by Cody Lumiére
My walk home started off pleasant, the sun was out and it was reasonably warm out but something that I could not name started to make me anxious. I stopped and looked around to see that I was alone; strangely alone since there should have been other kids on their way home around me, I wasn't even a block away from the school yet. I quickly decided to put it out of my mind, however, the ground started to shake and I looked up to see that the sky was being consumed by clouds. Surely I was imagining all of this but as I tried to keep moving forward I noticed that my body was becoming so heavy that I could hardly walk.
I opened my eyes to see Roddie standing over me with a look of impatience on her face. “El! Hey! What are you doing?!” I looked around to see that I was still in school in the auditorium. I must have dosed off during the assembly and it was now just Roddie and I left in the room.
“Oh, hey. Fancy seeing you here.” I joked. I really didn't feel like telling her about my ominous dream, but it couldn't have been a good sign.
“Stop being lazy and let’s get going! School's over and you said you wanted to come over today...”
“Actually, I think I ought to go home today, maybe another time?”
“Noooo! You can't just drop that on me right before it's time!! You're coming over today and that's final!”
“Alright, alright.” I laughed. I guess it would help me to get my mind off of that dream and it would be pretty rude of me to ditch at the last second. Roddie lived even closer to the school than I did and her house was actually pretty nice. Her mom was retired now and she would often have delicious baked goods waiting for us, such a nice lady.
We made it to her house in no time flat and upon entering the house we were greeted by a familiar fuzzy face. Their golden retriever was still just a puppy and was absolutely adorable, I was already glad that I decided to come. The smell of freshly baked cookies filled the air as we made our way back to the kitchen to find a couple plates full of peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies and note saying that Roddie's mom had gone out and would be back this evening and to enjoy the cookies. It was times like these that I wished Pastor was into baking, though he did make dinner occasionally which was good enough by me. “Don't you just love my mom's cookies El?”
“They are probably the best I've had.”
“You mean they ARE the best you've had. Say it or I won't let you have any!”
“OK OK.” I said with a chuckle. “Your mom's cookies are the best.”
“Good. You may have some now.” Roddie said only seconds before loading her mouth full of cookies. “Mm mm. I want to get really fat when I'm older!” She said with a chuckle. “Don't worry El, I'm only joking.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon reading comics and eating cookies. Roddie had a better collection than I did so it was always a treat to have access to them. Time flew by, as it usually did with my best friend and before we knew it, it was dark and I had to start my walk home. “Why don't you spend the night again?” Roddie asked.
“It would be nice but I think I should head home. I did spend all last week here after all.”
“Yeah, true. I guess I'll just see you at school Monday.” She said rolling her eyes. “Oh and El? Make sure you do the ritual.”
“Yes sir.” I said as I walked out the door. I didn't bother to turn around to see Roddie's reaction, she usually got angry when I implied she was a guy but I had a lot to think about on my walk home.
It started out as a relatively clear night but as I grew closer to the church the weather seemed to become more restless and windy. The dream I had at school seemed so real, as if it were an actual real world memory, maybe even more real but Roddie confirmed that I had just dozed off. I can't say that I've ever had a dream like that before, not so clear and not something that shook me to my core quite like this did.
I got inside just before it started to rain; at least I seemed to have a bit of luck on my side. I closed the door behind me and turned around to see Pastor waiting for me. “Hey Elliot, I made dinner again. It's in the kitchen if you're hungry.” Boy oh boy I was glad to hear that. Cookies are great but they certainly weren’t a meal. Now that I thought about it, the church did smell of food... something with garlic. In the kitchen I was greeted by large amounts of garlic bread and more spaghetti, Pastor certainly loved his spaghetti, luckily pasta was very hard to get tired of otherwise I may have objected.
I ate tore through my spaghetti pondering my dream to no avail. If it was a warning, I'm not sure what exactly it could have meant. Tomorrow I would find out if Pastor was still up to his rituals and I'd just have to wait and see; No use thinking it to death as it didn't seem to be doing anything for me except give me stress. I decided I could at least check on Pastor to see if his positive mood change was still holding strong. I cleaned up my plate and headed through the church with no sign of him.
I eventually found him in his bedroom, reading, he smiled at me when he noticed me at the door. It honestly still shocked me to see him this way, as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders. “Was dinner to your liking?” he asked.
“It was good, thanks.” I replied. I really was thrown off by all this and I didn't know how to hold a casual conversation with him so I just awkwardly walked back to my bedroom. I guess things were looking good; my dream was just a dream so I can relax and settle into my weekend.
Ch. 16
_____
I woke up the next day to the smell of pancakes and breakfast meats! Oh boy! Pastor has not made breakfast for in years! I jumped out of bed, quickly put on some pants and opened the door... right into my toes, ouch. After a few seconds of excruciating pain I was once again ready for pancakes and more awake than ever. I got into the kitchen to see the glorious sight of a whole cookie sheet worth of bacon and sausages and two stacks of pancakes waiting for me. “Good morning Elliot, I woke up in the mood for some pancakes, I hope you don't mind?”
“You are really winning me over with all this food!” I said as I started piling a plate with pancakes and bacon. “Do we have any syrup?”
“It's on the table.” This was shaping up to be a really great weekend. In the evening we were hosting a fundraiser pot luck dinner at the church, the biggest one we've held yet. My day was entirely devoted to cleaning, which was pretty tedious and I was not a fan of having to scrape off the gum from underneath all the benches… especially since we weren't even holding the banquet in that area.
My church cleaning adventures went by surprisingly quick and people soon started to arrive. Since it was Saturday I didn't expect Pastor to be hitting the bottle but I did notice him take in a few glasses of wine during the event. Overall it went really well and we raised more money than we ever had before at one of these functions, a whopping 50 grand. Pastor strangely didn't seem too surprised by our success though, very strange as he usually was overjoyed with much smaller donations. The event died down around 11pm, and some of our guests could barely walk they drank so much. After the last of our pleasantly inebriated guests left it was time to get down to business. It was a good sign that we had a function on Pastor's ritual night but I'd have to wait and see if my hunch was correct, and I really hoped it was. It took about an hour to get everything cleaned up and I went up into my room to burn through the last hour of reading comics, waiting until I could check to see if Pastor was going to bed or not.
I must have dosed off as I opened my eyes to see that it was 1:11am! I scrambled out of bed and put on my black sweatshirt for maximum sneakiness. In the hallway I saw that there wasn't a light on in Pastor's bedroom, oh how I hoped he had gone to bed. I crept down and peeked into his room to see that there was no one there. My heart sank as I quietly made my way down to the basement door and saw that it was cracked open. I put my ear to the door and heard quiet chanting. Well, that was that, old habits die hard... I would have to do MY ritual tomorrow evening to get rid of this thing once and for all. I was really disappointed; I thought things had changed for the better. Tomorrow would be
a day of training for me and I would finally set us free from the darkness.
Ch. 17
_____
I woke the next morning with a feeling of dread creeping over me, as if something nefarious had been watching me sleep. I pulled myself out of bed and looked out my window to see that it was storming something fierce; the sky was filled with dark clouds which looked almost black. It always seemed like the weather was much worse when my life became more complicated than it should be for someone my age. I decided on a long soak in the tub to start my day.
I spent the majority of my bath in quiet meditation, trying to pull myself together for my big task that night. I could reasonably calm and center myself for about an hour and my focus had improved a very surprising amount after just the two weeks of practice. I walked downstairs to see if I could find Pastor, thinking that he may still be in a good mood. I found him in the back office of the church going over some paper work and while he was too busy to talk, he did seem to be worried about something. I started making my way back to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast when I heard a violent clap of thunder, followed by the electricity going out.
I guess it was going to be one of those days. I quickly started applying what I learned through meditation to try to stay cool and collected. I seemed to have calmed myself successfully by the time I finished my bowl of cereal but the storm outside seemed to be getting worse and worse, so bad in fact that we ended up canceling all the mass's for the day. I decided to go upstairs and watch the storm for a while; perhaps I could learn something from it.
I watched the storm for hours, and it definitely seemed to be getting worse as the day progressed. At times, the wind would actually start shaking the windows in my bedroom. I was about to get up to grab a bite to eat when I saw a huge flash of lightning hit a house a few doors down with a deafening crash. I stood there for a while, shocked at what I had just seen. I pulled myself together and decided to go see if anyone had gotten hurt. I couldn't find my raincoat but luckily we kept a bunch of umbrellas by the main door that people could borrow if they forgot theirs. I opened the door and at once was shocked by the black abyss that was waiting for me. Not a thing in site and I became frozen in fear when I turned around to see that the church had disappeared behind me. I was in a black void with nothing in sight in any direction but I wasn't about to give up. I immediately focused my mind on a brilliant white light to cast away the darkness. Almost at once I was consumed in a now blinding white abyss, though it strangely didn't hurt my eyes to look at.
I opened my eyes to see that I had just fallen asleep while watching the storm, though I was now filled with an even greater determination to cleanse my home. I turned to look at the clock which read 11pm. Wow, I was asleep for quite some time and it was probably late enough to start the ritual. I quietly opened my door and peered down the hallway to see that Pastor seemed to have gone asleep. I guess it was now or never, no use putting off anymore. I went back into my room and changed into my cat burglar attire. I found Pastor snoring quite loudly and figured it to be a good sign. This time around, I was careful enough to not drop the keys and got in and out without a hitch. I then went back to my room, grabbed my white candles and Frankincense.
It was now 11:11 as I stared at the basement door, wishing that I could go back to bed. With a sigh I unlocked the door and made my way down into the ritual space. The ritual didn't specify where to put the candles or the incense so I decided to place one candle with a stick of incense in every corner and the last three on the center altar, good enough right? I then waited for the room to become saturated with incense smoke; I figured it would help even though I was pretty clueless about all this stuff. I took out the prayer I had written and went over it a few times in my head though it was tricky to read in the dim light of the candles and fog of smoke.
I started to feel as though I was being watched and after hearing a huge clap of thunder from the storm outside, I began my ritual. “In the name of the light, I cast away all darkness from this church! In the truest light of God, I banish all darkness from this church! Under the guidance of the holy light, may all darkness leave this space forever! I summon light to replace every ounce of darkness in this church so that it may never return again! Amen.” I had forgotten to breath and used every ounce of breath for the prayer leaving me gasping for air in the now thick smoke of the incense. I stood their quietly waiting for something to happen, the lights of the candles seemed to grow dim and I was having trouble catching my breath. Just then I thought I saw the shadow out of the corner of my eye but when I turned to look it was gone. The darkness grew thicker and thicker and it felt as if it was trying to choke me. I decided to recite the prayer again.
“In the name of the light, I cast away all darkness from this church! In the truest light of God, I banish all darkness from this church! Under the guidance of the holy light, may all darkness leave this space forever! I summon light to replace every ounce of darkness in this church so that it may never return again! Amen!” The darkness continued to choke me and it was now almost pitch black in the basement. Just one more time I thought to myself. “In the name of the light, I cast away all darkness from this church! In the truest light of God, I banish all darkness from this church! Under the guidance of the holy light, may all darkness leave this space forever! I summon light to replace every ounce of darkness in this church so that it may never return again! Amen!” I fell to the ground gasping for air and then the strangest thing happened. Just like in my dream, a white light started to fill the room until it became so bright that I couldn't see. I looked around in amazement as my fear and anxiety suddenly disappeared and I felt a nurturing warmth surround me. Then, just as quickly as it came, the light disappeared and I was at once back in the basement chamber.
I looked around the ritual chamber and felt at peace; the space even seemed lighter somehow, like a weight had been lifted from the air in a way that I couldn’t describe. I had actually done it; everything seemed to go according to plan. I stood up and took in the feelings of success. A congratulatory late night snack was in order I thought to myself. I put out the candles and incense, put everything away and ate a big bowl of victory cereal.
Ch. 18
_____
The next morning I woke up feeling very proud of myself. While I really didn't feel like going to school, I did want to tell Roddie about what had happened. I quickly got dressed and decided to hunt down Pastor and see if my ritual had affected him at all, surely he would be even more pleasant without that shadow creature around. I looked all over but I wasn't able to find him, I figured he must have gone out for something; I’ll just catch up with him later.
Roddie was waiting for me in the usual place. When she saw me she ran over and immediately ran over. “I can tell that you did it! I really thought you were going to chicken out again.” she said with a wink.
“Yeah, yeah. I'm just happy it's finally over.”
School went by surprisingly fast and I was really excited to get home and see Pastor. When I got back into the church it felt empty somehow. I looked around the church and was unable to find Pastor. I eventually ended up in his bedroom and saw that his coat was still there which was very strange if he had left. No, it was too cold out to forget his coat... I sat there for a few minutes before getting up to search again. A haunting loneliness started to creep over me when I was still unable to find him. Just then the phone rang; it was one of the church regulars, Mrs. Able. She told me that Pastor didn't show up for this morning’s mass and that she and many other members of the church were very concerned. I told her everything was probably fine even though I was beginning to really worry myself.
I went back to Pastors bedroom and waited for a while longer, eventually falling asleep in his bed. I opened my eyes to see that morning had come and still no sign of Pastor. One last check around the church and my heart sank so low that it could have fallen into my bladder. Where could he have gone? I didn't understand why he would be missi
ng all of a sudden and then it hit me. Could my ritual be to blame for this? Pastor's involvement with the darkness could have been more serious than I thought as now he was gone along with it. Tears started to fill my eyes as I looked around the room, praying to find some clue that would give me answers. I looked under his bed and found a large black journal with a very old lock on it. I shifted through Pastor's key chain and eventually found a small rusted key that looked to be the right size for the journal. I held my breath as I slowly tried the key in the lock. With a small click the journal was now open; I turned to the first page to see that it was dated for the day he adopted me! I eagerly started reading the journal.
Part 2
9/23/1992
The church has been lonely lately, too lonely... even though I am pretty accustomed to keeping to myself. Now, don't ask me why but I suddenly felt compelled to have a son but being a catholic priest I am forbidden from creating my own. I pondered this issue for some time and eventually came to the conclusion that adoption was my best course of action and luckily there was a home for boys on the edge of town.
Today was my appointment at the home. I was disappointed to see that the weather didn't share my enthusiasm as rain was coming down like cats and dogs. Lucky for me, there were still a few umbrellas remaining from the supply I loan out to the members at the church, they usually didn't last long. I really wish people would understand that I don't have the money to keep purchasing umbrellas.
When I arrived at the home I saw that they too had an umbrella borrowing station. They seemed to be in the same situation as me as theirs was already empty so I decided to donate mine. The young woman inside was quite beautiful but I've learned by now to avoid such temptations. After a short bit of small talk I was allowed to go visit with the children. One in particular caught my attention rather quickly; it was if fate was guiding me. After learning his name was Elliot, I knew this had to be the one as EL is a name for God. The boy was a bit on the small side and seemed a tad feminine though I guess that's just a trait in young boys.
