The Bride Wore Black Leather

anything. I felt ashamed to have doubted her. She always was a better person than me.
    We stopped a few yards short and looked the place over. St. Jude’s looked solid and implacable, as always, ancient and immovable, something you could trust and believe in. Not for mercy or compassion, or even justice; St, Jude’s stood for the truth. Because St. Jude’s was the one true thing in an ever-changing world.
    “What the hell are you suddenly smiling at?” said Cathy. “If there’s anything funny here, I missed it. This whole location is creeping me out, big-time.”
    “St. Jude’s,” I said. “Patron saint of lost causes. How appropriate.”
    “You’re weird, boss.”
    Strange lights blazed through the slit windows of the old church, stark, unrelenting lights that cut through the surrounding gloom like knives. More of the fierce light shone from the open door; pushing back the night like the glare from an open furnace. You only had to look at the light to know it wasn’t of this world. This was light from Outside, light seen from the other side.
    “The Lord of Thorns has got to be here. Hasn’t he?” said Cathy, uneasily. “There’s no way he’d allow anyone to misuse the church.”
    “I am sort of depending on his being here,” I admitted. “He’s one of the biggest guns I know, in the powers business. But look at the place. I can’t see the Lord of Thorns putting up with this . . . But then, I can’t see the Sun King being powerful enough to drive the Lord of Thorns out, either.”
    “So how powerful is the Sun King, boss?”
    “He’s as powerful as the Entities from Beyond need him to be,” I said. “And they . . . are starting to worry me.”
    “The Lord of Thorns has always worried me,” said Cathy. “He represents all the aspects of God most people don’t want to think about. I’ve never been too sure what he really is, or what he’s really for.”
    “I have had long conversations with him, on that very point,” I said. “And I have to say I’m no wiser. I need him to be on my side, one more time. Because I’m running out of options.” I looked at the light streaming out of the slit windows and shuddered briefly, as though something had pissed on my grave. “I don’t want to believe the Sun King can go head to head with the Lord of Thorns. If the Entities from Beyond can slap him down, we are all in deep doo-doo.”
    “You can say shit, boss,” said Cathy. “It’s all right. I’m all grown-up.”
    And then the Sun King popped his head out of the open front door and smiled engagingly at us.
    “You can stop muttering and sneaking about. I’ve known you were there for ages. Come on in! The Entities weren’t sure you’d get here after all the crap I rained down on you, but no, I said, John Taylor will be here, for the finale. Because you really are a stubborn little soul, aren’t you, John?”
    “Oh he is,” said Cathy. “Really. You have no idea.”
    The Sun King looked at her doubtfully. “And this is . . . ?”
    “Cathy,” I said. “She works with me.”
    The Sun King shrugged, beckoned for us to enter St. Jude’s, and disappeared back inside the church. And after only a moment’s hesitation, I led the way in after him. Unarmed and unprepared, but doing my best to look cocky and confident because you never let the opposition know they’ve got you worried. The light at the doorway was sharp, even sinister, and painfully bright. Light with all the warmth and goodness taken out of it. I screwed up my eyes and strode straight into the light, doing my best to look like I knew what I was doing.
    I made a point of stopping just inside the church, to let my vision clear. I couldn’t afford to seem weak or helpless. Cathy stayed close beside me, as I looked unhurriedly round the church, taking my time. The interior hadn’t changed, but then it never does. Two rows of blocky wooden pews, with a narrow central aisle leading down to the great slab of ancient stone at the far end, covered in a cloth of white samite. A simple altar, for a simple church. No statues, no stained-glass windows, not even a pulpit. Nothing but the essentials. Nothing to distract you from what you came here for. Faith and worship at their most basic and brutal. There were rows of candles to every side, none of them lit. There was only the awful light, which seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Light from Outside; from where the Entities from Beyond were.
    The Sun King