For I Have Sinned

7

    Once we made it back Father Barnes helped me back to the cot, and I laid down. He looked down at me, bright blues mixed with confusion. I didn't know how to explain how I had known the words, I just did. I could hear them in my head the moment he was flung across the room by the demon.
It had known me, little bird, that's what a Sparrow was, a little bird. But why did it say I was so far from home? Did it know where my home was, who I was? Father Barnes turned to leave but I reached out and grabbed his wrist, I knew he said not to touch him but I didn't want him to leave. I felt like I need to sleep but I didn't feel like I could.
"Please don't." I whispered, not managing to have the energy to say it any louder.
"Sparrow, in all my life I have never met anyone who can see a demon." He said with his back turned to me. "Only a priest can exorcise one as well, I don't know how you did what you did or why it spoke to you. I can see the confusion in your face, and I'm sure it matches my own but I do know that there is reason you were on my door step, that reason eludes me but there is one."
"Do they ever speak to you?" I asked him, watching as he looked over his shoulder to me, there was a sadness in his eye.
"Yes." He replied before finally walking the rest of the way to the door, leaving me.
I stayed in the bed for a while, trying to rest but my mind kept playing over the interaction with demon. My mind becoming more frustrated with the lack of memories that I had, finally I had enough. I flung the covers back and walked out of the room, I stood in the hall, looking towards the back room where I had first found him and the main part of the church.
I turned to the main part, my bare feet treading softly against the old wood flooring. As I entered I saw him sitting in one of the pews, staring up at the color glass. I crossed over to him, and slowly sat next to him, looking up at it, the waning sunlight bathing the colors in an orange glow.
"Father?" I asked him, looking back towards the man.
"Hmm?" He replied, blinking hard before looking at me.
"I don't understand a lot of things, not just with the demon, but with everything in life." I admitted, looking down at my hands. "I don't know who I am, or where I've come from. Before I woke in that place, I had a dream."
"Jesu County Hospital?" He asked, tapping the white band around my wrist.
"Yes, the place that put this on me. I had a dream, of pain, so much pain. There was light, and wind." I told him, slowly looking back up around the room. I chew on my bottom lip before continuing. "When I woke, I was scared and confused. So many people, all dressed in the same grey clothes with white masks on their faces, they wore purple gloves on their hands. And I heard them say we have a heart beat, she's with us."
"You were dead?" He asked, I turned my head to look at him. I shrugged, cause truthfully I had no idea.
"That's as far back as I can remember, but since I woke I have seen the shadow creatures, demons like the one today. I have seen grown men, open their mouths to long jagged and knarled black teeth with black eyes. Women who's eyes have glowed red, and convince good people to take the lives of others." I told him, taking a ragged breath. "I don't know why I can see them, I was told that they were hallucinations, that they aren't real for so long. And I wanted to believe them, then one night, it came in."
"It?" He shifted, fully facing me now as I wrapped my arms around myself trying to ward off the chill from the memory.
"It looked human, it passed as human, I could feel him long before I saw him. He was massive, his skin molted red and black. His body was human in shape but that were all the similarities ended, Father Barnes." I shuttered, closing my eyes tightly, feeling a tear well up against my eye lid. "His face was scarred and burned, his eyes the darkest shade of black, he had no hair. When he walked no one seemed to see him, except me. I could hear the clack with each step he took down the hall, echoing."
"Oh my.." He trailed off, his eyes wide, glued to me and his mouth slack.
"The whole building went dark the minute he turned down my hall, shadow creatures sprang out from every which way, demons crawling from vents. I ran, when the power went off every door was unlocked. I didn't stop, I didn't check on anyone, I could their screams of terror, wails of pain, but I ran." I could feel the tears dropped down from my face, I looked over to him. "Through cold wet night I ran, dodging people, hiding from other demons not just the one we saw today. And then everything went black till I woke in your cot."
He sat, unmoving, shock written in every corner of his face. My heart beating fast in my chest and I found it difficult to breath.
"I have no idea if anybody out there can see the things we see but I do know since I woke that first time, you are the first person I've seen the shadow creatures cower from." I told him, staring him in the eyes. "And that means something, they are scared of you Father Barnes. I know I'm safe, not just because I'm in your church, but because I'm with you."