As Bishop Manuel Aringarosa entered the Royal Free hospital, the familiar smell of disinfectant stung his nose. No matter where you go, he thought, all hospitals smell the same. Chemicals to cover up the scent of death that hid behind closed doors.
He quickly found the receptionist in a desk at the front of the busy lobby. She was a rather large blonde woman; her makeup caked on too thick, turning her skin a decidedly unnatural shade of orange. Women these days all look like harlots, the bishop mused to himself.
"I'm here to visit a member of my congregation." He said softly.
"Name?" The woman said shortly.
"Silas." He replied. "No last name."
The woman looked at him skeptically, before typing something on the computer. Aringarosa let his thoughts drift to the information he had received earlier in the week.
The news that Silas was in fact alive, contrary to what he had been told earlier was weighing heavily on his mind. He had herd on TV that a young albino been found bleeding to death in a park near the Opus Dei house.
The Bishop was glad that Silas was alive; he was like a son to him and was his most loyal follower. At the same time, he was aware of how much simpler things would be right now if Silas had died. It was an unpleasant thought that kept invading his mind while he was stuck in the hospital, torturing him.
Soon after he was hospitalized, a member of the French Police had visited him. He said his name was Bezu Fache, and he informed him that they had arrested an Englishman by the name of Sir Leigh Teabing, for murdering Jacques Sauniere. Apparently, he had spent his life trying to locate the Holy Grail in order to discredit the church. After he was arrested, he implicated Opus Dei in his confession.
Immediately, the Bishop knew he had been duped. It meshed perfectly with The Teacher. His heart dropped as he realized that Teabing was The Teacher. Opus Dei had been simply a pawn in Teabing's game.
Fache went on to tell Aringarosa that the main reason that he had came was to find out if he new of any of his disciples being in contact with Teabing. It was impossible for Teabing, a cripple, to have murdered several people in a relatively short amount of time. He needed an accomplice. Even more incriminating, a nun was murdered in Saint-Sulpice after hours, implying some sort of connection to the Church.
It dawned on Aringarosa that it was most likely Silas. After all, he had been serving the teacher. His beloved Silas, an angel of god, had fallen from grace. A murder. He had thought he had changed. Evidently, he had not.
Yet Silas could not bee totally blamed. In fact, the bishop mostly blamed himself. True, Silas had done the physical act of murder, but Teabing had demanded it. But above all, if Aringarosa hadn't agreed to the Teachers requests none of this would have happened. Silas could be free; Opus Dei's reputation would not be in danger.
It was that day, after Fache left; that Aringarosa promised himself that he would do anything he could to prevent Silas from going back to jail. He did not want him to suffer as he had previously in jail. In the end, God would judge him.
His main concern, though, was that Opus Dei would soon be in shambles. He already had to deal with the fact that the Pope was withdrawing his support of the organization in mere months, but now his beloved movement was being threatened by a scandal. Once the press obtained information about Opus Dei's connection to the case, the fallout from the scandal would rock the foundations of the whole Catholic Church, and it would be his fault.
He cursed his naivety for believing The Teacher. He had been so desperate for a way to impress the church that he had not been thinking clearly. Now he was faced with a murdering disciple and the demonizing of Opus Dei.
The receptionist cleared her throat, bringing Aringarosa out of his thoughts. "He's in the ITU ward, 4 floor, room 12." She said in a nearly unintelligible cockney accent. "Best to keep the visit short."
He thanked the woman and took the stairs. An elevator was a luxury. Opus Dei required several small sacrifices in day-to-day life to better understand Christ's suffering. As a result Aringarosa hadn't had butter or a mattress since he had joined the organization.
"Silas." The monk slowly opened his eyes. His head was pounding, his hearing distorted. He was prepared to shoo away one of the pesky nurses that kept pestering him to take his pain medication.
"Pain is good," He repeated in his mind. It was his mantra. He needed to suffer even more than usual for what he had done. He was anxious to practice corporeal mortification again, but the hospital environment had made it impossible. He had to make do without taking medication for now.
The form of Aringarosa became visible in his eyes, his savior. It was his first visitor he had had in over a week. He could vaguely remember the prescience of some woman, shortly after he was revived at the hospital, but she had left quickly, leaving him to wonder if it was a hallucination. He used to like to think it was The Virgin, appearing before him in death. Silas quickly noticed that the Bishop did not look happy to as see him, as there was a frown on his face.
"Father…" Silas replied, and weakly stood up. Aringarosa was shocked. If even possible, Silas was paler and thinner than he was before. He truly resembled a ghost.
"You should sit down Silas," The bishop said. Silas obediently followed the bishop's orders. "I don't have much time."
Silas noted in his mind how upset Aringarosa sounded. He wondered if he knew what he had done. He had killed again. And he had shot Aringarosa. He was a murderer again, a monster.
"I'm sorry." Silas was desperate to confess his sins to someone. He had already exhausted himself through countless hours of prayers and Hail Mary's. " I have ki-"
The bishop suddenly interrupted. He did not want Silas to confirm that he was a murder, even though the bishop knew he was. He wanted to still think of him, as the shy, devoted monk he had know since Silas was a teenager. "Silas, I do not wish to hear what you have done." He noticed the wounded look that appeared on the monks face. "The police are looking for you. I imagine as soon as you are well enough you will be turned over."
" I know." Silas would rather have been killed than to endure more prison time. He was supposed to die. He was supposed to be a martyr for the Church, not a killer. But he couldn't even have that, after learning that the Teacher had deceived them. He had killed for nothing, and would have died for nothing.
"Have you found the Teacher?" Silas inquired.
"No, Silas." The bishop lied. He did not want anymore killing, if he were to implement his plan. "And I do not plan to look for him either."
Silas frowned as the bishop continued. "You do not wish to return to jail?"
The monk nodded in agreement. "Then Silas, you are going to have to leave this place as soon as possible. Earlier this week a member of the French police visited me. They know about Opus Dei's connection, my child. It is only a matter of time until they find out about you."
The monk looked at him uneasily. " What I'm trying to say Silas is that your presence is now danger to the church. I'm going to have to excommunicate you." He barely managed to say the last sentence.
"What!" Silas howled as if in pain.
"Please, quiet down Silas. Try to understand"
Silas once again stood up from his bed, and got down onto his knees in front of the bishop. "Please Father, don't…"
Aringarosa turned his back to Silas, unable to look at his disciple. It was the hardest thing he had done in his life, but he had to do it for the sake of the church. He had begun to think of Silas as a son, and now he had to betray him.
"Silas. I can get you anything you need if you just leave. It's for your own good. Money, a passport." Aringarosa was prepared to use his few remaining connections to help the monk.
The Bishops initial words had hit Silas like a lead weight. The man he had followed so loyally for so long, a person he had liked to consider a friend, had betrayed him But the bishops offers of money had only managed to enrage him.
" I do not need your money." Silas said, disgusted, as he grabbed the Bishop by the throat, slamming him against the hospital wall. He realized how easy it would be to kill the smaller man now. He had, after all killed five times now. What would make this different? His thoughts were then suddenly overcome by horror as he realized that he was thinking about killing a Bishop. He was about to kill a man of God. He abruptly dropped the bishop, and quickly left the hospital room.
Silas could feel people staring at him as he made his way toward the exit, stopping in the middle of the halls as they stared at his freakish appearance. Small children openly pointed at him. Silas ignored the cries of nurses desirable trying to get him to return to his room as he made his way outside. He was once again a ghost, a freak; he no longer had the protection Opus Dei had given him.
He would once again be a ghost on the streets. The thought enraged him so much he punched the side of a corridor wall, savoring the pain and the blood it brought forth. All of his years of single-minded devotion were for nothing.
Aringarosa sat there for a few minutes, trying to catch his breath. He could hear nurses shouting at Silas in the hall outside as he made his way out of the hospital. He could feel blood making way down the side of neck, and wiped out of with has robe as he reflected upon what had just happened.
His plan had worked. Silas was gone.Excommunication was the only way that he could distance him far enough from the church. As a Bishop, the church was first on his mind. Plus, Silas had been physically violent towards him, and that in alone was grounds for automatic excommunication from the church.
The Bishop knew that morally, he should have not let Silas go. But he felt indebted to the young monk, who had saved his life before. Silas was not a bad person at heart. Aringarosa knew that hours with the discipline and prayer were in store for what he had done. It was only another sin to add to the list he had committed in the past few weeks.
The bishop sighed as he realized that it was now up to Silas himself to avoid the police, and make a new life for himself. Aringarosa had done all he could do by letting him escape. Hopefully, he would be fine, but Aringarosa could not ignore the feeling in his heart that told him otherwise.