This place evoked a sense of fear rather than a sense of faith. Like the very building itself was etched with the sins of every person who had graced its walls. “Well, this is fucking terrifying,” I said, looking up at the building from where I’d parked a little way down the street before turning off the ignition and looking at Thallor and Esme. “I suppose I would have been a little disappointed if we had pulled up to a park or diner.”
Like a plane hurtling toward earth, my joke fell on deaf ears. Silence cut through the space and I sighed and shook my head.Word vomit, a true disease of the socially anxious.
“I expected more cars. Although, I guess that would ruin the wholewe’re-a-secret-cultvibe.” I looked over Esme who was sat in the middle of the back seat looking forward.Every good horror movie started with some strange, unexplained occurrences, right? Why would this be any different?I tried desperately to pull myself from my thoughts, but instead, my brain racked itself over for a memory of a movie where the entire cast of a horror film survived. But the memories evaded me. Not because I didn't have them, but because they simply did not exist.
Well, shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Does everyone remember what they are doing?” I asked. More for myself. More to reassure myself that the two people I cared about most in the world would be safe.
“Grab Isaac,” Esme said with a resolve that stirred something in my chest.
“Throttle him in the balls and drag him out if you have to,” Thallor nodded toward her.
“I grab the book,” I stated and then looked up at Thallor, “you?—”
“Kill anyone that comes near you.”
There was nothing,nothing,about his primal need to keep me safe that could ever be off-putting. It wasn’t aggressive or violent. It didn’t instil a fear in me that left me trembling. It made me feel safe and secure and wanted. Thallor made me feel confident and invincible—he made me feel like I could do anything. Includingthis.
“Okay, everybody, stay alive.” I sighed looking around one last time. And then I pushed open my door and got out of the car.
The first thingthat hit me was the smell of mildew and decay. Like a damp, rotten smell that had been left to fester for years. It was sickly and sour. Thank God, we didn't have time for lunch. Because I was certain the contents of my stomach would have emptied onto the ornately chipped tiles below me if we had.
The inside of the church was worse, if that was even possible. More weathered. More decrepit. It was the architectural embodiment of a tormented soul, with crumbling walls andbroken windows. Long wooden pews stood haphazardly across the floor of the church. Some of them were tilted and chipped from where their legs had partially worn away, whilst others were covered in a thick layer of black mould.
It would take more than a sip of wine to wash away the sins from this place.
Hymn books were strewn across the floor as if the churchgoers had just up and disappeared one day, leaving nothing but the lingering smell of incense in their wake. The wooden pulpit lay askew on its side near the altar, which sat below a large crucifix that was now purposely hung upside down.That feels like overdoing it.
We crept into the corner; eyes locked on the group of cult members who were sat in a circle around Lester Grave. The long-haired man was humming and muttering softly in a language that sounded like it was either made-up on the spot or a bad attempt at Latin. I had to give it to him; he was pretty convincing. But that was how it was done, right? Pretend a higher power was speaking to you in a language only you could understand in an impressive attempt to inflate your self-importance while simultaneously manipulating the minds of others.
I mean, these cult members were really eating out of the palm of his hand. All but Isaac, whose eyes darted nervously around the circle of people.Better to come to your senses late than never at all.
I counted around forty-odd people in total, meaning it would be very difficult to distract them all in order to get the book. Lester Grave sat in the middle of a salt circle I was all too familiar with, preparing to utter the same incantations I’d said before. The circle was adorned with a row of black candles that flickered every time he moved.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“We need to stop him. Now,” I hissed quietly as I motionedtoward the book sat in front of the long-haired man as he addressed the people gathered around him. “We call forth Aamon to grant us immortality,” he chimed in a reverent tone that echoed through the church. “For your sacrifice comment, your souls will be spared, and he, who comes forth, who grants you power beyond all measure as you journey from this life to the next.”
The group of people nodded eagerly at the promise of eternal life, all but Isaac beamed toward their leader. “We must free ourselves from the shackles of our mortal bodies to transcend into our true, powerful selves.”
And at some point, we had to ask ourselves if these people were really worth saving in the first place. For a long time, it was natural selection that was the decider of fate. And evolutionary necessity that we seem to have strayed from.But when people are this stupid, it's probably better to let nature do its thing.
“Remember,” Lester added, almost as an afterthought, “it isonlythrough this sacrifice that Aamon can be appeased. His wrath is terrible, and the cost steep. We must give all of ourselves, body, soul, and will, if we are to succeed in summoning him.”
Isaac and a short brown-haired girl of similar age shuffled closer to my professor and Charles Manson incarnate. And then, as if in a hypnotised state, the room became eerily quiet. The rest of the cult members proceeded to lift knives to their throats before a dull symphony of limp bodies hitting the stone floor echoed through the church. And then the choked back, muffled screams, that Esme tried to swallow down, hand clamped over her mouth.
There was nothing that could have prepared me for this. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. I just stared at the ever-growing pool of red that expanded across the space. The sight pulling me back to a memory I had desperately tried to push into thepit of my own subconscious. And as much as I tried to escape it, the smell of sour metal bled through the space, bombarding my senses.
Waves of bile crashed against the back of my throat again and again as I focused all my energy on keeping upright. Esme gasped and choked back breaths as we stared wildly at the pool of crimson liquid and unmoving bodies that littered the church floor. Isaac stared straight ahead, eyes unblinking. The slick pool of blood enveloped him, soaking into the fabric at his knees. His body trembled in shock, as though his very soul was being shredded from the inside. If we get out of this, I'll kill you myself.
“We thank our friends for their sacrifice.” Lester laughed, giving Caldwell a knowing smirk. “Without them, we would not know true power.”
And then it began, the long-haired man began chanting, reciting words that had brought me to this very point. “Demon of darkness, Prince of Hell, I beckon you forward, with one simple spell. Through the veil of night, I seek you out. Dedicated till the end, on my knees devout. In the very fibres of my being, exists both want and greed. It’s three wishes I seek, and three wishes I need. In pact, we’ll tether, all wishes made whole. In return, I offer everything, everything and my soul.”
We needed to do something. I looked wildly at Thallor, who was frozen in place at the sight of the ritual. Esme was sobbing uncontrollably on the floor at my feet, and there was nothing I could do to stop the events transpiring before me. Lester Grave placed three strands of hair into one of the candles, letting them burn.
