A/N - Yep, Nathan's back! Told you I'd start this again when the girls reached the church.

The passageway up ahead was mud dirty and short, and lead me to a second door. The hallway beyond was weird. Not that much had been normal so far, but that had just been out-and-out freakshow. This, though, was close enough to normal for the weirdness to be somehow weirder. Like it was out to get under your skin, crawl around within you, and make you just about apeshit crazy. But slow, soft, like being seduced by a beautiful girl and it's not until you're just about all the way there with her that you realise she's a corpse. Or like an ongoing tap dripping forever. Not that bad, for the first few minutes, but after that it's an itch you just gotta scratch. And scratch, and scratch till you lose your mind in the effort.

The walls were made of stone, and whitewashed. The door behind me allowed a draft through, creating a windtunnel effect. Enclosed as I was in there, I felt cold and alone. Something was written in red on the walls, but I didn't stop to read it, the feeling of being watched, of Something or Someone watching me and hating me for being there was too strong. I passed a metal gate on the way along, but it was chained closed, and when I went to take a closer look a black cat jumped out of nowhere at me, snarling. I ran the rest of the way up the hallway.

Eventually I came to a door, and could hear voices beyond it, a young girl and an older woman. The door wouldn't open on my first try, and on my second, my hand just went right through it.

That scared me, I can tell you. But I was too curious to know what was going on to pay much mind. If my hand could go through, maybe the rest of me could, too. I stepped through the door and found myself, of all places, in a church. Of sorts.

A woman dressed in black, with long white-blonde hair, was standing behind the altar at the far end of the church. A short-haired blonde girl, with a white bodywarmer, short denim skirt, and handgun aimed at the woman, was stood with her back to me. Not my Katie. I'd been fooled! But, then who was this? They could almost have been twins, what the hell?

As I watched, the girl spoke.

"Checkmate."

The older woman shook her head. "Not yet," she said calmly, "the time is not yet at hand." She
raised her hands and eyes, and held forth like she was preaching. "The time when all will be forgiven their sins. When the paradise we have long dreamed for will arrive. After the Judgment and Atonement, an eternity of bliss."

Her voice changed, and the comments seemed to be directed at someone else. Comments full
of pain... and of love, somehow.

"Ohh, Alessa," she said, "the world you wanted is nearly here..."

"That's not what I want." said the girl, holding her gun steadily aimed at the woman. Her voice had changed, too, deliberate, definite, and filled with grim intent. I stepped closer, trying to avoid the seats, but ended up walking straight through them, literally.

Waist-deep in the wood, I found I couldn't feel it at all, so I just kept walking through the pews, and didn't stop till I was stood looking into the gap between them I could see them clear as I see my hand now, but neither of them saw me. I didn't even cast a shadow.

The woman looked straight at the girl, sounded surprised that the comments could be taken to be directed at the girl in front of her. "Not you. Alessa. Your true self." She tapped her heart. What the hell? The girl wasn't who she was, but really someone else? Some 'Alessa' who wanted another world?

The girl shook her head, "But I am Alessa." Suddenly I was scared of her, rather than this freaky blonde woman. What kind of... thing was this in the cute little skirt and blonde hair? She looked like a normal kid, but that new voice, that revealing that she was 'Alessa', whoever the hell that was... Somehow the name made me cold, made my skin feel like it wanted to just crawl off my body and run away rather than face her.

'Alessa' spoke again. "My little Claudia. My dear, sweet sister."

The blonde woman came around the altar, stunned. "Alessa? Is it you? Ohhh, how I've missed you!"

The girl ignored this. "I don't need another world." she said coldly, "It's fine the way it is."

The woman was confused, "But you said it yourself. 'The world must first be cleansed with fire.'"

"But that's not what I want now." Whoever this new personality was, she had a completely different way of talking. A completely different voice, almost.

"Alessa, don't you want happiness?" asked the woman, bewildered. "Have you become blind to all the hopeless suffering in the world? We need... we all need God's salvation!"

Suddenly the blonde girl's attitude was in tune with her appearance again, her voice no longer 'Alessa's. "Listen. Suffering is a fact of life. Either you learn to deal with that or you go under." She clutched at her stomach and groaned, as though it hurt her. She straightened up and carried on. "You can stay in your little dream world, but you can't keep hurting other people." She clutched at her side again, removed her hand to wave it at 'Claudia'. "Besides," she continued, "I'll never forgive you for hurting my father."

The woman in black shook her head. "I wish only for the salvation of mankind. But for that to happen, the world must first be remade. And for that we need God."

The girl got angry at this. "You self-righteous witch! No one asked you to help!" The pain seemed to be back now, she grabbed her belly and fell to her knees.

The priestess gestured. "God is growing within you." She sounded satisfied, as though some plan of hers was working out. I was more confused than ever by now. A God growing in a girl? What the hell? The girl said nothing, but groaned with pain as she clutched herself. The priestess spoke again. "You despise me, don't you?"

"You're damned right I do!" the girl growled through gritted teeth.

The woman in black smiled and nodded as 'Alessa' clutched at her stomach. "That's good." And with that, she turned and left.

The girl on the ground whimpered in pain, and forced herself to stand, as it seemed to subside. She took a quick look at the paintings above the altar, portraits of a man and a woman offering a reed and a snake to the sun. What the hell kinda fucked up church was this?

Grabbing a tablet on the shelf behind the altar, 'Alessa' growled in anger, reloaded her gun, and gave chase, slamming the door behind her. Sirens sounded in the distance and my vision blurred. When I could see again, it all looked the same. Empty except for me, and lit by candlelight, but I could feel the altar when I touched it, could turn the pages of the Book on the altar, something about how God loved all Her children and wanted to lead us all to Paradise. I realised then, and it almost stopped my heart, that this was the Order church I'd heard so much about from my pal back home. The Order of Wish House infamy, some reporter with a Nazi name, Shribber or Skriber or something had done an 'expose' on it, and hadn't even gotten half as close to the truth as he woulda done by asking some of my buddies. If he had, it woulda turned his hair white and his skin black. I turned to run, and almost ran straight into someone stood behind me.