Gift of a Miracle

Chapter 22

"Caitlyn has just sent a message, it's regarding Lord Baddesley." Kazuki informed. He wouldn't have noticed her message if he hadn't checked his mobile as it was on silent.

"I suppose they've tried to contact me also... I left my mobile at the Cathedral. Are they alright?" Father Benjamin remarked.

"It seems so... apparently they have something to tell us."

"We'll continue here in haste and catch up with them as soon as possible. The room is just ahead." Father Benjamin declared, nodding at the corridor before them.

Kazuki had followed the priest through a labyrinth of corridors within the City Hall, since they entered the back door of the building instead of the front. It was curious how the priest seemed competent in taking such a route. Kazuki however had never made an attempt to enter the City Hall in the past... there had been no reason to, yet never had he imagined the floor plan to be so complex.

"Seems as if this Collaborator likes to be far from the maddening crowd." Kazuki mumbled as they continued.

Father Benjamin eventually stopped at the penultimate set of doors, just a little away from the last double doors at the end of the corridor. The priest curled his fingers around the brass doorknob but paused.

"Kazuki... I..." He began. The priest closed his eyes briefly as he let out a sigh. "There are many things I wished I should have done in the past, and there are many things I wished I shouldn't have done."

Kazuki shrugged a little. "There are many who are tarred with the same brush... I included, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Indeed... but I've realised today that all my mistakes may lead to many unfavourable things." Father Benjamin turned to face him as his other hand laid gently over the solid door.

Kazuki furrowed his eyebrows. 'What on earth could have driven the priest to say something like that?'

When Father Benjamin opened the door and entered, Kazuki turned back to the corridor where they'd come down from. Silence stalked the length of the hallway whilst daylight peeked through the gaps of the curtains from the tall windows lining one side. Ever since they had entered this building, he hadn't seen anyone. Should it be this quiet within this part of the City Hall?

"He's gone...!" Father Benjamin's panicked words echoed down the corridor like a ripple.

Kazuki leapt into the room. The stench which clung heavily to the dense air inside almost knocked his senses out the roof, but not as much as witnessing the priest's wild actions. Father Benjamin was violently pulling aside the thick velvet drapes and the netted curtains draping around a four-poster bed like a mad man. The dark mahogany piece of furniture stood dominantly at the centre of the room. Its thick frames curved in a half moon shape just nigh from touching the tall ceiling. The crinkled white sheets and the crimson bed cover had been pulled back untidily, as if someone had just jumped out of the bed in a rush. Disquietude and uneasiness swept across the Priest's face like a storm.

"What's going on Father Benjamin?" His eyes scanning the large room.

Every sense in his human body was on full alert and alarm bells were resounding in his mind.

"He's gone... how is this possible?" Father Benjamin uttered, his voice had dropped in volume and was almost a whisper.

Kazuki stepped closer to the large bed. He noticed an ottoman by the bedside table. It was made of the same dark mahogany and followed the same continuity of wood craftsmanship. The lid was open with dressings, gauzes and other medical resources which almost spilled out from it. The longer Kazuki stood still, the more the smell began to invade not only in his nostrils but in his mouth and stomach. It was like the stench of rotting flesh.