(Short Story) Dread

1

“And that concludes today’s service. Thank you all for coming, I look forward to seeing you all next week. God bless you.” Pastor Williams said the same closing words he had said for the past thirty years of preaching at this congregation.

Simon stood up and stretched, two hours of sitting in church took its toll on a person. Simon despised going to church on Sundays, but his wife Alyssa insists on going every week. He tried to fight it, but he decided that maybe there was a better hill to die on than two hours of his Sunday being wasted.

What was worse is that she insisted on bringing Alex, their child, to church every week. Not only did Simon waste two hours of his life, he spent those two hours embarrassed, trying to calm a crying baby with everyone staring at him.

As they started towards the exit, they heard Pastor Williams running to catch up with them.

“Alyssa, Simon, I need to speak with you immediately. Do you have a few minutes?” the Pastor spoke in a gravely serious tone that told them that it really didn’t matter if they had time or not, they needed to speak with him.

“Of course, what is this about?” Alyssa asked, clearly worried.

The pastors tone lightened. “It’s regarding Alex and the other church goers, don’t worry, it’s nothing too serious. Let’s step into my office.”

They followed the pastor to his office. Simon was preparing, he was confident that the pastor was going to ask them to stop attending church there. Or at the very least ask them to find a sitter for Alex.

2

The pastor’s office was what you would expect, a small, modest room. A desk, a bookshelf, a lot of crucifixes, and pictures of Jesus Christ. And oddly everything was covered in dust, the room had a musty smell that was a mix of old people, and death. On his desk was a statue of an angel that looked strange, almost devilish. There were two ornate chairs in front of the desk that were also covered in dust. Odd.

“Please, have a seat. Before we start, I would like to perform a ‘test’ of sorts on your child.” Said the pastor.

“What kind of test? What is this about? I promise we’ll do everything we can to keep him calm and quiet during church service! I promise, please, please don’t kick us out. Please!” Alyssa said franticly, on the verge of tears.

“You are fine, I am not asking you to leave this congregation. Everybody loves having baby Alex around. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.” Said the pastor, trying to soothe Alyssa.

“You said something about a test?” Simon asked nervously.

“I did, I just need you to dip one of Alex’s tiny little fingers into this cup of water. Before you ask, no, it’s not holy water. I know how much you hate the idea of baptizing him Simon.”

The couple looked at each other, clearly confused by Pastor Williams curious request. But they figured that nothing truly awful could come from a harmless cup of water.

They do as the pastor asked, they dipped his hand in the water. Nothing happened.

“I have a confession; the water was actually holy water. I just wanted to make sure your child wasn’t burnt by the water. You know, since he is so devilishly handsome.”

The couple chuckled nervously, obviously uncomfortable with the joke.

“In all seriousness, I must ask that you do your best to keep your son quiet during service. If you can’t, might I suggest stepping outside with him for a moment while he calms down.”

Simon loved that idea, any chance to get out of church he would gladly take.

“Of course, we will try our best.” Said Alyssa. “Again, I am so sorry, I just want to get him exposed to religion early.”

“No need to be sorry, I think it’s great what you are doing. You two should get going and have a blessed day.”

“And a blessed day to you.” Chimed Alyssa.

As they were walking away, Simon couldn’t help himself.

“What the hell was that about?” Simon asked in a hushed tone. “What is wrong with that man? He had us dip Alex’s finger in water, as a joke? What a weirdo.”

This offended Alyssa. “Don’t you dare speak ill of a man of God, especially not while were still in the church.”

As the young couple left, the pastor chuckled to himself. Ah, the sweet ignorance of youth. He closed his office door and sat down at his desk. He glanced over at the chalice of water, it had turned crimson red. The color of blood. He reached for the cup and took a sip. He coughed a bit and thought to himself.

Yup, that is some strong wine.

3

It was the next Sunday, and Alex was pissed. He was being much louder than normal, screaming, and crying during service. Simon tried everything to soothe him, yet nothing was working. Something was clearly wrong with the child. Simon was in a hurry to leave; he was so embarrassed.

Pastor Williams called to them “Alyssa, Simon. Can I speak with you privately for a moment?”

As they were walking to his office, Alyssa was panicking. We’re screwed, he’s banning us for sure. What are we going to do? I don’t want to go to just any church, I’ve been attending this church since I was a child. I know everyone here. This can’t be happening.”

Simon stopped her. “Relax, seriously, you need to calm down. If push comes to shove, we can start hiring a babysitter. Or, you know, I could stay home with Alex. I would hate it, but I’m willing to take one for the team.

They stepped into his office; this visit he was much less patient.

“We don’t have much time. There’s something you need to know about your child. He…”

There was a loud bang, sounds of glass breaking and screams coming from the main church hall. The pastor sprang to the door, flung it open. And the sight that unfolded before their eyes was one straight out of a nightmare. Demon like creature were flooding into the church and attacking the church goers. Mrs. Johnson tried to run away but was picked up by two red flying creatures and was then ripped in half. A chubby green demon bit Mr. Flannigan’s head clean off.

“Oh no, oh no, I thought we had more time.” Pastor Williams was panicking, but he managed to regain his composure. “No matter.”

The pastor grabbed Simon and Alyssa and rushed towards his desk. He removed the head on the angel demon statue and slapped a button on the neck. The bookcase slid to the side revealing a pitch-black stone passageway.

“This leads to a small shack about a mile from here, get as far away from this town as you can. I’ll stay and try to buy to some time. And whatever you do, keep your child safe.”

Alyssa tried to argue but Pastor Williams shoved them in and slammed the button again, closing the entryway.

4

Immediately they were greeted by a large flight of stairs, after that a long, dark tunnel. All they had for light was her phone. After running for what felt like forever but was only a few minutes. Alyssa, Simon, and Alex entered a large, dimly lit room. The room was lit with candles. Even though the room looked as if it had no been inhabited for years, it was lit by candles, odd.

This dimly lit room looked remarkably similar to the church hall, but yet, it had no windows or pews to sit in. It was simply a large, beautiful hall with a large stage at the end.

On the stage there was marble structure in the shape of a ring, they had no idea what it was, but it was the closest looking thing to an exit they could see.

Simon had stopped to catch his breathe.

“Hurry up, it can’t be that much farther, we just got to go through that door up on the stage.” Alyssa urged her husband to move. “If you need me to, I can carry Alex.”

“I’m fine.” Simon struggling to put on a smile. “Just needed to catch my breath is all…Let’s go”

As they approached what they thought was the way out, they soon began to realize that it was not marble, stone, or any material they were used to seeing. As they got closer, they started to smell something foul, something horrific.

“What the he…” Alyssa stammered. “Is that what I think it is.”

It was, upon closer inspection, the large ring they thought may have been marble was built with bone, skin, muscle and even blood. Despite it being made from the materials it was it was not the source of the foul smell, because for some reason none of the flesh had begun to decay.

Alyssa noticed something out of the corner of her eye, someone sitting in a chair in a side room on the stage.

“Hello? she said this as more of a question than a greeting. She walked towards the person, who made no effort to stand up or respond. As she got closer and shined her light on the person, she realized that it was a rotten decaying corpse. Despite the decay, she could see that he was dressed like Pastor Williams.

“Uhhh, hun.” Simon called. “This isn’t the way out.”

5

“Oh, but it is my friend.” A familiar voice called from behind them. “Just not for you.”

Alyssa and Simon turned to see Pastor Williams standing at the entrance to the hall. Alyssa turned back to the side room, and there he was, throat slashed and all.

“I see you’ve found the good pastor, well, I guess I don’t have to wear this anymore. “ As the supposed pastor said this he reached and grabbed the top of his head. With a sudden jerking motion, he ripped off his skin. What was underneath was not the muscles and organs you would expect to see. But a crimson red body with pure black armor. He had horns on his head, wings sticking out from the armor, and a tail to top all of that off.

“Uhhh, Pastor Williams…” Alyssa could barely speak.

“Don’t call me that, Pastor Williams is that sack of mush in that room over there. My name is Delgar, I am Satan’s right hand man.”

“This can’t be happening, Satan isn’t real, God isn’t real. None of this is real, none of it.” Simon was trying to talk himself down, he in a panic.

“Now.” In an instant, the man that had been Pastor Williams disappeared, then reappeared behind them. “Let’s discuss the fate of your child.”

Immediately Simon put Alex into Alyssa’s hands and stood in front of them to protect them.

“You’re not going anywhere near my child.” Simon said in the most intimidating voice that he could muster. He attacked the demon head on.

In one quick motion the demon plunged his hand into Simon’s chest and ripped out his heart. He then picked him and flung him across the hall. Simon hit the wall with a sickening *splat* noise and stuck to the wall.

“Now, give me your child.” Delgar said in a strangely calm manner.

“What do you want with my child? What is wrong with you?”

The demon paused, thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, but since I’ll probably end up killing you, I may as well tell you why.” “You see, your child isn’t just any ordinary child.”

“Isn’t ordinary? What do y…”

“BE QUIET!” the demon shouted, it echoed through the hall. “Anyways, your child is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. You know, water into wine, cure the blind and what not. Yeah, this baby will grow up to be him. When he does, the end of the world will happen, and Gods big plan will come to fruition. Another war between Heaven and Hell will commence and Hell will more than likely lose.”

“Good, screw you.” Alyssa said. She than spit at him venomously.

“Yes, ok. So, the plan is to take his mortal form to hell, keep it alive for eighty or so years. Torture it, then we will inevitably kill him, thus postponing God’s plan to end the earth and squash Heaven for a century or so.”

“How did you know he would be born here, in this town?” Alyssa asked.

“I’m glad you asked me that, nobody has asked me that before. You see, this isn’t the first time we have done this, well, it is mine, but this has been done before. We have been screwing God’s plan over for the past thousand years or so. We have setups like this in most churches, most of the priests in churches are in fact demons in disguise.” “Now, for the fun part.”

The demon took a large dagger out from its holster and cut his palm and tossed the dagger aside. He then pressed his hand onto the altar that stood in front of the giant ring. The giant ring of flesh started to glow red and through it the shadow of a hand was visible. This hand was massive, it wasn’t even fully visible as it was larger than the ring itself.

“This is a portal to hell; it is how we will take Jesus’ mortal form to hell.”

“Did you find him?” a bellowing voice boomed through the portal. It shook the room and nearly blew Alyssa and Alex off the stage.

“Yup, just gotta kill the mom and…” The demon turned to see that Alyssa was holding the dagger to baby Alex’s throat.

“You wouldn’t.” Delgar said, almost daring her to do it. “He’s your child, and he is the lord baby Jesus. No, aren’t going to kill him. Now, stop being stupid and give him to me.”

“NO!” Alyssa screamed at the top of her lungs. “He may be my son, but this is my duty as a faithful Christian. It must be done.”

She began to press the blade deeper into the child’s neck. Delgar teleported behind her and placed his hands on her chin and the back of her neck. He was ready to snap her neck, but it was too late. The deed was done. She had cut baby Alex’s throat.
Delgar let go of her and in a rage shouted “YOU STUPID BITCH! (not sure if I want to keep that, might be a little inappropriate for school) LOOK A WHAT YOU’VE DONE!

As the child died, he looked upon his crying mother and spoke to her in a deep voice. “Thank you, my child, you have done well. Heaven will accept you with open, loving arms.”

Alyssa was still in tears, but she laid the baby on the floor and turned Delgar, who look very unhappy.

“It looks like you’re going back to hell empty handed.” Alyssa gloated triumphantly.

“No, not empty handed.” He reached over and picked her up by her shirt. “You may be going to Heaven, but I can at least guarantee it won’t happen for a few decades. That’ll be enough time to torture a lesson into you.”

Suddenly Alyssa didn’t feel so triumphant. How had she gone from victor to loser so quick?

She wriggled her way out of his grasp and tried to run. Delgar whacked her on the back of the head and she dropped to the floor.

“NOOOOOOOOO! HEEEELP!” She screamed so hard her throat started to bleed.

“Nobody can hear you.” Delgar said as he grabbed her by the foot and drug her towards the portal.

She screamed the whole way there, scratching at the floor leaving a trail of scratch marks and blood to the portal. He stepped into the portal and drug her into hell, the portal closed behind them.

She was screwed.

The End