[center][h3][color=#43464B][sub]In the minds of[/sub][/color] [color=#CCAC00][b]C R O S S R O A D [/b][/color][/h3] [img]https://i.imgur.com/Updto8r.png[/img] [color=#43464B][sup][b][url=https://open.spotify.com/track/0oerlffJSzhRVvtDfLcp3N?si=cSlJjD28T362PUFiP-JnDQ]Devil Of Santa Celia[/url][/b][/sup][/color][/center][color=#43464B][indent][sub][B]Location[/B] [COLOR=SILVER][I]St. Paul Church.[/I][/COLOR][/sub][sup][right][b]Part 1.[/b][/right][/sup][/indent][/color][hr] [color=#43464B][B][sub][/sub][/B][/color] [color=#CCAC00]"You do know that out there, there's chaos, right? For a month straight, Hell's rained upon Santa Celia. People are suffering, living in fear, confusion and terror. The cops are outmatched. They don't stand any real chance with what they're up against. The realization of panic is slowly spreading, Father. Is it a reckoning for our sins, like the flood Noah had to face?"[/COLOR] The man said, to the older gentleman on the other side of the booth, they could not see each other, not properly, only small parts of the other, through the grated surface. It was an old church, the oldest in all of Santa Celia - the St. Paul Church, straight from the roman empire, they rebuilt it here, brick by brick after they cultivated this land. [b]"It is truly a dark time here in our great city, my son.[/b] The Priest responded, somberly, bowing his head he mumbled something in latin - a prayer, closing his eyes and gesturing a cross in front of him. [color=#CCAC00]"Does that work? Praying, I mean."[/COLOR] he asked the Father, leaning back in his chair, and the father nodded, visible through the grates. [b]"It brings comfort. Both to the mind and the soul. You do not pray, my son?"[/b] He asked Joseph and Joseph shook his head. [color=#CCAC00]"Not since I was a little boy. See, when I was a child, my father would beat my mother. A lot. And no matter how much I prayed that his heart would stop - it never did. Not once did my prayers come true. I used to believe that God wasn't real - that all of it was just made up bullshit. Then something happened to me.. And I know better now, Father. God is real."[/COLOR] Joseph confessed and the priest nodded in acknowledgement [b]"The lord does indeed work in mysterious ways. It would seem that spreading more misery, by smiting your father, wasn't his plan. I am glad to see that you've found enlightenment. Are you ready for confession?" [/b] Father Cascone said and Joseph nodded. [color=#CCAC00]"I've done bad things, father. Really bad. I've had sex, probably thousands of times outside of wedlock since my last confession. I've gotten drunk, smoked and gotten into barfights. I've worn mixed fabrics and ate all kinds of meat and seafood, I hear that's still a big no-no with god. I got divorced, after swearing in a church like this that I'd love my wife till the day death do us part - well, I at least kept my end of that deal. I got my Ex-wife killed, Father. God, I got her killed. "[/COLOR] He began, putting his gloved hand towards his face, looking distraught. [b]"Is that all, my son?"[/b] [color=#CCAC00]"God, no. The list's just gotten started. That's when things got crazy. I got killed. Murdered, in fact. I came back, but I.. I wasn't quite myself. Not quite right. I'm not the man I was once, you see. I'm someone else now. And that someone else has cranked the bad things up to eleven. I was a police officer, but now. Now I've taken the law into my own hands. I'm the jury and executioner, and I've been striking down those who've done wrong with righteous fury. Well, perhaps not righteous."[/COLOR] [b]"Wait, are you him? That guy in the news, who's been fighting the gangs?"[/b] [color=#CCAC00]"Fighting's a stretch. I brutalized them. Everyone from Geseppi's gang, the McNeal Crew and the Suarez chapter. that's 85 men. In a month. But I guess that's what happens when you barely eat, don't sleep and you can only think about one thing. The demon whom you sold your soul to."[/COLOR] Joseph spoke and the priest felt the color drain from his face, as he moved towards the door, but it was already too late. The metal hand shot through the wooden wall and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him towards the grated window, and the priest yelped and soon began crying in terror. [b]"Who are you?!"[/b] He shouted, but the church was empty. Nobody heard him. [color=#CCAC00]"See, father. I know I'm not the only one with sins."[/COLOR] Joseph said as his lips curled into a smile. [color=#CCAC00]"I know who you are. Who you really are. You're not just a man of the cloth, oh no. You're so much more. You're a gunrunner, a drugdealer, human trafficker and child sex-slaver. You're the Capo of the Lucerne Mafia. And I'm the ghost of your Christmas past."[/COLOR] The once dead-man said, as he dragged the priest across the room the Father trying to fight his steel grip, but the bionic arm could not be budged. Joseph threw him into the wall up above the main hall of the church, looking through the stained glass at the people walking on the street below. The priest was about to yell, but soon the cold hand was around his throat again, and the other fist was in his stomach, he fell to the ground, on his knees, vomiting from the impact. He coughed and looked up at leather jacket clad - sunglasses wearing predator, like a rabbit looking at a wolf. [b]"What the fuck do you want?!"[/b] [color=#CCAC00]"I want the world to see your monster inside, Marco. I want you, to confess. To everything. If you do, I'll let you live. If not, you're just gonna become another notch to me."[/COLOR] Joseph said, as he pulled his gun and cocked it. [color=#CCAC00]"Decide."[/COLOR] Joseph got his phone out with the other hand and turned the lights on, filming the beaten priest, who's voice was horse from the tight grip around his throat. [b]"Fuck."[/b] He said, as he spit out blood, and looked into the camera. [b]"My name is Marco Giovanni Maria Cascone, I am the priest of the St.Paul church in Santa Celia and a well respected member of my community... But I'm also something else, something different. Worse. I'm a fiend, a demon. A villain and a monster. A criminal and lieutenant in the Lucerne mob. I've worked with Lucky and the others for 25 years, ever since his dad became leader of the West Comission. I'm a rapist, a thief and a murderer. I am, truly, the scum of the earth.[/b] He spoke, eyeing the gun pointed at him. [b]"And I am truly sorry."[/b] Joseph turned off the video and put away the gun, he chuckled and clapped his hands. [color=#CCAC00]"Excellent performance, father. "[/COLOR] [color=red]Kill him. Kill him NOW, Detective![/color] the demon nagged, and Joseph tried to avoid letting it phase him. Joseph pushed the father away from the window and sent the video to the authorities, using every IT-security trick he had ever learned to make sure they would never figure out where it came from. He knew full well it wasn't gonna hold up in court. It didn't have to. [b]"Can I go?!"[/b] The father cried and Joseph shrugged. [color=#CCAC00]"Do you feel forgiven?"[/COLOR] He asked, coyly and the priest nodded. Joseph nodded backwards and pointed his hand behind him, towards the stairs, and the father climbed to his feet to bolt, only to be caught by Joseph and janked back, this time, with a wire around his neck. A thick, industry size wire that made up a noose. Joseph had tied one end around his neck and the other around a piece of the stairs, he placed something on that end of the wire, as he pushed the priest out of the stained glass, hanging him on the outside of the church, 5 meters above the stairs below. Joseph calmly walked down the stairs, towards the entrance, as he saw people already gathering outside, filming with their phones and gasping, looking terrified at the struggling, beaten and broken priest, choking his life away. That was, till the wire's fastening exploded and the explosive charge blew the wire clean, sending the priest sailing to the ground, where he broke his legs in several places, people began walking towards him, but before they could, they saw the black clad man step out of the shadows, his gun in hand. [color=#CCAC00]"The people out there, who in the past month have been turned into [i]freaks[/i], the ones scared and petrified, confused and worried. Sad and angry. The ones who have been through hell, and cannot handle it. They, they aren't the monsters. Men like Father Marco Giovanni Maria Cascone, here is the worst piece of filth there is in this world. A new day is dawning. Wake up, Santa Celia. The devil's coming to drag all of his rotten souls back to hell."[/COLOR] Joseph preached as the red energy traversed his body, a vague aura of horns growing out of his head as he spoke. People gasped in horror as the gun took aim. [color=#CCAC00]"I realized that God is real, father. We humans just scared him off."[/COLOR] The priest cried in pain, trying to gasp for air, his lips said 'please' but no sound could leave him. Never again. [b]BANG[/b] and the priest's body went limp with a new hole in his head. The shooter was back in the church when the sirens could be heard, and when the police arrived, there was no trace of the gunman. He wasn't Detective Joseph Dark anymore. He wasn't a broken man killed by the mob and forgotten by the world. He was now the Santa Celia Devil, Crossroad.