That Cleansing Fire - Part Four
The St. Margaret Catholic Church occupied a small, half-forgotten lot sandwiched between two abandoned tenements. It was made of brick that had long lost its newness, coated as it was by the dust and grime of the city. A small, squat rectory was attached to it by a short covered walkway. A broken-down chain link fence surrounded the property. Here and there small piles of wind-blown trash could be seen trapped up against the fence in the light of the now risen moon.
Cade parked the Explorer along the curb in front of the grounds and the three of them got out. The streets were quiet, hushed even, as if the buildings around them were holding their breath, waiting to see what these intruders would do in their domain. Cade could feel the electrical tension that comes from being watched, but couldn’t identify were the feeling was coming from.
They pushed open the gate and made their way over to the church entrance. Once they drew close, they were able to see that the heavy, oak doors of the sanctuary were left partially open. Considering the neighborhood, it was a clear sign that all was not right here.
They entered the church like it was hostile territory.
Riley shoved open the door and let his companions slip inside before taking up a position behind them. Stretching out before them was a large central aisle that extended to the altar fifty feet ahead and divided two sets of pews into equal parts, with aisles stretching down the outside of each section against the walls. On either side of the altar, two small wings formed the horizontal axis of the cross and stretched out of sight. The building was shaped like a cross and the team had entered at its base. The interior was semi-dark, lit only by the soft breath of moonlight that were streaming in through the four windows that were evenly spaced along the left hand wall. The red beams of their laser sights danced about in the semi-darkness like the lights at a rock concert before swiftly coming to rest on the body that had been left lying across the altar at the front of the church.
Making certain that the building was clear was the first priority, however, and so the body would have to wait. Without a word, Riley moved to the left-hand aisle and Olseny moved to the right. Cade waited until they were in position and then gave the hand signal for them to advance simultaneously toward the altar. This would allow them to provide fire support to each other while at the same time make use of the wooden pews as cover should it prove necessary.
They made it to the foot of the altar without incident. Riley and Olsen circled the outer wings without finding anything out of the ordinary before rejoining Cade at the apex of the central aisle. Only at that point, once they were satisfied that they were alone, did the three of them advance on the body lying on the altar.
The man dressed in the black casual clothing and white clerical collar of a Catholic priest. One leg was draped over the front of the altar, the other hung over the side, bent at the knee. The priest’s hands were arranged on his chest with an antique wooden crucifix clasped upright between them.
If it hadn’t been for the condition of his skin and face, you might have almost been able to believe he was sleeping, Cade thought idly. Of course there was no way you’d ever make that mistake once you’d gotten a close look at what had been done to him.
Had the man spent the last two hundred years baking in the Arizona deserts, he couldn’t have looked any more drained of substance than he did now. The skin of his face was stretched tightly over his skull, as if the flesh beneath had been sucked away, leaving just the thinnest barrier between the air and bone. A quick glance down at the man’s hands let Cade know the condition extended there as well and from that Cade guessed that it extended across his entire body. The man’s eyes were gone, the empty sockets staring at the ceiling far above. From the position of the man’s jaw, it looked like his mouth was frozen open in a silent scream, but the several strips of grey duct tape that were wrapped around his lower face made it difficult to tell for certain.
Olsen was the first to speak.
“Vamps!” he swore, using the common name for something that was in truth far more vicious than the blood-sucking monsters immortalized by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. “I freakin hate vamps!”
“Ch’iang shih,” Cade corrected softly, using the proper name for the Chinese creatures, but he agreed with the general sentiment. If the blood cult they had supposedly been called in to investigate actually turned out to be a pack of Ch’iang Shih, he and his team were in for a nasty fight in the not so distant future.
While his team had never had to face this particular supernatural menace, he had been thoroughly briefed in the past. He did his best now to recall what he had been told.
Also known as the Gui Ren, or Demon People, they were some of the fiercest supernatural creatures ever encountered by the Templars. They had their origins in China and were routinely seen throughout Central and Southeast Asia, but they had rarely been encountered here in the States. According to Asian tradition, they are formed when an individual has an outstanding karmic debt that must be paid, a debt so enormous that it prevents the soul from moving onward through the Great Cycle and forces the body to rise again from death. More often than not, the higher, rational aspect of the soul, the Hun, becomes dormant, leaving the P’o, or the lower, bestial aspect of the soul, in control of the resurrected creature. Neither truly living nor dead, the Ch’iang shih are creatures without Chi, the essence of life, and therefore must constantly steal it from the living in order to sustain their existence while they seek to redeem their debt and rejoin the Great Cycle.
The drained, lifeless husk that is left behind after such a theft had become the Ch’iang shih’s signature the world over. No other creature left such evidence of its passing in their wake, making them easily identifiable for hunters like Cade’s team.
Identifying them was the easy part, however.
Finding and defeating them was another matter entirely.
« That Cleansing Fire - Part Three | Home | That Cleansing Fire - Part Five »
Leave a Comment