The Church

"I'll go check up on him. I'll be back," shouts Leroy and quickly heads out.

Running through the streets as fast as he could.

'Just where is that damned Church.' 

Stopping momentarily, he looks around and finds a random beggar sitting on the corner.

Going up to him, Leroy flashes a copper coin and asks

"Do you know where the church of the Sun God is?"

The beggar quickly points out an alley on the left side of the road.

"Go down that way, and you'll end up in front of it."

Leroy nods and then dashes without giving the begar his promised coin.

"You god damned bastard," yells the beggar trying to get up and give chase, but by the time he was on his feet, Leroy had already disappeared from view.

Leroy ran down the alley as fast as he could, his breathing ragged.

'Please be ok, Arthur, please!!"

A few moments later, Leroy came out of the alley and found himself in front of a small clearing with a church in front of him.

The church looked out of place in the slums; it was well-maintained and looked much newer than the other buildings.

That wasn't the only weird thing. What caught his eye was that on every church wall were hundreds of drawn Suns with a single bleeding eye.

 It was horrifying. Leroy felt as if all the eyes were alive and looking at him, but he had no time to dwell on such thoughts as he ran to the front door.

Leroy heard someone talking from the inside, though it looked like it was further in than right at the door.

He quietly opened the door and snuck in.

The inside of the church looked almost normal if you ignored the fact that there were no pews and only a podium at the top where a priest was preaching to tens of people while they had their arms up as if they were hugging something.

Everyone had their eyes closed as they listened to the priest.

Leroy quickly scanned through the crowd until his eyes landed on Arthur.

Thankfully, he was in the last row towards the door.

Leroy quietly went next to him and whispered in his ear.

"Arthur, Arthur, what are you doing here?"

"Huh? Big Brother!" Arthur whispered back excitedly

"Did you also come here to pray to the sun god?"

Arthur asked, but Leroy didn't reply; he was in shock.

Arthur's face had started to resemble someone...

He looked just like John when he had his insane episodes this morning.

Arthur's pupils were wide, and he had a giant smile on his face. Drool was slowly leaking out.

Getting his mind back together, Leroys whispered back with a forced smile.

"Of course."

With that, Arthur turned back and started praying again as if Leroy wasn't even there.

'Of course my ass, this is insanity,' thought Leroy as he mimicked the other believers.

'I'll have to wait for a while to get out. Otherwise, I'll get their attention, and at this point, that's really not going to be good for me.'

Thought Leroy, his hands had been shaking for a while now.

Turning his attention forward, he finally listened to the priest's preaching.

"The almighty Sun God, the one who shall rid this world of filth, the only true god in this world, only by giving ourselves fully to him in both mind and body would we finally be freed from our filthy shackles."

'What in the hell is he talking about? Give our body and mind to him?'

Leroys's eyes looked to his left, where Arthur was.

'That's starting to feel much more literal than I ever want it to be.'

After about half an hour of constant preaching about how we should surrender in both mind, body, and soul when facing the sun god, the priest finally ended his speech.

Then, as if strings controlled everyone, they started heading out of the church.

The way they walked wasn't natural at all. Every movement they made was like a puppet, not something living and breathing.

Leroy followed them as he tried to act like he was in the same situation. They all walked to the alley and, after a few minutes of walking, ended up in the street where Leroi met the beggar.

Everyone quickly dispersed. Leroy tried getting Arthur, but no matter what he did, it was as if Arthur couldn't hear him.

Thankfully, it seemed like he was going towards the Tavern.

'I really don't know what's going on anymore.' 

Leroy thought as he decided to head back to the Tavern as well.

Arriving at the Tavern, Leroy went in and was met with the loud laughter that usually surrounded the place.

'At least this is still normal.'

"The Sun God really helped us, and I'd never know what we would do without him."

"The Sun God is the Greatest"

Leroy quickly turned his head, his eyes widening as he finally started to notice what precisely the customers of the Tavern were talking about.

His entire body started shaking as he started to run out of breath.

'It's everyone, how, why, what's happening? Everything was normal, but now everyone is acting insane!'

Trying to regain his composure, Leroy started quickly heading to his Bedroom.

"Leroy, you're back kiddo. How was the Sun God Church? It's great, isn't it!" 

Leroy turned around and found himself face-to-face with Travis.

The same widened pupils, the same grin on his face, and the everpresent drool falling to his chin.

"Of course, it was awesome," said Leroy, constantly stuttering.

"Are ya alright, kid?" asked Travis

"I'm fine, just tired. I'm going to go to sleep; goodnight!" Leroy said as he was already heading up the stairs as fast as he could.

Going up into the Bedroom, he quickly climbed into his bed and covered his entire body with the blanket.

'Insane, everyone's Insane,' Leroy thought while his body was shaking, tears coming out of his eyes.

Suddenly remembering that he had to give Ivar his money tonight, Leroy quickly jumped out of bed, put the ten coppers on Ivars bed, and then went back to his bed.

Already mentally exhausted from today's incidents, Leroy fell asleep quickly.

And he suddenly found himself in a completely black room; no space would be more appropriate.

All around him was darkness, but you could see specks of light scattered around, almost resembling stars, but not quite.

'Where am I?'