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Falling Away
Part I

The smell of burning incense. An angelic choir chimed in the background, song echoing off the walls. Lamps hung from every support, the ones foremost to the front with crosses on them, casting shadows upon the altar up front. Behind the altar was a large stained glass window, which took up most of the front wall. It depicted God, standing with arms out to His sides, palms outward, flowing white robes hanging down over His feet. Over His right shoulder was the face of His Son, over His left was the Virgin Mary, and at His feet were all of the archangels, depicted as little cherubs.

But, that wasn’t what she was focusing on. She had her eyes closed tightly, hands clasped in front of her, arms on the pew in front of her, kneeling on the pad pulled from the small cushion that came on most pews, in the second from the front on the right. She was praying, quickly and quietly, rocking back and forth, words spilling through her lips like a faucet that had not quite been turned off, and was left to run with the slightest of streams.

“Is this...” Someone slowly strode forward out of the darkness that encompassed the back, a darkness that was just there, in place of lack of anything else. “...what you do... all day?” He smirked at Jessye, and shook his head. “Sad, sad, sad...”

He strode forward, turning his head to the row of pews to the left, and spit out a wad of chewing gum. “And I thought I needed better things to do.”

She trembled for just a second, seething with his indifference, and stopped her prayer for just two more seconds. “No littering.”

Jeremy opened his mouth to yawn just as the gum he had spit onto the ground shot back up, and rammed itself down his throat so quick that he had no choice but to force it down. He keeled slightly, staggering and coughing in surprise. It took him a few seconds to recover fully, and even then he sounded to have a toad in his throat.

T...h...a...t... was pleasant.” He coughed a little more, finally clearing his throat fully. She frowned, stumbling in her furious prayer as he continued forward, until he stood right next to the pew she sat in.

He jammed his hands into his pockets, and looked to the face of God in the stained glass, smirking all the while. “This is... well, pathetic. I bet you’d do this twenty-four-seven if you wanted to.”

“If He tells me to, then I would do so.” She continued praying, her eyes still tightly closed.

He looked over to the petite brunette. “You need something to eat, kid. Stop praying and go find a hot-dog stand, or something.”

“I will not.”

“And why not?”

“Because I refuse.”

“What the hell’re you praying for anyways?”

“For Him to come.”

“That’ll be awful futile. Any reason?”

“To make you go away.”

He sighed heavily, hands dropping out of his pockets, eyes rolling to the ceiling, and right palm slapping to his forehead. “Sweet merciful crap, kid! If you want me gone, then make me leave.”

“No.”

Then I’m not gonna go.” He stepped into the pew, his face getting closer and closer until he was shouting into her ear. “‘Cause if you don’t, then I’m gonna stay here.”

She opened her eyes and smiled slightly as a Being crashed through the stained glass window in front, coming in with such force that the entire church shook, pieces of scaffolding and plaster falling to the ground. He was a perfect replica of the central figure formerly depicted on the masterwork of fingers that never truly existed, white robes flowing all around, beard and hair billowing in the might winds that had kicked up with His arrival, hovering over the church alter and enshrouded in a glow that gave the impression that someone was about to get struck down by lightning in a very fatal way.

“He’s here.” Jessye stood up, teeth shining through a grand smile, arms raised high in praise of the One for whom she lived, the One that had finally answered her call after so much time to show that He was thankful for her work, and would protect her when the need came, and the need had come now...

Jeremy, on the other hand, did not have a reaction anything like hers. He screamed out one very drawn-out four-letter expletive that started out with the sound of a librarian instructing rude patrons to be quiet. He reached for the back of his pants, grabbing the handgun he had hidden behind his coat, and aimed directly at the figure. He hadn’t expected it. He hadn’t even felt it coming, but now it was there, staring him directly in the face, a being that he had heard people uselessly blather on about, but had never actually thought existed.

Dear lord. It was Him. It was Him leering down at him in all of His Holy Glory, about to smite him down mightily for all his transgressions. Well, crap. Adrenaline burned his veins, heart pumping blood so tainted that it felt like he was being scorched from inside out, mind racing through the screams he heard rattling through his head, all those voices screaming in cowardly panic...

But they shut up. Because it hit them first.

And then it hit him.

It hit him like a sack of bricks swung by a carnival strongman, it hit him like a blacksmith’s anvil dropped out of a helicopter, it hit him like a 747 that had somehow mistaken his head for a landing strip.

And he stopped panicking.

His mouth warped into an astonished, open-mouthed smile as he realized exactly who He was. He let his arms drop to his sides in relief.

The massive figure of God brought up both hands, and summoned bolts of lightning to rain down upon the disrespectful little whelp. Air crackled around Him as they came down to fry Jeremy, but they never hit. Jeremy split them off in several different directions with an act of will, allowing them to strike the ground around him but shirking them from their intended target. He grinned, standing his ground.

Jessye turned to scowl at him. He was a stubborn one, that man was. She took Penance out from her skirt, ready to slash at him, if just to frighten him and make him go away.

Jeremy grinned wickedly, and raised his gun up again, aiming in His general direction. He didn’t need to aim, just needed to shoot, and tell the bullets where to go.

One, two, three, four bullets. All of them rocketing towards His Head.

The bullets did not hit. They did not hit as in they did not embed themselves into his forehead like one though he might have wanted. They just nicked, striking the temple near the left eye. But it was what those bullets tore away, that was all the proof he needed to confirm what he thought.

He did not bleed, whether it be crimson blood or holy light. Instead, there was just stained glass underneath what should’ve been flesh.

Jessye’s mouth hung open in both surprise and confusion alike. Why did He let him hurt Him...? What was happening? He froze in place, that splendid figure of God that so many would fall on their knees and bow to if they ever saw Him, certain that He would strike them down just because they let their eyes stray.

Jeremy put his gun back into the back of his pants, and raised both hands, palms outwards to Him. He gave a shout, backed by a burst of psychokinetic power.

It was like he had taken a sledgehammer to a painted window. His Flesh cracked and fell apart and rained down, tinkling against each other with the sounds of glass, but disappearing before they could ever touch the altar or ground below. He froze in place, not moving with the simple fact that, if He did, everything would go to ruination...

Jeremy saw something through that stained glass, something that had been hidden by that fake flesh, something that was the center, the reason for it all, hiding inside ‘His’ chest, where His Immortal heart should be, moving as He moved. He grinned, moving to pick up a piece of wood scaffolding.

“So, that’s your God?” He hefted up his weapon, smile turning into a sneer with the exertion, and threw it with every shred of will inside of him.

It all seemed to slow down to Jessye, the piece of wood spinning lethargically through the air, very slowly smashing into her God, shattering him into little pieces.

It all went, falling to the ground, the skeleton holding all the glass pieces together crumpling, everything falling to the ground, including what had been inside, all dropping to the ground in front of the altar.

He smiled. This was going to be fun.

He jammed one hand into his pocket, the other signaling towards whatever had just dropped out of that imitation of God. “Is that Him? Is that your God?”

Jessye slowly shook herself from her shock. What had just been done? Her mouth closed, and she swallowed out of unintentional nervousness.

She stepped out of her pew, slowly and uncertainly walking toward that figure, that prone being that had just come from her God, that one that looked so out of place though looking so familiar...

And, that figure, she slowly began to get up. That figure was wearing nothing but a gray hospital gown, not nearly enough to protect her from the many shards of glass she had just fallen on. Her arms and legs were bleeding, and her arms hung limply at her sides, and her face devoid of any emotion at all, and her brown hair tinged just slightly crimson where it had come in contact with blood, and her skin an unhealthy shade, drained of most color, looking almost gray...

Tears began to trickle down Jessye’s face and sobs caught in her throat as she stared what was not her God in the face. It had never been her God. It was herself. She looked tired, wasted from months without sleep, skin and lips drained, face expressionless, with only her powerful green eyes holding any semblance to the willpower she had once held...

And she smiled.

Just a little.

As if saying ‘I pity you.’

And Jeremy approached again, striding briskly through the glass, and stood near the both of them, glance switching from one to another. “This is your God?” He grinned wickedly. “This is why you went around and hurt, killed people? The reason you... dare I say it? Sinned?!

“Doesn’t even look like a god. She just looks so... wasted.”

Her teeth clenched and her grip tightened, her grief slowly turning into burning rage, Penance lengthening from a knife to a full-blown sword...

“It was all just a figment of your imagination. What a bullshit excuse. The guys in white coats are gonna have a special place for you when I’m done...”

Enough. A shout escaped from her throat as she raised the lengthened Penance over her head, and tried to cleave that soulless infidel, that wicked heathen, that heartless bastard in half...

Out of sheer and momentary panic, he raised his arms up again, catching her hands before the blade touched a hair on his head. They wrestled with each other for a few seconds, trying to wrench the blade out of the other’s grasp. Jeremy managed to overpower her, dragging her close then letting go with one fist to punch her across the face. Her grip loosened. That was all he needed. With an act of will, he sent her flying over the right row of pews and into a wall.

He still had Penance in his hands. His grip tightened around it, and he turned to Jessye, not the actual Jessye, but the one that had been hidden inside that effigy of stained glass and framing filler, the one who was still smiling oh so slightly...

Jessye got to her feet and to her senses just in time to see him draw back. “No!!!!” But that wouldn’t help anything, just like all the praying had helped her, just like all the tracking and learning and stalking had helped her.

Jeremy swung at her. Just one big horizontal swipe, that’s all.

She gasped lightly, started to stagger a bit, eyes fluttering like she was resisting sleep with all of her might, mouth falling open and lips quivering, a line of blood slowly forming around her neck....

He flipped Penance in his hand, and drove the blade into the ground. “So...”

And he drew his right fist back again, and punched her directly in the face. Punched her head clean off her neck, sent it rolling across the ground, hair flowing after it just like the blood did.

“...where’s your savoir now, kid?” The headless body didn’t even stumble or stagger for a few seconds, it just collapsed to the ground.

And Jessye let the tears roll down her face. And began to tear at her hair. And began to scream in a way that no other ears would ever, ever have the displeasure of listening to, a horrid, slow, heart-rending scream of sorrowed agony, one that indicated that she had just lost something very precious to her.

Now here’s a question: Was it her God, or was it her sanity?

Her fortress, her sanctuary, began to collapse, began to crumble, some pieces falling away like so much more glass, others igniting in a quick burn, then exploding into wicked flames that surged and ate everything nearby, some even beginning to move, convolute, bulge, and undulate, slowly forming into faces, open mouths, screaming with just as much sorrow as she did...

The ground fell away into a great pit of darkness that no human being would ever have to see in their lifetimes....

And she fell into it, screaming every second of the way.

She began to see Jeremy fall towards her. She watched as mighty wings of quivering flesh and fang instead of feather burst from his back, eyes losing their shine and turning as black as the pit they fell into, his sneer turning into a wide, wicked grin, blood pouring out of his mouth as his lips parted for a ghastly howl....

As did Jeremy begin to fall, though, to his eyes, it all disappeared in a flash of light. The last thing he heard before exiting Jessye’s crumbling sanctum of a mind was her screaming in absolute terror...

----

Jeremy grinned, smiling at the girl curled up into a ball, clutching at her head, crying hysterically, occasionally screaming for something to get away, though for what it was he couldn’t be certain. Penance lie by her head, completely still, not returning to her hands like it had so many times in the past...

He sauntered off the front doorstep on the church. Funny, he had forgotten that she had found him outside that wretched, crumbling building, stopping him before he could go anywhere, calling him a ‘sinner amongst sinners’...

He stepped up to a payphone, dropped in some change, and dialed up Precinct 21.

“Hi, I’d like to speak to one Sergeant Del Corzucan? I’ve got something he’d like to know, about a case he’s looked into recently... Yeah, transfer me...” He waited as he heard the clicks over the phone, waited through the beeps...

He grinned, taking a sideways glance towards the crying Jessye lying outside the grand oak doors of the church.

“Hello, Corzucan? I’ve found that Jessye Christopher, that kid you’ve been looking for... No, this isn’t a prank... Yes, I have really found her. She’s lying in front of the Tillerman Street Church. Apparently, she just lost it. Yeah, broke down right outside the church...”



Written by Ren
Start - 05/24/2002
End - 05/27/2002

And there you have it. She’s finally lost it. Oh, don’t worry, she’ll be back, it’s just that she’ll be wearing a tattered straightjacket and bloody hospital gown instead of a nice blue dress....

Back home with you...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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