baptized in ashes
327 Words
The chapel smelled of burnt incense and old stone. Dust hung thick in the air, catching in Elena’s throat as she crouched beneath the wooden pew, her body trembling with adrenaline. Luca’s hand rested protectively on her back, steadying her breath even as his other gripped the cold metal of his weapon.
Outside, boots crunched on gravel—slow, deliberate. Whoever they were, they weren’t here for prayer.
“Two of them,” Luca whispered. “Possibly more watching the road.”
Elena’s eyes widened. “What do we do?”
His gaze held hers. “We wait for a mistake. And we move fast.”
The chapel door creaked open.
Moonlight spilled in, catching on the dusty altar and the cracked crucifix above it. A figure stepped inside—broad shoulders, black gloves, expressionless face. Another followed. Silent. Efficient. Trained.
Elena clutched the flash drive, her nails biting into her palm. She wanted to run, to scream—but her body obeyed only fear.
Then Luca moved.
With terrifying precision, he kicked over a pew, using it as cover as he fired. One shot. Two. A grunt. One man dropped. The other fired back, shattering stained glass in an explosion of color and shards.
Elena ducked as a sharp pain sliced across her cheek. Blood. But she stayed down.
Luca tackled the remaining man near the altar, fists flying. It was brutal—less a fight than a reckoning. When the second body slumped to the floor, Luca turned to Elena, panting.
“We need to go. Now.”
Sirens wailed in the distance. Someone had called the police—or worse, tipped off the wrong people.
Elena stood, wiping blood from her cheek with shaking fingers. As they slipped out the chapel’s back entrance into the night, flames began to curl from the overturned candles.
The chapel burned behind them.
A symbol of purity, now baptized in fire and blood.
Neither of them looked back.
- Writer
