1994, seven chairs wound up in each of the seven continents; the first chair went to a resort in Fiji, the second to a family home in Turkey, the third to the frozen tundra of Antarctica, the fourth wound up on the beaches of Mexico, the fifth one ended up in France, the sixth on a small farm in Togo, and the seventh chair wound up in a Venezuelan oil company. No one knows how it happened or why, just that it did; most of the chairs just sit waiting to be used, but number five has been activated in a church in the center of Versailles, France.

Toward the back of the rows of pews, a single chair blinks into existence. A nun walks down the pews, greeting the people there and straightening out the books left in the seats. Once she reaches the final row she sees the chair, feeling drawn to it for an unknown reason. The chair glows in the yellow-red lighting streaming through the stained glass window as it slowly lifts into the air, taking the nun with it as if she were weightless; but the other church-goers are too busy to notice.

Two men walk through the decorated doors of the church, they don long orange robes and orange hats with rounded tips; they look at the floating nun with curiosity. The closing of the church doors gets the attention of the priest and a few nuns; the nuns scream as they look up and see their fellow sister hovering just below the ceiling, thinking it may be a demonic omen. The people gather to stare and whisper, formulating theories about what might have caused this, while the priest looks at the oddly dressed newcomers suspiciously. 

“You, in the robes,” he moves toward them, “who are you? Have you got something to do with this?” The men glance at each other, one shakes his head and takes out a small paper from his pocket. He scribbles on it for a moment before handing it to the priest, who takes it hesitantly.

“What is it father, something bad?” One of the other nuns asks him quietly, hiding behind him from the strange men. He shakes his head and she relaxes slightly as he hands back the paper.

“No sister, they are monks taking a vow of silence. They are here to use a private prayer room.” He points them in the direction of the private prayer rooms and looks up at the silent nun. He notices a small black orb on the bottom of the chair. He glances around the foyer, trying to look for anything or anyone suspicious. He spots a man, who looks like he’s from a top-secret government agency, standing in the shadows behind a set of columns talking into a phone with a nervous expression on his face. The father walked over to him and tapped his shoulder; the man hangs up and turns to the father.

“Yes, do you need something father? I am quite busy.” He puts the phone into his pocket and looks around for any other lurking people.

“Yes I do, have you got something to do with this, making the chair float? What is that object on the underside of it?” The man seems to get more nervous as the father questions him, trying to figure out what to say to a nosy man of God. “Who are you? I’ve never seen you around town or in this church before.”

“Father your church may be in danger, everyone here needs to leave.” He begins to move toward the center of the foyer where the nun on the chair still floats, but the father stops him.

“This is my church and I protect it and its members. I need to know why it’s in danger and I will not take no for an answer.” The man watches the whispering people and sighs. He nods at the people and they go around asking people to leave, politely telling them there was nothing to worry about; once everyone was out of the church the government-issued man begins his story.

“Several years ago a secret government agency was formed; we were tasked with creating new weaponry and technology for the government in the event of another war breaking out. One man on our team was an absolute genius, he knew everything. But soon we started noticing he was going a bit...loony. He was talking about crazy new weapons he had come up with, too crazy for any of the rest of us to imagine using.” He sits on a pew and runs a hand through his hair, the father sitting on a pew across from him. “He created a powerful weapon that could destroy an entire country, he had gone mad and so he was kicked off the team. He dismantled his weapon and hid the pieces, waiting for his chance to reactivate them. We’ve been tracking them for some time and one of the activated pieces is on that chair.”

“Ok, makes perfect sense. Now get that woman down and back to her normal self, please. I will get a ladder.” The father goes into a nearby closet and finds a ladder that is just barely tall enough to reach the nun. “What do I do if someone else comes in here looking for that thing?” The silver ladder is opened and set underneath the floating chair and the government-issued man climbs up the steps.

“You will simply tell them you don’t know anything, I sure hope you can tell a lie father.” He reaches the final step and carefully grabs the nun. “Hold the ladder tight now father, I’m going to put her on the ladder as soon as I take the object.” Suddenly the chair is falling back to the ground and the nun is rushed onto one of the ladder steps, causing it to shake violently; the man steadies himself and the nun and pockets the black object.

“Sister, thank God you are ok. Come, come let's get you somewhere safe.” The father takes her hand and leads her to another room, mouthing a quick thank you to the government man and leaving him to clean up. The man leaves with the object, going back to his day job while someone else also searches for the rest of the weapon.
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This is based off of the picture and caption up top from "The Mysteries if Harris Burdick."