Relentless tearing and slicing with a blade. People who had attempted to leave were now dead. The Church-goers were nothing other than torn pieces of flesh and splattered blood.
The red carpet couldn't turn any darker. The massacre had mainly concluded. The old man who killed Cal's parents remained on the floor, he stares up at his attacker and attempts a plea for mercy. He stares up at...
Markus.
Markus unsheathes a long blade and points it's bloodied end at the old man.
"Mercy? Did you show any mercy to Cal's parents? I wonder... How could monsters like you blend in so well?"
The old man stared in disbelief. He did not know how to respond.
"You only killed his father because his father left with important information. His father was here in this church before, right?"
The old man still lay silent, dust dropped lightly from the rafters above and the silence was quite a bit calmer than the screams were minutes ago.
"Answer me!" Markus yelled, pushing his blade into the arm of the Old Man.
"I-I Yes! Yes! It was for that reason exactly! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! We never killed his father! I promise! I swear!"
Markus pressed the blade further.
"Listen. I'm not here for your lies. I swear to god I will fucking kill you. This whole church was full of Pathogens... and yet you killed one of your own? You disgust me. I can't believe I was here before with all of you. I'm just lucky I wasn't devoured whole."
Markus removed the blade and smiled smugly.
"You think that if I murder you I'll be caught right? Wrong. Once they test your blood and find out you are all Pathogens... they will turn a blind eye quickly." Markus began laughing to the old man's dismay.
"Markus... w-we would never have eaten you! We trusted you to be the one to convince Cal's father! Convince him to give us back the documents! He got away! I swear! I promis-"
With one fast motion, Markus cut off the head of the Old Man and didn't look back as his neck was spraying blood everywhere. The old man's arms were wriggling around furiously until eventually, he stopped moving.
Markus breathed inward with a deep breath and smelled nothing but rotten blood. He wiped his nose as if it somehow got rid of the smell and began to spill gasoline all over the church. He knew he had to burn the bodies before any of the Pathogens healed and escaped.
He dropped a match and the trail was lit ablaze, leading to each body and the walls and carpet.
Markus took that as his cue to leave and closed the doors behind him. The midnight air was better than it was inside the church, and he made sure to get enough of the air.
He put his hood over his eyes and main facial features and slipped away from the scene of the crime.
***
[Cal]
I awoke to see that Markus was sitting next to my bunk bed, waiting for me patiently as he read a book.
"Hey." I greeted him, slipping out of bed, then changing my shirt.
"Hello there. Did you hear about that church?" Markus asked, a serious look on his face as he just continued to read, or actually... pretended to read, he seemed to be too much in his thoughts to actually read the pages.
"With those... murderers? No, why?" I asked, completely clueless as to what he could be getting at.
"The church burned down and they all died in the fire, how unlucky of them. The investigators apparently believe it to be a murder, and it also turns out that during the autopsy, they found that the people had no hearts, but stones where a heart should be." He said, still pretending to read the book.
I didn't respond. I was glad they were killed... but they were Pathogens? How does that correspond with why they killed my parents? I didn't want to ask any more questions, and so I decided to just go pick up a copy of the paper myself.
***
It was laying on the breakfast table. I began eating the cereal I had gotten for breakfast today as other, more professional, Pathogen Hunters were talking at the table next to me. Kai was also at the table I was at, but was laying down on the bench playing on his phone again.
"Fate Church has burned to the ground due to an apparent murder massacre!" The headline of the paper stated. Reading those words made me feel a bit concerned. If they were after the church... maybe they were an ally? We must have had a common enemy. I continued to read the paper.
"All of the burnt bodies have wounds dealt with a sharp blade of sorts, maybe even a spear. It is currently unknown if it was caused by another church member, or if the murderer was an outsider who took a risky chance."
I was focused on getting as much information as possible at this point.
"A witness was walking nearby the church at the time and saw a figure in one of the church hoods/robes. This is where the theory of one of the church members committing the murders. An investigation will be launched, and if the culprit is found, they will only be questioned, and then evaluated before being released. They committed no crimes other than arson."
Well... that made sense I suppose. They DID only kill Pathogens, and horrible ones at that. If they were charged with arson, they may just be fined, get a slight jail sentence or both. Was that the right thing to do? I couldn't tell at that moment in time.
Kai was making explosion sounds with his mouth and Markus joined me at the table.
"Interesting read, isn't it?" Markus said, slightly laughing. "So, what do you think? Was this a good or bad thing?" He asked, his glare at me felt... dangerous and threatening.
"A good thing I suppose. I just wish I could have seen who'd done it. I would love to make allies with them." I said, avoiding his eye.
"I see." He stood back up and left to receive his breakfast. I sat there, confused and concerned. What if this person... wants to kill me too?