Work Text:
The clouds were reflecting the red of the setting sun, allowing a view beyond the horizon. It looked as though a deep incandescence was rising behind the Earth, like the lights of hell itself unleashed were shining in the west.
Kaminari and Shinso came upon this view as they crested a hill. They stopped, from exhaustion and awe, and stared for a moment at the glowing sunset. The wind breathed cold, whistling unhindered across the plains.
“We should probably stop now. It’s getting late.”
“There’s a village just over there, look. We can see if there’s a hotel or something for the night.”
The labours of the day had drained much of their energy for talk, so the conversation was quick and curt. They readjusted their backpacks – lighter, thanks to the tinned meal sitting in their stomachs - and again set off, down the shallow hill, toward the village nestled amongst the freshly tilled fields.
Both of them were glad they did not have to camp overnight again. The weather was turning colder by the day, almost by the hour, and the tent did little to stop the bitter, biting wind of oncoming winter that chilled through fabric and flesh. Even the ground sucked the warmth from the body; they no longer undressed for nightfall, but piled more layers to stave off the cold.
Come morning the days were crisp and bright. The autumn rains had blown through before they had set out, and each sunrise they were greeted with blue sky and fogged breath. The day’s walks were pleasant since the exposed sun heated the air and ground quickly, and progress was good. They tended to keep to dirt tracks, weaving between expanses of field, but sometimes detoured through wood or into meadow.
Neither of them could remember whose idea it had been. They had both seemed hesitant at first, and had to warm each other up to it, Kaminari more fervently than Shinso. Neither had much sense of the scale of America, so they were conservative in their route planning and choice of location. They steered clear of the mountains, staying in the flats low hills of the Midwest. They also steered clear of the Appalachian Trail; though they had considered it, it seemed to large an undertaking for such an amateur trip. They didn’t hike on the regular, and in fact neither would describe it as a hobby of theirs, but it seemed a nice way to burn a few spare days together.
Their route, in addition to being a breezy handful of weeks rather than the alternative’s six months, was a rare spot for travellers. They were lost in the awesome expanse of the continental US, and they had only met a few stray travellers since they had set off. The quiet had been comforting.
They ambled down the ‘hillside’, trudging over the coarse, calloused dirt. They were both used to much more drastic hills than this, but it was so prominent against their previous surroundings they couldn’t help but call it a hill. The wind was picking up, as if it were spilling over the horizon, displaced by the sinking sun.
-----
The landscape grew grey and dim. Lights began to appear in the village windows, and as they did the village seemed to grow, extending glowing tendrils along the roads as more and more lights flickered on. It brightened as the sun darkened, stole light from the sky and hid it away within its rooms.
It was almost entirely dark when they reached the outskirts of the town. Throughout the journey they had watched it from afar and seemed to make little progress. It was as though it had receded from them, as a cloud does when one views it during transit; the mind, unable to fathom the distance, decides that the culprit must be motion. It was odd to finally arrive, having watched it for so long. It felt like they shouldn’t have made it, that the town should have eventually outrun them.
They felt the ground grow hard packed under their feet, then turn to gravel, then tarmac. It was hard to tell when plains ended and civilisation began, since the town was so sparse. The houses were spread thinly, dotted one or two every street, the roads themselves arranged at perfect right angles in an irregular grid pattern, interwoven with numerous thin strands of phone wires and power cables that ran only a few metres off the ground on rickety wooden poles. There were no street signs to greet them.
These factors together caused the village to fade in imperceptibly, and it was almost impossible to notice the changes as one progressed. It was as if the pair had blinked, and all of a sudden the village had appeared about them. It was strange for it to be so surprising. The fields were barren of shoot and scarecrow, and the only feature as far as one could see were the buildings of the town. The fields seemed too empty; their fruits stolen by harvest, leaving them expansive and completely barren.
It was not quite dark, and the sky ahead still held an orange blush. The landscape had faded in colour, though, and was now distinct shades of dark, royal blue. The glowing windows did little to light the streets. Tiring of the trudge of his feet, Kaminari stopped. Not noticing at first, Shinso carried on a little further ahead, before turning and walking back.
Kaminari had slung his backpack onto the road and was rifling through it. A few seconds later he emerged triumphant, a map clutched in his upheld fist.
“So, where are we then?” Shinso asked him.
“Give me a second ‘Tosh, I just got it out of my bag!” He unfolded it fully, and lay it over his rucksack. His finger traced a zig-zag path through the square, latitude and longitude paths that weaved between fields. It stopped at a blip of civilisation.
“Wow, it doesn’t even have a name.”
“Do you know if it has somewhere to stay?”
“The map doesn’t give a name, I doubt it will have an itemised list of all the B&Bs. Look it up if you’re so desperate, see how many stars they have.”
“You’re so funny.” Shinso sounded even more deadpan than usual.
“Aww, thanks babe.” And Kaminari chose to completely ignore it. He was currently absorbed in the intricate process of refolding the map he had so audaciously thrown open earlier.
“There’s still no service.”
“What did you expect? We’re in the middle of nowhere and have been for days.”
“Yeah, its just this is the first sign of civilisation we’ve seen. I kind of expected something to come with it.”
“What, have you been in the wilderness too long? How long has it been?” Kaminari dropped his voice, making it gruff and harsh. “To long. It’s been too long. I don’t remember what it’s like to meet another person. The wilderness is my only friend. I started on this journey to find myself, but maybe, I’ve forgotten who I am. Maybe—”
“Shut up!” Shinso elbowed Kaminari playfully. “Come on. Let’s get moving.”
They walked down the road, that they presumed led into the centre of the village. The first buildings they passed were old tin-roofed barns, but as they continued they began to see houses. They were all bungalows, painted white, with picket fences out front and a vast expanse of grass at the back. It was difficult to measure progress. There were no reference points near the bungalows, the only striking landmarks being the squashed, stout hills in the background. Everything seemed flattened, nothing had any depth. They walked past house upon house that could have been the previous, except it had a different car parked outside, or one of the slats of the fence was missing.
Lights were going back out now the night was drawing in. Shinso checked his watch, and saw it was already nine o’clock. They promptly decided to ask someone for the nearest place to sleep.
-----
They felt it was important to go to the correct house. They did not want to knock on the door of a family so late at night and wake the sleeping children, for example. But it was more than that, a fear of the consequences of asking the wrong person.
They walked by a few houses, and something in their gut compelled them to move on. They both felt it, for neither had to tell the other to keep going, they both just walked away together. It was a feeling held within the angle of the curtains in the windows, in how much the white paint had flecked off the fence posts, and in the looks of the occupants through the window as they saw the pair walking by. There were always more houses to go to, though. The things in short supply were patience and energy.
Eventually, the latter ran thin, then out, and the next door they came to was knocked three times by Kaminari’s impatient fist. A lady answered the door, smiling. It was difficult to say how old she was, since she seemed to possess the energy and stature of a thirty year old, with skin sagged and loose like that of a woman forty years her posture’s senior. She wore a tucked flannel shirt and unflatteringly baggy jeans, cinched in at the waist with a worn leather belt.
“So, what can I do for you two young men?” Her accent was thick; she dropped all the ‘r’s from her words, blending the vowels into a wavering drawl.
It struck Kaminari that they had not discussed an action plan for what to do after knocking on someone’s door; who would speak, what they would say, and such. In his brief moment of panic, Shinso took the lead.
He spoke calmly and clearly, in a low and husky voice that reminded Kaminari he had pulled way above his weight. “Sorry to bother you so late, we were just passing through and were wondering if there was anywhere to stay in this town. You wouldn’t happen to know somewhere, would you?”
She switched to a disappointed frown for a few seconds, before going back to the friendly smile. “I’m sorry boys, there aren’t any hotels or nothin’ out here. But if you’re looking for a place to stay, I have two spare rooms upstairs. Who says the southerners should have all the hospitality?” She chuckled and disappeared into the house.
Shinso was about to follow her, when Kaminari grabbed his arm.
“Wait a second.”
Shinso turned. “What?” he said, a little too impatiently than he would have liked. The day’s travel had been longer than either had anticipated, and it had worn his patience thin.
“I don’t know about this.”
“About what, Denks?”
“Can’t we just camp again?”
Shinso breathed in and stifled an exasperated sigh. “And why would we do that? We’ve been camping for days. Don’t you want something other than dirt to sleep on?”
“But are we really—” he stopped and lowered his voice. “Are we really just going to sleep in some random woman’s house? She could be a murderer! Or a serial killer! Or… Or something else bad!”
“She’s not a murderer, Denks.”
“What about a serial killer.”
“That’s a murderer.”
“Ok, you’ve got me there.”
“they don’t even have quirk here. Just normal people. Are you going to come in, then?”
“I don’t know. It just seems weird. I’ve got this bad feeling, you know?”
“Are you going to spend another night out in the cold because of a ‘bad feeling’? Come on, let’s get inside.” He reached out and took Kaminari’s hand. “It will be fine. I promise.”
-----
The inside of the house was cosy. It was a nicer way of saying it was cramped. The hallway was barely a metre wide, and the stairs didn’t have to ascend far to reach the ceiling. The first door led to a lounge, with a single tattered sofa and a TV thicker than it was wide. The screen was black, but it still hummed softly. They were about to turn the corner to the kitchen when the lady appeared behind them. They both jumped at her presence.
“Oh, silly me, I just realised we haven’t introduced ourselves! I’m Dawn. And you two…”
Shinso once again took the lead. “I’m Hitoshi, and this is Denki.”
“Nice to meet you both. I’ve prepared the upstairs rooms for you both. Please, make yourself at home.”
Kaminari took over. He draped his arm around Shinso’s shoulder, and pulled in close to him, trying to be as explicit as possible. “Would it be possible for us to share a room?” His accent was more prominent than Shinso’s and though it wasn’t difficult to understand, it was much more noticeable.
Dawn’s smile flickered as she blinked. “I’m terribly sorry, but the beds are quite small. You could try to squeeze onto one together, but you might not sleep well!” She laughed, open mouthed and breathy. Kaminari smiled.
“No worries then. We’ll get settled in.”
They wandered to their rooms as Dawn once again faded into the house. Their doors were opposite each other on the postage-stamp landing, with Dawn’s directly in front of them as they climbed the stairs. Now the obligation for niceties had vanished, they were both hit by a wash of fatigue. Shinso took the left door and Kaminari the right, and they both disappeared into their new rooms.
----
The sun rose across the straight of the horizon. It was hidden behind a bank of cloud that had rolled and roiled over the sky the previous night, and now blanketed the world in a coat of threatening grey.
The odour of cooking wafted upwards, and awoke Kaminari and Shinso gently from their slumber. Rousing and dressing, they went downstairs to find Dawn fussing over a pan of bacon.
“Oh, you two boys are awake. And just in time too!”
They sat down without a word, still half asleep, and a plate of steaming bacon and buttered toast was thrust before each of them. They ate reflexively.
“The weather today is looking troublesome.” Dawn said. She did not have a plate, presumably having eaten earlier. “Lots of rain coming. Not the best hiking weather, you two will catch your death!”
“I’m sure we’ll manage. We’ve been through worse, haven’t we Denks?”
Kaminari nodded and mumbled through a mouthful of toast.
Dawn insisted. “Ooh, I don’t know about that. Windy too, he said.”
Shinso looked outside, and saw rain pouring down the windows in sheets. The sound was a low, constant barrage of white noise. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed it earlier.
“Wow, you’re right. It’s bucketing it down.”
“You’re always free to stay another few hours until it passes.” Dawn offered. She smiled.
“We’ll see how it goes” Shinso said. Kaminari said nothing.
-----
The rain did not cease. The terrain had no feature for showers, and so the front ploughed in thick and dense. Shinso watched the droplets race down his window. The rain was here to stay for at least another day, and so were they.
He watched it through the fog on the glass as it pooled in the dirt of the fields. Through the grey of condensation and downpour he could make out dark figures against the soil. Scarecrows, he assumed. They stuck out against the flat of the land.
He was tugged from his daze by the creak of the door. Kaminari rushed to him, alight with excitement. He held a book in his hand.
“’Tosh! I found this weird-ass book in my cabinet. Wanna read it?”
He held it out proudly. It was bound in leather, old and worn. The cover read had a title, but it was written in a language other than Japanese or English, so neither of them could read it.
“How are you even going to understand it?”
“Oh, the inside’s in English, for some reason.”
“Weird. And what’s it about?”
“I don’t know, looks like some weird myth stuff. Come on, lets take a look!”
“Wow, no 4G has really got to you, hasn’t it? Going through some poor old lady’s book collection now.”
“Yeah, and Dawn doesn’t have WiFi either. I don’t know what she does all day.”
“Well, I guess we’re about to find out.”
Kaminari opened the book to a random page and began to read.
“Chernobog will arise once the world is rid of impurity.” He began. “And when he comes, all will be darkness, and all will be peace. There will be nothing but dark, and the dark of Chernobog, for he is all, and all is darkness, and the darkness is him and within him. The light will be nought, for there will be nought but Chernobog’s light, which is the light of the dark. The world will be one, and in Chernobog there will be peace eternal, for there will be no two sides to battle, nor two options to choose. There will be Chernobog, and only Chernobog, and in his light all is dark, and all is one, and all is Chernobog.” He stopped. “Wow, is it just me or does this make absolutely no sense?”
“Nope. It makes no sense. None at all. Where did you even find this book anyway?”
“It was just in one of the drawers in my room.”
“Do you want to put it back on a bookshelf?”
“Oh, come on. Let’s read a bit further first. It’s cool.” He cleared his throat theatrically and flipped a little further on. “The impure are of many forms, but all share a singular taint. A trait of foulness, perceptible to those who seek it, that marks one as worthy of purging. The impure must be stripped clean of the world, such that Chernobog – ugh, not this guy again – is met with nought but his loyal followers, and leads only them into the peace of the dark. For they will be worthy, and others worthy only of purging. The impure will fear the pure, they will react and attack. The pure must be ready. The pure must not waver. For Chernobog, in his slumber, will guide. He had guided since time was borne from his lips, he has whispered in ears since he formed the first with his hand. He will rise, and the time will come, of Chernobog’s arrival. All with tremble before him, and the faithful will be all, and they will be led into darkness, and they will be peace. And until his rise, they—"
He was stopped by a small cough from the doorway. He span to see Dawn leaning against the wooden frame.
Many thoughts flooded his head, but the first to win the race out his mouth was “Why do you read this?” He held the book aloft, accusingly.
Dawn simply smiled. “Let a woman have her pastimes.” She said. Walking over to the boys who sat still with disbelief, she took the upheld book from Kaminari’s hand, and walked away.
He waited until her footsteps disappeared, then spoke. “I need to chat more with Dawn.” Kaminari said.
“Please don’t ever steal a book like that again. Did you see her face?”
“She was smiling, ‘Tosh. Stop being so serious all the time, Mr ‘Staring out the rainy window so I can post it on my aesthetic board’.”
“It’s just boredom!”
“It fits so well with your eye bags though. Speaking of, they seem paler today Did you get sleep by any chance?”
“Yeah, without you bickering in my ear all night!”
Kaminari put a splayed hand to his chest and leaned back in mock offense. “How dare you! I am beneficial for your sleep cycle. I stop you from getting a cup of coffee at 10 in the evening!”
“Oh, unless you’ve got work to do and need one as well!”
“Slander!”
They laughed, brightly, for the first time in days.
-----
“Lunch is ready!” Dawn called from the kitchen, and the boys descended down the stairs like little children at the call of their mother.
“Thank you so much, Dawn. You really are such an amazing cook.” Kaminari cooed as they sat down.
She replied with thanks as she bustled to the table, wearing a floral apron and matching oven mitts. A steaming casserole dish lay in her hands, filled with thick stew. Chunks of meat lay floating in it, along with thick slices of carrot. She placed it on a large coaster, then dealt out a thick slice of buttered bread to each person, herself included. The sat down, and began to eat.
The rain against the window was the only sound for a few minutes, drowning out the polite munchings of stew and bread. The silence grew cumbersome to bear, and Kaminari piped up.
“Where do you get all this food?” he asked. “I didn’t see a shop anywhere nearby.”
Dawn was quick and amicable in her response, as always. “Oh, it’s all local produce. Nearly self-sustaining, we are. Once every few months someone makes the trek for other supplies; fuel, toiletries, and so forth. But everything else, all the food, we grow right here.”
“Wow! That is amazing. Could we go and see some of the farms by any chance, if the weather dies down a bit?
“Oh, I’m sure I could arrange something for you two. You have been so lovely so far, after all. I do hope you can get back to your trip soon, but in a way I want you to stay here.” She laughed.
Conversation halted for another few minutes, aside from a few compliments on the food. Shinso picked it back up.
“This is such a lovely town. We were so surprised when we found it. It seems so small and quaint.”
“We get that a lot” Dawn said. “But you would be surprised at the things that happen here. We are just an ordinary town, and things do still happen here.”
“Oh, such as…”
“Well, just a few days ago poor Beverly’s son went missing, Douglas, his name was. We used to call him little Dougy. She had to go work, and said she would drop him off here. Craig was out, you see. And she later said she had dropped him at my door, and saw him ringing the doorbell as she went, but I never saw him. Must have wandered off before I got to him. Or snatched.”
The atmosphere lowered, and Shinso was quick to change the subject.
“Oh goodness, that’s awful I’m so sorry.” A moment’s pause for respect, and then “So, have you ever been married, Dawn?”
“Oh me? Oh, no, married to the Lord I am. No need for a husband. No time!”
“Oh, I sympathise. Sometimes having a husband is like having a pet!”
“Hey!” was all Kaminari could muster in response. Well, that and a light elbow to the ribs.
Dawn was quick to fill the silence. So quick it had not formed when she spoke.
“Have you two found the Lord?”
Kaminari’s turn for civility.
“We’re not religious, I’m afraid. But all the more to you for it!” He winced. He knew he tended to rub people the wrong way, and he tried his best to avoid falling into such heavy conversation. But Shinso beside him gave him confidence, something he felt was sometimes rather undeserved.
He tried to salvage the perceived wreckage by shifting course. “Do you have a church anywhere?”
“A few years ago we renovated the old animal barn. We stopped keeping animals a few years ago – too much hassle, you see – and the building needed some tender loving care. So, we dragged in some pews, installed a few windows. It was very exciting. And now we have our own little church. Well, it’s a barn, so its actually very large!”
Dawn had a habit of ending her sentences with the same tone one would use to end a joke. It left them lingering in the air, like they were unfinished.
-----
“Dawn cooks really well” Kaminari said when they were back upstairs.
“Oh god. Are you tying to hit on another old lady. A few weeks without sex and you’re going crazy.”
“It’s not my fault! These beds are too small for that. Besides, we’re in separate rooms anyway. Good luck doing foreplay when there’s two walls between us.”
“You’re right, but it does mean I’m finally getting a good night’s rest without your constant nattering.”
“Aww, that was low. And you’ve already done that line, hit me with something else.”
“Ok, you’re so bored you were genuinely interested I seeing a farm, to the point of asking for a tour completely unprompted.”
“Ok, you’ve got me there.”
“Have you found any more books to steal?”
“Hey, borrow! And no, sadly. I don’t want to go snooping around downstairs when I feel like Dawn could just appear behind me.”
“Yeah, she does do that. It’s like she’s a ghost or something.”
“Yeah! It’s so weird!”
The rain seemed it was easing, but redoubled and lashed against the glass. Shinso wondered how much more water the sky could hold.
-----
“Boys!”
Again the pair rushed down the stairs, but no food awaited them. Instead, dawn was in the hallway, coat buttoned up and wellington boots reaching to her knees.
“The weather seems to have stopped, so I figured now is a good a time as any to have a look around the farms, like you asked. I can even show you our church, there’ll be a service starting soon, so we can have a little meander first. It would be such a shame to miss it, and I don’t want to leave you two boys alone here. Who knows, maybe you could learn a thing or two!”
Kaminari looked outside, to see the rain had stopped. The clouds were still overcast, and it was growing dark, but the incessant noise had ceased. He wondered why he had not noticed earlier.
“I have a few spare pairs of boots for you two. It’s going to be muddy out there, so watch yourselves!”
“Dawn, that’s very kind, but we do have our own walking boots so there’s no need.”
“Oh, no. I insist.”
She led them through the house to the back door, where two pairs of wellies lay pristine. “Shinso, you can have Tim’s, since you’re a bit bigger. And Kaminari, I’m sure you’ll fit into little Dougy’s”
She didn’t move, and waited until they had put the boots on. Then, she opened the door, and led them out into the green.
It was less of a private garden and more of a park. A vast expanse of grass, slightly worn and dead in patches, backed onto by multiple houses with no fences to distinguish. It seemed so easy to walk from one house to another, only a flimsy little wooden door in your way.
Dawn pressed forward with purpose, driven like the snow in a gale. Past the houses and into the plains, dotted with scarecrows. The wind was cold but light, a cooling, bracing breeze that drew blood to the face. Kaminari and Shinso had prepared for the autumn weather, and were wearing windproof jackets to beat back the chill.
They came first to an old tin storage barn. Machinery was piled in it, a tower of metal spikes and wheels. Paint had flaked off in the weather, rust growing like mould. They wondered how the tools would be untangled and used come spring.
Dawn was quiet. She was uninterested in narration, and content in leaving the scenery as its own free standing entertainment. It was spectacular in its own way, watching the regular dark lines of telephone poles converge to the horizon and beyond to the orange-lit clouds. Shinso was reminded of when they arrived, and couldn’t help but glance back to the path they had walked not yet a day ago. It had seemed like longer.
-----
The next, and penultimate landmark was an old water tower. It was rusted and worn, a sign of welcome still pushing through the dirt. The town name had flaked off.
Dawn looked up at it, in reverence. It was like an art gallery, where Kaminari and Shinso were silently staring at something they did not know the meaning of. Dawn’s lips moved, but no words formed.
Finally, they came to the old barn. They approached it on the side of the grain silo, and it took a while for the red to peek from behind the gleaming metal. The silo was still in use, and near full from the year’s harvest. The barn itself was unchanged on the outside. It could have still held pigs within, had prayer not been leaking from its walls.
Shinso was struck with a pang of anxiety as they approached. It seemed so alien to him, and so important to others, he was afraid he was to disrespect it in some way through his ignorance. He told dawn of his worry, and she comforted him. He figured if everyone was as hospitable as dawn, they would have no trouble.
They passed the side door, and entered in the massive doors at the back. The congregation immediately fell silent. A hundred eyes fell on them.
The preacher spoke. His voice boomed around the cavernous building, off the walls and ceiling and floor such that it seemed he was everywhere at once.
“Are these the ones of which you spoke?”
Dawn closed here eyes, and bowed her head slightly. Kaminari began to feel more than out of place. As though the place knew he did not belong.
“Yes, they are.”
With that, the preacher smiled. Wide and friendly, stretched across his face like a gag. “Well, can we all please welcome our two new members!” He injected his speech with joviality, opening his arms wide and strolling down the centre aisle, past the rows of pews. He passed the three of them, ushered dawn to her seat, and spun in a wide circle. A hand was placed on each boy’s back, and they were led to the front. Shinso reached for Kaminari’s hand, and they held each others’ palm in theirs.
-----
They reached the front, and stopped before the altar. It gleamed, as though freshly cleaned. The preacher patted them both on the back – stay there – and made another wide arc towards the pulpit. He had to stoop slightly to be level with the microphone.
“The Lord’s love, is the love that is within all of us. We love with all out hearts. We love each other, and we love the Lord, and though there may be hard times—” he looked over at a couple in the front row, who tensed up at his gaze “—we know they are necessary for ourselves, and for our Lord. We are a small community, and we must do what we must. And where the lord wills, we know he is right, and we question not. We love him, and we hate him not. For all who are worthy have a place in his light.” He stopped to let his words settle like ash thrust from a fire. “We must survive so our Lord may rise again. We must prevail in our duty, and for that we must be living. For living is the cost we pay, itself incurring costs. We must eat or we will starve. We must know each other, or we will not continue. But we must not take pleasure from our life, for we know that the only pleasure is that of the Lord, and his light, and his unending peace.”
Kaminari leaned over and whispered something, no doubt some hilarious quip about God. And yet Shinso did not hear it, for he spoke too faintly, for fear of being heard. Their hands were still intertwined.
Silence descended on the barn, as the preacher stopped again. When he returned, his speech had gained new colour. It rose in fervour, little by little, building in frenzy.
“We must follow Him into his light. For there will be night but him, and his light, and we will be in him, and we will be one, and light, and all will be peace. For his light is that of dark, and his peace that of order, and unity, and cohesion so that there will be no two sides to battle, and no two options to choose. We love, and we love with our whole heart. Our love is pure, and unsullied by want and pleasure. We channel the only true love. Nought but Him, all in Him, the great and mighty, the ever graceful, Lord of all and all is darkness and all is Him, Lord Almighty Chernobog!”
A great roar rose from the congregation, built brick by brick from little mumblings, and now fervent and reverent in howling ecstasy. Their hands clasped each other tighter, but the pair did not move. They did not have anywhere to go.
The preacher moved until he was before them, and spoke again. There was no microphone, but his voice was no quieter.
“Our guests have not seen our light.” He stepped aside to reveal their hands together, and at once Shinso let go and whipped his away. Yet still it seemed they were clasped as one.
“Our guests are not worthy. The light cannot shine as long as they are here, choking it with their dirt and their pestilence. They know each other, and they know not our Lord. They do not sustain, they draw their own whims from their life, not knowing their life is not theirs. Chernobog granted them life, and they have chosen to sully it so. They must perish!”
A thread in their mind snapped, and they no longer stayed rooted. Kaminari reached out for Shino’s hand and ran forward, but he was drawn back. The preacher had his arms around Shinso’s waist, and he was struggling against the grip. Kaminari turned to the congregation, who were standing now, leering and shouting at them both. In a might tug, the preacher pulled Shinso back, and their hands slipped from each other. He was hauled to the altar and dropped atop it with a thump, held down in the Preacher’s grip. Kaminari ran to help him, scrabbling desperately at the Preacher’s hands, but he could not gain purchase. A hand gripped the collar of his coat and he was pulled back.
“All sacrifices are necessary. Some for ourselves, for our sustenance, and others for him, so that he may rise again. We must serve him, and peace will prosper.”
Countless hands clawed at Kaminari as he writhed in their grip. He tried to use his quirk, but it had no effect on them. Sparks flew, but the fingers remained firm.
His eyes were locked on the altar, as the Preacher removed one hand from Shinso’s body, and reached underneath the stone. Effortlessly holding the boy down with one hand, and he thrashed against the restraint, the preacher held aloft a knife. Its blade was curved for clearing vegetation, and yet it gleamed sharp, like a butcher’s knife. Kaminari felt his heart drop from his chest.
He called out to Shinso.
Shinso saw it too, and his face drained. He turned to Kaminari, and for the first time for weeks, his eyes glowed a faint purple. Kaminari’s conscious mind did not hear what he had screamed over the noise of off-beat chanting, but it did not matter.
Get out of here.
He was no longer in control of his body as it smashed and flailed. Somehow, it broke free for a second, and his legs pumped in spite of him, away from the altar and towards the open doors at the back. A hand grabbed his ankle, but his foot shook it loose. He ran some more, gaining an extra few metres towards freedom, Shinso still lying on the altar. And at once two people came toward him, one from either side, and caught him with strong grips and his legs took strides but he did not travel. In that moment of peace, the crowd grew hushed, enough to hear his own feeble grunting. He could not turn towards the altar; his body was fighting against him. And as he fought away from Shinso, he heard the subtle rush of a falling knife, and a scream. It rung in his ears, louder than he thought possible, faded to a gurgling, and then fell to silence. And he could not turn to look.
His body still pressed on, but more and more joined the fight against it. Hands and feet and teeth, and he fell to the ground. It was slathered in a thin layer of dilute mud. His hands pressed against it, his legs buckled. And another rush of air as the knife fell again, cold and slick, into his back. The last thing to flood his mind was Shinso’s face, and his low, gravelly voice, and every single curve of his face and his body, and Kaminari was overcome with love and with grief as he saw the man before him, who had sacrificed everything for nothing. And he loved, he loved and he could no longer say it. And they loved, and they loved beyond him, and their love overcame his and he was extinguished. And there was nought but their frothing, howling, blood-soaked love.