“Isa?” I answered quickly.
“Where are you right now? Are you still with Draven?”
“Yes, why? What’s going on?” The blatant stress and worry in her tone did nothing for my nerves.
“Can you come get me? I don’t know why he brought me here.”
“Who?”
The background became muffled, but I could make out voices.
“Isa?” I called.
“I’ll text you where I am right now. Be quick, please. I don’t want to be here.”
Our call disconnected before I could get another word in. I immediately pulled open our most recent conversation and sent a line of question marks.
“Is everything okay?” Draven asked.
“I’m not sure.”
I began to type out another line of question marks just as my sister sent the address of where she was. A second text followed. I read it over at least three times to make sure I was seeing it correctly. I think time came to a momentary halt.
This couldn’t be happening.
I looked at Draven and felt like a complete fucking fraud standing in front of him right now.
“I’m sorry--.”
“No need to explain. Go,” Draven implored. “We can talk later.”
That made me feel worse. I gave him a forced smile and hurried off the boat without a proper thank you or goodbye. I wanted to apologize and explain I had no idea this would happen, but there wasn’t any time. I needed to get to my sister.
CHAPTER SIX
I had never been to the Alistair’s church before. This wasn’t the scenario I had in mind if I ever were to find out what all the hype was about.
A ping echoed through the car as Jess text me back. The preview on the screen was enough for me to see she’d already arrived and beat me here. I’d asked her to stay away but she was having none of that once I explained what had happened.
My sister’s location took me down a road I’d never traveled before, situated between trees that seemed to grow denser as I drove further.
The lack of security unnerved me even more. I’d always heard this place was well protected. I took a long bend slowly, spotting the first signs of the massive building. It was completely dark out here, with no streetlights or anything to help you see better.
I spotted Troy’s beat-up Towne car and Jessica’s flashier BMW right out front, but there was no sign of Isa or him. This thieving piece of shit brought my sister to Draven’s church to do God only knows what. Not only that, this pendejo left his car in the most obvious place. Anyone could happen down this road and see it.
I dialed out my sister’s number, cursing when it went straight to voicemail. I whipped my bug into a parking spot and slammed on the breaks, wincing when they made a grinding sound. Jessica was out of her car nearly at the same time that I was, and she hadn’t come alone. I stared at Kyle in disbelief.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I wasn’t letting my girls come here alone.”
“There hasn’t been any sign of them. They have to be inside,” Jessica explained quickly.
“Wait here.” I wrapped my arms around my middle to ward off the chilled air and approached the massive structure.
There was nothing else around here but grass and trees. This didn’t look much like a church either. It could pass for a gothic temple of some sort. I peered up the wide-set steps at the curved double doors.
Making out the symbols etched into them was impossible in the dark but from what I could see, the majority of them were unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Feeling a presence behind me, I stopped and looked over my shoulder. Kyle and Jessica were a mere few steps behind me.
“What are you two doing? I told you to wait by the car.”
“Did you seriously think we’d let you go in there alone?” Jessica retorted, pulling the collar of her jacket up.
“Yeah, actually. You have no idea who might show up and the last thing I need is for you two to be caught up in Troy’s bullshit.”
“This might come as a surprise to you, Del, but Jess and I are fully capable of making our own choices. Now let’s go rescue your sister.” He moved from behind me and took the lead, ignoring my protests to stop.
I didn’t have time to debate about this anymore. I was so worried someone would be pulling down that road at any second and they’d see all of our cars right out front of the building.
We made our way up the stairs, and just as I began to wonder if Troy had maybe found another way in, Kyle pulled open one of the double doors and walked inside.
I followed hot on his heels, my eyes adjusting to the change in lighting as I entered. From the size of the building, I was prepared to go searching for Isa, but that wasn’t necessary. She, Troy, and Dennis were all standing near an altar at the front of the room.
Rows of black pews in a wavy shape were angled towards it, large arched doorways ran alongside both rows, leading off into the darkness.
I took a few more steps, coming to a complete stop when the church’s interior revealed far more than I was expecting to find. Electric candles lit the space in soft lighting, leaving a large portion of the room to the shadows. It wasn’t enough to obscure the more vivid symbols and depictions.
“What the hell is this?” I wondered out loud, studying the large oil painting that took up the entire back wall.
It looked to be some kind of demonic orgy mixed with human sacrifice.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it. We need to get outta here,” Jess replied.
Troy did a double-take when he finally noticed us, pulling my attention to him, Dennis, and my sister.
“You fucking called her, Isa? I thought you were bluffing.”
His scathing tone echoed across the vaulted ceilings and pissed me off even further. “You dragged my pregnant sister into more of your low-life bullshit Troy?” I snapped back.
“Guys,” Dennis attempted to mediate, “Come on don’t be so loud someone might hear.”
Jess snorted. “Not the same someone who would overlook our cars parked out front, right?”
“This is a church. They’re open twenty-four hours no one would think it’s weird for us to be here,” Troy reasoned.
Kyle laughed; the sound harsh. “This is a member-only society smartass. I don’t think you being here would go over well, especially dressed like that.”
“Isa, let’s go,” I spoke over him and gestured for her to come.
I didn’t care to have a battle of words right now. I wanted to get the hell out of here. This building was creeping me out. It looked nothing like a church that associated with any kind of religion I could name. What had Kyle just called it? A society?
Some of the cultish symbols ingrained into the dark woodwork were eerily similar to the ones my father had occasionally drawn on paperwork.
Affixed to the large stone altar were two black flags bearing the same goat head image.
I didn’t know Draven that well. Aside from our dinner tonight and the texting we’d done I had never spoken to him before but in friendly passing.
If someone told me he was the head of some sort of satanic religion I’d have laughed in their face. As it was, I had an increasingly bad feeling about us being here. There were too many things not adding up, the most obvious that this building had been left unsecured so anyone could walk right in.