The Last Customer (32 page)

Then, Winny saw his brother return to his rightful body. Garth was back—in his own skin—where he belonged. It was miraculous. Winny had never felt a more vivacious sense of relief
;
never in his life.

Winny stretched the snake and yanked it hard. He was sure that he’d ripped it from the demon’s mouth. He hoped that he wasn’t hurting Garth in the process. It hadn’t ripped free, but it wanted to. Garth was rejecting the snake, trying to spit it out, biting on it. Winny could feel the snake tearing when he shifted his hand and looped it. It was uprooting like a tree in a tornado.

           
“Let him go, you puke!” Winny screamed as the snake unhooked from Garth’s mouth and shot forward, sliding through his hand and sending Winny to the floor. He let go of the snake.

           
Winny was utterly amazed by what had taken place. Determined, he quickly jumped to his feet. He’d hurt the demon. A surge of confidence ran through him. The beast that stood dominant throughout the night was being defeated. It was being reduced to a slim, muscle-like snake that slithered across the floor toward Gardner. It was pathetic looking.

Gardner stirred as the snake made its way toward him.

9

Garth was in a dark place. Screams rang out from every corner, but he couldn’t see anyone or anything. The foul odor surrounding him kept him nauseated. The thin layer of skin shrink-wrapping him to the wall felt like acid on his flesh. He was being held captive in a dark dungeon. Visibility was limited. His blood felt oily and it burned. The skin restraints holding him to the wall felt loose and thin. The texture was deceiving; as hard as he’d been trying to tear through it, the elasticity was too strong. It only stretched when he attempted to tear at it. He’d begun to give up hope, fast. He didn’t know how long he could stand being held here. But then, a
feeling
came to him, a welcomed sensation. It was as if someone had torn through his binds from the opposite side.
It was Winny.
He knew it. He could sense his brother. And right then, Garth couldn’t think of anyone that he’d rather see than his brother. He wanted to see him badly. He began gritting his teeth as he did when excited. For another moment, it felt like the indestructible restraints—binding him to this awful place—had been disabled. There were a few moments, earlier, when he’d gone from this dark place and wound up back in his own body. The last time he’d awoken he’d been sitting on top of a garage looking down at Winny. It was like coming out of a blackout. And in that moment, he felt the same freedoms then that he was feeling now. He wanted to break apart from this hellish prison. Suddenly, he felt his brother’s anger. It sucked him back into the only world that made sense, the world of the living. Garth was punching through his restraints. He could see the layered skin of restraint splitting roughly as if being slashed with a saw. Wet, jagged pieces fell to the murky floor.

And then he was free, released from this place.

           
Sobering and quick, Garth stood. He didn’t recognize where he was, but there was a familiarity about it. None of that mattered because Winny stood a few feet from him. He looked scared, relieved, and furious all at once. The red haired girl was there too. He didn’t mind. It was even a relief to see her. His eyes focused on his brother. He fought to contain the smile. Reality struck. They were still in danger. There was something very wrong happening.

Donna Gardner was lying on the wood floor. A pool of blood surrounded her. It soaked into her sun bleached hair making it appear black. Father Gardner crawled in Donna’s direction. His eyes were raw and fiery. His fury was unavoidable as he reached out to touch his wife. And then, the slithering thing caught Garth’s attention and he watched as it darted toward Gardner, wiggling fast in a smooth S-shape. Garth jumped forward, slamming his boot down hard on the snake. The snake screamed as Garth’s boot crushed the middle of it. The head and tail leapt in both directions then settled. Lime green fluid ejected from its mouth, oozing yellow foam followed.

Leaning down, Garth tried to grab the slippery serpent, but it slipped through his fingers and slid across Gardner and underneath Donna.

10

Scratching, digging, and clawing at the floor, Gardner tried to grab the snake. It was threatening to touch Donna. Gardner wouldn’t allow the vileness of Sammael touch his sweet Donna, never. Sammael was able to kill her, but Gardner wouldn’t allow the demon to possess her. Or desecrate her body in any way. On the brink of madness, Gardner stood above Donna, his eyes frantically searching for the slithering demon. It was moving slow. It had a stammer to its wiggle—the result of Garth stomping on it.

Wait.

How and why had Garth done that?

Gardner’s head spun toward Garth. Just seconds ago, Sammael had been wearing Garth’s body as his black mask. Gardner half expected Garth’s boot to slam down on his face; as it had the snake. But then, he caught Garth’s eyes and saw the life living within them. The demon had been expelled from Garth. Gardner didn’t think that it could be done. He’d written Garth off for dead. Sammael was death to most of his hosts. For a moment, he forgot about Donna. He was ecstatic about this miracle, this strength. Winny was right when he said that his brother wasn’t doomed. Most victims of unholy occupancy died during the period of possession. Gardner had talked with many surviving victims—of possession—and they’d all told a similar tale. That they’d awoken in a dark place. It was black and everything was foul. Gardner imagined the place as some kind of hellish lobby, where souls were imprisoned until the body died or was cleansed. It was a twisted sort of Limbo.

Logic crashed hard. Images of Donna drifted in. Gardner’s last thoughts were of quitting. Donna was gone and he wanted to die. He wanted Sammael to take him. But now, even as sadness and madness melded together, the logic of what needed to happen started to set in. He needed to be strong for Garth, Winny, and Cherri, not to mention Donna. She would be tormented by the thought of him giving-in to the demon. He couldn’t fathom disappointing her.

Together, Gardner, Winny, Garth and Cherri could win this battle. No matter how devastated Gardner was over what had happened to Donna—he needed to be strong for these kids. He’d held off from this fight for too long. He needed to step to the challenge presented before him.

He was being tested.

Prying his eyes away from his wife, he looked to Garth and asked, “What’s happened?”

Garth tilted his head, still looking for the
slime
trailing across the floor. “That thing…it came out of me and then it crawled over your way.” He replied, still not looking at Gardner. His eyes floated eagerly across the floor, looking for the snake. “Is that…snake…is that the demon?”

It was then that he saw Donna’s chest rise and he knew, right away, that it was the snake tearing Donna apart from the inside. It had gotten into her and was feasting on her insides. That is what the demon did—it devoured the flesh and destroyed life. Its nourishment was the taste of rotting flesh and tormented souls.

Gardner wanted to cry while he watched his wife’s body being desecrated, vandalized. Cherri ran to Gardner and pulled on his hand. He resisted at first, but soon allowed himself to go with her.

As the three of them watched-on as the snake tore at Donna’s insides, the vision came to Gardner, bright and full of life.

11

Donna was present in Gardner’s vision. She was well, radiant and more than beautiful. She was full of life and vibrant. She appeared young, no older than eighteen. She wore a white dress that waved in the light breeze. A haze of white light surrounded her flawless appearance. There was no smile on her intense expression. Her youth was intimidating. She was the most beautiful creature that had ever past Gardner’s eyes.

In the vision, they were in some kind of paradise. The grass was long and silky. The water was blue mixed with shades of turquoise and the sky was the clearest Gardner had ever seen it. Massive white clouds floated by slowly.

           
Donna came to him and touched his face. Her fingers were warm. They felt soothing while they ran down his cheek. It felt like she was tracing his face with sunlight. Her smell was fresh as lilac and an easy sensation enveloped him. Finally, she smiled at him and nodded. There were no words, only an understanding. There didn’t need to be any words. She was telling him to help the kids. To go back and display his goodness with the gift that he’d been given from the highest power. In that moment, he knew that he would be with her again.

That was the message: Good men must strive for better.

 
It was simple.

When Gardner returned from his vision, he looked past the realm in which his hallway was made of a floor, two walls and a ceiling. His sight brought on the true nature of their setting. There was a parasite within the company of goodness. It needed to be cast away before
it
caused any more harm. Gardner looked to the vile thing as it lay on the floor devouring what was left of the human body belonging to Donna’s beautiful soul. He reached down, grabbed the vile parasite, held it firmly in his hand and brought it to the backyard.

Gardner stood at the edge of the cornfield where the world of fire opened up and the sky peeled back. He threw the demon like it was a bloodsucking slug, into the fire. It spun and convulsed as it was vacuumed into the incinerator. While it fumbled and charred, Gardner felt the rage of defeat prying at the demon. Sammael had been defeated, yet again, by Gardner. Gardner felt his wife’s presence. She was his partner in life and he would see her in the afterlife. He enjoyed her presence as the porthole between Hell and Earth closed-up.

There was only the corn again. The sky had begun to turn a magnificent orange. There were accents of purple in the clouds. It was a sight to savor.

Gardner walked back to the porch steps where he and Donna had spent many hours sitting. He wished that he could feel her next to him. He couldn’t, she was gone. There was emptiness, but what he could feel was the warmness of his new friends.

Garth, Winny and Cherri approached carefully. Their footsteps were soft, almost silent. They looked to each other and then slowly to him.

“Is it over?” Cherri asked

12

“It’s never over. The demon is gone, but not dead. Evil never dies. It is only suppressed. It’s locked away for now and we can go on with our lives. We can leave these demons behind us and move on the best way that we know how. Our struggle as human beings is to promote the good within us. Being a good person is hard enough…for anyone.”

           
The cool morning silence resonated. The birds began to chirp and the first glimmers of sunlight danced across the cornfields. Standing side by side, they took in the first light of the new day. The moment didn’t last. For now, they had an aftermath to contend with A millions details needed to be sorted out. The resting town would soon be plagued with the previous night’s slaughter, the demonic crime.

Winny listened closely, to what Gardner said, but he didn’t know if the answer had been stated. It seemed odd that this nightmare had concluded. That in the end, all it took was goodwill and heart. The raging battle that he thought would ensue wasn’t as it played out in his mind. To Winny, it seemed as though, in the end, it would have taken a platoon of heavily armed Marines to destroy the evil that had torn into their lives on this hellish night in August.

           
“I see,” Winny spoke up. “Those things. The demons. They’re gone for now.
 
 
They sure took a lot from us and we’ll have to go through the rest of our lives tormented by what happened. But we’ll manage. Life will go on.” Winny continued saying while attempting to smile. He was trying to set everyone at ease, even if it was for only a moment.

           
Garth looked to his brother, cupped his shoulder and said, “I thought that I was in the worst kind of trouble. That place I was in, it was dark. I thought—I knew—that I would die there. But you never gave up hope. You saved me from my stubborn self, Winny. I don’t know what comes next, but thanks.” He looked to the liquor store down the hill. “We have a lot to answer for.”

           
Gardner stood, looking at the liquor store along with the Gasper brothers.

           
“The answers will come, and we’ll let those who need to deal with this, deal with this.”

           
“I don’t understand.” Garth said.

           
“In the decades of dealing with this brand of…evil, I’ve found that a rational answer is always made available for those who need rationale.”

           
“I think he’s saying that everything is going to be fine,” Winny chimed in.

           
Cherri dropped her small hand from Winny’s grasp and brought it up to Gardner’s face. Her fingers ran down his weathered cheeks. Her eyes were red with exhaustion. She managed a smile and said, “You’ll see her again?”

           
The corners of Gardner’s eyes crinkled and his eyelashes moistened. He nodded and said, “I need to be with my wife now.” Then he walked across his lawn and entered his house through the back door.

           
Winny, Cherri and Garth stood silent while the pink tone of the early morning sun rose in east. The bright rays of the sun reminded them that they’d been awake all night.
 
 
Not wanting to think about what would happen next, they couldn’t help but think about the next few days, weeks, and possibly a lot longer. They would meet many trials.

           
Garth’s lips stretched upward and his teeth jutted forward. A hearty chuckle fell from his lips. He turned to Winny. “The last customer…The last customer is always the worst.”