Irresolute

Chapter 1: Curiosity

You had wished you'd stayed in the north, wondering how different things might be for you had your parents never moved you to Montana.

You hadn't meant to get sucked up in this cult business, you had been ready to fly back home but something had stopped you. Things just started going wrong, like your car breaking down, and then your phone disappearing so you couldn't even call a cab; your frantic searching hadn't turned up anything, and with your flight gone, you hadn't had nearly enough money to buy another plane ticket. Your only choice was to just deal with the cult, wait things out, hope the lunatics leading it all would become irrelevant, and then things would start to feel normal again.

You were a nurse, the type who helped all types, so you were privy to the gossip that spread around town about the cult (that you now knew was called Eden's Gate). You pretend to be disinterested but it's the most fascinating thing that's happened around town lately, even if it did make you feel unsettled; they hadn't done much besides go from church to church, stealing followers here and there for their own cause. You hadn't yet heard the name of the so called leader of the Cult, mostly because everyone willing to talk about the cult was already among them and revered him so highly they wouldn't disrespect him by referring to him as anything but the Father.

"Don't get curious." The head nurse scolded you when she saw you listening in on a patient's conversation, "That cult is nothin' but bad news for us."

"I just like to gather information to make my own opinion, ma'am." She gives you a pointed glare.

"From the conversations we've had, you don't seem much interested in religion."

She wasn't wrong, of course, you hadn't been much interested in religion even after moving to an incredibly religious area. Your parents had thought to take you to church when you were younger, but you were always antsy in the pews, staring up at the wooden Jesus on the cross uncomfortably and wondering how an hour could feel so damn long. You had never quite liked the environment the church offered, but it's not as though you didn't believe in a higher power; there had to be some type of something making things happen, right?

"Nah, not interested in religion. Interested in the psychology behind it all."

You weren't lying when you said that, per se, you were actually fascinated by the Father managing to gain so many people in such a short amount of time. What exactly was he preaching to them? If the head nurse hadn't constantly thrown out the pamphlets brought around by the Eden's Gate members, you'd probably have figured it out, but she always kept you busy so you wouldn't go digging around in the trash for them. She berated the cult and its members every chance she got, to the chagrin of the other nurses; even if they didn't believe (which you knew some were becoming swayed to at least hear the Father preach), they thought it was in poor taste. What if a patient was a believer?

The head nurse learned her lesson, soon.

You had been minding your own business, typing away a patient's chart when you heard the shrillest scream pierce your ears; you felt like they might be bleeding, but quickly went back to thinking about where that scream came from. You worked on a unit where there were plenty of horribly injured patients with painful wounds, it could've been one of them easily, but there was something off about that scream. Something in your gut told you this wasn't just a patient lashing out and misbehaving, but something more, and your instinct is proven correct when you see security fly by the front desk to one of the rooms in the back.

You're quick to follow with two other nurses who had been going about their normal business, curiosity getting the better of you, but you soon wish you hadn't. Being a nurse, there were just things you had to stomach and deal with, you'd dealt with every type of fluid of every color, but there's something about seeing torn flesh and blood gushing from the source that made all those experiences fly out the window.