Deliver Us from Evil Read Online Free PDF Page B

olive skin, and dark flashing eyes, she had a sullen, almost hostile expression on her face. Everything about her radiated such an intense misery that it surrounded her like a thick, black cloud. You got the feeling that if you said the wrong thing, she’d lash out with thunder and lightning.
    Joe’s polite request that Luciana put on her St. Benedict medal, instead of leaving it on the table in front of her, immediately set off sparks. “I had a medallion of the Blessed Mother on a chain around my neck and this morning it was gone,” she announced angrily, glaring around the room as if she suspected one of her relatives of stealing it while she slept. “It was real gold too!”
    â€œDon’t worry about it,” my partner soothed. “The demon could have made your medallion disappear, to stir up trouble and turn you against the other members of your family. These spirits want to get you people at each other’s throats. Why don’t you put the other medal on?”
    â€œThe string’s too long,” Luciana complained. She handed the medal to Carl, who was hovering in the background, looking both protective and wary of his fierce fiancée. Although he was only about twenty-five, his hairline was already receding, making his broad forehead and large, hawklike nose even more prominent. He was dressed entirely in black and wore a gold earring on his left ear. Reaching in the pocket of his rather tight jeans, he took out a Swiss Army knife and carefully trimmed the offending string.
    â€œWhat are you doing? Now it’s too short!”
    As Luciana looked on peevishly, Carl cut more string from the ball we’d brought. “Is this okay?”
    She grabbed the necklace and pulled it over her hair, taking care not to snag it on her thick ponytail. “I guess so,” she reluctantly allowed. Suddenly embarrassed by her display of bad temper, she added, “I’m sorry to be such a bitch, but I only got a half hour of sleep last night.”
    â€œForget it,” advised Joe. “I know you’re very upset and scared. Let’s bring Ralph up to speed about the problems you’ve been having.”
    No longer animated by anger, she slumped back in her chair, as if she were carrying a very heavy weight on her thin shoulders. “Several weeks ago, around 2:00 A.M. , I was reading in my room. I had a glass of water by my bed, and when I got up to turn on the hall light for my sister, who was out at a party, the glass flew at me and just missed my head.”
    This was the first attack on her person—and her screams brought the whole family running. Afraid to sleep alone, she spent the next night in her sister’s room. In the middle of the night, the bunk bed the two girls were sharing began shaking violently, actually jumping up and down off the floor. Again the family was jolted from sleep by screams, but as soon as they turned on the light, the shaking instantly ceased.
    This is characteristic of infestation; scary things happen in the dark and stop when the light goes on. It’s a typical demonic head game, where the goal is to create fear and bewilderment, as the victims ask themselves “Was the bed really shaking, or was it just a nightmare? Did we both imagine it?” Although the evil spirit operated covertly at first, it became more brazen each day. Infestation quickly progressed to outright oppression: No longer did the evil force flee at the flick of a light switch—in fact, it even began attacking during broad daylight.
    Each time the demon picked on the same person: Luciana. “I get scratched every day,” she told us. “Usually I get wide red marks up and down my arms that go away very fast, sometimes in minutes. One night, around two in the morning, I felt a very painful burning on my skin and woke up with a pentagram scratched into my stomach. Another time my arm started burning and stinging like it was on fire.