Thanks for the strong response. I really do appreciate everything you do for me. It gives me something to look forward too. Please keep up the strong responses!
The night had grown cold while I was inside. It was past time to find a place to spend the evening. Pulling my coat up closer around my body I started navigating the now deserted streets. I knew where I was headed now. It was Tuesday night and I had an appointment to keep. I had promised him I would return soon.
My feet brought me to the Church of Cross and Crown and I stopped at the entrance for a long moment with my hand held out. It was probably just old cautions taking hold again, it was stupid of me to hesitate there but I did in memory of the days of old. I still remember when paladins would attack any demon who dared step onto hallowed ground. I also remember when humans had faith so strong it hurt to stand in their presence. Those days were over I thought with a sigh and started across the grass.
The grounds were well kept and beautiful. For a people who no longer believed in their stories they certainly held them in high respect. The first place I headed was the church itself walking to the doors and finding them locked tight. Slowly I turned around looking for people. There was a light in what I guessed was normally used as a Sunday School class room and I let my steps carry me there.
I found the room already filled and I was the last to arrive. I wish I could honestly claim I had done this intentionally, I could tell by a nervous pang that the priest, an elderly black man named Father Jayes thought I had. The room had frozen at my entrance, all eyes focused on me in confusion and welcome. "Hello again." I said breaking the stasis.
"Hello again." Father Jayes responded quickly as if trying to keep me placated. I took my seat silently and then looked around the room. There was an elderly couple strong of bond and stronger of faith sitting to my right hand in hand. They were happy together and even more that others came to share their faith. Understand that I can only guess what it really was, I don't know what faith feels like. I know who God is and it takes most of the fun out of faith when you know. What I felt from them was the same feeling I remember from the clergy and their warriors. A firm solid feeling rooted in nothing, a desire to connect the unnconneted. Another of the beautiful things that only a human mind is capable of.
To my left sat William Thorn. I knew him from his relations to Shinku as a student. I hadn't known of his ties to the church. I let my eyes linger a little longer on him than I should and caught his challenging gaze quickly. He didn't know who I was or what I was, if he had I think he would have attacked me on the spot. Even without that knowledge I know he felt something. He was curious and his power began to gather beneath the surface before I looked away.
Opposite William sat a woman with her child. Her name was Shiri I quickly gathered from the thoughts of those around me. It's amazing how many answers you get just by turning your eyes. Sometimes I think that humans have started to learn their powers, then I remember it's just a reflex. All intelligent beings communicate mind to mind. They only speak because it's easier. It's nothing special, nothing sacred, not a gift of God or curse from the Devil. Every thinking sentient being can do it.
She had her child out of wedlock and now attended the Church regularly. Scared straight, more like scared stupid in my opinion but it wasn't asked, not aloud anyway. Another woman sat next to her, she must have been of little importance, nobody much thought of her so my eyes moved to he was opposite me.
Father Nigel Azi Jayes was the man sitting opposite of me. He was the only reason I had really come tonight and he was excited to see me. In reality agitated at my presence might be closer to what he actually felt. He was dressed conservatively in light blue dress shirt and black slacks. His Crucifix hung outside his shirt on a slender golden chain.
"Let us start." I knew he was pausing before he did so I nodded to urge him on. I don't know if he saw it but he did continue speaking. "Today we are going to study Luke 8:27 through :33." Each of the others present had a Bible before them, some like the old couple had brought their own but most were using the provided. In front of me sat no Bible, which I realized was probably the reason it was the only remaining seat. I looked from left to right searching for an unguarded book and found none.
I felt her physically before I sensed her and it gave me a jump I'm sure they all noticed. It was just a little girl, Shiri's daughter struggling to hold a Bible over her head in her tiny hands. My first impulse was to pick her up in my arms and hold her close for as long as I could. I wanted to whisper her name to her, though she had never heard it before and wasn't likely to hear it ever again. Her name was Feylina, I know because when she was born for the first time two hundred years ago I was her father. I can hear angels gasp even when they are concealed from human eyes.
My second impulse was absolute terror that I couldn't hold her. She wasn't mine in this life, she had been taken from me and would never be mine again. I snatched the Book a little rougher than I had intended and then shooed her off. I couldn't stand her presence. Quickly I started looking through the Bible for the mentioned verses.
I felt Father Jayes's pleasure and fear mingle into something bittersweet and pungent as my eyes sped over the verses in question. It was my story, when I had met the Christ, it hadn't taken Nigel long at all to find that verse. I didn't have time to think of the possibilities of what this could mean before he started speaking again.
"I chose this verse this week for several reasons. First I chose it because I had a personal experience that left me in need of comfort. I needed to be reminded that God cares for all of his children. The second reason I chose this verse was because we concentrate so much on the Death that sometimes we forget that The Lord Jesus Christ did things with his life and this is just one of them." He said. I adjusted slightly in my seat to keep Feylina in my sight. She was called Lulu now. I watched her tiny fingers trace the lines of text on the page in imitation of the rest of us. I think I felt a tear in my eye.
"I will start with the first verse then each of you in turn will read starting ay my left." Father Jayes said. "If you do not wish to read you may pass to the next." I don't know if he expected me to read, but I didn't. He may have been waiting for me to add my own knowledge to the tale, I don't know if he suspected he was actually speaking to Legion. I know his eyes rested heavily on me and he had a feeling of pleasure when I skipped on reading. I wonder if he put some special significance to my not reading.
"Now this is just a single example of the Lord's power to banish evil from our world and from our lives." Father Jayes said. "But before I start telling you how I think I would like to hear what your opinions are." I knew my opinion. I was tricked. Well I made a mistake. He didn't do anything but I spent one thousand six hundred fifty two years two hundred eleven days paying for that mistake so I'm a little bitter.
"I think it shows that the power of good triumphs over evil." Shiri said in the timid voice of uncertainty. It certainly showed that someone not in their right minds make poor decisions.
"Yes it shows that but what does it show about Jesus specifically?" Father Jayes prompted. I knew what he wanted to hear, it was close enough to true as well I answered him.
"It shows that Jesus had mercy even on his worst enemies. He would never kill, not even those who would kill him." I said sullenly. "He was prepared even then to give his life to his enemies." He had given me a chance to kill him right then. If I had wanted to do so I could have ended it.
Nigel nodded sagely but there was a frown in his heart that gave me a new strength. I was trying hard not to feed on him but his feelings were just so rich that I had to let it fill me if only for a minute. "Yes that is it. See Jesus was completely selfless, his greatest concern was not his own happiness but that of those around him." He said. What's even worse is that he believed that. In reality the Christ was tempting death, what a victory it would have been to be revived after falling against a demon. If I hadn't been so busy feeding my ego things might have changed. Being crucified made him into The Martyr if I'd killed him he probably would have been forgotten. Yeah I'm very bitter about that. Very bitter.
I could see it as if it was happening again in my mind. The way we had begged for his mercy and had it granted. Feeling of being spread out throughout the swine. There were already hundreds of us at that time. Voices screaming in his mind to work our will and driving him and ourselves insane in the process. Together were too much for a man to control since we had yet to unite into a single consciousness. Separately we couldn't even guide a pig to grass. I died that day and I went to Hell not for my sins but for my failures.
Satan tortured us from the moment we entered his realm for every time we had denied him. The punishments were meant to fit the crimes, I think payback's a bitch rings truer. He visited things against us that had never been committed before.
I came back to reality when I saw the room was empty other than Nigel, his wife Jenna and their child Jayzen.
"Why did you choose that verse?" I asked still shaking away the visions playing behind my eyelids.
"Seemed appropriate." Father Jayes replied. He was scared again, just a nagging fear at the moment but it was growing. It leapt when I slammed the Bible shut before me. I think he would have run if he hadn't had his wife and child in the room. His heart was racing and his muscles tensed, there was also his delicious fear filling me and seeping into every inch of my being. "Jenna, take Jayzen and get out."
I growled sharply under my breath but when I spoke again my voice was smooth and even. "I do not understand why you still think of me as a threat. I have done nothing." Jenna had clutched her child close to her breast trying to keep the babe from looking at me. For his part Jayzen was squirming and wriggling against her to get another look at me, giggling happily the whole time. I winced slightly at the pain from the child's pure joy. Children.
