"Who decided church at 7 o'clock was a good idea" Castiel thought as he sat in the hard wooden pews in the church of Saint Celica Catholic Boarding School, struggling to stay awake. He could have skipped and just stayed in bed, God knows how much he would have loved to stay in his room mate's arms for just awhile longer, but he had to go. He knew it would somehow reach his mother if he didn't. As the rest of the student body started to recite the prayer in unison, Castiel dosed off.
"One of these boys just a'nit like the others" he heard the voice of his classmates say. Before he could react some else responded "Loves his female singers, loves to cook."
"Looks around in gym, it pleases him!" a classmate shouted.
"Thoughts enslave him, somebody save him!" they all shouted.
"He knows he's taking chances, and that his romance is doomed!" Joshua added.
"He'd sacrifice his soul to feed his vise, Heaven severed and Hell is forever." He heard the voice of Inias, his cousin, say.
"Dig down deep and save your soul, grave mistakes will take their toll. Every sin is entered in, Heaven comes with discipline." Castiel heard his teachers say.
"But it doesn't all make sense, what I feel is real." Castiel desperately argued back.
"No more dodging, God is watching. His eye is on the lowly sparrow. The road is long, the path is narrow." His loved ones all recited like scripture.
"And your mother, God how she will suffer…" Hester, one of his cousins, said.
"Will your father break to bear the shame?" another cousin, Zachariah, questioned.
"Yes, you were a force in their divorce." The two relatives told Castiel in unison. The two of them smiled at the hurt expression on the face of their tortured cousin.
"Will you drag that poor boy down there with you?" one of the members of the basketball team questioned.
"He's unsure and you can change his mind. If you love him so, you'll let him go." Lisa told him, only so that she could have Castiel's boyfriend for herself.
"But it doesn't all make sense, if the love is strong." Castiel responded, trying to defend his romance.
Castiel sees his mom at the alter as starts reading from the paper in front of her.
"Our first reading today is the story of how despite the best efforts of a single mother, a child can still go horribly, horribly wrong. For his eighth birthday, Castiel asked for an EZ-Bake Oven; his father asked for a divorce. To me the link between those two events
was as strong as Castiel's attraction to my makeup table. We sent him to Catholic boarding school thinking it might help but when he met his roommate Dean, the two of them locked eyes and I said to myself, Naomi, you wanted grandchildren, instead you're gonna get ambiguous Christmas cards from South Beach."
Castiel didn't have time to react when the punches started flying at him.
"Timothy! Romans! Corinthians! Leviticus!" the attackers chanted at him with every punch. Castiel tried to get help from his classmates, but it was no use they all either joined in or ignored his cries. Castiel started to cough up blood.
"ABOMINATION! ABOMINATION! ABOMINATION! ABOMINATION!" the bystanders chanted as Castiel was beaten within an inch of his life. He gasped to take his last breath, ready to die at hands of his peers, and woke up in hard pews of the church. Castiel was shell shocked, everyone was looking ahead at the priest totally unaware of what just happened inside of the poor bright-eyed young man's subconscious. The bright sunlight shining thought the stained glass windows was a stark contrast of the dark red lighting in the dream. The differences between his reality and his dream made him uneasy.
"Let us go forth in peace, to love, and serve the Lord." Father Michael said. Castiel's attention snapped back to the mass.
"Thanks be to God." Responded the church as mass ended. The students and staff filed out of the place of worship to start their Sunday. Castiel walked to class repeating the Hail Mary, trying to shake the realness of the dream.