Thirty minutes have passed and Kayla finally finished her confession somehow, though she was fidgeting around right now wondering what to do next. I told her to go kneel somewhere and continue praying while waiting for me. She rolled her eyes at me, still she obediently went to do exactly what I told her.
I softly gazed at her as she reminded a lot like a younger sister to me. As I bent down towards the confessional screen, I accidently made eye contact with the priest who was sitting on the other side. Chills streamed down my spine as I looked at him. Was that thing even a person? Did Kayla not see the priest's face?
His supposedly face looked like that of a rotting corpse, the eyes were blood shot, yet he was wearing a purple stole along with the cassock. Words were not coming out of my mouth as I was still processing from the shock. I closed my eyes as soon as he raised his hands as a sign for me to proceed, and that most likely, would temporarily help with my anxiety. The voice of the priest sounded very normal compared to his half burned half decomposed face, I could not tell how old he was. As soon as I received the blessing and penance, I got up from my position and walked as fast as I can toward the farthest corner of the church where Kayla was currently sitting. Just then, my breath hitched when I saw Kayla holding my arm from behind while another Kayla was seated right in front of me.
I could not tell which one was real or dupe. Maybe if I had known her for longer, I should be able to tell them apart. So I decided to trust my intuition and pick the one who was clinging to my arm but something told me I was going to be wrong because the Kayla in front of me looked both hurt and worried. All of a sudden, the Kayla behind me transformed into that priest from earlier, just when I thought I got away from him, he hugged me from the back. My whole body was shaking out of fear. What was going on now? I wish he would just let me go.
The Kayla in front shouted out my name loud eventually falling down as the trellising strings from the compound dragged her down to her feet. I struggled to inhale because he was tightly squeezing me and the infectious looking snot was touching my nape too. When his fingers went down my shirt to grab my locket, I channeled all my strength and turned around only for me to fall down on my knees at the sight I just got to see. He had the face of my lover who I killed on a whim of helplessness. Was this the priest's way of tormenting me... to poke at my unburied memories after confessing all my sins. I kept crying and apologizing asking for his forgiveness to finally leave me alone and that I lived with guilt all these years.
This experience was nearly equivalent to hell for Alexander. He was crouching and had both his head and hands faced straight to the ground. The priest noticed that and left something near him and disappeared. Kayla rushed to help Alex stand up and noticed it was a couples' ring the priest left. She had no idea what has happened and asked him with a light chuckle.
"I see the priest has a crush on you?"
"Don't say things like that in a place like here."
"Why? Is the god homophobic or something."
"Can you stop talking for a sec. I almost thought I was going to die from a panic attack."
They both sat on a bench next waiting for the mass to start but Alexander had all kinds of spiraling thoughts in his mind. He thought he lost the ring ages ago but out of nowhere, a nobody priest, more like an extra character from the novel he randomly read brought it for him right after he confessed about his involvement in his boyfriend's murder. But that was one among the strangest things that have happened in his entire 28 years of life.
"Have you take a close look at his face just now, Kayla?"
"For what? He is just an average old man, isn't he?"
Alexander was absolutely shocked by her words. Huh??? She couldn't see what I saw???
A few ghoul-like creatures dressed like nuns were floating nearby waiting for us to lose our patience and fight them but we had no business to do that. The only task left for us both was just to stay till the lithurgy ended and receive the holy qurbuna. Nothing would get in the way of us, I hoped.
"There is literally no one here to witness the beauty of this building except us. What a waste."
"I am thinking whether we were the only ones who were transported to this game."
"Game?"
"Isn't this development straight out of a video game lol? Ancient, western styled creepy church isolated in the woods.. and to top it all, a suspicious priest just vanished into thin air and a weird group of people even tricked us into getting here. It is almost time for halloween. Maybe we could be the participants of a hidden talent show. We might be even watched now. Who knows?
"Hahaha, what if we are stuck together in a dream instead."
"Hmm, impossible. Anyway, keep quiet. Don't disrespect the god while the mass is still going on. We really don't want to anger the spirits."
Alexander nodded and kept thinking about all the adversities they were about to face starting forward. He really needed to pay attention from now on because the mission difficulty was definitely going to get harder. He wished his phone worked right now so he could keep notes in his digital diary about all the important details from the novel. He now regretted very much for burning down the book. He should have kept it with him and carried along everywhere.
While Alex was in his head, Kayla was focusing in the present. She really didn't want to break any rules.
Exactly at that moment, she heard whispers from the balcony and she wished she didn't looked up, because a woman waved at her. Her face was painted white with corners of her eyes drawn beautifully in pink decorations. It almost looked like she was wearing phlox flowers. Kayla ignored her by continuing to keep her eyes at the altar but the woman actually got really mad and she jumped vertically down while breaking all her bones leaving Kayla extremely jittering.