Day 19.

Sssssss sssssss ssssss, it kept going. I glanced at it through the corners of my eyes. I raised my eyes to the little window in front of me. I saw my face staring back at me, starkly contrasted with sharp shadows and the yellow glow of the incandescant light above and behind me. But the other pair of eyes were not mine.
I jumped, then froze. Maybe it was a trick of the eye. I stared at what I thought were eyes, but it wasn’t outside. The eyes were a reflection. Behind me.
I spun around. Nothing was there. I was terrified to turn around again in case I saw those eyes. But that was ridiculous. There was nothing here.
I started to belief that reason didn’t have much to do with the current chapter in my life.
You know when you’re watching those old horror movies, and you are watching the hero be a complete idiot, and you’re telling him, don’t open that door! Turn around, he’s right behind you! Don’t go into that dark room alone, you freaking idiot! It was kind of like that, but I wasn’t quite sure what the much wiser audience would have me do. They, surely, would already know whether there was or was not something standing behind me, even though I could see nothing. They’d know if the reflection was still there, like some freaked out inverted vampire kind of thing.
I turned around.
I saw the face behind me for just a moment before it lunged forward. If face you want to call it. I didn’t know what it was. I yelled, throwing myself sideways, falling, scrambling to my feet. I flattened myself against the door, scanning the kitchen furiously with my blind eyes. I faced to door to see the reflections in the glass near the top. I saw something flash across the limited frame I had, from one side to the other, and out of my vision. I ripped the door open, slammed it shut. I jammed my feet into a pair of Vans in the porch, grabbed the porch door when something grabbed me.
That same invisible pressure was encasing my arm. I wrenched myself away as I tore the porch door open, and I ran. I don’t think I’d ever run so fast in my life. I could still hear the hiss of the kettle behind me, but the sound was different. Like... a hiss coming from the back of your throat. Deep and gutteral at times, nasally and shallow at others.
I thought my legs were going to burst. I pushed every muscle to its edge to make large strides faster. It felt like a strong wind was pummelling at my back, but the trees were silent and still.
I didn’t see the pothole until my foot fell into it, expecting level ground, finding uneven. I flew face down with a heavy thud, the “wind” passing over me. I scrambled up, ran forward, something wrapped around my middle, my arms snapping to my side. I squirmed and twisted fiercely, the hissing was hot and damp on my face.
“BENJAMIN!”
The hissing stopped, I looked towards the voice. It came from the church ahead. I didn’t know I close I had been to the clearing. The voice was Thi, but it was Kon that was running towards me.
“You don’t have authority there!” He yelled, motioning fiercly towards me. “He is not yours!”
The pressure around me released, I collapsed on legs too weak to hold me up, and silence descended upon me again. I knelt there, listening to the blood rushing through my brain. Kon knelt by me, put his hands on my shoulders.
“Faires, are you okay?”
I didn’t say anything. I was too busy trying to breath. He grabbed an arm, wrapped it around his neck, lifted me up. I was quite a bit shorter than he, so he had to bend down as he helped me towards the church. For a man who didn’t want me there, he sure had to bring me there enough.
But this time was going to be different. I needed to know. I
Kon looked furious and scared, something I was getting used to seeing in his face. But this time, the fury was not directed at me.
He didn’t say anything until he got me in the church and sitting on the nearest pew. He’d barely got me there when he turned away and said,
“Tell me what happened.”
I didn’t much feel like disobeying.
“Couldn’t sleep, and something made me collapse in my room. I went downstairs and... the tea kettle was going but the heat wasn’t on. It burned me, I saw someone in the window and... I don’t remember, it happened really fast. Chased me here, I fell, and...”
“Your house? At your house again?” Kon looked back at me. I nodded.
“Shit... shit shit shit.” This seemed to be a favorite expression for him. “They’re not allowed to... shit.”
“Where’s Thi?” I had meant to say who is they, but it came out... a little more different. Kon started, his head sort of jerked.
“She’s, eh... not here.”
The piano started playing. Both of us started, looking at the front of the church where the old upright was shoved in a corner. No one sat in front of it. Delicate notes gently sang a melody. It took me a moment to recognize it. It was a hymn, “What a Friend we have in Jesus.”
Kon sighed. “Ignore it.”
“The... the piano–” I began, pointing forwards.
“Yeah, I know. Ignore it.”
“But–”
Then I heard it, like a whisper in my mind. It wasn’t male or female, young or old. It was just... a whisper that wasn’t.
‘Are they gone?’
“Did you–” I began, but was cut off by Kon groaning.
“Please just don’t... just stay, alright?” He hissed. I could see he wished I hadn’t heard him. I decided he wasn’t talking to me. The hymn still gently played.
‘Are they gone? They are gone, right?’
Kon looked at me like I was an exam he hadn’t studied for, then finally said,
“Fine.”
The building started to hum. The hymn grew softer. I realized the humming was a melody, like a vibration somehow creating a tune. I heard a an intake of breath, slow and painful, coming from all around me. A soft mouselike sound, like a child in pain but trying to be brave. Dust stirred in the isles. I could see faint imprints of feet in the dust, coming steadily closer, little clouds of dust boiling around each print as it was created. I don’t know how it happened, but without my really noticing, one of those little clouds had spread so slowly and evenly upwards into a form that it was like a frog in a pot of cool water which you slowly heat. Its dead before it notices its getting hot.
Standing before me was a pale, nude figure. Standing before me was Thi.
I knew I should look away. She was naked. But I couldn’t stop staring at her face. A face that had materialized before me without my really noticing.
I also hadn’t noticed that Kon had slipped into one of the pews, grabbed something, and was now holding a large white man’s dress shirt like she normally wore. She smiled sweetly at him, slipped it on, buttoned slowly. It was long enough to cover her.
“Don’t get yourself hot, pervert,” Kon growled darkly, staring at one of the stained glass windows. He looked really annoyed at me.
“I wasn’t... I mean, I just... you just...” I stammered. I found the strength to stand, and I looked directly at Kon, who had been avoiding everyone’s eye contact. “What the HELL is going on!? What was that thing? And what... what is SHE?”
“Come on, have a little decency,” Kon said, straightening up as if coming to the defense of the girl who had just materialized in front of me. Thi had shrunk back a little at my comment.
“Something tried to freaking kill me out there. I’m a little preoccupied right now, and I want to know what’s going on! I mean... you’re not human!” I said, looking at Thi at the last part of that spaz out. Kon started forward like he wanted to punch me, Thi put her hand out and stopped him. She took a step towards me.
“Benjamin... My name is... well, I’m Cathedral.”
I didn’t react at first, because I was slightly confused.
“Thi for short,” Kon said. He still looked like he wanted to punch me.
“What are you?” I asked again. She bit her lip.
“I’m... I’m Cathedral.” When she said that, she raised her arms and motioned around the building.
“I... I don’t... “ I began, trying to assure myself she meant something entirely different than what I thought she meant.
“She’s the corporeal form of this building’s soul,” Konstantine said, sitting down on the pew across from me.
“Excuse me, what?”
“Corporeal. Physicial–”
“I know what corporeal means. But what the hell are you talking about?” I looked from him to Thi, desperately wanting a simple answer.
Nothing ever happens the way I want it to.
“You shouldn’t know... no one should know. But... they brought you into this–” Kon began, his comments more and more directed towards himself.
Thi sat in the pew in front of mine, leaned over the back.
“You have a soul, Benjamin,” she placed her hand on my chest. “Its what makes you you. It’s your memories, your joys and your sorrows. It’s your motivation, your depression. Its who you are, its who everyone knows. This body is not you. Your soul is seperate.” She removed her hand, put it on her own chest. “This is not my body. It’s... just a memory. A memory of another girl who once lived.” She took my hand, placed it on the back of her pew. “This is my body, but I am the soul inside of it.”
In case no one has ever told you that they are actually a structure, but they are what gives the structure life, because apparently structures are alive, then let me tell you something.
It confuses the hell out of you.
“Every building has a soul,” Kon put in, probably thinking that maybe if he put it more simply it would make more sense.
Konstantine must not know very much about sense.
I was hoping someone would start laughing at me soon. It didn’t seem like it would start happening any time soon.
But I thought I might just go along with this for a second. Because... since things were being crazy recently, might as well add this to everything else.
“So...” I pointed at Thi, “You’re a building. This building,” I added, motioning around me. Then I pointed at Kon, “And you are...”
Kon sighed heavily. “I’m... I’m her... look, its hard to explain.”
“Try.”
“Alright, alright, don’t give me that look. I wouldn’t tell you but... this has gone too far.
“Like I said, buildings all have souls. Most people don’t know because they aren’t allowed to interact with anyone. That’s where the whole ‘haunted house’ concept came from; buildings who don’t follow the rules. Every building has a watcher to make sure they don’t break the rules. I’m... I’m her’s.”
“So... you exist to get her in trouble,” I summarized. Thi dropped her gaze, Kon scowled. “But... who do you answer to?”
“The Sandmen.”
I failed at supressing a snort. “Excuse me?”
“The thing that was trying to kill you? That thing you couldn’t see? They were the Sandmen.”
I had already decided to hide my common sense in my back pocket for the time being, so I chose to just let Kon contnue rather than attempting to make sense of anything.
“So what’s their story?”
Kon hesitated, looked for words. With a name like “Sandmen,” I wondered if he was trying to decide how to best approach the severity of the being without sounding... stupid. I wondered if he knew the significance of the Sandman in our culture. And how very unthreatening he was, weird and slightly creepy though he may be.
Instead of waiting for Kon, Thi began to speak. Her voice was very quiet, very reserved.
“We aren’t supposed to talk to people, or interact with them. If we do, the Sandmen come and put us to sleep.”
“Sleep?” I asked with a raised brow.
“It can be for a few weeks, but sometimes they make us sleep forever.”
“Well... if you’re a building,” I began, pointing to Thi, “Who is clearly interacting with me,” I pointed at myself, “And you’re her watcher,” I pointed at Kon, “Then why aren’t you... asleep?”
Kon tensed, Thi looked at him. “I... she’s always been a problem, they know it. She’s been put to sleep a few times, but–”
“But she’s not just making funny noises, though, you know. She’s talking to me. Isn’t it your job to make sure she doesn’t do that?”
“Its complicated. But moving on. The Sandmen aren’t allowed to take action upon humans. Mortals are outside of their realm of influence. Which is why they sure as hell shouldn’t have been attacking you.”
“But... what kept the... Sandman thing from coming in here to kill me? Why’d it leave when you came?”
“Well... first its Sandmen. They’re not an it, they’re a they. And they can’t enter a buliding that still has an awake soul.”