Hidden In The Attic: An AJR Fanfiction

Chapter Sixteen

We head to the car and I hop into the passenger seat, while Kib puts the key in the ignition, only to get no response from the engine.
    "Oh, God," they groan. "I forgot the car is all fucked. Can we walk?"
    I tilt my head back against the headrest. "Ugh. I don't know if the town's in walking distance. I can't really see anything through all the trees."
    Kib takes the keys from the ignition and put them in their pocket in frustration. "Alright, I guess we should start walking. There isn't anything else we can do." They open the door and get out of the car, and I follow, shutting my door behind me. The sound of the slam echoes in the still night air and fades away, enveloping us in thick silence once more, and we start slowly walking down the old, overgrown path away from the cabin.
A couple minutes pass by, and we're still wandering. The only thing visible is the street a couple feet in front of us by the light of my phone's flashlight and the night sky above us. It's breathtaking up there, but it's hard to enjoy it when you realize that we're heading to a church in order to get a priest to perform an exorcism on our friend who's possessed by a murderous demon.
"Hey, I think I can see some lights. Straight ahead," I say as we emerge from the trees and into a more open area. I see a small light in the air ahead of us, and we get closer to see that it's a lamppost. Just one, single lamppost.
"That's good! That means there's something nearby, right?" Kib says, picking up their pace slightly. Eventually, we find a small street with a bunch of mom and pop shops. Obviously, everything's closed and there's no one outside to help us. How are we going to find a priest at this hour?
"Let's just walk around some more. Maybe there's a church and maybe it's open?" It's not a big town, so the chances of this place having a church would be low, but I want to be optimistic.
"Oh, is that a church?" Kib points to the large white chapel on our left.
How convenient.
"I don't think it would even be open right now," I say. "But let's check."
"Look. The lights are on. And something's moving." Kib points to the two wooden doors and behind the small rectangular windows on it, someone walks by. Okay, this is suspiciously convenient.
The two of us jog up to the building and when we enter, we're greeted by an older man, wearing a black button up and slacks. I assume it's the priest because of his clerical collar.
"Welcome! I'm Father Robert. What brings you two here at this hour?" He has a soft voice. It's calming and nice to hear, especially after all the shit that happened.
    "Well, I was gonna ask you why you're here at 12 A.M. roaming around an empty church." Kib jingles around the useless car keys.
"I like to stay here, just in case anyone needs the church at any hour." He claps his hands together and gives a small smile. "Do you need anything? Food? Shelter?"
    I don't hesitate. "An exorcism," I say bluntly, causing Kib to slap my arm in response. "Ow!"
"I'm sorry?" Robert looked confused and worried, almost.
"Long story short, our friend is most likely being possessed by a demon at our haunted cabin and he's trying to kill us."
    "And we didn't know it was haunted prior to renting the cabin," Kib adds. "Just to let you know. We didn't, like, voluntarily rent it for the sole purpose to get possessed or whatever."
This poor man is scanning us up and down, probably wondering if we're crack addicts. I guess it's a valid concern, as we rushed into his church at one in the morning talking about being haunted. "S...So you want me to perform an exorcism on your friend who's after you?"
I nod. "Exactly. Sorry for such a last minute request, but if we don't, like, head back to the cabin soon, all our friends that are still there are probably going to die."
He fiddles with his hands somewhat nervously. "This cabin... is this the cabin where that man killed his daughter all those years ago?"
Oh, this guy is definitely not going to help us.
"Yeah?" Kib answers with a slight crack in their voice. "Does that mean you're not going to help us?"
Robert takes a deep breath and exhales. He hesitates to answer. God, I hope he helps us.
"I can try," he says quietly. "I will never turn down someone in need."
I sigh gratefully, smiling at him. "Thank you," I say.
Kib crosses their arms. "The guy who's possessed is Jewish. Would that affect anything?"
"Oh, my God." I roll my eyes and grab Kib's forearm, starting to walk back to the front door. "Just shut up."
They jerk their arm out of my grasp. "It's just a question!"
Robert raises his hands to stop us. "Wait, I need to grab a few things. I'll be quick." He hurries off into a separate room and we wait in tense silence as he takes way too long to gather his things.
After a few minutes, Robert peeks his head around the corner again.
"Is there potential for violence from the possessed?" he asks with a strange formality.
Kib and I share one glance before turning back to him and nodding. He returns the small nod and disappears into the room again, quickly emerging with some rope, a plastic water bottle, and some sage. In his other arm is a small fabric bag. We don't have time to ask what's in it.
"Okay, let's go." I grab Kib's arm again, to which they object once more and slap me in the shoulder.
We awkwardly make it outside.
"Where's your car?" he asks, glancing around the parking lot.
Kib halts. "Oh, uh, we walked," they reply. "It's not that far."
Father Robert looks quickly at a car on the other side of the lot, presumably his, but he steps forward to us instead of suggesting we drive back. Idiot.
So, we all walk back to the cabin in about half an hour and as it comes into view both Kib and I start glancing around skittishly for Adam, but he's still nowhere to be found. All three of us head to the front door and Kib opens it, hesitating as they seemingly remember at the same time as I do that all of our friends are still unconscious in the living room. We make tense eye contact as Robert heads inside.
"Okay, just up the stairs," I say quickly, pointing ahead of us and looking back to Robert. He walks inside and I try to stop him but he looks around the room in curiosity.
I step in front of him. "The stairs are just in front of you," I repeat. He looks over my shoulder at Jay and Julie, then to Ryan. Danny's still in the closet.
He gulps nervously. "What, uh, what happened here?"
I glance back, as if I have to remind myself of what he's asking about. "Oh! Yeah, uh, we sometimes fall asleep on the floor."
I cringe at myself. He doesn't look like he's buying it, considering the fact that he knows this is a murder cabin. Inhaling, he glances back to the front door, as if about to make a break for it.
"Okay, let's get up to the attic." Kib grabs the sleeve of Robert's coat, obviously not wanting to make contact with his actual skin, and starts walking up the stairs.
"Alright, uh, now we need to get Adam here," Kib says once we get up to the attic. Robert is shifting around nervously, unloading his bag into the floor. He's in the far corner, avoiding the pentagram that we forgot to warn him about.
I nod. "Right. Uh, Father Robert," I say, "stay here. We'll find him soon."
"You don't know where he is?"
I hesitate. "No."
Robert falls silent. He's probably under the impression that he's going to die here. Maybe he will.
"Okay, uh, yeah, stay here," Kib repeats. "Don't follow us." Robert nods and Kib leaves the attic, me following.
We're about to go downstairs to look for Adam when I get a scary thought.
"Oh, do you think Jack's okay?" I ask. "Maybe Adam found him."
Kib stops walking. "Fuck."
We start walking back in the direction we came, going back down the dark hallway and finding Jack's room. Kib opens the door quietly to see that he's asleep, and there's nothing that leads us to believe that Adam was ever here.
"Good," I breathe. "That's good. But if he's not here, where would he be?"
They close the door, careful not to wake Jack. "Uh, I'm not sure. Maybe he's just hiding and waiting for us." They pause. "We should look outside."
I nod. "Okay."