My sister and I looked at the wall, where the paint went on like blood, and knew it represented Roland’s.
We stared at the place where his body lay in the sand beneath the house. “Skunk bones,” I said. “Remember? That’s what Dad told us.”
“Yes, but we knew they wer bigger than that,” confirmed Christa. “Remember ‘George’?”
It was true. Had we not seen “George”, Dad’s “pet” skunk skull, many times? He lived in the cavity beside the furnace, behind a large bulletin board, and proved an easy comparison.
So all those times we speculated about what lived in that crawlspace access, and wondered about the bones, had we seen what was left of Roland, instead?
We didn’t know for sure, but we washed up our brushes, laid aside our paints, and made ready to do battle with the spirits, who were having their way.
We spoke to those in the wall: “I know who you are. You, Anger, Bitterness, Envy, Rage, come out of the wall, leave this house, leave this property, and go where Christ commands you to go. Do not return to this place again.”
Christa’s voice, especially, was full of authority, and Marla, still standing beside us, stilled when she heard it. She spoke to the spirits as no one else had dared to, and they listened! Some cowering, some shrieking their disappointment and rage, they left. What Holy Jesus did with them, we did not inquire.
Still, we were far from finished. We felt the marks of another spirit still within the wall. We saw it crouched, guarding its right to be there, at the feet of Roland.
We went after it, to the library, where the entrance to the closet was. There it greeted us. No longer crouching, it rose to its full seven-foot height, and glared with red eyes.
Marla moved in close to Roland, behind the spirit, curious and terrified to see what we would do.
As the demon and I stared at one another, I wondered – Was this the type of spirit that regularly frightened small children, hiding out in closets, glaring?
He was Orc-like, and hideous. I could picture him running through the passages in the mountains of Middle Earth, cracking a whip and singing.
To be continued…
Part 8
Part 9
That room is so beautiful.