The Church of Ghost(Emeritus IV x Reader)

Chapter 5 - The Summoning Room

     Papa led me through the corridors of the house until we reached the front door. He opened the door and let me go through first. After we went down the steps he held out his hand for me to take. This must be something he does with everyone.

     I took his hand and he guided me to a beautiful garden filled with different kinds of flowers. "This is amazing." I said in awe. He squeezed my hand, "You should thank the ghouls. They're the ones who take care of the garden." I looked at him, "What do you do around the house then?" I immediately regretted saying anything.

     He laughed, "I haven't heard that one before." I looked down, my face burning up with embarrassment. "It's okay," he reassured, "I used to help out more back when I was Cardinal. Sister Imperator and the ghouls don't let me do as much anymore."

     We walked along the garden. "What did you do as Cardinal?" I asked. "Well, I would help around at the church, I would take care of the Papas, and teach young ones." he answered. The clouds covered the sun, but Papa's face paint was beginning to sweat off anyway.

     He turned to me, "I'd like to show you one more thing before we go inside." I smiled, "Sure." We walked out of the garden and to the back of the house. He guided me into the woods on a clear path. I started to notice the grass and trees began to look a bit grey. "Here we are." Papa announced. It looked like a mausoleum of sorts.

     "What's this?" I questioned. Papa turned to me excitedly, "This is where we summoned the ghouls!" I turned back to where we just came from. It seemed like everything surrounding this was dead and rotting. "The death around it is a sort of side effect of the summoning." he mumbled. "Right." I said.

     "It gets better after a while. It's all dead again because we summoned Sunshine." he explained. I heard bells ringing in the distance. "That's the church." he whispered. "Why are you whispering?" I questioned. He looked down at the ground, "Because I don't want to go yet."

     I squinted my eyes, "How come?" Papa looked up at me with a sort of guilty look in his eye, "I may have not completed a speech I said would be finished."

     "Is that a bad thing?" I asked. "If I don't have it finished for Sister Imperator to look over, yes." he answered. I looked around before turning back to him, "Why don't we finish it now?" It was almost as if his mood changed immediately, "I would like that."

     We went into the summoning room, which had plenty of paper and pencils surprisingly to write the speech. I only stayed for moral support and general advice since I didn't know much about what he was preparing the speech for. "I don't think rats have much to do with it, don't you think?" he asked me at one point. "Well, do the rats symbolize something?" I questioned back. He nodded. "Then go for it." I said.

     I don't know how long it took for him to finish the speech, but by the time we came back the ghouls were out looking for us. "Where the hell were you two?" Cirrus questioned. "I was just showing Y/n around." Papa half lied. "The bells rung 2 hours ago. They've been waiting for a while for you. Sister Imperator is already waiting at the front." Sodo scolded.

     "Alright, alright. I'm going." Papa raised his hands in defeat. "I'll see you later, Y/n." he said to me, taking my hand and kissing my ring finger before following Sodo and Cumulus.

     "Alright, let's go." Mountain said. I followed the rest of them back inside. "Is there anything I could help with?" I asked. "Well, yes. We sort of need to do laundry." Rain answered. "Sort of need to?" I raised an eyebrow.

     When we got to the laundry room it was almost as if we had a whole semi truck of clothes to wash. In reality, it wasn't as much as it looked like of course. We got to work and sorted the clothes. "So, Y/n." Cirrus broke the silence. "Yeah?" I looked up at her. "Papa really seems to like you." she commented. "That's good. Right? I mean do you think he likes me enough to let me keep the job?" I began to spill out my thoughts.

     "I think so, yes. I mean he likes you enough to let you hold his hand and take you out on a tour himself. He doesn't really let people touch him besides Sister Imperator." Cirrus replied. "Really?" I asked. "He's a weirdo." Mountain shrugged. "Nah, I've seen him let other people touch him all the time." Rain shook his head.

     "Oh yeah? Who?" Cirrus questioned. Rain stood there for a second, "Sister Imperator." Cirrus smacked the back of his head, "I already said that you idiot." I laughed at the two quarreling.

     "They're like this all the time." Mountain whispered to me while folding some laundry. I smiled, "It's very amusing." Rain hit Cirrus in the arm which made her push him into a laundry basket. "Seems to be getting a bit heated." I commented. Mountain sighed, "Yeah, yeah." He walked over to the two and grabbed them by the horns, "Go make yourselves useful and clean up the practice room. You know how Sodo is with the beer cans."

     "Why do we have to clean it? It's Sodo's mess." Rain whined. Mountain let go of their horns, "I'll get an extra treat for you two." he whispered. An extra treat? The two went out of the laundry room without another word. Mountain turned towards me, "It's quite easy with them."

     "Bribing them with treats?" I questioned. "You heard that?" he asked, sort of worried. "Well, yeah. It's not like I can't hear whispering." I chuckled. Mountain put his hands on my shoulders, "Please forget I said anything." I looked up at him, "Okay?" He patted my shoulders, "Good."

     We went back to doing laundry until Sodo and Cumulus came in. "Oh, hey." Mountain greeted the two ghouls. "Need a hand?" Sodo asked me. "Oh, well," I began, but was cut off by Cumulus, "Not to be rude Sodo, but I think you're a bit, well, weak for that." Even with the mask, the small ghoul looked to be fuming.

     "I'm not weak!" he growled. "Cumulus, don't get him angry. You know how he gets when he's pissed." Mountain sighed. I gave Sodo the laundry basket, "No worries. Just put the clothes where they belong. I'm not sure who's clothes are who's." Sodo seemed to have a bit of trouble with the big laundry basket, but he made his way out the room fine.

     "Is papa back?" Mountain asked Cumulus. I pretended not to care, but I couldn't help but listen. "Yeah. He's in a real bright mood, actually." Cumulus replied. "Interesting. Must've gotten some high praises from the Ministry." Mountain commented. "Something about rats I think." she said. I smiled, thinking back at our time in the summoning room.