"Devout faith is my sharpest weapon!"
Jenkins proclaid loudly. Chocolate struggled to stifle a laugh, the cat's puffed-up cheeks looking utterly amusing.
In truth, Jenkins knew nothing about exorcisms; he wasn't even familiar with the standard procedure. The good news, however, was that the man being exorcised didn't know the standard procedure either, which gave Jenkins plenty of room to improvise.
He first had Mr. Nelly, dressed in a simple shirt, sit cross-legged on the carpet. Once the man closed his eyes, Jenkins sat opposite him, placed a hand on his slightly greasy head, and began reciting all the religious scriptures he knew in a low, droning chant.
It was surprisingly effective. Although the evil spirit remained, Mr. Nelly's expression softened. He was clearly convinced.
This aningless ritual continued for half an hour. Then, Jenkins had soone bring him fresh water. After a brief, fabricated blessing, he dipped his fingers in it and flicked a few drops onto Mr. Nelly's forehead.
The blessing was fake. While he couldn't perform a true mystical blessing on a person through prayer, he who could bless bullets could certainly turn ordinary water into holy water. But by deliberately jumbling different passages together during his recitation, the water he "blessed" would naturally have no effect.
He didn't want to kill or provoke the evil spirit just yet. There were more important things to do.
All in all, the whole charade took nearly two hours. Seeing that enough ti had passed, Jenkins let out a long breath and rose to his feet.
"Is it over?"
Mr. Nelly asked apprehensively.
"No, there's one final step. Please sit here quietly and don't move. I need to use the room next door. I'm sure you're aware that even after a church mass, the priest will remain alone in a room for so ti."
"I know, of course!"
Jenkins smiled and nodded at him, then picked up the large black leather bag containing his contract. He beckoned to the cat, which had been watching the show for quite so ti, and they both went into the adjacent bedroom, closing the door behind them.
He had tested them before; the walls here had excellent soundproofing.
As he had planned, hidden inside the large bag was a Ouija board. He didn't act imdiately, instead waiting quietly for a few minutes. Hearing no sound from outside, he finally took out the board and placed the small statuette and the planchette in their proper positions.
This ti, he didn't know the female spirit's na. But given the close proximity, unless there were other dead souls nearby, he was unlikely to contact the wrong one.
Motioning for Chocolate to stay quiet, he sat down at the bedroom desk and slowly, steadily, infused his own spirit into the board.
In an instant, a strong gust of wind swept through the sealed room. The books on the desk rustled loudly, their pages flapping, and the closed curtains billowed like flags.
After the wind died down, a man with an aquiline nose and a vacant expression appeared on the other side of the desk.
"Sorry, not you!"
He was about to banish the man's spirit when he suddenly froze. The man's face was familiar, but for a mont, he couldn't recall where he had seen him.
"The sense of familiarity cos from my own mory," he mused. "And I only t him once, so he must have left a deep impression..."
Just before Chocolate could let out a "ow," realization dawned on Jenkins. He rembered.
"You're the man who tried to swindle at the antique shop, the one I hit with a Disease Curse!"
"How did he die here?"
Jenkins wondered. His non-specific summons could obviously only draw in the nearest spirit.
"Well, I suppose I have so ti."
With that thought, he placed his fingers on the planchette and asked, "How did you die?"
Dark particles began to seep from the spirit's form. At the sa ti, the planchette started moving rapidly across the letter board. Jenkins quickly and accurately spelled out the words:
"I... CAUGHT... A VERY BAD... COLD... WORRIED... PLAGUE... GUN."
Jenkins drew in a long breath and couldn't help but let it out in a sigh. He scratched his hair.
"So he died because of after all. I guess that makes it indirect murder."
The man's soul wasn't very strong. Based on Jenkins's accumulated experience, he could ask two more questions at most before the spirit would completely transform into a malevolent one.
"Alright then, do you know any secrets about the organization you belonged to?"
The answer was: YES.
That was a wasted question. The spirits summoned by the Ouija board clearly weren't very bright.
"Alright, then. Tell the most secret thing you know."
After he asked the question, the planchette remained stubbornly still on the board. Jenkins looked hesitantly at his hand, then at the trembling spirit across from him.
He blinked. Golden threads had appeared, clinging to the spirit's surface, contracting toward its center like a net. Within seconds, the spirit disintegrated into dust under the imnse strain, vanishing completely.
The ectoplasmic powder left on the floor was the last trace of its existence.
"I knew it," he muttered. "Even a subordinate organization of an evil god's church would make its followers sign a confidentiality pact."
He shook his head with a hint of regret, but this was just an unexpected incident. His real task was to deal with the female ghost tornting Mr. Nelly.
He activated the Ouija board again, but once more, he contacted the wrong target. This ti, he summoned a boy—undoubtedly the accomplice of the man from before. His cause of death was clearly the sa.
"Well then..."
Jenkins considered for a mont, stroking Chocolate to keep its paws away from the small statuettes. The cat was always brimming with curiosity.
"Okay, do you know any secrets about your organization that are *not* covered by the confidentiality agreent?"
The answer was also YES.
Perhaps due to his age, the boy's spirit was even more fragile than the last one. This ant Jenkins had only one more question.
"Please tell a secret that fits the description I just gave."
After speaking, he stared intently at the board. The planchette had already begun to move.
"I... WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR DESTROYING DOCUNTS... DIDN'T PEEK... MY LORD... PLANNED... INFANT..."
The ssage wasn't fully spelled out before the boy, like his companion, disintegrated into a small pile of dust. The information might not have been covered by his confidentiality pact, but it was certainly not sothing to be revealed casually.
"Infant?"
"ow?"
The cat owed softly, saving Jenkins from the awkwardness of talking to himself in an otherwise empty room.
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