✞10 Days since my Last Confession✞

[13th_crusader]

[✝]Daniel 10:8

So I was left alone to see this grand vision.
I had no strength left in me.
My face turned deathly pale: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I was helpless.[✝]

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[13sugars]

[It was about time he paid a visit to the church again. Heaven knew he had to be more consistent with it. Those two lost days of time worried him as well, maybe he should stop by the hospital first….

Nah.

He wasn’t paying attention to his communicator at all, really. He didn’t want to get distracted by anything (as much as he sincerely wished to be), his main focus on checking up with Anderson and Maxwell. More people were complaining about this loss of time, it was just best to see if those two were adversely effected by it. Nothing wrong with being safe.

The church door was open? Now, that was a new one. The priest slipped in, confused. Where was everyone? Maxwell would never be so careless as to leave the door open like this. And Anderson? No, he'd never allow that! Concern started to gnaw at him, and he turned down a familiar hallway, heading right to the door that protected the Arch Bishop. Would it open? A cautious knock sounded at the door.]

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[13th_crusader]

[The man, bitter and broken, sat curled with his knees to his chest in his bed. Arms wrapped tightly around a tome-like bible that was Anderson's most beloved possession--So tightly was he bound around it, it was as if he were trying to draw it's protection from the very pages within.]

I'm alone.. I'm actually alone..! Why! Why do I have to be left alone in this Godforsaken place!

[He was mewling with his face buried into the the spine of the pages, yet snapped to attention when the door knocked, slamming his back against the headboard. He shot hopeful bloodshot eyes to the door, his heart beating in his chest like a wild dove trying to escape.]

Anderson?

Come.. come in!

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[13sugars]

[Abel had no idea, not even the faintest clue as to what was going on. There was something wrong, he could tell that already, but as to the seriousness of the situation... well...

The invitation was immediately responded do, the priest just thankful to hear someone was alive in there. Swinging open the door.... Oh, he hardly expected to see this. Maxwells eyes red from crying, curled up in his bed and clinging to the book like a child would hug a stuffed bear. Surprised? Oh, most certainly, blown away actually by the broken mans appearance, before taking a step forward, concern and worry almost radiating off of him.]

Arch Bishop? What....? [What was going on?] Are you alright?

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[13th_crusader]

[The child-like hopefulness in his glassy expression was almost heart-wrenching to see drain away into utter aging disappointment. Scattered about him were Iscariot barrier parchments, and whatever poor books and other things he found useless that caught the brunt of his earlier rampage.]

You?!

[Maxwell about scattered in ten-different directions as once, only succeeding in sending his own ass to the floor, and wincing down the urge he had to cough viciously again.]

I'm.. I'm alive.

[He scrambled to pull himself back together in front of this would-be heathen, priest, whatever he was, he didn't care right now.]

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[13sugars]

[It was too late to return that now lost pride. Not that the man had much if it before, Abels first memory of him after all was the Arch Bishop panicking in the graveyard over the redeads. But this... was far from amusing. The disappointment in the other mans gaze didn't hurt him do to whom it was aimed at, but simply because... he looked so achingly sad. Abels gaze softened.]

You're not well. [He took a few more steps into the room, holding out his hand towards the smaller man.]

Here, let me help you...

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[13th_crusader]

[Just the thought of his touch, without even making it that far, caused his flesh to set on fire.]

Please don't hurt touch me, I-- [It sounded as if he were pleading rather than demanding as he shrunk away as far as he could against the bed-post, as if the man were coming at him with a knife.

The only knife to cut him however was the one in the pit of his stomach, and feeling the dagger twist, he muffled a ragged cough into a handkerchief from his breast-pocket. The white cloth with an embroidered gold cross in his crumpled grasp was sprinkled in dots of red thick and thin.]

...I need to go.

[Where, he didn't know, now, was a time good as any as he grasped the bedpost to stand.]

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[13sugars]

[He was used to such a reaction. Of course he was. Methuselah and human alike had cast that gaze at him. If was a first though, to get such a reaction when he hadn't even revealed the crusnik.

Abels mouth set in a line as Maxwell refused his help, and practically pleaded with him not to touch him. As if his hand would somehow slice the man open.

However, it was the smell of blood that caught him. It was faint, but all too obvious as Maxwell coughed raggedly into the handkerchief, and as he tried to stand, the priest was there at his side, approval or not, gently helping him up and along.]

You're going to the hospital, that's where you're going.

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[13th_crusader]

N-no really you don't understan--!

[The man was suddenly like a cat dropped in a bathtub, his joints and muscles locking up as Abel put his arms around him to stable him. Touch by anyone, anything, had been an issue stamped on his visage since he was an abandoned child. They refused him bodily contact, so he in turn refused all others.]

Plea--!

[With his heart fluttering now like the rapid beats of a hummingbird, and trying to wriggle free, his body overwhelmed itself.. and decided to shut down to save him from shattering.

A defense mechanism of sorts--He lost all color in his face fainted in the priest's hold.]

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[13sugars]

[Frankly, he didn't care how socially awkward the man was. He needed immediate medical attention, and there was no way he'd be able to make it from this church to the hospital on his own two shaking legs. He didn't want to scare the man, to make him any more uncomfortable than he already was...

But some things had to be done.

Abel winced at the pathetic pleas, before almost stumbling as the man suddenly became dead weight in his arms. Was he okay?! Quickly, he gently laid the unconscious man out on the floor, searching for a pulse... Okay... He'd only fainted..

Maybe that was for the best.

With a heavy sigh, he gathered the limp body into his arms, supporting the head as best he could against his own body, until everything was straightened out and ready to go. Cradling the poor man against him as if he weighed nothing, he headed out the door and into the streets with a sigh.]

I suppose I ought to tell Kureha and Eirin we're coming...