Exorcism of the Hollow: Chapter 1 – Beginnings of Conversion

Chapter 1 – Beginnings of Conversion

“It’s time to wake up, Alessio!” I kick my old man in the stomach as he jumps on me before I knock him to the ground. “What did you do that for?! Have you no respect for your elders?”

“Have you no respect for me while I’m sleeping?!”

“It’s the morning and you should always wake up with high energy. Next time, I’ll be sure to get you.”

“Next time, come up with something different. Perhaps try waking me up gently rather than being noisy and jumping on me.”

I start to get dressed in my school clothes while keeping an eye on my dad so he doesn’t pull anything more pranks.

“Aww, but when you grow up and get married, you’ll grow distant from your old man!”

“I already want to be distant from you. Is Alex awake?”

“Of course she is. Your little sis doesn’t need any help getting her up, unlike her big brother.”

“I don’t need help with anything. I can wake myself up just fine.”

“Then why does your principal bring up that you were late on the days that I let you wake yourself up to put your claims to the test.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Being a couple minutes late is nothing.”

“But being an hour late is something.”

“Whatever. Is breakfast ready-”

My sister throws a broken pillow in my face as I open the door to leave my room. Dang it, now I have all these feathers in my hair and outfit. Both my dad and sis laugh as I scramble to clean myself off. I should’ve known this would happen because the door was closed.

“I’ll get you later, you little brat and you old fart,” I say to both of them.

We eat breakfast together that my dad made. It’s French toast like every Tuesday. While eating, I look up at the picture of my mom who started this tradition of eating French toast every Tuesday for whatever reason. I feel the scars on the right side of my face, a memento from that day that I lost her.

Dad puts his hand on my shoulder while saying, “I miss her too, but at least she’ll always be with us.”

“Yeah,” I say while finishing my meal.

Alex and I say goodbye to dad while he tells us to stay safe and out of any unnecessary trouble. As if that could happen.

“Bro, hold on,” Alex says while pushing me into an alleyway.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Those kids ahead of us are trouble.”

“What did dad and I tell you about dealing with them?”

“I know, but I don’t feel like going to detention again and wasting dad’s time for something that he wants me to do. The school will kick us out like the other one if we keep this up.”

“Who said that the school has to know about this?” I say as I step out into the street, “Hey, losers!”

The kids turn to me and one says, “You’re the brother of that freak of a girl.”

“What did you call my sister?!”

“A freak. She thinks she can say what she wants and think that she’s better than everyone just because she has good grades and is the MVP on the soccer team.”

“If she can prove it, then she has every right to gloat.”

“But she doesn’t have the right to constantly lord it over us and get into fights when someone tries to challenge her. It’s only right for us to take her down a peg when she’s only strong enough to fight us one at a time.”

“Then how about you try fighting me since you’re all pathetic on your own? I’m sure you can lord that over her for the rest of her life.”

“You don’t need to tempt me with anything else. Get him!”

The punks try fighting me all at once, but they’re just that. Punks. I bang two of their heads together, knock one into a nearby trash container, then beat another with my bare fists.

I grab this last punk and tell him, “Let this be a lesson to anyone who wants to mess with me and my family. Say anything about this to the school staff and you’ll end up as a stain on the floor. Now, get out of here!”

The punks run away in fear while my sister cheers for my victory.

“Thank you, bro, but you didn’t have to do that. I could handle them by myself,” she says.

“What kind of big brother would I be if I let my little sis get hurt even once?”

Alex laughs then gives me a hug. I’m still keeping my promise that I’ll protect our family, mom. I hope you’re smiling at us from Heaven. We go to school and the usual boring and mundane things happen. That is until I hear the sound of fighting and a chilly scream that I’m all too familiar with. Looking outside the classroom window, I see a masked woman fighting what looks to be a demon. It looks like she needs my help. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone fighting the spirits I see. Well, I always pray for an excuse to leave school early and God does deliver.

“Sorry, but I got to go to the bathroom!” I say as I run out of the classroom.

“You can’t keep using that excuse, Alessio!” the teacher screams.

Of course I can. People being in need is always an excuse to drop what you’re doing.

“Get out of the way!” I say while passing by one of the irritatingly quiet members of the class who just stares at me while standing still.

“Off to face demons again? I told you you’re crazy to-” he says before I push him aside.

I can never understand what his deal is.

“Where are you going, half breed?” a punk says as he hangs out in the hallway with his friends.

I clothesline him as I keep running. To avoid his friends, I carefully jump out the first story window and land on the ground floor as I keep running. Once I get to where the demon is, I find that the masked woman has her back up against the wall. She then reaches into her head that's emanating some kind of blue light and pulls a greatsword out of her head that she tries defending herself with. I’m at loss for words as I watch the woman fight the demon until she starts to lose.

“Hey, holes for face!” I say while not really knowing what to call the demon. “How about you pick on someone who actually knows how to fight?”

The demon faces me as I break a rusty steel pipe off from a nearby building and do some practice swings.

“Hey! I know how to fight! How can you even see me and the demon?” the woman says.

“Don’t you worry, miss. Get out of here while I distract this thing.”

With my steel pipe, I hit the monster several times to no effect while dodging its attacks. The masked woman seems amazed at my ability to fight. She then throws her sword across the demon’s eyes to blind it before it disappears into sparkles of blue light that go back into her head.

“If you want to do actually hurt it, then quickly come over to me!” she says.

I avoid the demon’s wild flailing and reach the woman’s side.

“Are you going to give me your sword?” I ask.

“I can’t. It’s tied to my soul. I’ll have to lend you some of my power, but it may kill you.”

“Let’s give it a try.”

“Are you sure?”

“If it can save your life, of course.”

“Okay.” The woman takes her sword out of her head and points it at me. “Take the sword and thrust it into your chest while saying, ‘Ego me primum crucifigo’.”

“Now I know why you said it may kill me. What does that even mean.”

“It means, ‘I crucify myself first’, now hurry if you’re serious about doing this.”

“Ego me primum crucifigo!”

A light shines from my body as the blade painlessly enters my body. My clothes change and a half mask forms on my face. As I begin to feel something inside me, I reach inside and pull out a black sword that has edges on the hilt and blade like thorns on a rose.

“No way,” the woman says in surprise.

“You know what? You can keep your sword. I like this one better,” I say before charging at the demon and slicing it at its limbs while dodging its attacks, however, I’m still not damaging it. “Am I missing something or do I need to call out my attacks like in the comics?”

“You have to believe that God is the source of your strength and that He is the only reason you’re able to do damage.”

“Since He’s been good enough to get me out of school and these cool powers, why shouldn’t I?”

Believing that God is the reason why I’m able to do damage actually allows me to damage the demon. I cut at its limbs to stop it from flailing before cutting off its head, which makes it disappear.

“I can’t believe your abilities. I didn’t even give you any of my power,” the woman says as she stands up.

“I guess it just means that I’m that special.”

“No, it must mean that someone in your family is an exorcist like me.”

“An exorcist? My dad owns a clinic and is a doctor while my little sister is just a sophomore in high school, so I don’t think you’ll find any exorcists in our family. Besides, I’ve never seen an exorcist like you before.”

“No one is supposed to see us or the demons besides us and those who God deems it necessary, but there’s something different about you. Your soul resonated with the powers of the exorcist as if it was natural. That only happens with those who have blood ties to other exorcists since the blessings of an exorcist stay within the families of exorcists as a blessing from God and because the families who have exorcists usually will continue to have them.”

“That’s very convenient. At least I have a weapon now to get rid of the demons that I come across. Do you need help getting back home?”

“I was sent here on my first real assignment to kill a demon and I’m not supposed to go back until I’ve done that. What I can do to make up for that is train you to be an exorcist.”

“Sign me up then. I didn’t have any plans for a college career anyway. I’m Alessio. What’s your name?”

“Marina. Princess Marina. I’m royalty so you better treat me with respect or else.”

“Oh, an exorcist who is also royalty. That’s neat. I’ll treat you with whatever respect you show me so you better be respectful to me too.”

“No, you have to be respectful to me first.” I show her my respect by respectfully flicking her forehead. “Ow! You’ll pay for that! How dare you treat me, a princess, like that!”

“Whatever. Come on and let’s get you fixed up at my dad’s place.”

“Tch. Fine.”

Marissa and I begin our walk back home. Who would’ve thought that becoming an exorcist would be my reason for skipping school? I think this’ll be the start of something exciting.