult.”
“So you just went to the library and asked which book could help you summon a demon?”
Raymond frowned. “Oh Daniel don’t be ridiculous. I found the book on the internet.”
“Okay, whatever. But you did actually perform a satanic ritual to summon that thing.”
“That thing has a name.” Raymond said. “And yes. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Just had to pick up a few herbs, some bird feathers, stir them into a broth and chant a phrase in Latin. Nothing terribly unpleasant.”
“And you got this from a book?”
“Yep. Gimme one second.”
Raymond left the room, and returned with a large leather-bound volume, with frayed yellow pages. The leather cover was ripped in spots, and there was no title. Raymond opened the book, and handed it to Daniel. The young priest saw that it was written in red ink (which he hoped wasn’t blood) with illustrations of demons, hellfire, and strange symbols. This was the real deal.
“Is there anything in there about how to send him back?” Daniel asked.
“Why?”
“Because we need to get that thing out of here right now.”
“That thing has a name! It’s Patrick! And how dare you shun him like this.”
“Raymond, this isn’t safe. We have no idea what he’s capable of.”
“He is a lost soul in need of guidance. That’s all I need to know.”
“He’s dangerous.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“God put the demons in the underworld, so we couldn’t get to them. I don’t know why he did this, but he must’ve had a reason.”
“Perhaps he wanted to test us.”
“Test us?”
“Test our compassion for those that are different from us. Test the limits of how far we’ll go to help those in need. The lord works in mysterious ways.”
Daniel looked over Raymond’s shoulder, and saw the garage door. He could almost feel the demon standing on the other side. An image of it flashed in his head, and made his skin crawl.
Raymond put a hand on his shoulder. “Daniel, I know this is hard. But think of what there is to gain. If we can get through to our friend Patrick, we could get through to almost any demon. The armies of Satan, hordes of his evil minions, coming over to the side of God. Learning to live good, honest, fulfilling lives, in service to Christ, and their fellow man. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
Daniel wasn’t listening. He put down the book, and turned back toward the front door.
“Daniel?” Raymond said.
Daniel opened the front door, and ran to his car. He turned on the engine and backed out of the driveway.
Daniel opened the front door, and ran to his car. He turned on the engine and backed out of the driveway.
To Be Continued…
Read Part 2 here
This story can also be found in the short fiction collection, Love and Monsters
