The Church
Page 18
“What are you talking about?”
“I think you know,” Kane said, smiling mischievously at the man. As the contents of his diary spilled over his head once more, he felt slowly disgusted by the sight of him. In his time with the force, he’s met all kinds of evil people – murderers, rapists, thieves, but his experience with them didn’t make Dennis look any better. In fact, it only made him look worse by comparison
When Dennis didn’t reply, Kane cleared his throat and told him a story reading from his own diary.
“It was a rainy September evening when I first met him. I was only a young man in my twenties, studying to become a priest. My brother had already made an impression in this small town as a hard-headed, passionate priest and I intended to follow his footsteps. However, when I saw this little boy wrapped in the most adorable blanket, I knew right there that my path was something else entirely...”
“Stop it,” Dennis said through his teeth.
“He grew up in the church with me and my brother. He raised him like he was his own son. I raised him to become more than that...” Kane continued.
“Shut up,” Dennis said as he attempted to kick Kane in the shin. His foot narrowly missed his knee as he flailed around like a fish out of water.
“He grew up under my wing. I watched him grow from a stuttering little boy to a handsome young man. And over the years, I’ve grown to love him.”
“STOP IT!” Dennis yelled from the top of his lungs, “STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!”
“Not as a son, but as a lover. But he never saw me the same way.”
Kane watched Dennis struggled to reach him with his heel. But it was all in vain. No matter how hard he tried, it was Kane who had the upper hand now. Realizing this, a smile slowly crept over his lips. He tortured his mother and his best friend for days. Now it’s time for him to pay.
“Still, I pursued him. I –“
“STOP IT, PLEASE!”
“...went to his room one night.”
“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?!!” Dennis yelled. His face was burning red and there were tears pooling on the corners of his eyes. Shame was painted across his face like a glorious tapestry in Kane’s eyes. Kane smirked, pleased by his apparent humiliation.
“Just tell me what I need to hear and we can both move on with our lives,” Kane said, standing up. He walked over to the counter beside the post and leaned against it, toying with the folder in his hand. He waited as Dennis struggled to catch a breath.
“And what will I get in return?” Dennis said in between breaths.
“Freedom,” Kane said. He heard Freddy swear under his breath from the door. He was leaning against the wall and was starting to make his way to Kane when Kane held up a hand to stop him.
“What the fuck are you doing, Kane?!” Freddy yelled at him. Kane ignored him and looked back at Dennis.
“You just tell me what I need to hear and I’ll let you go. That’s it.” Kane says, “You’re a smart man, Dennis. I can see that. Now, why would a smart man like you orchestrate such a violent atrocity against the world? What? Just to spite it?”
Dennis squirmed uncomfortably on the floor, trying to get back in an upright sitting position after flailing his legs around.
“And I actually thought you were smart,” He said. He let out a few short giggles before calming down to an eerie state of indifference within a few seconds. Kane looked at him with his jaw tight and his fist clenched. In the corner, Freddy mumbled incoherent phrases all pointed at him. He paid him no attention and focused his eyes on Dennis.
“What makes you think that I want freedom?” Dennis said through his teeth, “Jail is just a room, champ. Nothing can weigh me down.”
“Not even the skeletons in your closet, Dennis?” Kane said, “When the police come here, they won’t just search you. They’ll search the whole perimeter. Every inch of this place will be turned upside down. No stone will be left unturned. And a fanatic pedophile makes a damn good headline, don’t you think?”
“Fuck you,” Dennis muttered with a taut mouth. Kane could see the sweat dribbling down his neck, mixing in with some of his blood as he breathed heavily through his mouth. Kane simply looked at him, unimpressed and utterly bored.
“Dennis, have you heard of the parable of the blind man and the elephant?” Kane said, tilting his head to the side like a curious kid. When he received no reply, he continued, “a king in Northern India once gathered all the blind people together and once he got them all, he led an elephant in front of them. He ordered each one to touch a part of it and the kind asked them, ‘what is it?’”
Dennis rolled his eyes and sighed.
“Then everyone said, ‘it’s an elephant.’” Kane continued, “Then the king asked them to describe what an elephant was like. Trouble ensued. One shouted the elephant was this, others shouted the elephant was that, and so on. Soon, bickering turned into shouting, then shouting turned into fist fights, much to the amusement of the king.”
“What’s your point?” Dennis said, looking at him straight in the eyes.
“My point is that you are just one of the blind men asked to touch the elephant – you are blind to the truth of God yet still so convinced that your perception of the truth is the ultimatum to the point where you would inflict pain on all those who disagree.” Kane took a deep breath and walked back over to Dennis. He sat by his feet and looked at him.
“Shame,” he said. “God doesn’t forgive murderers. Sorry to say but your righteous indignation won’t land you a sure spot in heaven, Father.”
“God forgives all those who believe,” Dennis muttered.
“Except you,” Kane said. The smug look on Dennis’ face when he entered the room was now long gone and now a face of pure hatred was looking at him with glowing green eyes.
“We are not them,” Dennis suddenly told him calmly.
“Why is that?”
“Because we are not blind,” Dennis continued. “It is you. It’s all of you. Religion has lost its touch. No one is afraid of the consequences of their actions in this life and that has led to the complete and utter ruin of our society. Our mission is to change that entirely.”
“How so?” Kane asked.
“You already know how,” Dennis whispered, smiling at him as if he was a child on Christmas day. Kane once again glanced at the folder and back at him. Deep down, he secretly hoped it was all a lie – that everything he wrote here was some kind of sick, elaborate joke. But the smile was too real. The glimmer in his eyes was all too real.
“Hundreds of people will die,” Kane said, scrunching his eyebrows.
“People die every day, get over it.”
“Dennis Gardner, you admit to conspiring against the lives of hundreds of American citizens?” Kane asked.
“Obviously.”
“Do you also admit to conspiring against the American government...in the name of the Lord?”
“Maybe,” Dennis said. His smile was starting to fade as he saw a smile crept over Kane’s face. Kane tucked a hand into his pocket and took out the phone, showing him the screen.
“That’s all I wanted to hear, Father,” Kane said, tucking the folder back under his arm and shoving the phone back into his pocket. “Well, enjoy the rest of your evening.”
“HEY! YOU SAID I CAN GO FREE!” Dennis yelled after him as Kane made his way towards Freddy, never even bothering to turn back to glance at Dennis. He pressed his palm against the switch and the light on on the other side of the room all went off.
“I said I’d let you go free,” Kane said, “but I never said anything about the cops letting you go.”
Kane wrapped his arm around Freddy and walked over to the other side of the room, much to Dennis’s chagrin. He pressed his hand against the switch and the whole room was consumed by darkness. Dennis yelled and spat curses at them as Kane opened the door and turned around one last time to take a good long look at the silhouette of the man who tortured his family and murdered his friend.
He turned around and saw a long, narrow hallway. On the other end, he could see a man sitting by the door with his eyes shut. Kane unwound his arm around Freddy and looked at him with one finger raised to his lips.
The pair quietly paced through the hallway, the smell getting stronger as they got farther and farther from the door. Kane approached the first door to his right and tried moving the handle. As expected, it didn’t budge. He took out the key card he stole and pressed it against the scanner and lightly pushed open the door.
He caught a whiff of a foul smell, making him gag. He lightly backed away from the door and tried to control his breathing. The smell was nauseating. It was as if someone stuffed a dozen dead cats into one room and left them there to rot.
“Dear God, what the fuck is that smell?” Freddy whispered before covering his mouth.
“I don’t know...” Kane said before covering his nose. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door and got inside. He ran his free hand over the wall until he felt a light switch. When he finally found one, he flicked it. The bulb merely flickered and burned out after a few seconds, but a few seconds was more than enough for them to see what was inside.
In the mellow lighting of the room, they could see about a dozen people lined up against the wall. From what they could tell, they were all naked and their emaciated bodies were already in the process of decay. Beside the door, there was a pile of clothes, all sorted into three: pants, shirts, and underwear. With the scarce light pouring into the room, they saw small rectangular pieces piled in one corner as well. Scattered all over the floor were stained white garments.
“Lab coats...” Kane whispered. “Jesus Christ...is this what they did to the scientists?”
“Fuck,” Freddy whispered behind him. Freddy took a deep breath and gagged until finally, he heaved out the few scraps he had in his stomach.
“Let’s get out of here. Now.” Kane said, turning around and dragging Freddy with him. He shut the door behind him and ran back to the place where they left Dennis. Inside, he was still yelling. Kane paid him no attention as he navigated through the dark and got out of the other door.
Outside, he finally let himself go. His head spun as he threw up on the grass. Behind him, he could hear Freddy trying to vomit as well. As he heaved, all he could think of was the split-second image of all the corpses lined up along the walls. Not a single person came to help them. If he hadn’t fought back, he’d probably be one of them.
“I’m sorry,” Kane said when he finished, “I never should have come here. If I hadn’t, you –“
“Would probably be dead,” Freddy interrupted. “You weren’t the first person to come prying in here, according to the guy. No one ever makes it out alive. No one.”
“Except us,” Kane said as he tried to stand upright.
“I wouldn’t count on that too much,” Freddy whispered under his breath. “Were you really in the same room as I was? You saw the bodies. You saw what they did to me and your mother. Do you really think that every single person here is fucking clueless? If they find us, they’ll fucking kill us.”
“They would’ve killed us when they had the chance. Trust me, everyone here is just as clueless as us, if not more,” Kane said as he wiped his face and started walking back to the gate.
“We walked into a fucking trap. I have never seen anyone so ruthless...and what makes it worse is why.”
“This is nothing new, Fred. Trust me.”
“What do you mean?”
Kane took a deep breath and started walking along the walls, keeping one of his hands against the stones. He made sure that both of them were hidden in the shadows, regardless if there was no one around to see them.
“Back in 1996, a guy called Eric Rudolph who is currently serving life without parole for a long list of terrorist attacks committed in the name of Christianity is best known for carrying out the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics, killing over 100 people,” Kane said, looking back at Freddy.
“Wait...the Olympic Park Bomber?” Freddy asked.
“Yeah,” Kane said, “case and point here is that anything taken to the extremes is fucking evil...regardless of who you did it for.”
Kane and Freddy continued the rest of the walk outside in quiet. He was feeling even more lightheaded than before, and the dark quiet of the night wasn’t helping that either. Everywhere he looked, he saw bodies lined up. His nose itched with the rotten smell of death still lingering inside his nostrils. His knees felt weak, his arms heavy, and his whole world felt like it was spinning.
He didn’t know how long he was walking or where he was going at this point, but finally, he felt the cold metal gate brush against his calloused fingertips. He yanked it open and let Freddy outside first and he followed closely behind.
The bodies were still there. Everything was the same as it was before. The blood was still very real, the pain was still visible in both of the men lying lifeless on the forest floor. For a moment, Kane thought he’d imagined everything – that this was all just a sick dream. But as he walked past the two lifeless corpses, his body was once again brought back to its human roots and he felt his stomach clench once more.
He walked faster, struggling to keep pace with Freddy who was now a few feet ahead of him. As the soles of his shoes hit the rough undergrowth, he imagined the sound that each broken twig made as bones being broken, one by one. Pain engulfed him and soon, the whole world turned black and all he could hear was the sound of him falling, falling...and the faint sound of sirens screeching in the cold air.
Epilogue
Kane listened quietly to the heavy drops of rain falling over his black umbrella and over the dead petals left to rot on the grass beside the stone. The steady beat nearly lulled him to sleep as he stared listlessly at the gravestone in front of him.
Here lies Clark Tristen. Beloved friend, faithful servant, and an innocent man.
He lingered on the last three words as he stood there.
..an innocent man...
After all that he’s seen, the words now seem foreign to him. He’s seen it all before – priest stealing from the donation box, nun hitting children, devoted Christians touching kids – he’s seen it all. Yet in the few weeks he spent inside that place that was the only time he really felt the weight of it.
No man was innocent of anything.
Clarke was never his friend. By his definition, a friend was someone you’ve known for a long time. If only he’d hung around much longer, he could have been part of the little family he had. For four months now, he’s been visiting his grave, quietly, brooding over the same things he’s been thinking of before.
Dennis was now safely behind bars, hopefully for the rest of his life. For his crimes against the country and its people, he was not permitted trial and was subjected to indefinite detention for his acts of terrorism and cold-blooded murder. When the police searched the area, they uncovered horrors that Kane never got the chance to unearth. They found bodies rotting beneath the forest floor around the estate. More bodies were also found in gas chambers, along with copies of documents and fake letters to make it seem as if the victims simply ran off on their own.
A long time before Kane even set foot inside the place, the brothers were already planning their attack. They carefully chose their applicants from the desperate and aloof, the lonely and afraid, and basically anybody who wasn’t anyone, including him and his mother. To add insult to injury, nearly all of the priests had assets that the normal hardworking man could only dream of. Every time he saw her face, his mother’s bruises would flash before his eyes. Nothing would satisfy Kane more than seeing his blond hair fall apart inside a cramped up cel
l.
As for the Church, everything was now frozen. All their assets, the movement of those involved, and the plan itself are now gone. The government even made him sign an agreement not to let the world know of the chaos that happened within those walls.
Kane had nothing to brood over at this point, and yet there he was, brooding.
It’s all so unfair.
As he read and reread the words etched on the stone, he felt his gut wrench inside of him. He wondered how often Clarke felt that overwhelming feeling of helplessness. They told him no one has to know the things that happened to him, to his mother, and to Clarke. If they do, the world would dissolve into chaos. They were already in trivial times.
Still, as he stood there, commemorating the death of a would-have-been friend, he felt all of the injustice Clarke felt for 20 years pour down on him all at once, even if he understood what it would cost the world if he let it be known.
For four months now, not one person has come to visit his grave. Not a single one. No one remembers the man who called the cops. No one remembered the man who looked for help when none came. No one remembered his suffering but him and the gravedigger.
That’s why he’s there – to remember. And he is pretty sure in a few months time, he will not step foot here again.
As for Dennis being locked away, this was the price of extremism. When you live in the extremes, you feel the weight of the consequences in the extreme. It was unfair to Kane because it felt like he was the one paying for it even when he roamed free and void of any wrong in the eyes of the law. He was guilty of the burden of knowledge and he has to live with that for the rest of his life, knowing that he could have saved Clarke if only he got to him on time. Maybe, if he stayed around just for a bit more, Kane would have taught him more about the world he was taken from.
Finally, the raining the stopped. The heavy drops of rain dissolved into small, quiet pellets in a matter of seconds. Kane tilted his umbrella to the side and looked up at the gray sky. It was still dark but there were a few peeks of light passing through each break. Small drops of rain fell over his cheeks and he shut his eyes.