The Rite Of St. Aldric

Written for Sunday Whirl Wordle.
Here are Brenda’s prompt words:

screams ~ desolate ~ temples ~ bone ~ sparks ~ pit
voices ~ follow ~ underworld ~ spiral ~ weave ~ current

Father Caleb descended into the desolate chapel beneath the abbey, the only light, a single candle, glistened against damp stone. Three years since his last exorcism and his hands still remembered the weight of holy water, the bone-white crucifix pressed against his palm.

The boy on the altar wasn’t a boy anymore. His temples pulsed with black veins, and when he opened his mouth, the screams that poured out did not come from a human throat; they seemed to coil upward, weaving through the rafters like something alive, searching for a way out.

“I know you,” Caleb whispered, voice steady despite the current of dread running through his chest. “You crawled up from the pit long before I was even born.”

The demon’s head snapped toward him, grinning widely. “Follow the voices, priest,” it hissed. “They’re already screaming your name in the underworld. Your brothers. Your father. All waiting.”

Caleb didn’t flinch. He’d learned long ago that demons weave lies from truth, threading grief into fresh wounds. He raised the crucifix.

“In the name of the Father….”

The demon convulsed, spine arching unnaturally, bones cracking like dry branches. The candle guttered, scattering sparks across the floor in a dying spiral.

“….I command you back to the pit from which you crawled!”

A final scream tore through the chapel, inhuman and endless, before the boy collapsed, silent, breathing.

Caleb knelt beside him, trembling now that it was over. Somewhere below the stone floor, faint and fading, he swore he heard laughing whispers …. patient, promising they’d follow him home.

NAR©2026
#Wordle

This is “Angel” by Judas Priest

Wordle 768

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