Possession

Iris Faulk had always believed that religion was something that she'd never have to confront. She never wanted to practice Catholicism or Christianity, as previous members of her family had. She wanted to be independant from a God, from a lifestyle which prohibited her from following what she wanted to do. But every day on her way to work, she would spot the Church of the Fallen Saints and a shiver would run down her spine. The building had been sitting uninhabited and unused for the better part of ten years - the urban legends surrounding the structure began with ghosts and ended with walking corpses that guarded the graveyard after hours. But the simple and factual truth was that the church members had disbanded years before, or so Iris had been told. She still got the creeps from the empty structure with it's moth-eaten red velvet curtains in the window and the eerie art spray painted onto the walls. The night only made her more conscious of the evils that had supposedly gone on within the holy walls.

Iris noticed that she'd stopped walking and had just stood staring at the church. She shook her head softly, and kept heading for her house. She supposed that she would never really get used to the idea that murderers had once been housed near to the playground that she had frequented when she was a child, but as long as she pushed the church from her mind, the better she felt.

She shared her house with her friend Marlene, and enjoyed not living alone like she had a year before after moving out of college and into the great wide world. As Iris unpacked the groceries she had shoved in her backpack on her way back from work, she heard laughter in the lounge room. Marlene liked to smoke pot with some of the guys that she met whilst working at a local bar. Iris sometimes joined in, but she always had terrible dreams after smoking marijuana. Dreams of hands grabbing her and people chanting. She blamed her stupid reaction over seeing the church - every time she saw it on her way home she would think about all of the urban legends and scare herself silly.

Iris turned to peek out of the window, squinting her eyes and trying to check and see if anyone was passing by. A loud crash made her jump, and she yelped and swung around. A man with glasses and an equally shocked expression had his hands raised - and there was a smashed glass on the tiled floor of the kitchen. ''I'm so sorry! I was...I didn't want to startle you and I dropped the glass. Here, lemme get it. I'll pick it up.'' the man was blushing now, and scrambling to pick up the pieces of glass.

''You'll cut your-'' Iris trailed off when the man cursed under his breath, and moved to shove his cut finger in his mouth. ''...Self...here...use some paper towels.'' she offered the hurt man some, and he took them, nodding. She could see a blush rising in his cheeks.

''I'm so stupid...I wanted to be quiet and I wreck the place.'' he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.

''It's fine. You're lucky I wasn't holding a knife, though.'' Iris stooped down to help him clean up the glass, picking it up carefully with a piece of paper towel. ''Who are you, anyway?'' she questioned.

''Patrick. Patrick Stump. Your friend invited my friend Andy over...I think she would prefer to be alone with him...if you know what I mean.'' Patrick smiled nervously, helping Iris dump the rest of the glass in the waste basket.

''I'm Iris, and I'm sorry you became the third wheel.'' Iris held her hand out, and Patrick shook it quickly with his non-injured hand.

''Well I'm glad to meet you...despite all of this.'' his smile was genuine enough to make Iris smile back. She liked Patrick, he seemed like a good guy.

''So are you planning on going home? I can explain to Marlene...'' Iris gestured towards the living room. Patrick shrugged,

''Maybe we can talk. It would be kind of a waste of a trip if I didn't at least enjoy myself a little bit.'' he pushed his thick black glasses up with a finger, and seemed to be very self-conscious. His body language screamed that he was trying to relax but failing. Iris liked that he wasn't putting up an arrogant front. She'd had to deal with a lot of jackasses, and was pleasantly surprised to meet a guy who wasn't holding himself together with sexist jokes and false attempts at dominance.

''Okay. Would you like a drink?'' Iris wanted to be polite, but at the same time she feared for the rest of the glasses in the kitchen cabinet.

''No thank you. I'll go and tell Marlene...and yeah, take a seat in there. I don't want to break anything else...'' Patrick turned and moved quickly back into the living room. Iris followed behind not long after, and sat next to Patrick on the sofa opposite Marlene and the man whom she guessed was Andy.

In the back of her mind, Iris kept thinking about that dark, foreboding church, and the haunting stories surrounding it.