Occulturation #4 Angelstral Worship
Millie rubs her eyes as she sits up in her bed. For a moment, she thinks she is back in her old house, living with a family that still loves her. For a moment, she convinces herself that the past few millennia was all just a bad dream, that she is still alive and living in her pink baby bedroom. She hears the gruff voice of a man, it sounds deeper and older than her dad.
“Don’t let her leave the house,” she hears him say, “If she asks where I am, tell her… oh, that’s right. Well, just entertain her for a few hours.” Millie panics. Her mind is filled with alarm as she remembers a similar conversation she overheard on the day of her death. Don’t let her leave… Entertain her. Millie scrambles out of bed and ducks behind it, keeping her head low.
The door slowly creaks open and she hears a gasp from the doorway. “Restcha’s fingernails, where did she go?” the man grumbles, “Well, find her and keep her busy. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Millie sighs in relief as she hears footsteps move away and a door slamming downstairs, indicating that the master has left the house.
Millie stands up and opens her dresser. It’s full of men’s clothes too big for her. Now that she thinks about it, this isn’t her room. She doesn’t know where she is, but this is definitely isn’t her house. She remembers a gruesome scene and eldritch ritual, she forces that out of her mind. It was just a bad dream. It doesn’t matter where she is. She’s alive, with her family, no matter all of the inconsistencies, she can’t let that sway. She doesn’t want to believe what her memories tell her. It can’t be true.
Millie walks downstairs to the kitchen. There is no one else in the house. She wonders who the man was talking to. She wonders who the man is? He’s your new master, a voice inside her whispers. She ignores it. She gets out cereal and milk. Something smells awful. Is the milk bad? No, it’s coming from the living room. She recognizes that smell. The smell of blood. It was so strong during the ritual before her death.
Millie ignores the smell, and decides to call pest control to remove whatever dead rodent must be causing it. Footsteps following her add echo down the stairs. She looks, but nobody is there. The echo fades. It must have been her imagination. Millie continues eating her cereal. It tastes bland. No, it doesn’t taste, bland, there is simply no taste at all. She must be sick. Or perhaps she is still dreaming.
Millie puts her dishes away and makes her way to the living room. The circles. Oh, Myliss, the circles. There is no corpse, but there are circles. This is the scene from last night’s dream. Is it really last night’s dream or is she still dreaming? Millie turns away, but the memory of a similar scene fills her mind. A five-circled pentagram with five five-year old little girls. Each girl is the 5th generation of fifth daughters. They were supposed to be holy. Chosen of Myliss.
Millie tries to put that memory out of her mind. She looks for her favorite rhyme book. She races around the house. It’s not in her room, it’s not in the kitchen, it’s not in the storage room. Where is her book of rhymes? She couldn’t read, but the lady read it to her when she was scared.
As Millie races around the house, she thinks she hears footsteps following her. However, she can’t see anyone behind her. Millie finds a book on a desk in the living room, it’s big and old. She can’t read and the words are barely visible, but the symbols and diagrams are too similar to what she saw so long ago. She returns the book and goes back to bed. Maybe it’s just a dream. If she goes back to sleep, she should wake up, right?
…..
-----
…..
Garesh stuffed the dead three-year old boy in a guitar case he carries strapped on his back. He weighs less than one hundred pounds, so Garesh can hold him much more easily than he could hold the developmentally 25-year old body of Millie [just over 8 years in Earth years]. Garesh just needs to find a dumpster in an alleyway and deposit the body there in a way that doesn’t implicate him. So he’ll zig-zag his way around the city, walking in what are apparently random directions with no clear direction in mind, just turning whenever he feels like it or when there are too many people.
As Garesh walks through the city, some people give him strange looks, but carrying a guitar case strapped around his back isn’t all too incriminating. He sees a few proselytizing priests reminding the masses that tomorrow is Angel, last day of the week. Some people go to church every week on the last day of the week. Some go to church every month on the last day of the month. People only go once or twice a year. Garesh doesn’t go at all. He doesn’t believe he owes the Angels anything, nor does he think that any worship he performs will help him or the angels. The Angels are gone, they probably don’t care what he does. They likely don’t even know what he does. He wonders if they’re still alive as many proclaim, or if they died in their journey.
He sees a crowd raise their fists in an uproar of fervor as the AvengeAngelist crusader stirs the spirits of the people to rise against the corruption of Screamers in the city. Everyone knows that despite the efforts of the Anti-Screamer Special Forces, Screamers make their way into the city and hide amongst humans. The A.S.S.F. uncovers hidden Screamers at least once per month. The AvengeAngelists believe that the Angels left because humans didn’t wipe the evil of Screamers from the land, and some believe that the extermination of the four malevolent Screamer types will bring about the return of the Angels. Most members of the A.S.S.F. are of this belief.
Garesh turns down an alley and looks around to make sure that no one is watching. Then he sets the guitar case inthe dumpster and covers it with trash in the dumpster so it won’t be easily found. Then Garesh starts taking a twisted journey away from the area, so that no one would implicate him.
Garesh passes a chapel of the PentAngeltent. Garesh thinks the name is a mouthful and prefers to call them the PentAngels. Devoted members of the PentAngeltent explain that their name is full of meaning. Penta as in the prefix indicating the number five. Five is the number for Angels. Penitent is integrated into this word. They believe that they can perform penance to bring back the Angels by following more closely the priestcraft rituals initiated by the Angels for calling upon their power. The PentAngeltent have rituals run every fifth hour of every day, with an additional special ritual occurring on the fifth day of the week and fifth month of the year.
Garesh continues down the road past an city garden where a CharlAngelton sect is disputing bitterly against a MylAngelscension sect, that are planting the garden in rows of five to honor the Angels, which they revere as avatars of Myliss, the first Angel, whom they believe to be God. The CharlAngelton disputers want to plant the rows as tight as possible with no regard to the number five because they believe the Angels to be false gods, Screamers just like the Undead and Shifters.
Meanwhile a small minority in the garden want to plant each different plant in a different number of rows. Carrots in a single row, potatoes in two rows, and so on and so forth to five because they believe that all Screamers, like Angels, are divine and to be revered. Nobody listens to these ScreamAngelessence supporters. Nearly everyone regards all Screamers except Angels as monsters. Some people claim that Angels aren’t Screamers at all.
Finally, Garesh makes his way back towards his house. No more twists and turns, he is sure nobody could have seen where he has been. Garesh goes over the five sects of Angelstral beliefs. Some believe their sect holds the power of Angelcraft, the use of priestcraft rituals to channel Angelic power. However, this doesn’t make sense. The Angels are gone, there is no one left to channel power from. Only witches can use the divine channels formed by the Angels, to co-opt their priestcraft and alter it into witchcraft channeling power from and summon and binding the monstrous Screamers.
Garesh thinks it funny that people so strongly associate Screamers with numbers that there are five sects of belief in regard to Angels. It makes sense that they would be five in number. After all, five is the number for Angels and… he is passing house with boarded windows, no lights on inside. The door is broken down. He sees movement of something scrambling within. He hears a deep, resolute voice of a man from within, “Fiendish Incorporeal, I expel you from your victim by the power of the foretold divinity that shall return.” A brilliant light shines through the house, out of the open doorway and through the boarded windows. This momentary flash reveals the silhouette of a man with his hand pressed against the forehead of some emaciated figure.
Garesh covers his face against the light. He stops in front of the house, curious as to what could cause such a display of power. The man exits the house and stops at the doorway, startled to see Garesh watching. “I wasn’t aware I had an audience.” The man says. He wears simple clothing and a silver medallion made five connected stars in a circle. A thin old woman in tattered robes scrambles toward the priest, thanking him for saving her. The priest gestures for both Garesh and the woman to come close to hear his whispered command. “Don’t tell anyone what you saw here. Our order is still young, if word gets out that we have power against Screamers, we will be targeted by every Screamer on the planet. You must keep this to yourself. Now, please excuse me, I need to kill the Incorporeal before it spreads word of what I’ve done.” He races off into the alley chasing a shadow that scrambles across the walls. Garesh faintly hears the grinding metal of a weapon being unsheathed from the priest.
Garesh doesn’t recognize this Angelstral sect. It’s hard to believe that anyone could keep such miracles quiet. Yet, witchcraft has gone under the noses of civilization for millennia. And he did see a light. Perhaps he could join this order to gain power against the government. Yet, he had said expel. His power simply removed the Incorporeal’s hold on the woman, he still has to chase it down and kill it as normal. Removing Screamer influence won’t be too useful against the humans of the corrupt government. Maybe he’ll check on this order after he’s rooted out the evil within the system.
Garesh resumes his journey back towards his home. Garesh wonders what makes the hidden order of those priests different from the other Angelstral sects. Why do they have power? The priest mentioned that his power comes from some divinity that is foretold to return. So they believe in a prophecy that foretells the return of the Angels, but that doesn’t explain their power. Does the prophecy give them power? Where did the prophesier get the power to foretell this? Oh, well. It only makes sense that he has so many questions about an organization that seem intent on keeping itself unknown.
Garesh enters his home. Everything looks the same. No new tic-tac-toe games on the wall. No new messes. He goes up the stairs and checks on Millie. She’s asleep again. Good, looks like Willheim managed to find her and keep her out of trouble. Garesh is about to close the door and leave Millie to her sleep when he notices that Millie’s blanket is rippling. He looks closer, Millie is slightly bouncing up and down. She is breathing quickly and trembling. Garesh doesn’t want to have to deal with a little girl that’s always scared. This new Incorporeal has turned out to be an extra burden instead of a weapon.
However, Millie isn’t going to go away anytime soon. He is bound to her and her to him. Until they both complete their ends of the deal, they’re stuck with each other. Garesh is more worried about how Millie won’t be able to hold to her end of the deal. He isn’t really sure what his responsibilities involve or what her demands mean, but he is also disappointed because he fears he will be stuck with Millie forever because she cannot help him obtain vengeance.
Garesh steps closer to the bed. Millie pulls the covers over her head. Ah, so she is awake. Garesh says “Millie, what’s wrong?” Millie doesn’t answer, instead she asks him who he is. Garesh gives his name. He can’t quite remember if he’s told Millie his name before. Millie asks where she is. Garesh explains that she is in his house. Millie asks him to take her home. Garesh asks for the location of her home. Millie is at a loss for words. She doesn’t know where her home is. She explains that she thought Garesh stole her from her house. Garesh explains that he didn’t know she had a house, and he doesn’t think he can return her to it.
Millie cries. Garesh leaves the bedroom. The rest of the day passes uneventfully. Garesh contemplates what his next step should be and Millie mopes in the bed. Willheim and Jack try to speak to Garesh using the letter wall, but he ignores them. Svartr slinks throughout the house, probably bored.
Garesh puts down several half-thought out plans that all look like terrible ideas. He can’t just leave Millie behind because he is compelled to care for her. He can’t take her with him because she will make everything more difficult. It gets late, Garesh gives up and finally goes to bed on the couch.