Small flash fics dedicated to the characters and relationships of the Midnight Mass miniseries, written with the help of the special words of Writober 2021 ♥
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(Father Paul Hill/Riley Flynn)
•••
When he heard a knock on the door at that time of night, Paul didn't think for a second that he would find Riley at the door. He was sure it was Bev - because that woman, after all, is sometimes too constant a presence in his life and, may the Lord forgive him, he needs to recharge his batteries when he spends more than half a day with her. Even if she is silent, even if she does not move, even if she is still as a statue, her eyes are always on the back of his neck and, somehow, it makes Paul very uncomfortable.
Perhaps that is why he smiles with a warm genuineness when he sees Riley in front of him; his hands tucked into his leather jacket, his shoulders raised with his insecurity and that feeling that he is carrying all the weight of the world on his back and then, on the sides of his mouth, a smile that is not as sincere as his.
He is forced, sad, almost as if Riley has forgotten how to do it, to be happy.
Yet Paul remembers that boy when he stood there beside him during mass and, devotedly, helped him during the service. He remembers it well, because Riley was always happy to lend a hand, and not only in church, even in Crockett, and yet ... Yet those sad eyes, somehow, he always had.
"Have you lost your way home?" Asks Paul ironically.
"I followed the lord's light." Riley picks up on the provocation and, for a moment, that smile gets wet with sincerity, then fades back. "Will you let me in?" He asks.
Paul responds with a movement of his head. He makes room for him to enter and then, when they are both inside the house, he closes the door behind. He crosses his arms over his chest and sees Riley turn around, looking at the walls, the furniture, and that old sofa that, perhaps, it might be time to change. Leaning on the cushions is the bible, open to a passage, a favorite of John - of Paul.
Philippians 3: 13,14: « My brothers, I really don't think I have already won the prize. I do only one thing: I forget what is behind me and I rush towards what is in front of me. I continue my race towards the finish line to receive the prize of life to which God calls us through Jesus Christ. "
"Did the light of the lord lead you to me?" Why aren't you with your mother, or with Erin? "
"Because they wouldn't have understood. And maybe, to be honest, You can't either. "
Riley didn't turn around. He looks around again, with his hands tucked into his pockets; he takes confused steps, he does not follow a path. He is lost. Riley is now lost in a life that, Paul knows, no longer feels as it once did.
