Dust to Dust

6

It was a very small church, I think the right word for it was a chapel. The doors were huge and almost went up to the roof. The walls were made of some sort of polished wood, I could tell this thing was old, and had just been finished over again. It was a triangular shape, where the wood started and went up into a roof, which made it look a lot taller than I thought it was. Now that it was closer, and I could see it better, it really was just an old church. Nothing to be afraid of. For sure.

Yet I found myself standing in front of the doors for several minutes, unsure how to approach what was ahead, or even what to say. Asher was a big deal around here, and from the look of it, he really didn't talk much aside from with the adherents. I was new here and all, so if Jasper had kept his big mouth shut, I wouldn't be so worried right now. I didn't know what he could possibly want, I just prayed I had done nothing wrong. Convenient, because this was a church after all.

I tried to block out all my overthinking, and opened the doors. I was surprised at how clean the inside looked. Fresh, dark red carpet lined down to the foot of the building where a large statue of a person was placed. I couldn't tell who it was, just that it was probably some historic or religious figure. Seats were arranged in vertical lines towards the statue, but there was a good bit of space before they stopped. Candles were lit on shelves on opposite sides of the church, and a stained glass window was behind the statue, color flowing into the room. The outside made this whole chapel look old, like nobody had touched it in years. But Asher was clearly devoted to... whatever he was doing, so I could tell he took the time to make sure it was presentable inside. Regardless of the candles, and the one large window at the back, it was still pretty dark in there.

My eyes adjusted pretty quickly though, and I could see Asher now. facing the statue in one of the seats close to the front. He didn't turn to look at me once I closed the doors behind me. Maybe he didn't hear me come in, it was oddly quiet. I slowly made my way down to where he was sitting, in hopes to get his attention. Even when I reached him, he didn't look up. He was slightly staring at the floor, appearing lost in thought. But he knew I was there, I could feel it.

"Hello, Jenny." he finally said, not taking his eyes off the ground. I was confused why he still seemed to be pretending like I wasn't there, even though he had verbally acknowledged my presence. Was the floor really that fascinating?

"Hey. You... wanted to talk to me?"

He shut his eyes for a moment, then looked up at the window. He was more present now. "Yes, I did. Don't worry." he finally turned to me. "You've done nothing wrong. I can tell you're on edge." I was a little startled at how easily he read me.

"Ah. Sorry, I guess that's because I don't really know why I'm here."

Asher got to his feet and started to walk towards the statue. "Quite alright. There's nothing to apologize for, you've been invited to a dark building which you know nothing about, to talk with someone you hardly know. It's human nature to be unsure." he took a seat on the floor in front of it. So he did have some logic. He was clearly really good at figuring people out just based on aura alone, and yet I couldn't figure out a single thing about him. It was really strange, he was trying to be friendly, yet there was something incredibly off, I had no words for it. God, I was overthinking again, wasn't I?

I didn't exactly know where to go, so I just sat down in the middle of the aisle, a good distance away from him. He was just staring at me for a moment, before folding his hands together like he was about to start a very serious conversation. I braced myself.

"Jenny. You have a very large gun in your possession. I saw it when you arrived here this afternoon. I understand that was for protection uses, but you no longer have a use for it here. I'm going to ask you to hand it over to me. This is for safety reasons of course, I need to protect the people here." now that would be reasonable, but was I honestly expected to give a gun to someone I didn't fully trust, or know at all for that matter? I understood that he was technically in charge, and he set the rules that were necessary to place. But there was still a part of me saying that I couldn't trust him with my gun. And not to mention-