The fight began with the first one coming from the left. Jake dodged inward, letting it pass, then drove the right knife into the base of its neck.
The second came straight at him and took the left knife to the center of its torso.
The third and fourth arrived together from opposite sides, coordinated by the thing on the ceiling that controlled every movement. Jake waited until the two were a meter away, crouched, let them crash into each other, and used the moment of confusion to drive a knife into each one.
The fifth was behind him when he stood back up.
Jake heard it before he saw it. He spun, took the hit on his left forearm, stepped back, and answered with the right knife three times in quick succession until the figure stopped moving.
The room was empty now, except for Noah and the creature on the ceiling.
"Jake, get me out of here!"
Noah shouted.
"Easy."
Jake said.
"Is that thing the boss?"
"Let's hope so."
"You have a plan, right?"
Jake looked at the creature, which stared back at him with all its eyes, its limbs retracted and slowly rotating on the ceiling.
"Don't worry."
Jake said.
"I never planned on leaving you here."
Noah looked surprised.
"Jake… That doesn't answer my question."
"Man, I came all the way here to rescue you and you're getting picky!"
Jake started moving.
The first limb came from above, fast and direct. Jake shifted to the right and let it slam into the floor.
The second came from the side and Jake dodged it by crouching.
The third arrived while he was crouched and he evaded it by rolling forward, ending up directly beneath the mass of eyes.
He looked up and identified the largest one, in the center of the formation, surrounded by the others like satellites.
He jumped and drove a knife into the big eye at a diagonal angle, dragging it downward as he fell and tearing it open.
The sound the creature made wasn't a normal scream but something closer to a frequency, a high-pitched tone that could be felt and made the candles on the altar vibrate until they went out.
The limbs retracted upward.
Jake didn't wait. He cut Noah's bindings with the knife and pulled him to his feet.
"Let's go."
Jake said, but when he looked toward the door he had entered through, it was blocked.
Not by a figure, but by the creature itself, which had extended part of its mass to cover the entire doorframe—a wall of tissue and eyes that sealed the exit along with the windows.
The only other way out of the room, a side door leading to a bathroom, was also covered.
The creature descended a little from the ceiling while the torn eye dripped some kind of liquid, and the rest of its eyes remained fixed on Noah with an intensity that hadn't diminished.
Two of the humanoid bodies Jake had left on the floor started moving again. They opened their mouths and spoke in different voices and different tones.
"Please… stay… with me… forever…"
It took Noah a moment to realize they were talking to him.
"I chose you… no one else is ever going to want you… more than I do…"
Noah took a step back and moved behind Jake, who felt the creature begin to look at him in a much less friendly way.
"Come on, man, seriously?"
The temperature in the room changed in a second. The limbs shot out again, faster than before, without the calm of the previous attempts.
The first one grabbed him by the torso and hurled him against the left wall, smashing into the drywall. He got up before the second limb arrived, dodged it, but the third grabbed him by the shoulder and slammed him into the back wall.
This time the wall gave a little.
Jake spat to the side and stood up.
The fourth limb grabbed him before he could fully get to his feet and smashed him into the floor, making the whole room shake with the impact.
Noah stood frozen, unable to react.
Jake was on the floor in the center of the room when the floor began to change.
A line formed down the middle of the planks and slowly opened, creating an empty space from which a dry, constant heat rose. The opening grew until it was wide enough for a body.
Jake looked down.
'Why didn't it kill us when it had the chance?'
The opening kept growing.
'I guess because it wants the kid and knows it can't beat me.'
The opening was now the size of the room.
'Which means if I use the katana, this will be over in no time.'
Jake looked toward Noah and, with a smile, grabbed the katana.
"Beginner Technique: Small Thrust."
The sound of the sheath opening lasted less than a second.
The wave burst from the blade in all directions at once and made no distinction between walls, beams, windows, or floors.
The creature on the ceiling turned into a rain of blood.
The opening in the floor closed.
Jake sheathed the katana while beside him Noah was covered in white drywall dust, his hair a mess and his eyes wide as he stared at the space where an entire building had once stood. In deep silence, Noah looked at Jake.
"Who are you?"
He asked, still processing what he had just witnessed. Jake answered with pride.
"Didn't you notice? I'm the strongest exorcist of all."
Suddenly Noah felt a slight headache along with his vision darkening until he passed out.
"Shit, I cut you by accident!"
Was the last thing he heard.
When he woke up, he was in the car with Jake driving.
"You're awake… If I had known you could take it, I would have gone with my first plan."
Noah asked.
"What plan?"
Jake changed the subject.
"By the way, you'll be staying at my place since you… don't have anywhere to go."
"Thanks?"
The conversation ended there.
Jake's apartment was on the third floor of a building.
It was a one-bedroom unit, and in the living room there was a couch. The kitchen was functional, though when Noah opened the fridge the contents were: half a bottle of ketchup, two eggs, something in a Tupperware he didn't investigate, and a can of tuna.
Noah closed the fridge and looked at the couch, where Jake was already lying down with one arm over his eyes.
When he got closer, he saw that on the floor, folded with reasonable care next to the couch, there was a blanket and beside it a thin pillow.
Noah stared at the floor for a moment.
"This is…?"
"The blanket is new."
Jake said without moving.
"I bought it last week."
Noah kept staring at the blanket for a while.
He sat down on the blanket with his back straight and the expression of someone processing everything that had just happened to him.
From the couch, Jake turned off the light.
"Sweet dreams."