The First Church by Ron Ripley

Author:Ron Ripley [Ripley, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-05-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 35: Life Gets Difficult

For thirty-six years, the Board of Trustees for the First Congregationalist Church of Rye, New Hampshire had put forth a sincere effort to buy the property adjacent to the Church. The First Church’s Trust owned the land between the Church and Mrs. Colleen Staples. She had willed her home and property to the Church, and upon her untimely death, the half an acre and the structure became part of the First Church’s estate.

The Church also owned the Old Burial Ground, as well as the three acres of woods directly behind the burial ground, Mrs. Staples’ home, and the Hurlington House. The Board of Trustees had long striven to obtain the Hurlington House, the ownership of which would have given the Church an entire block. A massive piece of property on which the trustees could build.

And the trustees succeeded.

The lawyer for the Church, Attorney Richard Slater, met with the representatives for the Hurlington House.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, Mr. Slater sat across a mahogany table from Attorney Rachel Madden and Mr. Eugene Hurlington. Mr. Hurlington was ninety years old and was tired of owning the Hurlington House, which offered sanctuary to men of dubious character. Eugene had inherited the home from his father thirty-seven years before, and he had enjoyed the constant offers from the trustees to purchase the property.

The week before, however, Eugene had been told he had pancreatic cancer, and it was time to get his affairs in order.

The Church, Eugene had thought, had been good sports over nearly four decades. He decided to give the Church his house, and the land around it. His only stipulation was that they name a building after him should they decide to tear down the structure and replace it with something else.

The trustees had readily agreed.

While Attorney Madden and Attorney Slater chatted about the intricacies of estate law, Eugene carefully and patiently signed the various papers which had been laid out before him.

When he signed the last one and lifted the pen from the page, he felt a cold shiver race through him and the earth shake slightly.

He looked up sharply to the two middle-aged attorneys. Neither of them showed any reaction, however, and so Eugene assumed he had imagined the sensations.

As he set the pen down, the world around the Church changed.

And while the attorneys felt nothing, others did.

Three dead Japanese soldiers who stood in the furnace room, felt their world expand.

The soldiers felt the change.

They made their way up the stairs, invisible to the world.

They went to, what had been, the edge of the Church’s property, and they realized the invisible wall was no longer there.

Together, they stepped out onto the grass, crossed over it and stood before a large house. They looked at each other and smiled.

They could enter the new house.

They could hunt the living.

The men laughed happily and slipped into the building. They sought shadows in which to sit and wait for night.

For the darkness always amplified fear.

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