Awaken

Chapter One: Friday, the 15th of September, 1851-2

6:40 AM,The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist Chester, England

The cathedral had been a holy site since King Aethelred founded a small sanctuary on this spot in 689. The original chapel was now but a memory. Upon the foundations of that early medieval chapel, the Bishop of Litchfield had made it a cathedral at the turn of the first millennia. The Bishop of Litchfield’s church collapsed in the 1500s. That cathedral’s rubble and ruins still littered the site. The new Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist was the tallest construction in the city; a gothic church that had fallen into disrepair and received a renovation in 1580 at great expense, utilizing the advanced construction methods of high gothic style. Naves, arched vaults, and buttresses were more ornate, wider and taller, but it was still stacking stones in an intricate puzzle that forced them to defy gravity.

A master stonemason like Edward could see beyond the wear and tear on the surface of the stonework to where pinch points were stressing, and the crumbling stone would eventually start a collapse after two-hundred and sixty-eight years of use.

“You see here boy, this section of the buttress is losing stability,” said Edward.

“Yes Pa. Replace the stone here and here. The sandstone is highly porous and has been taking in too much moisture with the seasons,” stated Eddie pointing out the problematic stones.

“How do you know that, son?”

“Grandpa would tell me every Sunday when we came to church.”

The elder Edward chuckled, “My grand father used to do the same to me. I craved to go play in the ruins of the old cathedral with the other children and he would drag me around and point out all the problems and the worst of workmanship.”

“There is so much more to see up here, Pa.”

The two men were halfway up the scaffold. At this elevation, you could see all of Chester and over the old Roman wall and beyond into the country of undulating green hills. Looking down Edward the elder saw his employees showing up for work, “Yes, son this is yet another of the joys of our work, we can be at heights that only the birds enjoy.”

“I was talking about seeing the stonework up close. Seeing what could only be vaguely made out from the ground,” said the younger Mason. The teen was apprenticed to his father, a master stone mason and planned to continue his father’s trade. His family had been stone masons for generations and now Mason had become the family name.

With the commencement of construction, the Masons would have several years of work on the cathedral, shoring up the exterior walls then doing work on the interior and the bell tower. Edward’s father, Eddie’s grandfather said the work was needed back when he ran the business, but the church never sprang for it. There had been a small collapse recently, and that had forced the bishop’s hand. Every mason who came out to look at the building told him the same that Master Edward had said; the building would soon be beyond repair if they didn’t act now.

Edward climbed up to the next terrace of the metal and wood scaffolding they had erected. A zig-zag path made its way up and weaved through the thick wooden buttresses Edward’s men had installed to relieve the pressure from the stone buttresses scheduled for repair. This vertical maze allowed the Masons to walk up to various points on the outside of the church.

At the top of the scaffolding was the mechanical steam hoist Edward purchased upon being awarded the job. The first one in the county, for that matter the first in the Midlands. He expected to cut his labor costs significantly by using the hoist to lift the stone blocks up to the great height faster and with less labor. Once finished with this job he would have paid for the hoist and have it for subsequent jobs. He and Eddie had talked through how with this device they could go after similar high masonry projects and undercut the competition because of the reduced labor.

As he peered out, a falling motion caught his attention. He wondered if it was his imagination, “Eddie, did you see that?”

“What, Pa?” his son asked pressing on a fragile stone in the buttress with his fingers.

“I saw something fall from atop,”

“Stonework?” asked the son with unease in his voice.

“No, slightly smaller,” Edward glanced down. If something had indeed fallen it was too small to make out from here, Edward yelled down to his foreman, “John, look over here in the turf, I thought I saw something fall.”

John waved and responded, “Righto, boss.”

Edward made his way up. Now the scaffolding changed from the wide zig zag to where each level ran horizontal and a ladder was at the end to ascend to the next height. At each level, the walk ended with the ladder on the alternate end, making Edward walk the length of the church on each level. He half-expected to find youngsters from Chester up on the roof fooling around. The scaffolding was too tempting for the young folk to ignore and it wouldn’t be the first time he had to scold children for climbing up to see the church roof.

“I just saw something fall, Pa,” Edward stopped and looked over to see what it may have been. Eddie was two levels down looking above Edward to the roof while John was pacing around on the ground looking down.

“John, look over this way,” Eddie yelled to the man on the ground.

Edward ascended the last ladder. As his head poked up through the opening to the top level, his eyes were at the roof level. He stopped his ascent, eyes widened in disbelief. There crouched in front of him was a squat grey skinned muscular creature no larger than a two-year-old child, but muscular, like an athlete. Edward’s gaze met that of the creature, black, cold, pupil less eyes met his own. His mouth opened and closed soundlessly as an identical gargoyle like creature came up behind the other its arms full.

"Master Mason I found it. It's a lynchpin," yelled John. One pin of many that held the scaffolding to the church and gave it stability.

The elder Mason saw the second creature had its arms full of the lynchpins. By the amount it held, it may have been every one of the wooden fasteners. The first creature grinned toothily at Edward Its gash of a mouth full of tiny sharp teeth. It uttered a low guttural noise and approached the edge of the roof giving the scaffolding a thrust with its foot. The second creature flung its armload of pins over the side then helped its twin to push the scaffolding away from the building.

Edward clutched the ladder as the framework swayed outward, below him he could hear Eddie calling out in alarm as the framework of wood and metal swayed and distorted. He found his voice at last but his despairing “No!” was lost in the sound of cracking wood and squealing metal as the scaffolding collapsed under its own weight.

The plans, dreams and heritage of the Mason dynasty ended among the headpieces of ancient graves as Edward Mason, Eddie, and their foreman John died under the twisted tangle of wood and metal. As the last pieces settled and a stunned silence fell across the churchyard, a chilling cackle of laughter faded away.