The Three Signs
Chapter 17
The next day, the Vampires came back with the book of the Exorcism ritual. They followed the guide in the beginning of the book to help them carryout their investigation and to help them with the signs they should be looking for.
I met with the Vampires as they entered the room where Anastasia was lain asleep.
Yet again, the Doctor used a reversal drug to wake her up so that the Vampires could study their behaviour.
Anastasia awoke with a growl and an angry rage towards the Vampire brothers.
They began with their prayer again, the same one as before.
Anastasia was terribly uncomfortable with the praying. She yelled and screamed.
“Claudo!” She cried.
“…And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The Vampires prayed. “And lead us not in to temptation…”
“But deliver us from EEEEEEVVVVIIIILLLLL!!!!!!”
Anastasia suddenly broke free from her restraints in her left arm.
She snatched hold of a crucifix from the table and held it up high! She was about to thwack one of the Vampires when…
“AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!” Anastasia cried in pain.
She dropped the crucifix and thrashed about violently.
“En aduro! En aduro! En aduro (It burns)!!!”
Anastasia cried out in Latin.
I raced to her to try to hold her arm down and stop her from struggling.
“Jack, hold tightly!” Said the Doctor as he approached with a syringe. “Hold her still!”
The Doctor jabbed the needle in her arm and injected the sedative.
“Aahh!” Annie cried.
She laid back and gasped rapidly.
I let go when I realized that she was no longer fighting.
I saw fear in her eyes. And…something else…
“Annie?” I whispered.
Annie bared a tear that rolled down her face. She then closed her eyes.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I’d just seen.
“Jack.” Said the Oldest Vampire.
I turned round.
The Oldest Vampire was holding up Annie’s had which once held the crucifix.
I saw a strange bright red mark across her hand and tiny spots of blood in her skin.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
“She been burnt.” Said the Doctor. He reached out for the crucifix and felt the wooden surface.
“It’s not even warm. How did that happen?” He said.
The Oldest Vampire gazed at the burn in Anastasia’s skin.
“It’s a sign.” He said.
“A sign?” I gasped. “The first sign?”
“Yes,” Said the Second Youngest Vampire as he flicked through the Exorcism book. “It’s a supernatural injury. This is a sign of possession where the victim has a supernatural injury caused by a holy object.”
The Youngest Vampire took hold of the orb of holy water.
He shook the glass orb and sprinkled the water on Annie’s skin.
The water landed on her skin and began to steam.
Annie’s skin where the water had landed began turning a bright red, just like a burn or scold.
Supernatural injuries caused by holy objects was one of the sign in the Exorcism ritual book owned by the Vampires.
One sign of possession down. Two to go.
Anastasia was left to sleep the rest of the day. With her sedated there was no other choice.
But the following day, the vampires returned.
The Doctor had Annie awake and ready for the session.
This time, I she didn’t struggle. She didn’t even scream, not once.
Instead, she began to have a conversation with the Vampires. A conversation in Latin.
“Dare me nomen tuum, demon. (Give me your name, demon.)” The Oldest Vampire spoke.
“Nare.” Anastasia replied.
“In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit, tell me your name.”
“Nare!”
Anastasia flung her head round and turned her head on the vampires.
The Oldest Vampire tried a different question.
“Che pass ti quite? (Who sent you here)?”
“Nare, nare, nare, nare, nare, nare, nare…” Anastasia repeated no in Latin over and over as her response to the Vampires question.
“In the name of the Father, and the son, and the holy spirit, I command you to tell me who sent you to this world!”
Anastasia turned her head back round to the Vampires.
“Lucifer.” She whispered.
The Oldest Vampire thought about the significance of that name.
“By the name ‘Lucifer’ you mean the Devil?” He asked.
“Tersus. (Correct).”
“Why did he send you?” Asked the Second Oldest Vampire.
“To forbid the prophecy.” Anastasia explained. “Chime Nadallia was first.”
Upon hearing that name, the Oldest Vampire thought of something.
“Did you once inhabit within Nadallia as well?” He questioned.
“Hi.” Anastasia nodded, but it was not in Latin she spoke.
“Wareware uchitoru anokata!” She cried.
“Speak rightly, demon.” Commanded the Second Youngest Vampire.
“Anokata deddo. Wareware uchitoru anokata. Anokata deddo. Anokata deddo. Ha, ha, ha, ha…” Annie chanted and chuckled.
After that, she discontinued to obey the vampires commands and continued to speak in tongues. but she didn’t speak in Latin.
After the visit was over, the vampires took the tapes with Anastasia’s laughing babble recorded on it back to their home to study it.
They looked in every book and couldn’t discover what language of which she spoke in.
As scheduled, the vampire brothers were due to return to the lab to see Anastasia again the next night, (They prefer to work at night, they are vampires).
Emma met them that night, she was desperate to know of what they had discovered so far.
“I’m afraid there is only on sign of possession so far.” Explained the Youngest Vampire brother.
“She had an unholy reaction to the crucifix and the holy water, but that is all, for now.” Concluded the Second Youngest.
“But we have managed to record her speaking in a language we do not know of.” Said the Second Oldest.
Emma looked at the tape recorder in the hand of the Second Oldest Vampire.
“May I hear it? It might be a language that she learnt during her past life. Or maybe one of the other children spoke it? If so, I might know what language she’s speaking in.” Emma asked.
The Second Oldest Vampire nodded as he passed the tape recorder to Emma.
“I wish Sarmoo was here.” She said.
“Who is Sarmoo?” Asked the Youngest Vampire.
“Sarmoo is one of the children. He can speak in any language, it’s his special ability.” Emma explained.
“But I warn you, Emma, if you do know of the language and it is a language that Anastasia already knows, then I can not be a sign of possession. Do you understand?”
Emma nodded worryingly.
She was so desperate to help Annie.
She listened to the tape.
At first, the sounds upset her and made her anxious. But then, the expression on her face changed.
“It sounds…Chinese or something.” Said the Youngest Vampire.
“Annie could speak Chinese. She went to Singapore with her father for new-year.” Emma explained.
“Then if she already knew that language, then I’m afraid that we can’t classify that as a sign of possession.”
“No,” Said Emma. “It’s not Chinese. It’s Japanese.”
“Japanese? How could she know that?”
“I don’t know. I can hear the words ‘Anokata deddo’ that mean ‘that girl’s dead. But the rest I don’t know.”
But then, Emma though of something.
“Nadallia! Nadallia spoke Japanese. She WAS Japanese!”
The Vampires thought about this.
They talked amongst themselves.
Emma wondered what they were going to come out with.
“Anastasia did claim that she dwelled within Nadallia.” Said the Youngest Vampire.
“And Nadallia did apparently suffer the same bizarre symptoms before she died.” Said the Second Oldest Vampire.
“If Anastasia is speaking in the same language that Nadallia spoke in, then it is possible that it there is a demon inside her then it possessed Nadallia first.” Said the Oldest Vampire.
“And learnt the language from Nadallia and is now speaking it whilst in possession of Anastasia.” Said the Second Oldest.
The four of them turned round towards Emma.
“Emma, I need to answer you truthfully.” The Oldest Vampire began.
Emma nodded.
“Did Anastasia know the language Japanese before this time?”
“No.” Said Emma. “Sarmoo taught me a little bit of Japanese so that I could communicate with Nadallia better. But nether me, Sarmoo or Nadallia herself ever taught Annie.”
The four vampire brother looked at each other, and nodded.
Meanwhile, I myself was on my way to meet with the vampires before they went in to see Annie.
I began walking up the ramp as I headed for the lab.
I was stepping past Anastasia’s room when I heard something.
I stopped outside the door and listened to what I could hear.
I could hear…singing!
I slowly and quietly opened the door to Annie’s room as I listened to the soft sound.
The opening of the door revealed what was going on in the room.
I saw Anastasia lain on her bed, just as before. Her limbs tied down, preventing her from doing harm.
But this time, her eyes were open. She was awake. And she was singing softly in her own voice.
I listened to her song as I approached her. She was singing slowly and it made her song sound sad.
“Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.”
Her ever so familiar song reminded me of when met her in the cemetery and told her of my ideas for Halloween. At that moment she was so happy and full of spirit.
Now, to see the change in her, it nearly brought tears to my eyes.
“We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot. Drink up me hearties, yo ho.”
And then she turned her head towards me. He song slowly stopped as she saw me coming to her.
“Yo ho, yo ho, a…pirate’s…life…for me…”
It was almost too good to be true. She was back. It was Annie herself.
“Jack.” She almost cried tears as she spoke my name.
“Annie.” I came down beside her. “Annie, your back! You’re alright!” I cried in glee.
“No.” Annie spoke. “I am still under possession. The spirit is dormant. I am myself, for now.”
“You really think your genuinely possessed?” I asked.
“Not think. I know.” She whispered. “Jack, you must believe me. This spiritual being is really here. I speak the truth when I say it dwells within me. You know the things It’s made me do. You know I would never have done those things by my own will.”
She tried to reach out for my hand, but her restraints prevented her from doing so.
I held out my own hand and placed it hers since she could not do the same.
“Please, believe me, Jack. You the only one who can.”
I felt her trembling as she held my hand.
Something told me she was telling the truth.
“I promise I’ll get you through this.” I said. “I won’t let anything happen to you and I won’t let this demon hurt you any longer.”
“That you can not promise me.” She whispered. “Only destiny can decide my fate. Whether I shall live, or whether I shall die.”
I felt deeply concerned, I didn’t want her to die. I knew that there was something I could do to stop that from happening. But Annie spoke of it as if she was without fear.
“You’re very brave, Annie.”
Annie shook her head and was almost crying.
“I’m scared, Jack.”
I noticed her breathing getting deeper.
She held on to my hand tighter.
“It’s returning.” She sobbed.
“Annie, no! You can fight it!” I cried.
“Jack, I don’t have much time. There are things I you need to know of. Things I have learnt from my possessor.” Anastasia began. “It want’s us all dead. ‘The Children of Light’ it calls us. I wants to stop the prophesy from coming true. Only we can stop this thing before it succeeds.”
“‘The Children of Light’?” I questioned.
“There is great light in the heart of ever child. Nadallia’s was the weakest light, that’s why it killed her first!” Annie was not gasping for breath. She was shaking like a leaf. “My heart…is the brightest…” Annie then couldn’t finish her sentence.
“Annie, don’t let it win!”
“If you want to free me…then use the Exorcism…”
“But we’re trying to get a right…”
“I am possessed!” Anastasia cried. “Truly!”
I knew I should believe her. Everything I’d seen and heard from her was convincing enough.
“The Exorcism is your only chance…of freeing me…and banishing the spirit. It’s almost awake. It thinks you wont succeed…”
Annie then closed her eyes.
“Annie!” But it was too late. She was out.
What I had just witnessed sent a chill down my spine.
I spoke to Anastasia for the first time in nearly a month.
Now I knew.
I had just seen the real Anastasia Rose. I now knew that all I had seen before was something in control of her. It was all so convincing. I couldn’t help but believe it.
But then, I noticed something…
As Anastasia turned her head as she was going limp, I saw some strange markings on the side of her face. These markings certainly weren’t there before. The markings were cuts on her skin.
But there was something distinctive about these cuts and scrapes. They spelt out letters.
Scratched into the skin of Anastasia’s face were the words…
…‘I dare you’…
