Chiara Marino, Excerpt #4: Un-Boo-Lievable



Excerpt #4: Un-Boo-lievable



“So get this,” Zeke interrupted. “Did you guys know that the Catholic Church still appoints exorcists? Isn’t that weird? I mean, you’d think if people were getting possessed, it’d be all over the news or something.”
Chiara stole a glance at Peter, watching for his reaction.
“In this day and age?” Mac mocked. Then she smiled. “I think anyone who believes in ghosts and demons is just ghoul-able.”
“That’s the spirit!” Cosmo agreed. “It’s un-boo-lievable.”
“Those beliefs are dangerous and can lead to pan-demon-ium.”
“Really? Pandemonium?” Cosmo shook his head. “I ex-spector-ed more from you.”

“I believe in demons,” Chiara told Zeke. She couldn’t contain herself any longer. If Peter wasn’t going to give her any hints, maybe she would give him some. “And I think they can possess people.”
Cosmo shook his head. “I cite Ockham’s Razor. The simplest explanation is most often the truest.”
“Yeah,” Mac agreed. “Whenever I hear ‘exorcism’, I only think of someone senselessly beating a poor schizophrenic sap in the name of spiritual deliverance.”
“Pfft. That doesn’t even work,” Peter mumbled.
The group turned his way and he looked like he had been caught in the middle of something embarrassing.
“Uh, you know, hypothetically,” he stumbled, “the demons would be pure spirits who wouldn’t be able to feel bodily pain. So beating the body would only harm the person. You know, in theory.”
Chiara’s heartbeat grew faster and she studied him without blinking. She knew now that she wasn’t crazy. And obviously, he didn’t forget fighting the demons.
“You really think possession happens as often as it did in the Bible?” Zeke asked. “I could see it happening like once every twenty years or something, but not all the time.”
“I really don’t know too much about actual possession,” Chiara shook her head regretfully. “There haven’t been too many scientific studies done on the patients for the sake of anonymity.”
Cosmo mumbled to himself.
“What was that?” Zeke called him out.
“I said ‘how convenient,’” he blinked.
Chiara tried to ignore his criticism. “I’ve only come across maybe fifty well-documented cases in my research.”
Chiara noticed that Peter was still studying her. His face was calm and his eyes were slightly squinted. She had no idea what he was thinking and it made her nervous.
“You’ve really researched this topic?” Mac eyed her suspiciously. “Dude, for Chiara’s sake! Who sits there and thinks, ‘Here I am all alone in a dark, quiet library. I should study demonic possession!’?”


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