Nights at the Pump - Chapter 5 Inside the Church

 Chapter 5

Harold and I were frozen in place on the stairs. The yellow eyes did not blink. They just stared at us like the bulbs from a scanner, memorizing every detail of our faces. We waited for the form next to the cat to speak. But, when a car went by with its lights on we could see nothing but the cat. The black cat quickly turned and ran through the door. We both breathed loudly and at the same time.

We both wanted to run up the stairs and out the door but we just looked at each other for a moment. Neither of us wanted to be the one who ran. We picked up our gear and continued into the basement.

It was a typical Michigan basement, damp, musky and covered with spider webs. They were in our faces as soon as our feet hit the basement floor. The little fluorescent spots on the spiders showed in the light of the flashlight like tiny Christmas lights strung across the room. They looked like eyes watching us as we moved across the room.

I don’t know if I felt the shiver or the hand first but, I felt the hand on my shoulder… and Harold was in front of me. I wanted to scream but nothing would come out. The only sound was breath sucking through my open mouth and faint noises that were more air than sound. I was petrified. I stood there trying to make my body move, then, I heard her voice.

It was Arianne, “I just had to see what was in here.”

I could have screamed but I would rather have beaned her.

“What are you doing here?” I said in a scream whisper.

“I wanted to see inside too.”

“Arghh, OK, be quiet and watch where you are going.”

The basement held no secrets. The rooms were much the same as all those found in Michigan. There was a coal bin, storage of cardboard boxes damp and soft with moisture. There were enough spiders to cover the earth and enough mice to attract a new pied piper. It would have been unpleasant enough to discover mice if it had been just Harold and I but Arianne must have been the model upon which the attitude of girls around mice was built.

She let out a blood curdling scream that would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud. It scared Harold and me so much we ran up the stairs and out the door with no regard for Arianne. Then, we just kept on running. We ran past Barbara, Ginger and Margaret. Harold went to his house and I went to mine.

That was all the excitement I could take for one night.

When I got to my room I began to consider the plans we had made for the next day. How could I get to stay home from church? The only chance we had to see the congregation that had so far been invisible to us was at the evening service.

I wanted to be there for that and if I was going to be there I would have to come up with an air tight plan or I would be warming the pews at church while the rest of my friends were peeking in the windows at The Church of Spiritual Holiness and Mystic Missions.

Something hit my window. There it was again. I looked out and there was Barbara motioning for me to come back out.

I went downstairs and through the house to the kitchen and then down the stairs to the landing and the back door. I opened it quietly and stepped outside. Barbara told me to follow her. We walked toward the street and there, across the street was a black panel truck with a Reddy Watt symbol.

That was our power company’s logo. It was in the driveway of the Church. Lights were flashing outside and inside. Something strange was happening. What a weird night this had been. But it was nothing to what would happen tomorrow.

To be continued…