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The night time was Craig's favorite time to study; calm and quiet, with the monastery's halls empty and the peaceful atmosphere that brought with it.
With his knees on the prayer stool, the young boy's eyes danced lazily around the book, as the words he read over and over refused to linger in his brain for some reason. Maybe it was the dim light that made the reading harder for his tired sight, or his general reluctance for sitting around and spending hours focusing on memorizing the psalms and proverbs was to blame.
What started hours ago as a light drizzle was now a full-blown storm. The beautiful figures in the stained glasses seemed to dance at the rhythm of the rain and wind outside. For a brief moment, Craig's eyes followed along with the window, only to stop at the top glass. After so many years in that monastery, it was the first time he paid attention to the scene that was presented to him. A thousand hands, clinging and grabbing a boy's body, tearing his skin apart and pulling him down into the eternal flames. His eyes, pained and exhausted, are fixed in the broken halo above his head. Thorned vines cover his arms and hands, and the blood of his wounds falls yet again, into the vicious hands that reclaim him to the cursed reign below the earth.
Absorbed into this bloody scene, the young priest's gaze traveled across the art piece again to the young boy's eyes. More than just the intense feeling of pain that it was charged with, those unnatural golden eyes were all Craig could think of.
A gentle knock on the doors of the monastery took him out of this trance. With a quick pace, his feet drove him right at the door and after an immense struggle, he pried the doors open, straining against the weight. A hooded figure awaited outside, dripping wet, covered from head to toe.
"Goodness gracious!" Craig exclaimed, grabbing the mysterious person by the arm, and pulling them inside. With an exasperated sigh, he sat them in the stool.
"What were you doing all alone under this heavy rain?"
The worry in his tone was noticeable, and for a moment he thought of Father Maxi, who had asked him the same question several times before in his youth. As the hooded person remained silent, Craig just sighed again and went to look out for some towels.
With quick steps, the boy ran across the aisles back and forth, until his arms carried enough towels to dry a horse. One can never be too sure, especially in such a cold place like this. Once his feet took him back to the chapel, he glanced around until his eyes found this mysterious person, standing still in front of the glasses, eyes fixed to the same scene he was looking at just mere minutes ago.
"Hey, Uhm... I brought the towels."
In a soft and slow movement, the hood fell to reveal a golden, unkempt mane that covered a delicate and curious pair of green eyes, bouncing in between the towels and the glass. A timid smile grew on the strange's lips, as his hand reached for the priest's offering.
"Thank you, Pastor Craig" was all he said for the dark-haired boy's eyes grew in disbelief, only for mere seconds. Why was he so startled a stranger could know his name? Even though he was fairly known in the town, never in his life was he surprised by such an occurrence like this before. With a quick blink and a shake of his head, Craig discarded these thoughts to reply with just a dry "You're welcome".
Silent seconds, and then minutes, followed that awkward exchange. Craig went back to his stool, ready to resume his reading. But half his attention (or maybe a little more than he would like to admit) was being paid to this boy, motionless as a statue in front of the glasses. The more the priest paid attention to him, the less he could focus on his holy duties. Closing the book, Craig cleared his throat, just to notice a small glimpse of movement from his guest.
"So. Where do you come from?" Was all he managed to voice. There were so many more questions in his mind, but he'd have time to ask them later. As the blond's hand rose ever so slightly, trying to grasp with his fingers the figures of the glass that rose above them in the wall, all he said was "Not too far" followed by a smile and the concerned expression in his host's face. Alright, there was no need to be so cryptic.
Turning back to his host, the hooded boy observed the priest with an ever-growing curiosity in his gaze. Feeling certainly a bit uncomfortable, Craig opened his mouth, only to be silenced by the only question he would have never been ready enough to face.
"Excuse me, Pastor, I have a personal question for you" Those green eyes glided peacefully across Craig's features. From his thin, sealed lips, to his ice-cold blue eyes. For a moment, the priest believed to see a gleaming golden spark in the stranger's inquisitive sight. "...Are you a man of faith?"
That question was like an ice water bucket right to his face. The discomfort in his expression was too much to hide, and placing a hand over the hard book of his bible, he replied.
"Of course I am, I am a pastor after all"
Sure, every man is allowed to have his doubts every once in a while; but even for his short time in this Earth, Craig was considered a rather pragmatic, stoic, and rational person. Studying priesthood was no more than a rational choice for his life; since a place to sleep and a warm dish of food were all he could ask for while trying to decide where to focus his life to, and avoid disappointing his family at the same time. The sacred words of the Lord were for him no more than mere metaphors and old stories that carried the teachings and rules of an ancient civilization; but somehow, the thought of admitting this in front of someone, especially inside the chapel, made him feel extremely insecure.
"But still... Are you?"
Craig's throat went dry in a matter of seconds. He felt his adam's apple tightening in his neck as he tried to swallow, either the answer or his fear. Never in his life he has felt so exposed. The silence in the room intensified as the priest's jaw clenched, preventing him from replying. His eyes fixed in the blond's smile were looking for the slightest movement in his frail, covered body, feeling like prey that awaits for the hunter's first move.
Taking this silence as his so awaited answer the stranger smiled coyly, yet his hands tightened up, grabbing the wet fabric that covered his body. The movement startled both boys, who looked nervously at each other, but the blond's embarrassed eyes drifted rapidly to the towels.
Moving his head as if he was trying to shake an intrusive thought out of his mind, the young boy lowered his head and asked with a shy tone. "Do you think your faith is strong enough to get you into Heaven?"
Another question that left Craig dumbfounded. His hand passed across his hair, allowing himself a few seconds to think what to reply. A million thoughts crossed his mind in a single breath, and his eyes, full of doubt planted by this bold query, fell again into the hardcover of his Bible. Taking a deep breath, the priest loosened his jaw and shoulders and, trying to sound convincing (both to his guest and himself) replied.
"Yes, no matter how deep or shallow our faith may be, if we are true to ourselves and to the word of the Lord, there will always be room for any of us in Heaven"
"I see"
The ever-growing silence filled the air in the chapel once again, both boys taking their eyes out of one another. Craig felt, for the first time in his life, apprehensive. There was no other way to explain the creeping cold traveling across his spine each time he laid his sight on the blond figure, even for a single second. On the other hand, the cryptic guest turned his back at Craig, with his full attention placed in the glass frame once again. With his fingers fidgeting nervously all over his covered arms, the stranger's body twitched in an involuntary spasm that made poor Craig's heart almost jump to his throat.
He clearly wasn't thinking enough what he was doing, because without realizing it, the priest's hands took a towel and walked towards the boy. Standing at the end of the three-steps stair, Craig noticed it was the only time he could look at this boy in the eyes without lowering his head. The blond heard the priest's steps getting closer and closer, but only after he felt his hood being tugged back by the dark-haired boy, he felt the need to react.
"H-hey! What are you doing?" For the first time, the stranger's voice had a spark of emotion in it, and it wasn't good. Anxiously pulling his hood back, he waited for an answer as his hands crossed over his chest, grabbing the damp cloth covering his arms.
"You're soaking wet and shaking. You need a towel" Craig's voice was calm, and the certainty of his words seemed to set ground to the boy's complaints. With a certain annoyance painted in the corner of his eyes, he rolled up his sleeves. The priest's stomach shrank and twisted on his insides when his eyes ran over the intricate patterns scarred in the stranger's arms. With the most deadpan face he could force unto himself, he just sighed and tried to focus on whatever could drive his eyes away from these gruesome marks.
While the mysterious blond dried his arms with the towel, Craig's mind raced back in time, right to where the strange mishappens started.
"You..." His throat failed him at the moment these damned green eyes laid on his lips, and the same honey gleaming sparks on them, only to turn into that jade-like tone again. "How did you know my name?"
The other boy raised his eyebrows and with a delightful smile, the sly tone that tainted his words sent a shiver down Craig's spine.
"Do I frighten you, Pastor Craig?"
Yes, to hell and back. Craig's feet instinctively drifted back, almost losing his balance for the missing step in the stair. Cold sweat ran down his forehead as the stranger just stood there, ominous and terrifying. The pastor couldn't help but feel trapped inside his own sanctuary, cornered by someone-- Something outside the reach of his understanding. He felt his voice crack under the pressure of these crushing, intense jade eyes fixed In him.
Fighting against the urge to cry in the spot, the young priest stood still as he felt yet again the tightening pressure in his neck. Dried throat and ringing ears, everything there screamed "Danger" to him yet he... Couldn't move. Not a single fiber in his body obeyed the commands his brain urged to send. Scream, run, fight, nothing. Biting his lower lip, Craig finally could ask.
"Who are you?... WHAT are you?"
His heart skipped a beat once the stranger flashed him a smile. Two sharp canines, bigger and thicker than any other he has ever seen (not many, for he would have been a dentist to have a broader comparison margin) were hidden under those plump lips.
"I thought you'd never ask! You can call me Tweek"
Tweek's eyes followed the trails of sweat from the priest's face, the violent movement of his chest as his lungs tried to grasp for every bit of oxygen they could. Even though the whole scene was amusing, he had no time to lose. Clearing his throat, his voice echoed in the chapel, accompanied by the storm outside.
"So, Pastor Craig... Do you still have your key?" The hooded boy asked, cocking his head to the side. The golden threads of his hair followed along with the motion, only to meet with Craig's perplexed expression. His eyebrows could almost touch each other, and his face twisted in a confused grimace. Tweek saw how his jaw relaxed and his fist unclenched, yet his face remained with the same stunned expression.
"Th... The WHAT?"
"Your key! Your key to Heaven!"
"A key to heaven" Craig scoffed. "Unbelievable!" Fingers on his temple, his mind raced against his body feeling lightweight and his vision going blurry. Suddenly, the priest's body straightened up taking his hand to travel across his raven-black hair. As the perplexion faded from his face, only the realization of what unfathomable destiny was brought to his feet.
Tweek did nothing but observe. Faint nervous spasms took over his arms, quick hands yearningly pulled his nape hair, and a tiny yet persistent (but above all, too damn familiar for him) hunch nested inside his very chest, beating at the drums to the distant thunders in the horizon. Where was the paralyzing terror in the priest's eyes? Why were they standing still, with their eyes unable to meet one another? Did he do something wrong?
When the boy's glistering eyes met Craig's, all he saw was the certainty of a newfound truth in the deep eternity of his ice-blue eyes.
"Alright, I see. Clearly, I am losing my mind, there's no other logical explanation" The priest muttered nervously. It was Tweek's turn now to adopt the confused semblance as his companion's hand reached his mouth. It was a nervous tic Craig could never kick off his system no matter how hard he tried in the past, biting his nails and the small skin pieces around them offered a small relief to his mind at that moment.
On the other hand, the blond swallowed dry. As soon as he felt to lose control over the situation, those annoying tremblings took over his body. The shaking hands he could stand, even pulling his hair. But when his eyelid closed like a blind, Tweek panicked. The mere thought of his victim seeing him succumb to despair set all the alarms on his mind.
"I-I promise you you're not losing your mind!" he spouted, hand pulling his golden threads. "Look, all I need is a Key to Heaven! I-it kinda varies from people to p-people, but it's that part that makes you feel like yourself! N-not your soul, but Uhh... A quality? J-just hear me out, man!" These rapid-fired words were met with silence, for the priest's mind was absorbed somewhere else. An exasperated sigh escaped from Tweek's mouth as a faint ticking sound played in the back of his mind. Overridden by anxiety, the young boy continued.
"Alright, hear me out. I need to take just a tiny bit of yourself, so I can go right back where I came from! You see..." But Craig was having none of it. Tweek kept talking, but the words dissolved into the ether before reaching the priest's ears. For him, it was mere white noise, barely noticeable among the heavy rain that hit the chapel's roof and the thunders who, each time closer, threatened to break his concentration. As the adrenaline left his body, Craig felt himself slowly pulling all his pieces together. His feet finally felt the ground below them, and the rest of his senses followed by. It was hard to focus his sight in anything but the chapel's door leading to the hallways, but when he managed to blink out of this trance, every fiber of his body was overloaded by the blond's voice.
Even after slowly recovering his senses, Craig's ears burned, his brain pleaded for mercy as the incessant babble sent shivers through his body. The only word he could grasp from Tweek's mouth was "key", and he still had no idea what was all about. Each sound that came out of the stranger's mouth felt like a needle, nailing itself deeper and deeper in the priest's body and mind. Sharp yet slight pain in his hand finally brought him back to his full senses and the metallic taste in his lips shook him out well enough to focus.
It was just a reflex, entirely out of his control much to his disgust. All it took was just a blink for the priest's hand to draw his middle finger to his guest, yet another mannerism that no matter how hard Father Maxi tried, was impossible to correct. Craig's piercing eyes met with Tweek's bewildered face, with his sight fixed in the priest's gesture. The blond's eyes scanned carefully the scene completely puzzled, and certainly offended.
"H-hey! What's that supposed to mean!? Rude!"
"Shut up; you're not even real."
Those three seconds felt like an eternity. Tweek would have let the middle finger slide, it wouldn't have mattered. But for some reason, this guy denying his own existence was the stick that broke the camel's back for him. Something inside him erupted to surface, something that made his face boil with a feeling he has long forgotten. Teeth grinding harshly on his delicate lips tearing apart their soft skin, and the ticking in his mind was already too loud for him to ignore it anymore. The stranger's eyes met with Craig's, and the building anger in them overthrew the priest's sense of safety over his previous statement.
"Oh yeah?" His voice, full of that kind of pain one hopes no one notices when talking, boomed in the chapel while a thunder far away played like a grim choir in the background. "Can your imagination do THIS!?"
Faster than the lighting that flashed before his eyes, Tweek's figure vanished out of thin air, only leaving behind his damp hood. Completely alone in the chapel, Craig felt his stomach turning inside out, barely containing the stream of bile that threatened to escape from his throat. Now he really felt he fucked up. Stiff like stone, the priest's body wasn't even shivering. Every single one of his senses was focused on standing still, hoping that maybe whatever Tweek was, couldn't see him unless he moved. A vain relief, however, for things rarely work out as if it was some sort of movie. But for Craig, everything felt so unreal that he was willing to hopelessly cling onto any thought that brought him an ounce of peace of mind.
Inadvertently, a faint murmur came to the priest's ears.
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul."
Clutching his crucifix with all his might, Craig let the words flow softly out of his mouth, trying for them to carry away all the turmoil and desperation in his heart like a mantra that would keep him safe from whatever was happening there.
"He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff–they comfort me."
I fear no evil, he called bullshit. He was beyond terrified. Weak knees, wet eyes, and broken spirit, the whole combo. As the prayer glided softly from his lips, a thunder dragged back to reality. Focusing his shaky sight right in front of him, sudden lighting fell from the stormy sky, bringing with it what Craig could only describe as a nightmare vision.
Two hands, cold as the night, clasped his cheeks on them. The dark-haired boy succumbed at his body's denial, loosening up and falling to his knees. Those dangerous, beamy golden eyes fixed over him like daggers were prying right into Craig's mind. He could feel the whole world crumbling down below his feet. All the priest saw in those eyes was his reflected and unadulterated terror running down his face, cold sweat painting the true horror his mind felt in that instant.
"No more games" Tweek snarled, pressing his fingers onto Craig's skin. A warm, metallic liquid ran down the blond's lacerated lips. Now completely unhooded, the scars on his arms went up all the way to his torso. Intricate patterns ran across his lean body, some of them forming ungodly marks, long forgotten in this world.
Another lighting strikes down from above, falling in the priest's eyes and bringing him the utmost revelation of this fateful night. With the stranger's body illuminated from above, the dawning realization crushed his spirit like a rock; Tweek's figure fitted almost perfectly in the glass frame behind him. At that moment his chest shrunk and for the second time not only tonight but in his whole life, he left the fright and fear invade him.
Up to this point, there was no way Craig would have laid eyes in the glass frame to describe it better than "Nice, but creepy". Yet now, feeling in his flesh that he was part of it, wishing that the hands that held him wouldn't take him to the Kingdom beyond the Magma, he found no words to express the dread he felt. Horrifying chills went down his long limbs just by thinking about that.
Kneeling and subdued to this creature's will, those blue eyes got caught in the hypnotic scene. Tweek stood there, menacingly, holding Craig in his place and observing the ever-creeping despair filling his lungs as the seconds passed. Almost touching each other's noses, the blond felt the intoxicating and desperate gasps for air from his victim.
"I don't want any trouble, I just want this to end as much as you do. They're gonna get me, and I really do not want that. So, shut up now, I'm going to take your faith away"
Craig couldn't stop it at this point, the stranger had complete control over him. Feeling their faces closer and closer, the priest just closed his eyes and hoped whatever happens after this point was at least painless (or he wasn't conscious enough to suffer through it). Yet, just before those cursed lips could lay on his, a deafening thunder roared in the chapel, followed by a surprisingly familiar sound.
"Oh, howdy Craig!"
The hallway door slammed open against the concrete wall and a young, angelical voice claimed Craig's attention. Baby blue eyes poking out of the doorframe, shyly pushing himself inside the room. The priest's eyes flew to this young boy, overflowing with fear.
"Father Maxi sent me to look out for you, he's been worried sick! He heard the door and... Hey, you feelin' alright there, fella?"
It took some seconds for Craig to feel the pressure in his face gone, and so his body slowly relaxed back to normal.
"Yeah" He replied, clearing his throat. "I'm fine Butters, why you ask?"
"Gee whiz, you certainly don't look like you're fine, buddy. Why are you alone in the chapel at this hour? We have choir practice first hour tomorrow"
The priest's eyes scanned the room, finding that in fact, they were the only ones in the chapel right now. Standing up with a quick move, Craig swallowed nervously. He knew in his heart he was a terrible liar, but just by thinking of saying out loud even a small fraction of what did that night bring to his life, he was sure that lying about it would save him from a few hospital visits. Hand in his mouth again, his teeth went back to work biting whatever they could in those callous fingers.
"I... I was praying. Difficult night"
"Ah, I get you, buddy, I don't like storms either" Butters shrugged nonchalantly, and Craig's heart sank by the weight of his newfound guilt, just to be struck with another question. "And what about the door?"
"The door? I uh, I wanted to make sure nobody was outside under this rain" He lied again. A cold and slick sensation in the Priest's chest sent an involuntary spasm across his body, yet he thanked for Butters to be so naive to notice it. When the choir boy nodded in approval of Craig's words, that awful feeling inside of him intensified.
"Yeah, it'd be awful to be caught up in the rain right now. Well, fella! I'll leave you alone so you can pray your worries away! Good night!"
Craig's free hand waved awkwardly at the boy, whose quick feet had taken him back to the spacious hallways to the back dorms. And again, that creeping ominous feeling drowned the priest's senses, for the calmness and safe aura Butters brought with him for just mere seconds was long gone already.
A faint sound filled the chapel, turning Craig's bones into dust. That laugh rattled between the walls, coming from one of the Saint's statues near the windows. His furry hooves crossed delicately as the creature sat in the statue's arms. The priest saw then, terrorized, how his guest held a shiny ethereal key in between his fingers.
"Well, well, well..." Tweek crooned slyly. "It seems that your faith wasn't strong enough for you to get into Heaven, but I have now what was really going to take you there. So long Pastor Craig, thank you... For your honesty"
To Craig's surprise, a strange brilliance emerged from the stranger's back. It seemed divine, but something didn't quite fit. By spreading those wings he understood. They were massacred, destroyed. Could he even spread to the heavens? Was that being losing his purity, his reason for being? Several questions crossed his mind, quicker than the lighting that stroke from above. Yet, for some reason, the priest still saw them as an extension of divinity.
Before any sound could come out of his mouth, Tweek vanished into the darkness that engulfed the chapel.
*****
When the first sunrays hit the chapel that morning, Craig found himself passed out on the floor. The damp hood, thrown away by the mysterious guest, was the only proof he needed to know that what happened during that night wasn't just a nightmare. For some reason beyond his understanding, the priest decided (against his better judgment) to keep it. Butters found him shortly after, while he prepared everything for the choir practice. The priest, obviously, decided to keep that whole night to himself.
Days and weeks passed by for the dark-haired boy, and somehow, he could feel in his heart and his mind that something has changed, both within and without himself. More withdrawn than usual, Craig noticed disdainful looks from both peers and superiors. His name dragged an open secret all around the chapel, for since that fateful night, no one could deny that Pastor Craig wasn't quite himself anymore. But even despite being silently shunned, despite the doubtful intentions in their words, despite it all...
Most of Craig's free time was now spent outside the chapel. Cold sweat dripped from his pores at the mere memories of his uneventful encounter.
But one night, rain pouring down the volatile sky, his feet drove him once again to that feared place. As always, the candles gave the dim ambiance a grim atmosphere yet Craig didn't care. His body ached at the sight of the glass frame, immense and unreachable, away from his cold fingertips. Facing again this dreadful vision and overwhelmed by the memories, the priest closed his eyes tightly, but the image of the boy was burned into his mind, much like the regret abiding in his heart for years to come.
Prayer after prayer, the futility of it all made him finally lose all hope. Even after the restless nights of incessant supplication, all of the priest's efforts were met with mere disappointment.
Boiling with frustration, those blue eyes couldn't stop the stream of tears running down his cheeks. The realization has finally dawned on him, what Tweek did was brilliant. Forcing him to lie to his peers and to keep a secret that could potentially excommunicate him from church, ruining his life and especially damaging his family in the process? What a smart fucker. That's why Tweek didn't take his cardboard faith, he knew that would take him nowhere.
That's why that demon took Craig's honesty.
Now, all he had to do was to get it back.