St. Lukes

Description - Exterior

St. Luke’s stands at the end of a quiet side street in Canaryville, hemmed in by tight rowhouses and empty lots. It’s a modest, red-brick church with a sharply pitched roof and narrow Gothic windows, their colored glass sun-faded and cracked in places. A wrought iron fence wraps the small yard, more rust than paint, with crooked gravestones tucked in one corner. The wooden doors are weathered, but the brass handles shine—they’re polished every Sunday without fail.
A hand-painted sign out front reads: St. Luke’s – Come As You Are. Below it, in smaller, older script: Founded 1883.

Description - Interior

Inside, St. Luke’s is humble but well-kept. The pews creak with age, the hymnals are dog-eared, and the cross above the altar is carved from a darker wood than the rest of the room, always cool to the touch. White candles burn near the pulpit in a rack made from old horseshoes, and the stained glass lets in fractured light that moves oddly across the floor during services.
A back prayer room—barely more than a storage closet—is lined with photos of long-gone parishioners, small handwritten prayers tacked to the wall, and a battered wooden box where secrets can be left anonymously. That box has never been empty.

Run By

Pastor Everett Booker – A soft-spoken Black man in his late 50s with salt-and-pepper hair and a deep, calming voice. He rarely speaks of his past, but his sermons are filled with hard-earned wisdom. He’s seen the Veil and survived it—but he believes faith, not force, is the answer. Charmaine Hill has become his most devoted follower.

Regulars

Charmaine Hill – Attends every service and volunteers to clean during the week. Keeps close to Pastor Booker and watches for signs others miss.
“Quiet Martha” – A mute woman who arranges the flowers and knows every prayer by heart. No one knows where she lives.
Oscar Drummond – Retired CPD officer, sits in the last pew, always armed, never says Amen.
The Candle Boy – A boy who appears only at dusk to relight the votives. No one remembers his name. No one sees him leave.

History

St. Luke’s was built by Irish immigrants in the 1880s, but over the years it shifted into a more mixed congregation, often resisting the wave of racial tensions that swallowed Canaryville whole. The building has survived fire, flood, and city neglect. In 1943, a Veil breach opened in the crypt beneath the pulpit—sealed by Pastor Booker’s predecessor with a ritual no one has since dared repeat. Booker claims the seal is still holding. But some nights, the floor creaks like something beneath is stretching.

Notes

The confessional was removed in 1944 and never replaced. Rumor says it became “too honest.”
Charmaine uses the prayer room to listen for signs—she swears the candles answer back.
An old crucifix in the bell tower bears a wound that bleeds during eclipses.
The stained glass window of St. Luke shows him holding a book. Sometimes, the words in it change.
Several community members have reported seeing visions of their dead while walking past the church at dusk.

Type

Temple / Church

Parent Location

New City