Redstone: Sanctuaries
Chapter 10: Threads

Everyone is talking. Maria really needs to work hard to digest what is being talked about. Both Jose, Brooks, and Hubbert talked to each other, chimed in, as if they were just talking to each other, but every time they finished talking, the men always noticed Maria's reaction as if waiting for her approval to continue the story.

Maybe they feel calm because I'm an 'outside', Maria thought understandably. So they feel freed from the bad experience.

They're done eating. Brooks went to the balcony to smoke. Hubbert sipped a sip of hot tea from his place, still unwilling to tell him what he saw before returning to the car. Jose and Maria were opposite him, sitting side by side on the same long sofa.

"I've also been with rumors about ghosts there," Maria recalled. "But all this time I've never seen anything strange despite going back and forth through the Golden Path. You ever?"

Jose shakes. "Turbine installation time is also no problem whatsoever."

"Who does the wheat field belong to?" ask Hubbert suddenly. His face was calmer now.

"Owned by Redstone" Jose replied. "Wheat that grows there wild wheat, has been contaminated with parasitic bushes. What the parasite attacks is wheat root, so the grains will taste bitter."

Brooks walked back to the living room as soon as he heard the conversation begin. "That wind was weird. It's like attacking us. What you saw, Mr. Decker?"

Hubbert was afraid, but after everything had passed, he became excited. "I remember seeing the picture of the hanged man at the beginning of the field, so I wanted to check the footprints or something. The gallows and that many people must have left a trail, right? But when I was picking up a bush, I saw something very strange."

Brooks threw his body onto one of the couches, listening with a curious face. "What's that?"

"Someone." Hubbert shuddered. Remembering what he saw just now still feels creepy. "I thought it was human. He lay on the ground, half his lower body covered in shrubs. I just remember looking at the torso and the face."

"Dead humans?" ask Brooks.

"Do you see his face?" timpal Jose's.

"This is terrible, sir." Hubbert's face shriveled, twisted in horror as he delivered, "The face is strange .., full of strange black lines ..., but the line is not paint, like thick threads or stacks of straps stuck together in the face." Hubert made a clawing motion because he felt disgusted, as if he wanted to take off something that stuck to his face. "It was like looking at a photo of someone who was doodled with a black pen. Like those. But this time I saw it in a live form. It feels .. not real. That's not human."

Silence covered the room. The clockwork filled the air, making the atmosphere even more tense. Brooks suddenly recalled a strange silhouette waving at him and shivering. But it might just be a mislook. His eyes were getting dusted and he was looking wrong, maybe.

"When I saw that, I immediately knew that I saw a thing that was not of this world." Hubbert looked at Jose straight. "You know what I mean? I felt the same way when I came out of the Bjork protected forest. Time to see you and Doctor Orlov."

Brooks frowned at the reference. "What's in the Bjork forest?" tanyakanya.

Hubbert just smiled oddly, then continued his story, "That's why I got back to the car immediately. I feel bad and I feel like I'm going to throw up. Even on the way back I felt so, my mind was still overshadowed by the strange shape. Her face was flat but could not be seen .. Then I heard Lady Redstone's voice and .. well, it made me realize that we were far from the field."

Maria responded deftly, "Thank God you came back safely, that's all that matters. Good decision, Mr. Decker," he said. "If you don't immediately decide to go back, somehow you are now."

Hubbert looked down with a slightly red face.

Redstone couples rarely call him by first name. Jose and Maria are from Bjork who adopted the palace's strict rules: only call one's first name if allowed or are very familiar with that person. Brooks knew Maria called him that to signal that this place was as safe as her own home. He appreciates that effort.

"Maybe I'm just flickering" he said, rubbing his jaw, "but probably not. I saw a shadow waving from far away, but that's all."

"Mankind's paradise?" Jose confirmed. "Do you see his face?"

Brooks shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps human. Too far away to see his face. I think women, maybe even men who wear long coats. Honestly, I don't remember much now. Maybe it's just the tree's shadow or the heat effect."

Jose did not agree. "I want to check there again" he said. As soon as Brooks and Hubbert glared at him, he immediately added, "with more people, of course."

"It's the first time I've seen a landlord take care of a ghost thing" Brooks said. "People will mock you, Jose. As if nothing else was more important."

"It's important." Jose smile. "That's my land. I want to install a lot of turbines there. If ghosts disturb guests who enter Redstone or disturb workers, it will hinder development."

"But there's no need for you to go down directly yourself" Brooks said. He and Jose have known each other for a long time, since Jose was still the fourth child to have two acres of farms in Redstone instead of landlords. "This ... danger."

"Danger?" Jose raised his eyebrows. "You seem to know something?"

Brooks grunting. "The dead are dangerous. Let's just call the priest and ask him to purify his fields. Pass exorcism. That place was once the mass grave of war victims. Obviously many curious spirits there."

Jose just laughed. "When we talk about war, all the land in Albion is a cemetery. But all right, let's try to find an exarchist first."

Brooks nodded in satisfaction. "That's better!"

Brooks leaves after making Jose promise not to go alone to the wheat fields outside the city gates while Hubbert returns to his room for a break.

As soon as they were alone together, Maria only remembered one thing. "So someone came looking for you before lunch" he said, handing Jose a step towards the room. "She wants to talk to you in private, so I ask her to come back later in the afternoon or tomorrow."

Jose doesn't remember making an appointment with anyone today. "Who? Mr. Krucher?"

Maria shook her head. The smile on those red lips looked as sweet as honey. "Md. Lucy's."

***

¬Eksorsism: exorcists with certain ceremonies.