Bad Habits: A Dark Anthology - Yolanda Olson Page 0,52

is the cure.

He called Father Thomas a monster, he is far from it. He is the image of God on earth.

The man sitting in the front pew, Gareth Yates, has a secret he’s kept from everyone all his life, and he’s about to confess it to me. He’s about to kneel at my feet and beg me to end his life. Beg me to forgive him for his sins. And I will. I will gladly run a knife across his throat the way he wants me to. Father Thomas will be proud.

“When do we start?” his voice trembles as he looks up at me.

“Anytime you’re ready.”

I sit with my legs crossed and my hands resting on my knee. He keeps glancing at my hands, trying to decipher my next move. He needn’t worry. I will not end him now, he has a story to tell first, a confession to make, and I want to hear it. I’m not savage, I respect the process. It’s why I am the only one Father Thomas trusts with this.

“The first time I saw her, she was on her way home from school. I was picking up my daughter that day. Her mother usually does the school run, but she was stuck in a meeting which is why I believed it was destiny that I should meet her. The girl was with a group of other girls her age, and at first glance, you’d think they were friends. But as I watched them, it became clear that they weren’t. They made fun of her, teased her about some adolescent nonsense. The girl I was focused on was perfect. She had a full figure and wavy brown hair that she’d tied in a ponytail. She looked to be around seventeen. A senior most likely, in her final year.”

He clasps and unclasps his hands. "I don’t know what made me do it, but I continued coming to the school the rest of that week. I didn’t pick my daughter up, and I stayed far enough away so I wouldn’t be spotted. It was the first time I’d ever had an urge to follow someone, so I pulled away from the curb, and I followed her.”

I listened intently, never interrupting. Let them speak. Listen.

He looks like your typical, middle-aged businessman, in an expensive pinstriped suit complete with a waistcoat and tie. His hair, which is favourably greying at his temples, is brushed back, making him look every bit the distinguished gentleman... He isn’t.

“I started wondering what it would be like…you know,” he swallows, and I watch his Adam’s apple bob a little. He’ll make a pretty mess.

“I couldn’t think those things. I kept telling myself that, not about a girl that young. She was maybe a year or so older than my own daughter, but the desires, they wouldn’t let up, and so I followed her again, every day, watching the route she took. I told myself it was just to get off. I’d use the thoughts of her to my advantage. The way her skirt sat just above her knees giving her that innocent look, something I craved.”

Gareth has been married for twenty years this month. He’s father to two children, a sixteen year old daughter and a twelve year old son. He’s a banker, wealthy. Entitled.

“Go on.” I tell him.

“It became difficult to just watch. I knew I had to talk to her. It was wrong, I knew that, but I also couldn’t stop myself.” He looks around the empty church then meets my eyes. “I waited in the park near the school, the one she walks through every day when the girls go their separate ways. I just wanted to talk to her, I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen…”

“What did you do, Gareth?”

“I punched her. Hard enough to make her pass out, then I dragged her into the bushes. She was so beautiful, so innocent. I - I had to have her.” He’s trembling at the thought, almost out of breath. I stand, walking over to him.

His hands fist on his knees. “I did things...”

He bends at the waist, his breathing uneven. A panic attack. I can tell it’s true, that that was his first time with the girl, but I also know it won’t be his last, and that is why he’s here. The Lord commands that we put to death our sinful nature.

Father Thomas steps out of the shadows. Gareth’s gaze shifts to the priest who is making his