Up Rising

Chapter 2: Oddly Familiar

*At the Church*

Pastor: You must learn from sin! The Holy Father will not let you into his arms unless you accept your sin and he forgives your mistake! Don't fret it can be done my children! If you give yourself to God and only he, you will be forgiven and brought to his bright holy grounds!....

It's been almost an hour and he still hasn't finished his speech... I slip down into my seat and look around the room. I try to distract myself with the architecture of the church when I notice and guy standing by the back doors on the stage, right behind where the pastor is standing. I feel a shock of energy run through my body like a severe shiver in the cold... I didn't think anyone could stand up there during a service.

Diana: Mom..? Who's that?..

Mom: Shh! Pay attention.

Ugh why do I even bother. I roll my eyes and shake my head. I look back up to where the guy was standing and see he's looking right at me. We hold eye contact for what felt like minutes. The entire time he smirked like he was in my mind reading my thoughts. His eyes were very dark, everything about him was dark actually. His hair, his clothes, his eyes, and yet so inviting and oddly familiar. My eyes burn from staring and I blink but when I looked again he was gone.

Diana:...That was weird..

Aunt Karen: Shh!

I'm surprised my eyes haven't gotten stuck in the back of my head for how much I've rolled my eyes in the past 2 hours.

*After Church Around 11:00 pm*

I creep away from my door and call Jane.

Diana: Jane? Everyone is asleep, are you ready?

Jane: Yeah, start walking and I'll be there.

Diana: Okay.

I hang up and start to sneak out of my house unconsciously heading for the park. When we need or want to hang out we meet up in the town park up on the hill, we've done this since we were kids. It's like a tradition especially on Fridays. I continued my journey up the hill until I saw Jane sitting on top of the slides. I climb the ladder to meet her and sit in my usual spot.

Jane: So how was church?

Diana: Same old same old. Death, no mercy, devote yourself, or you're going to hell.

Jane: And your aunts?

Diana: Bitchier than usual.

Jane: Well that's always good haha.

Diana: There was this weird guy there too.

Jane: That's not usual? What happened?!

Diana: Nothing really, he was just standing in the doors behind the pastor, then we made eye contact and that was it.

Jane: Wow... It really was nothing huh? So how was he weird then?

Diana: It's not that he was weird it's just that it was weird cause I thought I knew him.

Jane: He probably just had a familiar face.

Diana: Yeah probably.

Jane: So how was Mr. Slankey's detention?

Diana: I still can't feel my hand! He made us write out four pages of the dictionary!