Alex was acting weird that day. Normally, he was more communicative. But he got darker because I dumped him. He tried to kiss me after a mission. I turned my face away, of course!
He didn't understand.
I loved him, but not in the way he wanted.
I couldn't get attached that easily. Every person I got attached to ended up getting hurt or worse. I was very grateful to him, but...
Perhaps I preferred loneliness. It's a suffering that was easier for me to deal with, I don't know.
If people could see the demons that I see, they sure as hell wouldn't come near me. Those who know what I deal with, choose to avoid me, as if I were the devil himself. In fact, I've been threatened to death by some people, and, for Christ, they tried.
The day I met him came to my mind. Something took me to that meeting, because I rarely visited the region. It was night, a torrential rain punished the city. São Paulo was not waterproof, a light rain was enough for it to turn into chaos, but that storm made the apocalypse seems smooth.
I ran to hide myself under the marquee of a Protestant church. When, between thunders and lightnings, I heard muffled screams. I went in the place through a gap under the gate. The area was dark, there was no electricity anymore. I went upstairs towards the screams, which didn't sound like those excited prayers that believers used to do. And I was scared because, deep down, I knew what was happening.
When I opened the door, I was taken by the smoke and heat, the flames filling the altar curtains. I entered anyhow. A horned devil with goat legs was attacking a family. His trident ripped out an old man's guts when Alex fell at my feet.
I noticed his wide, soaked eyes. He was injured, but the only survivor. I faced the beast and aimed my revolver. Alex was screaming Christ's name for mercy. So, I fired. There were three shots.
The creature moaned, but even with its purple blood gushing out, it decided to attack me. And screeched in our direction, yet the creature couldn't get any closer, because when I snapped my fingers, its existence ended in an explosion.
I dragged Alex off outside before the building collapsed. We stared at each other under the rain as we listened to the approaching sirens. After that day, we were never apart.
Alex couldn't handle these creatures at first, but his whole life he could see them. So, he saw exactly what happened. Trauma is like a persistent wound that hurts every day and seems like it will never heal.
The guy insisted on helping me, not only to deal with the creatures, but also to support me through hunts that the creatures themselves could generate. And he asked me to train him so he could support me during those missions.
Still, if I could, I'd erase from my memory that this son of a bitch tried to kiss me. It was after a complicated mission, he held me by the waist and fixed his eyes on mine. When I noticed the lips getting closer, I turned my face away. I panicked! I don't know what happened. The annoying thing is that, in the end, I felt guilty.
Despite the frustration, Alex continued to be helpful. Always getting early at the office. Finding customers and dealing with them. Often well dressed. He kept everything organized. Even the coffee he used to prepared.
Deep down, I knew that his feelings was gratitude and an obsessive desire to repay. Yes, because I exorcised, I mean, I killed the devil who slaughtered his mother, father and two young brothers inside that church.
Therefore, I cannot believe that the kiss was out of love or desire, but gratitude. He was confusing things. Very likely that he was.
***
Anyway, what I needed was to stop thinking about this nonsense and focus on the mission. I was reloading the gun when Alex came back into the room. I put the revolver in the holster on my belt. And I kept all the ammo in the side bag. The dagger I sheathed on the other side of my hip. Then I put on my usual black leather jacket.
"You're ready, miss!" He noticed. His eyes wanted to meet mine, but he forced they away.
“Let’s go!” I said, walking towards the door.
Then, he drove the car in silence. Before, we used to talk a lot, mainly about missions and its profits.
It was “Miss Dandara, this... Miss Dandara, that...”. I hated the formal way he used to called me, but in that moment, I missed it. There was a weird vibe between us.
I sighed.
Suddenly, the traffic that seemed calm became chaotic. I knew there was something going on, I felt it in the heavy energy of that night.
Alex was forced to park the car a little far from the place, due to some detours made by public workers. So, we got out of the car. He grabbed his backpack from the trunk.
“You don't have to go with me if you don't want to,” I said, with a challenging look. “I'll finish the job and be right back.” I smiled.
He smiled back.
“I'm not like you, miss, who can use spirit energy to exorcise creatures.” As he was speaking, he took out a hatchet imbued with spirit energy from inside his backpack. It was a birthday gift of mine. “But you know very well that I can deal with them now.”
“Humph!”
I keep smiling in response. Finally, he showed some good attitude.
"And stop this nagging about calling me miss!"
"Yes, miss... I mean, Dandara."
That annoying habit he had of wanting to help me. Worse than that is keeping calling me miss. I bet it was just to make me feel bad about being older than him. Damn, how irritating!
However, I was relieved that he was talking to me again.
Suddenly, a thud. The cursed energy of the place was so strong that it was possible to feel the pressure from afar. We turned and faced the horizon. It was that building. A tall, imposing form that graced the somber landscape of an urban night. I noticed dense energy seeping through the windows of the entire building.
“Damn it!” I swore. “I hope that client's ‘down payment’ was good.”
"Believe me, it was" Alex replied.
***
As we approached, we crossed a messed-up crowd. Hundreds of people were agglomerated at the sidewalks. Many of their belongings were there, like mattresses, refrigerators, stoves, furniture and clothes. The police, with all their vehicles and war apparatus, were making sure that no one could get in the building and violently threw out those already there.
I stared at Alex waiting for an answer to what was going on.
“Repossession, Miss Dandara.”
I took a deep breath. The correct form for an exorcism would be with the place completely empty, because exorcisms, at a time like that, for example, could be dangerous. Alex knew that, so he picked up his cellphone and called the customer. They argued while I watched the movement.
It was revolting: first the police get rid of the people, then we finish the job cleaning the place from evil spirits so that some arrogant rich guys could get their building back.
I looked at those people, humiliated, rejected as if they were the scum of the Earth. Thrown into the street with their institutional right of having a roof over their heads denied. I could, very well, be in one of their shoes. Yes, I could be with one of those families if it weren't for that dirty work.
Alex called me with a curious face. He hit the mute button on his cellphone and put the customer on hold.
“What's it?” I asked.
“He wants us to do the exorcism today.”
“No way!”
“You didn’t get it. He wants the building cleaned today! He insisted that the police had already emptied it."
“That spoiled idiot!” I snorted. “We have our rules.”
“No, just listen to this. He tripled the pay."
“What?”
Alex raised his eyebrows.
I took another deep breath.
“Right!” I said, after thinking about it for a while. “Return to the call and confirm but let him know that first we're going to inspect the place, if it's safe we'll do the exorcism.”
Alex went back to negotiating with the customer. As I watched the police evict people around the place with violence and pepper spray.
That was a very old building, perhaps listed as historic, however, abandoned, invaded and now reintegrated.
The heart of São Paulo was a place full of these types of buildings, which carried the caprice of a distant time and the scorn of the current one. Then, precisely because it was the heart of the capital, all the negative and cursed energy of the city was discharged there. It was not difficult to see the contrast between the beautiful urban architecture and the repulsive misery. Many of those who lived there weren’t living but surviving.
Therefore, all those repulsive emotions were attracting cursed spirits. Thousands of them. They were everywhere and getting stronger and bizarre.
It was obvious that people were affected by these spirits. Many people disappeared or died of unexplained causes. Honestly, I wish I could do more for that place and all those people. But it was just me and Alex. We couldn't embrace the world.
Alex hung up the phone and came back to me. We stared at the place for a moment. So, we looked at each other, nodded, then walked toward the cursed building. That damned cursed building.
