Author's intro:

I finally managed to come up with another of these confession thingies. Again characters may appear to be OOC, but I am trying to make it as believable as possible while still keeping to the general idea of the confession.

A great many thanks to all you who reviewed the first chapter of this series, hopefully you'll enjoy this one as well.

Disclaimer: Still do not own.

Tales from the Confessional

By Shnoosh

Chapter 2 – Pride and Envy

"Excuse me father for I have sinned." Came the slightly disgruntled voice. She hated doing this, it wasn't as if anything good had ever come out of it – not for her anyway. Supposedly asking forgiveness for sins she deep down didn't care about just seemed plain stupid, but still... she was a catholic, and going to confession once in a while was a necessary evil she simply had to endure – like so many other things."It's been... uh... lemme see... nine months...? No... wait... ten months since my last confession."

"Yes," came the voice of the priest from the other side of the confessional. She recognized it as the one belonging to the priest called Remington. Damn, just her luck that between all the geezers and dusty old farts within this priesthood, she would sit here and act all humble and pitiful towards someone who was actually young and attractive. Why she had even let herself be persuaded to confess within the church of the Magdalene order was beyond her, but she couldn't very well back out of it now – Rosette was definitely going to pay for this.

"Well..." She began hesitantly. "I guess I have lost my temper on quite a few occasions... with the mechanics who were supposed to repair my car, which they promised to do within five days, but actually took two weeks to finish. Two weeks! Then I had to drive around in some god awful jalopy, if I wanted to go anywhere, imagine what people would think if they saw me in that! I suppose I could have bought another car, but then I would give in to those sloths at the car repair shop, and I really didn't want to give them the satisfaction. I also yelled at the clerk in Macy's when I found out they had sent the wrong couch, and scolded my tailor for not measuring correctly, and I guess I was a bit harsh towards a man who happened to bump into me on the street, I even shouted at my butler... and I can't even remember what for, although I think I've done it quite a few times lately." The voice having previously been so irate now held a tinge of regret. "I guess... I do feel bad about that." Now when she thought about it she really had been a bitch, getting worked up over nothing and taking out all of her frustrations on other people – especially Steiner who must have been endlessly patient with her.

Why had she started to become like this? It wasn't how she used to act.

There could only be one answer.

That pesky, little, reckless, holier-than-thou, out-to-save-the-world so-called demon exorcist was driving her completely mad.

"You know... this is all because of that crazy sister Rosette. She always gets in my face and in my way."

"Yes," the voice of father Remington gently urged her forward.

"Well, last time I was out shopping, she purposefully runs into me and starts berating me for spending my own money, screaming at me about it being sinful and shallow and whatever she called it, making a huge scene in the middle of the store. Of course we both get kicked out, but she doesn't seem the least bit concerned about drawing all that attention to herself and to me for that matter... in fact it seemed that she actually wanted to because she knows just how embarrassing the whole situation is to me, and it's so obvious that she's just plain jealous and only tries to bug me about it 'cause she's not rich herself." The jewel witch's temper was definitely on the rise. "She also interferes with my job now. The last bounty I was supposed to collect was from a landlord whose building had become infested with low-life demons making it impossible for him to attract any tenants. The bounty was actually quite good, and everything was going just fine, so I figured it was easy money. And then she and that blasted partner of hers show up, starting to shoot left and right with no sense of caution. Before I know it she's shot a hole in the tank containing the oil for for the whole building's furnace, she doesn't even notice that oil starts to spill out, and of course it becomes lit by sparks from the bullets. Pretty soon the whole basement is on fire, and we all need to run so we don't get caught in it. The fire department shows up to put out the fire, but the building is already so damaged that it's deemed uninhabitable, and naturally the owner is outraged because nobody can live there now, and since the bounty condition was to make the building able to attract tenants again I didn't get paid the least bit for my effort, and it's all just because she decides to show up. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to actually do a job properly, and then not get any credit for it because someone else decides to ruin it."

The priest didn't have an answer to this so Satella took it as a sign for her to continue. She let out a sigh trying to calm herself before speaking again. "I suppose I don't actually need the money from all the bounties, and it really shouldn't bother me what a simple clerk in a store thinks about me, much less that an obviously mentally impaired exorcist seems to hold a grudge against me. Not that I don't understand her, after all she doesn't really have the looks or the wealth that I posses, and I guess I do rub it in her face sometimes, but honestly... that little hothead needs to be put in place. I mean just because I'm richer and more refined than her, and it's getting on her nerves, she thinks she can just behave like a raving madwoman." In an odd way the German woman almost felt relieved letting out her frustrations about the walking disaster in the shape of a blond girl, somehow it had reassured her that she was above her, not only in the social hierarchy, but also as a person in general. Maybe going to confession wasn't really that bad. "So... I think that's about it."

Father Remington was silent, perhaps he was contemplating on a response, but it was still annoying the young CEO, she didn't have all day for this.

"The meek shall inherit the earth." The priest said after a while.

"The meek shall inherit the earth? What's that supposed to mean?" Now she was definitely getting confused.

"We must look beyond our earthly wealth, if we wish to embrace our spiritual wealth."

"What?" What was all this now about wealth. "You're not saying that I should just hand out all of my money, 'cause I'm not gonna do that I can tell you that much."

"No."

She really had hoped for a more elaborate response, but this priest obviously liked to give her half answers and let her figure out the rest for herself. She thought a bit about what he had said before replying again. "So... you're saying that I put too much value in physical wealth, and too little in spiritual values... is that it?"

"Yes."

That did seem to make a bit of sense, after all most of her aggravations were centered around physical wealth, like the car being too long in the repair shop, not getting payed for a bounty hunter job etc. "Then what do you propose I do?"

"The meek shall inherit the earth." The father replied enigmatically after a few seconds.

"I know. You already said that, but I can't help being born into the upper class, I'm not willingly going to be poor you know."

"No."

"But then how is this supposed to help me?"

No reply.

"What should I do?"

Still no response, damn this let-the-answer-come-to-herself attitude of his was so intensely annoying.

"What the hell do you want me to do? Dress up in rags? Walk around Washington Square Park begging for MONEY so I can learn this vaunted meekness of yours?"

"Yes."

"WHAT?" She practically screamed. "You can't be serious! I can't do that. Aren't I just supposed to do some 'All Father's' and be done with this?"

"No." The father said unwaveringly.

"This... is ridiculous..." Satella shook her head, this had to be some form of joke. She had never heard about this form of penance before – well presumably some kind of holy geezer would impose it on himself occasionally, but as a requirement for simple absolution given in a confession... "Are you really serious about all this?"

"Yes." The priest seemed quite stern about this.

"I suppose you want me to do it right away too?" She asked gruffly, although she knew the answer before he gave it.

"Yes."

All this seemed a bit unreal to the jewel summoner, and her face showed that she clearly didn't understand the deeper meaning of all this. But nothing more was being said, so apparently the session was over and she was now free to get up and out of this claustrophobic cell-like room.

"Go with God," came the gentle voice of father Remington, concluding the confession.

Yeah whatever, Satella thought on her way out of the confessional. This was horrible... horrible and embarrassing. Of course the self-righteous pompous bastard couldn't just give her a number of prayers to do, no he actually had to make her do something he knew she would detest doing... just to get her to learn some form of blasted humility or building character or whatever. But she also knew he held quite a large authority within this church, and she did believe strongly in God – a belief she felt had helped her fight against the powers of darkness on more than one occasion. If this truly was what she needed to do to atone...

She'd probably better get it over with, and the sooner the better, still... this was so... horrible.

The jewel witch tromped angrily out of the chapel, down the path and out of the order towards her limousine. When Steiner saw his young mistress on her way, he got out, went to the back of the car, and opened the door allowing her to get in. "Where to, Miss Satella?"

"Just home... or... we might need to stop at some sort of second-hand clothes store on the way."

Steiner showed obvious puzzlement at this statement, but didn't comment on it, sometimes it was better to just keep ones mouth shut. He went to the driver's seat, started the car and pulled out on the road. They were now going to look for a store she normally wouldn't want to be seen within a hundred yards of.

Dammit... this was why she HATED going to confessions.

A few minutes passed, before another car came into view. It was a mundane jalopy, the ones typically used by the order. It drove up towards the entrance to the order, pulled over, and out stepped father Remington. He had left the confessional empty for several hours, something which normally wasn't acceptable, and the 'emergency' which had kept him away had proven to be nothing but a false alarm. He quickly made his way towards the chapel, running past a few nuns who giggled at seeing the usually composed father in such a hurry, as if he was a boy who was late for school.

One of the nuns, standing out in the courtyard with her hands full of dirty laundry, was Rosette Christopher, militia grade exorcist and technically a satanist as she had formed a contract with a demon. Said demon now came running up to her from the dormitory of the order.

"Rosette!" He called out. "Where have you been I've been looking all over for you."

"Oh... nowhere, you really don't need to be so worried about me you know." She said, giving him a smile.

"It's not really you I'm worried about, it's everybody else." He retorted playfully. "What's with that smile... you're up to something... I can see it."

Scouting around her to see that no others were in immediate hearing range, her smile widened a bit.

"No," answered the voice of father Remington.

"What?" Chrno asked a bit bewildered. She hadn't moved her mouth, but the voice had come from her nonetheless, and her mischievous smile indicated that she was definitely up to no good. "Alright, what are you hiding there." The laundry was covering something, and he was going to find out what it was. Removing the mix of beddings and clothing revealed a little rectangular black box in her hands with a few white buttons on the side and some round green ones on the face. He recognized it instantly.

"Rosette, that's the elder's recording device, he just finished that. It's been missing for days now, did you just... steal that?"

"Oh... I wouldn't say steal." She replied with an innocent smile. "Just borrowed it a little for the sake of the greater good."

He tried pushing one of the green buttons, which apparently she didn't mind.

"You need to go to the crossing between 30th street and 4th avenue quick, it's an emergency!" It was the voice of an agitated sister Kate, sending someone out on a mission.

He tried pushing another.

"The meek shall inherit the earth."

"So you've recorded Kate... and Remington during mass... seriously Rosette, what have you been up to?" The demon inquired.

"Oh nothing too bad..." She grabbed his arm and started to run towards where the cars were parked, dragging him after her, and leaving the dirty laundry on the ground. "Come we need to get to Washington Square Park right away."

"Why? Have you got an assignment?" He almost knew the minute he asked the question that she didn't.

"No, this is something much better." She grinned. This was going to be great.

THE END

So that's the second confession. I know it's fairly similar in construction to the first and I will be trying to make it a bit more interesting the next chapter, I was just inspired by the phone pranks made with movie samples (in this case it wasj ust Rosette pressing buttons), and it was fairly funny to see just how few 'samples' I could use and still make a confession which Satella believed to be genuine even though she thought it was strange.

In some mysterious way, which I can't quite figure out, reviews tend to make me a happier person, so if you should wish to contribute to that I will indeed be very grateful.