Page 4 of The Angel's Kiss
I turned to see the priest standing near the confessional. His black smock and white collar were as neat as his hair and beard.
“Canyou help me?” I asked, then began to step closer. I wondered if he would be able to sense what I was. Most humans couldn’t, but there were some that had the gift. Many of them became Guards for the Guild.
“I am here to listen, my son. I can offer you guidance,” he said, then gestured toward the confessional.
I nodded and he went into one and I entered the other half. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t go for all the pomp and circumstance,” I said. I heard him swallow and wondered if he was preparing himself for my confession.
“I will listen and do what I can to help your troubled soul, my son,” he said.
“Can you forgive my sins?” I asked.
“If you are truly repentant, you must ask the lord for his forgiveness.”
“How do I know if I’m forgiven?” I was looking at him through the wooden latticework covering the window, but he was facing away from me.
“You will know in your heart. You will know in your conscience,” he said.
“Let me ask you something, Father. Who do you think will get into Heaven? The atheist who lived their life being good to their fellow man and honest? The person who'd give a stranger a place to stay or the clothes off their back? Or the person who claims to be Christian all the while harming their fellow man and hypocritically judging people? Going out of their way to treat people who don't look, believe, or act like them as less than? Who do you think Heaven will welcome?” I ran my fingers through my hair. “And if you'd said the latter, is that the Heaven you want to spend eternity in? With all those assholes?”
“Heaven and God welcome all who repent,” the priest said.
I snorted, then laughed. “Such a typical response because you don’t know. I’ll tell you the truth. God doesn’t forgive sinners, no matter how hard they beg for it. Do you want to know why?”
“He does, my child. If you truly want his forgiveness,” the priest urged.
“You’ve already sinned. You’ve had your fun. You’ve hurt your victims. How can God forgive you when they can’t or haven’t? Is that fair?” I asked.
“Fair?”
“Yes. Is it fair for the victim who was innocent to then have to spend eternity with the person who sinned against them? Who hurt them, who took away their joy, all because they said they finally felt bad about it?” I asked.
“When a person gives themselves to our Lord and Savoir, there is no pain. There is no resentment, there is no regret once they pass on and are accepted into the hands of God. Once they are welcomed into his home,” the priest said those words as if he truly believed them.
I laughed then and the sound coming from me wasn’t human. It was enough to make the priest finally look at me and I could smell and see the terror starting to creep in. I smiled then, allowing my fangs to grow, then I slipped my fingers through the latticework, gripping it.
The priest's eyes grew wide as he saw my claws extend and turn black. He shrank back into the tiny space. “W-what—what are you?” he stammered.
“I’m what tortures the souls you believe you’ve absolved of all their sins,” I said. “Hell is full of souls who assumed that with a few words of contrition, they could wipe the slate clean with their last breath. Oh, don’t worry... there is a Heaven, but that God is not as merciful as you would have your flock believe. There is still a debt to pay,” I said the last part with a growl that had the priest shaking in fear.
“H-how can you enter the house of God?” the priest stammered.
I laughed. “The ‘house of God’? God only has one house and this isn’t it,” I said.
“God is all around us. You will not darken this place with your evil!”
I leaned forward so he could better see my glowing indigo eyes. “Can’t you see that I’m a tortured soul, Father? Or are your words only for humans so that they can lie to themselves? How arrogant when humans think whatever good fortune they receive is God’s blessing as if they are more worthy than the next believer. Did they ever consider that it was the work of my kind because of their very arrogance?”
The priest was sweating, his entire body pressed to the other side of the small space as if that would keep him out of my reach. “L-leave t-t-this place, you foul thing!”
I ripped the latticework out of my way, then punched through the woodwork as the priest screamed his prayers louder while shrinking in fear. I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closer, my indigo eyes glowing even brighter in my rage. “Why do you fear me? Whether you die tonight or fifty years from now, don’t you believe you’re going to a better place? Where’s your faith?” I snarled.
He closed his eyes tight, too afraid to look at me, but he didn’t cease his praying. I leaned forward and inhaled his fear. “Do you think you’ll be saved? Why do you want to be? Why are you praying... haven’t you done enough of that to get you into those pearly gates you covet?”
I pulled him through the hole I’d made in the confessional then slung him through the door, sending his body crashing into two of the pews. He cried out and fell to the floor, holding his back that I was sure would have a bruise on it. I felt a sharp jab of pain shoot through my head and stomach, making me grimace.I groaned because it was a discomforting sensation. I’ve never experienced illness of any kind and whatever just happened was an anomaly. The pain faded and I stepped out of the wreckage of the confessional and walked over to him, kneeling before him. I hated him and everything he represented, and I was eager to relieve him of this mortal coil.
“Allow me to send you to the God who cursed me,” I said, my voice deep and laced with all of the menace I felt toward everything and everyone. I drew my fist back to punch him, a blow that was sure to end this brittle being, but a strong wave of nausea attacked me and I fell back and leaned over, vomiting bile onto the floor. My head throbbed like someone was hammering it and my stomach felt like I was being kicked repeatedly. The sickness was crippling and left me weak and shivering afterward. My body aching all over, my head reeling.
“My God did save me,” the priest said as he scrambled away from me.
