Find a Little Silver Lining: The Cathedral

Once upon a time, as I was just about to graduate high school, I was thinking about my future.

My two friends

And

Wanted to live together.

This wouldn’t be a very long story, but we are a little strange.

That puzzle was actually freakishly hard. Seriously Gabriel, how was I supposed to know I should punch a 300 pound boar with my small skull ring? It stabbed me in the leg with its tusk and ripped out the majority of my tendons. I should have been dead.

We didn’t want to buy a house; not a standard house anyway. We wanted to buy a cathedral. Well, I wanted a castle but I was not about to complain.

As you can imagine there are not a whole lot of cathedrals for sale. Not to mention we had school to finish, colleges to get into and no way of paying for the hypothetical cathedral.

But we still loved to talk about it

And to dream.

I remember very well one dream in particular. Gabriel, Nyx and I stood atop the highest tower of our dream cathedral. Rain poured down and thunder struck all around us as we were besieged by demon succubi and Incubi. Ghastly light poured out of the stain glass window below us as the battle raged on.

I’m not quite sure why I am remembering my dreams with would be one-liners from action movies, but it is rather kick-ass.

Having absolutely no leads left us dreaming for a while. Each time we met up one of us was likely to have a dream to share about the three of us doing something awesome in conjunction to our cathedral.

Then Gabriel found something.

I am not even sure how he found out about it but we had to go.

It was located in Washington D.C, an adventure was to ensue.

Off to the metro.

Gabriel: Joshua, this girl has been looking directly at you for two stops now.

Joshua: Really?

Gabriel: Yeah.

Joshua: What does she look like?

Gabriel: Probably a year or two older then us, gravity defying hair, red highlights—

Joshua: Black cargo pants?

Gabriel: Yup, you know her?

Joshua: Not at all, but I can see her through the reflection in the windows.

Gabriel: You should talk to her she’s cute.

Joshua: I don’t know… you think so? I mean she is cute. Looks like the rebellious type too, I do like that.

Gabriel: Do it.

If you are out there gravity defying hair girl, hello again.

By the way, Nyx was there the whole time.

And we were dating back then.

Just kidding she didn’t slap me, and where did those finger marks come from?

Wow, what am I even pretending to imply about my relationship with Nyx?

When we got off the metro and battled our way through people,

I found something rather interesting.

A note.

Dear Jason,

We are both kinda whores. I mean, think of last night, yeah whores. You are cute and I like that. I’m really hot and I know you like that. You are older than me but I like that too. We both like each other Jason. But what the POMEGRANATE Jason! You live with your parents. And why did this not come up before we were breaking down your front door making out with each other? Like, ok, bad call on my part for part for saying I don’t mind. I DO MIND JASON. I was talking to my friends and they told me how messed up this is! You are messed up Jason! I mean Jason! I’m 22 and I have my own place! Why did you want to go back to your place if your parents were there anyway!? How stupid are you to forget your parents would be home? And then again this morning, introducing me to your parents? Oh whats that? They don’t like me? I wonder why Jason! I wonder why! Sarcasm Jason! SARCASM. Then your mother asking me to leave!? Could it get more awkward? Well you know what Jason? I’m not giving up on you Jason! I know where you live, you and your parents Jason.

Call me later,

Megan.

I still think pomegranate is the best curse world ever. Oh, and Jason, I hope that restraint order goes well.

The cathedral.

We finally arrived at our destination. The damned thing was falling apart and in an equally sketchy part of the city. It was wonderful. I mean no wonder it had to be sold, but the three of us could not have asked for anything more. The place was huge and technically it was a church.

We wanted to see the inside so badly.

But of course the front door was locked, and everything else was locked.

But through windows we could see a little of the interior. Mind you this place was at least a hundred years old, and I would argue few of the windows had been replaced since then. The windows were not the standard glass we see today; they were the old imperfect glass panes. The ones where you need twelve to make a single window. So everything was dark. Lots of tall ceilings, narrow stairs, open spaces, it looked just like I had hoped.

The more we saw however, the more we wanted to get inside.

That is when we saw a graveyard behind the building.

The graveyard was bordered by a spiky fence that honestly I didn’t feel like impaling myself over. There was however an opening far down the way. Graveyards are great and all, but what we really wanted was the little door hidden behind a few graves in the back. This little door looked ancient; we could make it inside from there.

As we approached the gate into the cemetery I felt like we were being watched. Little icy fingers running up and down my spine as I took my first step onto the damp dark grass of the graveyard.

“What are you doing?”

I spun around to see a middle aged woman with her first grey hairs wielding a gardening spade in a gesture that could mean to take out my eyes, or just be waving hello. I’m still not sure which one it was. This woman had a great expression on her face. A mix of fear over three teenagers walking into this graveyard, utter confusion over why we would be doing so, and a very defensive nature.

“Why I was just about to go into this cemetery mam.”

“And why would you do that?”

Time to improvise.

“I’m on a hunt.”

I gave a broad smile to try and ease her.

“You see my name is Joshua, Joshua Jenkins. I’ve been sent by my grandmother on a mission to search all the graveyards around for relatives. My grandmother believes we had family around here good few generations back. Based on the age of the church over there, I decided looking around here could be fruitful.” Another smile.

The pause.

Any of you who have ever told an outright lie should know what I’m talking about. That moment between your lie and the response to your lie.

You don’t breathe; fear that any movement will give you away.

“Oh. Well if that is what you are after we have a logbook of all the graves inside. Could easily save you some time trying to look at them all.” She smiled back, a genuine care giving smile.

Success, well, enough of a success anyway.

So if you are out there madam, my apologies for tricking you, I just didn’t want to be stabbed in the eye by that garden spade.

We walked away some time later, inadvertently defeated from gaining access into the cathedral. Which we decided, was probably a good thing anyway. I mean, breaking and entering is sort of a crime.

I still end some of my days looking outside my window up at the stars, or clouds if it’s a really long night, and I think of what it would be like; living in a cathedral.