XII. A Dark Scholar

Pastor John was burdened. The force he had sworn to resist was being fueled by these red-robed strangers, and naught but a few of the “Green Hope Remains” would listen. 

Who were these people? Why had they been so adamant about securing that church? 

And worse than the masked deviants was the man to whom they answered. John had only met him once, when he banged on the door to warn the new tenants about the evil powers within. Their conversation would be brief, but it would leave John’s eyes wide open. 

The man dripped with malicious energy. The glint in his eyes and the gleam of his teeth would later keep John up at night. And he knew the old stories, too. He even knew details the freshly-studied pastor himself didn't know. The dreadful truth dawned quickly on John: this man knew EXACTLY what was happening at the old cursed church.

This cult leader and his minions were here to answer the hungry call from another world. But to what end, John didn’t…

He suddenly recalled the stories of the “mangled mess” of Reverend Meares and how Henry Galloway’s face had allegedly been warped. Both men heard voices, and both men came very close to the source of it all. 

Maybe they even touched it. 

A chill shot up John’s spine, and riding on it was the echo of the voice he heard in his midnight wanderings of that wretched ground. 

“Feed me …. And I will make you New.”