Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
CONFESSION
We’d parted ways for lunch, yet even in Sister Lilith’s absence, I felt the lingering press of her pussy against my palm.
After lunch, we gathered all together in the sanctuary again to receive the town for confession.
Lilith fidgeted with something in her pocket as she stood next to a cross-armed Sister Pandorian.
Sister Delilyx stared into the prayer candles’ flames, and Reverend Mother soon entered the sanctuary, her habit perfectly pressed and billowing behind her as she glided down the center aisle.
Somehow Veilentine always managed to look regal in her garb.
It was the same as the rest of us, yet on her, it seemed elevated and distinguished.
Our Reverend Mother commanded her habit; it did not command her.
I’d always admired that about her and wished to someday emulate her swift and easy confidence.
“Blessed confession day, Sisters,” she smiled and folded her hands together when she reached us as we stood by the altar. “Do we stand ready to honor god through our good works towards Howl Moor?”
“Yes, Reverend Mother,” I said in unison with Sister Pandorian and Sister Delilyx. Sister Lilith fiddled in her pocket. What did she always reach for?
“Very good, Sisters,” Reverend Mother said. “Sister Lilith, since this is your first confession at Altar Church of Lost Souls, stay by Sister Jezebella and she will guide you, as every church hosts their confession differently.”
Sister Lilith nodded and timidly moved to stand by me.
Veilentine continued. “Father Benedict is already within the confession booth. I will stand by the front door and usher parishioners in as the booth becomes available.”
“What do we do?” Sister Lilith asked in a small voice, looking around the giant sanctuary.
Sister Pandorian tapped her foot. “What do you do at your home church during confession?”
“We do not play an active role in confession, honestly. So, I am eager to see a new way of doing things.”
Sister Pandorian brushed off Sister Lilith’s answer and turned her attention to Sister Delilyx. “Are you feeling up for it? It’s a lot of people.”
“Yes, I’ve been looking forward to it, actually. May I stand in the halls and offer prayers, Reverend Mother?”
Veilentine inclined her head. “You may, and Sister Pandorian, you will come with me. Sister Jezebella, you and our guest will stand outside the confession booth to usher.”
“Yes, Reverend Mother,” I replied. After a beat of silence, and Valentine’s steely gaze, I elbowed Sister Lilith.
“Oh,” she startled. “Yes, um, yes, Reverend Mother.”
Veilentine spared the new nun a curious gaze before nodding again. “May peace be with you all today, Sisters.”
The three of them exited, moving onward to their posts. Lilith broke the silence when we were alone, save for Father Benedict who was on the far side of the sanctuary in the confession box doing… whatever it was priests did in there when they were alone. Napped, maybe? I would have napped.
“I don’t think the other nuns like me. Especially Sister Pandorian. I’m not even sure your Reverend Mother likes me. Did they take quickly to you when you first came here?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “It took a few weeks for everyone to warm up to me, too. Though it was helpful that Reverend Mother took me under her wing.”
“How so?”
Spanking me, fucking me, guiding me in eating her pussy and sucking on her cross pendant.
“Reverend Mother has mentored me in the way of the lord.”
Lilith eyed me with her sparkling blue gaze. “How fortunate for you to gain such a special mentorship.”
She stared at me a little too closely and I felt the back of my neck get hot. I gestured towards the ornate and pointed, dark oak booth. “Usher duty awaits us.”
“We just stand on either side of the doors?” Lilith asked. “What is our purpose?”
“Yes, you stand next to Father Benedict’s side. I’ll stand over here next to the parishioners’ side, since if anyone needs anything, it’ll be one of them. Father Benedict won’t pop out until the end or until he needs a break or something.”
“And what is our job exactly?”
“Open the doors, offer tissues or prayer, whatever the townsfolk need.” I looked up and admired the carved cherubs on the sides of the wooden structure. It was hundreds of years old. I often wondered over all the secrets those cherubs had heard in their time etched in wood.
Mr. Hutchins was the first person through the door. He wore dirtied overalls, which made me think he’d come straight from his crops he tended in a neighboring field. “Hello, Sisters.” He smiled at each of us, pausing outside his side of the booth. “I reckon I should take off my hat, huh?”
“I don’t think god cares if you wear a hat or not, personally,” I answered. “Plus, you don’t believe in god, anyway.”
Sister Lilith bit her lip in a small smile.
Mr. Hutchins chuckled thinly. “Aint that the truth. Though, it’s always nice to get some things off my chest.” He took off his worn hat and looked to Sister Lilith, who glanced back puzzled before remembering her job.
“Oh, yes,” she said, opening the booth door.
“Here you go. Happy, um, confessing.” The old gentleman shot me an amused expression before disappearing in the narrow structure.
Lilith folded her hands together and stared up at the crimson stained glass of the cathedral.
“It’s nice that your priests accept all people here. ”
“I take it Damnation Station does not?”
Lilith covered her mouth in a giggle. “Don’t make me laugh or we’ll interrupt confession.”
I raised a challenging eyebrow, pleased with myself for making her smile. Being the cause of those smiles was becoming a pastime I quite enjoyed.
“But yes, my home church is much, much different from Altar Church. The priests there…” She shook her head. “They preach that anyone not of god’s word, their version of god’s word, is of the devil.”
I nodded, side stepping an inch closer to her. “My former church was similar, the one I took my vows in. They caught me…” I met her gorgeous blue stare and couldn’t bring myself to share, so I shook my head. “I get it. Though, perhaps, by the sounds of it, your church is more severe than mine was?”
Sister Lilith’s jaw tightened as she looked away and down at her toes. “You won’t say anything… will you? About… our prayers?”
Bridging the gap, I gently grasped Sister Lilith’s wrist, taking a moment to rub my thumb along her soft skin.
The only bit of skin I could reach out and touch at any time, really.
Lowly, I answered her, “I’m great at keeping secrets, remember?
But Sister Lilith…” I searched for her eyes until they met mine.
“You know not all people believe as churches like yours do, right? Heck, not even all priests and nuns believe that. What we do… what we’ve done…
may exist in a forbidden area because of our vows, but being intimate as women who desire women, that could never be of the devil. ”
“Then why does the devil prowl in the woods and howl in the night after what we’ve done?” Her eyes were a watery shade clearer as she asked on a small whisper, her hand reaching into her pocket.
I reached down, cupping the outside of her pocket, too, finding her knuckles and something hard and heavy. “You did hear the howls that day, didn’t you? Why did you say you did not?”
Lilith made a pained expression and opened her mouth to respond when, suddenly, there was a scuffle behind us, and the parishioner’s confession door opened.
Sister Lilith jumped away from me, and I moved to the side to let Mr. Hutchins pass. He wished us a good day and farewell, avoiding lingering. Most people did the same, as if they wanted to step out into the sunlight and leave dead in the dark whatever burden they’d brought with them.
I was about to ask more of the nun when the priest’s side door opened just slightly, revealing nothing but a sliver of shadow into confession. Father Benedict reached out his pale arm and made a beckoning motion. “Send in the next.”
“Yes, Father,” I answered, glancing towards the doorway and coming up short. Usually the process was quicker, but I saw no sign of my sisters. After a silent moment, I said to both priest and nun, “I’ll go see what the hold up is.”
When I pushed through the heavy double doors of the sanctuary into the foyer, only emptiness greeted me.
Strange, I thought. This was where Sister Delilyx should be with a line of at least a few townspeople awaiting their turn.
I made to walk towards the front door where Reverend Mother would be waiting on the other side, but halted, knowing that if I went to her, it could land Sister Delilyx in trouble for abandoning her post.
My fellow nun had already been jumpy and on edge, then finding the crumpled page torn from her bible surely frightened her. Sister Lilith’s small, thin voice lingered through my mind in that solitary moment within the hollow room.
Then why does the devil prowl in the woods and howl in the night after what we’ve done?
Delilyx’s jittery grip as she passed me the ripped verse.
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.
Of course these thoughts would chill down my spine as I stood in an eerily vacant corridor. I turned to head in the direction of the washroom and the kitchen to see if perhaps my Sister in Christ stepped away for a brief moment, when a rattling sound paused my steps.
It could have been my imagination.