"Damian, the church is going to be docking your pay as of next week."

"..."

'Ya see, I'm normally quite skilled at controlling my expressions, but those words simply prove to be too ridiculous. This rickety old man before me heads a run-down church, and while the place has become a complete dump—his greed knows no bounds! Have some shame, you senile old man!'

"I know this seems unreason...able…" The church owner's words seemed to trail off into uncomfortable stillness.

'And why the hell have you stopped talking? Are ya feeling guilty or something?'

Sneaking a glance to the right, attempting to avoid eye contact with the old church owner—Damian caught his reflection in one of the church's large window panes. His expression could be described as less than unsavory, to say the least.

'I see…'

When the old man across from him saw his 'disdain for humanity' face, he immediately ceased his onesided explanation. A strange silence permeated the hall as the owner wrinkled his brow in response.

"...I know this seems unreasonable, but we're not exactly high on profits at the moment." The church owner finished his statement, fully aware of the sin he was committing.

"... Now as tempting as that may seem, I think I'll have to pass on this one," Damian uttered with extreme apprehension while forcing his best business smile.

"You don't have a say in this." The old man pushed with a tired look.

Standing feet apart, they awkwardly hovered in a monotonous silence for a few seconds more until the owner ended the stare with an affirming sigh—signaling the end of this conversation.

"Don't forget to blow the candles out, and be sure to check around the seats in the back. A mother had come in with her kid today, and I think I saw something left under the seat she sat in." The old man then brushed past the young boy and exited through the aged, oak doors of the church entrance.

***

"I guess I should truly start looking into other jobs now." Damian couldn't help but sigh, feeling rather complicated about the situation.

He'd been working as a janitor for this run-down church since the age of thirteen. That's an unnecessarily long and boring time spent dusting off old stone and wood in this bland hall. While leaving this job had always been a strong possibility, Damian just never got around to actually doing so. He couldn't help but feel a small connection with this ancient religious site.

His eyes glanced across the room steadily. The whole of the church—aged and damaged. Dull, untouched wooden seats evenly spanned the hall in rows, separated by a walkway running along the center of the hall. At the end of the walkway, a podium sat—a few steps higher than the concrete floors of the church. Tall arching windows on every wall, carrying orange beams of light at the current hour before fading to pitch black in the next.

This place would have appeared utterly disgraceful to the gods it served if not for the beautiful statues on the back wall. The mysterious stones towered behind the podium, carved with unnerving finesse and emotion. What could be seen was the design of five identical human-like beings cast in luxurious robes. Their faces all bore an unrivaled sense of beauty and perfection.

From left to right, each figure stood carrying a single feature different from one another. The first statue: six slim hands reached out from within its robes to cover the eyes, ears, and mouth of the stone figure. The second statue: brilliant antlers sprouted atop its head. The third statue: stood bearing a simple crown adorned with a single gem. The fourth statue: a face halved in black in white, revealing the sun and moon carved into the sockets of its eyes. Lastly, at the far right. The fifth statue: a stone figure bearing a face without features.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Damian had always wondered why this last statue in particular was left so plain compared to the others. A simple blank slate of a face begged the question: was the statue even finished or was it intentional?

These sculptures had essentially been good friends of his over the course of all these years. Even after all this time, however, these stone figures still left Damian uneasy every time he entered this wretched and ancient church.

To this day, he still couldn't help but feel like he was being watched when he cleaned here. Not to mention: After all this time, Damian still didn't exactly know what god or gods this church was even built for. While he'd heard the church owner give numerous stories to random passer-byes, each more absurd than the last—all in order to make some kind of profit from their religious beliefs. He still didn't know who these five statues were really supposed to be.

Well, it's not like he was the only one.

For as long as Damian's worked here, he hadn't met a single person who knew what this church exactly was anyway. It made sense though. In the outer ring of the city, no one was ever very educated on anything. Especially in the slums around these parts.

'Why the hell am I getting emotional? I need to focus on cleaning this place before it gets too… late.'

Damian ceased whatever thoughts and actions he had currently planned for the night and simply stared ahead. His eyes were glued to one thing. The statues. More specifically, the statue that donned the simple crown.

He couldn't tell exactly what, but something moved. Squinting his eyes, Damian cautiously advanced toward the statue. Upon arrival, an imposing three meters of stone glared back at him within arm's length. Inspecting the statue carefully, he spotted something black around the edge of the stone.

Leaning in, he strained himself to get a better look at the mysterious 'object'. Now a dozen centimeters away from the stone, he waited until it then shows itself.

It was a spider. A SPIDER…

"!!!"

Damian violently jerked away from where he was standing and immediately lost balance. Instinctively, he grabbed ahold of whatever he could get his hands on—this just so happened to be that faceless friend of his.

*THUD*

*CRACK*

"..."

Damian sat wide-eyed, attempting to comprehend what exactly had just transpired. Looking around at where he had fallen, he couldn't help but wonder why precisely one of the statue's podiums was clearly displayed without its owner. Slowly lowering his perspective to the floor, he was then greeted by a faceless stone figure, cracks scattered severely around its body.

"...Ah."

"...Shit!"

***

Pacing around the church hall, Damian nervously bit at the skin of his fingers.

"..."

'Even if I wanted to quit, this isn't exactly what I had in mind!'

'Should I notify the church owner? Not a chance. That old sack of rocks is simply going to leave me in debt for the rest of my life. Should I just quit and maybe leave a note? I guess that's an option? That man will definitely notify the authorities and at that point, I'll be screwed, but wait. Maybe I could just… fix the statue? This seems absurd, but…'

'Won't hurt trying I guess?'

Awkwardly making his way over to the damaged statue, Damian began to slow down. Through the cracks of the statue, he noticed something peculiar. The air around the statue seemed to be acting strange. Upon closer inspection, it could be said that the air was getting sucked into the cracks.

'...That's…definitely not normal…'

When Damian attempted to get a better look at the strange phenomena, his mind began to feel faint. Drawn toward the broken statue, he couldn't help but slowly gravitate closer to the cracks left in the unidentified stone. From within the stone, a quiet whisper could be heard. Entranced, Damian's hand reached out and entered the largest crevice he had left on the scarred statue. The whispering began to grow louder as he felt himself falling out of reality. However, at his wit's end, a subtle, but incredibly distinct voice rang clearly above the rest:

-"Wake up."-