McCarthy cleared his throat again. “If there's any being here who objects to the joining of these two, speak now or forever…”
“I object!” Seth shouted. He'd run into the sanctuary. Josh was dead on his heels and Bennett was close behind him.
A collective hiss rose angrily from the congregation. Josh waved the forty-five wildly from side to side. Bennett grabbed the arm of the hand holding the gun. “What are you doing?”
Josh snatched back from him. “I don't know how effective this thing will be. But I suggest you get your hand off me and pull out yours. This ain't Kate and William's wedding. Look around!”
Bennett, still holding tight to Josh's arm, looked all around him. The place looked out of sorts. The windows were smashed. Pews were askew. Some were even damaged, a couple completely. Their remains piled in a heap against the wall. The place looked storm-ravaged. A hint of something foul-smelling bandied about the air. Then, after staring into the lifeless eyes of a few of the congregants sitting in the pews, he shuddered. “My God….”
McCarthy stopped reading and looked toward the objection.
“Continue,” Swag commanded him.
McCarthy's body shifted nervously. He seemed at a loss as to what to do next.
“The book!” Swag shouted. “Finish reading the passage.”
McCarthy cleared his throat once again and shuffled his shoulders as if trying to regain his composure. “If anyone…”
“You've read that,” Swag said angrily. “Skip down to…” and he said, “now do you Kali…”
“Uh, yes, yes, of course,” McCarthy said. He turned to Kali. “Do you, Kali, take Lucifer, to have and to hold for all of existence? To…”
“Kallie!” Seth shouted, interrupting McCarthy again. He ran toward the front of the church. One of the congregants, a rather large fellow, started to rise, obviously intending to impede Seth's trek to the altar. Josh spotted him and shot his gun into the air. It struck the ceiling, causing plaster to flutter down upon the congregation like dirty snow, startling the bruiser long enough for Seth to scoot past him.
After Seth called out to her, Kallie froze where she stood, her mouth agape.
She was facing away from him as he approached the altar. He spoke to her back. “I love you, Kallie.”
When she finally turned around, it was as if Seth was seeing her for the very first time. She was standing there in her white wedding gown, pulsing with unimaginable energy. She was the most beautiful creature he'd ever laid eyes upon. And in that one instant, standing at the front of the defiled church, amongst heathens and dead flowers, knocked over potted plants and trees, in that one instant, in a place eerily symbolic of the Garden after the Fall of Man, his eyes were opened. “Eve.” The name, one he hadn't uttered consciously in eons, rolled with pleasurable awareness off his lips.
Tears streamed down Kallie/Kali/Eve's face and her face glowed suddenly with her own renewed recognition. “Adam.”
They ran to each other. Their two bodies and life forces collided and meshed, casting potent rainbow light throughout the church. The light curbed in front of McCarthy, slapping him violently across his face and knocking him against the front of the choir stand and ultimately back to his original senses. Within moments, he shook off his mind's fogginess and slowly regained a consciousness he hadn't had since his initial viewing of Swag's video.
All of this took place in a matter of seconds with Swag watching it all in utter disbelief and disgust. He'd waited an eternity for his revised moment and had been willing to give Kali her third chance at fulfillment. And she, after having betrayed him twice already—once in Heaven and then again in Eden—chose to betray him, yet a third time. She was the quintessential tease, refusing to go the distance. But this would be her last time deceiving him. Kali, he'd decided, would have to be destroyed.
Swag hissed at her. Kallie/Kali/Eve let go of Seth/Adam and turned around. “Lucifer,” she said with absolute clarity. “This will be the last time you deceive me.”
“Funny,” Swag/Lucifer said. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
He swiped at her face, drawing first blood.
She rubbed her cheek, wiping the blood with her fingers. She tasted it. She opened her mouth and let out the high-pitched scream that only demons could hear. The unclean spirits in the congregation, motionless during the recent fracas started trembling noisily as if they'd never heard anything so awful in all of their existence. Kallie, who'd quickly become an old hand at demonic destruction, leapt at Lucifer.
Lucifer stumbled back, his eyes flaming bright red with anger and hatred.
Kallie/Kali/Eve landed in front of him, stepping forward softly. “Johnny, are you in there? I can help you, but you must push him out. Can you hear me? You must push him out. “
Lucifer smiled. “Ah, it's the young preacher you seek? I can assure you that he's been a most kind host since London. But, I'm afraid he will no longer be joining us in this Earthly realm. But if it's any consolation to you, I can report that he went kindly into that good night, and didn't put up nearly half the struggle as your little fat Professor Sampson.”
Kallie/Kali/Eve swung out, scraping her fingernails across Lucifer's face, drawing blood. “I've defeated you before and I will again.” She opened her mouth, letting loose her high-pitched squeal.
Frowning, Lucifer/Swag pulled at his ears. He looked over toward the choir stand where Father McCarthy was just now getting back onto his feet. A bewildered and dazed McCarthy reached inside of his robe and pulled out the earplugs he'd found earlier in the filing cabinet. He studied the plugs for a moment and then looked curiously up at Lucifer. The dark one stared at the priest menacingly, still grabbing at Swag's human ears. The priest smiled knowingly, and then popped both plugs into his mouth, swallowing them.
Lucifer glanced around the room, shouting at his loyal subjects, who themselves were in varying amounts of distress. “Mutare corpora, ut in eis! Change bodies and get her!
The demons immediately left their current human hosts and leapt into the bodies of Josh, Seth/Adam, and Bennett. Instantly, the three of them turned toward Kallie, rushing toward her.
Kallie/Kali/Eve, seeing them coming at her, stopped her high-pitched squealing. “Fight them,” she commanded. “It's your body, push them out. Tell them to leave. They're not welcome.”
Bennett had no Earthly idea what was happening. One minute he was watching the weird unraveling of the strangest wedding he'd ever witnessed, and the next he'd felt some type of malevolent force enter into his body, controlling his very movements and desires, making him want to rape, maim, and plunder. But first, he was to have his way with Kallie Hunt. He'd felt an urging and was just about to act on it when Kallie Hunt's voice pushed through the heightening madness in his head. Bennett forced himself onto his knees and gripped his head with his hands. He was not a deviant psychopath! “Get out of me, damn you! You're not welcome.”
Josh had known that demonic possession was possible. But he hadn't known the swiftness in which it could happen. The malevolent spirit entered his body with such rapidity that it had taken him by surprise, and before he'd realized what he was doing, he was moving toward Kallie, gun drawn, intending to empty the chamber into her body. But then, Kallie/Kali/Eve spoke to him. Her voice was symphonic, commanding. Josh threw the gun across the room and rooted his feet in the carpet where he stood.
Seth/Adam had only taken a step toward Kallie/Kali/Eve with the unclean spirit inside of him. He'd just gotten Eve back and there was no way in Heaven or Hell he'd lose her again. The power of love within him helped vanquish the invading evil spirit within moments of its arrival inside his body. But just as quickly as the weaker evil spirit had been evicted, a more powerful one took its place. And this one, empowered by a violent rage birthed before the creation of man, took root quickly and firmly, silencing Seth/Adam before he knew what hit him.
All the unclean spirits, including the ones expunged from Josh, Bennett, and Seth/Adam immediately gathered together, forming a big dark mass. The sound of their demonic collaboration sounded like nuclear thunder. Its appearance was that of a black, heavy rain-filled storm cloud. With maddening quickness, the demonic mass rushed toward Kallie/Kali/Eve with hurricane-wind like speed and force.
But Kallie/Kali/Eve was now emboldened and strengthened by the complete knowledge and full awareness of who and what she was. She destroyed the rudderless mass of evil in a matter of minutes. And when she finished off the last of it, she looked around the church for her existential nemesis. But the spirit of Lucifer had long since departed the former Reverend Johnny Swag, leaving the young minister's lifeless shell slumped at the altar.
Kallie/Kali/Eve heard footsteps fast approaching behind her. She turned and saw her beloved Seth/Adam coming quickly toward her. She ran into his embrace, kissing him passionately.
“Marry me,” Seth/Adam said. “Right here, right now.”
“We don't have a marriage license,” she said and kissed him again.
“We can get one later,” he said, “let's commit to each other now.”
And that made perfect sense, she thought. Their love and commitment to each other was much stronger than any law or slip of paper could ever convey. “Yes,” she said. “I'll marry you, right here, right now.”
They both turned to Father McCarthy, who was still standing near the choir stand. He smiled at them. “So, we'll have a wedding after all. I believe I can conjure up the words.”
They all gathered around the altar, the priest, the bride and groom, and the two human witnesses. Seth/Adam looked into his soon-to-be-wife's eyes. “With all my heart I love thee and will gladly take thee as my wife.”
Kallie/Kali/Eve looked into her future husband's eyes. “I love thee as well. And I…” she paused. His once vibrant brown eyes looked dark and foreboding. “What movie always makes me cry?”
“What?” Seth/Adam asked.
“There's a movie that always makes me cry,” she said. “What's the name of it?”
“What does it matter?” he asked. “I love you.”
“And I love you. And I know that your favorite fruit is an apple and your favorite color is light blue. Don't you know what movie makes me cry?”
Father McCarthy smiled. “It may sound irrelevant, son. But marriage is not to be entered into lightly. If you don't know these answers, there's no harm in waiting until you truly know each other.”
“But, I'm Adam,” Seth/Adam said, nearly screaming. “Who knows you better than me?”
“Perhaps no one,” Kallie/Kali/Eve said. “But what movie makes me cry?”
“I don't know, damn it!” Seth/Adam said and this time he was screaming. “I don't know!”
“Well, you should know,” Kallie/Kali/Eve said. And she opened her mouth, letting loose her ultrasonic scream which only demons could detect. Seth/Adam's body convulsed rapidly and seconds later, Lucifer's demonic spirit was unceremoniously expelled from it. As soon as the last of it was free of Seth/Adam's body, Lucifer hissed wickedly at Kallie/Kali/Eve. His form was that of a giant snake and it stretched high above her, his forked tongue slapping down at her. Kallie glared up at him, readying herself to gnash him to bits. But he quickly came back down to her eye level, first as Johnny Swag, and then as a priest, next a child, a suburban mom, an elderly lady, each form lasting but a second, flashing before her like the broken tape of a movie reel. Suddenly the images slowed, until finally ending with one of the Christian Savior morphing into that of the classical Devil, complete with fiery red eyes and horns. And then he was gone. Kallie waved her arms out in front of her, not entirely sure if the Great Deceiver was truly gone. But it was just air in front of her. The others, save Seth/Adam who was still slumped at the altar, moved about the trashed church, looking for any signs of a demonic presence. But there were none. The demons and their leader had vanished into nothingness as if they hadn't ever existed at all.
With his body now demon-free, Seth/Adam rose to his feet and stumbled toward Kallie/Kali/Eve, collapsing at her feet. She kneeled down beside him. Wearily, he looked up into her eyes and said breathlessly, “The Wizard of Oz.”