The Exorcism of Sarah Rose Lee

I found her in that little gray house with the boarded-up window off to the kitchen and the small maroon-colored porch out front. The house was old by most standards of the time, but the little brick driveway that matched the maroon porch was crooked and had dandelions sprinkled about it. The yellow hints of that were on the front lawn paired with all its splendor.  

It was a sunny day of course not the run of the mill doom and gloom and clouds as you so often hear about in tales like this one. It was completely unexpected in the way I had encountered her family that late August afternoon. A dead crow was lying near the back of the house near the old crooked garage that barely hung up over the old car and parts that lingered there long after anyone had touched them.

The wind blew soft as I approached the first step, I looked around the pretty little yard and then when I saw her looking at me from the second story window I knew I had found the right place. I smiled up at her of course so as not to raise any alarm and then I went in the front door. I looked about, and there didn’t seem to be anyone home. I watched from inside the house the flowers in the window wilt at my notice of them.  

I took off my hat and my coat and looked around the room as I moved toward the back of the house. The lady of the house it appeared, was outside hanging clothes on the line. I could smell sweet apple pie in the oven, and I could hear the clock strike precisely 3 pm. It was time to settle in, I told myself, as I watched the cat in the kitchen staring at me with full black and yellow eyes. I bent over to look at the little black feline, and he hissed and scurried away. I chuckled to myself then as I took my place at the kitchen table.

I sat watching, and I waited as the lady of the house came in from outside with a fresh basket of clean clothes. I was not even acknowledged to my annoyance, I mean, shouldn’t someone have been expecting me? I stood then as she went up to the stairs then and called up.

“Sarah Rose Lee! I need those socks you wore yesterday and the sweater too!”

“Sarah Rose Lee,” I said to myself. What a beautiful name for a little girl. If I had had any children of my own, that would have been a pretty name to consider. However, I was old, and I was spent, and I had seen my last days nearing to a close. Old things like me can’t be in regret of what might have been. I suppose I could have found a nice pretty lady to take up the house with, but that wasn’t my fate. I chose another path, sadly, and now it would be my last hurrah.  

“Here mama!” said the little girl racing to please her mother. She quickly handed her the socks and the sweater and then went back up the stairs. I watched her mother now satisfied at the task having been completed, she walked past me again and back out to her laundry. 

I stood back up then and walked up the stairs. This was a journey I had come a long way to complete, and it was now or never.

I knocked on the door of the pretty little girl and she slowly opened the door. She looked up at me, puzzled, and I smiled at her. 

“Can I help you? Mama is in the back yard.”

“Oh, yes, I know. It is you I have come to see.” I said to her.

She was about 11 or so with smart braids that had curls at the end of them hanging over both shoulders. She wore a little blue sundress with pink flowers on it and had dark tights and wore bunny slippers.  

“Well, I guess you can come in,” she said to me matter of fact.

I went in and sat down in a tiny chair by her windowsill. I was much larger than the chair, and my old heavy body hung over the edge.  

“I wanted to apologize first because my reasons for being here are well sinister in nature,” I said to her and feeling rather silly saying it out loud.

“Sinister? Miss Pratt taught us that word last week it means something bad. What is sinister about the reasons you are here?”

“Well, let’s hope it is over quickly and not too much trouble will be caused for you. Just know this will not be your fault and when it is all over you won’t recall a thing.”

She looked at me puzzled then, and I stood over her then taking her little head in my hands, and she blacked out. Before she realized what had hit her, I had fully possessed her. The transition would be slower than I had hoped though, because I could see she was still quite herself. I stood inside her mind, then watching her try to figure out why she felt so funny and trying to figure out what the heck was going on. She shook her head quickly as though waking from a dream, and then she went on playing with her dolls she had set up for a tea party.

This was going to take much longer than I had hoped. I knew others had completed this task quickly and in cinema style where the character of the person you possessed immediately changed almost instantly. How was it then this little girl had not even become mildly altered by the demon that now held her body and soul in its grasp.  

I could see what she saw and feel what she felt. She was as un-phased as an insect crawling along with a spider web, not realizing it was a trap. I tried to think of what others had told me had to be done and how to begin. There were the mechanisms of her hands and mind that still needed to be worked out. How do you control them enough to make them do your bidding? I had to think then it hit me. I just told her what to do.

I made her pick up her cup of water and sling it across the room. I told her she was angry and enraged at her mother and father. It worked till her mother came up the stairs to snap her out of it.  

“Sarah Rose Lee! What on earth is all this commotion?”

She looked guilty by the expression that I could feel coming over her face. She hung her head down puzzled as to why she had felt so angry just moments before.

“I – It was nothing.”

“Dinner will be ready in half an hour. Clean up this mess.”

I didn’t even bother trying again I let it go until I could think of something else. I got my wish when she finally fell asleep. I gave her nightmares of bugs crawling on her body and held her mind in a deep sleep so that no matter what she did, she could not awake from the terrible dreams.

Finally, she woke but she cried and screamed something awful that nearly killed my ears and right now her ears were mine. This possession of mine was a lot of work, and I kept telling myself all for reasons that amounted to a small act in the bigger scheme of things.

Her mother and her father came in then to see what the matter was. When her father came in, I almost felt sorry for the guy. He just looked around the room as confused as anything. He switched on the lamp as her mother held her in her arms. When her father looked down at her, I could see he saw something. He stared into her eyes for a moment and had a brief look of fear appear on his face. Oh, the look is this a breakthrough? I thought in my demonic helpless mind. Are they going to see what it is that needs to be done?

“Hey, everyone has bad dreams.” Said her father shaking it off. He had seen something in his daughter that much was real, and it gave me hope then that maybe this wouldn’t take as long as I had initially thought.

They comforted her and cooed over her then it was lights out again. I took my time and waited until the next night to begin it again. I did it again the following night wearing the little girl down until she was just a sleep-deprived version of her former self. I saw her catch a fever from the stress, and I could see the look on her parent’s faces night after night because of my actions.

I had warned her this would be sinister business and it was. It was all part of a bigger plan that I was part of, not entirely my idea. Slowly she began to change, and once she became ill, I had a chance to take control over her little mind and body fully.  

The poor creature had to be tied to the bed from her latest outburst of slapping her mother. Her face had changed to match my scowling face, and her eyes became my eyes. My power over her would soon be put an end to just as I hoped it would be.

Instead, her stupid parents took her to see a psychologist. I could never wrap my head around the idea of people going to doctors that specialized in “talk therapy.” As if talking everything out would mend everything that had come before. It was no wonder that people stopped seeking out God and even the Devil as they had in the past. Humans had reasoned that they needed neither, and it was a great escape. So off to the doctor we went.

I had a fun time with him too. I have to say. He held up inkblots to Sarah Rose Lee and asked her what she saw. One of them was something that looked like a butterfly, and instead of a butterfly, we said: “dead bird.”

He held up another one this one comprised of nothing that resembled anything at all and so when he asked. 

“Sarah Rose Lee, what do you see?”

“Death.” We had answered him.  

The tired-looking skeptical doctor held up another inkblot. I could nearly feel myself rolling my eyes internally.  

“Sarah Rose Lee, what do you see here?” 

It was a rounded circle looking thing.

“Drowning.”

He stopped and wrote something down then. Oh, I bet this was going to be good. I continued internally and sarcastically addressing this doctor. 

“Sarah Rose Lee, have you ever wanted to hurt yourself or others?”

Oh, this was going to be a hard one to answer. I was afraid if I made Sarah say yes, they would lock her up forever, and I came a long way to find her there was no way I was giving up my quest now. Instead, I just made her feel sad and, so she cried, and she cried some more.

Her parents were still beside themselves when all three of them arrived home that afternoon. They just sat there while little Sarah Rose Lee slept in her tiny twin bed. I listened to them.

“Charles, what are we going to do?” asked her distraught mother.

“I don’t know, Emma, I just don’t know.”

They held each other then I was sure of it by the way they were downstairs huddled and whispering, but they were too loud, and I heard every word.

“Do you think Father Adams could help?” asked Charles.

“I don’t see why it would not hurt.”

Finally, a breakthrough and I rested then too, happy finally that I would be getting my wish. A priest is all I wanted from the beginning, and he would sort this out for me.

Father Adams arrived two days later and in a grim sort of way he played his part. I was so excited I felt like I was watching a movie unfold before my very eyes. 

Sarah Rose Lee played the little girl with the demon very well for the Priest as soon as he entered the house the Priest noticed the dead flowers and the smell of decay. I had created it all for him, so he wouldn’t treat her like the doctor did and would see she was indeed in need of help that I was in need too. This man had the power to fix all of this. 

He slowly walked up the stairs to where little Sarah Rose Lee was and when he entered the room, I made sure he stuck around.

“Hello, Father Adams,” I had her say changing her voice of course to sound much more menacing like they did in the movies.  

He had to step back and did the sign of the cross as his little brown eyes and thin frame appeared in the doorway.  

“Hello, Sarah.” He said gulping.

Her face lit up or should I say my face lit up. Her eyes were glowing then glossed over by a yellow hue to appear more threatening. I could see it was working as the Priest took one look at little Sarah Rose Lee and then left.

“I am sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, but I have to go. I will send someone here within a day or so.”

“But what the hell?” asked Charles Lee

“What the hell indeed, sir hell.”

You had to be kidding me. I said to myself, internally. I Changed the child’s face back to normal and stewed in my utter disappointment. I let her be herself for a bit till I could figure out what to do next.

It didn’t take long for someone else to come. This time a man and a woman with long curly hair went to the front door. She was some psychic medium, and I thought well this could be fun.

It wasn’t like I had anything better to do at this point, so why not have a bit of fun harassing the psychic medium. Psychics were the best to play with because hey had all these beautiful things they wanted to do like send spirits to the light. Yeah, not me, no thank you. I had a much better goal in mind one that they would never figure out.  

I hid inside Sarah and didn’t come out. I let them go around the room, and they even set up equipment to try and figure out if there was something there harming little Sarah. The medium couldn’t figure out what it was that was plaguing the little girl or the house.  

Out of boredom, I made them hear banging downstairs and used my telekinesis to move things about the room. I had too much fun just messing with them. The fellow that came with the psychic medium was a little fat man that let out a deep breath every time he had to walk up the stairs. He had a pagan symbol on his chest, which gave me a large chuckle internally. 

Were these two serious? Give me the Priest again please and thank you.

“Well, it seems as though you definitely have a presence here.” Said the fat man.

You don’t say I rolled my eyes internally. 

“We want to send over an exorcist immediately.” 

Thank the dark prince, it was finally happening.

It was what seemed like seconds to me but hours to them that the exorcist finally arrived. I had never seen this man before, then again, I had not made possessing human beings a habit. Not like some of my brethren had, who took dark pleasure in the harming of the lowly human species. I had behaved saintly for a demon. I stuck to keeping men plagued by their own emotions mostly and self-harm caused by self-doubt. It kept me under the radar and held me there till I had decided it was time for a change.

The exorcist was a tall brute of a man who wore a priest’s uniform but didn’t resemble any priest I had ever set my dark eyes on.

I shifted toward him, amazed by his complete and utter disinterest. He had done this many time before I gathered, and so I was of no consequence to him.

I turned on the cinematic reception for him and let little Sarah Rose Lee let out a growl at the sight of him. I am not sure, but I think I made the Priest smirk. Was this supposed to be funny to him?

I had Sarah growl again this time I used all my demonic energy and fed off the energy of her ailing parents who were cowering from the corner in distress. I used that negative energy to levitate Sarah. The Priest did the sign of the cross and then sprinkled holy water in Sarah’s direction.

Holy hell did that hurt. It was like little stones being tossed at your face. I thought it would cause my soul to sting, but clearly, it was more like stoning one to death. If he kept this up, I would be bruised and battered by noon. Sarah dropped back onto her bed with a crash, and then I made her sit up and look the Priest dead in the eyes.

“I’m still here, Priest!” I had Sarah mouth the words, but it was my voice that came out.

“Tell me your name, Demon!”

“What does that matter?”

“Tell me your name!”

“My name is unimportant Priest. If you want to kill me, I dare you!”

The Priest thought about it then looked over to Mr. and Mrs. Lee.

“Can I have a moment with your daughter?”

They were both in a panic and then quickly left the room.  

The Priest turned to me as I waited then for the next bout of pain he would throw at me.

“Show me your true self Demon. Tell me what you want.”

I could feel the surge of energy this holy man possessed inside of him. It was as though he had the will of God working inside of him, and with one command, he pulled me out of Sarah’s body.

I stood then face to face with him. I was smoking but not on fire, just being in his presence was deadly to me. The Priest sat down on the bed as Sarah was sound asleep now, completely worn from her experience and even though it had only been a few seconds of my leaving her body her wounds, self-inflicted by me, was starting to heal.  

“What is it you want Demon?”

“You know,” I said, sitting down across the room from the Priest on the big bay windowsill that was covered with little lambs, stuffed bunnies and dolls.

“Yes, you want me to kill you.”

“Yes! That is all I want. That is why I came here. I’m tired, and I’m old.”

“I can’t kill you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can only be banished back to hell. I can’t kill you. It is part of that agreement when you fell from heaven. Eternal damnation? Does that ring a bell?”

I scratched my old gray head and put my black hat back on.

“I was just hoping,” I said sorrowfully.

“How did an Angel like you turn so fast? You’re nothing like one of my usual run of the mill demons? I mean I will admit your theatrics was something that made me think ‘wow has he seen too many movies’ still though.”

“I guess you could say I used to run with a bad crowd in my youth  .” I laughed

“Well, I’ll tell you what demon, I can put in a good word for you with the man upstairs.”

“Very funny. A priest with jokes.”

“Well, I do have to banish you now.” He said, looking at me with more pity than fear.

“It’s okay I am leaving anyhow. No more theatrics I’m gone.” 

“Okay, then. Let’s do this.”

“Wait, one more thing.”

“Yes, demon.” 

“Is the little girl going to be okay? I took great care to ensure she wouldn’t recall a thing.”

“I think she will be fine.”

“Okay, I’m ready.”

“I command you in Jesus name to go back to Hell from where you came!”

In a quick blink of an eye, I found myself in a downtown city sitting near a homeless man. He had lost his job, friends, and family due to gambling debts. I sat for a long time looking at him. I knew he couldn’t see me, and I just thought about everything. If I couldn’t die, maybe I could try to redeem myself somehow. If I helped people like these lowly humans with their problems instead of causing them perhaps that would put me in the good graces with the man upstairs.

It was worth a try, right?