Where the Devil Says Goodnight (Folk Lore #1) - K.A. Merikan Page 0,47

talking, but the snake seemed to grow as it approached Adam, followed by a path of darkness. The candles flickered and eventually waned, only to turn into black voids one by one, and all Adam was left with was the cool glow coming through the narrow windows.

“No… get away from me!” Panicked, he turned to face the main entrance and dashed toward it, desperate to leave the church. How could a demon enter this place? Had it been desecrated?

It might have been. After all, he could have drawn blood during the whipping, which meant that the demon was telling the truth—they weren’t in the house of God anymore. He’d soiled his one sanctuary.

The snake’s red eyes glowed like torchlights as it wriggled down the center of the nave. “I will rid you of your pain.”

Adam screamed, stumbling into the vestibule, and yanked on one of the heavy door bolts. His blood went cold when it remained immobile. “No… no… no no no!” He choked out a sob, frantically jerking the iron handle with trembling hands, even though deep down he knew it was hopeless. “God save me… please, save me!”

He spun around when the demon blocked him from running back to the altar, gliding into the vestibule with its bloodied jaws open to show two rows of needle-like fangs.

“I promised you peace, didn’t I? Do not be afraid, Adam. I know what you need…”

Adam’s heart clenched in fear, and he backed into the corner, wishing he’d worn a cassock after all, just to have another layer of cloth to protect him from the monstrous reptile and its teeth.

Those rows of poisonous spikes were all Adam thought about when he felt a burning sensation at the side of his neck. With a strangled cry, he tried to rip the snake off, choke it, squash its heat with his hands, but all his hands found was his own skin.

It was only when pain bit at his fingers as well, Adam realized holy water was boiling in the container above him, some of it splattering and spilling to pool on the floor. Twin flames loomed in front of him, and a chilling hiss trailed up Adam's body. His heart sunk.

Sensing his despair, the demon leapt forward too fast for Adam to react, and wrapped its thick body around his legs, its head held high like that of a dancing cobra. Adam's mouth fell open, his stomach shrinking into a tight ball, but before he managed to snap out of the trance, the serpent held his arms in a bruising grip. Moments later, he was eye to eye with the monster.

“Embrace it. You know you want to,” the demon hissed, opening its jaws wide enough to showcase the dark depths of its throat.

“No… no!” Adam squeezed his eyes shut, shifting his focus to prayer, rendered powerless by this creature that came for him straight from Hell. “Our Father, who art in heaven—”

Adam's words were cut short when his mouth filled over its capacity. Something hot was pushing in, gagging Adam when it hit the back of his throat. His eyes shot wide open, and he grabbed the snake where he could reach it, desperate to stop it from getting any farther, but he couldn’t even wrap his hands over the beast’s girth. The demon was entering him, inch by inch, and spread Adam’s jaw beyond capacity. He felt the serpent’s head moving down his throat, blocking his air duct. He couldn’t breathe. Dizzy with nausea, he started seeing double, and there was no one here to help him.

The world lost its color, darkening at the edges when Adam’s body shook with uncontrollable tremors, as if the demon were melting into his blood and making it boil the same way it had affected the holy water.

He was gone.

When two massive bolts of lightning hit the ground only a few paces away from Adam, sending sparks into the air, he realized he’d somehow gone outside while not fully conscious. The tall poplars surrounding church grounds danced with the howling wind as he walked past them, straight into a wide field of wheat, which glinted as if an invisible hand of the moon had dusted them with silver.

He could see everything despite the clouds obscuring both the moon and stars, he was breaking out in goosebumps from the cold, he smelled the crops, and his throat ached as if it had been rubbed raw. But he had no control over his body as he walked on, beaten