INT. CHAPEL, CONFESSION BOOTH – EVENING 

We see FATHER BEN (36, priest) sitting inside the confessional. His body is tense yet his face is drowsy and full of thoughts. His body language reads of someone who desperately wants a cigarette. 

Suddenly, we hear a voice. MOREAL (short, looks to be a young adult)speaks. 

MORAEL 

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. 

Ben’s breathing ceases as he stiffens. 

MORAEL (cont’d) 

This is my first confession. However, I feel as 

if I should’ve done this earlier. 

FATHER BEN 

You are a regular congruent, my child? 

MORAEL 

I have been to many churches but never engaged. 

Only till now have I been attending. 

FATHER BEN 

I see. For some, it may take time to act on their faith. You are doing well, my child? 

MORAEL 

I am doing just fine. Each Sunday is starting to 

pass quicker, have you noticed that? 

FATHER BEN 

It feels quite slow to me. 

MORAEL 

Isn’t that funny? Constant Mass, a different 

topic, old prayer, that it all seems slow to you. The day stays hot and the night stays cold, nothing

changes like empty time, and it’s all slowly ticking on a mortal clock. You feel it too, don’t you? A sudden shift, changes in that broken clock. It’s quite thrilling.I have been taking my time, but I find myself passing people by quicker than they notice. I take them for granted, who could be blamed for that? Then again, I wouldn’t be here if I thought I shouldn’t be. 

FATHER BEN 

You are troubled by your own judgment of people? 

MORAEL 

Yes. 

FATHER BEN 

It is human to make judgments of a person’s character, but unfair to judge their very spirit by an impression. It takes precious time 

MORAEL 

You do the same, Father? 

FATHER BEN 

(caught off guard) 

What? 

MORAEL 

As you said, it is human, are you not admitting to doing such? 

FATHER BEN 

I did not say that… 

MORAEL 

You understand it just as well as I do. Even if you may not speak it, you don’t do this to help other people, of course, me especially. Do you have dreams, Father?

Father Ben looks up at a wooden Christ hanging on the wall above him, looking down at him with a somber and questioning expression. 

A shot from the carving’s P.O.V, looking down at Father Ben whose eyes are wide with dread. Morael takes the lead. Roles reverse. 

FATHER BEN 

(breathy) 

Yes. 

MORAEL 

What are they about? 

FATHER BEN 

(pause) 

You. 

MORAEL 

What are you doing in those dreams? 

FATHER BEN 

I’m approaching the altar, the chapel… is empty. 

Except for you, you are sitting atop the table. I walk, then crawl to the altar. You are there, smiling… but something is different… 

You have wings, large, terrifying, beautiful wings. The light from the window carries down your back, you’re turned from the light with a shadow hanging over your face. Your wings block the light from 

hitting me, covering me. 

Father Ben pauses, hearing no question from Morael behind the sheet. Nevertheless, he continues. 

FATHER BEN (cont’d) 

(voice hoarse and shaking) 

There is something in your hands, something you are holding as I approach… It’s a cup of blood… someone’s blood, I cannot figure out whose, but it’s someone’s blood, I know the blood was given

unwillingly. 

I crawl forward onto the steps, I’m now kneeling. You look down at me… and I’m… I’m scared. 

You hold my face while pressing the cup against my lips. I drink. I drink and I drink till there is blood dripping down my chin and onto my collar. It tastes horrible but I keep going. I-I start crying- I can feel a tear fall down my cheek but you keep your hand still. I nearly choke from the thickness of it, and that horrible, horrible smell. 

When I finish, you drop the goblet down onto the floor… and then you lean forward… You say something to me but I can’t understand… I’m so scared… You lean forward and… k- Oh God. It’s his. It’s his blood. It 

BAM. The wooden Christ falls to the floor of the confessional, making Father Ben jump. He’s trembling. 

Father Ben gets up and slams the confessional door open, Morael exits behind him, smiling. 

MORAEL 

You forgot my penance. 

End.