Dee filled Luca’s bowl with his favourite dry food: Whiskas with Fisherman’s Choice & Meaty Nuggets. The ginger tabby waited patiently for Dee without pawing at her in haste or meowing demandingly.
“You’re such a sweet boy,” Dee praised the cat while she stroked his luxuriantly thick coat. She thought about having his fur trimmed, but then changed her mind.
“It’s just too much money. Far more than I can afford right now,” she confided to Luca. The cat continued crunching his flavourful nuggets. Dee relished the silky feel of the cat’s fur for a bit longer before she rose to wash her hands and start on supper.
“Better to feed you first before I think about feeding myself, isn’t it?” she asked Luca as she ran some cold water over the mushrooms and bell peppers she planned to use. Just then the doorbell rang cheerfully.
“Hey! Don’t dash off like that, buddy!” Dee admonished the cat who had sped to the door at the first chimes of the doorbell. Luca already knew who had come calling.
“Hi, Cody,” Dee welcomed her partner of two years. Both had decided it best for the time being for Cody to stay in his own apartment. Cody understood Dee’s reluctance for him to move in because of her past bitter relationships that had inevitably ended on the rocks, crushing her heart in the process. He was patient though and supremely confident that he would show her that his love for her was of the purest kind. Cody didn’t resent Dee at all for judging him based on her experience with other men. He loved her too devotedly to ever feel anything but abounding love for this amazing woman.
Luca purred like a loud generator as he twisted between Cody’s legs and rubbed his head fondly all over the young man’s pants. Cody gave a delighted belly laugh before lifting Luca up in his arms.
“Yeah, rub your scent all over me, why don’t you?” he teased the cat who was still purring madly and rubbing his head under Cody’s chin and across his face. Cody shifted the cat to cradle him like a baby, much to Luca’s unadulterated delight.
“You do know you’re spoiling him, don’t you?” Dee asked Cody, her arms akimbo but her eyes alight with love for this incredibly soft-hearted man. She gazed lovingly at his boyish features: a button nose under a smooth brow; slightly chubby cheeks; a soft chin sporting a scraggly beard, and hazel eyes that shone with kindness. She adored the man earrings he wore.
Cody in turn reached out to Dee as he plopped Luca on the sofa, pulling the woman into a tight embrace before kissing her lingeringly. She tasted of cinnamon and coffee, inadvertently informing him that she had just recently had a cup of her favourite brew. He pulled away after the kiss to look at her, marvelling at his good fortune to have found such a vibrant, daring, fearless partner.
Dee’s black hair was cropped short, but not in a masculine fashion. It enhanced her sparkling cerulean eyes and trim body. Her elfin nose suited her mischievous nature, while her dimpled smile never failed to turn Cody’s knees to jelly, and his heart to mush.
“So what if I’m spoiling him?” Cody now said in response to Dee’s comment. “Are you perhaps jealous, ma chérie?” he teased her.
“Don’t use your fake French on me, buster,” Dee was quick to respond, highly amused.
“Fake, huh? Let me show you ‘fake’, Missy,” Cody joked as he grabbed one of Dee’s breasts and pressed it not too gently.
In spite of herself, Dee giggled uncontrollably and shrieked. “You’ve never before had any issue with these fake babies,” she added as she slipped away from Cody, moving off towards the kitchen. “Get your faux ass in here and help me with supper,” she playfully hollered over her shoulder.
Cody grinned wickedly and said, “Yes, Ma’am,” before following Dee into the compact kitchen.
On the sofa, Luca abruptly stiffened, his entire body as tense as the strings of a tightly strung guitar. His pupils swiftly dilated to nearly fill his green gaze; a deep, menacing grumble issued from his throat. He stared fixedly at a spot on the wall just above the 55” LED TV that was resting on the wooden TV unit. Without warning, Luca hissed loudly, frightened and panicked. He backed up against the sofa in an attempt to move away from whatever was causing him such terror. Just as the cat was about to jump off the couch to run to Cody, an invisible force grabbed him and held him firmly in place.
Luca was now beyond panic; he was utterly terrified. The cat tried to force his body to obey him and flee, but he could not even twitch a whisker. Not a sound was allowed to escape his petrified body. The cat was totally immobilised. Luca urinated in abject fear, causing the sensitive cat to be filled with humiliation and shame. He never, ever relieved himself inside except at night when he used his litterbox.
Insidiously, silently, intentionally, the invisible force invaded the cat’s body, swatting aside Luca’s pathetic resistance like so much fluff. In seconds, it had complete dominion over the cat’s body.
Inside the kitchen, Dee and Cody were finishing up with the dinner preparations. The chicken casserole was minutes away from ready, while Cody was dressing the salad.
“Not too much olive oil, hun,” Dee cautioned Cody who had an inordinate love of olives. “You never know when to say when, do you?” she asked rhetorically.
Cody chose to understand her literally and said, “When. See? I can say the word and I just did. So there: WHEN!” he shouted in Dee’s ear. Dee jumped in surprise, as she had had her back turned to him. She had a wooden spoon in her hand though and swiftly whacked a too slow Cody smartly on his elbow.
“Owwwww!” Cody laugh-shouted. “You’re so violent,” he complained in mock dissatisfaction.
It was at this precise moment that Luca entered the kitchen. The cat had undergone a complete physical and personality change. His fur bristled sharply; he emitted a sour smell that was the first indication that alerted Dee and Cody to the fact that something was amiss. The normally sweet cat turned a baleful, red gaze upon both humans and hissed nastily at length, the sound eventually turning into something akin to a guttural utterance.
Cody was nearest Luca when the cat had entered the kitchen, thus Cody became the instant target of the possessed cat. The malevolent spirit inhabiting the cat’s body instinctively went for the person Luca loved most. Cody never stood a single chance against the berserk and preternaturally powerful cat as Luca launched himself at his face.
The thing inside Luca thrilled at the imminent spill of blood; the delicious rending-ripping-slashing of fragile flesh; the exquisite taste of warm, salty, nourishing human blood. The Luca/Spirit-thing growled as loudly as a mountain lion, and it was as determined as one to bloody its muzzle in clingy, stringy, cloying, moist gore.
It was a rakshasa, a type of male goblin that had the ability to shapeshift or possess an animal’s body. It detested prayers and any form of extreme bliss, and the pure happiness contained within the family circle of Dee, Cody and Luca had incurred its wrath. The harmonious existence of these three beings had summoned the envious demon, causing it to invade their home and possess the cat’s body.
It now clamped Luca’s wide jaws onto the side of Cody’s throat, biting deeply into the man’s wonderfully yielding flesh. The first spurt of blood exploding from a severed vein drove the possessed cat into throes of ecstasy.
“Luca!” Dee screamed in horror while Cody made unintelligible, gurgling sounds of distress. When Luca had attacked Cody, the cat’s impetus had been so potent that it had knocked the unfortunate man back against a kitchen cupboard, causing him to lose his footing. Cody went down in a heap with a maddened Luca tearing, slashing and ripping at his face and throat in a blur of movement.
“Get off him, Luca!” Dee shouted, intending to grab and pull the cat off a bloody Cody, but as she reached for Luca, he turned a fiery look filled with such hatred upon her that the woman stopped in terror. She impulsively knew that the cat straddling Cody was indisputably not her beloved Luca.
“Dee, help me,” Cody begged from where he was lying on the floor, a crazed Luca still clawing at him. Cody had his arms up in defence, trying to protect his eyes, but Luca was a storm of slashes. The cat had gained supernatural strength, and it showed.
Just as Dee was about to once again attempt to rip Luca or whatever thing it was that was pretending to be Luca off Cody, the animal suddenly bucked violently. Dee heard the wet, ripping sound at the same instant as she saw the cat’s claws elongate unnaturally. Simultaneously, the creature’s spine snapped upwards loudly, the vertebrae pushing nearly through the skin and fur as the cat’s body lengthened. Next, its legs extended impossibly, allowing the cat creature to wrap its limbs around Cody in an embrace of death.
“Dear God, this can’t be happening,” Dee whispered in petrified disbelief. She knew that Cody probably had mere seconds to live. Dee had to act, and she had to do something now!
She loved this kind man, this warm human being who had entered her life in profound humility. He had graced her not only with an all-encompassing love, passion and compassion, but he had also unwittingly been the balm her damaged soul had craved. After having suffered disastrous relationship after devastating relationship, Cody’s path crossing with hers had been a blessing of inestimable significance. She was not about to let some malevolent spirit extinguish a life as precious as his.
Cody was adrift in pain; he was ensnared in a nightmarish hell that only seemed to worsen the more he resisted it. However, the worst of everything happening to him was the cause of his torment: he could not believe that it was his sweet-natured, adoring Luca who was his attacker. With a Herculean effort stemming from some wellspring of strength that he was hitherto unaware of possessing, Cody managed to finally grab the snarling cat by the head and turn it to face him. With eyes drowning in tears of pain and sorrow, Cody met Luca’s alien gaze.
“Luca, Luca,” he softly said the cat’s name repeatedly in a final, desperate attempt to reach the cat he knew to still be inside the body of this demon. “Sweet boy, it’s me. Daddy. You know me, boy. You know me!” he ended. Behind the scorching gaze of the creature, Cody detected the slightest shift, as of some darkness being barely perceptibly nudged aside. Again, Cody called out, “Luca! Come on, boy! Daddy’s here for kisses and hugs, Luca. Daddy’s here,” he repeated, not allowing his throbbing wounds to deter him from reaching the subjugated personality of the cat.
At the same time, Dee had gone down on her knees and was stroking the cat from head to tail. Although she was revolted by the strange feel of the feline, she didn’t falter. Luca knew her touch; she reasoned she could reach him through that alone. But she also kept up a litany of prayers as she ran her hand over and over the cat’s distorted body.
“God Almighty, God of Mercy and Love, help us in this dread hour, please. I implore Thee to protect us against evil and its minions,” she fervently prayed. “Lower Thy wing of mercy upon us, Lord; banish this wicked spirit to hell. Extend your Grace and blessings upon us, oh Omnipotent Protector.”
The rakshasa was infuriated by Dee’s prayers, redoubling its efforts to kill the male human. It also tried to twist its warped body to get at the praying female and pluck out her tongue, but the male’s grip upon the head of his host body was too firm. The rakshasa hissed, spat, shrieked, growled, yowled, meowed, screamed in fury and frustration. Refusing to cede defeat, the goblin did something unexpected: it created the illusion that thousands of tiny spiders were spontaneously erupting from the cat’s body.
“Aaarghhhh!” Dee yelled when the spiders swarmed all over her. “Get them off me, get them off me!” she cried in revulsion at the sensation of millions of wispy feet touching her. Cody was not affected by the hallucination; all he observed was Dee wiping at her body as if trying to get something off herself. Intuitively, Cody realised that the spirit inside Luca’s body must be using some deception on Dee.
“Dee! Love, there’s nothing on you. Trust me, babe, there’s nothing on you. Don’t stop praying, sweetheart,” he cried out to her, “you can defeat this thing. WE can defeat this thing, but you MUST trust me,” he implored her. “Take a breath, honey, then open your eyes with God’s name,” Cody suggested.
Through the veil of terror enshrouding her, Dee heard Cody. She stopped her frantic motions, stood absolutely still, centred her being and said, “No harm can touch me if God wills it not.” Opening her eyes on the last word, she saw that the spiders had all vanished.
The Luca/Spirit-thing having been thwarted in its wicked manipulations, exploded in a burst of thunderous sound. It strengthened its attempts to free itself from the male’s vice-like grip, embedding its claws in the man’s arms, causing the blood to gush in tiny rivulets. But the man refused to relent or release the cat’s head.
“God in heaven, Saviour and Gracious, Merciful Lord, protect us, protect us, protect us.”
“Luca, Luca! Sweet boy, loving kitty, fight back! Come back to us, boy. Reclaim your body. Expel this vile spirit! Take charge of your life, Luca!”
The rakshasa suddenly felt the host body resist him, surprising the arrogant, malicious spirit. With a surge of determination, the host PUSHED against the alien invader. The rakshasa shrieked in unaccustomed agony. It twisted, doubled up, whipped itself from side to side, threshed like a leviathan caught in the net of a fisherman, but all to no avail. The combined effort of the three – Dee’s continuous prayers; Cody’s unremitting coaxing of Luca to free himself from his enslavement; Luca’s fierce resistance – was more than a match for the goblin.
With a final screech of defeat that echoed like the dying scream of an animal plunging to its death down an abysmal ravine, the rakshasa was expelled. It fled in vile hatred back to its summoner.
With the departure of the rakshasa, the atmosphere in the apartment lightened instantly. The acrid stench of lye and brimstone that had pervaded the place dissipated. Best of all for Cody and Dee was that Luca reverted to his normal self. Cody rose on wobbly feet, a picture of bleeding cuts and ripped skin. Dee hurriedly applied a kitchen towel to the worst of his injuries.
Then both of them cuddled the traumatised cat who still seemed dazed but not too worse for wear. His breathing was slightly harsh and his eyes rolled about in his head for a bit before they settled into a clear gaze. His fur still stood up as if the cat had been electrified. However, the pelt smoothed out within seconds.
“If there’s one thing I must say about this cat, it’s that he’s a damn resilient feline!” Cody said in admiration.
“And a fighter of note. Don’t forget that,” Dee joked even though her soul still trembled at the frightful experienced they had just lived through. In a valiant attempt to steer her mind away from thinking about their horrendous encounter with a malevolent thing, she continued to minister to Cody’s wounds.
With a deft twist of his supple body, Luca released himself from the double cuddle. Landing expertly, the cat looked up mournfully at the two humans he loved most in this whole wide world before he voiced his distinctive “Feed me!” meow. To underscore the demand, he made a beeline for his bowl, stood next to it and stared daggers at Dee and Cody.
“Babe, you sure that thing’s out of his body?” Cody stage whispered from the corner of his mouth.
“No bloody spirit can imitate that Luca look. Trust me,” Dee responded.
In the apartment below Dee and Cody’s, the old Indian seamstress, Kamini Gupta, gnashed her few remaining teeth in hatred. In rage, she swept her arm across the table at which she was seated, spilling the contents in a loud clatter to the floor. The small clay bowl in which Kamini had burned her offering of vinegar, lemon seeds, bitter tamarind skin and withered stalks of nettles broke into four pieces, scattering the items it had held.
“Your happiness I will destroy,” Kamini whispered in unabashed malice, glaring up at the ceiling. “I will summon a stronger rakshasa, one that nobody and nothing can defeat,” she threatened confidently. She did not notice the dark form materialising slowly, dangerously behind her.
It was therefore a complete surprise to Kamini when the rakshasa’s long taloned hand burst through her chest. The last thing the spiteful crone heard before her soul was dragged to the nether pits of Hades was the goblin’s rasping voice.
“Payment is overdue, Witch, and your wicked soul will do nicely.”
Image: Alessio Zaccaria (www.unsplash.com)
