CHAPTER 6: NEW DAY, NEW PROBLEMS - Part 2

Euphoric, Walter and Alextrov get into Don's car, who is still a little lost with the whole situation. Together in the car, they drove, keeping an eye out for Yelena on the street. The day was rainy and the sun had not fully shown up, so it was a cloudy environment, with the streets flooded, which made it difficult to see or differentiate the people who were on the streets, but they were all looking for Yelena, in the best possible way. , until they arrived at the Cathedral.

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Upon entering Yelena's house the day before, Esteban felt every hair on his body stand on end. Even though he was an experienced exorcist, Esteban shuddered at this house, not because of the tension of the exorcism, but because of something else and that intrigued him. On the way back to his dorm, Esteban asked Father Taylor about how strong this spirit was, as Taylor had done the first exorcism session and had felt the power of the demon.

"The evil spirit that resides in the poor girl is too strong, I felt that he was having fun watching the girl suffer. Even using the bible, the creature resisted and made the girl suffer, but this will not last long, we rid the girl of this suffering." - Taylor said, calming Esteban.

"There is no demon that can resist through exorcism, we will take care of the situation. As soon as we arrive at the dormitory, we must go to the Cathedral and ask for divine anointing, so that we can continue our work." - Esteban said.

And so it was, when they arrived at the dormitory, they went to the Chapel of the Cathedral of New Orleans and there they prayed on their knees, asking for divine anointing, for the fight against the Enemy. After an hour of prayers and prayers, both went to the refectory, to have their dinner, due to the time they arrived, there were very few priests and ecclesiastical members in the refectory. When they finished dinner, each one went to his room and rested.

Each dormitory room had two bunk beds, which could fit two priests or members of the clergy. There was also a window, four desks and a rectangular table, which was in the center of the room. When reclining his head on his pillow, Esteban remembered the chills and the feeling he had in Yelena's house and again he felt uncomfortable with something, because he had never felt something similar, only on this specific occasion. Before going to sleep, Esteban said one last prayer and fell asleep.

Waking up to birdsong, Esteban opens his eyes and sees the glow coming from the window. He saw that it was still raining and the weather was overcast, but the rain was lighter than the night before. Rising from his bunk, Esteban goes to the window and briefly admires the view. Its window faced the Mississippi River, which passes in front of the Cathedral. Leaving his room, with his plaid pajamas, Esteban goes to the Cathedral's refectory, so that he can have his breakfast, on the way Esteban greets some priests, who ask him how the exorcism went. Esteban knew he would be the target of several questions, as an official church exorcism is not so common and requires a lot of bureaucracy and many of these priests have never gone through an experience, even similar, for this reason, Esteban took a little longer in his breakfast.

While he was eating, a young priest named José came up to Esteban and interrupted his conversation to let him know that he had received a visitor and the person was waiting in front of his room. Getting up from the table and saying goodbye to the other priests, Esteban went to his room, passing through an area outside the dormitory, where there was a corridor that had a good view of the Cathedral's garden. Passing by, he saw that the flowers and plants were soaked, due to the uninterrupted rain, but the day was a little clearer and it was raining very lightly, as if the rain was finally going to stop.

Upon reaching the hallway, which was his room, Esteban sees from afar, a tall, young woman with long brown hair in front of his bedroom door. Her physical form was familiar, however due to distance and age, Esteban could not correctly distinguish the person. The closer she got, the more incredulous Esteban got, he couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing, the person in front of her door was Yelena, who didn't seem to be weakened. Her deep dark circles had disappeared overnight, her face wasn't as pale as the day before and her voice sounded normal, she didn't seem to be weakened at all. Relieved by the girl's appearance, Esteban is internally relieved that the exorcism session had taken effect.

"Dear Yelena, I am very happy to see you, I see that you are showing signs of improvement, the devil is not able to resist against faith and unity of people." - Esteban said.

"Yes Father, I woke up with good signs of improvement, I'm not feeling the same weakness I felt before, my eyes don't hurt and so far I haven't had any problems." - Answered Yelena.

"But tell me, what are you doing here at an hour like this? Although I felt signs of improvement, you shouldn't go out in such cold weather." - Esteban said

"I came at this time, so that I could say my prayer inside the Cathedral, I began to be delivered from a great evil and that is certainly a reason to be grateful." - Answered Yelena.

"First I came to thank Father Taylor and you, but I didn't find Father Taylor here, apparently he had left before I got here. So I came to his dorm behind you, although this is a restricted area, I ended up getting a free pass, as I am a person who is under his care." Yelena continued.

"I have just returned from the refectory and I will still go to the Cathedral Chapel, so that I can do my consecration. You could come with me, Yelena." - Esteban said.

Both then left for the Cathedral Chapel. There, they spent about thirty minutes praying for divine intercession, so that the demons would be expelled. At the end of the consecration, both went to a dome, which is in the garden, in front of the Cathedral Chapel.

"Good Father, it's time for me to go home, thank you so much for the time you spent with me, see you again soon, see you then." -Said Yelena, as she started to leave the dome, in the middle of the rain and without an umbrella.

"You should get your umbrella, where did you leave it? I will get it for you." - Said Esteban, who heard something he would never dream of.

"Who needs an umbrella? That little water doesn't hurt anyone, but the infernal flames that consume Mr. Palomo, those do hurt." - Yelena replied, while she carried a slight and subtle smile on her face.

Such words shocked Esteban. Palomo was the priest who exorcised Esteban's younger sister and who Palomo put his complete trust in, to the point where he decided to become a priest, so that he could follow Palomo's example and free other captive souls. Those rough and prickly words pierced Esteban's mind, causing him to wallow in his thoughts and wanting to understand what had happened.

"Why did she say those things?"

"How can she come to the house of prayer and not suffer the effects of divine grace?"

"What does Master Palomo have to do with all this? How did she know about him?"

Without understanding and sunk in his thoughts, when he least realizes it, a group of three people are calling him.

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When they arrive with their car at the Cathedral, everyone gets out of the car in search of Yelena, without even worrying about the rain, they look for Yelena with great impetus. Due to the rain and the unknown location, they walk back and forth running and already soaked, they find Esteban, who was looking in one direction, motionless and with a rigid face. They then call him.

"Hey Father, have you seen my sister around here? She had fled in that direction." - Said Alextrov.

Coming to his senses, Esteban's face is rigid, he faces the three men and shouts:

"I said this was the work of the DEAAABO, THE DEVIL IS BEHIND THIS. SHE CAME OVER HERE, TALKED ABOUT PALOMO AND LEFT AS IF NOTHING HAD HAPPENED." - Esteban replied, with a high tone of voice.

"Calm down, what are you talking about? We are not understanding." Walter snapped.

Taking a breath and letting the shock pass, Esteban responds.

"Yelena came here, she was looking for me and Father Taylor, but she only spoke to me. She came to thank us for yesterday and even went to the Cathedral Chapel and said several prayers inside. As we walked outside, we said goodbye and she started out into the rain, when suddenly she said that my master, Father Palomo, was burning in the fires of hell. The problem is that I had never spoken about Father Palomo to anyone around here, she would have no way of having that information, that is surely the DEVIL using the poor girl."

Meanwhile, Don made several notes in his notebook, writing down everything that had been said so far.

"So my sister came right here, did you see the direction she went?" - Asked Alextrov.

"I was so shocked I couldn't see properly, but I think she went in that direction." - Esteban replied, while pointing with his finger.

Surprisingly, it was the street Don, Walter and Alextrov had come from. Everyone looks at each other without understanding, as if they haven't seen her and quickly everyone gets into the car, including Esteban, who more than ever believes she's possessed. As they continue down the same street again, they see a lady on the street complaining about a girl who had run away without paying for the food. They stop the car and go down to talk to the elderly woman.

"Have you seen this girl?" - Asked Walter, while showing a photo of Yelena.

"It was this girl who left without paying, had two pancakes with her coffee, when I went to get more coffee, she just disappeared." - Said the elderly woman indignantly.

"How much did she owe? I pay." - Retorted Alextrov.

"She owes me 3 dollars." - Said the lady.

After paying, everyone gets back into the car and stomps on it, so that they could get home as quickly as possible, but always attentive to find Yelena along the way.

Upon arriving at the house, they stop the car outside and enter the house in search of Yelena, while talking loudly throughout the house, looking for her. Until a voice comes from the second floor.

"Stop screaming, I'm home, what happened?" - Yelena screams.

When they came across her, her hair wasn't dry, as if it hadn't been wet today. They were completely dry, as were their clothes. Looking at each other, the men say nothing and just ask where she was.

"I was hungry and went out to eat." - Answered Yelena.

"How are you completely dry if you were out in the rain and got wet?" - Asked Esteban.

"I didn't get wet in the rain, I went out with an umbrella. And where did you see me?" - Yelena snapped.

"I saw you in the Cathedral, you went to talk to me and you even talked about Father Palomo. How dare you forget, vile devil." - Esteban exclaimed, while taking a small crucifix from his pocket.

"Calm down Father, we have to understand what happened. I was supposed to be asking the questions here and ended up getting into a mess." - Said Don.

"Wait, who are you anyway? We've been together until now and I don't know who you are." Walter asked.

"I'm Don, I'm an undercover investigator for the Office of Strategic Services, I came here to ask Yelena some questions." - Don answers.

"I don't think it's very smart for a secret agent to say he's a secret agent." - Says Walter.

"You said this before, but what questions do you want to ask my sister?" - asks Alextrov.

"Yelena, had my partner talked to you about any weird cases? Weapons or drug trafficking? His name was Gilbert Dorman." - Don answers.

"Drug trafficking? What are you talking about?" - Walter, Alextrov and Esteban ask in unison.

"This gentleman had contacted me, he was doing an investigation into recent suicide cases and he thought it was linked to drug trafficking and use, I didn't understand very well because he didn't give me all the information." - Answered Yelena.

"Leaving that aside Yelena, don't you remember running away and going to the Cathedral this morning?" - Walter asked, in a worried way.

"No, I just remember going to buy something to eat." - Answered Yelena.

"You see, she was possessed, that's why she doesn't remember she was in the Cathedral." - Esteban said, holding the crucifix in Yelena's direction.

"That doesn't mean you're right, Father." - Walter snapped.

"How can you explain that she had gone to the Cathedral and still hadn't paid that elderly woman?" - Asked Esteban to Walter.

Meanwhile, Alextrov and Don just watched the scene, in complete silence, trying to get some idea of what happened.

"Since she doesn't remember going to these locations, but we have people who saw her, maybe she was out of her mind." - Walter said.

"Yes, she was possessed. P.O.S.S.E.S.S.E.D" - Esteban retorted.

"No Father, I've seen cases of people who lost part of their memory and this must be one of the cases. The person's memory is fuzzy and they don't know exactly what happened. This is most likely a symptom of some trauma that happened to her. If the supposed undercover agent went after her, maybe he found something related to her. Something she forced herself to forget." - Walter explained to everyone in the room.

"Yelena, will you allow me to do a hypnosis session with you?" - Walter asked.

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Continued in the next chapter...