Participants:
| Scene Title | Two Masters |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. |
| Date | July 25 2009 |
There is no mistaking this building as anything but a church, with its arching glass windows and concrete cross fixed to the edge of the pointed roof. Curving stone steps lead up from the pavement to a set of black double doors, often kept closed during the colder weather, but unlocked during the allocated hours written on a blue sign fix to the brick wall. In white, formal letting, it reads GUIDING LIGHT BAPTIST CHURCH and lists its hours of worship.
Through the doors, you first step into an open, nondescript foyer, with access to an unobtrusive staircase headed upwards, and a second hallway leading off somewhere less public also. Mainly, this room opens straight out to the much more spacious worship hall, with immovable rows and rows of pews. A small church, it only seats an absolute maximum of around one hundred and fifty people at a time. It has a high ceiling and is warmly lit, simple and reverent in design, colours light and earthy. The stage before the pews is wide open, with seats off to the side for other pastors and guest speakers, and there is a podium placed off center. On the other side, there is a small organ with music sheets kept nearby.
He's been here for a few hours now. It was midnight when he got here. The sun will most likely be coming up soon. He should probably vacate the premises before he's discovered. Breaking into a church is never looked kindly upon. But.. he just needs a few more minutes.
He sits in the first pew, staring at the ground, staring straight in front of him, it doesn't matter where he looks. The battle still rages on inside him. It's amazing how much a few missing memories can change. Goodman. He did this. It was his fault this was happening. He and Thompson turned him into a monster. They manipulated him into becoming a killing machine. By all rights he should be just a normal guy with an extraordinary ability. They changed him. How could he be so different? The only thing making him different from Fulk was missing memories. Yet their actions…
Ye
Alison Meier
And many others…
Fulk was a protector. Winters is a killer. It could be a valuable lesson, a deep insight into the human psyche. How fickle people are, how convicted and pure and committed Fulk was to his cause. Sever his memories and feed him lies for a few months and you have a completely different person. Was he strong enough to revert to how he was supposed to be. How God intended?
But what the fuck did God intend? All his life he was fed religion, until he decided to pursue truth on his own. Finding great joy in it.. one day he was cut off from his memories and now. His relationship with God is tenuous at best. And non-existent at worse. Fulk tried to protect, he took kids under his wing, tried to give them a chance, and his reward? Blown to bits. How could God honor something like that? Winters agreed to take care of the Lighthouse kids, to step in and be Brian. To avoid Company attention, but… his heart wasn't ripped out. Only tainted. The kids are valuable. Need someone to watch over them. If he's the only option, then he is the only option.
But why let this world all its darkness and evil stomp on things that are just. The few things that are sacred? Who would remain, Winters, or Fulk?
When he first arrived he set on the podium two items. A silver pistol and a bible. What was first simply unloading his cargo so that he could more comfortably sit and reflect was now becoming a metaphorical battle between two entities residing in him.
The Yin-Yang is all this is. That ancient symbol becoming ever so pertinent in the back of his mind. Fulk of course was the good. But does that make Winters evil? What he does, Brian was capable of doing all along, but the way he was raised, the way he was taught, he blocked himself from such actions. Winters has been unlocked to that barricaded section of Brian's mind, he has free reign. So Winters could do what Fulk never would.
Do whatever you need to do to get to that pinnacle, then things won't seem tedious anymore…
The words of a stranger reverberate in his mind. There are things in this dirty, God forsaken city, that are worth fighting for. Veronica is one of them, Gillian is one of them, the kids. They need protecting, but he won't sit around on his ass and wait for this city to engulf them for him to start fighting back.
Shoving himself to his feet, he practically stumbles forward…
He used to be of the idea that God had a destiny set out for him. That he only had to find it and step into what God had waiting for him. To be the man God intended him to be.
His hand slides along the podium as he reaches the front, breathing heavily…
But what if God didn't have anything waiting for him?
His eyes settle on the gun and the bible. Fully knowing that he brought them both in but understanding he could only take one out if not understanding why this rule existed…
What if he needed to make his own destiny and force fate to compensate?
His hand wanders forward…
He would have to do it. And wrap this city around his fingers to do so.
The door slams loudly behind him as he exits. Leaving the room completely quiet and the way he had entered it. Except for the new bible sitting alone on the podium.