The next morning I decided to pay the good shepherd a visit, I occupied myself through the night cleaning the church building and exploring the church and its surroundings.
I knocked on the door to the priest's office and let myself in, taking up my usual vigil by the whiteboard while the Father began to speak, "Birdie is that you? How can I help you today?"
I took a green marker and began to write, "It's more about how I can help you today Father, is there anything you could think of me to do to repay you?"
"Birdie you don't have to help me, if you're looking for some good deeds to do, go out and have a look around the neighbourhood, I'm sure plenty of people would like a guardian spirit to look over them. If you would like a suggestion the church sponsors a soup kitchen down the road, you could go there and begin to prepare lunch." He explained to me with a merry expression.
"You told me to stay under the radar, if vegetables start peeling themselves in front of the kitchen hands they are going to panic." I told him.
"No Birdie it'll be fine, being sponsored by the church everyone who works there today will come to the service I'll be conducting in an hour, you will have a few hours to get all the work you wish done."
This sounded like an excellent idea, walking over to the desk I took my soul and then started to write on the whiteboard. "I'll need to take this with me then, I can't be too far away from it."
"Ah." The priest exclaimed, "That makes sense, it's remarkable that you can be any distance away from that stone. Yes please take it, it's yours after all."
"Thank you Father, I'll see you later this evening." I said walking for the door.
"Bye bye Birdie, stay safe will you." the holy man yelled after me, Placing the gem within [Birdhouse In Your Soul] I exited the office, and left the church through the front door.
I quickly made it to the soup kitchen, trying the door I quickly discovered it was locked, how was I going to get inside.
The windows were all closed and there was no rooftop access. An idea came to mind though, around the back of the building there was a series of flower pots with various herbs growing within.
Grabbing one flower pot I tipped it upside down into my hand and started shaking it, the plant and soil fell out, taking my soul I placed it at the bottom of the pot and placed the soil and plant back on top.
After this getting inside was as easy as walking through the door, I walked past the tables and chairs and made my way into the kitchen, it was simple but had all the necessities of cooking, pots were set up on a wood burning stove and knives and other utensils were hanging on hooks. The cupboards were stocked with vegetables and the cool room had a selection of various cuts of meat.
I began by peeling the vegetables; carrots, potatoes, and onions, after that was done and the waste disposed of I took a look at the time. The Father's church service would have been just starting. Taking a butcher's knife to the storeroom I started taking slices of meat off of the leg of beef.
Lighting a fire within the stove I placed a pan and a pot filled with water on top, the meat was then seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil before I seared it in the pan, fat sizzling and caramelizing from the heat.
After the meat was done searing it was removed from the heat and placed into the water, the pan was cleaned with water and the juices were returned to the soup, then finely chopped tomatoes and the onion were added along with a dash of vinegar.
I returned outside to the herb garden after opening the door, from the garden I took parsley, oregano and basil, these were chopped and added to the broth, along with chilli peppers, garlic salt and pepper from the pantry.
Any good chef would tell you that in order to make good food you had to taste it and taste it often, mistakes in cooking were often fixable, if a soup was too acidic you could add bicarbonate soda or if it was too salty placing potatoes inside would draw out the salt, but how was I going to taste it without a mouth?
Maybe this could work? I went outside and reacquired my soul then taking a ladle from the hook I gave the broth a stir and scooped some inside, my soul was then placed on top.
It was one of the weirdest sensations I ever felt, suddenly I was warm all over, not hot just a warm feeling spreading throughout my body and then I tasted it, it was like tasting with every part of your body at once.
Bleh, it was way too salty, must have used too much. Slicing the potatoes in half these were added to the soup too.
There was nothing left now except to clean, the utensils were cleaned, dried and put back into their proper places and the trash was put into the garbage can, then I heard a sound from the door.
"Didn't you think the sermon today was a little odd, I never took Father Douglas to be such a believer in the supernatural." A female voice said.
"He's a priest, they have to be believers in the supernatural." the older sounding male voice responded.
"You know what I mean." The female admonished, "All that talk about spirits being imperceptible to sight, seeking to live the life they missed, and wanting to help the living."
"It's a reassuring thought though, a guardian angel looking out for us." The male stated with a laugh, when they reached the kitchen a surprised look overtook his face.
"Who the hell has been in my kitchen! Quick, take a look around and make sure nothing is missing." he ordered the female.
They looked inside the cabinets, the cool room and checked the racks on the walls making sure that everything was in it's proper place, calling out to each other when any bit of food was missing.
"What's this?" the male asked while looking at the stove, taking the lid of my stew he took a deep breath through his nose and then retrieved a spoon from the drawer, taking some of the broth in the concave utensil he blew and placed it within his mouth.
"Hey, I think I found out what happened to the missing ingredients." he told the woman while gesturing to the pot.
"I wonder who made this?" she said to the chef confusion setting in on her face.
"I don't know but this isn't half bad." a contemplating look passed over him, "They put in way too many chili peppers though, can the person who made this not taste spice or something, grab the milk would you Pili."
"Yes Chef" she answered promptly going into the cool room.
The chef added the milk to the stew and tasted it again. "I wonder if it was a ghost." Pili said to the chef.
"Don't be silly girl it would have just been some hungry person whose cooking we interrupted." the chef admonished.
"But then Chef, how did they get in?" Pili questioned "All the doors were locked and no windows have been broken."
"I don't know but there has to be a more rational explanation than a ghost." The chef stated to his underling.
While they were distracted I quietly opened a cupboard and took a handful of flour, sprinkling it on the countertop I wrote a message in the powder reading, "The dead care.
", then I opened the back door and left, closing it behind me.
So Father Douglas talked about me in his sermon, I hope he knew what he was doing; people might start thinking he was crazy, though priests do get to be a little eccentric in my opinion.
I was exploring the back alleyways, as a rule they were dirty, dark and damp, when I heard a pair of voices coming from a path to the left.
"Is anybody coming?" one of the voices said brusquely.
I turned the corner and I was surprised at the sight, A man with a gun was standing moving his gaze between the two ends of the alleyway while another man pinned a woman to the ground.
"Listen here bitch, do what I say and you get to leave here today." the man pinning the woman to the ground told her harshly. "I'm going to have some fun with you and then my friend is, if you scream, try to fight back, or run away my friend here is going to shoot you and leave you here in this alley to rot. Do you understand?!"
The woman was crying with streams of tears pouring down her cheeks, when the man had finished speaking she got very quiet and nodded.
"Good; right you stay on lookout." The man on the ground said gesturing to the gunman.
When I was alive there wasn't a hope in hell for me to do anything to stop these men. Besides the fact it would have been two against one they were armed, but now I could help her and it shouldn't even be too difficult.
I ran towards the gunman, his eyes looking straight through me and seeing nothing, then I struck.
I grabbed his wrist with one hand while grabbing the end of the gun with my other and twisted his hand towards him so the barrel pointed at his stomach.
Twisting his whole arm now I placed him into a hammerlock and swept his legs sending him to the ground face first.
The gun was in my hands now and the person assaulting the woman was started trying to figure out what happened, then I shot the douchebag I decked in the skull. Brain, blood and skull splattering around his corpse.
"W-what the fuck." the remaining man eloquently said standing up and backing away while the woman screamed.
Throwing the gun behind him as a distraction the rapist turned around only to have me kick him in the back of the leg sending him to his knees.
I grabbed his hair while applying pressure to his kneecap from behind, sticking my hand into his chest not a single drop of blood was spilled and my body began to operate on auto-pilot as I could feel granules form in my hand, after a few moments I tore my hand loose leaving behind a ping pong sized hole.
The would be rapists fell face down and then flipped himself over and started to scoot away on his back looking straight at me. "W-what are you?" he asked panicked.
I didn't have a mouth but I doubted it would stop me from speaking, "Oh, that's surprising, you can see me?" Looking at my hand I saw a stone very similar to my own, but a dull grey color littered with pits of black.
"Please don't kill me." He begged, what disgusting human trash.
"Please, tell me why shouldn't I kill you? I'm sure this isn't your first time and if I let you go it won't be your last. So why shouldn't I wipe this piece of shit in front of me off of the collective shoe of the world."
A puddle began to form in his pants and he launched himself at the gun I threw, picking it up he aimed it at my head and pulled the trigger. "Take that you bastard!" he screamed, the bullet passed harmlessly through my skull and struck the wall at the other end of the alleyway. In response I lashed forward with my foot striking him in the face.
He released the gun and I snatched it out of the air, "Tell me bastard do you know what I have in my hand?" I asked.
"A-a gun you have a gun in your hand." he answered me stemming the bleeding from his broken nose with his hands.
"No you fucking idiot, what is in my other hand?" I admonished him, holding the stone from his chest in between two of my fingers. "This; this right here is your soul. I wonder what will happen if I shoot it."
"My soul?! Please don't, God save me please." he was crying now, how disgusting; have some pride man.
"Be grateful you bastard, I'm sparing you the fires of hell at least say thank you." and with that I tossed the rock into the air and aimed the gun towards it, the rapist's eyes tracking its arc through the air
Bang!, the round tore through the air and shattered the stone and the asshole dropped like a puppet with it's strings cut.
He was breathing and his heart was beating but he just lay there, the lights were on but nobody was home.
The woman during this had ran off, I hope she would be alright, I looked at the gun in my hand and then pressed it against my chest absorbing it into my body, sirens rang in the distance.
There was no point staying here, I started heading back towards the church.