It was shortly after sunset when Officer Carlos arrived at Grace Through Faith Community Church, and he saw Josh Vincent sitting on a bench. Carlos directed the other officers to go investigate the inside of the church for fingerprints and evidence, as he approached Vincent.

“Carlos,” said Josh.

“Life doesn't seem to want to give you a break,” said the officer.

“Yeah,” said Josh, “I don't know if I did something to deserve it. Like maybe I made God angry by leaving the ministry or something, but honestly I don't even know if I believe in God anymore. It just feels more like the world is filled with random chaos, and this is just a part of that.”

Carlos raised his eyebrows and asked, “Did you just convert a church filled with Mormons to Christianity, and you don't even know if you believe it anymore? How does that happen?”

“During my years in ministry, I got really good at it. I could probably do it in my sleep,” said Josh, “It just felt so natural, and it made me forget about my grief for a moment.”

“And I was afraid I was gonna have to start defending my Catholic faith from you again,” said Carlos, “I mean, you and I had fun debates back in the day, but I just remember that was all you would want to talk about around me, always trying to get me to leave my church.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” said Josh, “I started questioning everything a couple years ago. That's one of the reasons I felt like I needed to take a break from the ministry. It felt disingenuous. Of course, what happened to Brittany was part of it too. I wanted some time to sort things out, figure out what life was all about with my wife and refresh myself about God. And then she gets diagnosed with cancer. Sometimes, I think I let myself miss her funeral on purpose because I couldn't accept the reality that she's dead. I talked to those Mormons because I don't know what I'm doing with my life. I'm 36, and my whole life has been about something that I'm not even certain about anymore.”

“Hey man,” said Carlos, “You're obviously really good at being persuasive. Have you ever thought about other ways to use that skill? You could try being a salesperson, selling insurance or something.”

“For years I've been helping people receive eternal life for free,” said Josh, “I feel like it would be much harder to sell something less than eternal life for a higher price.”

At that moment, Carlos got a call on his radio. There had been another murder reported from a house just a few blocks away, also a teenager who was stabbed.

“Oh my God,” said Carlos after he heard all the details, “I'll be over in a few minutes.” After he put his radio away, he turned to Vincent and asked, “Do you remember ever having a Cody Perkins as a part of your youth group?”

Josh thought about it for a moment and said, “The name doesn't ring a bell, but it's possible. I'd have to see a photograph.”

“He'd be in the same grade as Aliyah, I believe,” said Carlos, “Would you want to come along with me? When you were the youth minister, I'm sure you got a good sense of the dynamics of the teenagers in this neighborhood, so you may be able to help me out.”

“Sure,” said Josh, realizing he really had nothing better to do the night before Thanksgiving.

As they got in the car, Carlos loaded up a photograph of Cody to show to Josh.

“Oh, he does look familiar,” said Josh, “Where did I see him?” Then he noticed the name of Cody's high school and remembered. “He was part of the Christian club at the school I spoke at a few times. Aliyah was in that club as well.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“That can't be just a coincidence,” said Carlos as he drove out of the church parking lot.

As it was getting darker, Irene had finished buying her pumpkin pie, and Damian and Shae were looking out for her as they escorted her home. Floating high above, their eyes scanned to see the many spiritual beings that were on every street corner. Most of the spirits didn't care about her at all, but if it looked like one of them was staring at the witch, Damian and Shae prepared their weapons to attack the moment they saw a sudden movement.

They cleared the way as she was walking back to her house. On the way, when she got to an intersection with a crosswalk and had to wait for the light, a boy about her age wearing a black hoodie came next to her, also waiting to cross.

“Oh hey, is that the Bu–I mean Michael, right?” said Irene, “How have you been?” She had almost said 'Butt-Toucher,' since that was what EVERYONE called him in high school. But she wasn't in high school anymore.

“You're talking to me?” said Michael.

“Yeah,” said Irene, “I remember you from youth group.” She recalled how Brittany would always talk to him when everyone else would ignore him at church. She figured someone ought to carry on that type of kindness.

A short distance in the sky into the spiritual realm, Damian nudged Shae and said, “Oh my gosh, I remember this kid. People made fun of him so badly at my school last year. I felt so sorry for him. He wasn't in any of my classes, so I never got to know him.

Shae seemed concerned as she gazed at Michael and checked around for any other spirits. “Something feels wrong,” she said, “We ought to hurry Irene up to keep moving.”

“Do you see anything?” asked Damian.

“I thought I did for a split second,” said Shae, “But after looking for evil spirits for so long, my mind tends to play tricks on me. Regardless, I've found it's generally best to trust my gut.”

Damian flew down to Irene's ear, whispering, “Let's keep moving.”

Irene finished up her conversation with Michael, and they bid farewell as the crosswalk light turned green.

As Irene walked away, Damian noticed that Michael's phone vibrated from a text message, and his face became very serious as he began typing his message. Damian decided to peek over at the screen of the cellphone, which wasn't hard to do since he was a ghost. The message had been from a girl named Ashley Garcia. They were coordinating to meet at the movie theater in about an hour.

When they got back to Irene's house, Damian noticed Steve was waiting in the ambulance for them. Shae followed Irene inside of her house, while Damian went in the ambulance to check in with his former guardian angel.

“How were things in my absence?” asked Steve.

“It was fine,” said Damian, “There were fewer spirits against her inside the store and on the way back. Just lots of generic advertising spirits that weren't specifically going after her. What was the thing you had to go to again?”

“Two murders. Both students from your high school, Aliyah Jones and Cody Perkins,” said Steve.

“That's horrible,” said Damian, “Do you know who did it?”

“We don't know for certain,” said Steve, “but we think it's most likely Michael Butcher. His guardian angel was captured by three evil spirits yesterday, and they tossed him into the Gulf of Mexico. The angel said he heard the spirits talk something about impersonating God. So we figured they probably made Michael think God was telling him to kill people.”

Damian violently turned his head to the angel and said, “We ran into Michael today on the way home from the store!”

“Wait, what?” said Steve, “Do you know where he was going?”

“I saw that he got a text from someone named Ashley Garcia. They were going to meet at the movies, probably 45 minutes from now,” said Damian.

Steve looked relieved that Michael didn't seem to be targeting Irene. “Okay, we better stay here where it's safe,” he said, “You should go inside Irene's house and secure the perimeter, warn her about Michael, and I'll let the other angel teams know about Michael's whereabouts.”

Damian went into the house, while Steve activated the holographic communicator on the dashboard of his ambulance.

Meanwhile, a short distance into the spiritual realm above Irene's house, Samael was watching them, with his girlfriend Libertas as they shared a bottle of mead. Although Samael was facilitating the activities of thousands of spiritual beings across the country, even in the White House, he liked treasuring each death, especially at the time of American Thanksgiving. While they couldn't see inside the house due to Irene's magic, Samael knew it was only a matter of time before they would fail. While Damian and Shae had stopped dozens of demons that sought Irene's life, there were hundreds more that would arrive shortly. He couldn't wait to absorb the energy from her death.