Book 1, Verse 1

“I can’t believe you dragged me here.”

Me and my friend stood in front of a plain block-shaped building. It was a cloudy day and it looked like rain was a distinct possibility.

In other words, it was the perfect day to get some work done.

But instead I was standing in front of a church.

“Come on Shinko! You’ve never even been inside a church! It’ll be fun!”

“Is that the main reason you go to church? Because if it’s only for fun, I could go home and play Final Dragon IV.”

John shuffled his feet.

“I-it’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Sure it is. Are we going inside? It’s about to rain.”

“Yeah, of course.”

The interior was nothing special. A small entry hall with a tile floor that had two wooden double doors leading into the main room and the door leading to the singular restroom. As we entered, the band was still up on stage playing some sort of music and everyone around us was singing along.

It reminded me of an indie concert, except with less pretty girls and more middle-aged women.

John escorted me into one of the pews. It wasn’t too close to the back, but it was far enough away to avoid getting pointed at by the preacher if he started looking for volunteers.

Once the music was over, the preacher came up, prayed, and then started giving his sermon. John was marginally more interested than I was because he was actually taking notes.

It was about how believers should not be anxious and that they should pray about everything.

The preacher went on for over an hour and I started getting antsy. How long could he go on talking about ten little verses? I was about to fall asleep when the band started up again and everyone sang a closing song. John was really into it.

When it finished, I got up to leave.

“Where ya going in such a rush Shinko?”

“Home. Thanks for the invitation, I guess.” I started heading for the door.

John smiled casually as he slowly collected his notebook.

“Fine, you can go if you want to; you’ll just miss out on the free lunch.”

I turned around immediately.

“What do you mean ‘free lunch?’ There’s no such thing.”

“Yeah there is. It’s the third Sunday of the month. Free lunch.” He shrugged. “But if you don’t want free chicken salad sandwiches and fruit punch, who am I to judge?”

Chicken salad isn’t my favorite, and neither is fruit punch.

But free is one heck of a flavor additive; I’d go as far as to say it’s addictive.

“Where is this?”

“Dining hall. Follow me.” John got up and started leading me towards the back of the main room where another door was located.

I stopped.

“Bathroom.”

“Okay.” He went on without me.

I turned around and headed towards the entrance hall. There were still a lot of older women lingering about and chatting with one another in the main room as I passed. Call me cynical, but I was a little surprised to hear that most of them were actually talking about the sermon. There was even an older man in a wheelchair talking with his wife about it.

Once I exited the main room, the glass doors of the entrance hall let me see that it was now raining outside. I briefly considered leaving, but that would be rude to John.

I entered the restroom, did my business, and went back through the entrance hall. It was still raining.

As I walked into the main hall, it was completely empty.

“What on earth?”

The only things in there were the pews and the stage. It was like church hadn’t happened at all. Maybe all the people simultaneously decided to get their lunch as soon as I left the main hall?

Including the man in the wheelchair? There was no way I’d taken that long.

I quelled a strange feeling in my stomach and ignored the small oddity. It was fine; it wasn’t inexplicable. I pressed on and went towards the back of the main hall. The small white door to the dining hall opened easily and I walked in confidently.

No one was there.

There were fold-out tables and a small kitchen in the back. I ran into the kitchen, hoping to find some evidence of sandwich making or fruit punch pouring.

But nothing was there.

The counters were all completely clean and there weren’t any dishes in the sink; I slammed open the door to the fridge. It was empty.

“No. This isn’t real. This doesn’t make sense!”

Maybe John was playing a practical joke on me? Except he wasn’t the type. He was into puns and tongue-twisters, not pranks.

I ran back into the main room. It was different.

The small wooden pews were still there, but they were much more stylized. The stage was gone, replaced with a large pulpit and a table full of strange religious tools on the ground in front of said pulpit.

Those weren’t even the biggest changes.

The hall wasn’t small anymore. It was huge, with a ceiling that stretched up at least thirty feet high. There were stained glass windows that let the light in beautifully; but that shouldn’t be happening because it was raining.

I ran out of the main room towards the entrance hall. However, instead of the small wooden double doors that I expected to see at the entrance to the main hall, the doors were huge. Not only that, but they were intricately decorated with images of angels and flowering vines.

I didn’t care. I shoved the huge heavy doors open as fast as I could.

There wasn’t an entrance hall anymore.

Instead, what I saw was a lush forest with a dirt path leading from it to the doors I was standing in front of. The sun was high in the sky, shining down cheerfully on me.

“This can’t be real.”

I ran back inside the church; no, church was too small a word for what I was standing in. It was a cathedral. A proper cathedral. I ran right up to the pulpit and I did something I never thought I’d ever do.

I prayed like my life depended on it.