Jenna felt an inexplicable loneliness. It haunted her since the death of her husband Gary. They had been married for only three years. Although the newness had worn off and they knew each other’s habits and likes and dislikes very well, their passion was still very much alive. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they didn’t have children and both loved their careers. Yet when the week was over so was their responsibilities. They spent the weekends together. The would go to mass and out to eat, doing various things together that they both loved. It really wasn’t unusual for them to spend long hours in bed together on the weekend. Jenna loved waking up in the middle of the night, throwing her leg over Gary’s and spooning him, melding to his body. They fit together perfectly. She loved to feel his sleep warmed body and deep contented breathing.
When Jenna got the call that there had been an accident, she was worried, but never expected that Gary was taken to the hospital. Dr. Mueller met her in the hall, he gravely told her that Gary’s condition was very serious. She stood next to his bedside, numb with horror, grief already crawling up her throat. They called her parents for her, and they all tried to support her the best they could but after two days a decision had to be made. She couldn’t make him suffer for her sake. She didn’t want to let him go, but she knew that it would be selfish of her to make him go on for her. Tears streamed down her frozen cheeks. Yes, she would donate his organs yes he would be cremated. Yes, he had a living will. She kissed him one last time and they gave her the time she needed to say her good-byes to him. She lay in bed next to him and cradled him in her arms, his body was already unfamiliar to her. She whispered in his ear to him. She told him how much she loved him and how she didn’t want to let him go. She begged him to come back to her, and railed at him for leaving her. Her mother heard her and came to her. She held her as she fell to her knees, sobbing. She had to let him go.
Days turned to weeks, weeks turned into months. Each week was a repeat of the last. Jena moved woodenly through her workweek, and faced the weekends with dread. If the workweek was bad, the weekends were torture. She turned away from the help of her family and friends. Gary was all that she needed, and all that she wanted. No one could comfort her. She was full of rage with God for killing Gary. She didn’t care what anyone said, she blamed God. God could have stopped it. Why didn’t he save Gary? With all the murderers, child molesters, and monsters out there, why, why oh God, did you have to let Gary die? Why not kill some of those sons of bitches? There was no answer, and no understanding.
Once again she lay in bed full of grief and bitterness. She was not expecting to feel hotness and need inside her. She wasn’t expecting to feel lust and desire. She was disgusted with herself. How could she be feeling sexual desire, when her husband was dead? She tried to go to sleep with the television on as usual but tossed and turned. Finally she fell into a fitful sleep.
She sighed softly, turning and cuddling up to him. She wrapped her leg around his warm body, and nuzzled her nose into his neck. She began to run her tongue up the back of his neck. Her body was on fire, and her face flushed, her warm, wet mouth burning for him. She caught his earlobe between her teeth and began to suckle it. Oh God, it was real, he was back with her! She pressed herself into him. Then she began to feel him. His body was cold, stone cold, and hard. What was that God-awful smell that taste? She began to wretch pulling herself away as she shuddered with revulsion. She turned over and grabbed for the nightlight switch. She turned it on, gasping, she turned, and there was nothing there! Oh God, what was happening to her. She could still feel the cold clamminess against her skin. She shuddered and gagged. Running for the bathroom, she made it just in time to throw up in the toilet. She convulsed and threw up until she couldn’t throw up anymore. Sliding to the floor, she held on to the toilet seat, trembling with weakness and horror.
What was wrong with her? She would have sworn that Gary was with her. Her cheeks flamed as she remembered her passion and lust for him. When she woke up with the stench and horror of death next to her though she was traumatized. She would not tell anyone about it. They would think she was crazy. Maybe she was.
Time marched on and she continued doing what she always did. She wouldn’t go out with the girls and when her parents wanted her to come over she would postpone until later. She kept to herself and watched home videos of her and Gary. She cried herself to sleep every night and railed at God for torturing her.
One Saturday morning she decided she had had enough. She went to the Health Club and worked out with a vengeance. She decided that she was not going to turn into a vegetable. When she left she saw a guy watching her in the plate glass window. She felt a rush of lust run through her body. She felt herself as she walked taller and her breasts began to tingle. She felt hot and horny. She would not give into it. This was ridiculous!
The problem with her working out and eating better was that she was also beginning to feel lustful and sexual again. She couldn’t find satisfaction like some of her friends talked about, but she found herself fantasizing again about Gary. Sometimes she would see a guy that turned her on and she would try to stop herself from thinking about him and what she could do to him and vice versa.
Jenna had the old familiar dream again. She melded herself against the hot firm body in bed. Her breath was hot and raspy with lust. She slid her hand down between his legs and gasped at the hot hardness there. She caught her breath and continued doing whatwas instinctive. He in turn made her catch on fire. She never felt this even in life. She was wild and abandoned herself to the pleasure and fullness that he gave her. When she opened her eyes he was gone but the smell was there. It was that gagging smell of death. She rushed to the bathroom and threw up. My God what was happening to her? She felt the evidence of what had happened and she saw the line of hickeys all up and down her neck and on her breasts, and everywhere else. She was repulsed when she saw the teeth marks and blood that was drying on her thighs. It wasn’t a dream? It wasn’t Gary? Oh God what was it? What was happening to her?
Jenna was beginning to miss work. Her eyes were dark hollows and her friends her getting worried about her.
“Jenna are you feeling all right?” Traci asked her.
“No, I don’t feel well, but I am going to the doctor.” Jenna lied.
She couldn’t go to the doctor. What would she tell him?
“Hey Doc, I have been having the wildest sex of my life and I don’t who with. I don’t even think it is real! My husband is dead but something is pouncing on my bed at night and making me crazy with lust. When I wake up my body is covered in bites and I am anemic. I don’t want to lose the sex but I am terrified. I smell death and the sheets are dank and wet from decomposing flesh. Is there a cure for this? Even my dog won’t come in the room anymore. She cowers in the living room and won’t let me pet her on mornings after this happens.” Jenna fantasized telling the Doctor this.
When she got on the scales the next morning before work she weighed only 84 pounds. She had lost 50 pounds! God she always wanted to lose weight but she looked at herself in the mirror and she looked like a concentration camp victim. When she took her t-shirt off and looked in the mirror her body was covered with bloody scratches and bites. She dressed hurriedly after showering the stench of death off of her ravaged body. She put on a heavy turtleneck to cover the bites and blood on her neck.
She lay in bed exhausted and terrified. Her hopelessness was like a shroud. She called out to God and to Gary. Oh Gary I am so sorry I know it isn’t you. I thought it was, I wanted you so bad, but I know it wasn’t you. You would never hurt me, please please take this away!
She woke up from dreaming tears were streaming down her gaunt face. Gary told her that he loved her and held her in his arms. He kissed each damaged area of her body gently. She lay limp in his arms and felt the warmth of his body and love. She never wanted it to end. She was terrified and lonely. Gary was the only thing that she wanted and he made her feel safe again.
“Jenna you have got to get help. I know you are angry with God for taking me away. I can’t explain why He took me away either. But I love you and always will. I want you to be happy. Someday we will be together again. But an incubus is attacking you. He is killing you. Please go to Father James and he will help you. Don’t be embarrassed it is not your fault.” Gary gently but firmly spoke to her.
She fell back to sleep for the first time without fear. She made a decision to see the Priest. She was still angry with God but she needed help. The next morning she made an appointment to see Father James. She felt Gary with her as she tried to tell the Priest the humiliating story about what was happening to her. The horror that she saw on his face when he saw her told her that he believed her. She pulled the neck of her sweater down to her shoulder. He could see the bites and bruises all up and down her neck.
“Father I am so sorry I haven’t been back to church since Gary was killed. I was so angry with God! I still am. But I am getting past it I think. Please help me I don’t know what to do.” Jenna pleaded.
Trying to cover his revulsion over what at happened to her, Father James anointed her while praying for her protection and the deliverance of the evil that possessed her.
He told her that he and Father John who was familiar with demonic possession would come to her apartment and cleanse it. He had to get together with the other priest and make plans.
Jenna thanked him and for the first time had a little hope that she could be rescued. She had breakfast at a little corner bakery and went home. She read and took a hot bath and pampered her wasted body. She lit candles and read until she was sleepy. She blew the candles out and held her crucifix in her hands against her heart. She covered herself with freshly washed sheets and fell instantly to sleep.
Jenna felt it! It pounced on the bed. It was snarling and gnashing its teeth. It was angry! It was full of rage. She cringed and cried out to God but it pulled the sheets back and saw the crucifix. It lunged for her and tossed the hot crucifix to the floor. She fought and valiantly tried to protect herself. She started praying and it just laughed. It had a hideous, evil laugh that rolled through its whole decaying body. It smelled of death. It plunged itself into her as she screamed and screamed and screamed. When she awoke she couldn’t move. She was paralyzed and her body was so weak she couldn’t get out of bed.
Father James was worried about Jenna and he and Father John met at her apartment building. She didn’t answer the telephone or the door. Father James kicked the door in.
Jenna was not moving. Her bed was covered with blood. Her dog was cowering under the sofa in the living-room. She was breathing but barely. Father James called an ambulance and her parents. When her parents arrived to go with her to the hospital they gasped in horror. They thought she had been murdered. After they left, Father James and Father John went to work. They preformed a cleansing ritual and blessed the apartment.
That night when they got the news that Jenna was going to live they performed a ritual on her in the hospital. Jenna told them that Gary was with her and she felt that he had saved her life the night of the final attack.
She and her dog Princess went to stay with her parents until she was recovered. She gave up the lease on her apartment. She wanted a clean slate. Princess again slept with Jenna, which let Jenna know that there was no evil spirits after her anymore. She was looking forward to moving on with her life again without any spirits. Well not any evil spirits anyway.
