The bell chimed once more as Kai noticed the area darken around him, signaling the end of the hour.

  Meaning he had no chance to answer the stranger's question.

  He needed to get to the church. Now.

  He gripped hold of the other man's arm. Darting for the church as the citizens around him started to stir.

  Only to find the person he had in tow had refused the movement, leaving himself behind.

  Kai motioned to the crowd, gesturing towards the church, hoping that he got the message across.

  If it didn't, it wouldn't be his fault anyway.

  The run to the church was long, abnormally so.

  Each step taken felt as though it took decades, but it was just a trick of the mind.

  Hopefully.

  There was a stinging urge for him to look behind, to see whatever was going on behind him. But Kai ignored it.

  He suddenly heard the sound of a gate being torn open. Booming across the entire plain.

  It didn't matter.

  Thousands of footsteps echoed, and a screech ripped through the air.

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  It didn't matter.

  The gate to the church was right in front of his eyes.

  He never noticed the statue in front of it, which was strange, had he not passed by those doors multiple times before; how didn't he notice?

  Even weirder was that he couldn't seem to make it out, despite knowing it was there.

  He stood there, frozen, staring at it, blissfully unaware of the thousands of footsteps echoing behind him.

  A need to worship whatever was outside the door overcame him, as he started to kneel to the ground to bow before the god.

  He was ripped from his reverence by the harsh cold of granite and the taste of blood in his mouth.

  "What the hell were you doing?"

  Huh?

  He was running to the church, what else?

  Who was talking to him anyway? He couldn't tell because he was currently pinned to the floor, eyes meeting the stone beneath him.

  He turned his head to look up, only to be sent into shock by what met his eyes.

  All the citizens in the town were still kneeling, except that instead of the sun, they were all facing some…

  Thing.

  It was a dark creature of a humanoid frame that towered over all, with hundreds of thousands of alternating faces strewn across its body, each contorted in a grimace of agony as their eyes flitted around the area, searching for something unknown.

  Strangely enough, none of them noticed him. In fact, every time one of the faces would look his direction, it's eyes would glaze over, failing to see anything in his direction.

  Eventually, though, one noticed a mask lying on the ground, the one Kai had removed from the man, and screamed, signaling each face on the creature's body to conort in its direction, staring at the mask as well, causing them to scream. Compounding the sound into something that caused the people nearest to the beast's heads to explode. painting the ground beneath them a terrible shade.

  The beast picked up the mask, investigating it for a time.

  Eventually, it raised the mask to a face highest on its body, which wore a similar one, albeit a little more ornate, sniffing it for a second that stretched on for far too long.

  Until the moment broke, and it suddenly picked up on the scent, snapping its head towards the church as it barreled towards it, each face screaming in agony, causing the citizens it passed to meet the same fate as those before had met.

  It was only a moment before it made it to the church, which had taken Kai more than ten minutes to reach at top speed.

  This was it.

  Kai was dead.

  He reveled in the moments he had before he met his demise, only wishing that the thing that had done him in would at least be a little attractive, so it wouldn't be so irritating.

  So be it.

  He would be dead in a moment just the same…

  But as Kai watched the thing inch closer and closer to him, he noticed that none of the eyes were trained on him.

  It was almost like they couldn't see him at all.

  No.

  It was like they couldn't see the church at all.

  Cementing his point, the beast froze, seemingly losing the scent as it did so.

  Relief washed through Kai's body for a moment until he noticed the faces contorting in unison, preparing to unleash one of those unholy screams.

  He launched forward, ignoring the weight that had pinned him down completely as he ran further into the church, diving into a hatch he hadn't noticed until that moment, the other man following closely behind.

  He never heard the scream that came.

  Or maybe he did, but never recognized it.

  It didn't matter anyway.

  If he wanted to live, he would inevitably have to face it again…

  Ironic, wasn't it?