It Never Had To Get So Dark - Father Paul Hill x Reader

Eight

(The canon divergence officially hits hardest from this chapter on, just so all is in fair warn.)

Death and repentance.

That hadn't been the subject I'd anticipated when asking about Ash Wednesday, but Father Paul had explained it all in the simplest and gentlest way that anyone could have told me without making me feel like an idiot for not knowing.

That man was a natural at making anyone feel at ease, even when asking the easiest of questions.

He'd certainly left me with plenty of think about after our conversation was over and he had excused himself to wander around the others, engaging them in more polite conversations.

Meanwhile, I was stuck with a dog snoozing on my foot and I dared not move in case I woke him from whatever bliss filled dream he was having, probably of stealing and tearing apart all the bean bags of the world, destroying every game in progress.

I didn't mind, it was nice and peaceful sitting away from the crowd while observing them mingling as the music played in the background.

A picture-perfect scene of a small community brought together, only some were bearing ash crosses unlike in paintings of similar scenes.

It was all so perfect and serene...until it wasn't.

It all happened so quickly.

Everything was going so well as people talked and laughed and drank and ate together.

And then there was the yell.

A bellow of pure sorrow and pleading that cut everything off into a deafening silence, everything but the cries of Joe from across the knoll.

By the time I had jumped up from my seat, jolting Kura awake in the process, a crowd had already started to gather and quickly blocked out my view of Joe's place on the ground beside a disturbingly still Pike.

Not that it blocked Joe's cries from filling the harrowing quiet that had come over the crowd, barely a murmur could be heard from where we stood and I didn't dare move any closer, both for my own sake of not wanting to witness what had happened and for conserving at least a part of Joe's privacy.

Instead I sat back down, immediately resting a hand on Kura's neck in a form of comfort as tears pricked at my eyes.

It went without saying that the party was over but not a soul was leaving and it felt like hours before anyone moved, though it was likely only a numbingly slow minute or so.

Unsurprisingly the first ones to push through the crowd to rush off were Joe, Sarah and Sheriff Hassan, the latter of which was carrying a limp Pike in his arms as Sarah comforted an inconsolable Joe.

From there people slowly dispersed, some staying behind to help clear everything away in a lingering solemn atmosphere.

Being unable to handle it, I decided to take my leave and lead Kura home.

The rest of the day passed at a snail's pace from there and I felt that the night couldn't come fast enough as I cried to myself while cuddling up to Kura, desperate to keep him close in fear of anything happening to him despite not knowing concretely what had caused whatever had happened to Pike.

Kura was very good about me hanging off of him, barely moving as we lay on the couch, my head resting on his back leg like a pillow and my arm wrapped around him so that I could stroke the base of his throat as he slumbered the rest of the day away until it was time to eat.

Even mourning for a friend's loss couldn't stop Kura's routine.

I couldn't muster up an appetite to eat anything else, so I fed Kura and let him out before getting ready for bed early, opting to lie around and attempt to read the book I was making my way through in the hopes of distracting myself until sleep took over from the sadness and paranoia.