nov
22
2013
Teus Taekema
Author: jeroenstamgast
The Church of Doom
It was a dark night and it was raining cats and dogs. I was in a car, my friend, called Jake, was driving. He said I had to come. “My dear friend, I beg you, I really need your help. Please come, I will explain everything to you. Just come, I need you!” is what he said. I came of course, he was a very good friend, we knew each other since we were four years old. When I arrived in his house, he immediately grabbed my hands and pulled me to his car. He didn’t say anything at all, he just drove. And I hadn’t said anything until now either. “So… where are we going?” I asked him, a little nervous as it was very strange for him to be silent. He didn’t answer, he just stared forward, driving way too fast. He was very lucky this was a road with like three cars a year on it, so the cops didn’t patrol it. “Well? Where are we going?” I asked again with the same response as before, nothing. I sighed and stopped trying. After twenty minutes he said something. “We’re going to meet someone and you don’t know that person, so don’t ask.” And after that, we both remained silent.
After fifty minutes, something went horribly wrong. We were in a wood with some mountains, and I heard thunder coming down. I got a little nervous because I was scared the thunder would hit the car or a tree, but it didn’t. What did happen was that the car ran out of gas. Jake got out and told me with an ice cold voice I had to follow him. “Don’t worry, I planned this, this is what he wanted…” he mumbled. We were walking towards a mountain now, in the dark, while it was storming. So, I was scared. After some minutes, we reached the mountain. “Jake, are we really going to climb? Now? With this weather?” I asked him. He didn’t answer and just walked closer to the mountain and began to climb. I shrugged and followed, while I was cursing him in my mind.
Two hours passed and we could see the top of the mountain. Jake didn’t climb anymore, he walked to some sort of church. I had to run to catch up with him. “Hey! Is this really a good idea?” I asked him, a bit out of breath. “Yes, you’ll see why” He said while he had a creepy smile. A shiver went through my back. Something was wrong, something was terribly wrong. I just knew it… the church was getting closer, and the weather was getting worse.
When we went inside, I shivered for no reason. It was dark in the church. “Do you have a light?” I asked Jake. “Dude, do you mean you want to smoke, in a church made out of wood?! What the hell!” he answered, nearly yelling and being a little bit like his normal self. “No! Not to smoke! To see where I’m going!” I said, a bit annoyed. “Oh, well, I do have a lighter…” he said while he was searching his pockets. When he finally found it, he gave it to me. I turned it on and looked around. I couldn’t see much, but I did find some candles, so I lightened one. With candle light everything looked scary. Big moving shadows everywhere. With more light, I could finally see the room, so I looked around. It was a big, old room with cobwebs everywhere. “Oh god, I really have to pee man…” Jake said. “Welcome back Jake…” I mumbled. “There’s got to be a toilet somewhere in this church, right?” He said to me. “You look for some gas, while I look for a toilet.” Sure, I’ll do the work, I thought. I started to investigate the room and found a burned book. “How did this burn without the church being burned to ash… this is just weird.” I murmured to myself. Except the book, there wasn’t anything I could use, and nor any gas. I walked to one of the four doors and opened it. “Dude! Close it! I’m doing my thing here!” Jake yelled to me. “Sorry…” I answered and immediately closed the door. I walked to a different door and tried to open it. This one was locked. Great, just what we need, a locked door, I thought. I sighed and walked to the last unopened door. This one wasn’t locked, and I opened it. I nearly threw up when I saw a corpse was hanging in the middle of the room. The dead body was holding a key in his hand. “No way I’m going to touch that body…” I said to myself. I looked around and thanked God when I saw a broom. I grabbed that broom and tried to get the key with that. After two minutes awkwardly poking the corpse, it finally dropped the key. I slowly walked closer to get the key, then remember a zombie movie and walked back again. I used to broom to get the key and cursed the creator of zombie movies. Why did zombies have to be evil, why can’t they just be friendly? The once lived, right? I sighed in relief and got out of the room. When I was out of the corpse-room, I immediately closed the door and barricaded it with the broom. Then I unlocked the locked door. Before I opened it, I took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and opened the door. It took me five minutes to convince myself it couldn’t be worse than a corpse, so I opened my eyes. This had to be the main hall, with a lot of seats and a stage where the priest would speak. When I looked around I noticed all the holy crosses were upside down. I walked through the hall and sat down on a seat. Then I looked down and I was startled by what I saw. Written in blood ‘No no no no no no! 666 Don’t listen to him! 13 You’ll die! I’ll die! Help m—’ the last part was a line of blood. I stared at it, in shock, and didn’t know what to do. For some reason the chamber got cloudy. How is this possible? This isn’t outside, it shouldn’t be cloudy here… “Help! Help me! It’s-” Jake yelled it fear. What was going on there? Then I heard the creepiest laugh I’ve ever heard. I ran to the door and tried to open it. The door was locked. I threw the candle at the door, and all I did was setting the room on fire. Then I remembered I had the key for that door and opened it. I ran to the place where Jake would be and all I found were his keys and some blood. In the toilet was blood as well. I looked around and found his watch. I looked at it. 00:00 was what it said. I looked out of the window and saw the moon, red like blood. I kept staring at the moon. After some minutes or hours, I couldn’t tell, I Yelled in fear and ran back to the main room. I saw a face in the moon, Satan’s face. I looked around and saw that this room was on fire now. I got even more scared and ran outside. I quickly glanced at the moon and it looked like Satan was looking at me. I turned around and saw Jake’s body, standing. But not like a living man, more like some sort of robot. He turned around and looked at me. I saw his creepy smile while his eyes were still looking scared. “J-Jake?” I ask. His only answer was a creepy laugh. I got scared and ran away, forgetting we were on a mountain. I looked down and saw I was on a cliff. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw Jake’s body, with a broken neck, walking toward me. “No one destroys my church” Jake’s said. His eyes were glowing red. “Please, I’m you friend!” I begged him. “Satan doesn’t need friends” the body answered. The body began to run to me. I just stood there, frozen in terror. I’d die here, just like Jake. And the worst thing, Nobody will ever hear about this. I closed my eyes and made a decision. “Satan, you won’t kill me, you won’t have my soul” I whispered. I took a deep breath and jumped.
When I was falling, everything seemed to go in slow-motion. I looked behind me and saw Jake’s body falling too, without the creepy smile or the red eyes. Just a lifeless body. Then I looked down again. The sun got up, so I could see where I’d land. I didn’t care about where I would land, so I closed my eyes while everything was still slow-motion. Then I got curious and looked down. Was that… No! It can’t be! I was falling in a portal, probably to hell! My eyes widened while I saw my whole life in two seconds. Then I fell through the portal and passed out.
I got up and looked around. I was in some sort of business room. I walked to a chair and sat down. “So, this is better?” a voice asked. “Yes, Satan” I answered. “I can make sure you’ll live forever.” Satan offered. “What do I have to do for this great gift?” I asked him. “Watch the dead, wear a black dress and have this scythe. Oh, and do whatever I say.” Satan said. “By the way, if you refuse, I’ll make sure your family will die and go to Hell. So you can’t refuse.” He added. “I understand, master.” I said, this was going to be the worst life ever. “Do you accept?” Satan asked. “Yes, master, I’ll have to” I answered. “Good, now, have this mirror and look at yourself” he said and he gave me a mirror. I saw myself, and I was getting scared of myself. “Your name will be Grim Reaper.” Satan said. “But… wait… you didn’t have a Grim Reaper yet?” I asked “Yes, but that was Jake, and he didn’t want to get your soul, so I fired him. Pretty ironic, you burned down his house, so you ‘fired’ him. And that’s why you’re here.” Satan told me. I got sick, from myself and from everything that was happening here. “But… he was a human!” I said. “Yes, that’s why you aren’t a human anymore. He abused the human form” Satan said. “Now, go, there are a lot of people dying and that means there are a lot of souls to get.” Satan said. “I order you to go, my new Grim Reaper!” Satan yelled. “Yes sir” I said. I was changing, not just from outside, I was a walking skeleton with a rope and a scythe, but from inside as well. I am the new Grim Reaper.
If you’re reading this, look behind you! You’ll be able to look me in the eyes before I do my job.