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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old Drew Id" data-source="post: 1037588" data-attributes="member: 12175">Session 3 (5/21/2003) Sunday Bloody SundaySession 3 (5/21/2003) Sunday Bloody SundayWillie opened the car door for Gramms, and held her cane as she sat down into the driver’s seat. He started to hand her cane over to her once she was inside, and then stopped and realized he had accidentally handed her his own cane instead. Gramms gave him a little smirk and exchanged canes with him.“It does my heart good to see you helping out a preacher like that Reverend Cooper, Wilson. His sermon this morning was right on, talking ‘bout finding the devil in disguise. I tell you, that description fit a number of the girls you been out with in your time, boy. Oh, yeah, you think your Gramms don’t know ‘bout how you spend your time. I tell you, Wilson, you could learn a lot from that man,” she preached as she removed her Sunday church gloves and proceeded to start up the car. “Yes, Gramms,” Willie agreed, “now remember, I’ll be over for Sunday lunch later on. Now you drive safe.”“Don’t you tell me how to drive, boy! I was driving before you was messing your diapers! Now you go help out your little preacher friend and don’t you be late for lunch like you always are. Your cousin Gerald is coming over, and he has never been late one time--”“Yes, Gramms,” Willie forced a smile and quickly closed the car door to end the conversation. As he limped down the sidewalk back towards the crowd of people departing the church, he gripped his cane so tight it made his knuckles creak.. . .Joe was uncomfortable again, sweating, and wearing a tie for the second time in as many days. He hadn’t been to church on Sunday morning in years, but he figured, with the extremely weird stuff he had been reading in that magic book this week, it couldn’t hurt to at least poke his head in the old house of Jehovah. And the fact that he had actually seen this preacher take part in mortal combat last weekend…well, it at least made him respect the guy enough to check out his shtick. The sermon wasn’t bad, either. Brother Cooper definitely knew how to work a crowd. The singing was a little long, and not to Joe’s tastes, but he took part just the same. At least it distracted him from thinking about the nightmares he had been having lately and the mind-bending things he had been reading about in his “Necronomicon”. He couldn’t even bear to think about the stuff that he found himself reading in that book late at night.As far as actually participating in the service and the singing, Joe knew he didn’t necessarily have the best voice, but what he lacked in skill he more than made up for in volume, and he was very pleased when most of the people nearby in the pews moved away from him so that the whole congregation would be able to hear him better. It felt good to forget the dark stuff he had been caught up in all week and hang out with the normals.After the service, the crowd milled around to say hello to one another for several minutes, and Joe waited patiently on the church’s front steps to check in with the preacher. But once again, without something distracting him, Joe’s mind kept going back to the things he had been reading. The magic texts, the descriptions of dark rituals designed to do unspeakable things, and the needling queasiness in his stomach that told him it was all true, and more importantly, that  hunger that drove him, that made him want to do those things himself. Brother Cooper was still stuck talking to a bunch of old women, and Joe was getting really bored. He should have brought a comic to read. He looked around, and spotted a hot chick in a skirt leaving the church and heading across the parking lot to her car. Without a thought, Joe suddenly felt the urge overtake him. He took a few steps to get away from the crowd, and then his hands were moving and his voice was following ancient words not meant for human tongues.The world was not right. He was going to faint. The air was squeezing him, and the ground lurched beneath his feet. For one fleeting moment, he felt his mind take a step towards something vast and old and deep, and he instinctively shrank away. Immediately, he felt a piercing sensation in his nose and he reached up to stop the nosebleed as it began. His head felt like it was going to split open with a migraine. And then a sudden burning cold sensation in his pocket. “Ow..ow…owowowOW!” he dug into his pocket and turned it out onto the sidewalk. A pocketful of change tumbled out of his pocket on to the ground, and with it a cold mist. Joe staggered and stopped over the coins. Two dimes and a nickel. All covered in a thin layer of white frost. They were frozen solid. Joe righted himself and ignored the coins, as well as the frostbite on his hip, the migraine, and the nosebleed. He had nearly done it. He had nearly performed magic. He had nearly broken the rules of the universe just now, and then he had backed off. The girl was at her car now. If he was gonna do this, it was now or never. With a grunt of pure will, Joe pointed his fingers at her again and the words came to him again. Twisted living words not meant for a modern time as his hands traced the elder sigils in the air.Again, the world lurched, but this time Joe held on. He felt something move through him.  The Hand of Agamotto was summoned. It reached out from him to do his bidding. The girl opened her car door and suddenly, as though by a gust of wind, her skirt flew up for a second. She yelped in surprise and pushed it back into place before jumping into her car and slamming the door shut. Joe grinned. The spell had worked. And then the universe paid him back for breaking the rules. Joe clutched his nose in agony. The nosebleed was even more serious now, and he unclipped his tie from his neck to use as a handkerchief. He closed his left eye to block out the worst part of the headache, but he was not sure that helped. His throat felt raw like he had been screaming for hours. Joe slowly turned around. Amazingly, it did not appear that anyone had noticed anything. He hobbled over to the bottom of the steps and leaned against the handrail, trying to look casual, while waiting for the nosebleed to stop. Finally, he spotted Willie walking an old woman to her car, and waved to him as he started heading back over. At about the same time, Joe saw Brother Cooper beg off an older couple and head his way. “Joseph, good to see you this morning. Are you feeling okay?” Brother Cooper was wearing a white suit with a red tie, and was fanning himself with a white Stetson. Joe nodded and mumbled, “Nosebleed…I’m fine.”“Well, if there is anything I can do, please let me know….ah, Wilson, I’m glad you could stay. Your grandmother is certainly quite a woman. Do send her my best.”“Sure thing, preacher,” Willie nodded, looking like a scene straight out of a blaxploitation flick with his dark suit and cane. “What’s up, Joe? You look like hell.”“I’m fine. What’s the plan tonight?” There was a brief pause, and both turned to Brother Cooper for the answer. The preacher frowned for a minute before answering, “I think we should stake out the Children’s Science Center. And I think tonight, it should probably be all of us. I got a feeling we’re gonna need all the help we can get.”</blockquote>

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