Your Beauty Never Scared Me: Papa IV x Female Reader

Prologue

(Y/n) was a good girl: a token member of their church and a loving, loyal daughter. Your father was an upstanding member of the church and a leader among the members, to them he was seen as some sort of saint. This was never an issue for you in your younger years, in fact, you believed it. You saw your community and family as a perfect picture, a safespace filled with love. However, fear reveals the worst behind the picture.

Everyone in the community agreed that you were a beauty, some even comparing you to an angel among them. You never really believed these comments, even finding some of them off putting. The most unnerving comments came from the older members of her church. Now, the community was rather traditional in their beliefs, so the first time an older member of the church made an unwanted advance towards you and told your father. He called you rude for not taking the complement and said that if it happened again they should be grateful since it was 'a recognition of the gift the Lord had given you'. You spent your teen years silently suffering as members seemingly smothered you. While uncomfortable, you never had any of these older men try anything physical and thought that at least there would be safety within the church. Oh how you were wrong. One Sunday, not long after you turned 18, you were staying after service to help the clergy members with planning a fundraiser. One member, Mr. Jones, asked you to step aside with him so you could help him with something. He tried to force himself on you but you were able to get away. After meeting with everyone you pulled the priest aside and confessed to what happened: you would learn that this was your greatest mistake. The next few weeks were a nightmare: you were ostracized by your church, many saying that your beauty wasn't a gift from God but a curse from the Devil himself to tempt their convent. Members wouldn't interact with you and blamed you for the lustful behavior of their members. Home wasn't much better. With the attacks from the convent on his daughter, Mr. Williams' reputation started to be tainted, which angered him to no avail. The only gleam of hope you had at home was your mother. Your mother, held within the traditional values of the community, didn't openly oppose her husband but did comfort you and tried to at least be a shoulder to cry on.

You put up with this treatment for about 2 years before you snapped. The younger, eligible men of the convent started to partake in lustful behaviors towards you which led to trouble. The priest, whom treated you as a demon walking the earth, threatened an exorcism to try and purge the 'Devil's curse'. This was the breaking point, terrified, you packed a small bag and left into the night. You started down the road, you didn't know where you were going but hoped to at least find somewhere for temporary sanctuary. After what could only have been a few hours of walking you ended up in a town you didn't recognize. A little more cozy that your hometown but it was a comforting sight. As you continued walking you couldn't help but stare at the beautiful cathedral in the middle of town, it was a beautiful gothic building that, while old, was well taken care of. You finally made it to the front of the church, you were confused why you seemed drawn to it. Even when you weren't ostracized there was something imposing about your church, a nagging fear or discomfort that stayed in the back of your mind. Not here, there was something pulling you to this church and you were now determined to find out. You made your way to the front doors, a sign on the door stated that to speak to a clergy member to please ring the doorbell. With a final deep breath, you rang.