The doors slid open for Magdalene, as thought the angels themselves opened the doors for her. The harsh fluorescent lights burned the back of her eyes, and she shrank, shielding her gaze from them as she scanned the grocery store. She wandered by the fruit, the vegetables, the exotic greenery. None of it appealed to her. She was there to watch people, souls she could save. She stayed light on her feet as she glided through the store, and found herself in the dairy section. A mother was browsing yogurt, and her young boy was screaming his discomfort. She did what she could to appease the boy, but he wanted something sweet, and she wasn't willing to oblige. The boy’s eyes held a red reflection, and that alarmed Magdalene. Was the boy a demon?
An inhuman squeal was emitted from the tiny mouth, which was littered with tiny teeth, though some were missing. Surely that sound came from a demon possessing the boy, and he dropped to the floor and pounded his hands and his feet out of frustration, continuing to shriek. Heads turned, and voices scoffed at the mother, brows creasing out of disapproval. Magdalene did what she could to not show her own disapproval. She didn;t blame the mother: it was the demon boy’s problem, and the poor mother was held responsible.
Magdalene continued her glide to the boy, who laid on the floor screaming. She reached down and snatched the boy by the arm, lifting him off the floor. The sudden jolt of movement ceased his screaming, and he hiccuped as he sobbed and sniffled. Magdalene hissed at him, inches from his face, and the sobbing stopped. “You do not behave like that in a public place, you hear me? God can hear your cry, but he doesn’t help those who do not help themselves.” The extra jerk she delivered to his upper arm shook his whole body, revealing that she was losing her temper with the child. “OUT DEMON,” she barked loudly, drawing the attention of those disapproving eyes from the mother to herself.
The mother took the child’s other arm and tried to pull him from Magdalene’s grip. Magdalene knew that the child would likely suffer from nanny’s elbow from the altercation. “How dare you talk to my child that way! Let go of him this instant!”
“You are plagued with his possession, dear lady,” Magdalene responded, abiding by the woman’s demands. The child slumped at his mother’s feet and began crying again. Magdalene took a step back, realizing that she now had the gaze of all those disapproving eyes. Many heads turned back to their own business as she glanced back, but their eyes were still aimed at her.
Magdalene's face flushed with embarrassment. SHe wasn’t wrong, the boy was. She leaned into the mother and said in a hushed voice, “If you want to purge the wrong from your boy, come to Mother Mary’s House of Enlightenment on Sunday, and we will exercise the foul spirit and bring you solace.”
The mother spit on her, and she jumped back to avoid it. With that, she ran for the doors, which the angels opened for her once more, and she fled the building.
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