The Gargoyle's Sin

Book Finding

I was so sore, every muscle in my body was crying for a break. My aunt had decided she wanted me to do yard work today since there really weren't any chores to do, I had been keeping the house extremely clean. I had mowed the lawn and now I was pulling weeds that was growing around the perimeter of the yard. This last week my aunt had kept me even busier than normal, finding new things for me to do that wasn't a problem before and it just didn't sit right with me. I hadn't run into Sybil since that strange conversation we had last week and I was a little upset by it, I had so many questions that I wanted to ask.

After a couple hours of weed pulling, I finally finished and headed back into the house. Looking in the living room I noticed my aunt was sound asleep with her Bible lying open on her chest. I grinned and ran upstairs as quietly as possible and quickly changed my filthy clothes before slipping on a pair of Converse and sneaking out the front door. I was terrified of the consequences if my aunt found me missing when she woke up, but I felt that I deserved a break, and I had never snuck out before, I never needed to.

Telling myself that I would only be gone for an hour at most, I made my way to the cemetery. I really wanted to visit Grimald and, for some odd reason, let him know that I didn't mean to stay away for so long. I picked up my pace and ran all the way to the cemetery entrance and didn't stop until I reached the winged statue named Grimald.

"Hey Grimald." I started with a blush on my cheeks. "I-I'm sorry for not visiting sooner, my aunt has kept me busy."

Before I could say anything else something caught my eye. There underneath Grimald's tale was my book! I thought I had lost it after I came to visit the last time but someone must of found it and put it here for protection. I scooped it up and couldn't keep the smile off my face as I noticed that the book was remarkably untouched, there were no missing pages, no stains, nothing, perfectly intact.

With a small giggle I made myself comfortable beside Grimald and opened up my book and picked up where I left off. I was so happy and this place was so peaceful, allowing me to completely relax and allow my muscles to loosen up. The one thing I forgot is that I can't read without loosing track of time, and that's exactly what I did.

The sun was beginning to set before I looked up from my book and noticed. Fear began to make its way into my heart as I desperately prayed my aunt was still sleeping, begging God to have some mercy on me. I ran out of the cemetery and straight to my aunts home having an entire revival with God on the way. Standing in front of the door I gasped for air and tried to calm my heart that was racing from the run and also from the panic attack that was beginning to set in.

"Where have you been?!"

Those were the first words I heard when I entered the house, so keeping my head down I slowly walked into the living room.

"I wake up from my nap to find that my disobedient niece has run off to God knows where without letting me know! Worse of all you weren't finished with your chores! So now not only have you been disobedient but lazy as well, I just hope you weren't stupid enough to sell your innocence to someone!"

I flinched as she continued to scream and call me names and degrade me. My parents never spoke to me in this manner, they never called me names and they never made me feel like a cheap whore. I was a good girl and parents told me that everyday, and when I did do something wrong that sat down and talked it out with me.

"Come over here right now Alexis!"

I gulped back the urge to throw up and inched my way to my aunt's side on the couch. Next thing I knew my left cheek was stinging from the hard slapped I had just received. Before I could recover I received another one on my right cheek while my aunt continued to scream at me that I deserved much more than this,  it I was simply lucky enough that she was to injured to do more. It took everything in me not to run to my room and call my mother to demand a plane ticket on the first flight home.

"Go to your room! You will not receive any dinner tonight nor any breakfast tomorrow! I expect you to spend the rest of the night on your knees in prayer begging God to forgive such a disgusting brat like you!"

With those final words a sprinted up the stairs and shut my door before clicking the lock on the door knob. I was still in shock at what had taken place and just leaned my back onto the door for a few minutes before the tears began to stream down my face.

Slowly I stepped in front of the mirror that was in my room and saw two handprints on each side of my face. I shook my head and slowly changed into some of my pajamas and crawling into bed. I suddenly remembered the book under my bed and reached under to grab it. Once I placed it onto my bed I opened it to the very first page and just quietly examined it. This page wasn't full of Latin words like the others, but instead it look as if it had the name of who it belonged to with a small paragraph written underneath. What intrigued me the most about this page was a the bottom under all the faded scribbles was a dark scratchy cross that looked like it had been drawn on.

Grabbing my phone, that my aunt seemed to have forgotten about, I looked up what the cross meant in the book called 'Accalia'.

"'Accalia' is a book of curses and spells. One of the most disturbing curses is the 'Imperium' curse, or in English 'Control' curse. This allows the person to curse another living being by marking them with the image of the very object they use to control them with. Legend has it that this curse has only been used once and no one knows what happened to either of the people involved. The woman was named Alvina, Grimald's one love. The ministers cursed their crucifix and marked her with a symbol of this crucifix by branding her. Using this curse they forced her into writing a not that led to Grimald's demise and allowed them to imprison her and watch the beating of her one true love. After these events took place the legend has many different endings. Some say she lived her life out in peace, others say she killed herself from grief, but the most disturbing of them is that the ministers used their control to make her do unspeakable things, proving they were the only ones in control. After serving her purpose the ministers held a trial accusing her of witchcraft and sorcery before marching her a couple towns over and burning her at the stake."