Love & Exorcisms | 18+ | COMPLETE |

- Chapter 53 -

"Ah, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, damn this," he muttered, setting his cup aside as he began to unbutton his shirt. "Pardon me lass, avert yer' eyes." He slipped the shirt off his shoulders, and as he did an artist's canvas was laid bare. I gasped and rose from my seat, marveling at the colors inked forever into his skin.

"I warned ye' to avert your eyes," he muttered, but it was too late for that. I couldn't help but stare, the sight of the angels and saints wrapped entirely around his torso truly a marvel to behold.

"I've never seen so many tattoos on one man," I said. He shrugged, giving his damp shirt a shake.

"It was a labor of love," he said. "Love and devotion. Every man will have doubts, but with these marks in my skin I can never deny my faith."

"You're very devoted to God," I said softly. An anatomically correct heart had been tattooed on the left side of his chest, held up by the Virgin Mary. It was stunning. A masterpiece. "My father was devoted too. Somehow he did not manage to impart such strong faith onto me."

"One must find their own faith," Alex said, draping his shirt over the table near his chair and having a seat, apparently giving up on any worries of decency. The man was certainly easily distracted. "Faith merely because others have faith is not faith at all: it's mindlessness."

I smiled at the assertion. "My father would disagree. He would call you heretic, and that's only because of the tattoos."

"Ah, fuck your father then," Alex shrugged. "There's plenty in the Church who don't care for me or my methods. But the Lord and I have an understanding. That's all that matters to me."

I frowned. "Then you don't think one must follow all the decrees of the Bible to go to Heaven?"

Alex laughed aloud. "Who wrote the Holy Book? Man! Flawed, imperfect man. See that's the real trick, isn't it? Man is flawed. Man records the Word of God. But, in the end, it is still the work of man. God gave ye' a brain to think and reason on your own. If ye' don't use it, honestly, you're throwin' God's handiwork back in his face."

I had not spoken of religious matters in any depth since leaving my parents' home. I'd been happy to leave it behind, but Alex had me intrigued. Although I tried to ignore it, I still endured many anxieties around my faith...and lack thereof. I didn't know what to believe. That frightened me more than anything, to not have faith, to feel lost...

"What of Hell?" I said suddenly. "Surely you still think non-believers are damned to Hell?"

"Like Damian?" he said, and gave his tea a loud sip. "I'll tell ye' this lass: what kind of God would damn a man, a good man, doing good work, to an eternity of torture in a fiery pit merely because he did not worship? Damian is using his own God-given brain to come to his own conclusions concernin' the world, though they may be in disagreement with mine. But that's his business. Frankly, I'm not too keen on worshiping a God that would cast Damian to Hell. Just wouldn't be right." He had another sip. "So no, lass. I don't think God would damn a man to Hell for using the brain that His Own Holy Self gave him."

I mulled over his words, so different from other declarations of faith I'd heard. I had thought of Alex like any other man I'd met who was devoted to the Church: rigid, immovable, damning in his faith. But his true beliefs were hardly that. I smiled at the unexpected revelation, shaking my head. "You're not as bad as I thought, Alexander," I said, and he widened his eyes in mock shock.

"Oh don't go that far, lass," he said. "I'm honestly terrible."

I had an appointment with Damian, and I wasn't about to be late.

He was usually home just before the clock struck 7 in the evening, so I asked Rachel to help me draw a bath early. I scrubbed myself from head to foot and braided back my hair, winding it with a black ribbon. I dabbed sweet oils beneath my arms and between my breasts - rose and lily of the valley. I rouged my cheeks, painted my lips a pale pink shade - the kind of things I'd once done as common habit for clients, but now I went through the motions with particular intent to impress.