"Well, I really thought I should."
"Please don't," he urged her. "Don't. You'd be making a great mistake." Chris turned questioningly to Merrin.
"Father Karras knows best," said the exorcist quietly.
Chris looked to Karras again. Dropped her head. "Okay," she said, despondently. She leaned against the wall. "I'll 'wait out here."
"What is your daughter's middle name?" asked Merrin.
"Teresa."
"What a lovely name," said Merrin warmly. He held her gaze for a moment, reassuring. Then he looked at the door, and again Chris felt it: that tension; that thickening of coiled darkness.
Inside. In the bedroom. Beyond that door. Karras felt it too, she noticed, and Sharon.
Merrin nodded. "All right," he said softly.
Karras opened the door, and almost reeled back from the blast of stench and icy cold. Ia a corner of the room, Karl sat huddled in a chair. He was dresssed in a faded olive green hunting jacket and turned expectantly to Karras. The Jesuit quickly flicked his glance to the demon in the bed. Its gleaming eyes stared beyond him to the hall. They were fixed on Merrin.
Karras moved forward to the foot of the bed while Merrin walked slowly, tall and erect, to the side. There he stopped and looked down into hate.
A smothering stillness hung over the room. Then Regan licked a wolfish, blackened tongue across her cracked and swollen lips. It sounded like a hand smoothing crumpled parchment.
"Well, proud scum!" croaked the demon. "At last! At last you've come!"
The old priest lifted his hand and traced the sign of the cross above the bed, and then repeated the gesture toward all in the room. Turning back, he plucked the cap from the vial of holy water.
"Ah, yes! The holy urine now!" rasped the demon. "The semen of the saints!"
Merrin lifted up the vial and the face of the demon grew livid, contorted. "Ah, will you, bastard?" it seethed at him. "Will you?" Merrin started sprinkling.
The demon jerked its head up, the mouth and the neck muscles trembling with rage. "Yes, sprinkle! sprinkle, Merrin! Drench us! Drown us in your sweat! Your sweat is sanctified, Saint Merrin! Bend and fart out clouds of incense! Bend and show the holy rump that we may worship and adore it! kiss it! lick it, blessed---"
"Be silent!"
The words flung forth like bolts. Karras flinched and jerked his head around in wonder at Merrin, who stared commandingly at Regan. And the demon was silent. Was returning his stare. But the eyes were now hesitant. Blinking. Wary.
Merrin capped the holy-water vial routinely and returned it to Karras. The psychiatrist slipped it into his pocket and watched as Merrin kneeled down beside the bed and closed his eyes in murmured prayer. " 'Our Father...' " he began.
Regan spat and hit Merrin in the face with a yellowish glob of mucus. It oozed slowly down the exorcist's cheek.
" 'Thy kingdom come...' " His head still bowed, Merrin continued the prayer without a pause while his hand plucked a handkerchief out of his pocket and unhurriedly wiped away the spittle.
" '...and lead us not into temptation,' " he ended mildly.
" 'But deliver us from evil,' " responded Karras.
He looked up briefly. Regan's eyes were rolling upward into their sockets until only the white of the sclera was exposed. Karras felt uneasy. Felt something in the room congealing. He returned to his text to follow Merrin's prayer:
" 'God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; I appeal to your holy name, humbly begging your kindness, that you may graciously grant me help against this unclean spirit now tormenting this creature of yours; through Christ our Lord.' " "Amen," responded Karras.
Now Merrin stood up and prayed reverently: " 'God, Creator and defender of the human race, look down in pity on this your servant, Regan Teresa MacNeil, now trapped in the coils of man's ancient enemy, sworn foe of our race, who...' "
Karras glanced up as he heard Regan hissing, saw her sitting erect with the whites of her eyes exposed, while her tongue flicked in and out rapidly, head weaving slowly back and forth like a cobra's.
Once again Karras had a fling of disquiet. He looked back at his text.
" 'Save your servant,' " prayed Merrin, standing and reading from the Ritual.
" 'Who trusts in you, my God,' " answered Karras.
" 'Let her find in you, Lord, a fortified tower.' "
" 'In the face of the enemy.' "
As Merrin continued with the next line, Karras heard a gasp from Sharon behind him, and turning quickly around, he saw her looking stupefied at the bed. Puzzled, he looked back. And was instantly electrified. The front of the bed was rising up off the floor!
He stared at it incredulously. Four inches. Half a foot. A foot. Then the back legs began to come up.
"Gott in Himmel!" Karl whispered in fear. But Karras did not hear him or see him make the sign of the cross on himself as the back of the bed lifted level with the front. It's not happening!
he thought, as he watched, transfixed.
The bed drifted upward another foot and then hovered there, bobbing and listing gently as if it were floating on a stagnant lake.
"Father Karras?"
Regan undulating. Hissing.
