Sister Christian
“Oh my God,” Heather whispered.
The minister who had consoled her through her worst moments stood before her, the man who just shot her father. It was difficult for Heather to turn the face of a friend into one of an enemy on such short notice. Remembering the warmth they had shared in the past, she wanted to take his hand and ask him to pray with her.
Pastor Eric shook his head back and forth so fast that she couldn’t make out his features anymore. He stopped suddenly and when he looked up, no longer wore the face of the gentle pastor who had baptized her as an infant. He was the stalker who had tormented her.
Burning, prickly fire felt as though it were shooting through her veins. The heat worked its way up her neck and spread into a large mass at the back of her brain. When the pastor started shouting his words, Heather’s heart began to pound too fast for a human to withstand.
“Surprised?” he asked happily.
His smile was so smug. He looked as though he’d just finished a huge meal and the thought brought forth a new horror. Heather started to run circles around the chapel in search of her sister.
“Isaiah 11:11!’ Pastor Eric screamed.
His tone was loud and deep and it trilled out the words in a strange pattern she couldn’t understand.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people!”
Heather didn’t understand. She continued to run as his words penetrated her eardrums. She rushed in and out of a small closet at the front of the church and screamed when she found nothing. Heather’s terror was abundant but it didn’t even come close to the thought of losing her sister.
“Where is she, you son of a bitch?” she screamed.
Without stopping to wait for an answer, she raced toward him, past the pews and toward the pulpit. He positioned himself behind the podium as though preparing for a speech. Each time he spoke, Heather watched his features morph from one face into another. Starting at his nose, the change spread gradually to his cheeks and created another person entirely. Two simple feature changes and her pastor was a different man.
An eerie, high-pitched noise came from his mouth as it morphed into the lips of another man. The sound was both a laugh and a terrible sob at the same time. His thinlipped grin went from one side of his face to the other and the sight made her think of their last jack-o’-lantern. Just like their dissected pumpkin, a jagged smile was painted beneath the pastor’s lost, hollow eyes. He looked at her with disgust and it only contorted his features more. Her minister appeared to be a caricature of what was previously human but just as quickly, morphed back into his own familiar face.
Heather didn’t want to speak for fear her voice would be an invitation to attack. She had no intention of providing the bastard a welcome mat for her murder. He looked up at the ceiling and spit tobacco into the air. It squirted in an upwards stream before disappearing and the pastor smiled with pride at his own bizarre magic display. He looked pleased enough to hug himself.
Jade’s voice called her from a back room and Heather’s fear was gone. It disappeared as quickly as the tobacco had and Heather took off running. She followed her sister’s voice and forced her legs to move with each step.
Heather ran through the choir section and past the organ. She caught her foot on the guitar that had been propped against a wall and her foot got caught in its strap. Heather put her hands out quickly to prevent a fall. The piano began playing a tune and Heather knew it was her pastor conducting the invisible pianist.
She heard him laughing behind her but didn’t allow it to stall her mission. Jade called out again and Heather followed her voice to a small back closet. Her sister was tied to a chair and the sight of her captivity fueled Heather with an energy that could only come from rage. With frayed nerves, she channeled the rage to help her untie the ropes and shot darting glances in every direction.
Jade was crying and Heather knew where the sea of tears came from. Her sister was worried about her baby and she held her stomach protectively.
“Are you in labor?” Heather needed both confirmation and information and wasn’t sure what Jade had learned, if anything.
A puddle of water at the foot of the chair answered the question before her sister did. She worried in triplicate. Her father, her sister and her nephew needed her but Heather still had no idea what was happening.
The sisters heard the pastor humming right outside their door. He didn’t