The Fellowship of Hell (part 1)

 Ephram Hoagston III stood in front of the Catholic Church as the sun set behind it, casting a gorgeous orange halo around it. As he walked closer to the entrance, he felt the heat and pain throughout his body catch his attention. He took a deep breath and kept walking.  He'd been working up to this moment for years, trying to acclimate his unnatural body to the church. It hadn't helped much.

Ephram passed the tabernacle and genuflected, kneeling as was custom, and his knees exploded in pain. He grit his teeth, stood and continued to the confessional, walking in and kneeling, is knees screaming in pain.  He made the sign of the cross, and his wrist flared in pain briefly, and settled. Through grit teeth, he whispered. "Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It's been ..." He paused, almost explaining it had been 475 years, but didn't need to be tossed out at this point.

 "It's been a very long time since my last confession." he finally admitted. 

 

***   

 

Father Vladislav was ready to leave the confessional at sunset, when the strange man walked into the church. There was obviously something going on with him, he could hear the clattering and uneven steps as he walked. He figured it was just another drunk.

He sighed. He hoped this didn't take long. He honestly loved hearing confession, but this was going to be a very bad night unless he could finish before the moon rose. The man walked in, and the first thing he noticed was the smell. It wasn't the smell of a drunk, or a bum.  Father Vladislav sniffed quietly, trying to place the scent. His sense of smell was already hightened, which alarmed him; the transformation was going to come soon, but also caught his attention. "Where have I smelled this before?" he wondered to himself.The man in the confessional began speaking, and he only half paid attention. His mind was fixated on that smell. He knew it was important, yet he couldn't place it.

"I've given away my soul, and I closed myself to God and his mercy forever, with a single bad decision." the man said.

"Surely, my son, God is willing to forgive you." 

"I gave myself to unnatural forces in order to settle stupid revenge, and 've been paying for it since."

Unnatural forces? Father Vladislav sniffed again and the memory came snapping back like a rubber band. He ignored the itching on his back, but asked, "How long ago did you give yourself to these forces, my son? And don't lie. I know what you are."

Ephram  gasped, but answered. "425 years ago, I gave myself to a coven of vampires, to absorb their power in order to settle a long feud." 

Father Vladislav was ready with a rebuke, but it was stuck in his throat in a growl.

He looked at his hand, and saw the fingers slowly elongating; the hair on his palms growing at an alarming rate. "Oh God, please save us all" he muttered to himself. 

The transformation exploded, and Father Vladislav reverted complete to his wolf form during the full moon. 

 

***

 

Ephram heard the wood splinter and looked up and was absolutely gobsmacked to see a wolf, standing in the broken and ripped confessional. "Werewolfs are real, too?" he thought as he automatically reached into the unnatural depths of his power, and dodged at an inhuman speed.

 Claws dug at the spot he was standing, milliseconds before. "Quickly, help me get him into the catacombs! They are fortified for him!" a novice, springing out of nowhere yelled. Ephram saw the doors the novice was pointing at, and knew what he had to do.

 He picked up the dazed wolf, and with the last of his unnatural power and speed, dashed toward the catacomb entrance, shoving the confused wolf inside, and helping the novice seal the doors. The novice took one look at Ephram and screamed.

 Ephram ran out of the door, hungering for blood in a way he hadn't in over 40 years. "Now THAT didn't go according to plan." he said to himself out loud. He was going to have to feed after that use of power, and he didn't know what he was going to do.