Thursday, February 27, 2020

This Weight I Carry: Chapter 2 – Faithfully Unfaithful

Chapter 2 – Faithfully Unfaithful
“Are you sure we should be doing this?”
“Yes. Doesn’t it seem right to you?”
“Not really. It doesn’t feel right.”
“Just follow me and you’ll see that I’m right. Have I been wrong before?”
“Yes, you usually are.”
“Well, this time I won’t be. Trust me. Our lives will change for the better after this.”
Grayson shakes Julianna.
“Huh? Sorry. I was just having some weird dreams.”
Grayson gives Julianna a curious look.
“What? I’m okay,” Julianna says with a smile and holding Grayson’s arm. “Let’s get to work.”
A mute man and a woman are traveling to the city Grayson and Julianna live in. The man has bandages around the sin affected areas especially his throat while the woman has relatively few coverings for the effects of her sins. With their destination in sight, the man grunts and pulls on the woman’s shirt.
“Don’t worry. We’re almost there. I won’t let us down. Our lives will change for the better after this,” the woman says.
They manage to sneak into a church that’s being built and look through the supplies to find holy water. With the holy water, they sprinkle it on the affected areas to no result. The mute man grunts in response.
“Hmm. We must be in a state of mortal sin then. That’s not surprising. Oh! I know another solution!”
The door to the room they’re in starts to open.
“Quickly hide!”
As the two hide in the dark corners of the room, they watch as a priest, Julianna, and Grayson enter the room.
“We need people like you, Julianna and Grayson. The converted and reverted are the best at bringing sinners back to the Church,” the priest says.
“And you need people defending it here against the unrepentant transformed sinners and it just so happens that you’re allowed to give that task to people like us who keep our special abilities even after confession. What about your special guards? Can’t they help you?” Julianna asks.
“We have them, but we need more than physical force to defend the Church. We need strong faith especially with all the different kinds of sinners who have been getting desperate now that they wear their sins on their sleeves, so to speak.”
“You’d think this would make them more repentant, but I guess I know better.”
“And that’s why we need people like Grayson and you out there. You are great examples of repentance.”
“Haha, oh stop it with the flattery already. We know what our jobs are, and we’ll get it done.”
“I can’t thank you enough.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Julianna and Grayson are moving unpacking and moving boxes from one room to the next with the priest. The woman sees a key on the priest who is checking the inventory and takes it without him noticing. Her hand decays further, so she uses a needle on it to dull the pain. The mute man looks at her in silent concern.
“I’m fine,” she whispers, “Let’s go.”
The two go into another backroom with more supplies and find a locked box that’s modeled after the Ark of the Covenant. They use the key the woman got off the priest to open the box to find bread and wine in a chalice.
“I knew it would be here. Do you remember how to turn this into the Body and Blood of Christ?” the woman asks.
The man grunts.
“I can’t do it, but you can.”
The man grunts again.
“I know we may be in mortal sin, but maybe consuming Christ will help.”
Again, the man grunts.
“Okay, consuming Christ in mortal sin may be wrong, but do you really trust what the Church teaches?”
The door to this room opens and Julianna and Grayson enter it.
“I knew I heard someone creeping around in here,” Julianna says.
“Julianna, wait. We need help.”
“Sister Susanna? Is that you? And you, Father George?”
“Yes, Julianna. You’ve inspired people like us to escape the confines of our vows and to be the people we feel like we’re meant to be.”
“No, if anything, I should’ve inspired you to do differently.”
“Sister Julianna and Father Grayson. The young nun and the priest who fell in love and lead a revolution of love against the Church.”
“I’m not a nun and he’s not a priest anymore. We’ve repented of our sins and we’re doing penance. You should do the same. Priests and nuns shouldn’t be married.”
“Oh, but we are, and you can’t stop us from what we must do. We’re in the right here.”
“The state of your bodies says differently.”
“And you’re one to speak with the way Grayson and you look?”
“Yes, because holy water doesn’t burn us the way it did to you, I’m assuming. I found that bottle of holy water that you left out.”
“The Church is cursed and corrupted with people who are taking advantage of the trying times that God is putting us through.”
“Heretics! We’ll make you eat those words! Grayson!”
Grayson is about to attack the two, but Susanna lifts up her shirt to spew out flames from her chest.
“Don’t you know that it’s a grave sin to look perversely at a nun?” Susanna asks as she continues to spew flames.
The two then exit out the nearby window as Julianna tries to suffocate the flames she’s created.
“Go after them, Grayson!” Susanna says.
Grayson does as Susanna commands and goes after the two. As the two run away, George opens his mouth to spew out acid and bile on the ground to prevent Grayson from following them. Grayson avoids the acid by running across the walls of the buildings. George then spews acid at him while Susanna spews fire to create an explosion to knock Grayson back. The explosion doesn’t keep him down for long as Grayson gets back up and climbs across the rooftops to cut off the two as they run into the streets.
In the public streets, Susanna says, “Don’t pursue us any further, Father Grayson, or else we’ll release an explosion in the streets.”
Angered by them, Grayson is about to approach them.
“Stop, Grayson! Let them go,” Julianna says as she runs towards him.
“Good decision, Sister Julianna.”
Susanna and George get away from the two and head in the direction of another church.
“They’re going to be chasing us soon,” Susanna says, “It’s a good thing we got the times of the mass times in the area. They should be giving out communion now. We can get it if we hurry.”
The two take various shortcuts to get to the nearest church and barrage in just in time as people are going up to receive communion. Susanna spews her flames in the air to frighten everyone in the church.
“Nobody move! We’re just here to receive Jesus and we’ll be on our way out,” she says.
No one in the church dares to move with even the priests who are handing out communion frozen in place. Susanna and George bow before the alter then take communion from the chalice. Julianna and Grayson manage to enter the church just as they’re about to consume the communion.
“Stop it, Susanna! That’s not going to help you! It’s only going to make things worse!” Julianna screams.
“Just you wait, Sister Julianna. Watch as a true nun and priest of God are given the abilities to do His Will. The real nuns and priests of God will rise starting with us!”
Susanna and George take communion and are turned into small dragons with very few human features. They spew their fire and toxins into the air as everyone in the church evacuates except for Julianna and Grayson who try to stop them. Julianna uses her power to blind them as Grayson beats down George, however, George doesn’t go down easy and spews Grayson with his acid. The acid doesn’t affect him that much as he continues his attack. Susanna goes after Julianna with her flames but is blinded again by her light. Julianna takes out a grenade launcher loaded with grenades filled with holy water and shoots three shots at Susanna to take her down. The splash from the grenades cools the surrounding flames and hits George to help Grayson put him down. With Susanna and George down, the flames die down and the pools of acid dissipate.
Julianna looks around the church and comments, “Huh. That ended better than I hoped.”
The two then go outside to see a panicking crowd.
“If the priesthood and nuns are corrupted, then who can help us?” one of the people outside say.
Julianna calms down the crowd by saying, “Hey, hey! Everyone calm down!”
“How can we calm down if sinners can transform into dragons?”
“Because you have people like us on your side. The Church will not fall because of the sinners within it because she’s always had sinners within its walls to heal them and bring them to Heaven.”
“What about the others that she mentioned? She said that she was the start.”
“If there are others out there, we’ll be there to face them. For every duo like them, there are people like Grayson and me who will defend you all to our dying breath. I promise you that. Just offer us your prayers and we’ll make it through.”
The crowd talks to themselves before clapping. Julianna and Grayson bow to show their appreciation. Meanwhile, they are unaware that they’re being watched not by the people associated with Susanna and George, but by people, who were inspired by the old Julianna and Grayson. They move into action to accomplish their goals, which may or may not be good even with their good intentions.

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