The Order of The Covenant

Chapter 6: Father Ortega - The Devil's Due

The Order of The Covenant

Chapter 6

Father Ortega: The Devil's Due

The priest sat in his brown 1988 Lincoln town car. The windshield wipers swung like a pendulum with a metronome beat. The rain pelted the hood. The thunderous sound trapped inside did very little to mask all the uncertainties that ripped at him from inside. A black leather bound book sat in the passenger seat.

Before any priest steps into battle, they have to confess their sins.

" Well, I have came and went. I've done things I'm not happy with. One thing I can never apologize for is Abe. He's the one thing in my life I'm most thankful for. I know I don't have much room to ask for favors, but if there was any way for Laura to understand..." He let out a deep sigh. " I suppose you're right. Lets focus on one thing at a time and see this through."

This is his way of opening up.

The priest got to thinking. It's probably just a girl looking for attention. A bit eccentric perhaps. Maybe she feels invisible at school, seen to many horror films. Who knows? Either way, he made a promise. He answered the phone call after having that strange nightmare and the woman sounded frantic.

He grabbed the book from the passenger seat and stepped out of the car. He pulled the collar of his black peacoat coat up as he walked to the entrance and buzzed the com. The door released. He made his way up the flight of stairs. A large vertical window stood at the intermediate landings. The ominous grey weather gave faint light. With the ripples of water cascading down, it appeared a bit like a melancholy oil painting in the background as his silhouette continued down the hall. A little colder than usual, he thought to himself, but then again, heat normally rises inside. He pulled out the piece of paper from his pocket and read, 219C. He had one more flight of stairs. As he made it up and around he noticed the hallway occupied by a other tenants from the floor. A shorter lady, in her mid fifties held a rosery clutched in her hand as she prayed in Spanish. The door was open. More people were spotted in what appeared to be the living room. Some of them sat next to and knelt in front of a woman. Her face was ghostly white with a blank expression.

Everyone turned their gaze upon the man who stood with a solemn stare as the priest took off his fedora and presented himself. " I'm Father Ortega."

Everyone silently looked at one another puzzled. The woman they came to support stood up slowly from the couch and walked over to Father Ortega. Her hand clutched her coat under her chin with a white knuckle grip. The other hand held a tissue under her raw pink nose. " I don't know what came over her. She's never been like this. I don't know what to do?"

" Just leave it to me. In the mean time, lets get everyone out." His gaze panned across the room, respectfully and professionally. Then he looked back at the mother. " It's okay that you stay, but it's best you don't enter the room, under no circumstances. Understood?" He said mindfully.

" Yes, Father." She nodded. " Is she going to be alright?"

" Lets just focus on you right now."

Everyone had begun to exit the apartment. The mother shut the door to the kind words of the neighbors that supported her. She then turned to the priest that was fixed on the door down the hall.

" She's down there." She pointed. Her bony finger trembling. " Last door at the end of the hall."

Without any further things to say, he started down the hall. The air was damp and cold. The walls spotted with mold warped the further down he went. The ceiling buckled and the carpet felt like a soaked sponge.

These things didn't happen like in the movies. It wasn't like every room you walk into is there someone spider climbing on the ceilings and walls. Or speaking in some deep demonic tone. No. They like to leave you in doubt. It's part of the whole plan to break you down. One thing is true. The body begins to slowly decay and break down. Not because of demonic forces, but due to acting as a vessel for something untimely. An immortal in a mortal's body causes it to accelerate the human metabolism. Small things that can lead to a decision about whether or not a person is actually possessed can also be like a false negative. Starving one's self, self-inflected wounds, even a little research goes a long way. However, something is telling Father Ortega that he was in fact going to face something he thought that he had put behind him all those many years ago.

Before Father Ortega could turn the door knob, the mother called out.

" Katlyn..." Her name is Katlyn."

Father Ortega looked over his shoulder.

" Her name is Katlyn."

" I'm not here to speak to your daughter." His breath rolled out in a fog.

He stepped inside the room of a typical female teenager if it was only destroyed by a hurricane. Pictures of family and friends that hung from the walls were broken and torn. Glass covered the floor. A vanity mirror over the dresser shattered with a spiderweb of cracks that went from one corner to the other. A chunk of glass missing in the bottom left corner from impact. A music box laid on its side open as one leg continuously spun in a circle.

The priest made his way around the white metal framed bed. It's white down comforter pulled off and draped of to the side and in the floor. The edge was red from soaking up a puddle of blood on the floor. Along the exterior wall, the girl knelt in the corner. Her feet planted on the floor as back faced Father Ortega. Every vertebrae visibly protruded through her back like knots under her shirt. The Father could see his breath roll out from between his lips as he walked through the room, yet her long night s**t was nearly translucent, as if soaked in sweat. Her hair a mess. A patch missing from the back had begun to fester and rot. Even if 'saved' this girl faced serious dangers of blood poison.

As he dared to step closer, the music box stopped. The girls head turned ever so slightly as he could see the black veins that traced around her cold blue chapped lips. Her blood red gums. That insidious smirk that grew in the corner of her mouth like a devils tail. From her profile, veiled by the mess of blonde hair, the corner of her eye crept. He noticed adjacent to her green iris was yet something unnatural indeed. It was like the splitting of atoms, a second yellow iris.

Her voice cracked as a voice he had dreaded to hear from years ago.

" Missed me?"

The hair crawled on the back of Father Ortega's neck, down to his arms as a deep breath of realization just sunk into his gut. This was by no mistake he was brought here.

" You miserable piece of s**t. You have costed me everything."

" Just flesh and bone, Father." Her head craned back as her neck stretched. Her head completely upside down. Her heels firmly planted on the floor as she arched from a backbend to an upright position. Her head tilted. Every crack as her vertebrate popped into place sounded worst than the last disgusting the Priest. His teeth grided while it continued up to her neck as she shot her head strait up. she spun on heel and faced the father. " - Flesh and bone."

In her hand, she held the porcelain ballerina. It's ankle covered in blood from where she had been digging into her other arm. " How's that pride of your these days, Father?"

" Who are you?"

" So what took you so long?" She began to tuft his jacket and fixed his collar. " Second thoughts, Father? You don't seem so confident as you once were."

" I'm not here to play games. Tell me who you are."

" I have gone by many names. Even some in tongues unknown to your kind. But my name is of no importance. The matter is why I'm here."

" And what might that be?"

" You know what I want, Father." She teasingly stepped forward. The shards of glass dug into the palms of her feet.

" Me." He said. Deep down he always had known it was him. But the question was why.

" Yes, Father Ortega. Each and every time I have stepped into your life, you have denied me, only to have separated yourself from the church to sway my decision. But you had me all wrong. I don't want anything to do with your precious church. So, you started a family..."

Father Ortega felt a sense of unease as his jaw clinched at the mention of his family.

It had been after he excommunicated himself from the church, her turned to a life long friend that had been there for him after Father Wallace's death. He allowed himself to feel something that he hasn't felt in a long time and loved. They were married after their first year and then had a son, Abe. It was the most peaceful six years. To peaceful. He was called in again for another exorcism. Not by the church. By the Order. The Brotherhood of the Light. The encounter shook him and this very demon had threatened his family. So he warned his wife and told her that they must go. He divorced her and let her go. The very thing that made him feel human once again. The only glimmer of hope that he had since he felt that he lost the church. He still saw Abe every chance that he got.

One day, she stopped to see him while she had Abe and after spending a day at the park, they said their long good-byes. He watched from the distance as she drove away. Another driver ran the light at the four way and flipped his car over hers. Father Ortega firmly placed his hand on his son's shoulder and told him to stay and not to move. He ran to her aid. He ripped the car door back and released her belt as all the pedestrians from the sidewalks and the park gathered around with their phones filming.

" Someone call the f*****g ambulance, and stop filming." He pleaded as tears streamed down his face.

No good it would do. She was already gone. He pulled and held her close.

It was only after the ambulance arrived and started to tell the people to get out of the streets, he looked across the street of broken glass when he noticed the most foul sight. The car across from him was turned over from the impact. The hood flattened against the ground. The driver suspended by his belt as blood trailed down his face. Behind all the blood, he smiled that wicked grin. Father Ortega walked over to him and knelt by the passenger window. The man spat and coughed. His neck awkwardly bent. Still grinning as he said.

" Missed me?"

Father Ortega got up and retreated to his son at the park as the man continued to shout to him.

" ONE DOWN, FATHER!"

It was only a few years later when he and his son started to have a falling out. Abe had turned nine and stopped talking to him. He tried everything to reach out and listen to him if and when needed. But he avoided him like the plague. It wasn't till they reached to a boiling point and they got into one of their arguments and he told his son to stay in his room. Ortega went to shut the door when he heard his son say something that shook him to the bone.

" Its because of you, she's dead."

" What did you just say!" He swung the door back open and rushed in the room.

His son just sat there. Not timidly. Not ashamed. No. He sat there with a grin on his face and with a voice he never wanted to hear again, he said.

" You heard me."

Ortega stood there petrified stiff.

" What's wrong, did you miss me?"

Ortega waisted no time and begun to roll his sleeves up and cracked his knuckles. He placed his hands out. One at a time, directing the flow of energy as he bound his son to the bed. The bed shook and rattled against the floor of their small apartment. The demon reared his face at him and screamed. Ortega thrusted one hand forward and pinned him back as he pulled his other hand back to his hip, palm open. His arm shook as he strained. A spiraling glyph lit above the bed.

A crash came through the front door.

Ortega waited till the seal was complete.

Voices from the living room rushed through the halls.

Ortega raised both hands in front of him. His forearms together as he clinched his hands into fists. He tried to open is fast as he could. His head violently shook as his neck strained. His jaws clinched as he seethed through his teeth in desperation. The seal gave way, Abe's back arched till only his head and heels of his feet touched the bed. A black winged shadow was pulled into the glyph. The light vanished. His son collapsed. Ortega fell to his knees as the police bashed through the door and rushed in the room with guns in hand. Two grabbed Ortega as the others went to the bed and checked on Abe.

Father Ortega lost custody of his son and was arrested for child abuse. The charges were minimalized due to lack of evidence and the nature of his work. His son Abe could never stand trial as he didn't remember anything that happened that night. Till this day, he stays with his grandmother.

" It was because of you." The demon said in the voice of Abe mockingly. She chuckled. Father Ortega grabbed her by both arms. " You separated yourself from them for their safety. Now you are alone, here, talking with me." The demon smiled. Her black tongue snaked out tauntingly curled at his nose. Ortega shoved her back. She clamped her rotted teeth and smiled.

" You said that you didn't want anything with the church?" Father Ortega tried to direct the conversation.

She coyishly knelt on the bed. " Do I look I go to church?" She twirled her finger in the air as she rolled her demonic eyes.

" Then what did you want with me?"

" Well, I'm sure as you can tell, she hasn't got much left in her. And I then I'll jump into the next person and the next."

" Till you get what you want. And what is that?"

" A debt."

" I don't owe you anything."

" Not you. A certain someone. They had made pact. As you know, being a part of the Order, when you make a covenant, you must hold your end of the barging or pay the consequence."

" And what does this person owe you?"

" Life."

Father Ortega took a second to think. Life could mean many things. It could mean that he wanted someone dead. That he needs someone alive. That he wants to make life which are known to the Order as the fey, when average humans conceive birth of the supernatural.

" And what do you need with this life?"

" She had asked for power that no other mortal possess. during the age of man, there had been tomes that had been spread out across this world that holds secrets that no other human could fathom to comprehend. In return, fait has a way working things out. When something changes, the universe has a way of compensating for those changes. thusly, many years later, she had discovered a way to manage manipulating the strings of fait in a way that benefits her. She uses it to evade me. To avoid paying her price. She has got to live her hundred years and she has lived out hundreds of more. She owes me her mortal soul."

" And what makes you think I care to help you settle a score? I could just send you back to hell you came from."

" But you grow tired of this routine. I know you do."

" Why don't you go find someone else?"

" You know better than most. I can't last in this body and you are different. Even when you excommunicated yourself from the church, you answer to something higher than the authority of man. You answer to the Order. You are... an 'Other'." She pulled on his hand. The cuff of his sleeve exposing the tattoos at his wrists.

" You need full accession."

" I need to be welcomed. Invited in to harness my full power."

" That's just pure madness." The priest spun on his heel. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. " If I gave in to you, the brotherhood of the light would tear me apart."

" Just you and me against the world, Father."

" No, this is insane. What makes you think I would ever agree to doing this? After everything you did to me? After everything you took away from me?"

" I could give you so much more."

Father Ortega gathered what courage he had left and turned around. He had to make it clear that he wasn't about to give into a demon. He grabbed her by both arms and picked her up and stared the demon straight in the eyes.

" I'm not your pawn in some game. Leave me alone."

Tsk tsk tsk, she smiled as the music box began to play again. A simple crank that wound a spring that turned a cylinder with dimples that plucked the teeth and cords of a of a song. Wind it and play it over and over, it will play the same song. Only this time, it wasn't.

It played the song to Father Ortega's and Laura's wedding.

Father Ortega threw her back on the bed.

" You honestly think I'm going to let you walk out of here this time." She took the white down blanked and wiped the blood off her arm from which she carved and revealed the jagged words, 'ONE DOWN'.

" So when's the last time you saw him..." She asked. " Because I can make it the last." She got off the bed and stood in front of the Priest. " Look, if we don't stop her, she could get even more powerful than anything you have ever faced. Then she could tip the balance and become a bigger threat than me. You know what I'll do to your family if we can't fix this." She said with a stern demeaner.

" We, as in..."

" You still get to remain yourself and do everything as you normally would, long as we share the same alignment and purpose. To get back what is owed to me."

Father Ortega leaned into the open seal. He could feel his dinner surfacing. He couldn't believe everything has led to this moment. With no other way around it other than finding out that his family was harmed, and for what, to only be put in harm time and time again. It felt so inevitable. Then he felt the girl wrap her arms around him and side of her face pressed against his back.

" So what will it be?"

" Fine. We do things your way." He said.

Father Ortega voiced a few more concerns. As he was well aware, covenants were obligated by both parties. Once they made an agreement, the accession was in order.

The father took off his peacoat and laid it over the foot of the bed. " So I feel you owe me this much."

" And what is that." She smiled.

" What is your name?"

She gave a big rotting grin.

Father Ortega stepped out of the room and returned down the hall to the mother as he put his coat back on. He assured her that she was going to be fine. That it would take some time for her to return to normal and heal.

" She's asleep in bed right now. When she wakes up, her head will be foggy at first and not remember much. I tried to take care of most of the glass for you and you are more than welcomed to go see her."

The mother was speechless. She went from feelings of despair to elation and broke down in tears of happiness as she flung her arms around him.

" I can't thank you enough." She said.

" You are welcomed." He started for the door.

" Father?"

" Yes."

" We haven't been to mass in so long. And no one had seen you for years. I thought you had left. I mean I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm so grateful for your help and saving my daughter. She's everything to me. But how did you know how to come?"

Father Ortega inquisitively looked at the mother he heard on the phone scared to her wits end pleading for her daughter's life. " Who called me?"