The Demon's Whisper
The Bible speaks of a time of exorcism. Scenes where Jesus healed the demon-possessed, and so on. So what about the church in the twenty-first century? Healing the demon-possessed. Is that even possible in this day and age? In a world where psychiatry has advanced enough to diagnose most cases of possession as schizophrenia or other mental illnesses, the idea of casting out demons feels absurd. Churches would normally avoid such things at all costs. But Pastor Cheon Ae-soo shouted with absolute confidence.
“Evil enemy, devil, demon! In the name of Jesus, I command you to leave this man’s body! Evil enemy, devil, demon! Satan! In the name of Jesus, I command you! Leave this man’s body! Leave!”
His voice boomed through the sanctuary without a microphone, like a general commanding the heavens. The limping man, however, looked utterly incredulous and flew into a rage.
“What the fuck is this bullshit? Why the hell am I Satan, you bastard? You’re the one who sweet-talked my wife into dumping all our money into this church, you piece of shit! Why am I the devil here?”
The man could no longer hold back. He grabbed the pastor by the collar. The situation was incredibly tense. I was watching from right beside them, wondering what would happen next, when Pastor Cheon Ae-soo spoke again.
“What is your name?”
“Nimi-ppong, you fucking asshole! Give me my money back!”
Suddenly the man pulled something from his coat. A knife, its blade glinting sharply.
“Before I shove this into your gut and kill you, you bastard, give me the money!”
The blood drained from my face. This was insane. Shouldn’t someone call the police instead of standing here? But Pastor Cheon Ae-soo remained as immovable as a mountain.
“What is your name!”
“I’m your father!”
“In the authority of the victorious Lord Jesus who defeats the enemy devil Satan, and in the name of the victorious Lord God in heaven, I ask you! What is your name! Your name! What is your name! Your name!”
The congregation’s voices reading from the Gospel of John echoed from the screen. The gleaming knife. The stench of alcohol. The pastor’s thunderous commands. Everything blended into chaos. Then—
Pop!
The lights in the sanctuary suddenly went out. Several people screamed. The PPT screen had gone dark too, confirming it was a sudden blackout. One by one, phone flashlights flickered on, spotlighting Pastor Cheon Ae-soo and the drunken man.
In the midst of the confusion, the pastor shouted, “Enemy devil Satan! You cannot defeat me! I, Cheon Ae-soo, chosen as a shepherd by the victorious King of Kings, Lord Jesus, ask you with heavenly authority—open your mouth and speak your name!!!!!”
What the hell was happening? I wanted to leave, but the congregation had locked the doors. That was when the man who had been screaming drunkenly moments ago rolled his eyes back until only the whites showed. Then he opened his mouth and began to laugh in a very high-pitched, feminine voice.
“Heeheeheehee, heeheeheeheehee, heeheeheeheeheehee, I am your mother. Cheon Ae-soo. Ae-soo, dear. I am your mother. Your mommy. Heeheeheeheeheehee.”
It was unmistakably a woman’s voice. How could a drunken, raspy middle-aged man produce such a sound?
“You think I’ll tell you my name? You fake. You fraud. If you’re really an apostle of Jesus, guess my name. Kakakakaka! Hahahaha!”
Whoosh! The man with the rolled-back eyes turned his head toward me. He grinned, stretching his mouth wide, and asked, “My child. What is your name?”
“M-me…?”
“My child. What is your name. Your name. Your name. If you don’t tell me your name, I’ll tear apart the mother you love and throw her into the depths of hell. I am the roaring lion.”
I felt like I was going insane. If I didn’t say my name, he’d kill my mother!
“…My name is Ha Yeong-won?”
“Liar. Your name is not Ha Yeong-won. Liar. Liar. You are a liar. Your name is not Ha Yeong-won! Kihihihi! Heeheeheehee! I know everything! I am the God you believe in, Jehovah!”
I was completely flustered. As I stood there trembling, Yang Ju-hui asked, “Hey! What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you!”
“Th-that… that really sounded like a demon?”
Honestly, I had been half-doubting, but the conversation had pushed me toward believing this was real. Reading my thoughts, Yang Ju-hui screamed, “You… you fucking demon! You fucking devil bastard!”
She looked like she was having a seizure before suddenly lunging forward. Her fist smashed into the man’s face.
Thud!
The man collapsed with a heavy crash.
“Aaaagh! Aigoo! Aigoo, I’m dying!”
“I am the tearing lion. I am the beast of salvation that roams the ravines.”
The man began screaming. The high-pitched feminine voice from before was gone, replaced by a hoarse, masculine cry. Blood poured from his nose. Pastor Cheon Ae-soo seized the moment.
“Satan! Leave! Satan! In the name of Jesus, I command you to leave Park Gwang-deok’s body right now! Leave!”
“Ugh, urgh, ugh—. Urgh—.”
The man started vomiting. At the same time, the sanctuary lights flickered back on.
“H-huh? What was I…?”
The man looked around in confusion. His eyes were no longer rolled back, though his face was a mess from the nosebleed.
# # #
“Did you see the pastor cast out the demon?”
“It was insane. Man, other fake churches can’t do stuff like that. Only our pastor can.”
“When Satan spoke through the guy in a woman’s voice, I got actual chills.”
After a long ordeal, Monday worship ended. The congregation buzzed with excitement about what had just happened. Among them was Kim Yeo-ok, Yang Ju-hui’s mother.
“Hey! Yang Ju-hui! How could you hit someone like that? Thank goodness the pastor managed to smooth things over with Mr. Park Gwang-deok! You could’ve ended up in jail! Repent right now!”
“……”
Yang Ju-hui stuck out her lips in clear disbelief. …Honestly, I hadn’t expected her to punch the guy in the head either. I’d been shocked. Thankfully, he only had a nosebleed—nothing broken.
“Pastor, you saved me. Whew, thank you. I think something possessed me. Thank you so much. I’m alive because of you.”
Mr. Park Gwang-deok, who had been threatening to stab the pastor moments ago, was now bowing his head and thanking Cheon Ae-soo repeatedly. …What a mess. What had that even been?
“You kids. That was amazing today, right? The pastor cast out Satan. You don’t see that every day. Our pastor is really something, isn’t he?”
Ju Chan-mi approached us then. While both Yang Ju-hui and I hesitated, Yu Da-hee asked, “By the way, where were you during the service? We didn’t see you.”
“Me? I was in the broadcast room handling the PPT. Whew, that sudden blackout was something. Isn’t it terrifying? The devil is working in the world…. Everyone needs to be careful.”
Slide. Yu Da-hee narrowed her eyes slightly. Something didn’t sit right with her?
“We usually have Bible study, but we can’t do it today. Kids, go straight home! Stick to the main roads if you can!”
Ju Chan-mi hurried off, apparently busy. Watching her leave, Yu Da-hee spoke.
“That sister was lying. Didn’t you notice? The woman’s voice we heard—the one they called the demon’s voice—sounded just like Ju Chan-mi. I knew it the moment I heard it.”
Really? I hadn’t noticed. Yu Da-hee continued.
“I recorded it. Listen. It’s also weird how both the man’s voice and the female demon voice came out at the same time when Ju-hui hit him.”
Swish. Yu Da-hee held out her phone and played the recording.
━You… you fucking demon! You fucking devil bastard!
━Aaaagh! Aigoo! Aigoo, I’m dying!
━I am the tearing lion. I am the beast of salvation that roams the ravines.
“It’s real! After Yang Ju-hui curses, you can hear both the man’s scream and the female demon voice together. What is this? How did that happen? Did he speak with two voices at once?”
“I think it’s a scam. That sister was probably hiding somewhere with a microphone, speaking through a speaker hidden on the guy.”
Yu Da-hee’s theory sounded plausible. The question was why they would stage such a fraud. Why?
“Maybe to make the congregation believe in them? That’s what I think.”
Pastor Cheon Ae-soo had deliberately put on a show to display his power. Could it really be that? Was it all staged?
“Yang Ju-hui. What do you think?”
Yang Ju-hui had attended Yeonggwang Church the longest among us. After thinking for a while, she finally spoke.
“I don’t know. Was that really Chan-mi’s voice? I don’t think it was. Whatever.”
Yeah. It was possible not to know. I shook my body to shake off the complicated feelings. It had been quite a day.
━Meowwww—.
Just then, a cat’s loud cry echoed from somewhere.
“Wow! There must be a cat!”
Yu Da-hee looked delighted as she peered under a car. I’d noticed for a while now—she really seemed to like cats. Yang Ju-hui, however, frowned deeply.
“That sound just now… was that a cat?”
# # #
Past midnight, after worship ended and the church had grown quiet, a man visited the broadcast room. It was Park Gwang-deok.
“Aigoo. Chan-mi, you worked hard today. Your acting keeps improving. You’re award material. That voice earlier was so lifelike, I almost thought it was real Satan!”
Park Gwang-deok joked as if his drunken rampage had never happened. He pulled a small speaker from his waist and handed it to Ju Chan-mi.
“Hope it didn’t break when I fell earlier. Ow, that hurts. That Yang Ju-hui girl really takes after her mom—punched me right in the nose with her fist. Bones seem fine, though.”
Slide. After setting down the small speaker, Park Gwang-deok looked at the facility deacon sitting in the broadcast room. Mumble mumble mumble mumble—. Kim Hae-il, the facility deacon, was always muttering in that creepy low voice. Park Gwang-deok felt a chill looking at the man around his own age and suddenly wanted to leave.
After grabbing the envelope of money prepared in the broadcast room, Park Gwang-deok patted Kim Hae-il on the shoulder.
“Hae-il. The pastor said you raised the toad house too early today.”
Mumble mumble mumble—.
“Man, what a weird guy. Anyway, Chan-mi, I’m off.”
Whoosh. Park Gwang-deok left with the thick envelope. After he was gone, Ju Chan-mi looked at the speaker they had used today. It was a fairly expensive Japanese-made portable speaker she had bought before, but now it had a crack.
“……”
Wondering if it was broken, Ju Chan-mi tried to remove the battery… and realized something strange.
‘There’s no battery?’
The battery was missing. Since when?
Slide. She looked at the charger. Both external batteries for the speaker were plugged into it. That meant the speaker had never had batteries inserted in the first place, and the power shouldn’t have been on.
“……”
Ju Chan-mi felt a chill run from her toes to the top of her head. Suddenly the sanctuary lights began flickering on and off, and the speaker emitted a creepy static-filled noise: Kihihihihi—.
“Get lost.”
Ju Chan-mi spoke irritably. As if nothing had happened, the church returned to normal. She then found the recording of today’s service and played it.
━Enemy devil Satan! You cannot defeat me! I, Cheon Ae-soo, chosen as a shepherd by the victorious King of Kings, Lord Jesus, ask you with heavenly authority—open your mouth and speak your name!!!!!
Ju Chan-mi kept rewinding a certain section. She turned the volume to maximum, put on headphones, closed her eyes, and focused entirely on her hearing. Amid the murmuring noises, she heard a very faint whisper.
━───.
“……”
It was hard to make out. But something was definitely murmuring. Ju Chan-mi concentrated even harder. Finally, she could clearly hear the small voice.
━Why did you kill me, Mom? Why did you kill me?
“Hah!”
Someone grabbed Ju Chan-mi’s throat tightly. She struggled in shock before finally snapping back to her senses. Feeling the terrifying chill, she made a phone call.
“Pastor, I think the school’s gate has opened again. I’m going to check it out… If I go missing, please contact Seoul first. I’ll hang up now. Thank you for everything.”