Run Away

7.

Faith was not much to Katherine Sweeny. In her youth, she prayed to the God she was taught to believe in with everything her soul had for the health of her loved ones and an end to the constant fighting in her home. Ultimately, those loved ones fell ill and her parents still screamed, or so she supposed she hadn't gone home in so long. Nevertheless, faith was not a source of direction. When she lost her only one, she fell to her knees in agony cursing the powers at be to bring him back. Nothing ever happened, but perhaps that was because Judas was her husband. 

Upon marrying into the Sanchez family, she was expected to attend mass. She didn't mind because the cathedral was pretty and it felt nice to be part of a family that meant something. Each Saturday she would light a candle and say a prayer for Harry while clinging to the Saint Anthony on her neck. Mass was the extent of her devotion, she never devoted more than she needed to, that is until she found her lost thing. 

Her heels echoed through the empty cathedral as she wrapped her arms tightly around her to fight the chill. Mascara was smudged down her cheeks in the most pitiful manor, her hair forced into a braid to attempt at hiding it's knotted state. She approached the confessional with a shakey breath feeling the soft burn of where her love had been hours before. Undoing the latch, she stepped inside taking her seat on the bench. 

There was a long silence before the screen slid back, the outline of a young father presented to her. "Have you committed any transgressions?" 

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned." Katherine paused with a sniffle, "That's as much as I know. I don't even know if I've sinned per say. I'm only here because someone I love suggested it might help." 

"Perhaps try telling me your situation; if I determine it to be a sin, then we deal with the transgressions. If you need guidance, the lord and I shall try." His American accent was odd, a little nasal if not pleasant to listen to. 

"Twice now, be it four years apart, I have, forgive me, made love to a man that is not the one I am currently with." The confession was not burdened with guilt as most would have assumed. No, Katherine did not feel guilty that she slept with Harry because Harry was back in her arms and she would not feel bad for that. Nick brought fear because it was not coincidence that Harry showed up in New York in the hotel that Nick had shares in on New Years. It was fear that someone saw them leave that drove her here. 

"Do you say "made love" for the sanctity of the church or because it is truly an act of love?" A smirk could be heard in the father's tone.

So Katherine began to tell the story of Harry Styles and how she hadn't walked away when everyone begged her to. He became her light, her faith. She had barely dipped into their breakup when the father suggested a change of location, for he sincerely cared about the stranger and knew all to well what being alone in a confessional could do to a soul. 

Father Way was older than Katherine had assumed, not that he looked it with his pointed nose and comforting eyes. He offered no judgement to her appearance, only guiding her to his office where he poured a cup of tea and sat down beside her. "I take it this Harry is the one who sent you here." 

"You'd be correct. Even back when we were together he had a spirituality to him that I didn't understand." Katherine traced the rim of her cup. 

"Well the church won't be happy if you decide to leave your husband, but the church aren't the ones married to him are they?" Father Way's eyes twinkled in a boyish style. "What I want to know is why you assumed your Harry gone for good?" 

Silence fell onto the carpeted flooring that Katherine suddenly found to be quite  interesting ( a horrendous floral pattern that Harry surely would love). "I fear that my husband has quite the silver tongue, he told me he was dead." 

Despite his current work, Father Way had lived a life that suggested he might never make it to Cardinal status. Forgiveness to get this far was something in of itself. He had once been involved in a ring not far from New York that frequently made it their business to make people disappear. The situation before him was not foreign. His hands were clean, his conscious filthy as he recounted his childhood of men with accents heavier and different than his own doing business with items that would lead him to temptation. 

His eyes furrowed slightly, giving the illusion of eyeliner. Once, twice he tapped his fingers on his desk. "I am held to a standard of confidentiality and ethics that I will keep but I will ask just one thing: do you know Nicholas Sanchez?" 

The dainty fine china in her lap shattered to the floor answering his question. He quickly handed her his card, personal numbers included. "I will help you Katherine, help you get away from him and back to Harry." 

Katherine had become well aquatinted with people helping her to help themselves, but so far she hadn't been let down so she took the card and silently left the church. Each step to the revving Impala was a mile as she slid into the back seat with Harry, Caroline and Jared sitting in the front. "Let's go, please." Her whimpers were heart breaking to the others but their religious journey was far from over, they were, in fact, a harsh reality that their trip to purification was just beginning. 

A/N: hi. it's been a while. Gerard Way is our fearless father. cheers.