An antique clock.
A stack of boxes.
A sacrificial offering to the spirits of the damned, may God continue to give us his blessing. Now be quiet and go to sleep.
Sources: New Oxford American Dictionary, Collins COBUILD Primary Learner’s Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary
The yacht made landfall under cover of darkness. Twenty or so fishing boats were moored to the pier, and the countryside was blanketed in snow. The monastery was several three-story buildings—a ruin surrounded by waist-high grass. Trembling with fear, he hauled himself along the cliff face. Smoke was billowing from the chimney. The ceremony was about to begin.
He pressed his face to the glass. There were about thirty or forty of them, grown men and women, everyone sat in a ring, holding hands. There were roses climbing up the walls, antique mirrors, hulks of abandoned machinery.
The master of ceremonies mounted the platform.
“I am Brother Joachim,” he announced in a voice like thunder. His face glowed in the dull lamplight. Ardent eyes, an aquiline nose. He dug out a small hole in the snow, and a hush descended over the crowd.
“Holy smoke. Heavenly Father. Prime animator of the movement. Every soul on earth, virtuous or vicious, shall perish. Deliver us from misery, the wickedness and snares of the Devil.”
He pressed a button, and the doors slid open. Now the trouble began. The machinery clunked into life and the congregation swayed, hands aloft, answering with assured and ardent yeses. Gusts of snow flurried through the door. The air smelled like a compound of diesel and gasoline fumes, and the room hummed with an expectant murmur—guttural noises, gears grinding, night sounds of birds and other creatures. For a moment the scene was illuminated, then it was plunged back into darkness.
He was thrown backward by the force of the explosion. As the crowd panicked and stampeded for the exit, they were attacked by a swarm of shadowy, ethereal forms and torn asunder.
All at once, the noise stopped. The waves lapped the shore. He breathed out heavily, and the air returned to the bright coldness of winter.
Sources: New Oxford American Dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary