PERVERSE - Apply Fic

05

Churches are known to be haunted, but the only otherworldly presence Ambrose has ever felt while inside these walls comes not from ghosts nor God, but himself. They discover that it is Sunday, and the pastor was in late the previous night preparing for his sermon the next morning. Ambrose listens to the service on the stairs that lead down to the Sunday school. The children are antsy in the halls. His wife is supposed to run the service for them below, but the pastor explains that a pipe burst and there was flooding. He says it could take several weeks to resolve since the damage is extensive. He says this while the collection plate is passed around.

Ambrose thinks it's funny. Lying is a sin, according to the ten commandments. However, he thinks that they are already committing the first sin. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Jesus famously came back from the dead, and Anglicans believe him to be both human and God at the same time. What were they if not that?

The others are asleep before any members of the congregation have walked through the door. It seems that despite how long they seemingly slept, a night of roaming the town in search of answers is exhausting to the legs and the soul. That is, if they have souls. Ambrose isn't sure.

When the sermon ends, Ambrose heads down and goes to sleep. The lights are off, though a bit of light streams through the cheap blinds covering the small window just above the ground. He crawls into the only empty cot. Sleep drags him under.

Some of them dream, and some of them don't. Such is life. Or, death. Nightmares happen, especially for Leo who sweats and tosses and turns. Yet, no cursed memories of the seconds that they forgot before their death occur. They sleep for so long that it is dinner time when they awake.

Barry is the first up. He feels more jetlagged than when he flew here from Toronto. The time zones aren't that different. Honestly, it feels like he ought to be on the other side of the world, upside-down. He stretches out his legs. They feel like dead weight. They are.

Others also slowly begin to arise. Audrey finds herself bored in the basement. She looks around. There is a kitchen in one room, and a storage room where surely the cots are held when children come down to learn about the bible. There is a plastic drawer unit which is full of craft supplies and small percussion instruments for children to use. A wooden shelving unit that holds children's books has a few plastic pieces on the floor in front of it. Audrey touches one, and the shelf collapses.

True crime podcasts cross Clare's mind. They had always preferred tangible realities over supernatural superstition, so they wouldn't know about any investigative work into ghosts or zombies or whatever had become of them. To stop their wandering mind, they repeat a sentiment, thinking each word deliberately. Let the police handle it. They wish that they weren't so investigative. They wonder if they could dig up their casket and run the body's dental records. Their parents wouldn't have had them cremated.

Their parents. Their brothers. Their dog.

Lydia locks herself in the bathroom. She touches her throat, feeling the rings along her trachea. If the ginger girl, Fallon, was correct about the year, then it has been over a decade since she last spoke. Lydia takes exceptional care of her vocal cords. She drinks 64 ounces of water daily, and if she has a glass of wine at a social appearance, she adds another 16 ounces to her daily requirement. Whenever she feels under the weather, she only leaves her apartment for rehearsals. She won't even take Vitamin C and avoids spicy foods just in case. All of that, for her voice to perhaps not work.

She decides not to sing. Not yet.

Along with all the instruments for children, there is a guitar. Leo finds a spot in the storage room, leaning against a prop that the church uses in their nativity scene, and begins to pluck the strings. It is out of tune, and he tries his best to tune it by ear. It's passable. He plays the melody of a rock song that came out a week before he left to chase after that child killer. Leo remembers almost feeling happy when the song came to him easily. He felt like he had improved something in his life. Even playing it now is soothing.