3:07 a.m ☠ malik

09

Judge-mental

"You think it's here?" I asked Zayn as we slowly pulled up into the Catholic cathedral. He turned his head to look at me with an expression that told me it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Of course, darling," he replied softly in contrast to his facial expression. "Let's go."

He stepped out of the car and I watched him walk around the front of the vehicle through the darkly tinted windows. Kindly, the door opened for me and he placed his arm around my waist.

"It'll be okay," he whispered into my ear. His sweet affection calmed me, but not just enough. I hated churches because people claimed that that was where God "lived," but it doesn't seem as so to me.

When we walked inside, a chilly breeze of air traveled under my shirt and down my arms. I shivered and pressed myself closer to Zayn.

"It's okay, baby," he said again with more determination. "We just need to find the priest."

Just then, a man in a white robe walked down the long passage and smiled at Zayn. "Son," he chuckled. Zayn smiled, and then hugged him while I awkwardly fidgetted behind them.

The man then faced me and stuck his hand out out, "Father Williams," he greeted. I hesitantly took his hand and shook it rather quickly.

"I suppose you could follow me to a place more situated before we start our session," he chants . . . session?

"Right, right." Zayn nodded, then we walked further down the aisle until we reached a wall that has a cross with a hanging man pinned to it. I assumed it was who the people of this religion worshipped most, but I knew it wasn't God.

We entered a room that contained dusty boxes and old chairs. Props were laying in one corner and an ancient piano was in another corner. We took a seat right about in the middle of the room, Father Williams of course in the middle.

"Now I know that you called me a few nights ago and said that we needed to arrange some time for a talk about abnormal entities or presences," he told Zayn. "Now that we have arranged some time, I need to know the whole story before I answer any questions."

Zayn's nervous eyes met mine. He raised his eyebrows slightly while mouthing a phrase to me. I shook my head, and then he spoke up.

"I'll tell you what happened," he cleared his throat. " . . . for I am a witness and I think this will be easier for a witness to describe. It all started out about last week," he began. I watched as Father Williams closed his eyes and nodded to the thought.

"My friends and I were lodging in the neighborhood and she wasn't around this one day. She bursted through the door and starting talking about a man and shadows and stuff," he said.

"It wasn't just about a man and shadows and stuff," I cut in rather rudely. "He was having a yard sale and I saw some necklaces I liked. He wasn't attending the table so I went into the garage to look for him but I got distracted because I saw an Ouija board with herbs surrounding it."

Both of them looked at me, Father Williams trying to hide the worry behind his eyes, and Zayn loosening up because already knew the whole story, especially the occurrence in the woods.

***

We finally left the church, and I felt the heaviness of the tension lift from my shoulders.

"Well that didn't work," Zayn mumbled as I hopped into the car.

"He doesn't like me, I can tell," I rolled my eyes. "I knew this wasn't a good idea. We need to speak to someone who is not a priest, like a ghost expert or something."

He was thinking something in his head, slightly nodding. "You're right. We need to speak to a paranormal investigator. Why didn't I think of that?"

I sighed in relief, glad with his comment. Anything that didn't involve a church and disapproving priests because of my religion, please.

"Hey, aren't priests supposed to be non-judge mental or something? I know you saw the look on his face when he found out I was an atheist."

"I know that's what most of the Christian and Catholic population believe, but he's still a human being. All human beings judge one another, and it is a sin to judge one without knowing. That's actually exactly what he did. By then I just wanted to get the hell out of there," he chuckled.

"Yeah," I agreed with his last statement.

***

That night we all ordered pizza and I decided to tell the others what happened at the church.

It was weird how diverse we were on our religions. Zayn was a Catholic/Christian, Luke was Jewish, Silvanna was Catholic, and Judy? Well, she used to be an atheist but now she's Catholic as well. You can already guess my religion by now, no details needed for thar answer. Ever since I lost my brother, I have grown so much hatred for God. Before that, I was beginning to change, but now my ways and beliefs are irreversible; guess you can blame God for that, too.

"So our only option is so find a paranormal expert?" Ginger asked, sitting next to me on the couch. It was around eleven o'clock p.m and we were all gathered in the living room.

"Yeah, we need to find someone as soon as possible. Hopefully we can find solutions to all of these ghost related problems and move the fuck on," I mumbled.

"We can't call," Zayn interrupted, a blank look on his face.

"Why? Don't you want this to be over?" I questioned.

"Of course! I just meant that maybe we would wait until we're back home since this house isn't actually our permanent home. The more comfortable our surroundings are, the easier we will understand this whole concept of ghosts."

"You're right," I nodded. "I'm just so impatient, I just want to fix all of this mess . . . this is all my fault."

No one said a word after that. The room's population slowly decreased as an individual went to bed. Zayn and I were the last ones to leave.

"Do you think this can be solved? What if something happens to me?" I asked Zayn. His arms wrapped around me in reassurance.

"Nothing will happen to you, maybe if you don't experience anything new then we won't have to worry as much."

"But you see, I can't control whenever I see or hear things. You saw yourself that whatever those noises I heard the other night led me to that Ouija Board. Why though?" Zayn didn't respond. He simply stared into my eyes and fell asleep.