#x-orcist

He swallowed his nerves and cleared his throat.

"Good morning, I'm Cross and I'll be taking the service today"

You could have heard a pin drop. 

The crowd hardly seemed to care about his presence. In the past, he'd been given much warmer welcomes. A friendly hello, an introduction even.

Then again, that's not what the job was about. He glanced over to his new coworker, Error again, only to be given a disapproving stare. Could these people tell that Cross had a weird feeling about them? Were they staring at his scar? Would his black robes have been better than the white ones?

Come on now…best to press on.

He'd opened his mouth to speak when the church doors were opened loudly. Another skeleton walked in, with their eyes locked on the ground. Cross couldn't tell if they were male or female, as they kept their head down and a thick yellow scarf was wrapped around their neck. 

Whoever they were, they most certainly weren't dressed for church, as they almost looked like they had just crawled out of a gutter. Trouser legs damp from mud, and jacket grass stained across the sides.

Most people turned their heads to the stranger, as the doors shut themselves with a loud thud.

The stranger said nothing and made their way to the back pew and sat down in silence.

The atmosphere in the church felt strangely colder as they did, but Cross shook it off and started with the Sunday sermon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the first one that he had done in the while, the whole thing went all quite well.

Despite his best efforts, Cross couldn't help but be distracted by the mysterious latecomer. Throughout the whole service, they kept their face turned to the ground and seemed to hardly move a muscle. Cross wasn't sure if he was imagining this, but he was almost sure they were as still as a statue.

Even as they said their final prayer and everyone started to filter out, they remained where they were.

"...."

"Error...who is that?" he finally asked, when Error came over to blow out the candles.

She simply rolled her eyes.

"That's Dream, him and his brother have lived in this town since they were kids"

Cross looked back at Dream, who was still sitting still.

"Is... Is he OK, do you think?"

Error glanced over before turning back to the candles.

"Neither of those twins was ok... Anomalies both of them"

"Right...." Cross replied, not really putting much stock in the words. 

If there was one thing he'd learnt about Error, is that she was quite judgy about the members of the community, dubbing anyone who didn't meet her standards as an 'anomaly' who god should erase. He'd met many like her in the different churches he'd worked in, each more hypocritical than the last.

"I mean... He's not looking great..." He said, still watching as Dream sat stiffly.

Error gave a loud and audible sigh.

"He's been off ever since his brother passed away, but frankly I say good riddance…".

Cross closed his bible.

"Error that's awful of you".

The irritated woman didn't seem to care and finished putting out the candles.

"I'm just saying...."

"He and his brother were a little too close... If you know what I mean".

And with that, she walked into the back.

Cross, however, didn't follow. He just looked back at Dream. He was sure that Error must have been exaggerating that. What she was implying sounded like a childish rumour to him. 

Whenever siblings were close people considered it weird, and made jokes.

Cross didn't have a great relationship with his family, but he could still imagine how devastating it might be to lose a twin brother. 

From the state he was in, Cross figured that his brother's death must have been recent and he was clearly struggling with it. Loss in any form was a hard thing to deal with. Cross had been there.

The pain never truly goes away, it just becomes one you can live with.

"......"

Carefully, he decided to approach him, to maybe offer some support in this difficult time. It was kind of his job after all.

As he got closer, Dream still hardly moved. 

"...."

He stood next to the pew for a few moments, waiting for Dream to acknowledge him in any way. When he didn't, Cross cleared his throat. 

"Uh... Hi... How's it going there?" He said.

Dream turned his head to look at Cross and as he did, it became clear how much of a bad state he was in. His face was shadowed and seemed sunken, even for a skeleton. His clothes were even more thread-bear up close, and his mouth seemed to almost have a black stain around it as if he hadn't brushed his teeth in a long time.

But the most memorable thing about his appearance was his eyes. They were a bright and piercing yellow, almost like a vicious snake would have.

"Well... Hello, Mr Priest" he said before tilting his head to the side, causing his neck to crack slightly.

"How may I help you?"

Dream's voice was strange, it sounded polite, but horse and strained, and his movements were jagged and uncanny, he wasn't sure why but they just felt off.

Dream must have been tired, something that the bags under his eyes confirmed. That must have been it, a lack of sleep does a lot to the body.

"Uh... I... I just saw you sitting in the back and wanted to make sure you were alright.." 

Dream smiled forcefully sweet and a laugh left his mouth.

"Oh yes... My brother and I always used to sit at the back".

Oh…ouch…poor guy.

Cross gave him a look of sympathy. Everything about this man was a little odd, but grief was a tricky thing, it only made sense that he was acting strange.

"Yeah…I heard about him," Cross said in a softened tone, sitting next to him.

"I'm truly sorry for your loss, what happened?"

"Hit by a car". The yellow-eyed skeleton said in a distant voice. "We'd fought that night and then the car…."

He flinched.

He twitched.

"No more brother, just me"

"In the dark".

Cross nodded, taking in every word. Despite the feeling of tension he got from being near him, that didn't mean that he couldn't try and understand….in some way.

"That sounds horrible, I can understand why it would be hard."

Twitch.

"Your concern is just lovely Mr Priest." Replied Dream slowly, emphasising every word.

"Everything is fine with me, we are just getting on with things"

The skeleton got to his feet slowly and fixed his scarf higher.

"No need to dwell"

He took a few steps away from Cross, approaching the door.

"Because you know…..the dead never truly leave us... " The smile that Dream hit him with sent a chill up his spine, the bright eyes locked with his. A part of him wondered if this was what it was like to lock eyes with a gorgon and feel yourself freeze.

"We'll be seeing each other again I'm sure!" Dream said, chippering his voice:

"It's always nice to make new friends!".

With that, just as he'd arrived he slipped out of the church doors, letting them close with a thud.

This town still had a strange vibe….

This room felt strangely off now…

Cross was left with an odd feeling of raising bile in his throat. He cleared it and walked to the window. Dream was still standing outside, his head turned to the right, eyes locked on the graveyard.

"......"

Cross turned away. It felt wrong to watch a person in such extreme grief. 

Cross only hoped he'd be able to help him overcome it.

Glancing through the window once more, he shivered.