The sun was setting in the city of Acheron, casting a warm orange haze over everything as the shadows grew long. It was the end of summer, so the heat of the day had given way to the slight chill of the encroaching autumn. The cloudless sky still held on to hints of blue even as the neon signs of the city's establishments flickered to life, beckoning customers brave enough to venture out past the golden hour.
An odd pair took solace in the growing darkness that blanketed an alleyway near the city's outskirts. The street they were on had seen better days. It was mainly residential, yet there wasn't a soul in sight as people hid away in their homes for the evening. The road itself was cracked and the sidewalk was crumbling, weeds sprouting up wherever the cement granted an opportunity. The only indication that the place wasn't a complete ghost town came from the weak flickering of a bright red sign hanging off the roof of a convenience store a block away.
But the pair wasn't focused on the presence of people, or lack thereof. They knew that those on the outskirts of the Church's range of influence couldn't count on their protection. It was better to hide away and pray for salvation when the sun also hid itself. For whatever reason, demons preferred to come out and play in the dark once the moon held dominion over the stars.
What had the pair's attention was the cobblestone silhouette of a church that they had been monitoring for some time, to little avail. Said church was a stark contrast to the churches that could be found closer to the heart of the city. This one clearly hadn't received the same generous share of funding or care, if the dull stained glass and cracked stone were anything to go by. It was a far cry from the polished white marble and self-righteous aesthetic the Church of Solomon was known for.
"You're sure this is the right place, right? It feels like we came to the middle of nowhere," the taller of the mysterious duo asked.
She pried her eyes away from the church to look down at her shorter companion as she spoke. The tall woman had slicked-back, mid-length hair that was dyed an interesting shade of dark blue. She wore a designer tank top with a matching scarf that she had pulled up to hide the lower half of her face. She had pretty but hardened features, and the cut of her shirt showed muscle that had been built up from years of fighting. Strangest of all, however, was the silver gauntlet that covered her right arm up to the shoulder. The left arm had a shorter version of the gauntlet that only reached up to her elbow.
"Yes I'm sure. I just followed the GPS," the smaller huffed in reply, as though they'd had this conversation countless times before.
The shorter and younger of the duo glanced down at the phone in her hand, screen lit up by a map of their current location with a red dot indicating that this was, in fact, the correct place. After reaffirming, she held the device out for her partner to see as if to prove her point.
This woman had long dark hair pulled into a messy ponytail with choppy bangs framing her face. She had more delicate features than her partner, but the smug quirk of her brows revealed a hint of mischief. Like her companion, she was also dressed strangely.
A medium length black coat covered most of her outfit, along with twin holsters holding a pair of six-shooters strapped to each thigh. The turtleneck she wore had been stretched up to cover the bottom half of her face. It was tucked into a high waisted mini skirt. Together, they made an odd sight, looking like a pair of high fashion bank robbers.
After returning their attention to the church, the pair fell back into relative silence. That was, until a phone started to ring. The sound felt amplified in the quiet atmosphere.
"Holy-! Avida, I thought I told you to silence that thing! Are you trying to announce our presence to the world?!" the tall one chided, clutching her heart. It also had scared the shit out of her, but she wasn't about to admit that.
"I did silence it!" the short one, Avida, argued back as she fumbled around in her pockets for the source of the disturbance. Finally she materialized a small black flip phone from her inner coat pocket.
"Ugh, it's the stupid burner phone! Those idiots didn't think to silence it before handing it over to us!? What the hell!?" she grumbled before flipping it open to answer.
"Howdy, this is Avida speaking," she told the caller, tone changing instantly.
"Are you at the location yet?" came the bland reply. It was a man's voice, tone blunt but clear and pleasant to the ear.
"Wow, a girl can't even get a 'hello' back?"
Silence.
"Yeah, we're here," Avida relented with a sigh.
"What do you see?"
"We were just stakin' out the place before your awfully kind interruption. Excellent ringtone selection, by the way."
"Alright, relax, let's not forget who's paying who."
"How could I ever forget a crucial detail like that, my wonderful client?" Avida chirped.
"Then answer the question," the flat voice responded.
"I don't see anything but an old church. That the answer you're looking for?"
"Do you see any people? Anyone on guard?"
"Nope, we haven't seen a single soul. I'm not convinced anyone even lives around here," Avida relayed, glancing around the area beyond the alleyway once more.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"Huh, that's odd."
"Shouldn't I be the one saying that?"
"Our sources told us the weapon was being kept there under strict surveillance," the voice explained.
"Well, we haven't seen anythin' like that. It's dead quiet."
"Go investigate, but keep your guard up. The Church of Solomon is known to keep a few tricks up their sleeve," the man on the other end warned.
"So what you're saying is we're probably walking into a trap? Gee, how nice."
"I'm sure whatever it is, you can handle it. You're the supposed professionals, after all. Call back once you have something to report."
"Roger that, boss. 'S always a pleasure," Avida said before snapping the phone shut, effectively hanging up.
"What a lovely and productive conversation," she muttered mostly to herself.
"The contact, I'm assuming?" the one beside her asked, though she knew the answer already.
"Who else? Ugh, they're getting impatient. More than usual. We better get a move on, Belli," Avida complained.
"Can you please stop creating weird nicknames out of my codename?" the other responded with a frown.
"Fiiiiine. What's the plan, then, Bellicosa?" Avida asked with an exaggerated drawl.
"We walk through the front door? If they've already set up a trap, I'm not sure we can avoid it," Bellicosa suggested, ignoring her partner's attempts at teasing.
"Now that's what I like to hear," Avida said with a smirk. "Even if they come at us, we can take 'em."
As she spoke, she patted the twin pistols she had strapped to her outer thighs. Bellicosa returned the smirk and held up her fist, covered by the silver gauntlet. The duo were confident in their fighting skills, even if they did run into a pickle. It wouldn't be the first time they knowingly walked into a trap.
"Let's go," Bellicosa urged.
They left the safety of the alleyway and made their way across the street to the church, having given up on any attempts at being subtle. As they approached the worn down front door, Avida took one of her precious six-shooter pistols into her hand. At the same time, Bellicosa traced a rune onto the gauntlet on her right arm with her fingertips. The metal began to glow softly as it was infused with magic. With one last look at each other, Bellicosa nodded before pushing open the heavy door.
It swung open with a deafening creak, Bellicosa afraid it might have fallen off the hinges if she had used any more force. If their presence was unknown before, there was no way they were still undetected now. The pair didn't seem to care, confidently strolling into the entryway. Avida kept her pistol raised as she scanned the room.
The interior of the church was just as drab as the exterior. It was dark, for starters. The dirtied stained glass allowed in almost no light, and the space appeared to only be lit by a few scattered candles. The flickering light casted eerie shadows and made the time of day seem much later than it was, almost like the inside of the church existed in a world of its own. All traces of the orange glow of twilight from outside were gone once the door slammed itself closed behind them with a bang.
Rows of splintering pews made from dark wood lined either side of a narrow aisle. They faced a plain looking altar, barely visible from where the two stood in the entryway. It was bare and made of the same decaying wood as the pews, looking more like a table than an altar in its sad state. None of the renowned affluence of the Church of Solomon could be seen.
"No way it's empty, right?" Avida asked her partner in a whisper after scanning the room.
Instead of answering her question, Bellicosa wrinkled her nose with furrowed brows. A strange smell hung in the air and filled her lungs with each breath. It seemed somewhat familiar, but she couldn't place it right away. At first, she had only been able to make out the smell of rotting wood as they entered, but the new scent invaded her nostrils and quickly overtook it.
"What's that smell?" she whispered back.
Just then, a voice boomed from the darkness of the rafters above.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
The voice seemed to shake the crumbling walls with the force of it. The two were startled by the sudden shout, barely reacting in time to jump back out of the way as someone came crashing down into the aisle in front of them. The person had just dropped from the ceiling!
It was a large man wearing a priest's uniform and holding a censer. Smoke was curling out of it, a long chain attached with the opposite end firmly wrapped around his other fist. Bellicosa quickly realized that this was the source of the familiar yet unidentifiable smell. It had been a while since she last encountered it, hence her inability to recognize it immediately, but it was no doubt the smell of incense.
Before either had time to open their mouths, the sound of a door slamming open and the pounding of footsteps shortly followed from a bit further back. More clergy members appeared out of the darkness from the depths behind the altar, each holding a weapon of some kind. They pointed them at the mercenaries as they filled in the rows of pews, ready to strike.
"Well, I guess we were right about this being a trap," Avida commented wryly to her companion.
The clergy members were all wearing the traditional priest and nun uniforms indicative of the Church of Solomon, but with the severe lack of lighting, the distinct white and pale blue patterns faded away into shadow. It was also hard to tell just how many of them there were. Scattered around the dreary and dilapidated church, their silhouettes looked like an army of ghosts as they flickered in the candlelight.
The man who had jumped down from the ceiling took a step towards the pair, allowing them to see him more clearly. He was middle aged with a bald head and a goatee. With his stocky, muscular build and gruff appearance, he looked more like someone's bodyguard than a priest. He was the one who spoke first.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. My name is Father Tomas. I'd like to inquire about what business you might have in this humble church of ours," he questioned.
"I must say, Father Tomas, for a humble church you seem to have quite the artillery," Avida pointed out, inclining her head at the weapons currently pointed in her direction.
Father Tomas smiled. It was an insincere smile that didn't reach his eyes. But, since he started it, Avida was willing to play along in this little charade of naivety. Playing dumb and innocent was something she was used to by this point. It often worked in her favor, allowing her targets to severely underestimate her.
"You two entered with weapons drawn first, did you not? Forgive us for being defensive," Father Tomas said, gesturing to the pistol still gripped in Avida's hand.
"Well, you can never be too careful these days. We're simply two wanderin' exorcists-for-hire seekin' refuge for the evening. As I'm sure you know, it's not very safe after nightfall these days. We figured the church would be a safe place to hole up in, and we thought it was unoccupied. Our apologies," she replied coolly, stashing away her pistol.
The lie she spun left her lips as effortlessly as breathing. Making up stories on the spot came with the territory of being a mercenary, and it wasn't exactly uncommon for them to intrude in places they shouldn't. Avida had gotten quite adept at this little skill over time.
She could feel the questioning look from Bellicosa out of the corner of her eye, but ignored it. However, it seemed Father Tomas had had enough of the innocent act already. Apparently, he wasn't a very patient fellow, letting out an indignant huff at Avida's explanation.
"Exorcists-for-hire? Hah! I think you should just call yourselves as you are: mercenaries," Father Tomas responded.
The last word was uttered with emphasized contempt. He still did not make a move, but he also did not loosen his grip on the censer he was holding. Quite the opposite, he tightened the chain around his knuckles until they were as white as paper while the tension in the room grew thicker.
"So you already know who we are," Bellicosa said.
It wasn't a question. They had expected the trap, but the fact that the Church knew the pair were mercenaries meant they had more information than previously thought. It was almost certain that someone who knew the details of the job tipped the Church off.
"Of course I do. I'm not a fool, even if you tried to hide your identities with those pointless masks. But I want to know who your employer is, and what it is you're after, exactly."
"A bit forward, dontcha think?" Avida cut in, "As if we would just go ahead and tell you. We're not fools either, and loose lips are bad for business."
By the twitch of her hand at her side, Bellicosa could tell Avida was becoming restless. They were hardly getting anywhere like this. It was only a matter of time before a fight broke out, and they were severely outnumbered. She began to formulate a course of action in her head.
"Yes, I suppose that's true. Well, let me take a stab at it, then, and you can tell me if I'm right. As for who sent you, my guess is it's those pesky rodents that call themselves a resistance," Father Tomas said with disdain.
Before either of the two could confirm or deny, he continued.
"As for what you're after, well, I have my guesses about that too. There aren't many reasons for you to show up here, of all places."
At that, Avida's fingers stopped twitching and her eyes lit up. Even though it couldn't clearly be seen through the fabric, a smile split across her face like she had received a divine revelation.
"You sound so certain, as though what we're looking for is really here," she said smugly. "Thanks for confirming."
However, despite her newfound joy, Father Tomas seemed unfazed, as if he expected this response. He gave a half-hearted shrug, like he couldn't care less if he accidentally revealed something he wasn't supposed to or not.
"So that is what you're doing here, after all. Thanks for confirming," he mocked.
Avida just laughed. She had dealt with many people like Father Tomas before, so his attempt at making fun of her passed through her easily. Her confidence did not falter.
"Whatever information you think you've gotten out of me won't matter," she said before her expression turned dark, "because you're not gonna make it out of here alive."