In the days and weeks that followed, he saw Whalen everywhere. Sometimes real, sometimes a hallucination. Everywhere except his office or the now-empty church. For the latter, Cillian found solace there. It did remind him a little of Whalen, but mostly he felt peaceful. He picked up his library copy of the Bible for the first time in months and read some passages. As always, he found it difficult to read with just one eye—a problem that made his job as a nurse that much more difficult—but he soldiered through.
Cillian went to the church once a week and sat by himself for an hour or more.
On his way out one day, he ran into a man he didn’t really know. Short, pale, and a little round, the stranger nearly walked past him without saying hello. Cillian stopped him with a hand on his shoulder
