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Dreams are a gateway to the other world. Demons attack you in your dreams. They wait for you to be in a vulnerable state to slip in and possess your body. You watch yourself be someone entirely different as they use you like a meat suit.
It was New Years Week in 2000 and it was very cold. Too cold for a 10 year old to be out on his own, but Mark was on a mission. His grandfather, Paps, was expecting him to find the kid and bring him back to the older man. He should’ve been at home with his mom, staying up to watch the ball drop on tv with his mom. But he was here in Maryland, walking around for another 10 year old child who showed the signs.
The signs of becoming possessed. Your eyes go wide open, you stare at nothing, your arms and legs have jerk movements, breathing hard or stopping breathing, and periods of rapid eye blinking; making it seem like the signs of a seizure. Demons find it funny to mock medical symptoms, knowing if an exorcist is having a seizure they won’t get help in case it is a possession. When you’re in a hospital they give you drugs, they put you in a vulnerable state making one more susceptible to the other world.
That’s what Paps said. And Mark listened to his grandfather in almost everything. So when the 60 year old man told him to go out into the cold night of New Years Eve in downtown Frederick to find a boy with the signs of possession. He knew it was another ten year old, one with blonde hair and brown eyes. He looked around the streets as people gathered for the New Years event. Mark looked for the boy as he rubbed his hands together to warm them up, remembering how school said friction produced heat. As he made his way around downtown, he recited to himself what the signs were. He wanted to do this for his grandfather, the older man was just a few paces behind him. Knowing that he would exorcise the child so Mark would be able to learn what to do.
As he muttered to himself, the sounds of grunting and moaning caught his attention. He looked down at the space between two buildings. He looked further into the dark area and saw another 10 year old. He was blonde, with an unfortunate bowl cut, a frog decorated shirt and pants, and a very pretty face. Well pretty for a 10 year old. He watched as the boy's limbs twitched, as his brown eyes blinked rapidly when they weren’t staring at nothing, as his chest heaved with hard breaths. But what separated this from a seizure was the aggressive smile the boy had on his face. Demons always smiled. And they usually chose pretty people to hide in. Fickle things.
“Paps…” Mark whispered. “Paps I think it’s him.”
“You’ve got a good eye, Mark. Let me talk to him.” The old man whispered and patted his grandson on the shoulder. He rubbed something into the wall and muttered under his breath. Mark knew to stay close but keep enough distance to let his grandfather work.
“Hey there kid. You lost? You need me to call your parents?” Paps asked, keeping up the pleasantries as a cover in case this was just a lost kid.
“Drop the Act, Samuel.” The boy spat. His brown eyes looked manic and wide as they blinked rapidly. “You… You know what and who I am. And I’ll not be sent back to hell. I like his pretty boy even with his ugly haircut. I think I want to stay!” His voice rose slightly, but no one was around to hear it.
They stared at each other for a good minute but it felt like hours to Mark. He knew his grandfather was planning something but he never saw a child possessed before. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Their standoff ended when the child ran toward Mark, trying to bypass his grandfather and get out of the alley. But this was still a body of a child and was easily grabbed by Paps, holding him against that patch of wall he rubbed something into. Something that made the beast freeze up and go limp.
“Holy water and incense you freak! Mark draw the symbol on the ground!” Samuel commanded, turning his head to the boy when he saw the child freeze. “Now Mark!”
That shook Mark awake and he raced to draw the symbols on the ground, every one in a circle finishing quickly as the demon started to wake up. When he was done, his grandfather slammed the child down in the center of the circle which made the body of the boy freeze again as the symbols started to glow. Mark’s grandfather pulled out some salt and holy water and began to rub it on the boy’s forehead, making him moan in pain.
“Eiicio! Eiicio! I cast thee out!” Paps chanted.
The boy started to twitch and shake. Then his eyes glowed bright orange, growing brighter and brighter. Then as quick as it started the eyes dimmed and closed. The boy's breathing slowed, going even like he was sleeping. But it wasn’t over yet.
“Now Mark. I need you to do what you’re here for.” Samuel said bringing the boy to kneel next to the boy’s body. Mark looked at his Paps and covered his ears. He knew what his grandfather wanted. Ever since the boy said he could control his dreams and walk in the inbetween his grandfather wanted him to work with him to get people from the other world and bring them back to their bodies. He explained to Mark it was hard to bring people back to their bodies and he needed him to travel to the inbetween to bring them back.
“You need to do this Mark. You can’t let this boy get occupied by something else.” Samuel said, rubbing his grandson’s back.
Mark quietly said ok and laid down next to the boy. He let his grandfather bind their hands together with blessed rope and wiped his forehead with a symbol written in holy oil. The old man promised him he would wake him up after 15 minutes and that he had that amount of time to get the boy back to his body. Mark closed his eyes and evened his breathing. He felt his limbs go lax and his eyes rolled back. When the cold air around him disappeared to the warm air, Mark opened his eyes.
The world bent around him, buildings grew buildings out from their sides. The art on the side of the wall pulsed and bled into the brick. The stars swirled in the sky like a painting from his mom’s favorite artist, Van Gogh. Mark sat up and saw in place of a body next to him there was a mirror. It opened a visual to the real world where Mark saw his grandfather kneeling next to his body and the body of the boy. Mark got up from the ground and looked around his surroundings. He questioned where he would have to go when he heard a child’s voice calling out. Mark imagined a spool of thread and it appeared in his hand. Tying one end to the mirror, unraveled the thread and began walking toward the voice.
The world became more and more nonsensical as he went. Rivers in the sky. Clouds that were green. There were shadows of people, people dreaming without lucid dreaming. They didn’t know they were dreaming and Mark knew to leave them be. The voice got louder and louder, when Mark saw a blonde boy with a bowl cut. He was sitting in a pool of clouds and looking around in fear.
“Hello? Where am I? Where’s my room?” The boy in the frog themed outfit asked Mark. Mark leaned forward and held his hand out to the boy who stared at his hand and back at Mark.
“It’s okay, I’m here to get you back. Just take my hand.” Mark tried to be calm like his mom would be to a lost child. He was just as scared as the boy but he remembered his mom telling him not to frighten a lost child if you found one.
“I don’t know you.” The boy protested.
“Listen dude. It might seem like hours are going, but we only have 15 minutes to get you back. I’m trying to help.” Mark dropped his calm smile and grew impatient.
“Where am I now?” The boy asked and grabbed Mark’s hand after a beat.
“Welllllll…. It’s kinda like a world between worlds.” Mark tried to explain. He pulled him out of the pool and grabbed his thread. The boy looked concerned and looked around the world around them.
“Am I dead?” He asked worriedly. Following and keeping up with Mark as they walked through the world.
“No! No. I promise dude, you were just dreaming. Well… you were possessed. But don’t worry! My Paps and I got the demon out of you.” Mark explained. “So now you can go back to your parents and friends.”
“I don’t have any friends… and I live with my aunt.” The boy said.
“Oh… Well I can be your friend!” Mark said in an attempt to comfort him.
“Yea, sure dude.”
“I mean it.” Mark defended.
“You don’t even know my name.” The boy countered.
“Well… what is it?” Mark asked.
“...Cornelius.” The boy said, that made Mark stop and give him a look. “Go ahead. Laugh.”
“So, your name is Cornelius. You have a bowl cut. And you like frogs.” Mark said.
“Yea… The perfect mixture for a geek.” Cornelius muttered.
“Welllll. You don’t have to be Cornelius to me! Pick a new name and I’ll call you that each time!” Mark offered.
The boy paused and then smiled. He looked excitedly at Mark and pointed to the frog on his shirt. “You… can call me: Frog!”
“Frog?” Mark asked.
“Yes! I am now Frog!” Frog said excitedly.
Mark smiled and the two boys laughed. They held hands as they walked closer and closer to the mirror. Mark explaining the world around them and what to expect if Frog ever got caught here again. The two boys built a rapport about them that felt natural and fun. Mark never had many friends and Frog really wanted a friend that would just treat him like a regular boy. Mark decided when they got out of this place the two would be good friends. But they couldn’t waste time. Eventually the two made it back to the mirror and Mark looked down the portal.
“Okay. We’re here.”
“What do we do now?” Frog asked, kneeling next to Mark.
“We’re gonna close our eyes, hold our breath and jump through.” Mark explained.
Frog looked a little nervous and wrung his hands. He looked at Mark and tried to gauge his reaction. Mark looked a little nervous as well but tried to remain calm for his friend. He had never done this before. He only got himself out of the inbetween before this. Now he was responsible for a whole new person. A friend. So Mark took Frog’s hand and gave him a reassuring smile.
“It’ll be okay.” Mark reassured.
The two boys gripped each other's hand and held their breaths. With closed eyes they stood up and jumped into the mirror. The winds world about them. The sounds of the other world got quieter and quieter. The world felt colder and colder. The brightness behind their eyes grew dim and the warmth grew cold. Soon both boys felt the ground on their back and the biting cold air. Mark felt the binding rope that held his and Frog’s hand together.. Once he was sure this was the waking world. Mark sat up. He looked at his hand and saw it was his own. He looked to Frog who was awake but squeezing his eyes shut hard.
“Frog.” Mark said, shaking the boy to make him open his eyes. “Frog, open your eyes, we're back.”
Frog hesitated but opened his eyes after a beat. He looked around and furrowed his brow at the dark setting. Clearly he didn’t remember the demon bringing him to an alley. “It brought me here? Why not a hotel or a restaurant?”
“Well we were hunting you for a day or two.” Mark explained.
“We?” Frog asked.
“Yea! Me and my Paps!” Mark explained then remembered his grandfather. “Paps! Look I did it-”
Mark stopped when he couldn’t see his grandfather next to him. There was nobody but the two boys there. Mark noticed on the ground where his grandfather was supposed to be was his cardigan with specks of blood on it. Mark scrambled to grab it and held it close to him. He noticed a certain scent on it. Not his grandfather’s scent of incense and smoke. It smelled like cinnamon. The scent of a possessed person. It was strong.
“Someone took my Paps. I gotta find him.” Mark said untying his hand from Frog’s. He got up quickly and noticed his grandfather's bag of tricks. He grabbed it and looked at Frog who stood up next to him. “You can go home if you want.”
“No. You helped me. I’ll help you.” Frog said with newfound bravery.
The two boys nodded to each other and got up. They didn’t know where they were going but they had a mission. New years day was approaching and they went to find someone.
Two boys against the world.