FRED
A speculative short story inspired by Southern California folklore and my WIP
This short story was submitted to the Speculative Fiction Stories Inspired by Local Folklore Project hosted on Substack by Vanessa Perry.
Tuesday
10 p.m., Senium VR
The first time Nick saw the friar, he knew it wasn’t an AI, which made his sudden appearance worse.
The friar stood in the courtyard facing the church, limbs limp and lifeless. AIs didn’t stand like that. Definitely not the ones he’d come across at the Academy.
Had he made the friar one night and forgotten all about it? Unlikely, though he had been creating like a man obsessed lately. It was almost launch day.
The friar definitely wasn’t a user’s avatar. Nick’s Mission didn’t have open access to the public yet and the priest’s look was too historically accurate for an everyday user to recreate. He would know.
“Hey there,” Nick said, approaching the priest.
No response.
It wasn’t a Shell. The man’s eyes were brown, not the characteristic glossy white of a Shell. He gazed past Nick at the church, unblinking. Weird as hell.
It could be an original Sen creation from one of the neighboring historic districts. But that didn’t make sense. He couldn’t have wandered in. Nick always kept the gate locked.
Nick waved his hand in front of the old man’s eyes to no reaction. He admired the priest’s hooded, brown robe tied with the standard rope cincture, three knots in place. It was authentic work.
No, Nick had created him off the cuff last night and simply forgot.
The holy man clearly lacked any embedded controls, so Nick didn’t have to worry about him setting fire to the Sacred Garden or erasing the cloisters. Nick had a mile-long to-do list to tackle. He wasn’t babysitting… whatever this was.
He’d leave him there. Maybe he’d even give him a name.
Wednesday
10 p.m., Senium VR
Only one more night until launch and there was more to do. He knew he was being overly ambitious, but if he could pull it off, he could get promoted to Lead Creator of the Senium Historic Division. Meaning: more coin.
Gayle and Robert will get a kick out of his Great Stone Church recreation. He had spent enough time on it. All month, Nick had buried himself in the archives, studying the old drawings and descriptions of the church before the earthquake. After work, he walked through the ruins to make sure he got every detail right. This wasn’t some unverified virtual home project.
He debated with himself about adding a plaque. One to memorialize what the disaster meant, the weight it carried, but ultimately he decided against it. He wanted to keep it original and untainted by history.
He gazed up from his to-do list and noticed something was wrong. The Grand Altar was different than it had been yesterday. The Baroque-style gold leaf was gone, like it had never belonged there to begin with. Nick hadn’t erased it.
He was losing his mind with this launch.
This would set him back a whole hour, at least. He still had to embed controls to enhance the atmosphere—the warmth of the lit candles, the sound of the bells. Controls had never been his strong suit.
He had just finished the altar when he glanced through the open doorway and saw the friar.
Still there. Still staring with those dead eyes.
Nick had been too consumed by his list to step outside and check whether anything else was glitching.
He’d almost forgotten about the materialized holy man standing across from the church and from Nick himself, frozen in the exact same spot as yesterday.
“It’s almost finished, Padre,” Nick called out before adding playfully, “You don’t have to keep pressuring me like this.”
Nothing.
It reminded him of an NPC from one of his dad’s vintage video games. Standing around, repeating the same lines when engaged, lacking real agency. He imagined the friar chanting when approached. That would be a sick mod.
Maybe he’d keep him there for the launch party. He would add to the experience, even though he didn’t serve any functional purpose.
Nick shrugged and went back to his list. He’ll name him Fred.
Thursday
11 p.m., Senium VR, The Launch Party
“Good Lord, Nick. Is this what you’ve been up to?” Gayle said, her eyes wide as she tilted her head back to take in the vibrant domed ceiling of the Great Stone Church.
He held his breath, waiting for her critique. From her expression, it was clear she hated the cherubs. He knew he shouldn’t have included those chubby baby-cheeked blobs.
“It’s incredible,” she said.
Nick let out a slow exhale.
“And what’s that smell? It smells like…”
“Frankincense. And beeswax. I thought about mixing in some wood oil, but ran out of time.”
“And you learned how to do all this at Sen Academy?”
“Mm-hmm.” He nodded; arms crossed over his chest.
This was going better than expected. He could count the coin hitting his account already. Maybe he’d gain some attention in the Senium historical circles. Maybe Levi Sen would visit.
He was getting ahead of himself. Gayle’s praise was just one opinion. And there were a surprising number of co-workers, friends, and family there. He needed to start making the rounds.
He shifted an odd piece of rubble with his foot on the way out. He’d have to fix that later. Robert waited just outside the church door.
“What’s up with this guy?” Robert said, pointing at Fred in the courtyard.
“Oh, that’s Fred,” Nick said, a smile playing on his lips.
“Did it get a little lonely playing God?”
Nick almost laughed. He didn’t have some kind of God-complex, if that’s what he was implying. He was perfecting the place, incorporating what should have been, not imagining something new.
“It’s not like that.”
“All this is just kind of sad, you know. I mean, you work at the Mission all day, man, and then you recreate it in your sleep?”
They strolled up to Fred who remained inanimate. There was something different about him, but Nick couldn’t place what it was.
“Look, I know you must think I’m some nerd for making this, but Cloudkind pays me to create virtual worlds. Plus, think how this will change tourism, education, everything. People from around the world will visit and experience something that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. It’s history.”
“You’re a huge nerd, bro,” Robert said.
Nick glanced back at the friar. His rope belt was missing.
Friday
10:30 p.m., Senium VR
Nick sat in the chapel, tweaking a candle’s jumping flame. He couldn’t help himself. It wasn’t perfect yet.
The Mission was quieter tonight. He knew it would be. After the launch, his friends and family would return to their normal virtual lives—earning coin so they could upgrade their homes or visit more worlds.
New visitors wandered through, appreciating his craftsmanship. It felt good to know his work was respected. No trolls yet, so that was good. Except Robert, who had the balls to tell him that the color he chose for the roof tiles was slightly too brown.
Robert was jealous. He didn’t go to the Academy or learn how to use skills. Even if he had, he wouldn’t be able to recreate this. Nick had always been more creative than his peers.
Closing time came, and Nick strolled through the grounds carrying a candlestick to light his way because he enjoyed the authentic feel of it. He glanced in the church before closing the door, when he saw something lying on the middle of the floor.
At first glance, he thought it was one of the Senium rattlesnakes that roamed the area. On closer inspection, he realized it was a rope. A rope with three knots. It was coiled around a small piece of rubble. He picked the rope up, knowing what it was from.
As he turned around, facing the courtyard, he shivered, filled with a creeping sense of unease.
Fred wasn’t in his usual spot.
Someone had moved him. That would explain why his belt was lying in the church. This had Robert’s stink all over it. He probably snuck in here, moved Fred somewhere else to jump-scare Nick, and then would casually bring it up tomorrow in the break room.
Nick wasn’t going to be duped. He turned back in the church, unbothered, to continue his closing routine and check for stragglers. A single candle burned on the altar, the yellow wax melting over the metal holder.
Had it been lit before, when he found the rope? This church kept surprising him. First there was the missing gold leaf, then the chunks of rubble, and now the coiled rope belt and eerie lit candle. Robert was definitely screwing with him.
Still, something cold slithered down his spine.
Saturday
2 p.m., Mission San Juan Capistrano, CA
Robert was the type of guy to pull a dumb prank on a friend and then rub it in their face the first chance he’d get. The fact that he hadn’t mentioned anything about the friar during the first-half of his shift was strange. When Nick saw him in the break room after a few hours of walking the grounds, he decided he had to know definitively.
“Did you move Fred?”
Robert said, “Who’s Fred?”
“The friar. In Senium.”
Robert just stared at him blankly.
Nick sighed. “In my Mission recreation.”
“Oh, that dude? Nah, man.” He laughed. “What—did your own creation get bored of you already?”
Nick slumped in an empty chair and bit off a chunk of his protein bar.
Saturday
10 p.m., Senium VR
Nick hurried straight to the courtyard upon entering Senium. Fred still wasn’t there.
Someone other than Robert had moved him. He’d go and look.
He searched everywhere. It took a couple of hours. Every bougainvillea-framed bench, every shadowed corner, every possible hiding spot, but there was no friar. Which meant only one thing: someone had erased him.
Only Skilled like Nick knew how to use an erasure control. He hadn’t seen another Skilled, but he didn’t know all of them personally. Erasing someone else’s creation would be a slap in the face to another Skilled. And why the poor friar? Fred didn’t hurt anybody.
At ten minutes until hour 9, Nick locked up the gate and turned to see a light bobbing in the dark distance. He rolled his eyes and sighed. Someone hadn’t left when he gave the usual closing call.
It could be the Skilled who’s been fooling around, back to do more damage.
Nick stomped over to the arched cloisters in a fury. He didn’t want to, but he would use his combat skills if necessary. Not in the church. Even virtual places of worship deserved some respect. He’d keep it outside.
It wasn’t a Skilled though.
Nick’s chest tightened with a dread he didn’t understand.
“Fred?”
The friar stood at the far end of the covered walkway. His hood was up, concealing his darkened face, and he held a melted yellow candle, like the one Nick had found in the church the other night.
“Have you been the one creeping around here?” Nick laughed it off, though the effort felt weak and brittle.
Fred didn’t say anything. He started walking toward him. That was new. Nick’s stomach tightened. What else could the friar do?
Nick watched, his mouth hanging open, as Fred continued gliding toward him. Closer and closer. Approaching until he was feet away from him with no sign of stopping. Nick stepped back, but Fred kept coming.
Fred raised a hand, pointing behind Nick.
Nick’s eyes widened. There was no face he could see under Fred’s hood. Just the blackest shadow, as though someone had removed it.
What. The. Hell.
This was not an NPC. Not an AI. Not a Shell. Not his creation. This was something else entirely.
When faceless Fred was inches away, Nick shouted, “Stop!”
He blinked. Fred passed through him. Then he was gone.
SLAM.
A door shut behind Nick and the mission bells rang out, wild.
Nick bolted out through the front gate, leaving it ajar for the first time since he created it.
He looked back only once. It was enough. The Great Stone Church was a great pile of rubble.
Sunday
12:30 p.m., Mission San Juan Capistrano, CA
“Hey, you know that ghost story about the friar?”
“Nope,” Robert said, staring at his phone. He let out a loud belch, causing Gayle to gaze up from her turkey sandwich and click her tongue at him.
“Melissa said she saw him one night, but you know Melissa,” Gayle said, rolling her eyes with a snicker. “Why?”
“I—I think he’s haunting my Senium Mission.”
Robert and Gayle both turned to stare at him.
“Bro, you ain’t right.”
Gayle nodded.
Nick picked up his phone and started typing in the AI app chat box: “Am I losing it—” then he clicked his phone off. He didn’t need AI to confirm what he already knew.
Monday
10 p.m., Senium VR
Nick started work on his new project. The original marquee-style Disneyland sign on Harbor Boulevard was enormous. The mid-century design was a departure from the Spanish colonial he had perfected with the Mission, but he was sure he could do it justice, despite the massive undertaking of the project. This time he’d keep it cleaner. Even more accurate and original.
He sensed a disturbance in the air, a presence behind him. Nick turned around, hoping it was in his head.
The unsettling truth met him.
Dead eyes.
Folklore inspiration:
This speculative story draws inspiration from the enduring folklore of the ghostly friar said to haunt Mission San Juan Capistrano in Southern California. Rooted in tales of a faceless figure in religious robes who appears along quiet cloisters, the short story reimagines this legend, blending historical elements with the virtual reality setting of my sci-fi serial, The Viridis Survival Guide.
To subscribe to The Viridis Survival Guide, a weekly serial, click below:
For more on the legend:
A Los Angeles Times piece on local ghost lore references long-standing stories of apparitions tied to the mission grounds.
For more about the Great Stone Church tragedy:
The Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano was completed in 1806 and destroyed just six years later during the earthquake of December 8, 1812. The collapse occurred during morning Mass and resulted in the loss of dozens of lives, making it one of the deadliest disasters in early California history. Today, the ruins remain as both a historical landmark and a place of remembrance.
For readers interested in learning more, the Mission’s official website and historical archives offer detailed accounts of the church, the earthquake, and the broader colonial history of the site: click here.
Thanks for reading. I’d love to know what you think.
Except you, Robert.
Helena xx
Great story! I live about 20 minutes from Mission San Juan Capistrano. I like the combination of sci-fi, folklore, and a mission project. Growing up in California, completing some version of a project about the missions is a rite of passage in elementary school. :)