Episode XLIX - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Stoneskins - Part II - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

            Sarah’s scream shattered the silence of the night.  It was followed by a dull thud as the gargoyle creature before her swung down from the rooftop and made a hard landing on the path.  Now it was revealed in all its terrific monstrosity.  Seven foot tall, it loomed over the doorway and its wide, open wingspan blotted the sky from view.  It resembled a bird, in that it had wings with black feathers interspersed along their length, between overlapping plates of a slate-like material, and its mouth was a large, cruel beak, but there was also something reptilian in the shape of its body, the wiry limbs and the long, swishing tail.  Still, the most obvious and terrifying aspect of its appearance was its eyes which burned like twin torches.

            Sarah staggered back against the door to the sanctuary.  She could hear voices from the other side, growing louder as the people within came to investigate her noise.  Hurry, please hurry, she thought, too scared to turn her back on the monster, and yet desperate to get inside.

            Before any rescue could come the creature stooped, stretched its neck inside the vestibule and seemed to sniff the air.  Then, in a voice like muddy gravel it said, “You smell like him, like the construct.”  It stretched its surprisingly flexible beak into something like a leer and added, “We have been following you.”  It opened its beak and began to laugh, although the sound which came out and which was echoed outside by another of its kind was more like the shrieking caw of a crow.  Sarah felt her heart trying to explode through her chest, her blood like ice, her whole body weak as if drained of all energy and support.

            And then the door behind her flew open and she nearly fell backwards into the arms of an elderly gentleman who now stood, staring in surprise and horror at the monster in the doorway.

            “Lord preserve us,” he managed after a moment’s stunned silence, then he wrapped his arms around Sarah and hauled her inside the sanctuary with surprising strength.  “Jen,” he yelled as he carried Sarah to a waiting pew, “get Thomas and barricade the door.”  His voice was quavering with fear and disbelief.

            “What’s going on?” asked the voice of a young woman Sarah could not yet see.  She was still intent on the door to the vestibule, terrified of what might come through.

            “There’s a… a… a demon or something out there.  I don’t know what it is, but please, help me barricade the door before it gets inside!”  The old man was scurrying across the floor to where a bookcase held pamphlets and bibles.  A moment later the young woman appeared beside him and together they tipped the heavy piece of furniture over and slid it, slowly, across the floor towards the door.  “Where’s Thomas?” the old man shouted as the top of the bookcase snagged on a floor-stone.

            “I’m not sure,” the girl, Jen, replied between heaves, “I think he went to phone the police.”

            “Fat lot of good they’ll do us,” he muttered before raising his voice and shouting, “Thomas!  Thomas, come in here and help us!”

            Sarah watched all of this with growing disbelief.  Could she really have seen what she thought she saw outside?  Was anything like that even remotely possible?  And yet, if she had not, then what had just happened?

            A tall young man, probably around Sarah’s own age, suddenly rushed out of a side door and into the sanctuary.

            “The p-police are on their way,” he stammered as he hurried over to where the old man and Jen were still struggling with the bookcase.  As if to emphasise their need, the door to the vestibule shook violently.

            “Hurry and help us!” the old man shouted again and Thomas began to heave the bookcase into place.  The addition of his notable strength was all it needed to slide into place, flush against the door.  A trail of scattered bibles and tracts showed the path it had just taken.

            Jen and the old man slumped against the bookcase as Thomas stood up straight once more and noticed Sarah staring at him wide-eyed.

            “You m-must be the one who s-s-screamed,” he said, his face flushing, “Are you alr-r-right?”

            She was about to shake her head when Jen stood and walked over to her saying, “Of course she’s not alright,” she sat down beside Sarah and put an arm around her shoulder.

Normally Sarah would have recoiled at such familiarity, but right then it was exactly what she needed – she took a deep breath and suddenly found tears spilling down her face.

“It’s okay, we’ve sealed the door as well as we can now and we’re here to look after you.  Don’t worry.”  Jen looked up at the old man and asked, “Rupert, what did you see out there?”

“I honestly don’t know what it was,” the old man replied, “but it wasn’t anything good, that’s for sure.”

“You said you thought it was a demon,” Jen persisted.

“Oh, I don’t know, but then, what else could it be?  It had wings, but it certainly wasn’t an angel.”

“W-what are you t-talking about?” Thomas asked,  “I thought it was j-just those thugs from d-down the r-road.”

Sarah shook her head and tried to speak through her tears.  “It was a monster,” she managed, before being wracked with uncontrollable sobs.  She felt a fool.  She was never like this normally, but the sight of the beast outside the church had been more than she could take, and what did it mean, anyway, that she smelled like him, like the construct?  The only thought that occurred to her was that it was something to do with Ellis, but she had no idea why the monster was interested in him.  Unless, of course, that’s why he disappeared.  Was he attacked?  Is he… is he dead?  The sobs continued, worsening.

“Oh you poor thing,” Jen said, tightening her embrace and pulling out a pack of tissues from her pocket with her free hand, she began to wipe away Sarah’s tears.

The door jolted again, sending more books flying out from the bookcase to cover the floor in religious literature.

“Is that thing going to hold until the police get here?” Jen asked.

“I’ll t-try and brace it with s-something else.  R-rupert, you should s-stand back.”

“Yes, Rupert, take a seat here.  Let Thomas guard the door.”

The old man grumbled something, but then stood and walked over to the pew where Jen and Sarah were sitting, slumping into place on the other side.  “We should pray,” he said and Jen merely nodded, so Sarah watched, frozen from sorrow and fear and confusion, as they both bowed their heads and began talking to the air.

“Heavenly Father,” Rupert began, “we do not know what it is that is stalking outside our church, or where it came from, but we thank you that you have given us this strong building to protect us and that you are sovereign in all things.  Keep this beast at bay, will you, Lord, and protect us in here, we pray.  Amen.”

“Yes, Lord,” Jen continued, “and watch over this girl, Lord.  Soothe her fears and bring her into your peace.  Comfort her, Lord and shelter her beneath the shadow of your wings.  Amen.”

There was a scraping noise and Thomas slid a pew into place behind the bookcase, lifting it up so that it could brace the door over the top of the lower barricade.

“D-do you think that will h-hold?” he asked, staring anxiously at the others.

“We’ll have to see,” Rupert replied.

“How long did the police say they’ll be?”  Jen asked.

“About ten or fifteen m-minutes, I think.”

Jen nodded, then turned back to Sarah.

“So,” she began, “it looks like you’re stuck with us for a little while, at least.  My name’s Jen, and, as you’ve probably gathered this is Rupert and over there being all manly is Thomas.  What’s your name?”

“I’m Sarah,” Sarah replied, forcing the words past a mental barrier of fear and confusion.

“Well, Sarah, welcome to St. Stephens.  This isn’t normally the way we like to invite people inside, but now you’re here, we’re very glad to meet you.”  She gestured around the sanctuary and Sarah finally took in all the details of the old church.  It was mostly stone, with movable wooden pews and a series of stone columns marking the centre aisle.  Over to one side there was a small hand-made nativity scene with a CD player sitting beside it which was playing its way through an assortment of carols.  At that precise moment it was quietly producing ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night’.

“We’ve been trying a new ‘Early Christmas’ event, this year,” Jen said, spotting the object of Sarah’s gaze.  “We thought we’d try and get people’s attention as they start their Christmas shopping.  See if we can’t point them to the true meaning of Christmas and the real reason we talk about ‘Advent’.  That kind of thing.  As you can see, we haven’t had many takers so far.”  She laughed, but completely without bitterness.

“How… how can you be so calm?”  Sarah asked, staring wide-eyed at the young woman seated beside her.  “There’s a monster outside and you’re just…”

A shrieking caw echoed from outside.

“I’m not calm,” Jen replied, her lip trembling very slightly, “I’m terrified, but there is nothing I can do about that creature, is there?”

Sarah thought of the monster in the doorway and knew that there was very little any of them could do to stop it.  Another shrieking caw from outside seemed to emphasise their predicament.  She doubted even the police could help much.  She shook her head.

“Then all I can do is trust in God that he’ll see us through.”

“But how do you know that God is even real?”  Sarah asked, incredulous.  “How can you put your trust in something you can’t even see?  It’s ridiculous!”

“As ridiculous as a monster outside the front door?  There’s so much more to this world than what we can see, hear, taste, smell and touch.  Science can’t answer every question.  I should know, I do that for a living and I still find that the world surprises me.”

“You’re a scientist?”  Sarah’s disbelief reached new heights.

“I’m currently doing a PhD in Evolutionary Biology in Derby,” Jen replied, “and yet somehow it still feels like I’m in St. Stephens more than I’m in my office,” she laughed again and Sarah found the sound soothing somehow, like it just might banish the phantoms from the churchyard.  The CD player switched to playing ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’.

“But doesn’t evolution kind of contradict the Bible?”  She asked, remembering all her mothers instruction on the subject when she was a child.

“It depends how you read the Bible,”  Jen replied,  “I trust that it is the word of God in its entirety, but that doesn’t mean I think that everything in it is to be taken completely literally.  Genesis one to three, for example, is actually very rich in symbolism if you compare it the with creation mythology of other near-eastern religions of the time.  It’s telling us why God made the world, not how.”

“I still don’t see that God couldn’t have made the world in six days,” Rupert added, "but Jen and I agree to disagree on this point.”

“Thank you Rupert, although I don't disagree that he could, just on whether or not he actually did.”

“You don't all agree?"  Sarah asked, her curiosity beginning to help her forget her fear.

"Of course we don't!  We’re only human after all and we don't know everything, but we agree on the important things."

"And what are they?"

"Here, let me show you."

Jen helped Sarah to her feet and took her across the sanctuary to where the makeshift nativity stood.  The stable was about four foot high and within a three foot Mary and a similarly sized Joseph looked down on a fairly typical looking baby Jesus. 

"This is what we agree on - not the nativity scene, since not everyone agrees it was in a stable and there are some, though I don't hold with it myself, who think that the Virgin birth is a misreading as well.  No, the important thing is the baby.

"You see, the one thing that Rupert and I agree on without any shadow of doubt is that that baby was born, that he grew to be a man and that he died upon a cross.  And we agree that he was also not just a man, but that he was God and that his birth and his death were all part of a plan that has existed for thousands of thousands of years, probably since the very dawn of time as we know it, in fact, to reconcile a rebellious people to their creator.

"Look at that baby and tell me that the idea of that - even if you don't believe it to be a true idea - that that idea does not move you."

Sarah glanced down at the bright-eyed doll serving in lieu of the Messiah and wondered about what Jen had just told her.  As if on queue 'Hark! the Herald...' reached its final verse and Sarah listened to the words in a manner she had not before and heard what they were about.  Mild, He lays His Glory by; born that man no more may die.  She had to agree, even if she thought it was all nonsense, that the story being told, of a human baby housing an infinite being and suffering both life and death for humanity, was a pretty good one.  She wondered why so few Hollywood blockbusters had covered it in recent years.

"Yes," she said at last, "it's a good story."

"Then you can see why it’s the important thing to agree on, right?"

"I suppose so.  But doesn't all the rest of it make you wonder if it’s worth all the effort."

"No," Jen replied without any hesitation.  "I have had my doubts - I don't think anyone alive has not, regardless of what they believe, but they are insignificant compared to that story and whether or not it is true, because if it is true, then it makes a pretty huge claim on us all.   I believe it is, and, maybe, one day, you will too."

I doubt it, Sarah was about to say, but at that moment she heard the whine of police sirens outside and, at the same time, a chorus of loud, shrieking caws from the creatures.  The door to the vestibule rattled once more and then the caws grew softer and softer, in counterpoint to the siren’s crescendo, until they could be heard no more.

"I think the damned things have left," Rupert said, "if you'll excuse my language."

"You're excused, Rupert," Jen replied.  She let out a sigh of relief, then slumped into a nearby pew.

"What if they come back?" Sarah asked, suddenly feeling more afraid rather than less.

"Why would they do that?"

"They… they spoke to me, before, in the vestibule.  It was like they were after me in particular.  If I leave here..."

"It sounded like they left pretty quickly,” Jen replied hurriedly, as if to cover her own ignorance, “and so I would think they've probably given up for tonight, but if what you say is true, then we'll happily do all we can to help you.  I don't understand any of this, but I'm sure the Lord brought you here for a reason.  We can't ignore that."

"Thank you, I guess."

"How about we get Thomas to walk you home, then, if you like, you can come back tomorrow and we can see what we know about these creatures and we'll pray about it and go from there."

"Do you really think prayer will help?"

"Well, it's clear that you don't, but we do, so please, if you come back, indulge us on this one."

Sarah nodded.  It was really the least she could do, whatever she believed.

“D-do you live far?” Thomas asked, suddenly looming at her shoulder, although his presence was more comforting than intimidating.

“About a mile away, downhill.”

“That shouldn’t t-take us t-too long.  J-just let me get my c-coat.”  Thomas smiled, his cheeks dimpling slightly.  He’d barely said anything all evening and yet Sarah found herself liking him and she couldn’t help but notice that he was quite handsome too.  Despite her fear, she was almost beginning to enjoy the idea of walking home with him.

“And of course you’d be very welcome to come along to St. Stephens anytime,”  Rupert added nervously as Thomas dashed off into the hall, “perhaps we can answer some more of your questions.”

“Thank you, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”

“Even so, you’d be very welcome.”

There was a knock at the vestibule door, which made Sarah flinch along with everyone else within earshot, but it was followed by a booming male voice calling out, “Police!  Is everyone okay in there?”

“I’d better go answer that,” Jen said, rushing towards the door.

“You’ll need Thomas’ help to shift the barricade, Jen.” Rupert called after her, but she was already trying to free the pew and push the bookcase aside.  Fortunately Thomas reappeared seconds later and he hurried to her side to help.  Within moments the door was free again and two wet and confused-looking police officers stood on the other side.

“You made a 999 call?” the officer with the booming voice asked.

“A-a-actually I did,” Thomas replied, giving Sarah an apologetic look at just about the same time that she realised there would be questions and explanations stretching on for a good half an hour at least, but then, somewhere in the brief conversation that followed Thomas managed to give a convincing account of local, unidentified youths causing trouble (something that happened often enough to be plausible) and then asked if the officers could escort Sarah home as she was ‘a bit shaken’.  The officers were very obliging.

Soon Sarah was being ushered into the back of the police car, staring back at the door to the church, where three figures stood in silhouette against the warm, nativity glow within.  She felt a pang of regret that she wasn’t going to be able to walk with Thomas, but she felt better knowing she would be in police custody until she was home.  After that, she was less certain, but  Jen had probably been right.  The creatures wouldn’t attack again so soon.  Probably.

The police car pulled away from the church and Sarah wondered if she would return the next night or not.  Dare she brave the streets of Larksborough again?  If she didn’t she’d be alone in her fear, whereas at the church there would be others who would know that she wasn’t mad and with whom she could talk about what she had seen and maybe make sense of it.  Getting there would be terrifying, but living without that connection would be worse in the long run, she feared.

Yes, she thought, surprised at herself, I guess I’m going back to church tomorrow.  Although how she would explain it to her mother she had no idea.  It might just be easier to say she was going monster-hunting.

The police car pulled up at the end of Marchland Close about five minutes later.  As Sarah got out of the car and said her goodbyes and thank-yous to the police officers, she caught her mother twitching the blinds out of the corner of her eye.  She waved the car away from the front doorstep and then, staring at the dark, wet sky and wondering where the monsters had flown off to, she turned her key in the door and stepped inside.

She spoke briefly with her mother, not having the patience to answer all her slightly nagging questions, then made her way to her room – her mother’s voice echoing after her as if she were still a teenager.  She undressed and collapsed into her bed and then, uncertain about her future, her mind full of too many questions, she tried to sleep.

If those monsters were after you…  I hope you’re alright, Ellis.


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