The bells rings again in the dark. People walk out their homes in their sunday best, the candle in hand reveals the black patches, stones, their skin lay littered with. They're like me? I look back at the hill, shine of a car bouncing off the moonlight. A series of lights in the distance, I inhale and join the crowd. Singing, an organ playing. A boy at the door hands something to the churchgoers on their way in. "Take, eat; this is my body." I look down as he lifts a basket to me, full of crackers. I take one and pop it in my mouth, make the sign of the cross and open the doors. The voices of the crowd, Amazing Grace. I look to my left, a woman with a decayed face, a man singing with just one arm, still bleeding. The preacher's voice booms, "Newcomer! Welcome!" I halt as they stop singing, they all turn to me. So many afflicted in one place. I wave and the preacher holds his hands out, "Yet another damaged soul has come to us. Oh, now, don't be shy! Welcome him how Jesus would!" They all get up and shake my hand, an army of hands and "Peace be with you." I wave off and the preacher calls out, "A withered soul." I grab my back as they touch me by the shoulders. "Annointed, marked by christ." Everyone backs away as the preacher lifts my attention, away from the pain in my back to my reflection. Wrinkles and bags under his eyes, he runs his fingers against my arms, "Old, yet faithful. With a heart of stone!" I never liked this crowd. Suffocating.

I pull my arms away and the crack opens further, blood trickles down as the preacher shouts, "Rejoice! Another faithful man to save this world, the very clutches of space!" I grab my head as they shout and cheer, "Where's the bathroom?" "Sorry?" I shout, "The bathroom!?" He points. I run past the people, open that door and puke onto the floor. I quiver and grab my knees as the ambience starts up again. "Damn it all." I bang my chest and roar at the pain in my lung. A man walks in, "Are you alright?" I wave to him, "Get out." The guy touches my back, I jerk myself around, despite the pain, a normal man it seems, "You gotta help me. They're crazy." I wipe my mouth, "Why?" Demons enter the bathroom and drag him out, "No! Let me go!" I follow out,

"To be let into heaven, us anointed, must do god's work." I walk up slow as they drag him up to the altar. "It is our job to root out the falsely anointed! To wipe away their sin!" The man shouts as he struggles, "Let me go! I want to live!" "To live forever, is the devil's spit!" I slowly limp up stairs to the altar and his guards get nervous, but he holds a hand to me with a sharpened cross in hand, "Our newest lamb has come to wipe away this poor man's sin!" He struggles, "Save me!" They push him down onto his knees, lifts his neck to me. I reach for the makeshift knife and the priest pulls it back, looks me in the eye, "This is the way to our salvation." I take hold of the cross in his palms, "Father, isn't it wrong to kill?" "Son, god wills it so. These ones must go." I always worshipped alone after seeing how church was. A show to take money, from the weak and the hopeless. "Father?" "Yes, my son?" I smile, "We shall wipe away his sin." He nods and gets out my way. They cheer and holler as the man screams. "You're all godless monsters!" I get behind him and lift the cross above him. Only few of them cry or fear about what happens next. "Our new anoint-" Diesel, now! The preacher gasps as tires screech to a halt.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The doors explode open, I cut the guard's necks and push the man down the stairs, "Run! Kid!" He runs fast as he can outside, I sit myself down, behind the altar. Flames engulf the church and they scream. Bullets rip through the walls, their blood smacks against me. Jon pats my shoulder hard, "Come on, old man!" A demon leaps at us, Jon fires his shotgun and blows back the poor misled fool. Demons jump out of windows, Dave fires the mounted machine gun on the car, Jean shouts over the radio, Get out here! We gotta go! Support beams fall as demons scream in all directions. "Diesel!" I halt, the preacher pours a bucket over his head and the flames go out, half his body burned away. His voice shakes as the place crumbles, "Falsely anointed! Spawn of Satan! God will smite you!" I turn away as Dave shouts over the gunfire, "Come on!"

Jean and Jon help me up, Jon smacks away a demon. Jean tries to slam the door, but a stony arm stops us. The door gets torn off as we squeal away from Livingston, "If not God! I will do so myself!" He climbs in and smacks Jean out the way. Dave ducks in and shoots at his stone armor. It's no use, he grabs my forearms and twists as bullets ping off him, ricochet around the interior, "For I am God's Horseman, Death!" I scream at the pressure, the weakness. He slams his head against mine, I shake my head.

You've shown your true colors. Death incarnate. You can kill me, but you'll kill them too! I clench my fists and my heart booms. He jumps in his skin and freezes in place, "Satan himself." I jerk forward and punch through his faceplate. He gasps at the pain, I rush to him and kick him out the doorway. I peek my head out the car, the demons stop chasing as their leader tumbles. So it's desire? I gulp as Jean pulls me in, "Are you ok!?" I nod and she sighs deep. Dave laughs and hugs me, "Damn, just when I think you're gonna die!" I dart around, that man didn't make it. I sigh as the radio comes on,

Get back here now! Jon pick up the microphone, "What is it?" Lufkin! They need us right now! Thousands of Militia men!