I glance down at the discreet tenting of his pants. He's been hard since he put on the porn; it may have gone a bit soft for a while, but it came back in force when she started making Nick describe what he did to her. I'm not surprised, and neither is Nikki. In fact, I think it's what she intended.
"Very."
"Good." She nods. "Keep going, Nick. Tell him about how you watched. Your dad loves to watch, so I'm sure he gets it."
"I... I watched." Nick confesses.
"But I heard Brant say you killed Noah, and that made me try to fight again. So, what did you do?"
Nick sobs again. At the start of this, it was a sound I relished. Now, it's mostly just tiresome.
"I bashed you over the head with the snow globe."
"And then..."
"Dumped you in the lake behind the church."
"That's fucked up." I say, filling the silence once he falls quiet.
"Do you think the lord forgives him for all that?" Nikki asks, her eyes on Nick’s father.
He's clearly still rattled, too disarmed to figure out what to do. His whole life, he's had authority simply because he expects it. But he's not in control now, and it's funny to see how it makes him question his entire existence... an existence which is very nearly about to end.
"The lord forgives us of all—"
Nikki cuts him off when she digs the point of the blade into Nick's neck.
She doesn't give him a minute to realize what's about to happen. She doesn't even make him suffer. She just digs the point into his flesh and drags it through skin and cartilage, exposing the inside of his throat as blood pours from the wound.
"Nick!" Father reaches toward his son, like he can do anything to help him. Like he can put him back together.
"The lord may forgive you." I tell him, fingers closing around the back of his neck as I shove his body forward, against the grate so that he can see the life leave his son's eyes. "But we don't."
Nick's body drops forward, right against the grate. His empty eyes stare, unseeing, into the other side of the confessional.
Nikki passes through it easily, her specter moving through the wood and metal before rearranging before Father Ryan and pushing him back into the seat.
Tears stream down his face, mixing with snot as he cries over the son he victimized. Maybe he didn't get off on his own son. Maybe he got off on having his son touch Nikki, since he knew he couldn't do it. Maybe he lived vicariously through his own child, bullied the two of them into compliance. After all, good boys and girls obey their parents.
Nikki straddles him as I watch, lifting his chin so that he has no choice but to look at her.
"If thy right eye offends thee..." She tips her head, waiting for him to finish the sentence as I offer my knife to her... the one that's been bent by the metal partition. When Father Ryan doesn't offer to finish the sentence, she sighs. "Pluck it out."
He's too dumb to realize until it's too late that she meant that literally. Unfortunately for him, the blade is already buried in his eye, which squelches around the metal as she draw it back, his screams cutting through the air.
The congregation will be here soon, expecting a Christmas mass that will make them feel better about themselves. They'll come expecting to unburden themselves of the chaos of the season, to feel better about being so focused on the monetary emphasis of the season, so that in the morning as all their gifts sit neatly under the tree, they can bask in the glow of 'the reason for the season'.
They won't be getting any of that.
Before we came here, Nikki and I decided to send a different message to Church and Lakes. They won't understand it until the news station gets the tape... the one that documents who the pastor at their church really was beneath the image he presented to the world.
He's still screaming when Nikki drives the blade between his thighs, stabbing him through the other offensive spot.
Unlike Cole, though, she doesn't go to the lengths of removing it. There's no point. Father Ryan was the last name on the list.
I see it in her face, too, when she looks at me.
His screams are fading into the background as his blood pours out around him, and when Nikki slides off his lap, he doesn't even try to stand. Clearly, he's in shock.
