When Logan got home on Sunday afternoon, he had to lie to his grandmother about how he got the bruises on his face. He also started reading his grandfather's exorcism books. Now that he was going to teach Kyle, Ian, and Max how to exorcise demons, he had to be prepared for everything.

“Tomorrow, a few friends are coming over for dinner,” Logan told his grandmother during dinner.

“Is that so? Then I’ll have to make more than usual,” she said with a sweet smile. She knew that Logan didn’t have many friends, so she was glad he was inviting someone over.

“You don’t need to do anything. I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Logan said. He didn’t want his grandmother to overwork herself.

Logan and his grandmother continued to chat during dinner. Afterward, she said goodnight to Logan and went to bed, while he stayed in the kitchen and cleaned up.

When he finished in the kitchen, he went back to his studio. He wanted to find three more rosaries for his friends. He knew that his grandfather had more than one, but he wasn't sure where they were. 

As he looked around he accidentally bumped his head on a low shelf, making the few cans of paint that were there to fall to the floor, staining it and flooding the room with a deep smell of paint.

He quickly went downstairs and grabbed cleaning supplies to clean the floor before the paint dried. After half an hour of scrubbing the floor he finally cleaned it up but there were still stains that looked like they were going nowhere and the strong smell still lingered in the room, even with the windows open. He grabbed the books that he was reading and the boxes that he was rummaging through and took them to his room. 

After looking in the boxes for ten minutes he finally found a few more rosaries, although he only needed three. After that he started to read various exorcism books and take notes to give to his friends tomorrow. 

Before he knew it Logan fell asleep on his desk between books and papers. 

***

Logan woke up with a terrible headache and an acute pain in his torso and face. “Those damn bruises,” he muttered to himself before lifting his head up from the table. When he stood up he saw his desk filled with books and papers and his floor with a lot of things scattered around, that’s when he remembered what he was doing last night. He sighed to himself at the thought of having to clean all that later and went to the bathroom.

When he looked at himself in the mirror he saw the bruises in his face were nowhere to be fading anytime sooner. He sighed tired at the image of himself and untied his hair, at least he could hide the healing cuts in his forehead and some of the bruising. He didn’t bother looking at the bruising on his torso; it probably looked as bad as it felt.

“Good morning,” Logan said to his grandmother who was in the kitchen.

“Good morning,” his grandmother said back, a bit confused, he was usually at work when she wakes up. “Why are you here?” she asked him with a warm and sweet tone of voice as she left a couple of toasts with butter in front of Logan. 

“Yesterday I called in, I’m staying home today,” Logan said with a flat face, he wanted to smile but he really couldn’t. 

“That’s wonderful, you deserve to rest sometimes,” she said as she left a cup of tea in front of Logan. Although it didn’t look like it, Logan preferred tea over coffee. 

Logan enjoyed a slow and nice breakfast with his grandmother without the worry of having to rush to work, when they were finished Logan went upstairs and cleaned his room. He left the three rosaries for his friends on his desk alongside various books and stacks of notes. 

He then went to the studio to leave the boxes but as he opened the door the strong smell of the paint still lingered there, even though he left the windows open all night. 

When he was done with the cleaning he went to take a shower and this time he was forced to look at his torso, it looked worse than what he remembered from the previous day

He dressed up with a pair of sweatpants and an oversized hoodie and went to the backyard. 

He liked to take care of it from time to time, when he was little he liked to do it with his grandmother but now she was too old to take care of it so now he takes care of it.

He watered the chrysanthemums, japanese anemones and heleniums that were already blooming, out of all season he liked the most autumn flowers. When he was finished he went back to grab his sketchbook and a few painting supplies and sat on the grass in the garden.

As he started to draw the flowers he remembered that he hadn’t painted a single thing since Aaron’s disappearance or death, he teared up a bit but continued painting, he knew Aaron would be happy that he had made friends even in the strange situation that binds the four of them together. 

***

“Do you think this will be enough?” Logan’s grandmother asked as she cooked, Logan thought she made a lot more of what was really needed but he didn’t tell her. She seemed excited. 

“I think you may have gone a bit overboard,” Logan said gently. “They don’t need that much,” Logan said while waving his hand on top of the pots so his grandmother stopped cooking. 

She laughed at him and pushed his hand away before continuing cooking. After a while she got tired and Logan took over for her so she could have dinner in the meantime. Logan felt a bit bad for not having dinner with her as he usually does but at least he stayed in the kitchen with her as he finished cooking the dinner.

“Goodnight,” Logan’s grandmother said when she finished eating before going upstairs to her room. 

“Goodnight,” Logan said before giving her a quick hug. “We won’t make much noise, promise,” Logan said while winking, his grandmother knew that it meant that he would try but he couldn’t promise. 

“It’s okay,” she said softly before going upstairs. 

Before Logan could go to the kitchen the bell rang, Logan went quickly to open the door and found his friends standing on the porch. 

“Come in, it's freezing,” Logan said while gesturing to his friends to come in.

“Your house is always surprisingly warm,” Ian pointed out as he took off his jacket.

“And it always smells delicious,” Kyle added as he went to the kitchen. 

“Come have dinner,” Logan said to Max and Ian as he followed Kyle, who was already eyeing the pots.

“You have no manners?” Logan said to Kyle as he smacked him on the hand when he tried to open a pot. “You’ll see what is there to eat when you have it on your plate,” Logan said as he pushed Kyle out of the way.

“You’ll see what is there to eat when you have it on your plate,” Kyle repeated in a mocking tone causing Max to laugh a little.

“You are making fun of an injured person?” Logan said jokingly while pointing at his face. Kyle looked down in embarrassment and sat down in a chair. “That’s what I thought,” Logan said in a fake triumphant tone of voice. 

When Logan finished cooking he served the food for his friends and himself and the four of them started eating. 

“Before getting into what you all came here for,” Logan said, referring to teaching his friends the basics of exorcism. “I have things to say,” Logan continued before taking a sip of water.

“I’ve been thinking and I believe that we are being targeted, I don’t know by who or for what motive but that’s a fact,” Logan said, the only response he received were confused looks. 

“The first note telling us to go to church? The Shadowgale attack? Whatever happened yesterday to me? And Kyle’s demon attack?” Logan started counting. “Those are a lot of coincidences,” Logan said matter of factly. 

“How do you know that what happened to you is connected to all of this?” Ian asked curious.

“On Friday while we were working,” Logan started to say, pointing at Kyle and himself. “Someone ‘dropped’ an envelope and when I opened it had,” Logan continued saying, only stopping when he had to reveal the envelope’s content. “It had pictures of me having sex in the bathroom,” Logan said very quietly, his face red in embarrassment. “And a note with an apology and a bible versicle,” Logan finished saying, still red in embarrassment. 

“Can we see the envelope? You don’t have to show us the pictures if you don’t want to,” Ian asked Logan.

“I burned it,” Logan said quietly. 

“So you think someone is orchestrating all this?” Max asked Logan. 

Logan nodded in agreement. “Against popular belief demons are not aggressive, the Shadowgale and the demon at Kyle’s house were obeying someone’s orders,” Logan explained to his friends. 

“But why us?” Kyle asked annoyed.

“Beats me,” Logan shrugged. “I thought of going back to the church to see if there were remnants of a summoning,” Logan said as he ate. “But I thought we could go together so I can show you,” Logan finished saying excitedly. 

As they finished dinner and helped Logan clean the kitchen up they went upstairs to start their exorcism lessons.

“Come in,” Logan said, opening the door of his room. “Today we are in my room, I had a small accident in the studio,” Logan said as he remembered the smell of the paint. 

As the four of them settled on the floor, Logan took his place on one side, while Max, Ian, and Kyle positioned themselves in front of him, their curious gazes fixed on Logan.

“First,” Logan said, reaching behind him. “This is for you,” he said as he handed a rosary to each one of them. “You can wear it on your wrist, like me,” Logan explained as he showed them his wrist. “Or in the neck as a necklace,” 

“Do we really need them?” Kyle asked, eyeing the rosary.

“Of course you do,” Logan said, offended. “How do you expect to exorcise demons? With your bare hands?” Logan asked, looking at Kyle. Logan watched as Kyle, Ian and Max put on the rosaries, Ian chose to wear it on the wrist like Logan and Max and Kyle chose to wear it as a necklace.

“First thing you have to learn, you have to be able to cast a simple barrier. If you can't, we'll have a long journey to do,” Logan said while laughing a bit. “Watch me and then repeat it,” Ian, Max and Kyle glued their eyes to Logan as he was about to start. “In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit,” Logan said while making the sign of the cross. A few seconds later the cross on his rosary started to emit a golden glow and a faint mist started to surround Logan. “Is a barrier effective against low level demons,” Logan explained. “Now is your turn,” Logan said to his friends with a faint smile.

Kyle decided to be the first one trying it out. “In the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit,” Kyle said as he did the sign of the cross, just like Logan. A few seconds later the cross of his rosary started to emit a golden glow and a faint mist surrounded him too. 

Logan watched in awe as Kyle casted the barrier successfully. “You did it,” Logan said excitedly while giving a thumbs up to Kyle. 

After seeing Kyle, Ian and Max tried it too and ended up being successful too. Now the four of them were surrounded by a faint golden mist.

“Now to the fun part,” Logan said sarcastically as he handed them the notes that he had written the previous night. “Those are different prayers that you are going to learn how to use, each one of them is used for a different thing,” Logan said as he grabbed the book from where he copied the prayers.

“I’m going to summon a demon and you’ll have to exorcise it,” Logan said with a cheeky smile to his friends.

***

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."

1 Thessalonians 5:11