It was a tiny cross pendant made of aged-looking nails, with a piece of red coral in the center. Jonah held the pendant carefully in his hands, testing the sharpness of the nails.
“Do you like it?” Father Balén asked.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.” Jonah smiled widely. Father Balén smiled back as he draped the necklace over Jonah’s head and clicked the permanent lock shut, letting the cross dangle down the front of Jonah’s surplice. This must be what it felt like to receive a wedding ring.
“You make me very happy, Jonah.” Father Balén leaned in close. Jonah pressed the tip of his nose against Father Balén’s.
“Do you think of me when I’m not working here, Father?” Jonah whispered.
“All the time.”
“Yeah? What about?”
“I think about you covered in blood.” Father Balén kissed Jonah on the lips. Jonah’s smile waned.
“That’s it?” He asked, half-teasingly.
“Yes. Red makes your skin look beautiful. And… when you’re standing there with that shovel or a chalice or a knife… you look so driven. It’s exciting. I want to think about you being that driven every time I’m in bed.” Father Balén peppered Jonah’s face and neck with kisses, pulling aside the acolyte’s robe to reach bare skin.
“Mmm.”
Slowly, Father Balén guided Jonah onto his back, the wooden pew pressing hard against them.
“Last night, I imagined you were sitting on top of me.” Father Balén ground himself against Jonah’s hips. “We had a man there, lying next to me, and you had his hand wrapped around your penis and every time you rode me, his hand would leave a blood trail all over you.” Father Balén’s voice dropped to a low, excited moan.
“I wish I could be here with you all the time.” Jonah played with his permanent collar charm.
“Would you like that?”
“Anything for you, Father.”
The only sound in the darkened cathedral was the squeaking of the pews as they rubbed together.
“Do you know what I think about after I leave work?” Jonah asked.
“Tell me.”
“I think about what you look like when you’re naked. Can I see you naked, Father?”
Father Balén looked away.
“Do you really want that?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re not very exciting.”
“Please let me see you naked, Father.”
Father Balén sighed. He got off Jonah and walked into the center aisle.
“You deserve to see everything.” Father Balén said. He undid each button on the long black cassock and let it fall to the floor. His erection was much more visible in the dress pants, but he removed those last, after the shirt and shoes and white dog collar. Without the protection of his clerical garments, Father Balén looked vulnerable – chubby belly with slender arms, a sea of acne scars across his chest and back, body hair that went grey before his head hair did, an appendectomy scar on his stomach and a long surgery scar down the center of his chest. His cock stuck straight out from the thicket of salt and pepper pubic hair, the foreskin pulled back over the reddish-purple head.
“You’re handsome.” Jonah said with a smile.
“Come here.”
Jonah obeyed. He held himself against Father Balén. Yes, Father Balén was sixteen inches taller than him. That had never been so obvious as it was now. Yet Jonah felt warm and comfortable as Father Balén placed his hands on Jonah’s shoulders. His fingers wove in between them, grasping at the cross.
“You need to see everything, Jonah.” Father Balén whispered.
He shrieked as he stabbed himself with the tip of the pendant, crying out as he dragged it through his skin. Blood gushed out of the jagged cut and as he released the pendant, Father Balén crumpled to the ground.
“Father!” Jonah screamed as he dropped to his knees.
“MARE VENI.” Father Balén whimpered into the ground.
Jonah did not have time to react before the wave hit him. Seawater stung his eyes. He tried to get above the water but only barely caught a single breath before he realized with horror that he was at the ceiling of St. Solicitous. The water engulfed him, he tried to swim up but he could see nothing, could not get above it, his lungs screamed for air and as he tried to find a place to swim to, he could not see the walls of St. Solicitious, only wine-dark ocean water spreading out for miles, with no way to tell which way was up.
A low call reverberated through the area. The surprise of it caused Jonah to gasp and to his surprise, he could breathe. He turned towards the noise.
The whale’s rapid speed sent Jonah spiraling and twisting through the water. He watched it pass underneath him. It was massive, as thick as a battleship and almost as long. Life clung to the head of this creature: barnacles and sea grass and small patches of coral-like growths dotted the whale’s grey skin. It vanished into the distance, only to return and glide more gently towards him until it stopped near him. Jonah could see his reflection in the creature’s reddish-brown eye, the acolyte robes spreading out around him in the water and the pendant floating outwards towards the beast. He looked up at the whale’s top again, watching the tiny fish that nibbled parasites and nestled in the waving grasses. A small crustacean let go of a red coral growth and floated gently down past Jonah’s body. Jonah caught it gently in his hand and brought it back to the whale’s skin. The whale let out a chirping noise.
Jonah swam to it until his cheek pressed against the cold, rubbery skin.
The whale moved forward through the water. Jonah swam along below it, marveling at its pale mottled belly that faded into the grey skin, thick and leathery and cared for by the little feeder fish that swam beside it. He guided himself up the flank and marveled at the life on top of the whale. Not just fish, but snails and anemones that waved through the water, catching any debris that fell down from the water above them. A tiny ecosystem living in harmony. A small crab clicked its claws at Jonah and the whale clicked back, sending the crab scurrying into an abandoned barnacle hole. Jonah swam towards the whale’s head. It was safer there, carefully guided under its watchful eye. He placed a hand on the whale’s fin, holding it as if he were a child in awe of how large his father seemed to be. You’re handsome, Jonah thought, and as if it could read his mind, the whale let out a long, satisfied moan.
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