✞31 Days since my Last Confession✞
[†]Psalm 51:14
Deliver me from my bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.[†]
( The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. )
Deliver me from my bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.[†]
( The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. )
Willowy bends kept themselves tied about the young girl's delicate frame, cool retractiles combing through tresses of gold just to keep his hands from idling as he bowed his head in quiet benediction.
God be merciful to me a sinner.
Every shudder from the outside calamity, every screech from Hell's demons had him pleading harder.
God, cleanse me of my sins and have mercy on me.
Till surely the sweat trickling down his brow would become as blood.
Thou has created me; Lord, have mercy on me.
And soon the sounds were deafening under his own vehement prayers, till he could hear no more but his own voice lamenting in his mind. Yet the shimmer of silver caught the corner of his eye, breaking him of his pitiful pleas. He looked up, heart leaping into his throat with the hope that he had been answered by the very grace of heaven.
I have sinned immeasurably; Lord, forgive me.
Brows knit in error of his foolish want, regarding Abel with brief look of alarm.. and relaxing into downcast.]
Reverend?
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No one else had come down here in some time...
Who was it...? Father Anderson?]
...
[Nill squinted her eyes to try to look more carefully, catching the silver hues of Abel's hair and his metal rosary in the dim light.
Her own brow knitted with confusion. He wasn't someone that she expected to be seeking sanctuary in a place like this. Father Nightroad was supposed to be stronger than that...
So why...?]
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No, he hadn't come for shelter. ... They needed him back at the school. Lilith needed him....
He clutched the small bundle to him, fighting to just raise his gaze to look Maxwell in the eye... and completely unable to do that for Nill. He couldn't... She was so close to-
And Maxwell. The grip tightened imperceptibly as he met the Archbishops gaze.]
... There was an accident at Marshall. [Though his expression remained unreadable, the deep, hoarse tone of his voice conveyed something much, much different]
I-
[Cain. Anderson... His fingers uncurled, the ruined and dented frames of a pair of circular wire frame glasses resting in his palm, the cracked glass of the lens already starting to crumble. Beside it, a communicator. Scuffed, but appearing more or less unharmed. The thing may as well have been indestructible]
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H-ha...
[With thin and destitute hands reaching, he snatched the items from Abel's grasp and stared wide-eyed at the screen that reflected his vision of dread.]
He...
He didn't...
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[An accident...
" O'...Dove...E-et'll be alrigh'...Nae harm will befall ye here."
At Marshall...
" Ah proomise. God will watch o'er ye. Ahn so will ah."
Father Nightroad wasn't looking at them, and all he had to show for his presence here were a pair of familiar, broken glasses and a communicator...
Before she knew it, Nill had risen quickly to her feet. Her hands drawn up to her face and hair, fingers tangling up in the tresses, and it looked... sounded as if she were about to scream.]
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... Cain had still not returned. That alone caused him fear. Had the scientists finally cast them aside? His tone rasped, he'd already lost all of his tears.]
... I couldn't find him at all. This is... this is all I could...
[Nill. Oh Lord, Nill. Abel sank to his knees, grasping the small child by the shoulders. This was all he could possibly give, when he himself was beyond comfort. Pulling her towards him for a firm and protective embrace]
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Within cowering hands, Maxwell grasped the device so tight he threatened to dent it's frame and render it useless. Yet with a twitch of his thumb, electricity sparked through the splashscreen.. static claiming the vision until the snow cleared for enough moments to playback it's last sights.
God, cleanse me of my sins and have mercy on me.
It's last sound like a harbinger of departing.]
.....Ma...x....we....ll...
[Thou has created me; Lord, have mercy on me.
Like the black shadow of death, Anderson's voice was swallowed in the darkness, leaving the static and the silence to plague Maxwell's mind with visions of his Shepherd's undeserved selflessness to him. The misbegotten lamb had took and took until there was nothing left.
And now he was gone, never to be taken from again.
Racked with writhing convulsions, the device dropped from his hands in a horrific clatter, his talons reaching to claw at his face as he felt something splinter inside himself... and break into a thousand upon a thousand unsalvageable little pieces.
What shattered was the tektite glass around his heart, fissured by the blade of guilt of his Shepherd's passing. The weight of that razor sword pressed into the frangible flesh of that tiny black muscle, and hitched his breath as not blood spilled out..
But tears.
Cold and insurmountable.]
[I have sinned immeasurably; Lord, forgive me.
The agony caught up with him and burst forth out his mouth, only to be stifled by his hands clamping over his lips to muffle his tremoring wail.
There curled up against the wall lie crippled and feeble was a man broken by transgression.]
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The sound of Father Anderson's dying message was the cue. The static intermingled with the sound of shifting concrete from the recording only proved the worse.
Her lack of voice broke out. The scream of a mute girl is pitiful indeed. Strangled, cracked and straining...
It didn't matter to her how it sounded. Not even with the mourners present. She's had enough.
Enough of being afraid. Enough of watching people that she loved and cared about dying right before her eyes, while she could nothing to help or ease their suffering. Enough...
All of the air in her lungs suddenly rushed out in one fell swoop, causing her to sway on her feet. Her eyesight began to blur, before fading to black as she lost consciousness, her eyelids falling heavily down and edged with tears. The girl's weight began to carry her forward like a rag doll, with her head bending limply to rest against Abel's chest.
Nill had fainted.]
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... It hardly made things better, but as on edge now as Abel was, her sudden drop was enough to frighten him. Holding her close, he couldn't shut his ears against the sounds Maxwell made, only capable of blocking out the image of the once proud man as he lowered his head, resting his forehead against the little blond crown in front of him.
He couldn't stay. Lilith needed him... Eald'narche, Naja, Xi... everyone at the school... he couldn't ignore that either. He waited for several moments, before slowly extending that limp angelic form towards Maxwell. He didn't look up this time. He didn't have to. The softest patter below him would betray the tears falling]
... I have to go back.
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