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A church feels really different when no one is around, she thought.
Vaggie could hear every creak and bend in the wood from the surrounding pews. She did all she could to not move as much in her seat, but only succeeded in hitting her sole against the footrest before her. The stained glass windows above seemed even larger than before, along with the empty spaces between each color, from pale white to deep-seated red. She craned her neck, catching each detail of the painted filigree mural just past the wooden beams.
Now by herself, with her face still aching, it all seemed just too much. Just being in here was exhausting.
She couldn’t remember the last time she actively enjoyed being in this place. But also, where else could she even go?
What a time to have a religious conflict.
Maybe what happened next was a strange blessing in disguise, one that tore Vaggie away from her swirling thoughts, who looked upon the symbols of the church and saw only shapes instead of what they represented. When she heard the large church doors open, their hinges squeaked loudly, echoing within the space like a discordant bell. Also, whoever opened those doors did it slowly, as if having trouble.
Or maybe they were trying to do a grand entrance.
Vaggie gave a deep sigh, her headache deepening. She knew one person who would do such a ridiculous thing.
“Hijo de… Adam. I already told you that I’m not going back—”
She rounded over her shoulder, but the annoying frat boy face she’d had to endure for too many years was not what she saw at first glance.
Instead, it was this girl with stunning blonde hair.
“Oof, this seems a little overkill,” came a mutter that sounded oddly adorable. Once past the door threshold, Vaggie got a better look. The girl’s outfit was a little peculiar, for Vaggie didn’t know many women who just wore suspenders like that, but coupled with a white dress shirt, it was oddly a little stylish. Like she was going to a dress-up party, or maybe even a meeting. It was kinda ruined by the pastel-colored messenger bag the girl carried, the one with the weird goat charms hanging off the strap.
Wait, she knew those goat charms. She’d seen them back at campus.
“Whoa…” The girl looked around the church, eyeing the stained glass, as well as the votive candles that were placed within the recesses of the walls, along with one depiction of the Pieta. “This is so exotic!”
Vaggie cleared her throat, which of course sounded too loud within the church air. “Charlie?”
“Ah!!” The girl turned quickly, like she’d been caught. Vaggie left her seat at the pew to stand in the aisle before her. She unconsciously reached to cover the bandage that was wrapped over her left eye, but her hair was already doing that for her anyway.
“It-It’s fine! Um, are you here for service? The next one starts this evening if you’re wondering.”
Not that she’d ever even seen Charlie in church before. Was she a new convert?
The girl blinked, and then, the biggest smile stretched across her face. The soft lighting from the rafters fell across her rosy cheeks. Her eyes seemed to gleam as well—with red. That was another odd thing about her, how she seemed to wear red contacts that definitely gave her a weird vibe. Also, was she wearing fake fangs? That was new. Or did she alter them…?
“Oh, Vaggie! I was hoping you’d be here! I lost you a bit when I followed you from the campus grounds, but then I remembered you wore a crucifix so I figured—”
“Wait,” Vaggie interrupted. “Were you stalking me?”
“Whaaat, pft, no! Noooo…” Charlie fixed a lock of hair behind her hair. “Maybe?”
“Eh.” Vaggie shrugged. “Been stalked by worse.” And hit those that did. Charlie was at least a pleasant surprise.
“A-Anyway! I’ve been trying to reach you but you always leave our classes so fast. And I wanted to extend this invitation personally!”
Charlie didn’t seem to have any sort of volume control on her voice. Church acoustics were for hearing the preacher go on about their sins, the choir singing the same songs she’d known since she was a child, as well as those who joined the hymns and turned to wish good will on their neighbor with a fake smile. It was not meant for someone who was happy-yelling and seemed absolutely genuine in that fact.
Maybe Vaggie was still feeling a little bitter about things. Sure, Charlie’s voice was kinda loud but at least it was keeping her awake. “So… is this like a party or…?”
“Even better!” And with that, Charlie reached into her way too cutesy messenger bag and pulled out a pamphlet made from cheap paper. Oh, she recognized that cheap paper too. So Charlie must have been at the campus after hours unlike most people.
Charlie was smiling so wide and with such watery and devilishly red eyes that Vaggie would have felt like a complete jerk if she didn’t accept it. Pamphlet in hand, (after a miss or two. She was still getting used to her new sense of depth perception now with only one eye working), she peered down at the front where it looked like Charlie had discovered clip art and had gone mad in plastering it all over the place, nearly overtaking the actual text. There was also glitter sprinkled all over the page, much of it loose and already getting on Vaggie’s fingers.
A happy place for everyone!
Join the Happy Brigade at Morningstar College and turn that frown upside down!
A first-ever rehabilitation club of its kind!!
(Rehabilitate; verb, re•ha•bil•i•tate: to restore to good repute–)
She shook her head at the sudden definition drop, but one thing definitely stuck out here.
“...A rehabilitation club?” Vaggie read out loud, as if doing so would help it make more sense. It didn’t.
“Yes, that’s it!” Charlie said so quickly, ready to burst with excitement. She was stretching up on the toes of her shoes up and down. “I’m making a new club! The Happy Brigade!”
Vaggie’s answer was silence, still wondering if what she was experiencing was some fever dream. Charlie took that to mean criticism.
“Okay, the name needs a little bit of work, yes, but the message of the club is clear! We’re here to help rehabilitate other people into a better life and kick them from their bad habits! All after class time!”
“That sounds illegal.”
“Oh, don’t worry! My dad pulled a few strings so it’s all in the clear!”
Did she mean her dad, the head dean of their college? Yeah, that made sense. For an important faculty member, the man was rarely ever in the building. And when he was, he would just go visit Charlie in her classes, which got distracting enough for a few professors to kick him out during a lesson.
“And we already got a few club members too! There’s Anthony, and that man who calls himself Husk for some reason, and—”
“The dude who hangs out at the red light district?” Vaggie uttered in shock. “And the drunk who got caught sneaking in vodka bottles on college grounds?”
“Yeah! So you know them too?”
“I know of them.” When people had reputations like that, it was hard not to know…
“We also have Mrs. Niffty. She offered to help clean up the library room we’ll be using. I guess her husband has been away for a while so she has a lot of free time on her hands!”
Niffty’s marriage was one to question, especially if a husband of hers had disappeared suddenly.
“That funny Pentious guy is also joining! Though it’s sorta forced since he blew up one of the science rooms, but I’m sure this will definitely help his parole!”
That was the man from England who looked like he came out of some steampunk convention and who definitely had a few screws loose…
“Oh, and guess what? We even got Alastor! He says he’ll help us promote our club during the radio program he holds at school. Isn’t that great?”
Vaggie blinked. “You got the creepy guy.”
“He’s not that creepy. Just enthusiastic!”
Yeah, and the rumors of him having decapitated heads in his freezer was also just as widespread. How the fuck that guy was still allowed to stay enrolled, she’d never know. She was pretty sure even the dean hated his guts.
Hearing Charlie list out the members, Vaggie was once again reminded how the community college they all attended wasn’t exactly a prestigious place. Not only was the college rumored to be some sort of Satanic cult meeting place, (it had been first established in the 80’s and would have definitely fit the whole Satanic panic that had been prevalent then) they had all sorts of people in their classes, many of them from all walks of life, and in their later years of life as well. Charlie and Vaggie were more of the outliers, typical college age while everyone else jumped up and down from incredibly suspiciously young housewives to seventy year-old deadbeats that gambled away what’s left of their social security checks.
And Charlie was putting the most…colorful of them in one single room—to rehabilitate. This girl must have had a death wish.
Then again, clubs were such a rare thing at their college. And Vaggie always had to leave straight from classes to attend church services and the like.
Well, she used to at least.
She looked at the paper once more with its shoddy printing, the text already having faded from all the clip art Charlie wasted the ink on. “Look, I appreciate it, but…”
Then when she lifted her head, she noticed something that had been hidden by Charlie’s hair, now gleaming around her neck, hanging by a black cord.
“Are you…wearing a pentagram?” Vaggie stared at her blankly. “In here?”
Yeah, maybe those cult rumors had some truth to it.
The manic enthusiasm Charlie had been exuding seemed to vanish. She looked like she was sweating bullets, her pale face turning even paler.
“Um, hold on! It’s not a Satanic thing! I swear!” She hurriedly put away the pentagram-shaped necklace back underneath her shirt. “I just really like studying the occult! I don’t hate God or anything! Religion is cool!”
“Don’t say that,” Vaggie deadpanned. “You know it’s not cool.”
That caught Charlie off-guard, who seemed to be in conflict with agreeing with her and also protesting that no way, of course the thing that she was brought up into her entire life without her consent was cool! The girl was kind of a people pleaser, wasn’t she?
Vaggie sighed, then handed the pamphlet back to Charlie. “Listen, I know you’re inviting me because you think I also need something in me fixed.”
She not-so-subtly gestured to her bandage. It was wrapped a bit haphazardly, and a lot of gauze was used. To try and hide away such a grievous loss.
“But I don’t really feel like being someone's guinea pig for her new obsession. Sounds like you got plenty of others for that anyway. I’ve…got a lot on my plate.”
Even if there was something broken in her now. Aimless, even. But she didn’t want to give anyone that power over her again.
But while in her talk, she looked away, half in shame. And when she turned back to Charlie, she nearly jumped at the incredibly kicked puppy-dog expression on her face.
“Vaggie, that’s—!” Charlie sniffled, wiping away her tears with her fingers, which Vaggie just noted now were decked in black nail polish. “It…has to do with this place, doesn’t it? That’s so brave of you…”
“What? No, I just volunteer here part-time,” she answered. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either. “Do you need a tissue?”
“Ah no, I’m good! I’m good!” Charlie took out what looked like a rainbow-patterned handkerchief and blew her nose on it. “Sorry, I just get moved very easily…”
“...Okay, but you get what I’m saying, right? I don’t want to join your club. So, unless you’re staying here for service or answering our ad for a new organist player, you don’t need to be here.”
Charlie wiped at her face once more, her low ponytail coming just slightly undone. “I mean, I did come here because I figured something has happened with you. Especially, um, with all the rumors about your ex-boyfriend—”
“He’s not my boyfriend. Or my ex!” Vaggie made a quick cutting gesture with her hands. “Ay, carajo. Just, ew. No. We only go to this church together with Lute.”
“...Oh!” Charlie blinked. “Ohhhh.” Then she shook her head. “Wait, I'm getting off-track! What I meant to say is, I just, um, wanted you to come personally! Because… I want to hang out with you more?”
Vaggie raised an eyebrow. “So you made a club to do that?”
“Yes! I mean, no? I mean, I thought, why not kill two birds with one stone! Except I don’t condone killing, of course. Not here in this house of God!” Charlie put her hands on her hips, lips pressed firm and blinking rapidly. “Is that the right term? I’m sorry if I’m blaspheming, I don’t mean to.”
She seemed to really think she would be struck down by lightning if she said the wrong things. Then why would she still bring in a pentagram? Vaggie thought.
Then she thought back to all those times they’d been in class together. (They attended Music Theory together under Professor Moxxie, who was definitely some has-been theater performer whose plays never got top billing). The way Charlie would always lend her a pen to take notes with, even though she never asked her? And also that time she wanted to team up with her on an assignment, or practice a song together even though the class wasn’t even about singing? Charlie was weird, and very energetic, and could almost be described as aggressively friendly, sometimes getting so close that she couldn’t help but catch the scent of lavender…
…And that was when Vaggie realized she might not exactly be as straight as an arrow, and had to work that out along with all her other religious crises that were rapidly piling up.
“I’m sorry, are you mad at me?”
“Huh?” Vaggie realized she had just been staring off into space, leaving Charlie hanging with that mixture of hope and dread in her eyes. What was she hoping for? And for that matter, what was she dreading?
“I—I’m not mad, just… why me?” Vaggie tried not to pick at her bandages again. Not like it mattered, she was going to be a cyclops forever. “You don’t really seem like the type to enjoy going to Mass.”
“I can too! If that’s what you’re into!” Charlie looked around the church, until her eyes just latched onto the altar where the hanging cross was placed which she took a few steps toward. “I am also okay with the whole thing about worshiping a method of torture. Oh shit, did I just blaspheme again?”
“Kinda, I guess?” Vaggie found herself smiling a little. This girl was so dense. “But God’s the forgiving type now so I’m sure He’ll let it slide.”
“Phew, okay! …Wait, what do you mean now?”
“It’s a long story. Seriously.” Vaggie flicked a glance to the double doors of the church that were now closed again. She heard no one else coming, but… “So is this club happening right now or what?”
Charlie seemed to have been stunned at the answer, but quickly recovered with another of her smiles that always shone so bright. (She must have had one heck of a dentist). “It’ll be starting really soon! I can’t wait for you to meet everyone, and we also got a bunch of snacks!” Then a pause. “Oh fuck. I mean! Sorry, for the cursing, but if you were busy with church stuff…”
A quick wave of her hand, and then Vaggie turned to face the altar. “It’ll be fine. Just…give me a moment then?”
“Oh, of course! Please, don’t let me get in your way.” Charlie remained standing in the aisle, hands clasped and blinking innocently.
“You kinda are in the way.”
“Ah!”
And after Charlie finally stepped away from the altar, Vaggie stepped up to it to clasp her hands. She took a deep breath, trying to fall back into routine. It still meant something to her, in the end.
Even if her place in the world had fallen apart, and even if those whom she barely called friends before had effectively left her behind. Lute had never even apologized for her injury either. All of it, just swept under the rug.
Maybe a new environment would be best. At the most, maybe she prayed for a better outcome.
“En el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espíritu Santo. Amen.”
She closed her eyes as her hands made the sign of the cross, from the middle of her forehead to her heart. But even in the silence, she could just somehow hear Charlie’s stare.
She turned, and saw Charlie looking at her with wide eyes. “Uh…what?”
“Wow… Is that ancient Latin?!”
“...I’m just Hispanic.”
After leaving through the church doors, Charlie was already going on and on about the so-called ‘activities’ they’d be doing at the rehabilitation club.
“We’ll be doing a lot of bonding activities and some trust exercises! I was also thinking of pairing everyone up for a three-legged race at the campus’ track, but my dad said we’d need to get some consent forms signed. Then it should be smooth-sailing from there!”
“Sounds, um, experimental,” Vaggie offered. How this was supposed to cure anyone of their debilitating addictions, probably not even God Himself knew. Still, she smiled all the same. “My doctor said I can’t do any strenuous exercise for like the next three weeks so I might have to skip out on that.”
“Oh, no problem! We can do arts and crafts instead!”
Then, just as they got to the bottom steps, Charlie stopped, then turned to gently grasp at Vaggie’s hands.
The sudden skin-to-skin contact made Vaggie flush under her bandage. Hopefully she wouldn’t faint from the sudden blood rushing through. “Uh…”
“Sorry for being so forward, but thank you for giving me a chance. Also, um…” Charlie laughed nervously, then cleared her throat. But in the process, she sounded more like she was gagging instead. “I mean! Even after the club, would you like to grab something to eat? Maybe watch a movie or…?”
Vaggie had to be sure of this. “Are you asking me out on a date?”
Charlie giggled again, and the motion made the pentagram necklace slip out again, the sunlight gleaming on its fine points. “Well, I was hoping…”
There was a lot to process here.
Charlie was hitting on her—no, outright asking her out on a date. Outside of her church’s steps. Wearing a pentagram necklace. And she was doing all that with another girl?
Suffice to say, Vaggie was a little impressed.
“If I say yes, would that brighten up your day?”
Such an answer must have definitely sent Charlie into hyperdrive. Her red contacts were shining, almost demonic-like in her happiness. “Oh, fuck yeah!!” And then, Charlie did an adorable fist-pump in the air.
Which promptly upended her messenger back to dump out all of its contents onto the church’s steps.
It was a whole mess of what Vaggie’s elders would have called devil memorabilia. From books of demonology (several volumes in a series?) to candles and multicolored crystals, to even more pentagram symbols and other strange sigils—on pins and other necklaces. There was even a Ouija board here, one that was definitely well-used going by the scratches on its surface, and what looked to be a statue of Baphomet.
Even a few tarot cards had flown off, Charlie desperately grabbing at them while simultaneously trying to cover up all the objects of sin and paganism with her body. “D-Don’t look! I’m just… borrowing this from the library! For research! Historical research! I’m not a Satanist, I swear!”
Vaggie happened to catch one of the tarot cards, its surface depicting a tall, standing owl with a crown on its head. She looked at the lettering on it. “Ars Goetia?”
Charlie looked up at Vaggie from the ground, once again looking like a kicked puppy—a demonic kicked puppy with red eyes. “I’m sorry… I just really like the occult…I just think it’s neat…”
With that, Vaggie sighed, then fully turned around on the steps to face Charlie. She knelt down to help pick up the rest of the items, her hands not burning as she picked them up.
“Did I ever tell you that I think your goat charms are cute?”