Let's Not Meet Again

Cornered In Church

My mother and grandmother were avid Christians, and as such, were bringing me to church in my first few months of life. Because of this, I always felt pretty at home there. Despite the whole building having a very uneasy feeling to it, I was just used to it, I suppose. We've had a fair share of unnerving people joining the congregation, so I had learned the methods for staying away from the majority of the members.

At the time, I was in my church's handbell group (and yes, it's exactly as lame and boring as it sounds) and had arrived early for practice. There was some silent service going on in the area we practiced, so I went into the office to distract myself for the half hour I had to wait.

It was almost time for the service to be over, and I was returning my phone and earbuds to my purse when I heard someone at the doorway behind me, breathing. I turned around, not really afraid, until I saw this balding giant of a man, maybe 6'1, blocking the whole doorway. I had never seen him before, but he looked furious.

"Where's the pastor?" He growled at me, and I couldn't say anything. I wanted to say that she was doing the silent service right down the hall, but he was glaring a hole through me and it was freaking me out. I'm severely introverted, and rarely even go outside, so I didn't have a fight-or-flight response, just flight. Unfortunately the only other door out of the office was locked (I had tried it on my way in) so he had effectively cornered me.

"Where is she?" He asked louder, and I tried to keep the shake out of my voice.

"Um.. She's in the service now.." I must have sounded pathetic.

He then began to rattle off his life story to me, and it sounded completely like any con artist. He just moved into town, had no electricity, living out of his car.. I didn't know why he was telling me this, until I realized how isolated the office was, and clenched my purse closer to me. I had a 20 and my 3DS sticking out a bit, and I was in full panic mode.

"So.. Uh, what did you need?" I tried to make conversation, trying to act like I wasn't scared out of my mind.

"Food. Where's the pastor?" He seemed a bit more patient now that I was listening to him, but I didn't relax.

"She's.. I'll take you to the kitchen." I was just looking for a way to get untrapped from the room, but as he finally inched out of the way a little bit for me to slide by, I realized what a huge mistake I had made. The kitchen was essentially on the complete other side of the church, and I was just making myself more and more of a target.

He followed so close behind I could feel him step on my heels repeatedly, and once I made it to one of the fridges, I tried to keep a semblance of conversation going. "So, uh.. Do you have a microwave? Fridge?" I made it seem like I was asking to find some food to take home, but I was just talking to keep myself from freaking out.

I honestly don't remember every word, but when I handed him some frozen food and bread, he just.. stared.

I waited for him to say something, too scared to move.

"I used to be a pastor too, you know."

I nodded, puling my phone out, feigning getting a text. I dialed '911' but didn't hit call. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Here's my card." He pulled out his wallet, flipping through cards. Some of them were membership cards as far as I could see, but there was something off about them. He seemed to have to look hard at each card to figure if it was the one he was looking for. Maybe he was nearsighted? This didn't seem right.

"Here it is." He handed me a card with his name and picture, but very quickly snatched it away, with a look on his face as if he'd made a huge mistake. "No, wrong card.." I sneakily typed down the name in my phone's memo section before I could forget, again feigning text. Kieth Ratlift was what it said, give or take a few letters in the last name.

"Here, it's this one." He shoved a different card into my hand, and upon examining it, my blood froze. It was his picture, but the name was.. Nathaniel something. The cards were near identical, just the name was different.

I wordlessly handed the card back to him, and tried to usher him back into the sanctuary. And thank fuck, at the exact moment I stepped into the long hallway that connected all the rooms, a stream of people were emerging from the sanctuary and saw us, striking up a conversation with him.

I sprinted away into a different door, taking a moment to catch my breath. I ended up leaving early, calling my dad to pick me up immediately. I haven't seen that man since.

So, Keith, or Nathaniel, whoever you are, let's not meet again.