Tony and Nick stood at Church, the large heavy oaken doors directly in front of them. They, along with Laurent and Ray, had biked over from the School. Ray had stopped down the wide, unpaved roadway just as the stone walls of the church had come into sight, refusing to go any further. Laurent had been left at the locked Iron gates fronting the Church, where he would be able to see directly the front doors, and watch for Tony and Nick to come out....That was, if they were able to get inside at all. Tony and Nick left their bikes there and headed around through the Graveyard gates. Traversing the Graveyard, they hopped over the stone wall behind the Church where the section of Iron fencing was missing.
Nick commented in a low voice how everything seemed the same as the last time he had been here with Laurent, except for one thing....It was strangely quiet. There was no chanting coming from the Church like last time. In fact, it was eerily quiet. No bird or animal sounds issued from the woods that circled around the Church and Graveyard. When the two boys reached the front doors of the Church, Nick had attempted to do what he and Laurent had done before, push and pull on the heavy doors. Like before, they refused to budge.
“I wonder how those Government Men got inside to find that kid”, Nick muttered, referring to Kurt.
“I don’t know”, Tony said in a low voice, “I never heard how. Only that they got in.” He stepped closer to the doors, and raised his fist. “Here goes nothing”, he said tersely, and banged out the Devil’s Code on the doors with his fist, six sharp blows, then six more, and six more. Tony stepped back, and as he did, a muffled ‘CHINK’ was heard. The heavy doors went into action then, opening slowly inward.
A blast of cold air suddenly rushed out, chilling the boys in more ways than one. Tony had been prepared for this, and both he and Nick were wearing jackets, which had been uncomfortable in the July heat. At the same time, clouds scudded over the sun, reducing the amount of light to about half of what it had been.
Peering inside in Church, both boys could just make out the shapes of objects from the dim reddish light that filtered in through the stained glass windows. Tony glanced at Nick and nodded. They had both packed flashlights, and they took them from their pockets now. Moving even with the open doors, they shined them into the interior, then moved forward from the foyer.
The darker shapes before them were pews, they saw, lined up in rows to the left and right of them. But the one thing that stood out to Tony was the Candles...Hundreds and hundreds of burnt-out candles, on the walls, on the Alter, and in multiple Floor Candelabras. The smell of stale Candle Wax hung heavy in the chill air.
Hideous Gargoyle figures lined the walls, four on each side, set upward toward the ceiling. Large Pentagrams were placed above them. “Eight”, Nick commented suddenly, making Tony jump. “Laid on it’s side, the symbol for Infinity.” Nick moved his flashlight to shine on the distant Alter at the rear of the Church. There were three Pentagrams there, one to the left, one to the right, and one set in the center, above the others. “Three”, Nick said softly, “The number of Discord.”
A chill ran through Tony. “How do you know so much about that ?”
“There was a lot of Cults in L.A.”, Nick answered. “I’ll tell you about it sometime.”
Tony wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. He shined his flashlight at the Alter along with Nick’s. There was something below the center Pentagram, but he couldn’t see it from this distance. The reddish glow through the stained glass windows seemed to diffuse the glow of their flashlights somewhat.
Cautiously, Tony and Nick started forward. When they were even with the back pew on the center aisle, the heavy oaken doors begin to close. Alerted by the small squeaks of the hinges, both boys turned and ran back, not wanting to get trapped.
But then a strange thing happened. Before they could reach the them, the doors stopped in their motion of closing and began re-opening again. The boys came to a halt.
“Must be....Some kind of motion sensor”, Tony said in the stillness.
“At least we can check out anytime we like”, Nick murmured.
The boys resumed their inspection of the Church, no longer fearful of being shut in. There was nothing in the back, save for some old plaques hanging on the rear walls with writing on them in a strange language. Tony played his light towards the peaked ceiling. Other than some rather ghastly painted images, there was nothing. Tony noted that there was no attic.
The boys started down the center aisle, shining their flashlights down the length of every pew on both sides, and underneath as well. There was nobody lurking there, not a single worshiper. Reaching the front pew, the two boys split and each went to the side aisles, shining their lights down them towards the rear of the Church. There was nothing there.
The only thing left to check out was the Alter. Tony and Nick approached it cautiously from each end, stepping up on to the raised platform. Instead of an enclosed Sermon Lectern, like many churches had, there was a ten-foot long Dias that spanned the center for a speaker to stand behind, a slightly raised part in the middle. The whole thing was draped in a whitish cloth. Upon closer inspection, Tony could see red fibers woven into it. Candelabras graced the length of the Dias.
The boys turned to inspect the Alter. It was mounted on what appeared to be a molded stone wall about three feet high. Between the two outer Pentagrams was a large open book. Tony could make out the title on the top of the pages as
Gospeil Of Bleezebub but the rest of the test was just so much gibberish, written in a language he couldn’t identify. Above that, and directly below the center Pentagram was an area that appeared dark until Tony shined his flashlight on it. He almost dropped his flashlight when an image revealed itself, a large upside down Cross. Nick played his flashlight over the Cross. It’s glassy surface reflected back a dark blue color, seemingly pulsing and luminescent. Taking their lights off it, it reverted back to neutral, unseen.
“The reddish light overwhelms the blue, making it seem black”, Nick spoke wonderingly.
“What do you mean ?”, Tony asked, surprised again that Nick knew stuff like that.
“The red light shift has a way of canceling the blue, making it appear dark”, Nick said, shining his flashlight back on the Cross. “I’d bet that there is a light source behind this Cross so it can be lit up during their....Services.”
Under the flashlight’s glare, the Cross resumed it’s strange pulsing color. Tony couldn’t recall seeing a blue color quite like this. It was dark and mesmerizing all at once. “It’s almost....Hypnotic....”, Tony said slowly.
Nick pulled his light off the Cross and examined the other areas of the Alter. On either side of the Cross and directly above the outer Pentagrams were two tall flat stones resembling tablets, filled with indecipherable writings. Two smaller Gargoyle figures set above them. Going around to the side of the Alter, he could see it was set against the back wall of the Church. There was no way to go behind the Alter, as there was in most Churches.
“No way back there”, Nick said, coming back to where Tony was. “Seems like this all is a bust. We’re not gonna find anything here......Tony ?”
But Tony had shone his Flashlight on the Cross once more and was staring intently at it. The Cross was encased in an outer coating of dark Brass. It presented a smooth outline that bordered the strange glass-like material of the Cross. But there was one imperfection in the Brass material that surrounded the Cross....At the very bottom (which was really the top of the upside-down Cross) a piece of the brass casing protruded out about an inch.
Tony felt as if in a trance as the pulsing blue light reflected on his eyes, but in the back of his mind an image was flashing also....That of a fist-sized rock sticking out a little ways in the tunnel, the trigger that revealed the secret opening to Jimmy’s secret cave in the mountain. His hand rose, unbidden, and he touched the protruding part with his fingers.
“Tony ?”, Nick repeated again. “Hey, you shouldn’t be touching that....”
But Tony acted like he hadn’t heard. He did more than just touch, pressing hard on the protruding Brass metal with his fingers. When enough pressure was applied, the protrusion suddenly gave way and moved back even with the rest of the metal.
A sudden whirr was heard, and a rumbling began. A section of the stone wall base of the Alter began to move backwards. Tony’s trance was broken then and he jumped back, along with Nick. The stone wall of the Alter continued to move to reveal a hole underneath.
Both boys stood by the Bias as the moving stone wall ground to a stop. Going slowly forward again, the shined their flashlights in the hole. A set of circular stone steps wound downward.
The Church had a basement. Tony and Nick looked at each other, and nodded. It seemed their search was not yet over. They moved forward and carefully descended the stairway.
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