My car had already been back from the garage and embarking it, I drove myself to the cathedral. As I reached my destination, I hurriedly parked my car at the other side of the road and started walking briskly towards the cathedral. It was a Monday morning and there was a good amount of people already present. As I got to the gravel leading up to the huge entrance, I asked a man coming out of the cathedral if he had seen Father Richard. 'Am afraid I don't know him', he said. I walked further till I reached the narthex and then I ran my eyes across the huge hall. It was when I came to see Father Richard, talking to some woman, just where the nave ended from my side.
I ran up to the end of the nave. Father Richard saw me and I stopped in front of him. After a brief moment of silence, with his face displaying some light grimace all the time, he excused the woman and grabbing my arm, dragged me, and we were now heading out of the cathedral now.
'Listen to me, Fath–'
'Sshhh... Just be silent... It's between you and me. It must be between you and me. You understand?', he said, lowering his voice.
'You know about it, don't you?', my voice was also down now.
'Kind of'
As we got out of the cathedral he said to me, 'We need to get to my home'.
'I can drive us'
'Fast'
We crossed to the other side of the road and got seated in my car.
'I need you to tell me what this is all about, Father', I asked hastily.
'You will get all your answers, Liam... Just let us to my home'
I turned on the ignition and then pulled up the gear slowly. It took us about fifteen minutes to get to his home. As soon as the car stopped at the driveway, Father got down and said, 'Follow me'.
I followed him into the house, a not-so-big but a good place for a church priest to live alone. As we got into his house, his dog came running up to him, wagging its tail, barking at the same time, seeing a stranger at his master's place. 'No no. Stay Pup'. Father Richard knelt down and the dog became calm after seeing his master. Father got his dog in his arms. It started licking his face.
'Up, Liam. Let's go'. He let go of his dog and we proceeded towards the upper story. As I looked back, I saw the dog looking at us, probably in wonder, raising its head up. A big single room started as the stairs ended – a room with only a desk and a lot of books in shelves at its back. Must be his work place where he would be sitting down and reading books or writing something. He rushed to his work-desk and asked me to sit down. 'First I want to know what it is!', I yawped at him.
'I need you to sit down, Liam', he said. I pulled up the chair to my side of the desk and sat myself down. 'Now tell me... What the hell is it?'
He looked at my face. He could have seen all the questions looming up at the back of my head. Then he poured some water to the glass nearby through a jar and drank half of the glass of water.
'You having nightmares?', he asked.
'As a matter of fact, yes'
'Oh no, it has started'
'What? Oh come on, Father. Please tell me!'
'You have the coin?'
'Yes'
'Give it to me. I need to see something'. I took out the coin of my pocket and handed it over to him. He sat back in haste and pulled out his drawer. He frisked through some of the papers and then took out some images. Some images of a coin. He placed the images on the table, got his hand lens and started peering at the coin and then at the images.
'Will you tell me someth—'
'Sshhh', he shushed me up.
Then there was a look of amazement over his face. He was looking perplexed and mystified. He kept the coin and the lens down and leaned back in his chair, giving out a long sigh. 'It is it', he uttered out ponderously. He grabbed his eyes and then stood up.
'What is it?'. My voice was terribly slow and worried now.
'You are the next victim of it... The first person whom I know is going to be it'
'Please tell me'. My voice was shaking.
'Let me start from the beginning'