Manuel, Romany, others - Exorcism for Dummies

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

The Witches Three in London attempt to remove Selene's influence from Manuel's brain. It's only successful with the timely intervention of Jerry the Ghost. Takes place on Jan 3 2005.



"It's nearly time," Homily said, coming into the small
garden behind the house where Romany was sitting,
heedless of the cold. The other woman made no response
at first, then turned her head from her contemplation
of the moon and met Homily's eyes.

"How's the boy?" she asked, her voice low and calm.

"Nervous, but determined to try this. He trusts us."
Homily sounded a little amused. "Quite a change from
his last visit."

"That's because he is no longer the same person as he
was then." Romany shivered a little, pulling the hood
of the black robe she was wearing up over her head.
"Are you sure you're ready for this? It's not exactly
your usual thing."

"It's still Healing, regardless," Homily replied,
although there was a certain amount of doubt
disturbing the usual calm serenity of her expression.
"And he needs us - we can't let this creature maintain
her hold on him, for his sake, and for Amanda's."

"The link?" Romany agreed. "We'll have to be careful
She doesn't use it as an escape route. Or that we
don't break it or block it - neither of them could
stand that, not after all this time."

"We'll manage." Homily smoothed down the front of her
own robe, similar in cut to Romany's, but a dull red
in colour. "We did the right thing, sending her away.
She can't be involved in this, you know that. Not with
Her taint on her."

"Oh, I know. I just hope she understands, when she
comes back. I was... less than honest about exactly
what's entailed tonight."

"Powerful witch or not, she's still a child," Homily
reminded her. "There are some things she doesn't need
to know yet." Shivering herself, she looked up at the
moon, almost challengingly, and then down at Romany.
"Shall we, then?"

"She'd beg to differ... But you're right, it's time."
Romany pushed herself up off the bench, and gave the
other woman an amused look. "But no crone jokes -
you're older than me, I'll have you know."

"You're better qualified than me - you're grumpier,"
Homily reminded her, eyes twinkling. "Come along.
Aspen's waiting with Manuel - if we don't get there
soon, our maiden will be in the middle of something
awkward and we'll have to pretend to be shocked."

***

Manuel was, first and foremost, cold.
Apparently ancient and powerful covens of witches in
England didn't believe in such niceties as central
heating. So he was wearing a very nice cable-knit
sweater that he had found in his closet one day,
several layers of pants, and gloves. "Brrr" he said
intelligently to Aspen as he waited for her to finish
dusting the floor with several layers of what looked
like chalk.

"Cold?" she asked with a hint of a grin as she
finished the section she was working on. She didn't
seem to notice the cold herself, despite the fact she
was wearing a white cotton robe and not much else.
"You think this is bad, you should try the usual
purification rituals. There's nothing like standing
naked in a bloody river at dawn in the middle of
winter to make you wish you'd been born into a family
of Anglicans instead."

"I remember something about those purification
rituals. You want to see me naked, there's a lot
easier way than convincing me that a good dunking in a
brutally cold English stream is the way to go." he
said with a mostly-feigned chattering of his teeth.
"You could try a couple of those nice heavy beers down
at the pub and maybe showing a little skin?" he
grinned at Aspen. She was fun to tease, and she really
was fairly attractive.

"Manuel, when I want to see you naked, all I have to
do is ask," she replied with an answering grin - she
was well used to Manuel's flirting by now, and enjoyed
it. Not that she was going there at all; it was
obvious Amanda loved him, and she wasn't going to get
in the way there unless she was absolutely clear on
the situation. "You have absolutely no subtlety, you
know. But you're lucky - it's rather sweet."

"You wound me!" he cried, holding his hands over his
heart and staggering theatrically. "Cut me to the
quick! And I'm thinking that subtlety is overrated,
really. I'm handsome, ripped, and hung like a horse.
And I used to have a good bit of money." he said,
before a new headache ripped through him. "Owww." he
complained, sitting back down heavily. "That was dumb.
Stupid brain."

"Here, let me..." Aspen stepped carefully over the
chalk lines she'd already drawn and knelt next to him,
laying her hand briefly to his forehead. "Once we do
this ritual, this sort of thing won't happen any
more," she reassured, taking the pain away with a
brief Healing. "And speaking of which, I should get
this done before Mum and Romany get back." She pressed
a quick kiss to his temple. "Bad brain. No more
headaches," she told it, before rising to her feet
gracefully and resuming her task.

Manuel smiled a cruel smile and using his body for
cover smudged one of the warding lines that Aspen was
drawing on the ground. Not so much as to tip off to
the sorceress that something was wrong, but enough to
make a distinct weak point in the pattern. He didn't
know why, but he knew that it would be a weak
point, and he doubted that the coven would
double-check their patterns before starting the
ritual.

"Hey," Aspen said, and Manuel looked up, almost
guiltily. But Aspen was smiling at him. "It'll turn
out all right, you know," she said, thinking his
sudden silence was nerves. "Just wait and see."

***

"Blessed Hecatae, whose fire burns in our blood, lay
your protection upon this circle. Divine Isis, mother
of our sisterhood, give us your blessing in this task.
Sacred Kali, the shadow and warrior within us all,
lend us your strength." Romany's words were calm,
clear, ringing a little in the hushed silence that had
fallen over the small, bare room. The three witches
were seated around a large circle drawn upon the
floor, another circle of protective runes drawn around
the outside of it. Each woman sat within a pentagram
drawn equidistant from the others, clad in hooded
robes - black for Romany, red for Homily, white for
Aspen. The youngest woman looked nervous, but
steadfast; she'd been called in not simply to make up
numbers. Homily's daughter had power of her own.

But Manuel also had power, even if he couldn't
consciously access it.

Inside of his head, the clear cold moonlight shone
over the
devastation, casting his mindscape into stark relief.
At the center of the ruined nightclub in his mind
there was a pool of red power, crackling and flowing
like water. Next to the pool stood one unknowable,
beautiful black-haired woman. Her skin seemed to
reflect the cold moonlight, giving her an
almost alabaster-like sheen. "Foolish children," the
woman said with a thin smile. "They think to match
their feeble powers against the boy? Against
me? I don't think so. They waited too long...
that done under my sign is MINE to control!" she
ranted, and then squatted down effortlessly to dip her
fingers into the pool of power.

The pool seemed to resent the touch, boiling up
furiously yet not spilling a single drop outside of
its banks. The woman smiled, and her eyes glowed red
as she watched the women chant. She shifted her gaze
to another part of Manuel's mind, and watched as
Manuel threw himself against a simple Warding
uselessly. "You'll regain control soon enough, pet"
she cooed at him, blowing him a kiss with great
amusement. "I know how much you'd like to have the
girl. She'll be yours, don't worry."

There was the faintest ripple around Manuel as he sat
in the middle of the circle, a thickening of the air,
almost. Homily frowned slightly as she took up the
next part of the ritual, feeling the resistance, a
sense of power from the boy. "We come seeking healing,
a mending of what was done, purification of this
vessel. Remove the taint of evil from him, make his
soul his own once again..."

Manuel smiled at Homily, more of a leer really.
"Purification?" he said, his old-money New England
accent never sounding quite so English as it did right
then. "He doesn't want mended. He doesn't need to be
purified. And he loves the taint of evil." he
said. "Do you think your feeble magicks are enough to
drive me out?"

Aspen gasped a little at the change in Manuel's aura -
it radiated evil like a toxic haze - but recovered
herself. "Eater of Souls, you are not welcome here,"
she intoned, bracing herself against the power
radiating outwards from the centre of the circle where
Manuel was. "You shall not have him - we claim him in
the name of the Goddess. Release him, or be cast out."

Inside of Manuel's head, the woman in black thrust her
arm down almost to the armpit into the red pool,
sighing in near-sexual release as Manuel's power
ripped through her. "So deep." she moaned. "And so
flavorful. Much better than my poor Apollo, who has
turned his back on me. Now, let's see what those
little bitches are hiding..." she said with a cruel
smirk on her face.

"Do you think that you can possibly stop me?" he
taunted Homily as his eyes glowed red, and he punched
through the breached and useless wardings. His target
was not Homily, rather, but instead the nubile girl
clad in white. She had enough power to damage one or
possibly even both of the other two, and of the three
of them Manuel knew her the best. She wanted him, on
some levels, and she had been foolish enough to feel
it where he could sense it himself. That was all the
in he needed.

"Hold your ground," Romany commanded, reaching over to
grab Homily's hand - without the wards, they'd have to
form the Circle themselves. Homily's hand was shaking
a little with the effort of holding back the
malevolence permeating the room, and Romany squeezed
it briefly in reassurance. ~We're stronger than Her,~
she thought at the older woman, before extending her
hand towards Aspen. "Power of Three, Aspen," she
reminded her. "Take my hand."

Aspen tore her gaze from Manuel's glowing red eyes,
and nodded, gulping a little. She raised her hands,
one to Homily, the other to Romany, reaching to make
the circle complete...

... and instead of grabbing their hands she sent an
eldritch bolt through both women. Not enough to kill
them - she loved them both - but enough to hopefully
purge the evil that she was sure dominated their
souls. She had seen it, in a brief moment of clarity.
They didn't want her help to cleanse Manuel - they
wanted her help to damn him! The pattern on the ground
- it was not a healing circle, it was a Summoning
Circle! They were going to sell Manuel to some obscene
demon in exchange for powers undreamt-of!

Homily flinched backwards with a cry of pain,
instinctively making a warding gesture with her free
hand. Her power didn't run to force bolts and the
like, but she was renowned for her protective and
healing abilities.

"Avert!" she commanded as Aspen raised her hands again
for another bolt, beginning a weave that would break
Manuel's hold on her daughter, but Romany clamped down
hard on her hand.

"Sleep," she told the youngest witch, and Aspen
slumped. Homily gave her an outraged look, which she
returned blandly despite the beads of sweat on her
forehead, the slight grimace of pain. "The boy's the
key," she reminded her. "We finish this, She won't be
able to access his powers. Aspen  was the weak link -
it's better she's out of this."

"And how do you propose we finish this without her?"
Homily demanded, struggling to pull her hand from
Romany's - this had gone too far, she had to summon
the rest of her coven and deal with this interloper
for once and for all. "You always were too cocky,
Romany. Going after power blindly, not caring about
the consequences..."

Manuel stepped out of the warding circle and
approached the bickering women. "Listen to Homily." he
said with a smile. "She speaks the truth. Listen to
your heart - it will tell you that you just don't have
what it takes. You couldn't save Manuel any more than
you could save Amanda. You failed, Romany." he said
sweetly.

"Lies," Romany hissed at Selene's presence, wearing
Manuel's body like a glove. "I got her out, I got her
away from him..." But there was no conviction in her
voice, Manuel's power battering away at layers of
calm, stripping away at her confidence, her belief in
herself.

"After two years!" Homily retorted, yanking her hand
away at last. "You saw what he was doing, and stood
back for two years, until you'd learned all you could
from him!" Around them the air was crackling with
eldritch energies as their focus on the ritual
fragmented. "It was always about power with you,
Romany! Is it any wonder I wouldn't let you keep her?!
That much power in one person's hands... it was too
much to risk!"

"I couldn't act sooner! He would have beaten
me, I didn't have the power, I had to wait..." The
words were almost ripped from Romany, Manuel's
empathic abilities driving to the very core of her
long-standing guilt.

Manuel smiled widely as the two witches bandied
poisoned words at each other. He could _see_ it, the
pulsing green of their toxicity ripping at the other's
emotional wounds. It was so delicious - the boy's
power had so much potential! He wasn't even really
pushing the depths of his power all that much, and he
was achieving so much with these two. Smiling, he
spoke to Romany. "Are you going to let her treat you
like  that?" he asked her conversationally. "To treat
you like a child, to  hold you back? You have the
power now - you can feel it. You know it's  true.
She's holding you back. She's keeping you from
protecting Amanda, from protecting those who need it
the most." he insinuated.

"Shut it you slag!"

The words weren't a great deal louder than a whisper,
but they carried well enough.  Manuel half-turned just
in time to see a figure fade into view behind him.  A
man in his late forties, in a cheap suit ten years out
of date.  A man with no emotional aura at all.

"Giving it the big bleedin' I am, are we?  'aving a
laugh?  You tart!"

Jerry Reynolds stepped forward with a scowl on his
face.

"Who-?" Manuel started

"I'm Romany's boyfriend.  And I 'aven't 'ad me
dinner!"

Jerry lashed out with in insubstantial fist, catching
Manuel square in the face, and passing through,
straight into his brain...

Inside Manuel's mind, Selene slipped herself into the
pool of his power, raising her arms to the point at
the new interloper. "GET OUT!" she screamed, losing
her inhumanly beautiful facade for just a second to
reveal something stunted, ugly, and near-consumed by
her own unnatural desires. "The boy is MINE!"

The distraction meant Selene's grip on Manuel's powers
slipped - clarity rushed back to Romany, and she
straightened, reaching forward again for Homily's
hand. "Wake Aspen," she said urgently, and the older
woman did as she was told, without argument, ignoring
the psychic residue of Manuel's manipulations.

"Purification rituals all 'round after this?" she
suggested with a brief flash of humour, even as she
roused her daughter. The girl was confused and
bewildered, but the sight of Manuel twitching and
jerking as the internal struggle went on spurred her
into action. Seizing the hands offered to her, she
nodded.

"Ready," was all she said, and together the three of
them focussed their energies on forcing Selene's
presence out of Manuel's mind, chanting now in a
language before the Romans arrived on England's
shores. The power swirling throughout the room
concentrated, focussed on the slender young man,
pinning him in place as around all of them a howling
wind picked up.

Inside Manuel's mind, the woman clad in white lunged
forward to grapple with the spectral man. Her hands,
twisted into cruel claws, cut him but shallowly.
Overhead, the grey murk parted to reveal the cold
clear moon, much larger than any real lunar orb,
shining its cold light of corruption onto Manuel's
mindscape. "He is MINE!" she screamed once again, her
eyes glowing the same infernal red as Manuel's.

Behind the barrier, Manuel screamed and threw himself
against the Warding once again. "Let me out!" he
begged the interloper, too desperate to remember his
haughty pride. "Together, we can drive her out!"

"Hold your bleeding horses, would you?"  Jerry caught
Selene's wrists, and then shoved his head forward,
catching her hard on the nose, and causing her to
stagger back.  "Don't like hitting women, but somehow,
she makes it a real pleasure."  He jumped back and
reached out a hand to Manuel through the barrier.
"This is going to give both of us a bastard of a
headache, I warn you."

"It's just pain." Manuel said, and once the ghostly
man pushed his fingers through the barrier, Manuel
grabbed ahold and threw himself forward. Breaching the
barrier hurt like little else in his life, but he
managed to hang on until he was completely through.

Selene used the time to reorient herself. A thought,
and the damage done to her form was wiped away.
Another, and a part of the mindscape shuddered and
twisted. A few more, and red fire arced up her arms
and body, bathing her in a hellish light. She was too
late to reinforce the warding before Manuel and Jerry
had breached it, and that brought a snarl to her face,
revealing decidedly elongated canine teeth. "There's
no reason to fight like this." she said, taking a deep
breath and using all the little tricks she'd learned
in all of her years to make men sweat. Even dead ones.

***

"He's free of Her binding!" Homily gasped.

"Then we've got a lot more than a chance," replied
Romany as underneath them the floor shuddered with the
force of the energies being thrown around. Manuel's
body lay on the floor, convulsing with the battle
going on within his mind. "On the count of three, give
it everything you've got. One, two..."

***

Unable to help himself, Manuel took one, then another
jerky step towards Selene, until Jerry grabbed his arm
and yanked him back.

"She's playing you, you wanker," he told the younger
man.

"He knows his true mistress," Selene corrected, still
with that slow, sultry smile, her voice smoky and
enticing. "Come back to me, Manuelito, and you shall
know such pleasures…" She made is if to beckon him
closer, but a set of woman's arms grabbed her from
behind, pinning her hands to her sides. Another pair,
the skin younger and smoother, wrapped around her
waist, while a third pair wound around her throat,
cutting off her voice.

"That's quite enough out of you, bitch," Romany's
voice said from the shadows behind Selene, sounding
oddly plural, underscored by two others. Then it
changed, became lighter - Aspen's voice.

"We call upon the power of Three to cast you from this
boy. In the name of the maiden…"

Another change, Homily's motherly tones hard with
determination. "In the name of the mother…"

"And in the name of the crone, your power is taken,
your hold is loosed…" finished Romany's voice. Then
she was speaking again, directly to Manuel. "It's up
to you now, Manuel. Deny her, and she'll lose her hold
on you. We'll finish the rest."

Manuel smiled and remembered a line from one of the
movies Jubilee was eternally sitting him down to
watch. "Get away from me you BITCH!" he bellowed at
Selene, and then smiled as the coven went to work
wrestling Selene out of his mind. Hopefully forever.

Selene screamed, a long, tortured howl as Manuel's
words literally cut through her like a knife. Great
gaping wounds appeared in her body, but they didn't
bleed, the tissue within dry and desiccated as the
flesh of a mummy. The arms around her tightened, the
sound of chanting in Latin filling the mindscape,
drowning out Selene's howls and threats, as the grip
tightened, and tightened. Selene folded in upon
herself, collapsing like a dying star, compressing
into a small chunk of ice that slipped from the
witches' grasp and vanished into the dust at their
feet.

Manuel, back in the Real World, panted as if he'd just
run a marathon in jackboots while smoking Camel
unfiltered cigarettes. "Is it done?" he asked roughly,
cradling his head in a futile effort to relieve some
of the physical and psychic pain.

"As well as it can be," Romany replied, still in that
odd, multiple voice , the lips of the other two moving
in time with hers. Then as one they sagged, the magic
leaving them abruptly. Homily swayed and crumpled,
Aspen kneeling unsteadily beside her to check she was
all right.

"She's all in," the younger woman said briefly to
Romany, avoiding looking at Manuel.

"We all are - get the others, we'll need help with the
clean up." Romany said briefly, grimacing a little as
she moved. Everything ached. Approaching Manuel, she
knelt by his side, laying a soothing hand on his
forehead. "Sleep," she instructed, and obediently -
almost gratefully -  his eyes fluttered closed.

There was a stirring in the air, and Jerry's faint
outline appeared. "Get done what you needed to?" he
asked, his voice even more distant than before and
sounding pained.

"Yes, thank you, love," Romany said, looking up at him
with an exhausted smile. "Thanks for the back-up."

"I'd say any time, but you know how much I hate all
this magic shite…" Despite his words, Jerry reached
forward and passed insubstantial fingers through her
cheek in a ghostly caress. "Get what you need to
sorted and I'll see you at home - I've got a bastard
of a headache from all this." And with that, he winked
out again, even as there was a hesitant knocking at
the door and Craig's voice asking if things were all
right. Romany sighed, pushing away the exhaustion and
the memories of what Selene had done with Manuel's
powers. The job wasn't quite finished yet.