(SSSC) A Childhood Dream Pt1, page 1

Strigoe
The word echoed through his mind as he stared at the church. The three spires stood proudly, silhouetted against the clear moonlight sky. Nothing moved. Nothing made a sound. He had been here several times before and the feeling of dread was exactly the same. Each time it was a little more familiar but still equally scary. Todd began to walk through the cemetery, passing huge marble tombs, some black, some white, eventually reaching the stairs which led up into the church. To his left, from a large stained glass window, pained faces stared down at him. The look on their timeless faces mainly suggested fear or foreboding but some had a look of sheer pity upon them. Todd wondered whether it was pity for him, or pity for those who had come before him.
He reached the hefty wooden door which was slightly ajar and peered into the darkness. As usual, the church was gently lit by a series of candles on the altar at the far end. Above the altar he could see a coat of arms. A coat of arms made from what looked like human bones. He walked though the door. From underneath his feet he could hear a sickening cracking noise, but it was too dark to see what he was standing on. As he moved slowly towards the altar more candles lit themselves, bathing the whole church in an unnatural orange glow, which appeared to have some strange blue hint to it. From time to time this blue flicker would move around the room as if trying to encircle him. Each time the blue moved around the room he could make out some writing on the walls of the room. At first it was unclear as to exactly what it said, but as Todd’s eyes adjusted to the dim light he could see words and phrases, although he did not know what they meant.
Strigoe
That word again, the one that remained in the back of mind was written in what looked like very dark blood on the left hand wall of the church. To the right was a phrase.

pagšu ṣiyyim et’iyyim w-sa’ir ‘al-rē’hu yiqra ‘akšam hirgi’ah lilit u-maṣ’ah lah manoḫ

Todd had no idea at all what this meant, but he felt that he should know. It was in his mind somewhere, it was just a case of reaching in there and finding it.
His gaze was drawn up towards the high roof of the church by a shadow that was being cast down on the dimly lit ground beneath him. He was shocked by what he saw. A large chandelier swung gently above his head. About thirty or so candles lit up the ornament, casting long, thin shadows all around the unusual church. Each candle was held in the palm of a skeletal human hand. The rest of the chandelier was made up of various other human bones. Thigh bones, ribs, shins, forearms and backbones all linked together in spectacular fashion to form this sickening spectacle. Just to finish it off, it was decorated with skulls and other small unrecognisable bones.
Todd stared at this sight for a while before something moving behind the altar caught his attention.
By the time he looked over, whatever it was had gone; a mouse or other small rodent perhaps. Nevertheless, his hair was standing on its end and he felt electric. Definitely scared but full of energy. He moved slowly across the crunching floor to the altar, passing row after row of fabulously decorated pews.
The coat of arms above the altar was made up, like the chandelier, of human bones, although this time they were a lot smaller. They seemed like the bones of children, and very young children at that. At the top of the crest were two tiny skulls surrounded by small vertebrae, spreading out behind the skull like rays of the sun. Beneath these, in the four sections of the crest itself, were a series of patterns and shapes. As he was staring at these shapes Todd heard a crunching sound at the back of the church. He strained his eyes in the gloom but could see nothing. Still, his heart began racing. He was sure he was not alone.
Quickly he moved himself to the other side of the altar to get a better look. As he did so, he noticed a small, yellowing envelope sitting innocently amongst the candles. It seemed to draw his attention towards it somehow. Todd’s heart skipped a beat when he read the front of the envelope. It read, in an extremely fancy and delicate handwriting:

‘To Our Dearest Son, Todd.’
He moved his hand towards the envelope, but as he did so, a blood curdling scream rang out from the back of the church. Todd looked up, terrified by this sudden unearthly shriek. At the back of the dim room he could see a tall figure standing in the shadows. Its eyes were glowing a bright yellow, burning into him with an intensity Todd had never encountered before. Its long white hair fell loosely around its shoulders and seemed to be matted with a think dark substance. It stepped out of the shadows and Todd finally got a good look at the creature that never shown itself in any of his previous dreams about this place.
It stood about six and a half foot tall and was extremely thin. So thin, in fact, it looked wasted. Its once smart clothes hung from its skeletal figure like rags. The black jacket and pants looked moth eaten and various rips all over them. This contrasted with the crisp white shirt it was wearing that looked fairly new, despite having several dark stains down the front of it. The creature moved closer, bringing with it a foul smell that burned Todd’s nose and throat. He felt as though he could actually almost taste the stench. The smell was overwhelming and made him feel sick.
Todd took a step back as it advanced upon him, sneering. Its skin was grayish and slightly translucent, as if paper thin, and hung loosely on its bones. The threatening sneer on its face was enhanced and made even more evil looking by the way in which some of its top teeth overlapped its drawn bottom lip. Then he noticed the hands. They were covered in mud, and at the end of each long, spindly finger were sharp, pointed nails. Todd’s mind immediately shot back to his mirror and the strange scratches on them which had made him so angry. With that realisation came another. He had tasted this foul stench before. He looked again at the creature’s face. Although it didn’t say a word or move a muscle, all Todd could hear was it laughing. The silent laugh echoed around the church and around his head. With that, in the dream, Todd fainted.
In reality, he woke up with two words etched in his mind: Strigoe and Lamiae.
He had to find out what these meant. He wiped the sweat from h

[edit on 25-10-2007 by more_serotonin_pls]