The moment Father Marcus saw Lucifer’s expression, his heart seemed to stop.
Already weakened by the gunshot wound, he desperately dragged himself backward across the floor.
“No…
wait.
I apologize for what I said earlier.”
Lucifer glanced toward the staircase and listened carefully.
The cameraman had remained downstairs with Williamson and the Lutz family, leaving the second floor empty except for George’s unconscious body and the wounded priest.
He walked toward Marcus at an unhurried pace.
“Relax.
It’ll be over quickly.”
Before Marcus could respond, Lucifer stepped down on one of his hands and forced him against the floor.
He pressed his knee across the priest’s throat while catching the only arm Marcus could still move.
Marcus’s face immediately reddened.
“Ugh…”
He struggled wildly, clawing at Lucifer and trying to push him away, but the gunshot wound had already drained much of his strength.
Against Lucifer’s enhanced body, his resistance accomplished nothing.
“I told you it’ll be over soon,” Lucifer said quietly.
“You’re a priest.
Try to keep some dignity.”
Marcus’s movements gradually weakened.
His face changed from red to purple as the combination of blood loss and suffocation overwhelmed him, and less than a minute later his body finally went limp.
Lucifer released him and checked his pulse.
Nothing.
Father Marcus was dead.
Lucifer stood and glanced down at the body before returning downstairs as if nothing unusual had happened.
Everyone looked toward him the moment he appeared.
Lucifer calmly announced, “George is alive, and the spirit possessing him is gone.
Unfortunately, Father Marcus didn’t survive his injuries.”
“George!”
Kathy immediately rushed upstairs.
Williamson remained below for a moment, staring at Lucifer with an uncertain expression.
He clearly suspected there was more to Marcus’s death than Lucifer was saying, but without seeing what happened, he had no proof.
“That is…
unfortunate,” Williamson finally muttered.
Lucifer ignored the look.
Compared with Marcus, the Church itself interested him much more.
If one priest could behave like that while still carrying the authority of the institution behind him, then the supernatural side of the Church was probably far more complicated than he had originally imagined.
More importantly, the haunting wasn’t finished.
Lucifer remembered the history connected to the property.
Long before the Lutz family arrived, Reverend Jeremiah Ketcham had used the land for horrific rituals and torture, tormenting Native Americans in a hidden chamber beneath the house.
The accumulated suffering had left numerous Earthbound Spirits trapped below.
For Lucifer, that meant the basement was likely full of supernatural enemies.
It also meant experience and Holiness Points.
He looked toward Williamson.
“This isn’t over.”
Williamson blinked.
“What do you mean?”
“There are more spirits in this house.”
Instead of becoming frightened, Williamson’s eyes immediately brightened.
“Can we film it?”
Lucifer stared at him.
“If you’re willing to risk your life for footage, that’s your decision.”
Williamson nodded without hesitation.
Lucifer then looked toward Billy, Michael, and Chelsea.
“Once your parents come downstairs, all of you leave the house.
Don’t come back until I’m finished.”
Chelsea nodded obediently.
“Okay.
Good luck, Uncle Lucifer.”
Lucifer sighed and lightly patted her head.
“Big Brother Lucifer.
I just graduated from college.
I’m not that old.”
Chelsea smiled.
At that moment, the pale little girl from upstairs appeared again.
Lucifer immediately recognized the gunshot wound on her head.
Jodie DeFeo.
She looked toward him silently before walking toward the basement stairs.
After reaching the doorway, Jodie turned and waved for him to follow.
Then she disappeared.
Lucifer stood.
“Found the way.”
He headed toward the basement.
Williamson followed with the handheld DV camera himself because the cameraman who had recorded Lucifer upstairs refused to go any farther.
Williamson muttered, “I’m seriously considering firing that guy.”
Lucifer glanced back at him.
“He’s an employee, not a soldier.
You can’t expect him to risk his life because you want better ratings.”
Williamson fell silent.
At the bottom of the stairs, Lucifer stopped beside a rough opening smashed through part of the basement wall.
He immediately understood.
“George came through here.”
Williamson aimed the camera into the opening.
A cold draft flowed out of the darkness and made him visibly shiver.
“You think this is where the possession started?”
“Most likely.”
Lucifer stepped through.
Williamson hesitated.
Lucifer glanced back.
“If you’re scared, go upstairs.”
The director gritted his teeth and followed.
“Wait for me.”
The passage beyond the wall led deeper beneath the house.
Rusted cages lined parts of the narrow corridor, while old restraints and torture instruments remained scattered throughout the hidden space.
Dark stains had seeped into the stone and wood long ago, and strands of black resentment drifted through the air like smoke.
Lucifer’s expression became more serious as he continued forward.
The people imprisoned here had suffered terribly before they died.
Even after all these years, their hatred and pain still saturated the chamber.
Williamson couldn’t see the resentment, but he could feel its effects.
His breathing became heavier as the temperature dropped, and he kept the DV camera pointed ahead with increasingly shaky hands.
The deeper they went, the stronger the supernatural pressure became.
Finally, Lucifer stepped through a narrow doorway and entered a larger stone chamber.
More than twenty Native American Earthbound Spirits filled the room.
Their spectral bodies showed signs of horrific deaths, and heavy chains were fastened around their necks.
They crawled or knelt across the stone floor with agonized expressions, yet none of them could make a sound.
Every chain led toward the same figure.
Reverend Jeremiah Ketcham stood on a raised section of stone at the center of the chamber.
He wore dark clothing and a black hat, holding the chains in one hand and a spectral knife in the other.
A cruel smile appeared on his pale face when he noticed Lucifer.
“Young exorcist.
Do you desire eternal life?”
Lucifer answered immediately.
“No.”
Ketcham’s smile stiffened.
Behind Lucifer, Williamson looked around in confusion.
“Who are you talking to?”
“A dead cult preacher.”
Ketcham’s expression twisted.
“You ignorant boy.
You have no idea who stands before you.
In this place, I am God!”
Lucifer reached into System Space.
A bottle of Junior High-Concentration Holy Water appeared in his hand.
“Then catch this.”
He threw it directly at Ketcham.
The bottle passed straight through the spirit’s body.
Lucifer’s eyes widened.
SMASH!
The glass shattered against the wall behind Ketcham, and golden flames immediately spread across the stone.
Ketcham slowly looked over his shoulder.
Then he laughed.
“You call yourself an exorcist?”
Lucifer stared at the burning wall.
“Damn it.”
He had forgotten that Ketcham was completely incorporeal.
That was one bottle of Holy Water wasted.
Only two remained.
Lucifer narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on the oak club.
“Fine.
I’ll do it the hard way.”
The Holy Seal of Justice and Blessing of Might he had activated upstairs were still running, with roughly two minutes left on their effects.
Golden light remained wrapped around Lucifer’s body and weapon as he charged toward Ketcham.
Williamson couldn’t see the spirit Lucifer was attacking, but the Holy Water burning against the wall and Lucifer’s sudden movements made the situation obvious enough.
The exorcism had begun.
Ketcham watched Lucifer approach with contempt.
He raised the spectral knife.
Instead of attacking, he dragged the blade across his own throat.
A dark line opened along his neck.
Ketcham smiled.
“Anyone who witnesses my blood will enter my illusion.
Your mind will belong to me.”
The supernatural force immediately spread toward Lucifer.
Nothing happened.
Lucifer kept walking.
With Spirit at fifteen, his resistance to illusions and mental attacks was far beyond what Ketcham expected.
The old spirit’s attempt to seize his mind barely registered.
Ketcham waited confidently.
Lucifer came closer.
The confidence on Ketcham’s face slowly disappeared.
Lucifer looked at the shallow wound across the spirit’s throat and then back into his eyes.
“Was something supposed to happen?”
For the first time since Lucifer entered the chamber, Jeremiah Ketcham looked genuinely confused.
[Community Goals Ongoing]