The Secret Chapel

Chapter 47

In the chapel below, Leo and the others drew together in a tight circle. This is impossible, Leo thought to himself. This chapel is holy. God would not allow Satan or his demons to enter this sanctified place. He grabbed a bottle of holy water from his shirt and began dousing the floor around them. “In the name of Jesus Christ our savior, we command you to leave!”

A garbled voice echoed around the room. “We are too many for you, priest. Give us our Bible!”

The others huddled behind Leo as he clutched the book and continued to throw the last of the holy water around them in a circle. They knew their weapons were useless as the temperature in the room began to soar and the choking smell of rotting flesh filled the air. The men began to retch, falling to their knees, facing the altar.

A hollow, cruel-sounding voice suddenly came from behind them. They turned their heads and saw the chilling sight of the demon, Agaliarept, his hideous winged form rising in the reddish smoke that drifted upward in the chapel. Satan’s greatest and most malevolent demon was towering above them in the darkness. Hell’s general was standing in a holy chapel, unfazed by his surroundings.

The demon flickered, like the image of something moving in the rapid pulse of a strobe light. “Your holy water is no use to you here, priest.” The demon lowered his head, his glowing red eyes boring holes through Leo. Why is this happening? Leo thought. Was it possible the chapel had never been sanctified?

Alon had had enough. He brought the pistol from beneath his shirt and fired at the demon. There was no effect as Alon emptied the gun. “Curse you, you evil thing from hell!”

The demon became furious, rising even higher. Alon was suddenly flung through the air by an invisible force, his body slamming against the wall of the chapel, where he sank to the floor, unconscious. The case filled with holy water enclosing the book shattered in Leo’s hands, forcing him to drop the Devil’s Bible to the floor. The sound of laughter echoed through the chapel. “Run, priest, run. You’re no match for those of us who now inhabit this church. Where is your God now?” The voice changed and mimicked a deep-voiced human chanting a guttural litany in an ancient language that had existed before time.

John inched his way over to Alon’s limp form. He tried to lift him up and attempted to shield him with his own body from any further harm. He felt the probing eyes of the demon piercing his very soul and wanted to flee from the chapel but stood his ground between it and Alon.

Darkness was enveloping the men as they began to lose their vision. They were overcome by weakness, the life force slowly ebbing from their bodies.

Lev grabbed Leo by the shoulder. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

Leo looked up, the demon mysteriously appearing and disappearing in their field of vision. “What are you talking about? We have to put the book on the altar.”

“We’ll never make it. We’re all going to die if we stay in here.”

Leo staggered to his feet and headed for the book. Lev grabbed him from behind. “You’ve got to leave, Leo. You’re not the one.”

“What? But if I’m not-”

The demon suddenly appeared next to Leo. The smell was overpowering. Leo and Lev were forced to back away, unable to stand up against this embodiment of pure evil any longer. They moved back and huddled against the chapel wall by the entrance, averting their eyes from the sight of the demon.

Lev grabbed Leo by the arm and began leading him out of the chapel. John saw what was happening and lifted himself to his feet, staggering toward the book. “I’ll do it, Father.”

The demon turned on him in a fury. “You’re not even a priest. Your soul is mine.”

Leo pulled loose from Lev and instinctively lashed out at the demon, trying to physically punch him as hard as he could.

The demon laughed as Leo’s body flew through the air, his head hitting the floor. Lev grabbed him under the arms and began dragging him toward the opening in the wall. John wisely began to back away. Because of Leo’s intervention, he had temporarily been spared from the demon’s wrath. He moved to Alon’s side and began to inch him out into the tunnel by himself when he realized that two more pairs of hands were helping him. Morelli had regained consciousness, and he and Ariella were helping John pull Alon to safety.

The heat and wind escalated in the chapel while, outside in the tunnel, Lev laid Leo on the floor beside Alon. Away from the presence of the demons, Alon began to wake up and slowly regain his senses. They knew they were powerless in the battle with the demons, and it was useless to try to return to the chapel in the face of such overwhelming odds.

The terrified group sat huddled together, lost in the haze of battle and thinking of retreat, when they saw the lights of men approaching from out of the darkness of the catacombs. Leo lay on the tunnel floor, drifting between consciousness and the black void enveloping him. He lay there, breathing in and out, his vision cloudy, when he saw the light in the distance … a golden light in the sign of the cross. With his last ounce of strength, he lifted his head and looked upward at a sight he never expected to see. Striding toward him was the unmistakable image of a tall cardinal, his black and scarlet robes flowing behind him. The large golden pectoral cross hanging from his neck reflected the light from the group’s flashlights. It was Cardinal Lundahl.

Several priests and cardinals were following behind him. They stopped and stared in open-mouthed horror through the hole in the chapel wall. The sight within caused them to take several unconscious steps backward.

The black-robed entities flew about inside the chapel, screeching and wailing as the huge demon moved to the front of the altar, growling and forcing everyone except Lundahl to move even farther away from the opening with a strong, evil-smelling wind.

Slowly regaining his strength, Leo was trying to stand. He looked at the cardinal with disbelieving eyes.

Cardinal Lundahl stepped forward and put his left hand on Leo’s shoulder while making a sign of the cross with the other. “We’re glad you made it back to us, Father.”

A strong movement within the chapel shook the ground beneath their feet, and bricks and rocks began to fall from the ceiling above.

Morelli looked up at the cardinal. “We don’t have much time, Marcus.”

Leo was completely baffled. He looked from Lundahl back to Morelli, not knowing what to believe anymore. “Time for what?”

Morelli looked Leo in the eyes. “Cardinal Lundahl is the one.”

“The one for what?” Leo shouted.

“He is the only one mentioned in the code who must face the demon in the chapel. You and the others were only meant to retrieve the book and bring it here. Marcus is the one who must face the evil within that room on the other side of this wall. That bump I got on the head prevented me from telling you that before you all entered the chapel.”

“But Lev knew. I remember him telling me in the chapel that I wasn’t the one.”

“Somehow, he sensed in the midst of the encounter with the demon that you weren’t the one chosen to deliver the book,” Morelli said.

“He’s right, Leo,” Lev said. “That’s the first time I’ve ever retreated in battle, but I knew we weren’t supposed to be there this time. We needed reinforcements, and I believe they have arrived.”

The ground shook violently again as more bricks fell around them and a series of hideous growls could be heard inside the chapel. The cardinal looked at Morelli and the others with a mixture of sadness and resignation. “I must go now.”

“May God be at your side, Marcus,” Morelli said.

The solemn chant of men praying in Latin echoed in the tunnel as the priests and cardinals doused Lundahl’s clothing from their vials of holy water before he walked to the entrance of the chapel. Without looking back, the cardinal ducked and squeezed his tall frame through the opening in the wall before disappearing into the red mist beyond.