Sineater

Twelve

As Jin exited the cathedral, thunder clapped and lightning flashed in the sky mere seconds before it began pouring down rain. He walked away from St. Peter's and within minutes he was soaking wet, water dripping from his dark hair.

A sleek, black expensive looking car pulled up beside Jin as he walked down the sidewalk, water bouncing off the wooden privacy fence of the churchyard and into his face. He looked at the window of the car as it rolled down, revealing Hoseok's grim face.

"Come with me," Hoseok pleaded from the leather back seat. Jin took his hands from within the pockets of his coat and sighed. "Every fear hides a wish. Don't you think?"

Halting in his steps, Jin looked up to the sky. He contemplated getting into the car or continuing back to Namjoon's apartment. Wearily, he looked into Hoseok's knowing, ages old eyes and made his decision.

Biting his lip and tensing his jaw, Jin opened the door and slid into the back seat beside Hoseok, closing the door after him. The driver pressed on the gas and continued the journey to wherever it was Hoseok was going.

Keeping his head toward the window, Jin watched the rain droplets slide down the glass as the man driving the car continued down the street. "So, what is it to be a sineater?"

Hoseok smirked, still facing the front of the car. "What is it not to be one?" He looked down into his lap where his fingers played with the hem of his suit jacket. "I know of no other way to be."

"It seems beyond a man's judgment," Jin responded, still not looking at Hoseok. He was not sure what the sineater wanted from him, whether it was to help him understand or to kill him. If it was to kill him, Jin was more than prepared to die. He had been... Drifting... For far longer than a priest ought to have been. "Forgiveness is God's domain."

Hoseok gave a small, sad smile. "I am just an instrument. Like any great power, it depends on how it is used."

"And how do you use it?"

"As I see fit." Hoseok looked back up and out of the opposite window of the one Jin was beside.

There was silence for a few long moments before Hoseok spoke again. "I am not a threat to the church. I am an insult, an embarrassment." His gaze cut to Jin, before he turned to look at the man. "But you are a member of the Order of Bangtan. You know how it feels to be outside."

Jin swallowed harshly, eyes closing for a mere second before he answered, still refusing to look at Hoseok. "I serve the church."

Hoseok became thoughtful, wondering how he should answer this priest who sat beside him. He decided to answer in a way that would make little sense to him. "Serve yourself."

The rest of the drive was spent in contemplative silence as they drove to what appeared to be Hoseok's Italian home. The home was extravagantly large, the outside darkly tinted stone and glass. Gargoyles perched upon the gabled windows on the second story of the mansion like home. As they drove through the pathway winding up to the home, Jin could see tennis courts and an in ground swimming pool behind the main house. There were two smaller homes behind and to the sides of the mansion. The gardens among the property were well tended and was home to bright and colorful flowers of all shapes as varieties. He assumed it was payment for services rendered from someone who couldn't pay in cash, but Hoseok had been alive a few hundred years, so it could have easily been from the wealth he had surely amassed in his long existence.

Jin exited the car after Hoseok got out, staring in awe at the opulent stone doors and, as they shuffled closer to them, they opened. Hoseok's maid appeared behind them, wearing the typical black and white dress of a maid. She stood to the side as they strode through the threshold of the home.