Demons Ascension - Church

For those wondering...we're not even at the halfway point...The full version is available upon request though...

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[Demons Ascension - Church]

            Stan had pulled the same disappearing trick Amy had been doing when James turned away at one point, but not before telling him where he needed to get to, stressing the fact that he needed to hurry. James all but kicked down the guest room door to wake John up and they were now speeding along in John's car. The only coherent thing John could get out of James was that they needed to go east as fast as humanly possible.
            "Looking for a church," James said as John sped down the street. James had hoped there was a speed trap so that they could have a couple patrol cars in tow when they arrived. "Only one church on this street," John said as he drove "Why the hell are we going there? You said something about a tip." James didn't want to get into it, mainly because he knew exactly how it would sound. He knew he wasn't dreaming or crazy though when he noticed the stains on the carpet in the living room from where Stan shattered his glass. "Just get me to that church," James said, feeling uneasy still from his previous conversation.
            The rain had all but stopped by the time they arrived at St. Josephs Catholic Church. James jumped out and sprinted through the yard and up stone stairs for the front doors. He uselessly pulled at them, but they refused to swing open. "The place is closed," John said as he came up the walkway "I'm sure any sins you need to confess can wait.
            "Gotta be another way in," James said to himself as he turned to see John looking up at him with an odd look on his face. "Ready to explain things yet?" he asked as James looked out at the surrounding street. Everything around him was bathed in the night, the only light coming from wherever a streetlight was. The entire street was calm and silent, with darkness only broken up by the occasional pool of light before plunging back into darkness. A figure slowly making their way away from the church caught James' eye as it passed into light momentarily, the light shining in such stark contrast to the night around it that James was able to clearly make him out as if it were day.
            "Gray trench coat," James said as he noticed the coat the hooded figure was wearing. "I see him," John said as James jumped down the stairs and took off after the man. "Get the car!" he yelled as he sped up down the road after the man, flashing his way through the pools of light as the figure glanced back and noticed James before taking off down a different street. There was no way in hell James was about to buy a coincidence that a man wearing the same color trench coat was walking away from the same place James had been led to by...suspicious means. James wasn't ready just yet to admit to who he was having a conversation with before, but he was more open to believing it now that he was chasing down his potential suspect.
            James turned down the street the man had run down to find that he had covered an uncanny amount of ground before James could see him again. John then came up following in his car, the wheels squealing on the slick pavement as he turned the corner and roared down the street, barely missing James as he flew down the street in pursuit. The suspect kept running at a Usain Bolt level of speed before turning the corner again in an effort to lose John. This only served to support James' "Superman did it" theory, but he figured then the suspect would just fly away.
            James figured John was calling for backup if not already. He decided to head back for the church and wait for someone else to arrive and also to see if there was an alternate way in. If the suspect had indeed come from within the church, then there would have to be a way in that James could exploit. James walked over to the side of the church facing the direction he had come from. Towards the back was an entrance hidden from the street by some bushes. James walked up to find the handle broken and the door hanging ajar. "This is encouraging," he said as he walked in.
            Inside was a hallway that led strait from where James entered and a stairway directly to his left that went up. James noticed a set of bloody footprints on the stairs and decided to go up, being careful not to step near the footprints. The trail led up and through an additional room before he entered into the church proper. The lights were left on and James got a good look at the scene. "Oh, this can't be holy," James said as he wandered deeper into the crime scene.
            Blood had been spilled everywhere and was overflowing out of the baptism fountain. Laid out in the middle of the floor by the alter was a man, stripped nude and had his arms strait out on each side like he was on a cross. His chest looked as if it had been ripped open and left that way as he sported his own impressive pool of blood. Crumpled up near one of the pews in front were ripped up black clothes. James stepped over some blood and looked at the clothes, then looked at the man on the ground.
            "A priest," he said as he walked over to the body. The MO so far seemed to match up with the previous murders. Looking into the open chest cavity, James could tell the heart was missing, but he also noticed the position of all the organs; they had been taken out and placed back in reverse positioning. James also noticed a different injury not present on any of the other victims; a slash across the palm of the man's right hand.
            James could hear sirens as he left the body and continued looking elsewhere around the church. Nearby he found a bloody box cutter. No way it could have done the damage James saw, but he figured it was used by the priest against his attacker. "Or maybe," James said to himself as he looked back at the priest "He used it on himself."
            James scanned the area farther away from the scene. This priest knew he was going to die. Perhaps he tried to get a message off the only way he could. He would cut open his hand and leave a message in blood about his attacker, but he couldn't do it near where he'd die or else the message would be lost. "Where would I leave my dying message?" James asked as he heard the police begin to force their way in through the front doors of the church.
            "Of course!" he exclaimed as he ran over, jumped over the pool of blood and ascended the two steps leading up to the altar. On the table were a few large, hastily scrawled letters in blood. "C, R, O, A," James read aloud "and an L?" The first four letters were uppercase, but the L was lowercase, it merely being a straight line that trailed all the way off the table, as if the priest had been pulled away while he was writing.
            The front doors crashed open and two officers rushed inside, guns drawn. James turned around at the altar with his arm raised. "Boy, do I have some explaining to do or what?" he said with a forced smile.
            Unsurprisingly, James had been detained at the scene while the officers waited for more backup. Over an hour later, Bradford strolled in with John in tow, neither had a happy look on their faces. "Tell me you caught the guy," James asked as John made a face and shook his head. "Guy moved fast. Jumped out of view and lost me."
            "Well that's just great. How about we get these cuffs off me, huh?" James said to John "Could you tell these guys I'm one of the good guys?"
            "This is my scene and I call the shots here, remember?" Bradford broke in "And personally, I think it better if we leave you that way. Now what were you doing here?"
            "Just making sure everyone here was ok. I'm not so sure about the priest, you might wanna check on him."
            "Do I look amused? Praque tells me you two were only here by chance because you woke him up in the middle of the night and said "Let's take a drive." So how bout it?"
            "Would you even believe me if I tried to tell you?"
            "Blake, I swear to God, don't fuck with me. Why. Were. You. Here?"
            The two men stared at each other a moment before James figured something to say. "Just following the clues, detective."
            Bradford took a deep breath and forced it out through his teeth. "I want him out of here!" he barked "Bring him to the station!" he turned to find John "You go with him!" he yelled, not allowing John or James to even protest "I'll deal with you both when I'm done here."