The Judgement Of Divinity (TMOE #2)

Chapter 43: The right choice

Lucius actually preferred the company of dead people. It beat having to listen to choir practice and mass inside the sanctuary the larger part of his day and the entrance to a neglected crypt was relatively nice for a burial place. At least it provided him with shelter from the rain and a reassurance that no one would be coming to murder him.

No one commits murder on holy ground. Not even Damien, and by extension, Derek wouldn't either. Lucius doubted he would want to regardless, despite the man's sinister nature.

A large raven flew past the crypt to sit down on the stone fence surrounding the grounds but Lucius didn't look at it, instead throwing a tired glance at the setting sun.

"Bit early for night ravens, isn't it?" he mumbled to the creature he reckoned was nearby.

"This is your fault!" the raven on the fence shrieked as soon as it had opened its beak, imitating a high pitched voice only to quickly exchange it for a deeper one. "My son, I leave all my wealth to you!"

Lucius clicked his tongue.

"Go back to your master, mangy soul. The sun is still up."

He reluctantly peered across the graveyard. Fortunately no one was staring back at him, but a nagging feeling in his chest still suggested he was being watched. He'd thought the grim had disregarded his presence somewhat after he'd discarded all his weapons and other items that could cause harm inside the sanctuary. He posed little to no threat to the souls resting there, yet it kept its eyes on him, and those restless, feather-clad spirits seemed to love talking to him.

As much as repeating the last dying words of the corpses here count as talking.

Still, it beat the agonising songs inside the building. Whether the pain stemmed from trauma or the fact that his damned soul didn't belong there he couldn't say, but for what it was worth, scary ravens of death didn't judge him for his past.

Or, perhaps they did.

"Is that why you're still looking at me? Why you've summoned your spirits?" he whispered while twirling the wooden piece of his necklace, convinced the grim was within earshot. "You know, don't you? What I've done. What the thing on my chest is. You can't trust someone like me around the place you're guarding."

With that in mind, he considered the grim benevolent. Not that it supposedly was a malicious creature in itself, but from all the tales he'd heard growing up it didn't seem to be a merciful one either.

He flinched as another night raven swooped down to sit on a tombstone near the crypt, possibly looking at him with beady eyes, but he couldn't quite tell.

"I can't wait for the guards to gather you and your little friends up!" it screamed at him, and for perhaps the hundredth time he suppressed the urge to throw a rock at the thing. "So we'll finally be rid of you pests!"

"You're the pests," Lucius muttered in pointless response. There were only so many souls in the graveyard, and most of the ravens' shrieks had gotten old no matter how many different voices came out of them. "Why don't you let the place rest in peace like it's supposed to?"

The raven blinked, then it opened its beak again.

"I l— lo... ve y—"

Lucius knew there wouldn't be more than that. He slowly turned his head to give the poorly carved headstone by the fence a sombre look.

"I know."

"Know what?"

Lucius jumped once again as a familiar face came into view, and his bitterness soon turned into a blend of frustration and overwhelming relief.