*** Chapter one: Hunger ***
Faith; is a way of salvation for some, and a way of deceiving for others, a pain for some, a relief for others, a portal to get closer to the truth, or an escape to get further from the unknown… only those who can distinguish, will know for certain that faith sometimes is just a personal perspective, which can be imperfect, and never immaculate.
The moon was full, hiding partially behind the cloud, maybe reflecting a caveat, or an upcoming goodness, and as it’s standing there firmly in the sky, those with empty tummies were waiting at the church’s gate, desperately for their meal.
Hundreds of people of all classes always attend that church, for events, prayers, performing rites, promoting a politician, not just to fulfill their faith, but to cherish the presence of “Mikal”, a young charismatic priest with massive knowledge as alleged by plenty. He gathers people all the time, not just occasionally, to preach among them, to influence them, to deliver them a message of his own, like a prophet, a God-sent.
“If you seek a path to God, you must seek a path to me.” he says, while others acclaim him saying “Amen”….
Pamela and Humbert were traveling a long distance to their new home, but they had to stop beforehand to eat something, it was late, a forest road, no many restaurants around open at dawn, only “Saint Christopher’s church”, opening its arms to the visitors of all kinds. Pamela is an atheist, never was a believer, neither is Humbert, who left Christianity after becoming independent from his devout catholic family.
They hesitated to enter the church’s hall, but their hunger couldn’t hold them back.
“It’s just a meal and we resume our trip, let’s not be so picky” Humbert said, trying to convince Pamela who is quite uncomfortable around churches, especially with the trauma she had when she was a teenager, Christians gathering around her forcing her to kiss the cross when they saw her posts online rejecting the church, her family then disowned her, and the church they used to go all rejected her presence and tried to impose their concepts on her friendly and forcibly. Due to that, she never decided to become one of any believing community, and no one can blame her for such. But, for once, after a long while, maybe a decade, she decided to enter a church again, not to listen to their ceremonies, not to flirt with a handsome devout man, not to pray, but only to fill her hunger.
They went in, looking exhausted, observing the ambiance, the people, and the long dining table with plenty of recipes… the crowds were also looking back at them in suspicion, since they look quite unfamiliar.
Pamela held her husband’s palm, as he tightened his grip on her, knowing how deeply she is scared, he was introducing her to the meals, letting her know what each presented plate contains, and they both started scooping their food basing on their preferences, they wanted to take the plates and eat outdoors, but they weren’t allowed to do so, the guards refused and conditioned their hunger satisfaction with their presence inside the church, not just that, but also waiting Mikal who will preach after the dinner. Pamela started to panic and asked Humbert to leave instantly and use the residuals of their snacks in the car until they reach a hotel or something, but Humbert insisted that the road is long and there is no close destination where they can relieve themselves, eat or sleep.
Pamela couldn’t hear but noises; utensils clattering, people talking loudly, laughing, and footsteps coming back and forth, until these sounds became quiet all of sudden, and only one sound was going on, the Priest’s chamber’s door opening slowly, giving everyone wide smiles, ear-to-ear, except for them both.
Everyone started murmuring, praising God, and getting closer to the priest to bless them with his wisdom and faithful heart, only Humbert and Pamela stayed at their place, holding their plates in their hands and waiting to be seated by an order of that priest, he asked everyone to stay still, and pray before they start eating, and after they did, everyone was seated already, searching with their eyes where Mikal will choose to sit, and some were asking him to sit beside them, but he only chose the couple who look unfamiliar to the church’s family,
“New people, new family members. Welcome!” he said, approaching Pamela, who almost denied following the same faith, but Humbert interrupted saying “Thank you, we’re just travelers, we’re not from here.”, He followed, “The food looks delicious, is there a certain occasion today?”
Mikal: “Well, since you’re here, that’s an occasion, maybe that was all prepared for you!”
Pamela smirked, then responded, “how do you guys know we were coming? Anyways, I also agree that the food looks delicious.”
Humbert squeezed her elbow trying to tell her to be softer, but she looked him in the eyes with a n indeed rebellious look, insinuating a serious trigger that could ruin the night for them.
The priest was smart enough to recognize an uncomfortable stance from both of them, he asked them to start eating, then he started asking about their backgrounds, looking at Pamela almost all the time, focusing on the way she eats, trembles, feels aggressive and hardly eye-contacting any of them, until he straightforwardly asked them both if they were religious, “I come from a devout catholic family, so does Pamela”, he said while hoping deep down that Pamela doesn’t say otherwise, but she eventually stayed focused on her food.
Mikal decided to go a bit more hardcore asking about verses they both relate to the most, and Humbert also responded, but this time, Mikal touched Pamela’s hand, causing her to push his nervously in front of everyone, screaming, “don’t you dare touch me!”, he pulled his hands away, everyone was looking at her spitefully, but the priest tried to cool the situation down, Humbert looked at her calming her down, but she insinuated all the signs of unsatisfactory demanding them both to leave, Mikal ordered the staff to pack them food for their long trip, but Pamela rejected, Humbert tried to apologize, giving excuses about how tiring their road was but the priest looked more than understanding and quite cunning for Pamela. The guards told them both that they have to attend the ceremony then leave, but Pamela couldn’t stay a second longer, Humbert tried to deescalate and told her that it’s just few minutes and they leave safely.
The priest shortly started preaching, how God is important in each life of ours, how his presence elevates the blessings and lifts the calamities, and how the unfaithful are enemies of those who are doing good, and how rotten some faithful people could be that they distort the image of God before innocents’ eyes. His gestures weren’t that hard to grasp, they both waited him to finish, and once he did, Pamela pulled her husband’s hand and was heading to the door, they both left without leaving a note, or even taken their packed meals. They drove their car away and Pamela didn’t speak a word afterwards, just silence haunting their ambitious plan.
And as they were driving to their closest destination, partially full, Pamela was googling about that priest, learning that he is a co-founder of Saint Christopher, and contributed in funding orphanages and schools in the nearest community, but something felt fishy about him when Pamela actually met him, maybe it feels biased because she hates churches and devouts for certain reasons, but the way he touched her hand felt so uncomfortable for her. “Have you seen how he touched my hand?!” she said,
“Chill, Pamela, you already made it enough embarrassing for both of us, you could’ve held your grudge in a bit until we finish, you know I’m not a churchgoer but I was trying to handle the situation with least losses”
“Oh, now it’s my mistake! I’m your wife, I was literally touched by a stranger against my will!”
“Ah yeah, as if he touched your arse! It’s just a palm, and I don’t even think he did anything to bother you purposely, he was trying to be nice to definitely new visitors.”
“The more you speak, Humbert, the angrier I become, well, go there and marry him then, since you’re defending him so much.”
“I could say the same about you, go find someone who can cope with your mess in a way better than I do.”
Pamela stared at his face, then stopped the car while he was driving, causing the car to crash at a newly installed pavement, Humbert went down to look at the damage, and it appears to be that the front is scratched with minor dents, he went back to car, loudly breathing, then said “are you happy now?”
“you’re really inconsiderate of how I must be feeling right now! A mess! I am a mess? Then what about you?” she responded,
“I could’ve said I’m sorry until you got our car crashed already in the middle of the way. See what your drama caused here!?”
she went down and saw the minor damages, and tested if the car works, and it was working nicely, then she followed, “This is what I call drama and insensible person who cares about minor damages that his wife’s feelings, so low of you!”
She stayed in her corner preferring not to talk to him at all, and he was trying to reconcile with her but she felt betrayed, unsafe and unseen at that moment.
They passed by a monastery and an orphanage close to each other, Pamela was feeling so sleepy but she decided to sleep at the car, and while Humbert needed to sleep somewhere comfy, he decided to guard his wife all the night and try to compensate her for the last night’s situation.
Early morning, while the sun was still rising, a girl came and knocked on the window beside Pamela rapidly and nonstop, Pamela lowered the glass a bit and the girl looked like she was asking for help, she was wearing a night gown, she had bruises, Humbert was afraid it might be a prank or someone trying to deceive them into something, but Pamela’s guts told her to take the girl in, she opened the door for her, and she asked Humbert to drive but the nuns and priests who are responsible of that orphanage came in a hurry and stood in front of the car and beside it, trying to take the girl out, picking her from her clothes and scolding her in front of everyone, then approached Pamela and Humbert to apologize for them, telling them this girl is not in her senses.
Although Pamela is quite irritated around churches, she decided to deflect from that fact once and stay at the monastery for one day since their trip is quite long, and she made it all sound about her and her husband but deep down, she wanted to stay for the girl, but that never sneaked to the organizers’ heads, they only welcomed them both to stay and offered them breakfast, while the girl was looking back at them in fear and despair.
“What was that? You’re not playing the hero, are you?” Humbert whispered in Pamela’s ears, she totally ignored him as he was making it worse after a screwed up night.
He apologized authentically this time, and she wasn’t much focused on that problem anymore, thus, she decided to forgive him.
“so, are we team again?” he asked hopefully,
“Depends…” she said while searching with her eyes where they’re taking the teenage girl.
“Depends on what exactly?” he followed,
“Depends on how much you support my theories than you do with other.” she responded.
He hugged her from the side and repeated his apologies, justifying that it was a stressful night for all and that he will always support her and believe her.
The girl instead of going to her room in the orphanage, she was kept in the monastery to pray and repent as they told her,
Pamela finished her breakfast and went escorted with Humbert to the girl’s room locked with chains, she wrote a paper to her exploiting no one’s presence at that moment, saying “what did you want to tell me back there? Once I leave here I will report the police.”
and gave her a pen to write back for her, but suddenly someone came, the girl took the paper and tried to deliver a message, but when she tried to give the paper and pen back, Pamela pushed them inwards again to not get caught, and she asked one of the coordinators to guide them both to their rooms, he took their tiny bags and led them where they need to be, Pamela initiated taking off her clothes to take a shower and started searching the place step by step, the shower corner she chose had a dry bloodstain on the drain but she tried not to connect to the girl’s case, because it might be menstruation or could be a simple injury, she couldn’t jump to conclusions but she definitely had her doubts about the entire place, the bathroom had windows that looked so close to the ground but were still on the ceiling, if someone decided to jump through them, it won’t be that hard. She was looking carefully and then she noticed a hand pulling a green towel that was hanged on the window, she panicked and dressed up fast, she went outside and Humbert was waiting for her already, but he saw how worried she was and asked “what happened!”,
she told him exactly everything, then he started feeling weird about the place asking her to leave already, but she couldn’t leave the girl behind, and although Humbert furrowed his brows unable to accept her suggestion mentally, but he didn’t want to upset her anymore, she passed by the girl’s room again but she wasn’t there already and the room was open, they guessed she could be taken back to the orphanage, she entered the room secretly and tried to get through every corner searching for the paper, and she didn’t find it. She only found the pen and it was open, which means, that she wrote something, but she must have took the paper with her to not get more tortured.
Humbert started to feel more alert and unsafe, and started to recognize that there’s something wrong with that place, so he tried to exploit another change to leave, desperately asking Pamela to follow his recommendation, he also promised to call the police once they move away, but she preferred not to, expecting them to lie or the situation to escalate and it becomes too late to help the girl. Humbert went to his car and decided to take his gun and hide in his pants, and they went to their rooms, looking at each other in confusion.
They heard noises outside, so, Pamela had to peek to see if it was the girl who is coming back, but she only saw Mikal walking the corridor with some nuns, looking so frowned and scolding them in a corner, he looked threatening and frighting, unlike the version she witnessed last night at saint Christopher. She went to Humbert, shivering, and stuttering, she told him who she saw, and he started to calm her down, telling her that he obtained his gun to protect both of them in case anything happen.
She felt slightly safer, but she felt that she might not be the actual victim of that place, Pamela couldn’t sleep, she stayed awake all the night, she heard someone knocking their door at midnight, she was hesitating to open, she tried to wake Humbert but he was deep sleeping, she took the gun from the bedside table, unlocked the door slowly and opened a tiny gap, to see a little girl shushing her and asking her to follow her, she left the girl outside, locked the door again and tried to wake her husband but he was unresponsive, snoring and quite dissociated, she gathered her courage and went outside with the girl, hiding her gun and sensing it with her fingertips, the girl took her to the female bathroom and there, she met “Luciana”, the girl she decided to stay for.
Luciana gave her the paper and told her to hurry back to her bedroom before someone sees them. She did as asked, and locked herself in and opened the paper instantly, and what was written was as following:
“I know what they say about me, I’m not crazy, Mikal told us to be good to God by being good to him, and we did everything he asked, even the things God asked us not to do, “fornicating”, but Leanne was the one who decided to speak, little did she know what was awaiting her, she was my best friend, we planned to leave together and go to college, but this is apparently our unfortunate decree. I don’t know what might happen in the future, but, if you’re staying here for me, please, leave, they know who you are, Pamela, and they received a call from Mikal telling them to keep you both hostages. Please, leave before dawn.”
Pamela shook Humbert this time and gagged his mouth with her shawl, showing him the letter, he started panicking and packing their bags, then, instead of leaving through the door, they decided jumping from the third floor, where they’re staying, the smell of the crops was lingering in their clothes, the crickets were doing a camouflage noise to cover theirs, and the scarecrows were moving slightly with the winds, dancing for a becoming victory as wished.
Humbert was trying to climb down the concrete pillar near the window, holding his wife from below and going down gradually until they fell on the floor not from a large distance, they ran back to their car and they started operating it, the car was revving but the vehicle itself wasn’t moving, the organizers heard it and one of them stepped out of his office, they both left the car, laying low and running towards the forest, their phones had no signal, they waited until the morning then they decided to go back to the monastery to find out that the girl was soaked in blood in the bathroom with different cuts on her body, everyone was trying to comfort the girls telling them she was unstable because she was far away from God and she committed suicide which is quite unpleasant.
Humbert pretended that they never left and a man came towards them asking if they were leaving before breakfast, but Humbert said that they just woke up,
“Weird! I just heard you car revving!” the man responded, but Humbert denied and asked if this area has plenty of thieves, the guy’s suspicions were partially erased and he pretended to escort them to check their car and offer help, but they knew that the car was already sabotaged by them.
They both ignored talking about what happened to the girl, and all of sudden they were questioned again about their faith, and this time they both lied that they’re religious just like their families,
“But Mikal said otherwise! Weird again!”
They both looked at each other, then Humbert responded, “Since when anyone can decide what people think or feel?”
“They’re right, Daniel, I never said that, you must have misunderstood”, Mikal shows up out of nowhere and storms both of his presence, receiving a warm welcome only from Daniel his fellow…
“The girl was sick, sad that she left the world without proper repenting!” he followed,
“But, you just said that no one can dictate people’s intentions, may she be forgiven” Pamela responded, causing Daniel to grind his teeth and Mikal to smile at her, “You’re faithful then!?”,
“I thought you just denied that we weren’t! I just don’t like strangers touching me.” she said,
He apologized and offered them a help with their car, as well as decent breakfast, they accepted, gulping their saliva and taking their utmost precautions, the same little girl who guided Pamela last night to the bathroom to meet Luciana, sneaked into the crowd and hit Pamela’s back with a piece of paper, Humbert tried to distract Daniel and Mikal, and Pamela took the paper and went to the bathroom to read it, but the bathroom was full of blood, she snuck into male’s bathroom and read it fast, and it said, “They killed her. I saw them. Please, help us. I hid her diaries in the garden, where they planted red tulips.”
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