A Life Sentence

September 3rd, 2026

At first we figured someone was just using it as a place to stay. It wouldn't be a terrible place. I mean the building was old and crumbling, but it had been abandoned for so long no one would come looking. I would stay there in a pinch. The only reason we came around was because we were bored, kind of a like a little bit of urban exploring with a religious twist.

Other than the trail we didn't see anything outside the church. Whatever was going on here no one was storing anything outside and seemed to be careful not to ruin too much of the brush and undergrowth.

When we went back around to the front door we were a heck of a lot more careful than we would have been. Kate pointed her .45 at the door. I checked it over and there was once an old padlock on it, but it had been broken off and laid on the ground just off from the door rusting into oblivion. In its place was a new one. It looked like one of the old train locks from the early 1900's that you could shoot with a bazooka and be lucky if you even managed to scratch it.

Fortunately the wood that the mount, bracket or whatever it was called, was screwed into was pretty rotten. Much to my surprise I was able to just rip the whole thing away by just grabbing it by the lock and giving it a jerk.

When we opened the door it didn't creak in the least. Not that I was expecting it, but I guess the fact that it didn't happen caught our attention. What did grab our attention was the smell that hit us in the face. It made both of us gag. Even though I worked in a hospital, I had a hard time with it. The place reeked of rotting...something. Chonk got one whiff of that odor, whimpered and went back towards the road. He would turn and look at us like "Come on you dumbass humans, this is insane!"

We propped the door open to let light in and that god awful smell out. When we stepped inside the first thing we thought, yeah this place was going to fall in on us at any moment. There wasn't a whole lot of light getting in through the door, but what we could see was not good. The place seemed to be empty, but it was hard to see since there wasn't much light. There weren't even any pews. I suppose the folks that used to go here took them with them, maybe?

Huge sections of plaster from the walls had fallen onto the floor. The studs were rotting and in some places looked like they could just be snapped away by hand. There were holes in parts of the floor that made us question every step we made. Once again Kate followed in my footsteps.

The ceiling was so high that we couldn't see it, but I can't imagine much of it was left up there. In fact I could see some sunlight peeking through small holes in the roof.

Thankfully the place was empty, but it was obvious the place had been used quite a few times. Someone had pushed all the debris that should have been all over the floor against the walls.

When Kate started beating on my back it half caused me to jump out of my skin. When she pointed at the inside of the boards that covered the windows my heart almost stopped. Someone had painted what I could only describe as a very graphic design of what someone's fever dream of hell would be. The detail was mind boggling, it had to have taken forever to make.

Neither of us ever saw any pentagrams, drawings of beings with goat's heads or 666's or anything like. It was just a landscape with what looked like demons looking into the church like they were waiting to enter our world through the windows. It was the creepiest damn thing I had ever seen in my life. We should have left then and there, and in fact we almost did until I spotted a table sitting in the middle of the church.

When I took a step forward Kate tugged on my arm. Now Kate was by no means a coward, the fact she lived alone for so long was proof of that, but this place was more than she could take. I can't say I blame her. I think my caveman sense of masculinity was the only thing keeping me there.

She stayed very close to the door and I went ahead. I would just look real quick then we would leave, a couple of minutes tops. When I got a little close I saw there was a large old iron bowl, or something sitting on the table. It was then I noticed that there were candles scattered all over the floor at the edge of the debris line. There were also candles on the table itself arranged around the bowl. I made sure not to look at the boards covering any of the windows. I think I would have shit my pants if I saw any more of that terrible artwork. Also the deeper I got the worse the smell got.

I finally got close enough to see in the bowl. I had to step to one side get enough light to be able to see at all, I wish I never did. There was something that kinda looked like slime or sludge or something. I could not place it, nor would I ever want to. I don't have the words to describe it. I had never even seen anything like that in the hospital. I don't think even the most twisted horror writer could have come up with something so awful.

Once I got a little bit closer I finally realized what it was. Dried and congealed blood, a lot of it. There was a lot pooled in the bottom, and in it I could see a skull. It was a human skull, but it was small, like from a baby. It was half submerged in the muck like some sort of horrible soup.

I did two things right after that. First I threw up all over the damn place the next was to turn and get the hell out of there. Just as I turned Kate let out a scream that I thought would stop my heart and bring back everyone who had died of Omega the world over.

We both had missed something when we went in. Right next to the door in the shadows in the corner was a coffin, a small coffin. The size that a baby would be buried in. Kate had let her curiosity get the best of her and she took a peek inside. She was screaming as she ran out the door.

Well, I am not a fool, ok I am, but my common sense finally kicked in, and I ran out after her. Chonk was still waiting about halfway back towards the road when he saw us coming. He yelped and headed straight for the road ahead us. He beat us there, but not by much. We ran all the way back to the road. We had let Chonk catch his breath and give him water before we could get out of there.

While we waited I made the mistake of asking what was in the coffin. Kate saw the body of a baby in a rotted pink onesie. No head, just the body. She asked me what was in the bowl, I just told her the rest of the body. She didn't need to hear the details.

We knew Chonk was ready when he started back to the house, in a hurry. We were right on his heels. We all but ran all the way back to the house. When we finally got back we were surprised to see Lucas sitting on the porch watching the dogs play.

I imagined we must have looked like hell when we saw us. When we told him what we saw I don't think he would have believed us if he did not see that we were both ready to totally lose it. Even Chonk was still shaking in fear and he was spared the worst of it.

There is no way I will be able to sleep now. Kate is still up, and so is Lucas. He is out front with a rifle. We have the dogs in the house. They are pissed, all except Chonk. He is content to hide in the house with me and Kate. The part I couldn't get out of my mind was that Kate I and left more than enough proof that someone was there, like the broken lock and a puddle of puke.

Now all we could think about was two things. Who the hell were these people and would they try to track us down?

Now I hope we all learned a valuable lesson from all this. Follow the lead of your dog! The next chapter will be posted soon. Please vote and leave a comment.