God's Gone AWOL

[1] Nothing to see here, just a demonic ritual

Jericho United Church was essentially what one would expect when they pictured a modern church. It had all the basics: dwindling and mostly elderly population, atrocious mid-century architecture, a constant smell of soup in the air, and a severe sense of guilt in regards to all the atrocities Christianity had committed in the past thousand or so years. It was not exactly thriving, nor was it dying. It was simply an average house of worship designed for people who needed a little bit of togetherness or greater meaning in their life.

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the church. Except perhaps it's destiny.

On that particular fated night in the middle of May, the reverend of Jericho United had stayed late to finish his sermon. Normally, he would have finished it earlier in the week, but there was a fundraiser potluck that had taken up most of his time. So he found himself working late that night in his office where it was quiet and had good air-conditioning. Lo-fi beats on full blast, important events of the week open in about seven different tabs on his desktop, religious texts and other helpful books scattered everywhere —the general set up for any great writer.

Reverend Wilson Montgomery —usually just known in the community by his first name— was on the older side of middle-aged, but had kept his progressive views pretty well despite this. He had a very kind face, and large hands that felt so calm and holy, it was as if he was born to be a minister. And he was definitely born to preach the word of God. He was well spoken, kind to all living creatures, and a very good listener.

Well, a relatively good listener. Despite being able to comfort the dying and ease the pain of weary human souls just by using his ears, somehow he didn't happen to hear the two physical demons bursting into the sanctuary just down the hall that particular night.

Xander followed Bentley down the aisle as the lights overhead turned on by themselves. It was a common myth that demons couldn't to enter churches or temples or anywhere with a particularly strong God-influence. However this was not the case. It was true that some places deemed as being 'Holy Ground' had restricted entry for creatures of Hell, the restrictions were only in place because they had been actively warded against them either by angels or educated humans. Demons, despite their false reputation, only had their personal powers mildly weakened at most, but the symptoms varied from demon to demon. General spell casting was actually enhanced in some cases, which was why Bentley had taken the 'it' and her brother to a church such as Jericho United.

"We'll need to set up a communication spell if we want Hell's help on this one—" Bentley started, but Xander interrupted her.

"That's not necessary,"

He held up his cell phone. Upon seeing it, Bentley gawked.

"You have one of those too?" she looked intrigued, which made sense as she had missed out on a considerable amount of technological evolution, "What are they?"

"They're telephones," he explained.

She grabbed the little glass rectangle out of his hand and flipped it over a couple of times, examining every inch of it's smooth surface. The sight was so bizarre: a demon, completely entranced by a single piece of human technology. Xander wasn't sure whether to make fun of her or tell her about the camera feature just to see what she would do.

"This thing??" she was so interested, it seemed as though she had forgotten what they needed it for to begin with.

Xander snatched his phone back.

"You've missed a lot these past few years, Bentley," he told her.

Trying not to show the utter delight he was getting from watching Bentley's reaction, Xander unlocked the screen and pulled up the phone app. She watched, wide-eyed in awe as her brother called Smythe and explained a somewhat jaded version of what had happened and how they planned on getting the 'it' to hell safely. Then he hung up and put it the ENTIRE TELEPHONE INTO HIS BACK POCKET like it was nothing at all. Already, Xander knew that showing Bentley around all the new technologies would be beyond delightful.