There's No Such Thing as Monsters by Ren Ryder

Author:Ren Ryder [Ryder, Ren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edgefire Press
Published: 2019-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

Where the chapel had been there was… nothing. It’d been razed to the ground. Nothing but charred remains and blackened earth gave any indication that the spot had once been a place of worship. Near a broken column the burnt out husks of a few pews refused to be wiped away, and there I sat. I rested a bouquet of wildflowers beside me.

“This too, because of me…” I smiled sadly. “Father Gregory must be rolling in his grave right about now.”

“Hey, look on the bright side, that Freda lady won’t be around to yell at you~”

“Yeah, he’d have to be pretty pissed, wouldn’t he?” I reasoned.

Bell sighed. “Get ahold of yourself!”

I rubbed my cheek. “Why’d you slap me?!”

“I didn’t~” Bell denied vehemently.

“I wasn’t planning on getting involved, but this is too much! This wasn’t your fault, Son, and it certainly isn’t productive to keep blaming yourself for it!”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

“F-Father…?!”

“Know many apparitions tied to a ruined chapel, boy?”

Clothed in priestly vestments ruined by blood and knife wounds, the ghost of the Father glowed with a pale luminescence at my side. A scythe flickered in and out of existence behind his back. His eyes were milky white and glassy, but he clearly had no trouble seeing.

“You look like hell, Father~”

“Ah. You can see me. Wonderful. It’s been ages since I manifested like this. Good to know I’ve still got it.”

“W-wha-what— h-how?!”

“God had a plan for me, I reckon. Most people can’t see me, but there are many wayward souls that can, and I’ve lent countless an ear over the years. It’s rewarding work, and not having a body can be oddly convenient.”

“You help lost souls pass on?”

“Something like that,” the Father said. He gave me a mysterious, mischievous smile. “You’ve got to let me go, Kal.”

I stood abruptly from the pew and confronted him. “What? Father, did you really just say that? You can’t mean that!”

Like I’d seen him do once before, the Father was smiling happily. “Good and bad things happen to people, that’s life. Sometimes it seems there’s little rhyme or reason to what goes on, viewed from our limited perspectives. That’s why it helps to have faith in something greater than yourself, in hopes of making sense of it all. For instance, I believe my spirit has remained on this plane because I retain a purpose that can only be accomplished here. I don’t know what His plan is, but I have faith there is one.”

I struggled to find the words I needed to express myself properly, but they just wouldn’t come. The Father put a hand on my shoulder, and even though I couldn’t feel its weight, I felt its warmth.

“Here, let me put it another way. In life, everyone makes their own decisions, whether conscious or otherwise. Actions taken based off these decisions have consequences, whether they be good or bad. The best we can do is learn how to live with the choices we make, and to work at making more good ones than bad. That’s what being human’s all about.

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