Chapter Text
You’d never heard a sound quite like it before. You couldn’t say their singing was bad, but it wasn’t exactly pleasing to the ears either.
Have you ever rearranged your furniture before and then bumped into it because you aren’t used to the new arrangement yet? Now imagine if that situation was put to song. You know the tune. You know the words. But it’s all moved slightly to the left. The discordant sound of voices that were never meant to be filled the air in a twisted howl.
And yet the music persisted.
Nearer, my god, to thee wasn’t a horrible song. You’d heard it on many a Sunday in your youth. This wasn’t meant to be. It was crooked. A little to the left.
You walked over to the other edge of the roof, the alternate inside the school still not chasing you. Weren’t really sure why, but you’d take what you could get in this situation. The mist still hung heavy, not even the sun itself managed to pierce it.
You got off of the roof and started walking. If this was going to be a mirror, or close enough to it of your dreams, you knew where you were headed. The police station wasn’t that far away.
No signs of life greeted or grated at you as you walked. No birds chirped or insects buzzed. There wasn’t even any wind to blow your hair about you as you went. It was as if time had just stood completely still around you and the mist. It was only when you were halfway to the police station when you heard it- crackling. Almost like static.
You could venture a guess as to why.
The police station doors were left open, just as they had been in your dreams. You weren’t sure what to expect from here on. Was there going to be an ambush? The ouija board? Would Gabriel himself walk out and tell you there was nothing to worry about? Or would he have something more sinister planned for you?
Every shaky squeak of the floorboards made you jump as you descended those stairs into the basement. Pitch black greeted you where the dreams had candlelight. And yet you knew this to be intentional. You weren’t here for nothing and you weren’t backing down or running away. The darkness of the basement consumed you.
The quiet down here felt a little different than it did outside, the static having ceased the second you were swallowed by the dark. Where outside had a lack of sound, the basement absorbed it. You waited. His wasn’t a presence you could mistake for anything else.
Soft. It started softly. A barely detectable buzz. Like the one the lights make in an office building. One that you were more than used to being overwhelmed by.
He didn’t speak. Neither did you. It was too dark to see but you knew that you weren’t alone. The lights flickered for a second. Just enough for you to see how close he…it was standing. But he didn’t move. Neither did you. The only sounds or movements made were that of your own breathing. It was an action of vitality he didn’t seem to share. The lights flickered again.
This time he was gone, and in his place the Ouija board remained, one light over it on so that you could see it clearly. Whatever this thing was for, it seemed to be pretty important to him. You weren’t sure why you couldn’t just talk face to face but apparently he wasn’t ready for that, for whatever reason. Leave it to an alternate priest to get cold feet at the last minute about talking to you.
The lights flickered again and this time they stayed on. You were happy for the light. The basement was creepy enough as it was. The “present” you were left wasn’t helping.
You sat on the floor with the board in front of you, the presence from before at a minimum. It was obvious that he was still watching you. You didn’t even need to touch the board.
“There a particular reason you wanted me to come down here?” You asked, not expecting too much of an answer.
“I-N-V-I-T-A-T-I-O-N” was what was spelled out to you by the planchette. You stared at it for a moment, trying to understand what that could mean.
“An invitation to what? The end of my life?” You knew that your sarcastic remarks would earn you no favors from anyone but when had that stopped anything before? You looked and waited for the planchette to move, but it didn’t. You glared at it.
“What, are you just gonna ignore me now?”
You continued to glower at the board but nothing much happened, besides the occasional crackle of static. Was there something you weren’t getting? There always seemed to be with Gabriel.
“You’re the most unhelpful brat I’ve ever met. And I know you’re probably proud of it too.” At this point you were just trying to provoke some kind of reaction. It was the only way you could think to gain any other information out of him.
Instead of literally spelling it out for you, as he could with the planchette, it started to float. You watched it, stumbling back a bit on your hands. You’d never experienced this kind of retaliation from him before. But, none came. Instead of coming for you, the planchette launched itself at the wall.
The place it had embedded itself was on the far wall, deep into a map of the town that had been pinned up. And oh, how many pins there were. They seemed to surround the place the planchette had ended up in a loose circle. And where did it end up? Where else? St Gabriel’s church. No one could ever say the man was subtle.
Why he couldn’t just talk to you here was something you couldn’t seem to fathom. He probably wanted the home field advantage. And frankly; you wanted your cat back, so you knew you had to go.
You picked the planchette out of the wall and returned it to its board, packing the ancient thing up to take it along with you. You knew the thing had importance and damned if you weren’t bringing it along with you. If nothing else, maybe you could use it as a bargaining chip for getting Puff back. Or maybe you could just clock Gabriel over the head with it. Whichever felt more appropriate at the time.
With that, you ascended the stairs from the basement to find the above police station in ruins. The desks had been thrown against the wall in such a way that would give you a clear path to the exit. Hadn’t even heard it while you were in the basement. It seemed Gabriel didn’t want to be kept waiting longer than he had to be. The off kilter singing got louder as you exited the station.
“Keep your panties on, you impatient fucker. I’m coming to your little party. Or whatever the fuck else you’ve “invited” me to.”
Your words of protest did little to stop the sounds surrounding you, because why on earth would anyone, Gabriel in particular, listen to you? The song being sung by the mad angels was a little hard to discern at this point, the words so…bent, in a sense, you could hardly make heads or tails of them. At least nothing was attacking you this go around. You honestly believe you deserve it, along with a vacation.
The church loomed above you as you approached, the structure almost taller than you remember. It seemed nearly impossible; both in its sudden grandiose nature and in sight alone. No longer was it the little house of worship you’d come to know and spend a considerable amount of time in, but now was a house of broken gospel.
Each step forward made your legs shake but you pressed onward, if not for yourself then for Puff. For understanding. For closure. Because as much as you were loath to admit it; you did have feelings for Gabriel. Or at least the mask he’d shown you.
The second you stopped in front of the building, the singing stopped. All the other “angels” in attendance suddenly traded their voices for staring at you, their numerous twisted faces on high reminding you of gargoyles with their horrible scowls.
You walked up the steps on those shaky legs of yours and into the church. The den of the lion. The organ music was to follow, playing a march of sorts. You walked toward the sanctuary. It was packed with bodies, if you could call them that, there in the dark. There was no light save for a bit of candlelight. Rose petals were scattered down the aisle, the blooms intermingled with drops of blood.
It took a moment, but you understood. This wasn’t just a welcome back. This wasn’t going to be a casual conversation. This was a wedding. And just as the church was meant to be the bride of christ…you were meant to be the bride of the devil.