MUSICAroLina by Daniel William Gunning

Author:Daniel William Gunning [Gunning, Daniel William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
Published: 2016-02-26T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

ANSWERS OR MORE QUESTIONS?

John entered the church alongside Kurt. Kurt moved on casually toward the front of the building, while John hung back warily near the doorway and cautiously surveyed the room. He found the interior to be exactly as he had imagined it would be, given the modest exterior. It was an exceptionally humble building in every imaginable sense of the word. Everywhere his eyes cared to look inside, it was, quite simply put, plain, without any unnecessary decoration or trappings whatsoever, and every wall, all the pieces of furniture, and each structure was made entirely of ordinary wood. He found the pews to be little more than simple wooden benches and there was just a small stand, near the back, that he supposed passed as a pulpit, and behind that stand stood a large wooden cross.

Moonlight streamed through the slats of the shuttered windows, but most of the light in the room was provided by candles or lanterns, which hung at regular intervals around the room. There were no garish paintings of the saints of old, no opulent stained glass windows, or any of the customary adornments one would expect to see in a modern church, especially for one in a town where all the buildings were as ostentatiously elegant as in Musicarolina. After a long and thorough survey of the room, including the brief instant when he sheepishly ducked down to look under the pews, just as a child checks under their bed for monsters, John was finally satisfied that there wasn’t anything sinister lurking in this particular wooden room. He turned his attention to the occupants. He noticed that Kurt was now sitting on one of the pews near the front of the church, calmly drinking from an old-fashioned wooden cup. The preacher approached John and handed him his own cup filled with cold water. “Here drink this; it’ll help. I figured you lads must be a mite thirsty, after a long night spent fleeing from your own personal, but not so personable, demons,” he said, smiling warmly.

“Is that what they really are out there, Preacher? Demons?”

“Well, the mayor is, most definitely; yes, to be sure. On the other hand, most of the other various creatures I surmise you’ve had the rather dubious honor of making acquaintances with tonight are merely things that he manifests to keep the people trapped here until they eventually choose to submit to his will. They crawl out at night to serve as his sentries, to shepherd back any wayward lambs that go missing during the night, while he is so dreadfully occupied with his feeding. Now, the townsfolk are another story entirely; a sizeable portion of them, I am loathe to admit are my congregation, or more accurately, I should say that they were my congregation. You see, they have gone the tiniest bit astray under my watch; I’m ashamed to say.”

“I’d say that would be in the early running for the understatement of the century, preacher. Plus, on an uber-fun side note, you kinda suck at your job.

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