Exorcism of the Hollow: Weeding Out the Family: Chapter 3 – Father-in-Law and Son-in-Law Bonding Experience

Chapter 3 – Father-in-Law and Son-in-Law Bonding Experience

Of all the people to come across…

“If it isn’t the interracial-”

Nope. Don’t have time to entertain punks that like anymore. Triton and I walk a different way while keeping an eye out for trouble.

“Friends of yours?” Triton asks.

“Not at all,” I respond before we see the enemy watching us from the rooftops.

They’re all already in their hollowed forms and seem to be holding something.

“You had your chance, nephew,” one of them says before showing a statue of the Blessed Virgin in his hand and crushing it.

More of them crush similar statues, which allows a seemingly endless horde of demons to come out of thin air to fight us.

“This is a little overkill, don’t you think?” I say aloud.

“You can never be sure with an exorcist who can use an Ombra’s magical abilities.”

“It isn’t magic.”

“Sure it isn’t. This is your last chance to join our side, nephew. My brother, your father, would like it. He told me from the depths of Hell himself.”

“Then that’s all the more reason not to join you.”

“Really? He told me that you two were close. Why would you choose this crusty old royal over your own real family?”

“He is my real family. I’ll admit that even you and everyone here except for the demons are family as well, but you force me to fight you because you chose to be slaves to sin and hollow angels.”

“My nephew and niece share your stubbornness and is more of a weakness than a strength.”

“Give them back to us!”

“How about we bring you to them instead? We’ll bring you to them without your limbs.”

The demons leap at us and my Ombra ability activates allowing me to unleash a barrage of fire to banish most of the demons. A few of them survive the barrage, however, lightning from the sky strikes them.

“That wasn’t me,” I say to Triton.

Looking behind us, we see Magnus approaching us. He then disappears and a few of the hollows disappear in the blink of an eye. One of the hollows then tries to bring in more demon reinforcements by breaking a statue of Mary. Magnus stops them by taking the statue and throwing them into another hollow to take out both.

“Magnus!” I say.

Magnus appears in front of us then says, “This place is more dangerous than you think. Both your father’s side and mother’s side of your family are here.”

“Did you bring any backup?”

“I am the backup,” someone I expected to hear says from behind us as several demons and hollows fly from behind us.

We turn around to see Marina. I knew my wife wouldn’t sit this one out!

“I told you to stay behind, princess. Alessio, your father, and I can handle this,” Magnus says.

“You weren’t watching your back, so it looks like you needed my help. Besides, my children’s lives and souls are at stake. This is a family matter. Should you really be here?”

“He’s a brother to me, so I say that he should be here.”

“Obviously. I was just saying.”

“Anyways, are you ready to do this together? Let’s not keep them waiting,” I say.

Magnus’ moves in a blink of an eye into the battle to fight off the many demons by himself. On the other hand, Marina and her dad charge in to fight the hollows with their swords. I stick back and use my Ombra blessing that allows me to create multiple versions of myself to help everyone at once. Together, we bring down my family as a family.

With only one left, I spare him and ask, “Where are my kids?!”

He then surprises me by impaling his own throat on my blade and mocks me by saying, “You’re too late. They’re ours now.”

Bastard. There’s no one else I can ask now since the rest are ash like this one.

“What do we do now?”

“I know where your kids are,” Magnus says.

“You do?” I ask.

“I didn’t come here to blindly look for them. The Ombra are the exorcist’s best after all.”

“It’s also why I came here. Now, come on!” Marina says as she leads the way.

We rush to a nearby inconspicuous house that’s slightly larger than the others, bust our way in, and go into the basement. There we find another set of stairs that leads us to a larger basement with hollows, demons, and my kids who look like they’re about to be sacrificed in a Satanic circle-! Not again. Not like before…Why, God? Memories of seeing my dad and sister come back to me as it whispers despair into my ears. It’s just like before. I couldn’t do anything to save them. I can’t seem to do anything to save my family.

“You bastards! How could you do that?!” Marina says as she charges at the hollows.

Magnus backs her up and the two fight the demons and hollows who sacrificed my kids for their own power. Triton is about to join the fight until he turns around and notices me on my knees. He swings his sword at a demon near me and tries to get me to my feet. What’s he saying? My ears are too preoccupied with the whispers to hear him properly. Turning around, I see the demon that killed my mother, father, and sister. The same one that’s been bothering my entire life that also wears my face.

“He’s mine. He’s always been mine,” it says.

“Away with you demon!” Triton says as he fights it.

“You’ve been mine as well. I’m jealous that my cousin who deals with royals gets to have more time tempting you than I.”

“Get up, Alessio!”

What’s the point? I’m a failure of a son, brother, and now a father. I haven’t gotten stronger or changed at all. Emilio…Luca…I’ve failed you, my beautiful children. Magnus teleports in front of me, but Triton steps in front of him to hit me for him. Meanwhile, the demons and hollows are combining into a singular hollow in the back that Marina is trying to banish.

Triton holds me up and says, “Get up and fight! This isn’t over yet! You still have a family to protect! What happened to that stubborn son-in-law that I knew that would risk his life for his family and what he thought was right? Bring him back!”

He’s right. I won’t fall like I did last time. Not when my family still needs my help.

I push aside Triton then say, “Stop yelling so much, old man. I get enough of it from your daughter.”

The demon is now completely formed. One part of it is male, another female, and the bottom part is a child. Each has horns on its head, but only the male and female parts of it have arms. It seems to be a singular family.

“Back off, Marina! That demon is going to be more trouble than the rest,” Magnus says.

She does as he says then asks, “What is it?”

“It’s one of the six major demons. It tears apart families, preys on the unbaptized, and commands legions of generational demons.”

“I see that I need no introduction,” the demon says in one unified voice, “Bow before me then. I, who has controlled humanity through their sins, since the beginning of their existence.”

“Not a chance,” I say.

“Is the failure who has sent many of his family to Hell one to speak against one such as I?”

“I’m not a failure. I still have my family here with me and together, we’ll put you back into the depths of Hell where you belong!”

With our combined strength, we defeat the demon as if it were another typical demon. After, we don’t celebrate especially since the demon consumed the body of my kids to form itself. The damned thing couldn’t even give us anything to bury, not that there was much to bury because of how my hollowed family cut them up.

“Whelp. We’re done here,” I dismissively say while walking up the stairs.

Marina grabs my hand then says, “Alessio…”

“I…I know. I’m…I’m so sorry, Marina.”

We cry in each other’s arms until we hear Magnus and Triton begin to cry as well. Together, we all morn my kids before leaving. As we leave, I look around the house and a particular picture on a table gets my attention. Most of these pictures are of my family that I never knew. The picture that got my attention is one of my family when my mom was still alive. It’s all of us together when things seem so simple to me. Marina, Magnus, and Triton look at me as if expecting something.

“It’s time to leave the past where it belongs. My side of the family may be completely lost, but I still have one that needs me,” I say.

Heading back home, we go to the mystics to find out the fate of the souls of my kids. We’re pleased to find out that they’re in Purgatory on their way to Heaven. They only request that we say a mass for them so they can be in Heaven once the mass concludes. At least I didn’t completely lose them. The mystics then say that it’s thanks to what Marina, Triton, my family, and I taught them that they were able to resist the temptations of the hollows and the demons and they didn’t want us to be sad that they were gone. Don’t you worry. I’m not sad or I’m trying not to be at least. I’m proud that you are able to make it to Heaven. That’s the ultimate goal of our lives after all.

After, Marina assures me that we can have more kids and I ask her, “Are you being a horny cougar again?”

She hits me then says, “Shut up. I’m just saying. Anyways, I better get back to work and get an earful from the higher-ups.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to head home and get started on making more children?”

“It’s a tempting thought, but not right now. Maybe later tonight,” she says before kissing me and walking away.

“You did good today, I’ll admit,” Triton says from behind me.

“Wow. Are you complimenting me? This must be a miracle,” I say while crossing myself.

“Don’t let it get to your head.”

“I won’t. I don’t feel like I deserve it anyway.”

“But you do. My grandchildren, your children, are going to be in Heaven soon because of you.”

“And because of their grandfather.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Thank you for your help. I couldn’t have accomplished what we did without you and I probably would’ve been dead.”

“Okay, stop complimenting me. It’s too strange coming from you.”

“I mean it though. I’ll try to be a better man for God and my family. I promise you this, Triton.”

“Stop calling me by my name, son. You can call me your father.”

I hug him and he hugs me back.

“Okay, dad, do you want to go back to sparring to ready ourselves for our next future assignment, or is that a bad idea? I’ve still beaten you more times than you’ve beaten me.”

“That’s going to change. You’ll have more defeats than victories soon enough.”

“You’re on, old man!”

“Again with calling me that…”

I’ve noticed that every big moment in my life has more of a beginning of something than an ending. I began to take the salvation of my soul more seriously, I began to care about the Church, and now I’ve begun to care more about my family. I’ll treat every exorcist, member of the Church, and beyond as if they were family. Today, I will let go of my sinful past and embrace my potentially holy future, and through it all, I’ll give glory and honor to God and not become hollow like the demons and unrepented sinners, but like the hallowed angels and saints.

 

The End