Reverend Green's Bible Of Misanthropy

Replaced

12/03/19

5:37pm

Replaced

4revgreen: Have you ever been replaced? Or felt like you have? Maybe for you it was a split in the friendship group, or your best friend started hanging out with someone knew. Someone you didn't like. Maybe you got fired from work, even though you didn't think you'd done anything wrong.

I have a feeling that they'd been thinking about replacing me a while now.

This morning I was up early and in the church, because I hadn't been in there for a while, and it was my job, after all. It was too early for anyone else to want to be in the building so I made sure all the bibles were in tact and tidied up a little. The church had always fascinated me as a child, and I loved to sit on the pews and stare through the stained glass windows, especially as the sun rose.Sunlight streaked through the glass, and I found myself stood staring at it for countless minutes with my mouth open. It caught me in a trance, the little pictures of angels soaring in the sky above the baby Jesus seeming so alive in the morning sun.

My trance was broken when the glass suddenly shattered.

I instinctively ducked, throwing myself to the cold stone floor as razor sharp shards of stained glass shattered beside me. Little flecks of red and green littered the ground around me, somewhat reminding me of stray strands of tinsel at Christmas. Not that I myself ever put up anything decorative any more; it was more of a childhood memory.

The window had been smashed by a red brick that now lay surrounded by the shards next to an obviously empty pew. I picked it up, curling my bony fingers around the rough edges. It was heavy, and large- I struggled to hold it in one hand. The window was high up- it would have taken real strength to throw it the way someone else had.

Then, it dawned on me that I should probably go outside and see if maybe someone was lingering out there, perhaps proud of what they had done.I doubted it, but I was also so mad at whoever decided to smash my favourite window that I wanted to go outside and throw this brick at something too.

It took me a minute to actually get outside since the church has heavy doors that I now know are pretty impossible to open whilst holding a brick in one hand. Once outside, I made my way round to the window and stared up at it. No-one was there. And the only trace of someone being there was a gap in the brick wall that fenced in this part of the church yard. Yes; someone pulled a brick out from the wall before throwing it up through the window. This was a sturdy wall, all bricks cemented firmly in place. You could not just pull a brick out of the wall. You would have to be really fucking strong to do that.

I felt like hurling the brick into what remained of the window; someone else had destroyed what I loved so why not finished the job? And it was that moment, when I raised the brick as high as my puny arms could manage, that Mr King made his way up the church path and spotted me. Mr King, King of Kings as my dad had always called him,was a short man, with almost no hair left save for his moustache and nasal tufts. I never knew his first name, and never cared to find out. I doubt my dad knew it either- Mr King was just Mr King. And Mr King was not a nice man. I could already sense the anger as I turned to see his bright red face. Another man, someone young, and who I didn't recognise, was stood behind him.

"Vincent, what the fuck?"

It was the first time I had ever heard him swear, and I could see how angry he was. I could also see why he looked so angry- it obviously looked like I had been the one who smashed the window. The brick was too heavy and so I let it drop from my hand. It just had to land on Mr King's foot- he'd gotten closer than I realised. He yelped,sounding somewhat like a puppy who's paw had been trodden on. In his case, it was more like stamped on- like I said, it was a very heavy brick. The man behind him rushed to his aid as I stood back. I didn't particularly care about him and I didn't feel bad. But I suppose it didn't help my case. It still looked like I'd been caught red-handed.