His eyes lingered in her own for a moment, as if he were searching for something as he replied softly. "For some, it is. Of course, I ask that you veiw me as a person first... I am only an ear for the lord within the booth." He referred to the confessions.

That stated, he watched as she continued, picking up the signs of nervousness. Tension. Still, she admirably pushed her way through it, and spoke up. She asked about hate. He remained silent while she finished the question.

"My child... I cannot say that hate is an unnatural emotion. I could simply stand here and tell you not to. That wouldn't be an honest response, though, and to lie is to sin. I will say that I was once a young man filled with hate, and I never found enlightenment with that hate in me. It wasn't until I chose to replace the hate with compassion that I found my soul free of burden. That is a difficult thing to do, though. To feel hate for the wicked is also natural. To feel compassion for the wicked where you once felt hate is to find hope to guide two to the light." He paused in his musings as if in thought, and decided to speak one more line. "I will say, it is possible to feel compassion for the wicked, and still do what must be done to save others from pain."

A person first? Well, OK. That was easy enough. He was a people.

He almost lost her entirely on the next part, though. Compassion for the wicked? What a crock. The people in her life she'd label as 'wicked' didn't even deserve the first letter of the word. She actually stewed in what he had said for a bit, genuine picking at her nails as she raged on the inside about all of the compassion the biggest demon in her life had seen.

"...what about fear?" Her voice cracked and she hadn't even faked it. All it took was a flash of white teeth in a too-big grin. Blue eyes, crinkled at the corners, but not a hint of light in them.

"... How do you get past the fear, so you can work on compassion?"

She understood while a lot of people in her shoes went online to post anonymously about their trauma. Speaking your truth out into the void where someone, anyone could hear you, just so that even one of them might take your side. She didn't have any plans on coming back to this church after her job was done. She didn't have any want to ever see the kind priest again.

So, when she finally turned her chin up and looked at him with watery red eyes and allowed all of the emotions she ket buried to the surface.... it was completely authentic.

"How I am I supposed to be compassionate to him when all I feel is fear and hate whenever someone even brings up his name?"

His heart genuinely ached for this poor girl. He could tell that within her lie a well of pain. He looked about for a quick moment, and then took a seat next to her, careful not to invade her space, but also close enough to let her know he was there. Really... there.

"When I was a young man, I was sent to a catholic school... The mother superior there told me, during punishment, that love... is fear. Needless to say, I wasn't catholic again until I was an adult." It was a dry joke, but there it was. He looked at her for a long moment, and stated firmly. "There are times when it is impossible. God will not ask you, or anyone to be more than human. If the voice in your heart finds it impossible to forgive, instead, leave the fate of the wicked in the hands of god."

He turned toward the confessional booth, and then looked back toward her. "Words spoken can be a weight off of the soul. If you would like, we can talk in confidentiality, in the presence of the lord." It made sense. She didn't feel safe around mutants. She hated, and feared someone. A demon, perhaps? If he had the details, he could be the divine intervention she so desperately needed.

She wiped at her cheeks, amplifying the embarrassment she actually felt tenfold until she felt like it fit the character she was playing. Someone embarrassed to break down in front of another person in such away. "I'm sorry... I don't mean to make a scene."

She was aware that he had sat beside her, but at a distance that still respected her bubble. A nice touch. The dry joke didn't escape her either, but she retrained from laughing. It was even harder not to laugh at his second, much funnier joke.

That God would punish the wicked for her. Hilarious.

She tilted her chin back up at him a little as he mentioned the booth and how it might do her some good to talk. She agreed because it could help cement her acceptance into his little flock. It was still weird, though.

"A-alright. I've never confessed or anything like that before, but I wouldn't mind." Who wanted to crawl into a glorified pantry so that they could talk to someone else right next door? It visually made her think of bathroom stalls and how taboo it was to try and talk to someone else while they did their business. Maybe the first Catholic priest to invent the Confessional had been a bathroom-stall-talker.

Juniper, or rather, grace stood and waited for the priest to lead the way. The booth wasn't nearly as stuffy as she had anticipated once she was inside. She did totally jump when a screen was uncovered with a soft scrap of wood.

....So... now what?

"Sorry, um... Do... Do I just start talking?" She waited for a reply, making sure to keep nervously wringing her hands in her lap just in case he could see her through the mesh. Once she got some kind of affirmative she started, with him helping her along. It was her first time, after all.

"...Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. This is... this is my first confession." She paused, tucked a few strands of hair back from her face, and resumed picking at the skin around her nails. She hesitated only once to ask what was next, and after having it patiently explained, she started slowly dipping her toes in the water of her story.

An explanation of her anger and fear, a few hesitant details about who it was causing her so much pain. A "relative" on her mother's side who seemingly had a strange ability to get his way in all matters of things. She toed around the subject of the violence he had enacted on her with barely restrained anxiety, still unable to unlock her lips enough to fully get the whole story out. Grace dove meekly into how hurt she had been when her own parents refused to believe her. They took her abuser at his word every time without question, no matter how unbelievable it was.

She tried to keep it short and to the point, unsure about how long confessions usually took and tried to wind her way back to the current day. It was there that the modified truths came out.

"I have had to distance myself from my family because whenever I go to visit, there he is. I can't grow past this because whenever he sees me he brings it all up again and I just- I can't-"

'Juniper Wilhemina Brown! I didn't raise you to spread awful lies like that! You apologize to your uncle right this instant!'

"... I can't bear to hear them all call me a liar when it's all true."

The tears had long since stopped, about midway into her story actually. She was calm and quiet, her voice almost too soft to hear.

'I never want to hear such a filthy thing come out of your mouth ever again, do you hear me?!'

Oh, yes, mother. Yes, she had. Loud and crystal f*cking clear.

This wasn't exactly how confessionals worked, mind you. One catalogued their sins, and shames, not the sins done upon them. Still, he'd felt it pertinent to give her privacy in order to hear her out.

It was stunning. To this day, the stories of those wronged by the demons still seized his chest, and filled him with a brimming disgust that he had to remind himself of his compassion. This relative of hers. He had hurt her. She didn't outright say it, but he could tell. Her family had a snake in its midsts, and she was helpless to defend from it.


"Thank you for your confession, my child. I find you free of sin, and thus are not in need of recompense. I ask only that you try to stay strong, and trust in the lord to free you from this pain." And the lord would.

The plan started to crystalize. Cleanse the wicked relative. Freed from the burden of this pain, she would return to the flock knowing the lord had done his work. Make her a trusted sheep. She would be another boon to the cause.

All in due time. "Until then, do what you must to stay safe."

"Thank you... I will."

She had no idea what 'recompense' was, but apparently, she didn't need to. She did need to leave, though. Exiting the booth awkwardly and heading for the exit, she squashed the urge to dig her phone out and just continued to wring her hands together. It still didn't feel like she had an answer and after everything, she'd laid bare in an attempt to get one, that was super annoying.

He hadn't said if he'd believed her or not, but he also hadn't invited her back. Maybe she was just supposed to keep coming? Ehhh.. She wasn't sure she wanted to. People often looked at you differently once you told them secret stuff like that.

She took a long route home, looping around a few times and stopping for coffee once, before ultimately getting back to her apartment. It was time to shelve the job for the week and get back to her regular life, until the next Sunday rolled around.