Enter the Shadows: Book One of the RTS Series (First Full Draft)

Chapter Fourteen

Robin

While walking home, Robin's head spun with the possibilities of everything they had discovered. Little Lady Midnight, the shadowy figure, the symbol, pieces of a larger puzzle. Unfortunately, Robin had no idea as to how they were connected.

He was so deep in thought, that Robin ended up taking a longer route to home. While the trains had no part in his seizure, he still felt a bit nervous about boarding one. Instead, Robin ended up walking past a few neighborhoods. After passing an elementary school, he was about half of the way home when he suddenly remembered, with a sudden jolt of realization, that he would have to pass the old Adam's Church. Even from several yards away, he could see the top of the bell tower.

Raiter City, much like any city, had its fair share of abandoned homes and buildings. Buildings that Robin and Leala had walked past over the course of the summer. But there was one location they hadn't really been to. The infamous Adam's Church; a small, worn down church that was incredibly old. It was at least seventy years old, and had been closed off for at least thirty years. Some say it was closed off due to the lack of care, or that it couldn't afford to be run anymore. But the story that Robin heard, and the one that was the most intriguing, was that the church was haunted.

Everyone had their own version of the story, but the most popular one was that a priest who lived at the church suddenly went nuts and started preaching words not written in the scripture. People stopped showing up, and the priest was pushed over the edge so much that he murdered his wife and two daughters. Shortly afterwards, he killed himself. People claimed that they saw his shadow pass the windows, or that they would hear the priest's daughters laughing and playing at night, almost every paranormal flag you could think of.

Robin remembered Mindy and himself daring each other to go into the church, as well as several other children. The doors and gates were locked tight with heavy padlocks, so there were very few entrances. No one had touched the building in years, and some prefer to walk on the sidewalk across the street from the church.

While walking down the sidewalk, Robin looked at the rotting building; the paint was chipping off the old wood, and the bell tower was slanted slightly due to the weak wood giving out. It looked as if something as simple as a gust of wind could knock it down, but after all these years it still stood tall.

Right as he was walking past the church, he heard the chain-link fence rattle. Robin froze and spun around just in time to see someone standing at the gate. Already a strange sight, but even stranger was that Robin vaguely recognized the person. A young man with black hair and green eyes, wearing a priest collar.

Then Robin realized it. "H-Hey." He spoke up. The young man looked up at Robin. "Your name is Gregor, isn't it? Dr. Blanche's son?"

Gregor blinked, then after a moment he recognized Robin. "Hey! I remember you! You're one of Dahlia's patients!" He smiled a bit. "Robin was it?"

"Y-Yeah." Robin crossed the street, baffled. "Why are you here? This place has been abandoned for years."

Gregor scratched at the back of his head. "I've heard that. I'm actually here to cleanse this place."

"Cleanse?" Robin gave Gregor a look. "Oh, wait. That's right, you said you were an exorcist."

"I am, yes."

Robin made a face. "But you're not much older than I am, right?"

"Seventeen."

"You're a seventeen year old exorcist?" The idea seemed impossible. "How?"

Gregor adjusted his collar. "It's a long story. But to sum it up quickly; my family has always held the words of God close to our hearts. I held it a bit closer and decided I was going to be an exorcist. There are evils in this world, and someone needs to take care of them."