Silent Gulch Retribution Chapter 10
Church swung the pipe and the feral was sent flying. The two schisms that were moving closer closed in, and Church was forced to back up. He'd almost made it to his destination when It had sent him a ton of monsters to get rid of. He'd already killed four ferals and three lurkers. He could only hope that It wouldn't send a siam.
Church dodged one of the schism's attacks and swung the pipe, causing the monster to be pushed forward. The hit wasn't good enough to kill it. Church put away his lead pipe and pulled out a fire axe and held it at the ready. The schism attacked again and Church once more stepped out of the way to strike at it. He had sort of forgotten about the second one, though, which came up behind him and swung its head. It cut across Church's lower back. Church backed away from the two of them and they took a moment to realize that their prey had moved.
Church needed to find a way to take them on without leaving his back open to the other. He turned so that he had both of them in his sight as he took a moment to plan and catch his breath. The schisms moved forward, and he was forced to take action. He moved to the left of them and swung as quickly as he could at the open side of the monster. The axe head cut through the monster's skin but it didn't do all that much damage. It did knock it back enough to run into the other monster, tripping them both up and causing them to fall. Church took the chance and attacked, hacking off one of the monster's heads.
The other one slowly struggled to get up on its thin limbs. Church attacked its unprotected back and the axe hacked a long line along its body. The monster roared out, slowly turning. As it turned, Church swung again, hitting it a couple more times on the side before it was facing him again to attack. It lunged forward, and with surprising speed, caught Church between the two halves of its head that made up its mouth. Church put his hands up to stop it and winced as teeth cut into his palms. He lifted his foot and kicked at the monster's stomach, sending it flying back.
Church dropped his axe as he looked down at his palms. He quickly picked the axe back up, and ran toward the monster as it tried to get up. He put a foot on its chest and swung the axe like a golf club, hitting the monster hard in the side of the neck. He had a bit of trouble pulling it out as the handle slipped in his hands due to the blood. After a few seconds he managed to get it free, striking again. The monster struggled and spasmed, then fell limp to the ground. Church took a step back, looking around at the series of monsters that he had killed. He had to admit that he was getting rather good at this.
Church quickly wrapped up his hands to try to stop the bleeding, or at least improve his grip. He put away the axe and moved down to the harbor. He still thought it was stupid that he was going there on purpose, once more by choice, but he'd made his choice. No one got away with stealing from his daughter. He knew where Joshua would be, where It would be. It worked out fine for Church, he wanted the stuffed animal back, and he needed to talk to It.
He picked out an ideal boat and climbed aboard. He took a moment to figure out the controls before he started the boat and headed off across the lake. He was constantly watching the waters as he moved along, expecting something to pop up and try to kill him. Nothing came, though, and he managed to sort of dock his boat. He was close but still a bit far from the actual dock. He had to jump in order to get to the worn-out wood platform.
He looked around, noticing that there were no other boats. He didn't really expect there to be, deep down, and he wasn't sure if he was glad for that. It would mean that there might not be any unusual people here, or there'd only be the normal batshit crazy people.
He moved along the dock up the unsteady stairs toward the actual town. He nearly fell through the stairs at one point, cursing as he pulled himself up to the higher side. "Figures that It wouldn't put in any effort to make anything safer," he muttered as he continued up the stairs.
When he reached the top, he looked out at the familiar streets before him. Even with the thick fog, or maybe only because of the thick fog, the streets felt just like they did at Shepherd's Glen, but somehow they were worse. Maybe it was because he knew that unlike at Shepherd's Glen, where It would throw monsters at him only when it wanted to annoy him, here they were just wandering around. Most of them didn't even care about him if he got far enough away, more focused on some other task.
Church moved down the main streets, confident in where he was heading. He had been there before, and he never liked it there. It was always crawling with the bigger and badder of the monsters. He was sure that he'd seen at least a few siam and for once he wished that his friend was there. Pyramid always kept the siam away for some reason, like they weren't willing to take him on, but by some twisted logic Church was an ideal target. Maybe he'd get lucky; maybe It would let it stay in the normal world and not mess it all up again. He moved through the streets till he came to what he was looking for.
The church loomed before him and he took a deep breath and walked up the stairs, pausing at the door. He pushed it open and was surprised that he found it empty of monsters. It looked just like it had the day that he'd come to it for the first time, the day he met the woman that would change his life by pissing him off. He moved down the center of the church looking around for any sign of either of them. He found nothing and it annoyed him. He took a seat in one of the front pews, trying to figure out what to do next. He had been so sure that this was where Joshua would be.
He leaned back in the pew, staring up at the high ceiling, looking at the stained glass windows. They looked so normal compared to what this church really stood for. He closed his eyes, keeping his ears open for any sounds of activity.
His eyes snapped open as the sounds of sirens cut through the air. He stood up and looked around as the world around him changed. The brick walls became rusted steel. The windows that once held beautiful pictures broke and glass fell shattering onto the ground. The pews started to rot as though time was being sped up. The familiar tint of red surrounded them. Church turned to the main altar where he saw behind it the old tapestry fade away and slowly vanish, revealing a set of large metal doors. So it was calling him to it; he could be fine with that. He moved forward to the doors and they opened, as though his presence was enough to force them to open. Behind them was the main entry way of the otherworld church. He strolled in and the doors shut behind him. He looked back surprised at without having heard anything. A large metal bar had appeared locking the door shut and barbed wire was wrapped around it holding it in place.
Church got out his ceremonial knife, though it felt odd in his hand with the cloth still wrapped around his palms. He moved down the center, way past the broken and worn out pews. He moved up to the main alter and looked down at the table that had something odd carved into the surface. It was a five point star with what looked like holes for something to sit in.
"Damn it, what is it with you and puzzles? Fine, whatever it is I'll do it." He moved back down the main aisle way, looking around for anything that would fit whatever the puzzle was. He hated not having any clues to this kind of thing. He looked around and could find nothing in the main entrance. He moved down one of the sides, knife at the ready. For all he knew there could be a monster around every corner. He came into the first walkway and ducked under some boards that had been nailed up over the top half of the doorway. He looked around, seeing nothing at first. Then he found a few passages from some book, a few candlesticks, and an odd pentagon-shaped plate. He looked the plate over and found a picture of a star with stripes on it. He figured that these were what he must be looking for, the things that he needed.
He turned to move up the stairs but stopped as a smoker staggered down the stairs toward him. "Oh, come on." Church took a few steps back down into the main hall. Smokers were just an annoyance to him. He stood in one place, knife at the ready. When the creature reared back, spreading its ribs and inflating its lungs to attack, Church darted forward. He slashed forward, hitting the creature's lungs, and then quickly rolling to the side. The smoker was pushed back and vomited up some sludge. Church did the same thing one more time and the smoker fell to the ground.
"Please let that be the only thing here." When he got to the top of the stairs he found that it was the confessional area. He had always avoided this place. He just didn't like it here, but he had to find the rest of the plates. He started to search around the room. He checked every shelf and cabinet that he could find. He finally decided to check in the confessional booths. He checked the preacher side first and found nothing. He then moved into the other side and looked around. He finally found a pentagon plate with a feathered star on it. "God, this is stupid."
"There is nothing stupid about wanting to confess." A deep voice waft through the grate between the two sides of the booth. "Tell me, my child, what is it that you have to confess."
"I don't have anything to confess." Church scowled at the faceless voice. "I paid for my sins and I don't need you to tell me that someone whose opinion I don't care about forgives me."
"You have so much anger. Why not let some of it go?" The other voice was really starting to annoy Church. "Anger is part of a sin, wrath."
"I'll show you the sin or wrath if you don't shut the hell up." Church banged his fist against the grate. "I don't believe in those deadly sin craps. I've partaken in lust, wrath, pride, and sloth. It hasn't killed me yet. What killed me isn't your business. In fact, I like my anger. It's part of who I am, and I like it."
The voice didn't reply, so Church got out of the booth and noticed that the preacher's side no longer had a door. Instead, the door had been flung across the room and was broken against the wall. Church looked in the preacher's side and there was a headless legless body hanging in it, strung up by barbed wire. "I hate this place so much," he said, looking the body over. Its clothing was torn and bloody and something seemed familiar about it. He then realized that the bloody clothing was a light blue and that the faint outline of an eagle could be seen on the front.
"Oh, ha ha, very funny." Church stalked away from the confessional. "Is that supposed to be some commentary on how I hate myself or how I think I have problems or something?" Church knew that he wouldn't get a reply, he just needed to vent. "I'm tired of these damn mind games. I know what I did, save it for the Other." He moved back down the stairs.
He stopped as he spotted a pair of needlers walking toward him. He moved a bit up the stairs, knowing that they would have to come at him one at a time if they wanted to get to him. The first one moved up the stairs and Church held his knife at the ready. He blocked the first couple of strikes and was about to strike out and hit the vulnerable flesh of the needler when the blade of another needler dug into his shoulder. Instinctively, he raised his hands up, skillfully grabbing the second foreblade of the needler, keeping it from stabbing him through the neck. He struggled with the needler and the first one took its chance. It struck forward and its blades stabbed into Church's sides. This, though, left it vulnerable, and Church redirected the blade of the needler behind him down into the first needler's head. It fell to the ground dead. Church quickly grabbed his knife, slashing back behind him, and he knew that he hit the needler as it pulled its blade from his shoulder and backed up.
Before it could recover, Church moved up to its side and stabbed his knife into its back. He dragged the knife along its back and it twitched, spilling blood out of the wound before it finally fell. The last needler started to make its way up the stair and Church leaned against the wall. The needler reared back, striking out with one of its blades. Church dodged, and the needler's blade got stuck in the wall deep in the wood. Church moved to the side and the needler tried to slash at him. He managed to dodge the strikes. Church sat watching it and it felt secure enough that he wasn't going to attack. The needler was fully focused on trying to get it's blade out of the wall. Church waited till it was occupied, then moved forward, driving the knife through the needler's skull. It fell limply to the ground blade, still stuck in the wall.
Church leaned against the wall for a moment to take a break and look over his wounds. They hurt, a lot, but he would live, he'd lived through worse.
After a few minutes, Church got back up. He felt sore and in pain but that wasn't anything new. He made his way down the stairs, ready to face something else, but nothing came. He moved out into the main entryway and was surprised that nothing attacked him there. He made his way across to the hallway on the right side of the main entry.
He moved down, passing two doors and moving down to the final room. He found a large statue of what looked like a woman crying. He moved over to it, brushing away some of the cobwebs that hung from it. The plate wasn't hard for him to find. It was sitting at the statue's feet. He picked it up and looked it over, seeing that it had a star that appeared to have fur on it. He didn't quite get the connection yet, but he was sure that it would all fall together. He turned to leave the room and found himself staring at a schism that was walking toward him. He put away his knife and got out his axe. He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the fight.
The schism moved forward steadily, and Church cursed that the area was so cluttered. It meant that he couldn't move around as freely as he hoped. The schism swung its head and he dodged it, ducking under the second hit. He swung with his axe, taking out one of the creature's legs, and it fell to the ground. Church swung his axe again and chopped into the creature's neck until the head was cut off. He then moved slowly back to the hallway, being careful to still watch his back.
He crept into the next room and sighed as he saw a series of paintings. The one of the far left was a picture of a person whose body had been crushed and its skull caved in. It almost looked as though there was actual wet blood dripping down the painting. Church would have touched it to find out if it was actually still wet, but he knew that he wouldn't like the answer.
The painting on the far right was of a man whose chest had been torn open. The head was leaned back and a waterfall of blood seemed to be pouring down from a slash on the man's neck. The blood flow moved around the opened rib cage. There was nothing in the man's chest, only an empty darkness.
The painting in the center, though, annoyed Church. It was a profile picture of two Pyramid Heads facing each other. They stood with their hands out before them, gripping their great blades. The tips of their blades were buried in the ground near their feet and their hands were almost touching, making themselves perfectly symmetrical. One of the pyramid heads had a deep red helmet and a set of torn red feathered wings spread out behind it. The pyramid head on the other side had a blue tinted helmet and a pair of torn and bloody blue dragon wings behind it.
"Wow, what happened to you being more mysterious with this stuff? Or did you just get tired of trying to do that? Wouldn't blame you for it though, seen enough pictures that reference this vague this or that." He groaned and started looking around the room for the plate. He stared at the paintings, thinking that they could give him a hint. He then realized that all the paintings were focused toward the middle of the center painting. He got out his knife and cut through the canvas and was rewarded with the sight of a pentagon plate behind the canvas. He reached in and retrieved it. This one had a star with a set of wings on it.
Church turned around, expecting to find something, but he found nothing. There was no monster walking toward him, no threat to try to kill him. He moved slowly out into the hallway looking this way and that. He walked to the last room and hesitantly moved inside. The room had bookshelves everywhere, and he sighed as he looked around.
He moved along the shelves, looking for anything that stood out to him. He didn't notice any titles that really seemed to stand out to him at first until he spotted several copies of Alice in Wonderland. He picked them out and searched them, feeling triumphant as he found the secret compartment in the book and the final plate, which had a star with some horns on it. If there was one thing he knew, it was Alessa and she'd always loved Alice in Wonderland. He did hate to see that the pages had been cut out. It seemed like a waste of a book. He put the ruined version away and tucked one of the still good copies away for later.
He turned around and found what he had expected. A nurse was slowly making her way toward Church, drawn to his light. He quickly shut it off and the nurse seemed unsure for a moment, standing still, just twitching as it had nothing to attract it. Church put away his knife and drew out the lead pipe. He moved forward and swung the pipe, striking the nurse in the head. The blow didn't kill it, but knocked the monster about a bit. It staggered and he took the chance to swing again, this time aiming for its legs. Its legs gave out and it flailed about, cutting part of Church's arm as it went down. Church raised the pipe and brought it down, caving in the nurse's rib cage. The nurse continued grab for him, so he hit it, caving in most of its torso before it stopped.
He stood, staring down at the body before him on the ground. Flashes of Henry's surprised face and the amount of blood splatter that had covered the walls, furniture, and himself, filled his mind. The image quickly left and he turned to leave the room. He had done what he had to do and he wouldn't regret it.
He didn't find anything in the main area and he returned to the altar, laying out the plates. He looked them over, trying to figure out what they were about. He noticed the small carvings on each point and he looked at them. There was a sword, a jester, a mother and child, a woman in a dress, and a dead person. He was pretty sure that he understood what was going on. He took out the plate with the star with wings on it and put it in the opening near the picture of a dead person. The pentagon opened up and five points came out, making it a star. The face of the plate split into triangles and they spread out to match the star, revealing a picture of a dragon.
"I knew it; you and those damn things." He moved on to the sword and this time placed the plate with the striped star in the location. It did the same things as the first one, creating a star and revealing a picture of a tiger. He placed the horned star plate in the place of the jester and it opened to reveal an ox. He paused, though, over the picture of the mother as he looked at the two plates he had left. He decided to try the feathered star plate into the place near the mother picture. It opened to reveal a picture of a rooster. Church hesitated before he placed the final plate in the place of the woman. When he did, it opened to reveal a picture of a rabbit. Once it had, a set of hidden doors appeared behind Church and a trio of siam appeared.
Church turned to face them, knowing that he had to. The three monsters stood, staring at him. One of them charged forward and Church took a deep breath. He raced toward it and as it raised its hammer-hand, Church darted out of the way. The meat hammer fell to the ground and Church grabbed onto the leather straps on the creature's arm that bound it. The siam flailed and Church chose his moment perfectly, grabbing a hold of the female half of the monster. It seemed to panic as Church raised his knife up. He brought it down into the female half and cut down it. He had learned some time ago that the female half was the weak point on them. The siam moved around, trying to knock him off. Church continued to stab at its back until the thing finally slowly stumbled and fell. Church took in a deep breath, but regretted it as a second siam charged and swung its arm hitting Church. He was sent flying and hit the wall hard.
Church fell to the floor and slowly stood as the siam roared and prepared to charge again. Church struggled to his feet and almost completely got out of the way before the siam hit the wall. The force of the hit sent wood flying and part of it hit Church, knocking him down again. He struggled to his feet while the siam tried to recover from the hit. The third siam charged forward and Church rushed at it. He slipped under its legs as its hammers hit the ground where Church had been standing. Church got to his feet as quickly as he could and grabbed a hold of the female legs that stuck out of the monster's back. He pulled himself up on its back and it moved around, trying to throw him off. The second siam had fully recovered and now charged the other siam, intent on hitting Church. It raised its meat hammers and brought them down with all the force that it could. Church dropped from the third siam's back and to the floor. The second siam brought it's hammers down, crushing the third siam.
Church moved to the opposite side of the room from the remaining siam, trying to catch his breath. His body ached and he was having a bit of trouble standing. The siam turned to him and charged him. Church looked at the monster and for a moment wasn't sure if he was going to make it. He dodged out of the way of the siam's swing, but he wasn't able to get out of the way as it swung the hammer back. It hit him, and he was almost sent flying, but grabbed the leather straps that were wrapped around the creature's hammer hands. For a moment the siam didn't seem to know what do. Church let go quickly and moved to the creature's back where he drew his axe and struck at the monster's female side. The siam cried in pain as Church swung over and over until the beast fell to the ground.
The doors at the head of the altar opened and Church sighed, deciding what he wanted to do. He took a seat, hesitant to do anything until he felt better, but he knew that if he sat around much longer it would only be harder to get up. After a few minutes he finally picked himself up, straining as he did. Church moved toward the doors, standing outside them for a moment before he entered the door. It led down a hallway that made him feel claustrophobic. The walls were dirty metal and the series of metal fans behind grates to one side were rather unnerving. He moved down to the door at the end and opened it. It didn't open up to what he expected. It opened up to a square room that had bloody walls and broken pipes hung from the ceiling.
Church walked into the room and winced as he heard the door slam shut behind him. He wasn't surprised when he heard something walking over the metal ground. Claws scratched at the ground and a monstrous tiger appeared out of the shadows. It was a black tiger with white stripes covering its body. It was four feet tall at the shoulder and watched Church as it stalked around the room. Church moved along with it, trying to keep it on the other side of the room. The tiger growled and Church hesitated as he looked into its green eyes. He recognized them right away. His hands shook as he realized he was going to have to fight it. He didn't know if he could kill it. It felt wrong to him.
The tiger, though, didn't hesitate. It raced across the room and pounced at Church. Church dove out of the way just in time to avoid the sharp claws. He hit the ground hard and his injuries ached with renewed pain. The big cat turned to look toward him and Church managed to get to his feet. He didn't want to, but he had to kill it, he had no choice. Church drew out his knife and faced the monster as it moved toward him. There wasn't really much of an opening as the claws came striking down, and Church moved out of the way. He struck out with the knife and it sliced along the leg of the feline. It roared in pain and the sound made Church feel guilty. He ran across the room as far away from it as he could. It turned its head to its injured leg, and as it ran its tongue slowly over the injury a few times, the cut vanished.
"Great, it can heal itself." Church took a deep breath. "I feel bad for hurting it and every time that I do, it just fixes itself."
The tiger turned back toward him, slowly moving forward. Church tried to move away, but it was making him move closer and closer to a corner. He would be vulnerable there and he didn't want to be somewhere that he couldn't get away. Soon enough he felt the two walls meet and he could see in the feline's eyes that it knew that he was trapped.
The tiger pounced and Church dove out of the way—but not quite far enough. It was not hard at all for the big cat to turn. It jumped up and pounced on his back, pinning him to the ground. Its claws scratched down Church's back, and he cried out in pain as the claws ripped through his flesh. It continued to claw at his back until Church finally was able to move enough to stab his knife into the paw that was pinning him down. The beast jumped off him, moving over to the other side of the room.
Church lay on the ground, trying to recover, but the pain was too much. He tried to move and ended up rolling over onto his back, causing him to let out another cry of pain as the fresh claw cuts hit the ground. The tiger was not far away, licking its paw to fix the wound. Once it was done it turned back to Church madder than ever. It moved over to him and placed on paw on each of his shoulders, pinning him down. The cat opened its mouth and dug its fangs into his shoulder, sinking them deep into his flesh. Memories of the dragon's fangs ripping out his shoulder flashed through his mind as the animal shook its head, trying to tear more at the flesh. Church gripped his knife hard and stabbed with it, burying it to the hilt deep in the tiger's neck. The tiger let go of his neck and fell back off of him.
Church pulled the knife free of the tiger's neck and looked down at the dying monster. He felt awful about it, and he should have. He put his knife away and moved over to its side. The beast growled at him but it was too injured to do much of anything.
He knelt down beside it and wrapped his arms around its neck. "I'm sorry." He sat down beside the dying feline. The tiger calmed down as Church moved its head onto his lap. He didn't mind the blood that dripped down onto his pants, trying to ease the guilt for what he had done. He leaned into the soft fur feeling the effects of the blood loss. He felt it move and felt himself fall to the floor without the energy to get up.
Something moved over his shoulder where the tiger had bitten him. It didn't hurt, though, like he had expected. Rather, it felt good. His shoulder hurt less and less with each pass. His eyes opened enough to see the large cat lay down beside him and he could see that his shoulder was no longer bleeding. He turned toward the feline next to him and buried his face into its fur, taking a deep breath. It looked like her, acted like her, and even smelled like her. Church felt something ache inside him and he clung to it. He felt tears in his eyes, which fell to be absorbed into the dear monster's fur. He cursed It for getting so good at finding ways to torment him. He closed his eyes and drifted off into his pain.
Joshua ran into the room, still hugging Harry to him. "The mean guy is after me." Joshua approached It. It sat in the chair and watched him eying the dragon. "He wants to take Harry from me."
"That dragon does not belong to you." It reached Its hand out. "Give it to me now," It ordered. Joshua was reluctant but eventually handed it over. "Where did you get this?"
"I got it in a house. A lady with red hair thought that it was hers." Joshua pouted and looked down as though he had just been scolded. "She tried to take it from me, too."
"Leave now before he gets here." It waved the boy away and Joshua ran off and out a door. It looked down at the dragon, tapping Its fingers on the arm of Its chair as It frowned. It turned its chair so that It was facing the door that It knew he would soon come through.
~End chapter 10~
A/N: I'm sad at the lack of reviews I get for this story. I'd really like to hear if there are any aspects of this story that you really like, or that you want to see more of. Come on people, review after you read.