Virginia 1947,
In the countryside of Virginia is a town filled with 4539 people, all of whom worship Christianity. The head priest of the main church in this town is named Andrew Malak. Currently, Andrew Malak was at his church. A church was passed down from generation to generation in his family. The church is called New Life Church. This name was given when the church was first established because one of his ancestors was born in the church shortly after its founding. It became a tradition for all in the Malak family to give birth naturally in the church.
The church was large in size, as over time, its original small size was expanded many times. At this moment, at least half the population of the town was in the church's main hall, as Andrew Malak and his wife, Mary Malak, were at the front of the room, and everyone stared intensely at Mary Malak on the ground with a couple of nuns surrounding her.
"AHH!" Mary Malak screamed as she held her husband's hand and pushed one last time before a small cry was heard throughout the room. One of the nuns quickly cut the umbilical cord. The nun wiped the blood from the newborn before passing the child to Andrew Malak. Andrew Malak was smiling as he grabbed his son. His happiness was knowing that his child was a male and not a female.
Andrew gave his child back to his wife as he quickly picked up a container filled with holy water and poured that water onto his child. As the water washed down on the newborn baby, the baby cried louder, clearly not enjoying what was happening. "Your name will be Noah, and you have now been baptized, joining God in your journey through life!"
Andrew said loud enough that most watching could hear, and they cheered.
Mary wiped the water from Noah's face as she decided to breastfeed her child for the first time. Andrew and all watched, but the one with the largest smile on his face at that moment was Andrew, that is, until he finally noticed his son's hair. Noah did not have a full head of hair, but he did have more than the average newborn baby, and his hair color was white as snow.
Andrew could not help the small frown that came across his face. Andrew had black hair and Mary had brown hair. He could not help but question infidelity.
Andrew stared at his wife's face; there seemed to be nothing there but innocence. Andrew shook his head as he recounted how there was no way his wife could cheat on him. Andrew and she worked at the church and were always together, either at the church or at home. There was no way that she could have cheated.
Then Andrew thought of an idea. A smile widened his face, and in front of everyone, he announced, "Our lord has blessed my child. His hair is as white and pure as snow!" Some in the crowd gasped in awe, others clapped. There were also glints of envy, but in human nature, it was a common thing that Father Andrew would ask in confessions.
Slowly, families through the family came up to wish and pray for the newborn child and congratulate Father Andrew and his wife Mary. They would offer a gift, not that that was needed, considering the vast wealth Andrew already had, but thanked them nevertheless.
Once the family was done congratulating them, they would go ahead and head out, and this happened until the last family came up. The family that came up was Andrew's best friend Jonas Rylan. He was there with his wife and his little girl.
"Can I hold him?" Jonas asked with a smile. Andrew laughed as he grabbed his child from his wife and said, "Of course. I remember when I held your little girl not so long ago." Andrew handed Noah to Jonas as his daughter hid behind her mother in shyness. "He has your nose," Jonas said, motioning to Andrew's long nose. Andrew laughed and actually felt relieved that someone noticed a resemblance to him and his son.
Jonas held him for a bit longer as they conversed with each other much longer than any other family. Jonas, after a bit, passed Noah back to Andrew, who gave his child back to his wife.
"I noticed you frowned when the Ericson family came over and talked with you. What was that about?"
Andrew frowned at the memory before he scoffed as he replied, "That family said something about my son having some disease called albino-something. They said one of their cousins has albinism, and then he said to try to be careful with him in the sunlight. That family always got on my nerves, and now they claim that my child has a disease.
They're lucky I decided to let them stay!"
Jonas looked shocked, and then understanding came to his face. "They dont deserve to come back, but I can see your heart has chosen forgiveness. This is why our lord only talks to you."
Andrew smiled, his blue eyes brightening from the compliment, but quickly dimmed when Jonas said, "Oh, by the way, we have another one." Their wives also seemed to understand the message, as Jonas's wife, Sally, suggested, "I can take Mary and Noah back to your house and wait there until you two get back."
Jonas kissed his wife's cheek. "That's a great idea, love. We should only be a couple of hours."
Mary looked at Andrew with eyes that asked for permission. "You will go with Sally and stay at their house until I get back." Mary looked around the church at all the gifts. "What about the gifts?"
"They will stay for the night. In the morning, some townsfolk and I will bring them to our house." Andrew replied. Andrew then passed his son to Sally as he and Jonas helped Mary up.
The nuns had long helped clean her up, so she was more or less ready to go, only fatigued. Andrew walked Mary to Jonas's car. Sally was ahead with her daughter in the back seat, and she was already in the front seat.
Soon after, Andrew and Jonas helped Mary into the passenger seat. Sally passed Mary her newborn son. Before they left, both men kissed their wives goodbye, promising that they would be back soon.
Andrew and Jonas went into the church and grabbed a white mask to put on that had a black cross going down the middle of it. Once ready, they went back to Jonas' car and started it, with Jonas driving and Andrew as the passenger. "Was it living in our town?" Andrew asked with venom in his voice.
Jonas shook his head. "It lived in the town over. The priest from one of the churches over there got word about it and didn't know what to do, so they had a person come out to me to tell me all the information."
"They couldn't take care of the problem themselves?" Andrew asked, not liking that this was a problem from a different town that they were taking care of.
"You know how other people are, they hate them as much as we do, but are too much of a puss-"
"LANGUAGE!" Andrew interrupted. Feeling Andrew's anger, Jonas quickly apologized.
"Anyways... They're too scared to do anything themselves." Andrew nodded at the typical response; no one had the God driven will to do what had to be done besides him and some of his church.
"Did they at least capture it?" Andrew asked with hope filling his voice. He knew that if they didn't capture it, then this could take all night, and he would rather not miss his first night with his newborn.
"Yeah, they caught it, but we have to hurry, its parents have already alerted the police," Jonas replied.
Andrew scoffed, "I'm not worried about police, I have power over many of them. I worry more about its devious abilities. Was there word on what it can do?"
Jonas smiled, "Lucky for us, it seems to be a low-level demon. They saw it light what looked like fireworks from its fingers. Easy pickings."
The inside of the car got quiet as Jonas turned into what looked like an abandoned shed with three people outside of it. They parked the car and got out of it. The three people came up to them, one with a smile, the other two with a guilty look on their faces.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you three. I'm Father Andrew, and as you already know, this is Jonas."
The two with guilty-filled faces seemed to soften their expression, thinking that what they did couldn't be so bad if even a holy priest was on their side.
The one with a smile on his face shook hands with Father Andrew as he replied, "Oh, it is very nice to meet you, Father Andrew, and you, Jonas. I've heard many things about your work in purifying the world. My name is Styles, and these two are Harry and Tom. Although we did not have the guts to purify him ourselves, we would be very grateful if we could watch and learn from you and your righteous ways."
Andrew smiled, "Of course, the three of you can stay and watch. Having more brought into our cause will help us to purify our lands of these demons hiding in human form. Speaking of which, is it in that shed, right?"
Styles nodded his head three times, confirming where Andrew and Jonas had thought they were keeping the demon.
The shed was small, and on its door was a chain with a lock.
"Will you unlock the door so we can get to work? Andrew here has a newborn waiting for him at home." Jonas said wanting to hurry the process. Styles and the other two quickly congratulated Andrew and then made their way to the shed with Andrew and Jonas following behind them.
Styles fumbles with the lock a couple of times before finally opening it up. Inside, a boy who looked about twelve years old was revealed. He had duct tape around his hands, feet, and covering his mouth. He looked up from his awkward position on the floor with tears in his eyes.
Andrew frowned. He didn't expect the demon to be so young. Andrew walked forward, bent over, and pulled the tape from the boy's mouth. "How long ago did you sign a contract with the devil?"
The boy sobbed, trying to catch his breath before he calmed down enough to say, "Please let me-"
Andrew didn't let him finish as he slapped the boy on the side of his head. Hard enough for him to feel a blistering pain, but not hard enough to knock him out.
The boy was shocked at first before more tears glistened down his face. Andrew decided to rephrase his question. "How long ago did you acquire your abilities?"
When the boy looked up at the man, all he saw was a white mask with a black cross going down it. The boy knew he was looking at a monster, and fearing to be harmed again, he quickly replied. "I got my ability about twenty days ago."
Andrew sighed as he said, "I'm sorry that your parents failed you and did not take you to church; maybe then a devil would not be in you now. But dont worry, boy, I will be sure to cleanse your soul. You will be redeemed, and at the end of it, God will surely bless you once more."
The boy felt some hope as he asked, "Once you purify me, will I be able to return home?"
Andrew nodded, "Yes, you will return home by God's side once more. Andrew then turned to the four and said, "Alright, let's get this started.
The five of them headed back to Jonas' truck, which had lots of firewood in the back, with a large cross as well. The cross was much too long for the boy, but who would have thought that the demon would be young and small this time?
They put up the cross on the ground and placed the firewood all around it. Once they were ready, Andrew went and grabbed the boy.
The boy was hopeful, that was until he saw the firewood and the wooden cross. His stomach dropped as tears that were gone reappeared. The boy tried to fight as he was yelling, "Please! Please! Just let me go! I won't tell anyone what happened! PLEASE!
Andrew dragged the boy to the cross, cutting the duct tape off him just to tie him to the cross. Andrew then backed away from the wooded area and watched for a minute as the boy tried everything to get away. Andrew even saw sparks come from his hands, but they were not strong enough to reach the rope.
Jonas was smoking a cigarette, watching the scene as well. "Light it," Andrew said. Jonas then took one more whiff before flicking the cigarette at the wood. Gasoline was applied to the wood before, so even something as small as a cigarette lit the wood on fire with ease.
The five of them stayed there and watched as the boy burned alive until he was dead. Styles was smiling while Harry had tears in his eyes, Tom looked traumatized, but Andrew and Jonas did not care as they walked back to the truck. The job was done, and they were looking forward to going home.
Harry rushed over to them before they could leave, as he said, "Can I join your organization?" Andrew merely passed a card to him and replied, "Call me in three days to make sure you have thought it through." Harry nodded three times. "Thank you, Father, I won't let you down!"
Andrew and Jonas then made their way back to their wives.
Here's the first chapter. We were lucky to meet our main protagonist in this chapter. Noah is our main character! Thoughts on this chapter? Whose your favorite character so far? Mine personally is Noah, but I can see people saying Andrew, he's quite charming!
UPDATE: This chapter has been fixed through Grammarly!