XVI - Josh
Josh stepped carefully around
the side of the great granite Kirk, all too conscious of the ice in the air and
the graves beneath his feet. He
shivered at the caress of one, the thought of the other, and moved on, seeking
a way in.
The Kirk was huge. It and its ornamental Kirkyard, which
fronted onto the High Street, dominated the city centre. Its spire was thicker and taller than any of
the other church spires in the city and its bulky sanctuary spoke of the power
and the money of men as much as it did the power and the glory of God. It was usually floodlit at night, its spire
a granite knife to cut the dark Northern skies, but it was a great black shadow
which Josh clung to as he navigated through the fog, avoiding the headstones
and graven angels which loomed out of nothingness on his other side.
The main door to the sanctuary
was locked, but that was little more than Josh had expected. Clara and her friends didn’t seem the type
to do things the easy way and certainly not the overt way. There would be another way in, he knew, a
side-door maybe, or something even less obvious than that and so he continued
around the austere granite walls. He
found it on the other side of the Kirk, a small side-door, left slightly ajar,
spilling soft, dim candle light out into the night. The door creaked alarmingly as he opened it, then, instinctively
checking that he wasn’t being watched, he stepped inside.
Josh had never been inside the
Kirk before. In truth, he had never
stepped inside the doors of any church, except possibly for his christening,
which he could hardly be held accountable for.
It was bigger than he had imagined, warmer too. The chill from outside seemed to be held at
bay by the flickering light of hundreds of candles which had been placed all
around the sanctuary, turning its granite columns and monuments into living
stone, always moving, always changing. Great stained-glass windows depicted the apostles, though Josh
didn’t know who they were. Apart from
their artfully rendered persons, however, the sanctuary seemed completely
empty.
“Hello?” Josh called out. “Is there anyone here?”
He scanned around once more,
looking for any movement or another sign of where people might be found.
“Clara?” he tried. “It’s me,
Josh. Are you here?”
A face appeared in an alcove
and Josh sighed with relief as he recognised her.
“There you are,” he said,
taking a step towards her.
“Where are the others?” she
asked in a harsh whisper. “You said you’d bring them!”
“They were all asleep and I… I
just wanted to see you.”
“But you should have brought
them!”
“I’m sure they’ll be along
soon. I think they were starting to
suspect something, but they were still planning on heading here when they were
ready. Just give it some time, okay?”
Clara shook her head. Josh was surprised by how upset she
seemed. He took another step towards
her and reach out his hand. To his surprise
Clara grabbed it fiercely and dragged him into the alcove.
“You stupid boy,” she said once
she had pulled him in close, “you better be right.”
She shoved him then, with
surprising force and he found himself hurtling towards a dark hole he hadn’t
seen before, then he was falling, down, down, into a chamber beneath the
Kirk. At first he yelped from surprise,
but when he saw what awaited him at the bottom his shout quickly turned into a
scream.
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