Francesco was standing over the creature, holding his halberd. The creature had appeared in His Holiness’ bedroom during the night. The visage of the devil. Three faces, horns, wings, hooves. The creature had lunged towards him wailing, and he just struck. They couldn’t find His Holiness afterwards. The corpse of the creature laid before him again, rising slowly, wailing once more, and he could start to recognise the features. “You killed me. I came to you for help and you killed me!” The creature lurged forward again and Francesco screamed, waking up.
A Month since the event. A Month since the Gates of Hell opened. A month since the sinners and the heretics had changed into their true forms. A month since witchcraft returned. The creatures claimed they were but humans with bad luck. And deep down he knew they used to be human. The shock to his system was finding out His Holiness had been one of the changed. The Devil must have chosen him as his vessel due to how close he had been to God. Francesco made his way out of bed and changed into his guard uniform, leaving the barracks for a guard shift.
He walked past the statue that had formed when the event occured. All the gold stripped and formed into a grotesque shape. A fearsome creature. A man with the head of a wolf. The statue was also extremely obscene, as the wolfman was naked and anatomically correct. They had managed to cover the offending part. It was still obvious the wolfman was aroused.
When he reached his post, he quickly swapped places with the current guard and began his duty as a Papal Guard. That was until he was summoned to His Holiness’ office. The chaos of the first night had resulted in a rapid election. And the new pope had strange ideas. Radical ideas. “Ah good, Francesco, I’m glad to see you. You’re being moved into something more fitting of your talents. Go down to the tombs, you’ll find out. I’m working on an address for the flock now.” His Holiness struck an imposing figure. He was younger than most of them, as well as taller, and definitely more attractive. Francesco pushed those thoughts down. He would have to pray for forgiveness of his sinful thoughts later. He nodded towards His Holiness and left the room, going towards an unsure future.
Adéla Maidenburgová was sitting in church, waiting for Wednesday Mass to start. She was definitely the youngest adult there, surrounded by elderly women and men, the children they had brought along distracted. The Priest stepped forward to the pedestal, clearing his throat. “His Holy Eminence has provided an address for each of us to share. I shall start today’s mass.” He flipped open the folder he had placed down, and began reading. “My children, a month ago our faith was shaken. Our loved ones taken, changed, stolen from us by the devil. Do not despair. Do not hate them, for it is not their fault. They are but victims of a world filled with sin and temptation. Our loved ones are deep within them, ready to be saved, helped, returned to their true selves if they are made to repent. So make them repent, make them confess their sins to you, love them and help them return to the flock.”
Adéla was shocked. Surprised. But, she understood it. She understood those feelings perfectly. Her own son had been tempted by sin, claiming he was a woman and poisoning his body. And he too had been a victim of the devil, changing into a mouse creature. Her youngest, Klára, close to being tempted as well but unable to fulfill her sinful desires, had let her know of this change. She might have been proud of her son letting an abandoned child into his home. If said child also wasn’t full of sin, a boy transformed, claiming to be a girl. She knew deep down her little boy was in there somewhere, under the lies he was told. She would help him repent, she’d return him to the flock, she’d make him give up his delusions.
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And she had heard from a friend of hers that her daughter had gained powers as well. She was kept locked inside, away from school, homeschooled, no internet or entertainment so as to not be tainted further. Her powers let her open holes in the world. To take things from elsewhere. Not big enough for her to escape, but big enough to take things through. And Klára had let her know that Marek had made a strange collar that would make you say the truth. She left the church and got an idea, contacting her friend.
Adéla rang the bell of the Němec household, her friend Barbora opening the door. “She is in her room, praying. I hate what you want her to do.” Barbora shook her head and let Adéla in, who proceeded to walk up the stairs to the girl’s bedroom.
“Marie, this is aunt Adéla, I’m coming in.” Opening the door, she saw the girl. Sitting on a bed in a bland torn dress, a desk with a notepad and a pen on it, the windows boarded up from the outside. The girl looked at her with sunken scared eyes, looking almost hopeful. “I need you to do something for me. I need you to use your witchcraft to get me something.” Adéla stepped forward and grabbed Marie’s shoulders. The hope in her eyes wavering.
“What… what do you want. Can’t you just go buy it, or ask for it?” The hope that Marie had in her eyes disappeared completely, gone.
“I cannot. It is an instrument of the devil my son had made, that can be repurposed to serve good. I have not spoken with him since his grandfather’s funeral. No respect for the dead, showing up in a dress looking like some fag and having ME kicked out of the funeral.” Adéla shook her head and did a cross sign on herself. “I need to steal something like a collar, probably in his workshop.” She stepped towards the desk and wrote down the address on a piece of paper. “Your mother says you have a vision of where you can go first that you reach out to. Find this house. Look in there.” Marie stood up and made her way over to the desk, looking at the address.
“Okay. I can’t use the power with others in the room. I need you outside and a completely dark quiet environment.” Marie looked towards Adéla with determination, who nodded and stepped outside, locking the door.
Marie quickly wrote something down on the paper, before… they turned off the light, sitting on the floor and closing their eyes. Their mind had to wander first. Their spirit leaving their body, sighing happily at witnessing their featurelessness once again. They phased through the wall flipping a middle finger at Adéla, her having absolutely no clue of the apparition mocking her, before they moved forward. They reached the house in question shortly thereafter, entering it and looking around. They thought to themself that Adéla must be fucking blind to not see that she has a daughter. With mouse ears and a tail that was currently chilling on the couch, tying a ribbon in the pink hair of someone their age. They wanted this. They wandered into what they believed to be the workshop, and witnessed what must have been the collar in question on the desk. The let down a sigh, rubbed their hands and clapped three times before snapping their fingers. When they returned to their body, the rift was formed in front of them, they reached out through it, grabbed the collar, and left behind a note. Then they clapped and snapped again, the portal closing.
Adéla heard a knock from Marie’s room and opened the door, looking at the young girl holding the collar. “Here you go.” Marie replied, returning to sitting on the bed.
“Thank you, you’ve been very helpful, I will be sure to let your mother know.” Adéla closed and locked the door again, walking downstairs and handing the key to Barbora, before leaving the house and making her way towards the Priest’s residence, to see about contacting the Vatican. The sinners WILL repent, whether they want to or not.