Stillborn XVI (Josh)

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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Stillborn XV (Paige)

XV - Paige

 The fog didn’t seem so thick outside the department store.  It was still there, of course, rolling along the street, turning the buildings on the other side into monuments to shapelessness, but no longer did it seem so threatening.  There could be no fog monsters hidden within and for that she was profoundly grateful.  The air seemed colder, however, and she suppressed a shiver as she stepped out of the relative shelter of the store front and back onto James Street.

 “If this was any other night,” Henry said, glancing up at the sky they could not see, “I’d say it was going to snow.  Tonight?” he shrugged, “best not to think of it I suppose.”

 Paige nodded, then reached for Charlie’s hand as he walked past her.  The boy accepted the offer straight away and, as the cold seemed to set in to all of them, he huddled closer.

 “What’s the easiest way to the Kirk, then?” Paige asked, staring up at the shopping centre which marked the end of the street.  It was strange to see it at night without any lights on.  Strange and unsettling.

"Normally I'd say through the shopping centre, but I guess that isn't open tonight."

"We could break in," Paige suggested with a casual air that shocked even her.

"I think we've done enough vandalism for one night," Henry said with a grim smile, which shifted as he added, "unless we have no choice."

"So where, then?"

"Up past the centre by the multi-storey car park entrance, I guess, then the kirkyard is just across the road."

Paige nodded and let Henry walk ahead of her as she and Charlie followed, holding each other for all the warmth they could get.  It wasn't very far to the little service alley Henry had been referring too, and though they walked past the backs of shops and a bar not known for its salubrious nature, all was quiet.  Only the wind and the fog filled the silence.

The alley itself usually stank of urine, but the cold air seemed to have supressed that somewhat.  Paige had heard rumours that prostitutes liked to hang out there and so, in some ways, this strange deserted night was almost a blessing, but even so her eyes kept flickering into every alcove, waiting for something to jump out.

As it was the walk was uneventful.  The only terrors were imagined and so they emerged onto the next street safe, only colder and with hearts pounding from anticipation.  And there, across the empty road, lay the wrought iron fence of the kirkyard, the Kirk itself only a foggy shadow beyond, but they could clearly see one or two gravestones, ancient and ornate.

"So here we are," Paige found herself saying.

"Josh is here too," Charlie added, "and he's not alone."

"How does the boy know that?" Henry asked and Paige realised she had no answer.

But he does know, she thought, so who are we about to meet in there?

Stillborn XIV (Charlie)

XIV - Charlie

            Charlie was not dreaming.  His sleep was more peaceful than it had been in a long time.  Somehow, despite all the horrors he had seen that night, he felt safer than he ever had at home and his body had given in to the need for rest.  So, when a pair of soft, cool hands began to shake him awake, he resisted at first, rolling over as much as he could in the small space of the chair and squeezing his eyes shut until he drifted back to sleep.

            “Charlie.” It was Paige’s voice, he knew.

“Charlie?”  She sounded worried and that made him feel slightly guilty for not waking up for her, but the sleep he had just left was so much better, he lay still a while longer.

“Charlie!  Josh is missing, we have to go!”  That brought him round.  He sat upright, rubbed his eyes and stared straight at Paige’s panic-stricken face.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s okay, honey, but we need to get a move on if we’re going to find him.”

“I know where he is.”

“You.. you do?”  She looked like she didn’t believe him.

Behind her Henry was rising, very slowly, from his seat and saying, “The boy has known much more than that before now, so why not?”

It was strange to hear the old man talking so much sense.

“Besides,” Henry added, “I have a fair idea myself.”

Charlie gazed past Paige and studied the old man.  He examined his slightly stooped posture, his rumpled hospital gown, details which helped to make him a ridiculous figure, the same man who had denied the evidence of his senses for most of the evening.  But then he reached his eyes and man and boy stared at each other for what seemed a long time and Charlie realised that, in this one instance at least, they were completely on the same page.

“He’s gone to the Kirk,” Charlie said, looking at Paige once more, though he could see Henry nodding in the background.

“It makes sense.  He was suddenly very keen to get there after the factory and I don’t think he’d mentioned it once before then.  Plus he seemed to know things about the cult we hadn’t yet discussed with him.  There’s something going on with that boy, you mark my words, and it’s more than likely it’s all centred on that Kirk.”

“Then we’d better get going,” Paige said, standing up, “we were all sleeping, so who knows how long ago he left us.”

Henry rubbed his hip and Charlie felt a pang of sympathy for him.

“We can take our time,” he said, drawing the gaze of both adults, “dawn is a long way off yet.”

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Stillborn XIII (Paige)

XIII - Paige

            Paige was dreaming. 

She was standing in a corridor, all alone, with a decision to make.  There were bright lights in either direction, but the section of the corridor she was in was quite dark.  One way, she knew, led to her home, to her husband and to a normal life.  The other way led to a nightclub, or somewhere like that, filled with young men who would worship her.  She couldn’t remember how she had got there, or if she had come from one direction or the other, but she knew that didn’t really matter.  The decision, of course, was which way did she go now?

            Once upon a time it would have been an easy decision.  The comforts of home weren’t really comforts at all.  Her marriage with David had always been a bit rocky.  They didn’t communicate the way a married couple should and they ended up having fierce arguments over every little thing.  There were very few apologies and there was absolutely no room for forgiveness, at least, not from Paige at any rate.  David had taken her back after several affairs, after all, but even then, Paige suspected, he had never really forgiven her.  For him it was just easier to accept her back than to lose her, regardless of the emotional turmoil and the next string of arguments.

            No, there were no home comforts and the lights of the nightclub seemed so bright and colourful.  She thought of the men there, boys compared to her, really, and how they would have so much energy.  They would all be athletic, at the peak of their physical health, and so cocksure they would approach a woman like herself with no hesitation if it meant the chance of an easy lay.  She knew she was just an object to boys like that, to boys like Josh, and whilst that could never really satisfy her, it filled a gap, for a little while.

            It would have been a very easy choice once upon a time.

            But now it seemed there was something appealing about home.  She had begun to miss David during the course of the night and in the dream world her pangs had grown and grown and grown, until it felt like she was missing a part of herself.  The lights of the nightclub were just as bright as ever, but she felt shame when she thought of what went on there.  She needed to apologise, she realised.  She needed to be forgiven.

            It was not an easy decision, but she made it with one small step towards the light and the next step was a little lighter, as was the one after that and the one after that.  Soon she was walking with ease,  feeling lighter and unburdened and when the light before her resolved, not into her home, but into a church, she understood that that had been the point all-

            Paige woke up suddenly, not knowing why.  She was surrounded by the thick, velvety darkness of the department store, but her eyes were pretty well adjusted to the dark now and she could make out the lumpy shapes of Henry and Charlie on the other chairs in the room set.  She glanced over to where Josh had been sitting and saw nothing at all.

            “Josh?” she whispered, “Josh are you there?”

            There was no reply, but Henry began to stir across from her.

            “Huh?” he managed, then glanced over to Josh’s seat and added, “Where’s he gone?”

            Paige realised that she didn’t have an answer and panic began to set in once more.

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Stillborn XII (Josh)

XII - Josh

            Josh was impatient to get moving.  There seemed to be something inherently wrong with sitting around in a fake living room in a department store whilst the end of the world might be happening outside.  He knew where they needed to go.  He knew that Clara would be waiting for him there.  He had dropped his hints and now he knew he had to wait as patiently as he could, otherwise the others would get suspicious.  He had already nearly blown it by mentioning the cult directly.  He had to be careful from now on.

            But despite all that it still felt wrong to be just sitting.  He needed to move, to get closer to Clara.  An involuntary smile twitched at the corner of his mouth as he thought of what they had done together in the factory.  He let his mind wander for a moment, then reigned it in as he felt his body stirring in response.  He didn’t want to give himself away that way either.

            And so they sat, mostly in silence, just Paige and him sharing the occasional word, whilst Henry dozed and Charlie fell asleep all curled up on a striped sofa that looked like it belonged in some old T.V. show.  Eventually Paige began to drift off as well, but Josh couldn’t.  He was too alive to be falling asleep, too anxious and excited.

            He sat for a while on his own, watching the others take their rest and he wondered why he needed them to go with him at all.  Clara had wanted them, sure, but they weren’t really necessary, were they?  She would understand if he came to her alone, wouldn’t she?  The thought of being alone with her again got his pulse racing once more and only made him more anxious to be moving.

            At last, when the excitement got too much, he stood up, walked carefully around his sleeping companions, and made his way to the stairwell.  When he was sure that none of them had woken up he picked up his pace and bit and then dashed down the steps towards the ground floor and the streets beyond.  His destination was so close he could almost taste it, but it was Clara he wanted to taste and it wouldn’t be long now.  Not long at all.

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Brief Pause

I shall be away this weekend from Thursday evening and, as a consequence, I'll probably not have a chance to finish Friday's update, so I hope you'll bear with me and join me again for the next part on Monday.

Thank you for Reading,

God Bless,

Chris.

Stillborn XI (Henry)

XI - Henry

            They found the furniture department without too much difficulty, although with no lighting, no lifts and no escalators, Henry began to regret his suggestion about halfway up to the fourth floor.

He had never been fond of department stores and liked them even less since Irene died.  Having no reason to be dragged around looking at ladies’ clothes, crockery and curtains, he found it easiest just to avoid altogether.  Despite this, he was surprised by how much he remembered of the store’s old layout and noted with interest and occasional frustration  those areas which seemed to be in the same place and those which had moved since his last visit.  Fortunately furniture wasn’t one of them.

They made their way over to a comfortable looking roomset and Henry dropped into an armchair which looked like it had been made for him.  It was soft and hard in all the right places and taking the weight off his bruised and battered hip worked wonders for his mood.  Josh and Paige found spots on a matching sofa and Charlie curled up in an accent armchair which, in Henry’s opinion, didn’t look like it belonged at all, even in the dark.

“How long do you need to rest?” Josh asked after a moment’s silence.

“I don’t know,” Henry replied honestly enough, “fifteen minutes?  Half an hour?  Longer?”

“We shouldn’t stay too long,” the youth replied.  He sounded impatient, but then the young often were.

“Why?” Paige asked, “Do you have somewhere you need to be?”

“No,” Josh replied, a little too quickly, “but every time we go to a place and stick around something bad happens.  I’d like to leave here before the mannequins come to life or we get attacked by some sort of escalator monster.”

“Ghosts,” Henry said, musing.

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s ghosts you should be worrying about here.  Have you never heard the stories of the haunted department store?”

“No.” Josh replied doubtfully.

“Neither have I,” Paige added, “what did they say?”

“Oh, just that there were cold patches in the older parts of the store sometimes and that, at night, the CCTV cameras would pick up movement in the fashion aisles, clothes rippling in breezes that could never have been there.  That sort of thing.  All nonsense of course.”

“Of course,” Paige replied, but Henry saw her shiver slightly and he tried to suppress a laugh.  It would not be kind, he knew, but the susceptibility of the young never ceased to amaze him.

“Where should we head after this?” Paige asked.

“I have no idea,” Henry replied, “I’m not really sure there’s anywhere we can go.”

“Well, where would this cult  you mentioned be?”

“They could be anywhere these days.  You heard the prayed in the factory – they’ve probably used half the buildings in the city as their chapels and cathedrals over the years.”

“Yeah, but, I bet that, given the chance, they would want to use something more significant than that.”  Josh said.

“What do you know about them?”  Paige asked, suddenly turning towards the young man, “You didn’t mention anything to him at any point did you Henry?” she glanced his way, then shook her head, “No, we haven’t been apart since we left the factory.”

“I must have overheard something, then,” Josh replied awkwardly.

Henry tried to think if he would have had the opportunity, but then shook his head.  There was no point trying to fathom out things like that, and why else would the boy know?

“So where do you think they’d be?” he asked instead.

“If I were one of them I’d head right for the heart, to the old city kirk, right in the middle of everything .”

“Perhaps we should try there, then,” Paige agreed, “maybe we can stop all this?”

Henry shifted in his chair and agreed.  “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

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