Sinner's Place {h.s}

thirty-five.

Blood dripped down my chin, the metallic taste prodded on my tongue as my lips pressed together tightly. Only so I wouldn't vomit at the shocking truth of drinking someone else's blood. His blood was in my stomach. The thought of it traumatized me, made my jaw swell and my mouth salivate at the feeling of throwing up.

It was noticeable the way his bandage dripped with blood that it was his. There was so much blood soaked through his bandage. Looking down into the cup, there had to have only been a shot, but how much blood did he shed to feed everyone?

Everyone around me didn't notice that I was near passing out with the head rush that I had. Thankfully. But they were all drinking the blood. They knew it was blood. There was no way that they didn't. The taste was a dead giveaway, but the pills that this church had been feeding them had possibly made them not mind it as much.

I looked up at Father Ezekiel.

"Why...." I choked out as I came back to my senses, using the back of my hand to wipe the blood off my lips, "Why--"

"Anna, it's just wine," Father tilted his head as he looked down at the cup with a frown. I blinked hard. It wasn't wine and I knew that. I tasted it. There's blood all over his arm.

"That is not wine!" I felt like he was gaslighting me. Like I was going crazy. He was making me feel crazy in my own head. The thickness of the drink--the metallic taste, all of it--it wasn't. It couldn't have been.

I felt a hand on my arm, almost jolting away from the touch before I swung backwards to see Zayn standing there with a frown. He had his cup held tightly in his hand. It wasn't empty, it looked like he hadn't even touched it yet.

"It really is just wine, Anna," Zayn whispered softly, nodding his head towards me as he showed me his cup. I blinked hard. Quickly, I took the cup from him before looking down into it. It wasn't thick. It was light. Splashy. It circled around the cup effortlessly as I moved the glass around.

Speechless, I looked back at Father Ezekiel behind me before shooting my eyes down towards his arm where his bandage was. To my surprise, and much of a mind fuck, there was nothing. The bloodied bandage that was there before was no longer.

Without thinking, I quickly grabbed his arm and moved his sleeve up. He stared at me in confusion, not alarmed at my sudden movements towards him even though the usher's that stood behind him quickly made a move towards him. Father Ezekiel, with a deadpanned look on his face, flicked his free hand up into the air to stop the men.

Tears brimmed my waterline as my thumb slowly traced around his skin. There was nothing. No cuts. No blood. Nothing.

"I...I saw..." I choked out. My memory was failing me. Suddenly, I started to really rethink if that happened or not. Could it have been some sort of stress induced hallucination? It didn't make sense.

"I'm sorry, Father," My words were shaky as I grabbed my cup from him, "I must be...tired."

He nodded. "We have many tired people here. Must be the sun, sometimes it can wear us out."