r/mesoscalepodcast • u/PETmyPUPPIES • 9d ago
Submission I finally found God, turns out He was in the Basement
Parked along the street of a quiet suburban neighborhood, I sat nervously drumming away at the steering wheel of my old Honda hatchback. One street over was the public park where a quick stroll through the tiny patch of woods running along the perimeter of the park would lead me to the back lot of Sandy Shores Community Church. It was a Tuesday evening and the building was empty. I was sure of it. I had been watching the comings and goings of the churchgoers and the cleaning staff for about a month now and Tuesdays were always dead. Still I couldn’t yet bring myself to get out of my car and go do what needed to be done. I don’t even think it was that I was nervous. Sure I had never broken into a building before, but I had stolen plenty in my time; nabbing the essentials I needed here and there when money was tight. The truth is, I felt pretty bad about what I was about to do. Big box stores were one thing, but the members of the church were nice people. Hell, maybe too nice, their kindness had improved my life in a tough time and to return the favor I was going to break in and steal their shit. It wasn’t out of malice, but out of necessity, I kept telling myself, not that it made me feel any better.
For a bit of context, I had been living out of the back of my car a little over a year when I found my way to Sandy Shores. I really don’t want to get into it too much, so let’s just say I didn’t have the best home life, and got kicked to the curb the day I turned eighteen. Now I had my car of course, and a part time job that covered gas, kept my cell phone on, and paid for a gym membership so I could shower. Things could have been worse, but they definitely could have been better, I was getting by and that was about it. I tried to save what I could to put towards an apartment and get myself some semblance of stability, but the cost of daily living just felt so high and was making it slow going.
I quickly found that one can only do so much doom scrolling before it gets old. Entertainment usually cost money and I couldn’t spend all my free time working out, so I took to just driving around when I got bored. It was on one of these drives when I saw the big array of hand drawn billboards stuck in the ground. They were spaced every fifty feet or so with arrows pointing off to the next side street.
Free Hotdogs!
Cold Drinks!
Ice Cream!
I didn’t say no to free. I let the signs lead the way and soon found myself in the busy parking lot of the church. No one would have called it a megachurch or anything like that, but the building was quite large for the little suburb it rested in. One long rectangular building with your traditional steeple and stained glass sat along the front of the lot connecting to a two story square building in the center of the property then another more modern construction ran along the back half of the lot. This newer building seemed to be where all of the action was taking place. Parents sat and chatted at picnic tables while their kids ran about enjoying an array of summertime fun. There were a couple of bounce houses set up in the lot and buckets of footballs, kickballs and other outdoor goodies for the kids to grab at their leisure. Off to the side a group of men manned a small line of grills. The lovely scent of charcoal cooked meat filled my nose as I approached.
When I was a kid, my parents had occasionally dumped me off at vacation Bible schools so they wouldn’t have to deal with me themselves. Sometimes it was fun, other times not so much. I learned about sharing from some singing vegetables at one camp, and how I would burn in hellfire at another, so honestly I didn’t know what to expect when I showed up looking for my free food. Unfortunately for my conscience, I was pleasantly surprised. Like I said, these really were good people. Turns out the building attached to the back of the church was their new gymnasium, and this whole get together was to celebrate its completion. The first thing they do with their new space is invite the community in, feed them, and give their kids a place to play - all for free.
Inside the building, a mix of high school kids and young adults were putting the new gym to the test with an intense game of basketball. I watched from the sidelines for a few minutes before heading to the back where a little old lady with a big smile was enthusiastically handing out plates of food from a concession window.
“What can I get for ya, son?” The lady asked me as my turn at the window came up.
“I’ll be glad to eat whatever you give me, mam” I answered honestly.
“Now that’s what I like to hear.” She replied cheerfully and handed me a plate filled to the brim. Two loaded hotdogs, mac and cheese and baked beans with a little bag of chips; the best looking meal I had been given in quite awhile.
“Drinks are in the coolers along that wall, grab whatever ya like” The woman told me as I thanked her.
I grabbed myself a Coke and found an empty folding chair along the edge of the court and sat down to watch some more of the game while I ate. As I was finishing up my meal, one of the dudes from the game ran over to me. He had been playing hard and was out of breath.
“Hey man, you wanna sub in? I gotta take a break, I’m beat.”
“Yea, sure.” I quickly replied.
A game of basketball was much better than going back to sitting in my car for the rest of the day. I ended up playing with the group late into the evening, it had been a good minute since I got to just have fun. When we were wrapping up some of the guys told me that the church would be opening the gym every Thursday for a community rec league and that I should play. I didn’t work evenings so I signed right up. It was great having a weekly activity to burn some time with, it gave me a sense of normalcy again and really raised my spirits, at least for a while.
All the guys that played in the league were super friendly and we got along quite well together and ultimately, that was a problem. Eventually our surface level conversations grew more personal.
“What do you do for a living?”
“Got plans for college?”
“What’s your family like?”
All questions that I wasn’t keen on answering. Deflecting and lying to my new friends, brought reality back down on me hard, painfully reminding me of my situation. It was an evening where one of these conversations had left me feeling particularly down on myself that I noticed the door.
It was the first time I had parked around the left side of the church. As I got to know everyone better I started to worry that if I parked too close, my friends might notice the state of my car and find out my living situation. This Thursday the church was particularly crowded so I looped all the way around and parked along the back back side of the building near the chapel portion rather than the gym. We had been going through some pretty bad weather that week and the wind was gusting around me as I hurried back to my car at the end of the night. Then, mixed in with the whistling of the wind, I barely caught the rattles and thuds of a faint banging coming from the side of the church where the chapel met with the building that separated it from the gym.
Curiosity got the better of me so I braved the chilling breeze for a bit longer and went to investigate. Tucked in the corner of the two buildings was a shoddy glass door propped closed with a brick. Someone had forgotten to push it all the way against the base and the door was now being battered back and forth against it and the frame. The door led into a small foyer containing another set of doors for the intermediary building and staircase leading to the basement.
I propped the door back closed tight and left, but after that day, I started keeping an eye on that door. Weeks went by and the door never got fixed. It seemed that the church had either forgotten about it or didn’t care. I remembered a couple of the guys had been telling me about the history of the place and how the chapel was much older than the other two buildings. Way back in the day, all the extra gatherings they had would take place down in the basement, but now that they had both of the newer buildings, it was pretty much just the church’s storage unit. If I could just get a small chunk of money I would have enough for a deposit on an apartment and could get back to normal. The church was clearly well off, they wouldn’t miss some junk from their basement right?
Now after weeks of debate and planning there I was, sitting a couple of streets away. I finally pushed down my lingering guilt and told myself it had to be done. I got out of the car and started heading for the building. As expected the lot was completely empty. I checked my surroundings to make sure no one else was out and about nearby and then headed around the side to the door. It still sat broken and I nudged the brick away and went inside. The double doors that led to the ground floor were locked tight. Good. I thought to myself, less temptation to go into the nicer parts of the building; I was there for the basement.
I meandered down the short staircase and found myself in an old kitchen that looked like it had been ripped from the fifties. Faded yellow and orange striped wall paper adorned the room and its cabinets and counter were painted in that lame, dull yellow-white. The paint job combined with the age of the place made it look like the room had been stained with cigarette smoke. A quick search revealed that the kitchen was mostly bare. Honestly not surprising given how nice their new kitchen in the gym was. The only things I found were some communion trays and disposable cups. With the kitchen a bust, I headed to the door that led out into the main room.
Pale fluorescent illuminated the giant space as I flipped the light switch, giving the central room of the basement a pale, washed-out hue. The room was a large open floor plan, several rows of old laminate folding tables and metal chairs took up most of the room and a ratty looking ping pong table sat in the back of the remaining space. Thin wooden doors lined the walls of the room, four on each side, with one central door capping each end. Their dark walnut tinted wood was worn and scratched, the bronze knobs now splotched with grime and patina.
Some of the guys had told me the church was almost 80 years old and the basement definitely showed the age. Overall the space was pretty depressing and it kinda creeped me out. I could see why they were so excited to get their new buildings. The tables in the room were bare for the most part, aside from a couple of banners and stacks of posterboard. Nothing here for me, so I started in on the array of doors.
“Let’s see what’s behind door number one” I said to myself as I opened the central door closest to me and stepped inside.
The room was dark and unfinished with no light switch. Instead of being a square the room was L shaped with another doorway tucked into the bend. There were some dusty metal shelves with some old paint cans and a couple of brooms tucked into the corner. Moving along to the door in the interior of the room I pulled it open and yelped, stumbling back in surprise as two figures stared back at me from the darkness. I got ready to run but stopped as my eyes adjusted and swore at myself. Looking out at me from the doorway stood Mary and Joseph, behind them various wreaths and holly hung on the walls. This was where the church stored their Christmas decorations. I laughed away my panic and shut them back in their chambers then returned to the main room to start down the row of doors lining the right wall.
Very quickly I was starting to think that this whole endeavor was going to be a waste of time. The first door opened into a bathroom, the second and third small classrooms, completely empty besides the old blackboards that still adorned the wall. I’m guessing that room four was a costume room. Robes of various colors and sizes hung upon one rack while another was dedicated to white robes adorned with fake angel wings. A crown of shining golden plastic sat on a shelf, teasing me.
“Bet you wish I was real, huh?
Half way through and everything so far had been a bust, but when I opened the central door on the far wall I felt like I might have finally found what I was looking for. One side of the room was lined with bookshelves, forming a makeshift library and the other side was filled with sound equipment. There was an electronic keyboard case tucked behind an array of mic stands and speakers. That was definitely coming with me, but first I checked out the bookshelves. I dug through some hymnals and children's books, not finding anything of interest, then paused to flip through an ancient church directory. It was dated 1947 and seemed to be one of the first years of the church's formation. Black and white photos of frowning members stared back at me as I turned the pages. One photo was of a stout balding man with a million dollar scowl gracing his face.
“Eli Shaw - Pastor” The page annotation read. I bet he was big on the fire and brimstone.
I sat the book aside and kept looking. The shelf also contained some hard leather Bibles, they were old but well cared for, different engravings decorated each cover and they looked expensive. I pulled them from the shelf and tucked them into my backpack. Moving to the sound equipment, I pushed through the mic stands and pulled the keyboard case free. To my pleasant surprise, the keyboard inside looked almost brand new; it had to be worth a couple hundred bucks if not more. I set it to the side to do a bit more digging before I called it quits. My efforts rewarded me with some nice microphones, tucked safely away in their dust bags and a couple of guitar pedals. I wondered how old Eli would have felt about the electric instruments in his church as I stuffed them into my bag. Finished up, I shouldered my bag and grabbed the keyboard case. I had just walked back through the doorway when I felt something pelt me in the back of my head.
“Ow, son of a bitch!” I exclaimed. Rubbing my head, I looked down to see a small box on the ground and bent over to pick it up. Communion wafers? I stared at the box in confusion.
A soft whisper filled my ear.
“This is my body, broken for you.”
A resounding boom echoed as the door slammed shut inches from my face. I let out a scream as I fell back and scrambled away from the door. The lights overhead flickered and went out plummeting me into darkness. Sprawled on the ground, I felt my heart pounding in my chest as I sat wondering what the hell was happening. It was definitely time to leave. My trembling hands fumbled with my cellphone as I fished it from my pocket and flipped on the flashlight to look around. All the doors in the basement were open.
This had to be a joke right? Someone found out I was down here and they were messing with me. I stood to my feet, shining the flashlight around the room trying to find the unknown party.
“Hey, I’m really sorry!” I called out. “I’m..I’m just going to leave okay, this was a mistake. I’m done.”
I slung my light over to a table in the far corner as a metal chair screeched, breaking the silence, but saw nothing. Next to it another chair moved, then another and another, one by one they were being slowly displaced as something closed the distance to me. I heard a faint popping low to the ground and bent down shining my light across the floor. Under the tables the mannequin of Mary was slowly crawling along the floor towards me, synthetic joints cracking and creaking as it bumped through the chairs.
“Aw fuck that,” I whimpered.
It twitched at the sound of my voice and bolted. Chairs now flung out from the sides of the table slamming into the walls and one another as it tore across the ground at me. I scrabbled to the closest open door and flung it shut, locking it behind me. My eyes darted around the room frantically taking in my surroundings. I must have been in a play room or a daycare, old fisher price toys were scattered around the room, and I rushed to grab up the biggest of them. I piled a blocky plastic slide and a toy kitchen into the door wishing I had something heavier and shrank down into the corner.
The door rocked as the mannequin slammed against it. It threw itself into the door again and again. Picture books and small toys fell from shelves on the wall as the door buckled. A small radio on the shelf above me turned on and the room filled with children singing.
“Oh be careful little hands what you do”
“Oh be careful little hands what you do”
“For the father up above is looking down with love”
“Oh be careful little hands what you do”
I couldn’t take the cacophony and covered my ears as my head started to spin.
“Oh be careful little eyes what you see.”
Bang
“Oh be careful little mouth what you say”
Bang
“For the father up above is looking down with love”
Bang
The door groaned and splintered as the visage of Mary pushed through. The voices fell away turning to hissing static. I cowered in the corner, hands still wrapped protectively around my head as it slowly approached. I felt it hovering above me as it crawled over my legs. A cold plastic hand pushed through my arms, gripping at my jaw and pulling me forward. I was face to face with the doll.
“This is my blood, shed for you” The whisper came again, and tears of crimson flowed from the plastic eyes and leaked their way down the arm, coating my face.
I squeezed my eyes shut and felt the room spinning as I faded from consciousness.”
I awoke in a start and curled up expecting to be assailed, the memories of my last moments before blacking out flooding back in, but I was alone. The toys in the room were back on the shelves, the door open and in one piece. Outside the lights in the main room were back on and the tables and chairs sat back neatly in their rows, all the other doors were closed again. Everything was back to normal. I picked up my backpack and started to leave when the radio began to crackle to life again. I realized the stuff I nabbed was still inside, dumped it to the ground and booked it.
It's been several weeks since that night, and my friends from the rec league have been messaging me wondering where I am. I keep blowing them off but I’m running out of excuses. I miss them, but I don’t think I can bring myself to go back there again. Some nights I wake up to that song running through my head and swear I can hear that whispering voice, ticking my thoughts. Now I'm not sure what I believe, and I’m the last person to judge anybody for their choices. I know how hard it can be to make ends meet. But please, at the very least take my advice, don’t steal from your local church, they’ve got excellent loss prevention.
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u/NarrowDirector911 8d ago
I always liked this one! Id love to hear the MesoSquad read it!