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This place was terrifying. The images depicted in the colourful windows felt like they should be lighthearted but they told a daunting story. A man wept with a crown of thorns atop his head. It felt far too morbid for the bright blues and yellow cut pieces of glass that surrounded him. My eyes roamed over everything, sitting in the middle of a bench Lulu had called a pew. Catalina sat on my right, her hand wrapped around mine as Eden sat on my left, huffing. Her arms crossed over her chest as she slumped back, clearly annoyed with the activity.
After days in bed, the women — this time Abuela and Gran — had arrived to tell Eden it was time to go to church. She had resisted but I admitted to wanting to see the house of the author of the lord book she had used as a weapon. So here we were.
“It’s nice, right?” Abuela said to me in what Eden told me was Spanish. It was a beautiful language and I preferred it when she used this one. It suited her.
My nose curled as my gaze settled on the massive cross with a man hanging from it. “The decor is… interesting.” Why did people think this was normal? I had been to the most depraved demon’s home and had never seen someone mounted in such a fashion. “This is the author of the lord book?”
Her eyes lifted. “That’s the lord. Jesus Christ.” She pressed fingers to her forehead, chest, and each shoulder before she bowed her head.
“And they mounted him because the book was boring?”
Eden snorted beside me before Catalina hit her with an icy stare. She cleared her throat, straightening in the pew.
“He died for our sins,” she clarified. It did nothing to help me understand.
“Whose sins?”
“Everyone’s.” She smiled lightly, patting the top of my hand.
My nod was slow as I worked this information through my mind. “And so you keep him there as a trophy to remind others that you will gladly sacrifice them for your sins as well?”
Her face showed me she wasn’t happy with my words.
Eden leaned her face into my shoulder. “She’s going to hit you,” she warned.
“Why? This is all very confusing.” I didn’t understand. What other reason would you have to hang up your sacrifice if not to warn others what you were capable of? It was a threat. One to show your power.
I looked past her to Sarika who shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I don’t really get it either.”
A man in a robe appeared under the lord man. He held his arms out as he addressed everyone in the church. Everyone stood and Catalina tried to pull me to my feet. It happened so quickly, the sound startling.
“What is this? What is happening?” I shook Catalina’s hand free and moved to stand in front of Eden, my hackles rising.
“In the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit,” the man called out.
“Amen,” everyone replied in unison.
I jumped. “What is this conjuring?”
Eden covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hide her amusement. I felt it in my chest. Light and wonderful.
“The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all,” he continued.
“And also with you,” everyone replied.
I held my fists up, prepared. I would fight them all. They wouldn’t catch me unaware with their ritual. “We must leave,” I hissed. “They have all lost their senses.”
“Hush,” Abuela chastised.
I had seen this before, I realized. Horror moved through me as I dropped my gaze to Eden trying my best not to judge her. “You are part of a cult?” Who was I to deny my wife her past times? If she wanted to be a part of a cult, that was her decision. Still…
Sarika rolled her lips behind her teeth as Eden’s lips pursed tightly. I couldn’t see the humour.
“God forgives us for all the things we do bad, so together we pray,” the holy man continued.
“I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters that I have sinned through my own fault in my thoughts, and in my words in what I have done, and what I have failed to do, and I ask the Blessed Mary, ever virgin, and all the angels and saints and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord, our God.”
I did not like this. Everyone spoke as one mind. Rehearsed words that echoed through the church in eerie tonelessness. It took me back to other summonings. Where I was greeted with robes and torchlight and cruel intentions.
