Chapter 7 Visiting the church

Diana was sleeping. In her dream, there was endless darkness surrounding her. Her screams of fear were smothered. The silence was total, as if the darkness was insulating her senses too. Then darkness seemed to compress and from that darkness, a silhouette was formed. That silhouette walked towards her, reaching it's hand towards her. Frightened, she slapped the hand reaching for her and started to run away, but no matter how fast she tried to run, she seemed to remain in the same spot. The shadow finally whispered behind her.

"Diana, please! Come back to me! I miss you! Why didn't you tell me before you did that?"

At that moment in the dream, she woke up full of perspiration, her heart thumping in her chest. Looking out the window, she saw the moon appearing bright from beneath the clouds. Grasping her chest, she exhaled loudly.

Getting out the bed, she went to the kitchen, for a glass of water. Looking at the clock on the wall beside the window, she saw it was 03:25. From her grandma's room, she could hear the loud snoring, similar to the screaming of an owl. Despite the previous fear, she couldn't stop herself from giggling, wondering how could her grandma sleep through the loud snoring.

Sipping the water, she felt a little better. Then, she returned to her room, trying to get back to sleep. But, no matter how hard she tried, it was in vain. The shadow was back in her mind.

When the sun was finally back on the sky, she was grateful. Getting out of bed, she went to the kitchen to prepare something for breakfast. Settling on toast, scrambled eggs and a glass of milk she started eating. When she finished, it was a quarter to seven. Her grandma came into the kitchen when she started preparing the coffee. With a surprised look at her, her grandma started preparing her own breakfast.

"Girlie, are you alright? How come you're up so early?"

"Just a bad dream, grandma! Nothing to worry about."

"Oh!... So what are your plans for today?"

"Nothing special. Just some walking around the village and trying to reconnect with old friends..."

"Ok! Just be careful... Tomorrow is your birthday. Any special wish I could grant you?"

"No, grandma. Nothing special. I'm glad I'm back with you. The rest doesn't matter..."

"Very well, girlie! Just remember to be back before sunset. Tonight is a special night for you..."

"Special? What is so special about tonight?"

"Girlie, that is for me to know and for you still to find out..."

"Ugh... Grandma, what is all this secrecy about? Just tell me!"

"Uh-uh. You'll find out in due time, not a moment sooner..."

"Better be a huge secret, otherwise I'm going to be pissed!" she mumbled through her teeth.

"Language, young lady!"

"Lady? When was I ever a lady? And what about you? All that language, where do you think came from?" snorted Diana at her grandma.

"Well, never to be honest" her grandma mumbled. "And only by myself here I don't need to always be careful what I say. I just don't care enough to spare anyone of broken dreams and a kick in the balls from life. I just help in the process of waking them up earlier."

Diana laughed at her grandma's choice of words and after finishing her breakfast and coffee, her grandma returned to her room, leaving Diana alone. The clock showed half past seven.

After turning around in the kitchen for five more minutes, she went to her room, preparing herself for going out. She decided for a walk in the park close to the church. Taking a shower, stuffing her purse with her phone and her trusted sling, she was finally ready to go out.

Outside, on the street people were hurrying. Some were going to work, some were going to the store. And, of course, some were going to the tavern. Even though it was early morning, a sip of alcohol never hurt anyone. Or more than one sip.

Arriving at the park, she saw it was empty. Fidgeting around, she saw some empty cans of beer and she decided it was time for some sling practice. Arranging the cans, she started shooting them down.

Although she neglected her sling lately, the aim was still accurate enough. Two out of three shots found their target. But, soon she got bored shooting by herself, with nobody competing against her.

Putting the sling back into her purse, she decided to walk around. Arriving in front of the church, she got the sudden urge to walk inside. But a voice coming from behind startled her.

"You should just let it be!"

She quickly turned on her heals searching for the owner of the voice. It was a teenager, probably the same age as her, looking bored at the entrance of the church.

"I'm sorry, you scared me."

Turning his eyes towards her he nodded impassive.

"That's good then. I reached one of my goals for today. Run along now, I don't have patience for you to make me unable to complete what I have to do!"

Diana, who felt great previously seeing a companion so close to her age previously, now felt sour.

"Look here, mister! I don't know who you are or what you want, but what I do or don't do, it's entirely up to me. I just want to enter the church."

The teenage boy shrugged.

"Don't care! Get lost, I have work to do!"

"Work? You're only sitting on that bench looking at the church."

"Exactly, it's very heavy, intellectual work, but I guess you can't understand normal language."

He stood up from the bench he was sitting on and started coming closer. Diana frowned as he watched him draw nearer and her hand reached inside her purse grabbing the sling and a couple of pebbles the size of a pigeon egg.

"Stay right there, I'm warning you!"

But he kept coming so she drew and quickly released the projectile hitting him square in the chest, knocking the air out of him and he started to hiccup.

"Now, we're even! Don't play around or I'll knock you on your ass!"

She lifted her hand and took a quick step forward, feinting a slap. At least that was her intention. She tripped on a rock embedded badly in the dirt road and tumbled forward waving around getting the guy silenced with a slap, followed by her head in his stomach, making him whizz pathetically as the remaining air in his lungs just flew out with explosive might, and then both of them tumbled to the ground in a messy heap of entangled heads, hands and feet. You know the romantic scene where if a boy or a girl falls he gets an accidental kiss? Sort of that happened here also, but a lot different. Instead of slowly falling and romantically kissing the other one, was more like a tank at full throttle ramming into a house and collapsing its walls. Sort of like that. What I'm trying to say is that Diana's forehead kissed the boy's innocent lips in the fall, making him whimper. Not from pleasure, but pain. He kicked and pushed her off of him and finally got to his feet taking heavy breaths of air while holding his chest with a hand and covering his mouth with the other. All this time he stared daggers at the dumbfounded Diana still on the ground.

"What the hell was that for?" he coughed, spitting some bloody phlegm on the ground. "Are you crazy?"

Diana stood up, patted herself down and walked towards the church. She turned at the door and spit between her teeth.

"It's your fault. Don't get in my way!"

"Don't worry, I won't! In fact, if I see you I'll just go the other way around you! Crazy!"

"Great! Do that!"

Turning back to the door, she opened it abruptly and tried walking in. But, she found something strange.

A heavy burden seemed to suddenly fall on her shoulders as soon as she walked inside. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't take even a step more. Huffing and puffing, she retreated. The strange teenage boy was not there anymore.

"What was that all about?" she mumbled to herself as soon as she was out the door. She felt relieved of the sudden burden.

With nothing to do, she decided to go back to her grandma's house, even though it was only half past ten. It was a long time to go until the sunset her grandma announced earlier.

In the meantime the same old boy came out from around the church, looking at her back as she left. A strange smile was on his face as he shook his head.

"What are you dreaming about?"

Unknowingly an elder was standing beside, his face lacking any emotion, his eyes like those of dead fish.

The boy jumped in fright at seeing him, his mind short-circuited.

"Nothing, just thinking of what is going to happen..."

"Oh, alright. What happened to your face?"

"Nothing, just slipped and fell."

"Oh? You must have slipped a few times in a row!"

"Just shut up! Let's get it done here! Not a word more, you hear me?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" the smirk on the elder's face was followed by a groan as the wind was knocked out of him by a fist to the gutts and he knocked into the door using his whole body.

"Not a word I said!" the teenage boy muttered as he withdrew his fist. Then he stopped, as if realizing something. He looked at his fist and then at the cracked church door and the old lying in a heap on the doorstep, groaning in pain.

"Strange, I'm not weak as just now proves it. What happened earlier? Interesting! Very interesting! Who are you to be able to knock me down, little girl?" he mumbled as he took a final look towards the way she disappeared. Then, he grabbed the old man, hoisting him up and walking inside. The door slowly closed behind them and was soon followed by screams of agony and fear. A silhouette jumped from one of the windows upstairs and immediately burst into flames. In the cracked window the teenager was watching it burn on the ground with empty eyes. He took out a phone, dialed and said a short sentence.

"Done! Send the cleaning crew!" and he slowly walked away as smoke was still rising from the corpse on the ground.