by Cody Lumiére
It was a beautiful day today. There was nothing but rain. I have grown quite fond of the rain.
11/16/1996
I've been having the strangest thing happen. I wake up around 3am and I'm just standing at the foot of my bed looking down... at myself in bed, but it's not me.
3/02/1997
I rarely feel like myself anymore. Every time I realize this I manage to forget again. It's like... my life has become one big blur, fog everywhere I look. Life is like a bad dream that I can't wake up from but the church has been doing the best it ever has. I don't understand.
05/12/1998
Something must be done before I forget again. I have to break my contract with the darkness before it's too late. Elliot seems to know, I don't know how but I can see it in his eyes. I'm glad he has the sense to stay away from me.
06/17/1998
I am unsure of what I was talking about in my previous entries, I feel great. I think I may have been sleep walking or something. Elliot will be starting high school this fall; I am so proud of him. The two of us still don't seem to get along but I am hopeful that one day, I'll figure out this father thing... I think I just made a priest joke. Other than that... everything is well.
10/19/1998
Elliot has been even more distant since starting high school... I guess he's just at that age. His little friend... uh I am not so great with names but the red head, she started coming around again since school started. I am not sure if they are dating but it may account for some of Elliot's strange behavior. Halloween is coming up; I do not look forward to all the raggedy little children coming up to the church demanding candy. Whoever created Halloween should be shot.
Actually, I think it came from a pagan... witch type holiday... no wonder I don't like it. Anyways, I really want to keep up with this journal, I know I've said it many times before but this time I really mean it!
10/30/1998
Yesterday was a pretty eventful day. I ordered a custom made wand to use in my ritual... as suggested by the entity I work with. It really turned out nice, I am very happy with it. I even decided to take a risk and do a quick ritual that very day before Elliot got home from school and the results were quite powerful. I am, however, fortunate that Elliot did not find out.
I am writing this in the morning, which is pretty unlike me. I am more of a night writer but I said I was going to stick with these journals and ended up forgetting yesterday. I have a very busy day ahead of me; I am holding an extra, private mass while Elliot is gone at his Halloween function. Did I mention that the ritual was very powerful with my new wand? In less than 12 hours I received a call from some wealthy entrepreneurs from the next town over wanting to do some good with a recent, sizable return from an investment. I guess they had heard that my services were very insightful and only asked for a private mass in return for a 30k donation. Needless to say I am overjoyed by the whole thing.
While I feel that I could definitely skip tonight's ritual with how much money is coming my way, I did promise to keep at it, oh well... a small price to pay.
11/01/1998
Everything went perfectly last night! The service went better than expected and the fine gentlemen ended up donating 40k instead of 30. Later on, as I was preparing to go do my ritual, I heard a couple of voices down the hall. I went to Elliot's room to check it out and sure enough, he had let his friend come inside. At first I was angry but I held it back and requested she leave... perhaps a bit of an overreaction but I couldn't risk them finding out about my ritual.
The ritual itself was perhaps the most potent I've had yet. Everything started out pretty typical but after a short while of sitting in silence, saying the incantations, I felt an immense surge of power come over me. It felt... well... really enjoyable. I was drunk with energy for probably a good hour before it died down and then I felt really weak, which was a tad concerning but I am sure it'll be fine.
A couple of old friends of mine invited me for a day in the city today so that's where I plan to spend the rest of my day. I deserve some time to wind down and have fun.
11/02/1998
It was a nice change of pace to be out and about on a Sunday for a change. Being a priest tends to really eat away at one's social life, always having to keep a “holy-man” demeanor becomes tiring. I suppose I ought to follow through on my vows though. Today was rather boring and with the exception of a rogue donation in the form of a check in the mail, I haven't much else to say. Oh yes, Elliot completely failed to mention to me that he was staying over his friend’s house all week. While annoying, this gives me more opportunity to do more rituals, surely more is better.
11/05/1998
I have been engaged in extra rituals every night this week and the results have been astonishing! I am in complete disbelief as to where all this money is even coming from anymore but if this keeps up; I'll have to try to get out of my deal as I won't be in need of any more. I am planning an especially elaborate ritual for this Saturday night; all the bells and whistles are coming out then perhaps I’ll be able to stop.
11/08/1998
Last night’s ritual was incredibly successful. On my way to bed I heard a screech and a crash outside. I rushed out to see what had happened and saw there had been a brutal collision between a gasoline truck and a limousine. The limousine was on fire and I heard a man’s muffled voice calling out for help. I ran over to the car and saw that the man’s legs were crushed between the wrecked seats and I helped pull him to safety. Once we made it to the front lawn of the church the flames caused the gasoline to ignite blowing the whole thing up! The man I saved turned out to be an heir of a rather lofty fortune and wrote me a check for 500 thousand dollars for saving him.
I am truly shocked by all this, I now have more money than I need but I feel I must keep this a secret.
11/09/1998
Elliot returned home today. He probably thought it was strange that I was in such a good mood. I kind of wish I could tell him that the church was all set financially but I settled for buying a bunch of his favorite cereals... the boy really likes his cereal; I just told him that there was a sale.
11/10/1998
I decided to further celebrate my success with a huge spaghetti dinner with homemade sauce, garlic bread... you know, the works. Elliot seemed to enjoy it, perhaps I should do this more often.
11/14/1998
I still cannot believe that I'm essentially free from my financial problems. It seems too good to be true. Perhaps I should just be grateful like I said in my sermon earlier. Yes, I should heed my own words. I think I'll make a nice dinner again tomorrow for Elliot and I.
11/15/1998
My spaghetti dinner was once again a great success. I am pretty surprised that I am keeping these journals more consistently... though I run out of things to say rather quickly.
11/17/1998
This morning started off really great. I made a nice big breakfast for Elliot and I and we had a beautiful pot luck dinner in the evening. The church acquired some very generous donations too but as night drew near, I started to feel very uneasy. I had decided to try to skip my weekly ritual but the closer it got to my scheduled time, the more I felt sick to my stomach.
As I write this, things are starting to get very out of hand. About an hour ago, around 12:30am I felt so awful that I decided to go ahead and go do the ritual. I rushed through it as quickly as possible but the sickness just kept getting worse and I didn't succeed in summoning the entity and was instead met with a creepy laugh, and then silence. I feel as though I can't breathe properly... perhaps I'll go to the hospital in the morning.
I awoke this morning in even more pain. I have too much work to do to go to the hospital so it'll just have to wait.
_________
The rest of the journal was too hard to make out; it was clearly written in a hurry. I couldn’t believe that Pastor was working with the shadow for the sake of the church… and for me… and now he was gone and it was my fault. As I was wiping
the tears from my eyes I heard a loud thump that sounded like it came from down in the church. I had no idea who would be in the church at this hour but I wasn’t really in the mood to entertain anyone.
I slowly made my way downstairs to see none other than Pastor lying down in awkward position in front of the basement door! I rushed over to see if he was ok just as he started to get back onto his feet. He saw the tears and immediately gave me a hug as he whispered that it was all over now. It seemed that I had failed to look in basement which is where he had been the entire time.
Pastor chuckled when I told him that I thought my ritual had made him disappear along with the darkness and I quickly admitted that I had read his journal when I had given up hope; he seemed a bit annoyed about that but he said that it was all behind us now as he spent the last 24hours breaking the contract he had made. It seemed things were going to work out after all.
The End