Their first stop was the St. Claire High School in the town of Harvine where a few months ago, the seventeen year old daughter of the Vice Governor, Laila Erra, was first possessed. The principal warmly accepted both of them inside the school premises and willingly toured them the area and the exact classroom where Laila had first showed the symptoms.

It was during break time when they toured though, so Father Azrael decided to better defer the investigation and return after class hours instead.

“Then I will arrange and inform the security personnel about your intention Father Azrael,” the principal, Mr. Lafton, said when they reached in front of his office. “Here, take this. This is Ms. Erra’s house address. You wouldn’t miss it. It is just a couple of blocks away from here.”

“Thank you Principal Lafton,” Father Azrael replied with due gratefulness. He took the note from him but instead of keeping it to himself, he passed it on Aurora who stood behind him.

She took it though with a confused glance.

“I believe you know where that is,” he said.

She read the note and right after gave a short nod. “Yes, I know where the house is located.”

“Good. Then, we should be going Principal.”

Principal Lafton was all smiles towards the priest, but Father Azrael didn’t miss an obvious twinkle in his eyes whenever he looks at Aurora’s way. If he wasn’t mistaken, the principal was flirting with her covertly.

The nerve of him, and even in front of a priest for that matter!

As they walked down a pathway leading to the parking lot of the school, Father Azrael sensed Aurora’s relief.

“What is bothering you Aurora? You were distancing yourself from me and the principal the whole time of the tour.”

She looked up and saw that he already stared keenly at her. His beautiful cerulean eyes immediately took her breath. The sunlight played on the color that it made his orbs more vibrant than usual. Turning her head away, she just answered in a reserved manner.

“No, nothing Father. I am just not comfortable being in this place.”

She embraced her shoulder bag this time and gave out a long sigh.

“I don’t think it is nothing Aurora. Please do tell me next time if you feel uncomfortable so that I could do something about it.”

“No, you can’t possibly do anything Father,” she answered unintentionally, looking suddenly so distant watching the trees of the parking lot.

Father Azrael abruptly stopped and called her name in a stern voice.

“Aurora.”

She paused from walking and turned back to look at him

“Oh, I’m sorry Father,” she answered in an apologetic voice. “What I mean is...is that...it is already in the past, you can’t change anything about it.”

“Tell me, why?”

She couldn’t believe how suddenly she turned teary eyed now. Being in this place truly brought back some memories that she would prefer buried — buried deep within the confines of the classroom doors.

“Please, do confess,” he encouraged once again.

With that, she remembered that the man in her front is a priest. If she was to express her pain at this moment, it would be the right time.

“I was...” she started in a pained voice. She sat down in a nearby brick chair and reminisced all that she could about her past in this place.

Father Azrael remained standing, but thoughtfully blocked the ray of the sun for her with his towering shadow.

“I once studied here when I was in high school. In my second year, Mr. Lafton, the principal now, was my professor in Physics. He was a quiet man, but he was good with his teaching skills. However, I didn’t know that he was good with another thing and that was to blackmail students. I heard rumors about it, but I didn’t mind them until it came down to me. He blackmailed me to failing my grades in the finals if I wouldn’t let him touch a private part of my body.”

The exact time she said it, Father Azrael’s hands turned into a tightened fist. So this was what’s bothering her. He was a fool to let the Principal ogle on her, but he was more a fool failing to notice her distress.

“I was afraid that time of course. I didn’t want to disappoint Sister Cene with a low grade so I allowed him to touch me in my breasts. I was appalled by it Father, please don’t get me wrong.”

Her hands shook as she told it and her eyes suddenly streamed with tears.

Father Azrael didn’t flinch, but he listened very attentively.

“That maniac!” she spat. “I never thought that he wanted more from me. He tried to rape me that time, but I didn’t let him. I was able to defend myself enough that I could escape from his office. I honestly thought that I would fail my finals after, but I didn’t. He gave me a high grade actually, but I loathe it. I transferred school after that, but I never told Sister Cene or Bishop Elliot about it. You are the only one who knows this Father. I trust that you can keep it a secret since it is in your vows anyway.”

She wiped her tears dry with a tissue she pulled from her bag and glanced up to see Father Azrael’s eyes seething with anger.

She expected him to do something a normal priest would do. Maybe to scold her or advice her, or to give her a list of prayers she needed to utter after her confession, but he didn’t do any of that. Instead, he just offered his hand to her. She took it and she felt him pull her to stand, but what happened next was utterly unexpected. He tightly wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace. She was stunned at first, felt awkward even, but she nevertheless felt instantly calmed.

It was weird. Never had she felt this much relaxed before. Like she felt ultimately safe under his embrace.

Her face was inches away from his neck and she most certainly captured his divine scent. It was almost like rosewater, but a much better cocktail of it.

“Let’s go.”

Aurora heard him say, and then felt his arms loose.

She glanced at him and noticed that he was intentionally avoiding looking at her.

Her relief was still present, but it was overclouded now with confusion. Why did he just suddenly became cold? Like he regretted doing it to her. She didn’t see anything wrong with his embrace at all. It was just a simple gesture.

Yet again, she was left confused with his ever changing mood.

Father Azrael walked hastily along the parking area. His mind reeled with what he had just done. Yes. It was just an innocent gesture of sympathy for her, but why did he feel as if he had just committed a grave sin?

Mr. Sherd and Marcus were waiting for them under the shade of a cypress tree when they both arrived. Father Azrael ordered the driver to the next location then which was Ms. Erra’s house.

Inside the car, Aurora briefly stole a glance at his reflection in the front-view mirror and suddenly found herself averting her gaze when Father Azrael glanced back at her. A red hue briefly painted her cheeks until Marcus caught her attention.

“Big Sis, how was the investigation?” he asked in a lowered voice, but the priest still heard him anyway. He turned to face both of them and said, “Marcus, you will be coming with me this afternoon back here to investigate further. Aurora, you just stay with Mr. Sherd.”

Both of them simultaneously nodded in agreement.

Although Aurora found it sudden, she was thankful that Father Azrael was thoughtful enough of her predicament. They rode out of the school and into the highway road with her smiling in relief.

They arrived at the Erra Residence at exactly five blocks away from St. Claire High School. It was a townhouse, as expected of a rich family like the vice governor of Soren.

Father Azrael was hoping to interview the person possessed herself, but his high hopes immediately vanished when the new owner of the house informed them that the Erra family had long since transferred to another country after Laila’s possession. It seemed that the poor girl had never mentally recovered from it. She would scream and physically harm herself when in bed at their house, but during school days, she would be as silent as a ghost.

It was disappointing on their part, especially to Father Azrael who planned the whole day for it. What was left now was to go back to the school and investigate from there.

They had still the students lunch break and another four hours to wait before school ends, so Father Azrael decided to head to the local library to fish out a more thorough and concise historical information about the City.

After their lunch at a nearby café, they went straight to the library on foot. It was an air-conditioned building, very neat and well-organized. In there, Father Azrael directly headed for the Records Section in the second floor, while Aurora and Marcus stayed on the first.

The library was just enough for a city with a decent population. Not like all people would come and visit to read, but a city needs a library as a public access building.

“Theology?” Father Azrael raised an eyebrow when he found the two sitting in a sectional sofa with a book in hand. Aurora held a book about Business Management while Marcus chose a Theology book.

“Ah, yes Father.” Marcus quickly placed it down his lap and faced the priest who sat near him in a solo sofa chair. “I am actually planning to become a priest someday,” he revealed.

“Hmmm... interesting choice,” was Father Azrael’s only reply. The boy would have wanted to discuss more about it with him, but Father Azrael immediately cut off their conversation by reading a record book that he himself brought from the Records Section.

Marcus wasn’t blind not to see it though. He comfortably settled back in the sofa and continued to immerse himself with his reading.

The trio were like that until time passed by. Aurora did notice the priest constantly going back and forth on the second floor and skimming an enormous amount of pages. It was dizzying just watching it.

“We will go now,” Father Azrael finally announced to the relief of the sacristan who was already feeling bored.

They went back to the school and just like what Father Azrael had instructed, Aurora stayed with Mr. Sherd in the parking lot.

The moment the exorcist priest stepped inside the grounds, he felt something eerie. It was not because the school was dead silent and devoid of students, but because he whiffed a pungent, semen-like smell. He had smelt this kind of odor before. In a different place. Very, very much in a different place. It instantly warned him that a demon was nearby.

Being a priest, the security guard granted him access with all the classrooms, especially the one that Laila was in.

They immediately went there with Marcus holding Father Azrael’s sling bag.

The room was on the third floor of the building. Standing in that height, he could almost see the entire quadrangle of the school and its interconnecting buildings, with the exception of the parking lot which was blocked by another edifice.

“Room A 32c. Room A 32c,” Marcus consciously muttered again and again as he walked along a wide corridor. “Ah! Here it is Father!” he immediately exclaimed, pointing to a closed door.

The priest extracted his attention out of the quadrangle and approached the boy.

“Room A 32c.” Father Azrael read the inscription in the front door. “Good job Marcus.”

They unlocked the door with the key the guard had given and immediately went inside.

The room was barren-looking. No other furniture except of course the common school chairs one can find in a classroom. The wall was painted dirty white and it had a ceiling fan in the middle. The blackboard was cleaned of chalk and other than a single black bag left by one of the students, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

But sure enough, Father Azrael didn’t think it was so. He had felt the eerie feeling more pronounced than before and he knew there was something in the school more than the naked eye could see.

“What should I do Father Azrael?” Marcus asked, standing in the doorway of the room.

“You pray,” was the priest’s answer.

“Oh, yes! I understand. Should I take the holy water in your bag Father?”

Father Azrael’s brows raised. “No, just pray,” he replied knowing that there was nothing other than a pen and paper inside it. No holy water at all in his bag to bless the classroom.

“Oh, all right.”

The sacristan started to pray beginning with the Apostle’s Creed, followed by the Lord’s Prayer, and then three Holy Mary’s and lastly, the Glory Be. During the whole time, Father Azrael paced along the entire length of the room, touching and feeling every chair he had passed. He felt nothing. He then went out of the room and stayed in the corridor while Marcus continued on praying.

Just by hearing it, Father Azrael immediately knew that the boy meant to pray the holy rosary prayer with the rosary beads in his hand.

He didn’t want to bother him so he left the boy instead, going to where he suddenly felt a pulling sensation in a certain place.

By this time, sunset was already evident in the west sky. Rays and rays of the orange light darted through the glass windows, the hallways and the quad.

He had just reached the end of the long, winding stairs of the building when he heard a faint cry of help some distance away, followed by a scream. Without thinking, he pranced hurriedly to the source, running as fast as he could not caring about the consequent tear of his black cassock.

He reached in the back of a building where there was a small pathway leading to the parking lot. The female scream rang through the air once again and this time he knew it came from the girl’s bathroom.

“No! Let me go!”

Aurora, in distress, shouted to the attacker in her front. She was pinned to the wall of the blue-tiled bathroom with Mr. Lafton holding both of her hands.

She was shit scared, petrified with the inhumane appearance of the principal.

He had ominous red glowing eyes looking back at her with pinpoint irises. Although half of his body looked human in clothing, half of it didn’t. It had a black hairy skin, a tail on its back like a desert scorpion, nose and ears pointed like a spear, and he had serrated teeth smiling back at her like she was a delightful delicacy ready to be eaten. What alarmed her all the more was the impressive display of its erected phallus. The abominable thing was pressing firmly against her pencil skirt, much to her chagrin.

Just by the physical appearance alone, Aurora could see that she has come face to face with a demon. So, the principal has been possessed too.

Its sharp jagged claws dug deeper in her flesh that she yelped in pain.

“Ah! Help! Somebody! Please!” She frantically shouted when the principal tongued her cheeks.

She felt repulsed by it. The slime and the sandpaper texture of his tongue was grotesque enough that she immediately felt nauseous.

A dizzying swirl began to fill her mind. Could a demon really rape a human? Was she really going to be a victim now? Tears pooled in her eyes thinking about it.

“Help!” She tried once again, but with a hoarse voice.

“Aurora, do you think that I would forget you after you escaped from me last time?” the principal voiced out with an unearthly echo. It was numbing her ears.

“Ahhh, you smell so good. Your skin tastes so good too.” He licked her cheeks once more, this time tasting the saltiness of her tears.

“Yesss... I sure like to pierce my erection inside your delicate flessshhh... you are mine.”

“No!” Aurora screamed in alarm, but this time, she couldn’t hear her own voice anymore.

It was as if everything as on mute, and the only sound that she could hear was the sound of the demon’s soporific voice, lulling her to sleep.

She shouldn’t let herself fall prey to it. She shouldn’t. But everything seemed to swirl in a psychedelic motion. Everything seemed to darken.

She felt his rough hands slowly pull the scarf out of her neck, but before he could finally detach it, she suddenly saw a lighting flash from inside the bathroom.

Blinding light surrounded her, and as if the principal was on strings, he was speedily yanked away and thrown forcefully into the opposite wall where a rectangular mirror stood. It immediately broke into a thousand pieces.

Aurora saw Father Azrael stood between them and instant relief came over her.

Yes. Father Azrael. Him. She was safe now, but why does he have glowing golden eyes? Why does he have a surge of electric current spiking in his hands?

Father Azrael stared at the sprawled incubus in the destroyed sink and his expression turned into a scowl right away.

His guess was right. With the semen-like smell circulating in the school, the incubus was surely to blame. He glanced at Aurora who stood up in a weak posture, trying to fix her scarf. He could see her shock when their eyes met, but he didn’t have time to explain. As if he wanted to do it though.

“Are you all right, Aurora?” he asked crisply.

She immediately nodded, looking back at the dual-faced demon.

“Stay back,” he ordered and then turned his attention on the principal.

“You dare do this?” He addressed it to the incubus who was now in a guarded ape-like position. It almost looked frightened until it bared its serrated teeth on the priest.

“That woman is mine!” the principal growled, but his human voice was more noticeable.

“You have no claim on her or anybody else! I thought Father Eshamael exorcised you already, but you simply transferred to another host.”

The demon chuckled like a dying hyena.

“No... I have no other host except for this man, priest. I was simply feeding on his lust for women. The lust that grew more and more each day after her escape.”

The demon eyed Aurora in the most lecherous of ways. Father Azrael saw her shiver noticeably because of it.

“Silence demon!” he snapped and a sudden charge of electricity appeared around the incubus. It immediately writhed in pain; a pain that was simply fatal to their kind. The principal’s body was torn in half and then out came the full form of the incubus.

Its body was large, but it didn’t look menacing at all for it recoiled as Father Azrael’s electricity flooded inside its body. It took him five full minutes before it finally shrilled an earsplitting cry. Then, it disappeared, turning into thin black smoke.

Mr. Lafton’s lifeless body remained still on the sink, his human appearance finally the same, except for his charred arm.

“Fa...ther?” Aurora’s weak voice caught his attention.

He went directly to her and caught her waist just in time before she could fall to the ground.

“Aurora, are you okay?” Father Azrael worriedly asked, supporting her balance by pulling her against his body.

She saw a closer look on his golden eyes and the red streaks in his iris that was slowly fading away and changing into the familiar cerulean. She would have been afraid with it, but somehow, she found it very beautiful to look at.

“Yeah,” was all she was able to answer before she lost consciousness.

Father Azrael lifted her up and brought her outside the bathroom. Her face was flushed, with a lovely hue of red that he found complementing her complexion. She must have struggled a lot before he arrived. It would explain her passing out.

When he turned to the door, he saw Marcus already standing outside of it, agape and beads of sweat coming down his temple.

“Father! Wha—what was that?!” he asked hastily, still in shock.

“Oh, you saw?”

“The door was wide open. I heard a crashing sound so I came here and saw that thing lying in the sink!” He flung his hands in the air as if trying to copy the size of the incubus. “Father, was it a demon?!”

The priest released a long sigh, then stepped out of the bathroom.

“Yes, it was,” he answered stiffly, “Call the security guard now.”

Still wide eyed, the sacristan turned to leave with a hesitant nod, “Ye—yes! Yes, Father!”