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ever set foot inside the church.  

C HAPTER F IVE

    FATHER CABRERA STEELED himself for the worst as he followed the two strong-looking male orderlies through the stark psychiatric wing of the Oasis Behavioral Health Treatment Center. Sunlight shafted through a lone window at the far end of the sterile corridor, painting shadows over the oppressive walls. The teen patients remained hidden from view behind the doors that lined the hallway. The overpowering scent of Lysol permeated the ward, almost as if the cleaning staff believed their efforts could both scrub out stains and cleanse the ward’s troubled inmates of their demons.  
    And that’s why Cabrera was here today, decked out in his full vestments and carrying an exorcism kit.  
    Demons.  
    Her name was Nicole Robertson, age fifteen. A month earlier, she’d made a terrifying splash on the Internet when she slit her dog’s throat and painted demonic symbols on her body. She filmed the horror with her brand new iPhone 1 and uploaded the video on an increasingly popular new website called YouTube. Within hours of the footage hitting the Web, the police arrived at her house and she was committed to the Center.  
    Nicole wasn’t responding to medication, and her madness had only deepened since arriving at her new home. Nicole’s desperate parents contacted the Church for help. They believed that sinister forces were at work within their daughter.  
    Cabrera’s first instinct in such cases was to look for a psychological explanation of the problem. Abuse, a stressful living situation, bullying at school; any of these factors could push an impressionable teen to the edge. But after talking with Nicole’s parents, he concluded he was dealing with good, loving people at wit’s end. Nicole was a popular, well-adjusted, attractive young lady whose behavior had transformed overnight.  
    Her parents’ despair, coupled with the savage, occult undertones of the YouTube video, convinced Cabrera to check in on the girl. After visiting her three times over the last week, he’d concluded that a demonic entity was indeed responsible for her shocking behavior.
    The orderlies stopped in front of Nicole’s room. One unlocked the door, his keys rattling in the silent hallway. The lock turned with a rasp and the door swung open. The cell beckoned. As Cabrera stepped into the padded room, a wave of cold air hit him. There had to be at least a ten-degree difference between Nicole’s room and the rest of the ward. Eyes still adjusting in the dim light, he heard Nicole’s voice before he saw her.  
    “Father Cabrera, please forgive me, for I have sinned.” The words were followed by a guttural, amused cackle.  
    The straitjacket-wearing young woman crouched in the far corner and snarled mockingly at Cabrera. Unwashed hair caked her forehead, slitted eyes hinting at a malevolent cunning. He knew from reports that terrible scars defiled Nicole’s body but her white sweats and restraints hid the marks of the beast.  
    The occult symbols weren’t restricted to the canvas of her body, but extended to every available surface of the padded room. Etched in blood and excrement, the blasphemous messages made Cabrera shudder. At first the orderlies had hosed down the walls, but the unholy graffiti kept returning and they’d finally given up. Even putting Nicole in a straitjacket hadn’t put an end to the phenomenon. A terrible supernatural force was at work here.  
    “My sins are many, where should we begin…?”
    Cabrera didn’t verbally engage the entity. The time for words was over. Tonight he would be going to war with the demon. He opened his leather satchel and nodded at the two orderlies to close the door. They would remain at his side in case something should go wrong. Their eyes flitted nervously around the dark, foul-smelling cell, perspiration beading their faces.  
    This is definitely their first exorcism, Cabrera thought. Not that anyone could ever get used to