––––––––
It took them over two hours to carry the rest of the equipment into the corner of the church and set it up. They unfolded a table and installed all of the computer apparatus for Ben’s workstation. Cables crisscrossed the floor, running from cameras setup at every corner of the chapel, and running back to the makeshift operating center.
Five monitors sat on the table, giving Ben access to the video feeds from every camera simultaneously. A controller, that reminded Bryan of an arcade joystick, sat on the desk allowing Ben to pan and zoom any of the cameras if necessary. Headphones sat on the table, giving him audio from every microphone attached to the cameras and Joey, Travis, and Katie. Bryan and Kyle weren’t mic’d up because “no one gives a shit what you have to say,” Travis had told them.
Lights sat in every corner, behind the cameras, dimly lighting the room. They weren’t bright enough to fully illuminate their surroundings, but they did an excellent job of enhancing the already tense atmosphere of the church. Katie had argued profusely about upping the bulb wattage, but Travis had ignored her requests while pantomiming her nagging with his hands, opening and closing them like a mouth.
After all of the video feeds were verified, they unpacked the last of the cameras – helmet cams that attached to their heads, giving a clear image of what the wearer was seeing. This episode would be the first one where this new equipment would be used. Bryan assumed they were an attempt to replace the fired crew with a cheaper alternative.
“These are idiot proof. What you see is what will be picked up by the camera,” Joey said, tightening the camera to the baseball cap he now wore.
Travis also wore a Specter Slayers hat, but it had conveniently slipped his mind to bring some for Kyle and Bryan. Instead, they used straps to attach them to their heads. They weren't comfortable. Bryan assumed that Travis 'forgot' so that they would look inept on camera, while Travis and Joey would appear professional and prepared.
They had offered a camera to Katie, but she had countered by suggesting they put it someplace uncomfortable. As they equipped themselves for a long night of filming, Bryan fought the urge to stare at her. She had worked her way around the room, inspecting everything, and taking notes in a binder. The intensity with which she studied the church and the antagonism she threw at the Specter Slayers made her even more interesting to him.
Kyle stood beside him, fighting with the straps to his camera, cursing the entire time. He noticed Bryan’s attention was elsewhere and followed his gaze. He looked back and forth from Katie to Bryan, realizing the interest there.
“Are you checking her out?” Kyle asked, the corners of his mouth curling in a sly grin.
Bryan averted his eyes and felt his face flush as he resumed manipulating the helmet cam. “I think she’s interesting. She hates those two turds, which makes me respect her a whole lot more.”
“Yeah, she’s definitely something,” Kyle said, watching her from across the room. “I can tell she’s into me. Right now she’s just playing hard to get.”
Because he had some success with women, Kyle considered himself an expert in regards to all things dating. He liked to think he could predict what women would do in any given situation, and often gave out unsolicited advice on how to manipulate them. Since the breakup with Christine, Kyle had been directing him on how to ‘score a bunch of chicks’, and aggravated the hell out of Bryan.
“You’re kidding right? She’s ignored you from the moment she got her. Actually, she and I have had a couple of... moments.”
Kyle stopped adjusting the straps encircling his head, and turned his full attention on Bryan. “Moments? What do you mean, moments?”
“We’ve had some prolonged eye contact a couple of times.”
“Eye contact? Wow, I hope she's not pregnant,” Kyle said. “Give me a break. I've been working her since the moment she got out of the car. I'll be doing shots of Jägermeister off her naked body by morning.”
“Listen up, Don Juan, I don’t need you—”
“Yo,” Ben’s voice echoed through the church. “Morons!” He sat at his workstation, about fifteen feet from where Kyle and Bryan stood.
“I hate this asshole,” Kyle said as he turned to face Ben. “When this is over I’m going to wring his neck like a chicken.”
“Just wanted to let you 'tards know that you're microphones are hot. If you recall, you're on a TV show and we're recording everything you're saying.”
Bryan felt like his head was going to explode at the thought of people hearing what they were just arguing over. He should have realized the helmet cameras probably had small microphones built into them.
“While it's funny as hell listening to you two argue over who is the biggest loser, I’d appreciate it if you would finish screwing around with your cameras and walk around and record some stuff. We didn't bring you onboard to try and have sex with Katie. Now do some damn work.”
Kyle's mouth dropped open when he looked around and saw that Travis, Joey, and Katie were all watching and listening. Bryan wondered if he should run outside and jump into the crevice. Assuming he didn’t die of embarrassment first, anyway.
They stood in silence for what felt like a year, the ever present quiet surrounding the church not easing the situation. Bryan couldn’t bring himself to look at Katie, so he studied the floor with an intensity it didn’t warrant.
“OK,” Kyle finally said. “Thanks for putting that out there for everyone.”
“Oh, and if you try and 'wring my neck', I'll stomp a mud hole in your ass,” Ben said.
Travis' voice came from the other side of the church. “Fucking idiots.”
After a few moments, Kyle lifted his hand up in front of his helmet camera and curled all of his fingers down, except the middle one. “You see this Ben? That's just for you.”
Though he was incredibly ashamed of arguing with his friend over a girl they had just met, Bryan couldn't help but feel a little better for it. It had been a long time since he'd thought of someone other than Christine like that. Though he was embarrassed to have it out in the open, it still made him feel somewhat alive for the first time in months. Maybe this experience wouldn't be all bad after all.
“What are you grinning at?” Kyle asked.
“It's nothing,” Bryan said, his smile growing. After a few more minutes of maneuvering, the helmet camera finally felt secure on his head, though the straps dug into his forehead a bit. He glared at Ben, wishing he could bore holes in him with his eyes. “What do you want us to do?”
“Go take a look at the rest of the stained glass windows and try not to do anything stupid while you’re at it.”
Bryan wasn’t much of a fighter, finding it pointless and stupid, but dealing with Ben had him reconsidering that position. If nothing else, he planned on enjoying watching Kyle break him in half.
He turned and looked up at the closest wall with a stained glass window. The room was still too dark to see the details of the place without the aid of a flashlight. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and moved closer to the window.
Being a poor college student, he didn’t have a smartphone, so the tiny screen on his flip phone didn’t provide enough light to record the window. “Kyle, I need the light on your Droid.” The lighting situation grated on him. How could they be expected to film things if the area was too dim for the cameras?
Kyle walked over, still grumbling about Ben, and shined the light from his phone on the window. The stained glass had a lot of dirt covering it, but they could still make out the image contained within.
“Is that a snake? What is that?” Kyle asked.
The glass portrayed a long, thick creature slithering out from some kind of underbrush. Bryan squinted, trying to see what it was. It could have been a snake, but it seemed too thick, and its open mouth portrayed too many teeth.
“If that’s a snake, it’s the freakiest one I’ve ever seen. Maybe it’s some kind of prehistoric ancestor of snakes? I should have paid more attention in biology,” Bryan said.
“Who do you think made this crap? I’m guessing you don’t just look up ‘weird-stained-glass-designer’ in the yellow pages,” Kyle said.
Bryan walked along the wall, mindful of the debris scattered around, and approached the next window. “That’s a good question. There is some weird shit in here. It’s almost worth the trip, just to say we got see this place.”
Kyle grabbed his arm and turned him so they were face to face. “Did I hear that right? Are you actually enjoying yourself?”
“Enjoying myself? No. Those three butt plugs are making that impossible. But I have to admit, the Danver church is definitely interesting.”
“So what you’re saying is that I’m not such an asshole for dragging you out here. It sure beats studying all weekend, right?”
“I should be studying, that’s for damn sure. This isn’t a total waste though. I guess I’m trying to say thanks,” Bryan said, feeling a little awkward about their conversation. “That doesn’t mean you aren’t an asshole though.”
Kyle punched him on the shoulder, sending him back a step. Sometimes he didn’t seem to know his own strength. Bryan figured that it was because he spent most of his days around other athletes, and when he hung out with regular people he had trouble reeling himself in.
“You’re welcome – now let’s go look at some more weird shit.”
“That was real touching guys,” Ben called from across the church. “Pick up the pace.”
Grabbing Bryan by the shoulders, Kyle stepped toward him, and moved Bryan’s helmet camera close to Kyle’s face. “Suck it, pipsqueak.”
They moved down to the next one, and followed the same procedure. This window contained a picture of the Danver church, but there were slight differences. The building portrayed in the glass was shorter, more decayed. No windows were on the front and the door seemed wider and higher.
A lone hand appeared from the darkness of the doorway, sticking out the middle, reaching for something unknown.
“Ok....” Kyle cocked one of his eyebrows up as he looked at it. “I’m guessing that’s some kind of symbolism?”
“I have no idea. You’re the one who’s into this bizarre crap.” The work seemed surprisingly detailed considering it was stained glass. Most of the pieces Bryan had seen in churches as he grew up were clunky, and usually simple. These had a quality he didn’t expect to see in a church in the middle of nowhere, let alone with such odd depictions.
They moved to the rear of the building, avoiding the jumble of shingles, boards, and branches that had fallen through the hole in the roof above the right corner. A cast iron, wood burning fireplace sat in the left corner of the room, a metal pipe running from the top through the ceiling.
Set in the middle of the rear wall, the window seemed darker than the rest, the majority of it being an inky black. The very bottom was a dark brown, but lighter than the top, with small shards of white appearing between the two. A symbol sat below the image. It appeared to be a cross with an infinity symbol beneath it.
“I’m guessing this one is a lake, or an ocean. See the white? I think those are the caps of waves on the beach,” Bryan said.
Kyle nodded his head in agreement. “I think you’re right. Why portray it at night?”
“Of all the crazy shit in here, that’s probably the only thing that I’m not concerned with. What’s with the infinity sign and the cross?”
“The symbol means ‘Leviathan’.” Katie stood by the wood burner, inspecting the area to its right with an intensity that a stone wall doesn’t usually deserve. She didn’t look around when she answered them.
“Wish me luck, dude,” Kyle said quietly. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing a few stray strands from his forehead. “Pay attention, because class is in session.”
He walked toward her, his normally confident stride faltering a little, his tension obvious to Bryan. As he approached her, he pulled his shoulders back and stuck his chest out, emphasizing his already large frame.
They stood too far away for Bryan to hear what they were saying, but he assumed it wasn’t going well. Katie never turned and fully acknowledged Kyle during the entire conversation. After a few tense moments, in which he seemed to be largely ignored, Kyle lumbered back to where Bryan stood.
“She’s a lesbian,” he said.
“Really?” Bryan asked. “I didn’t know that—” Bryan stopped himself, taking a second to look at Kyle’s face. “Are you just saying that because she has no interest in you whatsoever?”
“No.” Kyle wouldn’t look at him.
Bryan shook his head, trying not to laugh. “That’s classy, dude.” He glanced over at Katie, watching her continue to study the wall. “Did you find out what she’s doing?”
“She’s standing over there being a lesbo.”
Bryan did laugh at that. So did Ben on the other side of the church. Kyle spun on his heels and looked toward Ben, who sat at his table looking at them over the monitors. When he saw the anger on Kyle’s face he lowered his head down, hiding his face behind the screens. Even the arrogant nerd knew better than to poke at the angry bear.
“I told you, man.” Bryan chuckled again. “She’s way out of our league.”
He looked around at the last stained glass window and saw that it had been broken, a few shards of it scattered on the floor, with the rest presumably outside. “I guess we don’t have to look at the last window. I wonder what weird thing it depicted.”