3 The Church

The next morning Drew awoke to the familiar smell of bacon. He rushed out of bed and into the living room. He found Sam sitting Indian style on the couch munching down on some eggs and bacon. "Where did you get that?" Drew asked, trying to hold back the drool.

"Downstairs." She smiled. "They got a full buffet of all sorts of yummy breakfast foods. They even have an omelet bar."

"An omelet bar?!" Drew shouted excitedly. Without saying another word Drew rushed out of the room and down to where the buffet was. He returned after a short while with a plate in hand. He had a pile of bacon and a large omelet. "Man, this place is nice." He turned to Sam and Terry, who had joined her on the couch since Drew had left. "Do you want to stay another night and leave tomorrow morning? We are going to be dog tired after our investigation after all."

"Yeah sounds good." Sam said, sipping her juice. "We have a few days before our next gig, I don't see a need to rush."

"I agree, driving while sleepy is worse than driving drunk." Terry chimed in.

"So, we are all agreed then." Drew smiled. "Now put on your work outfits, we got a priest to meet, and I think he will be more forthcoming with information if we are dressed the part." They each went into their rooms and put on their gear. The normal attire of the show was black cargo pants with a lot of extra pockets, and a black t-shirt with the show's logo on the back. Sam always put her long blonde hair in a ponytail and secured it with a black scrunchy.

"We are bringing the camera?" Sam asked as she eyes the heavy beast. She did not want to have to carry it if it was not necessary, or worse not getting paid to. Lugging that camera around was far too much work to do for free.

"I think we can just film this on our cell phones." Drew smiled. "No need to use studio equipment, when we don't want the studio to know what we are doing."

"Okay so it is going to be a long day so make sure you bring your back up battery chargers for your cells. All the other equipment is already in the van ready to go. We got thermal cameras, we got black lights, we got thermometers, you name it we got it." Terry explained. "Also, I got my gun, in case we run into any wild animals. Anyone got any questions? No, good let's head to the van."

With that the trio made their way to the lobby and waved at the clerk working as they left. Jim's shift ended so he was no longer manning the counter. They walked to their van and drove to the local church where Father James worked. They came up to the front door and Drew knocked on the massive church doors. There was no answer. Drew knocked again, harder this time. The door slowly creaked open due to the force of the knocks.

As they entered the church all was quiet and the lights had been turned off. There was an eerie feeling in the air and the hair on the back of their necks stood on its end. "You sure we should be in here?" Terry said. "I feel like we are breaking the law."

"It will be fine; the door was open." Drew said. "Besides this is a church, they wouldn't call the police on us."

"That's easy for you to say white boy." Terry sighed. "My people don't have the same kind of luck with the police, we tend to get shot first and not asked questions later, you know because we got shot and died."

"No one's going to shoot you Terry," Drew said to try and calm his friend. "Is that a light over there?" Drew pointed in the darkness to what appeared to be light coming from a door frame in the distance.

"Looks like it." Sam agreed. "But I think the bigger question is why is it so dark in here? Don't churches normally have large windows?"

"You're right." Drew said. He walked over to the wall and felt around for a window. He could feel some sort of substance covering the glass when he found the window. He scratched it with his fingernail to determine what it could be. The small amount of light that came through after the starching was enough to answer his question. "Looks like the windows got painted over with black paint. Looks like a pretty thick coating as well."

"What kind of church paints over it's windows?" Terry's voice raised from the fear he was experiencing. "Man, we need to get the hell on up out of here! There's some creepy ass shit going on!"

Drew grinned. "I know isn't it great! We are on a real paranormal investigation, with real mysteries. I couldn't be more excited."

"Just be careful Drew, Terry is right. Something isn't right here." Sam cautioned.

Drew made his way to the light coming from the door frame and knocked on the door. "Father James are you in there?!" Drew shouted from outside the door. Drew waited but no one answered. He felt around for the doorknob and slowly turned it when he found it. When he opened the door, he was taken back by the sight. In the center of the room hung a man in priest robes, from the ceiling with a chair knocked over on its side below him. Pinned to the robe was a note.

[To my sisters

I am sorry I must leave you now, the little faceless girl beckons to me and I can no longer withstand her call. I must join her; I have to join her. I am sorry my sisters I failed in cleansing the devil's taint from the land, I am a failure as a priest and a man. Do not mourn for me for I do not die this night, instead I only move on to another place.]

"Guys!" Drew yelled. "We need to call the police!"

Terry peeked his head into the room. "Oh, hell no!" He yelled. He continued yelling the same words over and over as he ran out of the church.

Sam was the next to peek in. "The hell!" She yelled. She pulled her phone out and dialed the local police to report it. After she hung up the phone she went inside the room and grabbed Drew by the shoulder. He was still studying the letter attached to the robe. "The police are on the way; we need to wait out front, so they know we didn't have anything to do with it."

Drew snapped out of his daze. "Right of course." The two then exited the church and waited on the steps for the police to arrive. Terry waited in the van as he wanted nothing to do with the whole situation.