The Empowered by Craig Parshall

Author:Craig Parshall [Parshall, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Suspense, FICTION / Thrillers / Supernatural
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2018-01-09T05:00:00+00:00

37

I was escorted up the front sidewalk of Morehaven by the sheriff and another deputy. They walked me along the pavement to the four-story redbrick hospital that sported four tall pillars in the front, antebellum style. By the looks of its sagging porch and peeling paint, it could have been used back in the Civil War.

Before turning me over to the guys in white coats, Sheriff Haywood said with a shake of his head, “You understand this is out of my hands.”

I didn’t fully understand his comment at the time. But I didn’t forget it.

After admitting me, they shuttled me through the large dayroom, a sad place filled with milling and fidgeting souls, many of whom were talking to no one in particular. Finally I was placed in a locked room where my zip-tie cuffs were removed.

I was told that Dr. Alex Schlosser, a psychiatrist, would be interviewing me. I took some pleasure in that thought. My former criminal defense practice in New York had me in contact with a parade of some of the nation’s top mental health experts. Surely I could convince him of my mental stability and my orientation to reality. But it needed to be fast, so after my release I could speed back to Port Sulphur and explain to Deputy Ben St. Martin the story about the modern-day slave ship that would be cruising down the Mississippi River. What’s more, St. Martin would be the perfect guy. The river was his jurisdiction.

Minutes ticked by. Every hour of delay increased the chances that a manifest of human cargo locked in the hold of some ship and trafficked by some shadowy voodoo fraternity would slip past the Louisiana authorities and glide into the Gulf, bound for parts unknown.

When the door opened, the psychiatrist, a man about my age and dressed smartly in a suit and tie, entered with a clipboard in his hand. He was undoubtedly carrying the routine questionnaire, the psychiatric inventory. All the typical questions. Did I know what day it was? Did I know where I was? Did I know why I had been hospitalized? Followed by the clinical determination—privately, of course—whether I was oriented in terms of time and place. Was my manner appropriate to the setting? Any flights of fancy? Evidence of auditory or visual hallucinations?

I thought I was ready.

It started simply enough. Dr. Schlosser sat down across from me, crossed his legs, and took the time to straighten his pant leg before he began. I had guessed right. The standard psychiatric inventory questions. I answered each of them calmly. His face showed no emotion.

Then questions about my criminal defense practice in New York. And the decision of the legal ethics committee to revoke my law license.

“You were given a chance to save your license?”

“Yes.”

“You were only required to cooperate with psychiatric examination and treatment; is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“But you refused?”

“Correct.”

“Why was that?”

“I wasn’t suffering from a mental disease. I didn’t need treatment.”

“Oh?” he said calmly. “Explain that.”

“The problem was twofold: First, I believed in the existence of demons.

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