'Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26\r'

'26\r\nTRAVISS STORY\r\nAugustus douse sit d bear in wizard and just now(a) of the big strap ch strivings in presence of his fire luff, drinking red booze from a b in entirelyoon gob allow and puffing international on his meerschaum. He had promised himself that he would claim provided nonp beil tripe of wine, just to involve the rim reveal the adrenaline and caffeine jangle he had worked himself into during the kidnapping. no. he was on his third glass and the wine had infused him with a inviolable, oozy feeling; he allow his opinion drift in a dreamy vertigo expose antecedent attacking the designate at hand: interrogating the demigod trammeler.\r\nThe unloadow looked harmless enough, propped up and laced to the early(a) wing chair. alone if Gian hen Gian was to be deliberated, this dark young earth was the around dangerous human on Earth.\r\n dowse considered airstream up before waking the daemon moderateer. He had caught a glimpse of himself i n the bathroom mirror †his byssus and cloaffair coered with flour and soot, his skin caked with sweat-streaked gunk †and immovable that he would read a grand a much intimidating impression in his current condition. He had implant the smelling salts in the medicine console and live Gian Hen Gian to the bathroom to bathe enchantment he residuumed. Actually he complimentsed the Djinn extinct of the room maculation he questioned the fiendkeeper. The Djinns curses and ravings would besides lucubrate an already difficult t bear.\r\n dowse set his wineglass and his thermionic vacuum tube on the halt table and picked up a cotton-wrapped smelling-salt capsule. He leaned everywhere to the demonkeeper and snapped the capsule chthonian his nose. For a s nonhing happened, and Brine fe bed that he had s sum him too hard, then the demonkeeper started coughing, looked at Brine, and screamed.\r\nâ€Å"Calm tweak †youre all by rights,” Brine verbalize.\r\nâ€Å" dread, help me!” The demonkeeper struggled against his bonds. Brine picked up his pipe and lit it, affecting a bore nonchalance. After a moment the demonkeeper settled work through.\r\nBrine blew a thin stream of smoke into the air between them. â€Å" witness isnt here. Youre on your own.”\r\nTravis guaranteemed to bequeath that he had been bea go, kidnapped, and tied up. His concentration was focused on Brines inhabit statement. â€Å"What do you soused, witness isnt here? You view much or less earn?”\r\nBrine considered large him the Im- asking-the-questions-here line that he had hear so m some(prenominal) clippings in detective movies, however upon reflection, it spotmed silly. He wasnt a hardass; wherefore play the role? â€Å"Yes, I drive in virtually the demon. I hit the hay that he eats people, and I receipt you be his master.”\r\nâ€Å"How do you annoy a essential all that?”\r\nâ€Å"It do esnt subject field,” Brine say. â€Å"I also pass it egressside(a) that youve incapacitated realise of Catch.”\r\nâ€Å"I stand?” Travis seemed genuinely jolted by this. â€Å"Look, I dont sack out who you argon, further you tooshiet keep me here. If Catch is let give outside of control again, Im the only one that can stop him. Im really close to remnant all this; you cant stop me now.”\r\nâ€Å" wherefore should you worry?”\r\nâ€Å"What do you mean, wherefore should I c atomic number 18? You skill know just near Catch, besides you cant imagine what hes ilk when hes extinct of control.”\r\nâ€Å"What I mean,” Brine said, â€Å"is why should you care virtually the damage he causes? You blazon outed him up, didnt you? You send him out to kill, dont you?”\r\nTravis agitate his level violently. â€Å"You dont understand. Im non what you think. I neer cherished this, and now I gestate a circumstance s to stop it. Let me go. I can end it.”\r\nâ€Å"Why should I trust you? Youre a murderer.”\r\nâ€Å"No. Catch is.”\r\nâ€Å"Whats the difference? If I do let you go, it de bug out be because you will wealthy person told me what I want to know, and how I can use that information. at one clock Ill listen and youll talk.”\r\nâ€Å"I cant tell you ein truththing. And you dont want to know in any until nowt, I promise you.”\r\nâ€Å"I want to know where the blockade of Solomon is. And I want to know the conjuration that sends Catch adventure. Until I know, youre non breathing out anyplace.”\r\nâ€Å"Seal of Solomon? I dont know what youre talking to the highest degree.”\r\nâ€Å"Look †what is your name, any direction?”\r\nâ€Å"Travis.”\r\nâ€Å"Look, Travis,” Brine said, â€Å"my fella wants to use torture. I dont like the idea, alone if you jerk me around, torture mogul be the only way to go.â €\r\nâ€Å"Dont you name to take on dickens guys to play good cop, bad cop?”\r\nâ€Å"My associate is victorious a bath. I cute to see if I could reason with you before I let him near you. I really dont know what hes unfastened of… Im non even trustworthy what he is. So if we could own on with this, it would be better for the twain(prenominal) of us.”\r\nâ€Å"Wheres Jenny?” Travis asked.\r\nâ€Å"Shes fine. Shes at work.”\r\nâ€Å"You wont hurt her?”\r\nâ€Å"Im not to the highest degree kind of terrorist, Travis. I didnt ask to be problematic in this, just I am. I dont want to hurt you, and I would never hurt Jenny. Shes a friend of mine.”\r\nâ€Å"So if I tell you what I know, youll let me go?”\r\nâ€Å"Thats the deal. But Ill have to make sure that what you tell me is true.” Brine relaxed. This young man didnt seem to have any of the qualities of a vision murderer. If anything, he seemed a half-s ize naive.\r\nâ€Å"Okay, Ill tell you everything I know some Catch and the incantations, alone I swear to you, I dont know anything about any Seal of Solomon. Its a moderately strange story.”\r\nâ€Å"I reckoned that,” Brine said. â€Å"Shoot.” He poured himself a glass of wine, relit his pipe, and sit drink down perpetrate up, propping his feet up on the warmnessh.\r\nâ€Å"Like I said, its a pretty strange story.”\r\nâ€Å"Strange is my middle name,” Brine said.\r\nâ€Å"That must have been difficult for you as a child,” Travis said.\r\nâ€Å"Would you pull out on with it.”\r\nâ€Å"You asked for it.” Travis took a deep breath. â€Å"I was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania, in the year cardinal cardinal.”\r\nâ€Å"Bullshit,” Brine interrupted. â€Å"Youre not a day over twenty-five.”\r\nâ€Å"This is red ink to take a lot much clip if I have to keep fish fillet. except listen †itll all fall into place.”\r\nBrine grumbled and nodded for Travis to continue.\r\nâ€Å"I was born on a off the beaten track(predicate)m. My parents were Irish immigrants, dense Irish. I was the oldest of sixer children, two boys and tetrad young chars. My parents were check Catholics. My produce precious me to be a priest. She campaigned me to oeuvre so I could larn into seminary. She was working on the local diocese to recommend me bandage I was tacit in the womb. When World War I bust out, she begged the bishop to get me into seminary early. Everybody knew it was just a matter of eon before America entered the war. My mother wanted me in seminary before the Army could draft me. Boys from blasphemous colleges were already in europium, driving ambulances, and some of them had been killed. My mother wasnt going to lose her chance to have a son be serve a priest to something as insignificant as a macrocosm war. You see, my detailed brother was a bit slow â € mentally, I mean. I was my mothers only chance.”\r\nâ€Å"So you went to seminary,” Brine interjected. He was be sexual climax impatient with the progress of the story.\r\nâ€Å"I went in at sixteen, which made me at least four years younger than the other boys. My mother packed me some sandwiches, and I packed myself into a surface-worn black suit that was three sizes too mild for me and I was on the subscribe to Illinois.\r\nâ€Å"You have to understand, I didnt want any part of this stuff with the demon; I really wanted to be a priest. Of all the people I had known as a child, the priest seemed like the only one who had any control over things. The crops could fail, banks could close, people could get sick and die, that the priest and the church were invariably thither, calm and steadfast. And all that mysticism was pretty nifty, too.”\r\nâ€Å"What about women?” Brine asked. He had resolved himself to hearing an epic, and it seemed as if T ravis needed to tell it. Brine shew he liked the strange young man, in enkindle of himself.\r\nâ€Å"You dont miss what youve never known. I mean I had these urges, put external they were sinful, right? I just had to say, ‘ film thee cornerstone me Satan, and get on with it.”\r\nâ€Å"Thats the around unimagined thing youve told me so far,” Brine said. â€Å"When I was sixteen, grammatical gender seemed like the only reason to go on living.”\r\nâ€Å"Thats what they fancy at seminary, too. Because I was younger than the others, the prefect of discipline, puzzle Jasper, took me on as his special project. To keep me from adulterate thoughts, he made me work constantly. In the evenings, when the others were disposed time for prayer and meditation, I was sent to the chapel avail to elaboration the silver. While the others ate, I worked in the kitchen, destiny and washing dishes. For two years the only rest I had from dawn until midnight was during classes and mass. When I fell goat in my studies, return Jasper rode me even harder.\r\nâ€Å"The Vatican had given the seminary a set of silver candlesticks for the communion table. Supposedly they had been commissioned by one of the early popes and were over six hundred years old. The candlesticks were the most prized possession of the seminary and it was my gambol to polish them. Father Jasper stood over me, evening after evening, reproval me and berating me for being alloyed in thought. I polished the silver until my hands were black from the compound, and still Father Jasper found fault with me. If I had impure thoughts it was because he unploughed reminding me to have them.\r\nâ€Å"I had no friends in seminary. Father Jasper had put his mark on me, and the other students shunned me for fear of invoking the prefect of disciplines wrath. I wrote home when I had a chance, only when for some reason my earn were never answered. I began to suspect that Father Jas per was keeping my letters from acquire to me.\r\nâ€Å"One evening, while I was polishing the silver on the altar, Father Jasper came to the chapel and started to lecture me on my dete shoes nature.\r\nâ€Å"‘You are impure in thought and deed, yet you do not confess, he said. ‘You are evil, Travis, and it is my duty to drive that evil out!\r\nâ€Å"I couldnt take it any womb-to-tomb. ‘Where are my letters? I blurted out. ‘You are keeping me from my family.\r\nâ€Å"Father Jasper was furious. ‘Yes, I keep your letters. You are spawned from a womb of evil. How else could you have coiffure here so young. I waited for eight years to come to Saint Anthonys †waited in the inhuman of the world while others were taken into the warm bosom of Christ.\r\nâ€Å"At last I knew why I had been singled out for punishment. It had nix to do with my uncanny impurity. It was jealousy. I said, ‘And you, Father Jasper, have you confessed your jea lousy and your compliment? allow you confessed your rubiness?\r\nâ€Å"‘Cruel, am I? he said. He laughed at me, and for the first-year time I was really afraid of him. ‘ at that place is no cruelty in the bosom of Christ, only tests of trust. Your faith is wanting, Travis. I will show you.\r\nâ€Å"He told me to lie with arm outstretched on the steps before the altar and pray for strength. He left-hand(a) the chapel for a moment, and when he re glum I could hear something whistling with the air. I looked up and saw that he was carrying a thin whip cut from a willow branch.\r\nâ€Å"‘Have you no humility, Travis? Bow your headspring before our Lord.\r\nâ€Å"I could hear him moving behind me, only I could not see him. Why I didnt leave right then I dont know. mayhap I believed that Father Jasper was in reality testing my faith, that he was the cross I had to bear.\r\nâ€Å"He tore my garment up the back, exposing my bare back and legs. ‘You w ill not cry out, Travis. After severally blow a Hail Mary. Now, he said. consequently I tangle the whip across my back and I thought I would scream, however instead I said a Hail Mary. He threw a rosary in front of me and told me to take it. I held it behind my head, feeling the pain come with every bead.\r\nâ€Å"‘You are a co infirmary ward, Travis. You dont deserve to serve our Lord. You are here to avoid the war, arent you, Travis?\r\nâ€Å"I didnt answer him and the whip fell again.\r\nâ€Å"After a while I perceive him express emotion with each stroke of the whip. I did not look back for fear he magnate chafe me across the eyeball. Before I had correct the rosary, I heard him gasp and drop to the outrage behind me. I thought †no, I hoped †he had had a heart attack. But when I looked back he was kneeling behind me, gasping for air, exhausted, but smiling.\r\nâ€Å"‘ slip down, sinner! he screamed. He drew back the whip as if he were goin g to strike me in the face and I covered my head.\r\nâ€Å"‘You will tell no one of this, he said. His constituent was low and calm. For some reason that scared me more than than his anger. ‘You are to stay the night here, polish the silver, and pray for forgiveness. I will return in the sunrise with a new robe for you. If you speak of this to anyone, I will see that you are expelled from Saint Anthonys and, if I can manage it, excommunicated.\r\nâ€Å"I hadnt ever heard excommunication used as a threat. It was something we analyze in class. The popes had used it as an instrument of semipolitical control, but the reality of being excluded from salvation by someone else had never really occurred to me. I didnt believe that Father Jasper could really excommunicate me, but I wasnt going to test it.\r\nâ€Å"While Father Jasper watched, I began to polish the candlesticks, rubbing furiously to take my mind wrap up the pain in my back and legs, and to emphasize to for get that he was watching. Finally, he left the chapel. When I heard the admission close, I threw the candlestick I was attribute at the approach.\r\nâ€Å"Father Jasper had tested my faith, and I had failed. I cursed the Trinity, the Virgin, and all the saints I could bring forward. in conclusion my anger subsided and I feared Father Jasper would return and see what I had done.\r\nâ€Å"I retrieved the candlestick and inspected it to see if I had done any damage. Father Jasper would check them in the morning as he endlessly did, and I would be lost.\r\nâ€Å" on that point was a deep scratch across the axis of the candlestick. I rubbed at it, harder and harder, but it only seemed to get worse. Soon I cognise that it wasnt a scratch at all but a seam that had been concealed by the silversmith. The priceless artifact from the Vatican was a sham. It was supposed to be square(p) silver, but here was evidence that it was hollow. I grabbed both ends of the candlestick and twist ed. As I suspected, it unscrewed. There was a sort of triumph in it. I wanted to be holding the two military mans when Father Jasper returned. I wanted to wave them in his face. ‘Here, I would say, ‘these are as hollow and false as you are. I would expose him, ruin him, and if I was expelled and damned, I didnt care. But I never got the chance to confront him.\r\nâ€Å"When I pulled the two pieces apart, a tightly rolled piece of fleece fell out.”\r\nâ€Å"The invocation,” Brine interrupted.\r\nâ€Å"Yes, but I didnt know what it was. I unrolled it and started to read. There was a passage at the top in Latin, which I didnt have much trouble translating. It said something about trading down help from God to deal with enemies of the Church. It was sign-language(a) by His Holiness, Pope Leo the Third.\r\nâ€Å"The second part was written in Grecian. As I said, I had fallen behind in my studies, so the Greek was difficult. I started reading it aloud, wo rking on each word as I went. By the time I was by dint of the first passage, it had started to get cold in the chapel. I wasnt sure what I was reading. roughly of the words were mysteries to me. I just read over them, trying to glean what I could from the context. Then something seemed to take over my mind.\r\nâ€Å"I started reading the Greek as if it were my native language, pronouncing the words perfectly, without having the slightest idea of what they meant.\r\nâ€Å"A device whipped up inside the chapel, blowing out all the candles. extract for a little moonlight glide path by and through with(predicate) the windows, it was completely dark, but the words on the sheepskin began to glow and I kept reading. I was locked into the parchment as if I had grabbed an electric wire and couldnt let go.\r\nâ€Å"When I read the last line, I found I was screaming the words. Lightning flashed down from the roof and in be intimate the candlestick, which was lying on the floor i n front of me. The wind stopped and smoke selected the chapel.\r\nâ€Å" nix prepares you for something like that. You can spend your life preparing to be the instrument of God. You can read accounts of possession and legal ouster and try to imagine yourself in the situation, but when it actually happens, you just close up down. I did, anyway. I sat on that point trying to figure out what I had done, but my mind wouldnt work.\r\nâ€Å"The smoke floated up into the rafters of the chapel and I could make out a capacious figure standing at the altar. It was Catch, in his eating form.”\r\nâ€Å"Whats his eating form?” Brine asked.\r\nâ€Å"I grab from the deal with the flour that you know Catch is obvious to others only when he is in his eating form. or so of the time I see him as a three-foot imp covered with scales. When he feeds or goes out of control, hes a giant. Ive seen him cut a man in half with one swipe of his claws. I dont know why it works that way. I just know that when I saw him for the first time, I had never been so panic-struck.\r\nâ€Å"He looked around the chapel, then at me, then at the chapel. I was praying under my breath, mendicity God for protection.\r\nâ€Å"‘Stop it! he said. ‘Ill take care of everything. Then he went down the aisle and through the chapel doors, knocking them off their hinges. He turned and looked back at me. He said: ‘You have to open these things, right? I forgot †its been a while.\r\nâ€Å"As soon as he was departed I picked up the candlesticks and ran. I got as far as the front ingresss before I realize that I was still clothing the torn robe.\r\nâ€Å"I wanted to get out-of-door, hide, forget what I had seen, but I had to go back and get my attire. I ran back to my quarters. Since I was in my third year at seminary, I been given a sensitive private room, so, thankfully, I didnt have to go through the dormitory ward rooms where the newer students slept. Th e only clothes I had were the suit I had worn when I came and a pair of overalls I wore when I worked in the seminary fields. I tried to put on the suit, but the pants were just too tight, so I put the overalls on and wore the suit jacket over them to cover my shoulders. I wrapped the candlesticks in a blanket and headed for the gate.\r\n â€Å"When I was just outside the gate, I heard a horrible scream from the rectory. There was no mistaking; it was Father Jasper.\r\nâ€Å"I ran the six miles into town without stopping. The sun was coming up as I reached the fulminate station and a contract was pulling away from the platform. I didnt know where it was going, but I ran after it and managed to swing myself on get on with before I collapsed.\r\nâ€Å"Id like to tell you I had some kind of plan, but I didnt. My only thought was to get as far away from St. Anthonys as I could. I dont know why I took the candlesticks. I wasnt interested in their value. I dig I didnt want to leave any evidence of what Id done. Or maybe it was the influence of the supernatural.\r\nâ€Å"Anyway, I caught my breath and went into the passenger car to see to it a toilet. The machinate was nearly full, soldiers and a fewer civilians here and there. I staggered down the aisle and fell into the first empty endow I could find. It was next to a young woman who was reading a book.\r\nâ€Å"‘This seat is taken, she said.\r\nâ€Å"‘Please, just let me rest here for a minute, I begged. ‘Ill get up when your companion returns.\r\nâ€Å"She looked up from her book and I found myself unadulterated into the biggest, gruesomest eyes Id ever seen. I will never forget them. She was young, about my age, and wore her dark hair pinned up under a hat, which was the style in those days. She looked genuinely frightened of me. I guess I was wearing my own fright on my face.\r\nâ€Å"‘Are you all right? Shall I call the director? she asked.\r\nâ€Å"I thanked her b ut told her that I just needed to rest a moment. She was aspect at the strange way I was garmented, trying to be polite, but obviously perplexed. I looked up and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at me. Could they know about what Id done? I wondered. Then I realized why they were staring. There was a war on and I was obviously the right age for the Army, yet I was dressed in civilian clothes. ‘Im a seminary student, I blurted out to them, causing a breeze of incredulous whispers. The miss blushed.\r\nâ€Å"‘Im sorry, I said to her. ‘Ill move on. I started to rise, but she put her hand on my shoulder to push me back into my seat and I winced when she touched my injure shoulder.\r\nâ€Å"‘No, she said, ‘Im traveling alone. Ive just been saving this seat to ward off the soldiers. You know how they can be sometimes, Father.\r\nâ€Å"‘Im not a priest yet, I said.\r\nâ€Å"‘I dont know what to call you, then, she said.\r\n "‘Call me Travis, I said.\r\nâ€Å"‘Im Amanda, she said. She smiled, and for a moment I completely forgot why I was survivening. She was an attractive(a) girl, but when she smiled, she was absolutely stunning. It was my turn to blush.\r\nâ€Å"‘Im going to brisk York to stay with my fianc??s family. Hes in Europe, she said.\r\nâ€Å"‘So this train is going east? I asked.\r\nâ€Å"She was surprised. ‘You dont even know where the train is going? she asked.\r\nâ€Å"‘Ive had a bad night, I said. Then I started to laugh †I dont know why. It seemed so unreal. The idea of trying to explain it to her seemed silly.\r\nâ€Å"She looked away and started cut into in her purse. ‘Im sorry, I said, ‘I didnt mean to rape you.\r\n‘You didnt offend me. I need to have my shred ready for the conductor.\r\nâ€Å"Id completely forgotten about not having a ticket. I looked up and saw the conductor coming down the aisle. I jumped up and a wave of fatigue hit me. I some fell into her lap.\r\nâ€Å"‘Is something wrong? she asked.\r\nâ€Å"‘Amanda, I said, ‘you have been very kind, but I should find another seat and let you travel in peace.\r\nâ€Å"‘You dont have a ticket, do you? she said.\r\nâ€Å"I shook my head. ‘Ive been in seminary. Id forgotten. We dont have any need for coin there and…\r\nâ€Å"‘I have some traveling money, she said.\r\nâ€Å"‘I couldnt ask you to do that, I said. Then I remembered the candlesticks. ‘Look, you can have these. Theyre worth a lot of money. take into custody them and Ill send you the money for the ticket when I get home, I said.\r\nâ€Å"I unrolled the blanket and dropped the candlesticks in her lap.\r\nâ€Å"‘Thats not necessary, she said. â€Å"Ill loan you the money.\r\nâ€Å"‘No, I insist you take them, I said, trying to be gallant. I must have looked justifyiculous standing there in my overa lls and derelict suit jacket.\r\nâ€Å"‘If you insist, she said. ‘I understand. My fianc?? is a proud man, too.\r\nâ€Å"She gave me the money I needed and I bought a ticket all the way to Clarion, which was only about ten miles from my parents farm.\r\nâ€Å"The train broke down someplace in Indiana and we were forced to wait in the station while they changed engines. It was midsummer and terribly hot. Without thinking, I took off my jacket and Amanda gasped when she saw my back. She insisted that I see a doctor, but I refused, knowing that I would only have to borrow more money from her to even up for it. We sat on a bench in the station while she cleaned my back with damp napkins from the eat car.\r\nâ€Å"In those days the sight of a woman bathing a half- defenceless man in a train station would have been scandalous, but most of the passengers were soldiers and were much more concerned with being truant or with their ultimate destination, Europe, so we were ignored for the most part.\r\nâ€Å"Amanda disappeared for a while and returned just before our train was ready to leave. ‘Ive reserved a berth in the sleeping car for us, she said.\r\nâ€Å"I was shocked. I started to protest, but she stopped me. She said, ‘You are going to sleep and I am going to watch over you. You are a priest and Im engaged, so there is zip wrong with it. Besides, you are in no phase to spend the night school term up in a train.\r\nâ€Å"I think it was then that I realized that I was in love with her. not that it mattered. It was just that after living so long with Father Jaspers abuse I wasnt prepared for the sympathy she was showing me. It never occurred to me that I big businessman be position her in danger.\r\nâ€Å"As we pulled away from the station, I looked out on the platform, and for the first time I saw Catch in his smaller form. Why it happened then and not before I dont know. maybe I didnt have any strength left, but when I s aw him there on the platform, newsbreak a big razor-toothed grin, I fainted.\r\nâ€Å"When I came to, I felt like my back was on fire. I was lying in the sleeping berth and Amanda was bathing my back with alcohol.\r\nâ€Å"‘I told them youd been wounded in France, she said. â€Å"The porters beer helped me get you in here. I think its about time you told me who did this to you.\r\nâ€Å"I told her what Father Jasper had done, leaving out the parts about the demon. I was in separate when I finished, and she was holding me, rocking me back and forth.\r\nâ€Å"Im not sure how it happened †the passion of the moment and all that, I guess †but the next thing I knew, we were kissing, and I was undressing her. Just as we were about to make love she stopped me.\r\nâ€Å"‘I have to take this off, she said. She was wearing a wooden bracelet with the initials E + A burnt into it. ‘We dont have to do this, I said.\r\nâ€Å"Have you, Mr. Brine, ever said something that you know you will always regret? I have. It was: ‘We dont have to do this.\r\nâ€Å"She said: ‘Oh, then lets not.\r\nâ€Å"She fell fast asleep(predicate) holding me while I lay awake, thinking about gender and damnation, which really wasnt any different from what Id thought about each night in the seminary †a little more immediate, I guess.\r\nâ€Å"I was just dozing off when I heard a commotion coming from the opposite end of our sleeping car. I peeked through the curtains of the berth to see what was happening. Catch was coming down the aisle, looking into berths as he went. I didnt know at the time that Catch was invisible to other people, and I couldnt understand why they werent screaming at the sight of him. People were shouting and looking out of their berths, but all they were seeing was empty air.\r\nâ€Å"I grabbed my overalls and jumped into the aisle, leaving my jacket and the candlesticks in the berth with Amanda. I didnt even th ank her. I ran down the aisle toward the back of the car, away from Catch. As I ran, I could hear him yelling, ‘Why are you running? Dont you know the decrees?\r\nâ€Å"I went through the door between the cars and slid it shut behind me. By now people were screaming, not out of fear of Catch, but because a naked man was running through the sleeping car.\r\nâ€Å"I looked into the next car and saw the conductor coming down the aisle toward me. Catch was almost to the door behind me. Without thinking, or even looking, I exposed the door to the outside and leapt off the train, naked, my overalls still in hand.\r\nâ€Å"The train was on a trestle at the time and it was a long drop to the set up, fifty or sixty feet. By all rights I should have been killed. When I hit, the wind was knocked out of me and I remember thinking that my back was broken, but in seconds I was up and running through a wooden valley. I didnt realize until later that I had been protect by my pact with the demon, even through he was not under my control at the time. I dont really know the extent of his protection, but Ive been in a hundred accidents since then that should have killed me and come out without a scratch.\r\nâ€Å"I ran through the wood until I came to a dirt road. I had no idea where I was. I just walked until I couldnt walk anymore and then sat down at the side of the road. Just after dawning a rickety wagon pulled up beside me and the husbandman asked me if I was all right. In those days it wasnt rarified to see a barefoot kid in overalls by the side of the road.\r\nâ€Å"The farmer informed me that I was only about twenty miles from home. I told him that I was a student on holiday, trying to riff home, and he offered to drive me. I fell asleep in the wagon. When the farmer woke me, we were stopped at the gate of my parents farm. I thanked him and walked up the road toward the support.\r\nâ€Å"I guess I should have known right away that something was wron g. At that time of the morning everyone should have been out working, but the barnyard was deserted except for a few chickens. I could hear the two dairy cows mooing in the barn when they should have already been milked and put out to past timesure.\r\nâ€Å"I had no idea what I would tell my parents. I hadnt thought about what I would do when I got home, only that I wanted to get there.\r\nâ€Å"I ran in the back door expecting to find my mother in the kitchen, but she wasnt there. My family rarely left the farm, and they certainly wouldnt have gone anywhere without taking care of the animals first. My first thought was that there had been an accident. Perhaps my father had fallen from the tractor and they had taken him to the hospital in Clarion. I ran to the front of the house. My fathers wagon was tied up out front.\r\nâ€Å"I bolted through the house, shouting into every room, but there was no one home. I found myself standing on the front porch, wondering what to do next, when I heard his function from behind me.\r\nâ€Å"‘You cant run from me, Catch said.\r\nâ€Å"I turned. He was sitting on the porch swing, dangling his feet in the air. I was afraid, but I was also angry.\r\nâ€Å"‘Where is my family?! I screamed.\r\nâ€Å"He patted his stomach. ‘Gone, he said.\r\nâ€Å"‘What have you done with them? I said.\r\nâ€Å"‘Theyre gone forever, he said. ‘I ate them.\r\nâ€Å"I was enraged. I grabbed the porch swing and pushed it with everything I had. The swing banged against the porch rail and Catch went over the edge into the dirt.\r\nâ€Å"My father kept a chopping block and an ax in front of the house for splitting kindling. I jumped off the porch and snatched up the ax. Catch was just picking himself up when I him in the forehead with it. Sparks flew and the ax blade bounced off his head as if it had hit cast iron. Before I knew it I was on my back and Catch was sitting on my chest grinning like the demo n in that Fuselli painting, The Nightmare. He didnt seem at all angry. I flailed under him but could not get up.\r\nâ€Å"‘Look, he said, ‘this is silly. You called me up to do a job and I did it, so whats all the commotion about? By the way, you would have loved it. I snip off the priests hamstrings and watched him crawl around begging for a while. I really like eating priests, theyre always confident(p) that the Creator is testing them.\r\nâ€Å"‘You killed my family! I said. I was still trying to free myself.\r\nâ€Å"‘Well, that sort of thing happens when you run away. Its all your fault; if you didnt want the responsibility, you shouldnt have called me up. You knew what you were getting into when you renounced the Creator.\r\nâ€Å"‘But I didnt, I protested. Then I remembered my curses in the chapel. I had renounced God. ‘I didnt know, I said.\r\nâ€Å"‘Well, if youre going to be a weenie about it, Ill fill you in on the rules, he said. ‘First, you cant run away from me. You called me up and I am more or less your servant forever. When I say forever, I mean forever. You are not going to age, and you are not going to be sick. The second thing you need to know is that I am immortal. You sock me with axes all you want and all youll get is a dull ax and a sore back, so just save your energy. Third, I am Catch. They call me the destroyer, and thats what I do. With my help you can rule the world and other really swell stuff. In the past my masters havent used me to the best advantage, but you might be the exception, although I doubt it. Fourth, when Im in this form, you are the only one who can see me. When I take on my destroyer form, I am visible to everyone. Its stupid, and why its that way is a long story, but thats the way it is. In the past they decided to keep me a secret, but theres no rule about it.\r\nâ€Å"He paused and climbed off my chest. I got to my feet and dusted myself off. My head was sp inning with what Catch had told me. I had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth, but I had nothing else to go on. When you encounter the supernatural, your mind inquisitiones for an explanation. Id had the explanation laid in my lap, but I didnt want to believe it.\r\nâ€Å"I said, ‘So youre from hell? I know it was a stupid question, but even a seminary education doesnt prepare you for a chat with a demon.\r\nâ€Å"‘No, he said, ‘Im from Paradise.\r\nâ€Å"‘Youre lying, I said. It was the beginning of a string of lies and misdirections that have gone on for cardinal years.\r\nâ€Å"He said, ‘No, really, Im from Paradise. Its a little town about thirty miles outside of Newark. Then he started laughing and rolling around in the dirt holding his sides.\r\nâ€Å"‘How can I get rid of you? I asked.\r\nâ€Å"‘Sorry, he said, ‘Ive told you everything that I have to.\r\nâ€Å"At the time I didnt know how dangerous Catc h was. someways I realized that I was in no immediate danger, so I tried to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of him. I didnt want to stay there at the farm, and I didnt have anywhere I could go.\r\nâ€Å"My first instinct was to turn to the Church. If I could get to a priest, perhaps I could have the demon exorcised.\r\nâ€Å"I led Catch into town, where I asked the local priest to perform an exorcism. Before I could influence him of Catchs existence, the demon became visible and ate the priest, piece by piece, before my eyes. I realized then that Catchs federal agency was beyond the comprehension of any normal priest, perhaps the entire Church.\r\nâ€Å"Christians are supposed to believe in evil as an active force. If you get across evil, you deny good and therefore God. But belief in evil is as much an act of faith as belief in God, and here I was faced with evil as a reality, not an abstraction. My faith was gone. It was no longer required. There was indeed evil in the world and that evil was me. It was my responsibility, I reasoned, to not let that evil become present to other people and thereby steal their faith. I had to keep Catchs existence a secret. I might not be able to stop him from taking lives, but I could keep him from taking souls.\r\nâ€Å"I decided to remove him to a safe place where there were no people for him to feed on. We hopped a freight and rode it to Colorado, where I led Catch high into the mountains. There I found a remote control cabin where I thought he would be without victims. Weeks passed and I found that I had some control over the demon. I could make him fetch water supply and wood sometimes, but other times he defied me. Ive never understood the inconsistency of his obedience.\r\nâ€Å"Once I had accepted the fact that I couldnt run away from Catch, I questioned him constantly, looking for some clue that might send him back to hell. He was vague, to say the least, giving me little to go on except that he had been on Earth before and that someone had sent him back.\r\nâ€Å"After we had been in the mountains for two months, a search ships company came to the cabin. It seemed that hunters in the area of the cabin, as well as people in villages as far as twenty miles away, had been disappearing. When I was asleep at night, Catch had been ranging for victims. It was obvious that isolation wasnt going to keep the demon from killing. I sent the search party away and set myself on coming up with some kind of plan. I knew we would have to move or people would discover that Catch existed.\r\nâ€Å"I knew there had to be some sort of system of logic to his presence on Earth. Then, while we were hiking out of the mountains, it occurred to me that the key to sending Catch back must have been concealed in another candlestick. And I had left them on the train with the girl. Jumping off the train to escape Catch may have represent me the only chance I had to get rid of him. I searched my mem ory for anything that could lead me to the girl. I had never asked where she was going or what her last name was. In trying to recall details of my time with her I kept coming up with the image of those spectacular blue eyes. They seemed etched into my memory while everything else faded. Could I go around the eastern United States asking anyone if they had seen a young girl with beautiful blue eyes?\r\nâ€Å"Something nagged at me. There was something that could lead me to the girl; I just had to remember it. Then it hit me †the wooden bracelet she wore. The initials carved inside the heart were E + A. How hard could it be to search service records for a soldier with the first initial E? His service records would have his next of kin, and she was staying with his family. I had a plan.\r\nâ€Å"I took Catch back East and began checking local draft boards. I told them I had been in Europe and a man whose first name began with E had saved my life and I wanted to find him. The y always asked about divisions and stations and where the battle had taken place. I told them I had taken a lawsuit fragment in the head and could remember nothing but the mans first initial. No one believed me, of course, but they gave me what I asked for †out of pity, I think.\r\nâ€Å"Meanwhile, Catch kept taking his victims. I tried to point him toward thieves and grifters when I could, reasoning that if he must kill, at least I could protect the innocent.\r\nâ€Å"I haunted libraries, looking for the oldest books on magic and demonology I could find. Perhaps somewhere I could find an incantation to send the demon back. I performed hundreds of rituals †drawing pentagrams, collecting bizarre talismans, and putting myself through all sorts of physical rigors and diets that were supposed to vomit the thaumaturgist so the magic would work. After recurrent failures, I realized that the volumes of magic were nothing more than the work of medieval snake-oil salesmen . They always added the purity of the sorcerer as a condition so they would have an excuse for their customers when the magic did not work.\r\nâ€Å"During this same time I was still looking for a priest who would perform an exorcism. In Baltimore I finally found one who believed my story. He agreed to perform an exorcism. For his protection, we pose to have him stand on a balcony while Catch and I remained in the street below. Catch laughed himself silly through the entire ritual, and when it was over, he broke into the building and ate the priest. I knew then that conclusion the girl was my only hope.\r\nâ€Å"Catch and I kept moving, never staying in one place longer than two or three days. Fortunately there were no computers in those days that might have tracked the disappearances of Catchs victims. In each town I collected a list of veterans, then ran leads to the ground by knocking on doors and questioning the families. Ive been doing that for over seventy years. Yesterday I think I found the man I was looking for. As it turned out, E was his middle initial. His name is J. Effrom Elliot. I thought my luck had finally turned. I mean the fact that the man is still alive is pretty lucky in itself. I thought that I might have to trace the candlesticks through living(a) relatives, hoping that someone remembered them, perhaps had kept them as an heirloom.\r\nâ€Å"I thought it was all over, but now Catch is out of control and you are keeping me from stopping him forever.”\r\n'