However soon they would come.
When I was finally done, my church clothes back on, my hair pulled tightly back, I walked out of the room to the hall where Thomas was waiting for me.
Everything was starting to feel different inside of me now too. Maybe the demons had infected me, but rather than making me colder, like everyone else here, they only made me tired.
I suppose that was the point though. The more tired I was, the more compliant, and that’s what they liked. It’s what they had always liked.
Thomas shoved his phone away and clicked his tongue, heading for the door that led back to the sanctuary.
I was never allowed a phone. Mother said that’s where the demons came from. That using one would only make my mind as impure as my body would be if I was penetrated.
All I was allowed these days were some books. They were all about the church, about God. To reaffirm what Pastor Masters had been teaching me most of my life. I had read all of them multiple times, memorizing them front to back because it was part of my purpose. I had to be the perfect Favorite, the perfect wife. I had to honor my husband and keep him honorable. My entire life was always leading to that day.
A day I had been dreading ever since I could remember.
I used to hope all the time. Hope that things would change. Hope that Thomas would go back to being kind if I was just good enough. Hope that the lashings would stop, that the nightmares wouldn’t haunt me. Hope that the entire church would burn to the ground, the screams of everyone inside echoing around the world like some sort of beautiful melody.
But my hope had died a long time ago. Another feeling had been slowly growing under my skin, replacing it, slinking through the exhaustion that was resting its head in my veins, and it burned.
I wondered more and more these days if I would ever escape this place in any other way but death.
And sometimes, when it got really quiet in the middle of the night, when no one could hear my thoughts, I wondered how beautiful it would be to fill this church with the blood of everyone who had ever touched me.
Those thoughts weren’t meant to be in a woman’s mind. The Good Book said as much, but I couldn’t stop them. No matter how hard I tried, they just grew and grew and grew. The worse the demons living in this church got, the worse those thoughts became.
Maybe I was infected.
And maybe I didn’t care anymore.
I followed Thomas back through that door, my hands folded at my hips, and I immediately felt the warmth of those eyes land on my skin.
I was too exhausted to feel that skip of my heart that I always felt when his eyes skimmed over me, but I did feel a slight twinge of confusion.
Why was he still here? It was after church hours; he shouldn’t have been here.
“What are you still doing here?” Thomas asked him. “Everyone’s busy.”
I wasn’t close enough to see his shoes, but I knew exactly which direction he was in without him ever having said a word.
“I can see that,” he said, his voice sending a soft shiver down my spine.
He sounded far away. Perhaps sitting in the pews. His voice had changed over the years, I had noticed, but more so over the last few months, just like everything else. It had become more volatile, more sing-song, but I didn’t think anyone else could hear it, not unless he threatened them like he liked to threaten Thomas.
The tsunami was nearing. Inching closer day by day, and they couldn’t hear the warnings.
Maybe they didn’t want to.
I didn’t know what Azrael’s plans were, how deep they went, but I knew this church would suffer because of it.
He wasn’t a spy for the Elders, so maybe he was something much worse.
Something they wouldn’t be able to track. Something sent from the deepest parts of this world. Something with a mission to take down this church for good.
But don’t you know, Azrael, where one burns, five more pop up. You can’t take down this place, no one can. Not even The Family has been able to touch it, how could you?
“Can we not sit here and speak to the dear heavenly father?” Azrael hummed. “Here I thought this was a hospital for the sinners. Is that not what the Good Book says?”
Mark 2:17.“It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners.”
