C'thelli's Demonic Orphanage (Completed and Editing)

5

It was the following day. The yellow morning air was still wet with the rain from last night. Candle wax burned dimly with a smoky scent as Father Dom recited an excerpt from the Bible. The church was different in the day. The bright colours of the stained glass embedded in the sun baked stone was inviting to the devil. She peered over the banister, wincing at the precession below who cast inquisitive glances to the jagged scars that sported the walls and bleached the wood of their chairs. At least the Gahu was gone. Disposing of that thing was a trial in it's own right. 

Like the human villagers below, she clung onto every word the priest said. Even though she couldn't understand a word of Latin, she knew that there was wisdom in his words, and even though the clergy dictated that their priests faced the alter and spoke to God instead of the flock, Dom carried himself with an earnest adoration that made her reach for the string necklace around her neck. Or at least that was what she thought anyway. Feimo didn't seem so convinced, nor Hanley and Robin.

"Why're we here again?" He groaned as he prodded a pile of broken chairs away from his head. The demon was slumped in the seat beside her, his eyelids were heavy, as if being in the house of the holy was draining him of his vitality, or maybe it was because it took all night to move the evidence up to the first floor.

"Because," she hissed, "I said so." There was more than a hint of a warning in her tone, but the density of his skull seemingly knew no bounds as he just looked on with a goofy expression. She tried to return her attention to the service, but the idiot's eyes were burning into the side of her head. "What?" The devil demanded.

"You really believe in all this, don't you?" He said curiously.

"What of it?" 

"Nothing! Nothing at all, it's just you don't see a child of the abyss looking up is all!" She looked at him sideways. Maybe if Feimo had picked up his head and opened his eyes then perhaps she wouldn't be stuck with him, and instead would have developed the ability to choose his own path. 

"Maybe try it sometime." She muttered as she turned back towards the service. A small heat rose in her cheeks as she glimpsed the children snickering to their squabble. A nun had stepped into the chamber. Her shoes clacked on the floor as she carried a basin of water towards the priest. It was time. With a whir of excitement C'thelli leant in the edge of her seat as Father Dom spoke, "Monsieur Roseau, would you like to do the honours?" All eyes turned towards a young man sitting in the third row on the left. He was holding a new born babe in his arms as he stepped towards the far end with his wife. He carried a blessing in his hands, the cultivation of months of arduous tribulations and strain.

The whole village was happy for them and gave thanks to God for bestowing this gift unto the community. But Dom did not. He thanked Roseau and his partner for their sacrifices, and thus the honour of baptising their son was theirs and nobody else's. Though it wasn't the only reason why he never touched the holy water. She thought it was beautiful, a rite of passage for both the fledgling family and the community itself, bringing them closer to God and themselves. Was there anything better?

"What're they marinating it in?" Feimo questioned from the edge of his seat. A firm shove sent him reeling back into the bench.

"For now on, you are not allowed to speak, understand?" She said with a fiery aura that spelled a violent end for him. He could only nod. The wonder was evident in his eyes as he undoubtedly questioned why C'thelli was so strange for Underworld standards.  

Once the service ended in a series of claps and thanks to the priest, the congregation stepped into the opaque sunlight outside, leaving them alone with Father Dom. "Are you going to hide up there forever?" He called up to them with a bemused tone as the doors banged shut, coating the room in a dim shroud. Grabbing Feimo by the collar, she flapped her wings, yanking them all into the air and lightly floating towards the ground. Once their feet hit the surface the children whooped before running to the exit, leaving C'thelli to pull the demon forward and apologise for speaking on his own.