The Cleansing

Deep thunder rolled. Black clouds closed evil fingers around a full moon desperate to escape their grasp.

Pale fog drifted between cracked tombstones. Names of old families were written here once; time had long since erased them, and worn the stones to mere dreams of what they once were.

Crooked trees reached with bent and broken branches and malevolent intent; and each of the vile sentinels leaned toward the dead and broken cathedral nearby.

Grey stones turned black by time and fire littered the ground. The remnants of the old church melded with the darkness of the night, casting a dark shadow upon a gloomy sky.

A full moon looked balefully down upon the two errant trespassers.

“We shouldn’t be here.” A weak, shaky voice uttered.

“No one should be here.” An equally shaken voice replied.

But someone was here. Or, something.

Evil mist rose over toppled and broken pews. The rectory smelled of ash, and brimstone; as if something vile was still defiling this once-hallowed ground.

They entered cautiously, holding the last gold cross before them. The black air itself seemed to close in from all sides. Pale night faded behind them as they approached the blackened pulpit.

At last, two small, frightened men stood before a malevolence they couldn’t begin to fathom, with nothing to shield them save a poor golden cross and their faith.

“We, we b,banish you in the n,name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” A weak voice uttered.

The mist in the air hovered still, as though it had become solid and stood on its own.

“Doesn’t sound like you mean it.” Came the answer, from everywhere, and nowhere, chilling them to their very core.

“Well. We do.” Said the other one, as mousy as his friend, and just as terrified.

“Do you now, do you indeed?” Came the dark answer. “Let’s put that to the test, shall we? Will you give your lives to banish me? Hmm? Or will you save yourselves, and live?”

One now, stood firm, a resolve welling up deep within him.

“What shall our lives be worth if we fail our duty, our Lord and our people now? We would live in misery, every day being more toil than the last, our souls heavy with the stench of failure and weakness. Nay, I shall not. I stand up to you, with Christ behind me. Send me to Him if you can, but I’ll not leave ‘till you’re back in hell where you belong!”

Silence reigned, teeth chattered, all remained still.

Suddenly the dark mist began to recede. Moonlight filtered in from the ruined ceiling.

The dark voice called out one last time. “So be it.”

The two men, one old, one young, both terrified to their core, gasped a sigh of relief. It was finally over.