AN: Hello all! I'm excited to bring you another fun chapter of Become Wrath. I had a great time writing this chapter and I hope you guys enjoy the new chapter. Be sure to leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite part was!


Chapter 2 - The Confession

Confession.

The act of opening your heart and finally understanding the sin and ugliness that dwells inside you. Finally understanding that you would be better if this part of you was cut out like a tumor. And last, but not least, John's favorite part of the process of rebirth.

And this time had been incredibly exciting. His Chosen had captured the Junior Deputy. After the embarrassment and shame of last time, John knew he would take no chances. He had his men immediately bring her to the Bunker. She could spend her captivity with all the others who were so foolish to think they could stand against Joseph's righteous cause. But even righteous actions can be enjoyed now and then, and John was going to enjoy every moment he spent on the Junior Deputy's Confession.

After all, she was the one who had destroyed his 'Say Yes' sign.

While he prepared for this Confession, his hands had been trembling with excitement. His mind had been a whirl as he packed his disinfectant and tattoo gun, struggling to figure out the one puzzle that eluded him with the Junior Deputy.

It went without question that she was a creature of evil and sin, but such thinking was reductive and narrow-minded. That wouldn't get him anywhere. No, the real question was which sin. What was it that drove her to commit such horrible acts of malice against kind, good people doing holy work?

Was it perhaps Pride, an unwillingness to submit to any authority higher than her own base instincts?

Or maybe she was so enamored with a person or idea in this valley that she could do anything by justifying it as an act of love, making Lust her sin?

No, no that seemed unlikely. No love like that could exist in such a heart.

He was still pondering over this thought when he set eyes on the Deputy. When he disinfected her skin in preparation for his needle. When he wheeled Deputy Hudson, the Junior Deputy's partner, out of the room.

He had stopped thinking about that thought when he returned to the Deputy's room, finding it empty.

It was only a few moments later when the sounds of gunfire began to echo throughout the bunker.


"I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, Deputy Hudson," John purred as he redid the duct tape shackles that bound her to her chair, "but it would seem that we'll need to put off the next part of your confession for another time. I suddenly find myself with a more…" He leaned closer, prompting her to make that delightful little whimpering sound through her gag. "Pressing engagement. I'm afraid I'll just have to send you back to your room for the time being." Hudson made inaudible pleas through her gag, but John had no interest in hearing them. Until she released the sin that she jealously kept locked inside her soul, then her comfort was none of his concern. Only after her Atonement would she be granted the grace of God. That was the will of the Father.

Suddenly, there was a dull bang from behind him. He glanced over his shoulder curiously. The cold metal of the door was nearly a foot of steel, his only view of the other side came through two panes of reinforced glass. On the other side of that window were the icy eyes of the Junior Deputy, glaring balefully as if trying to pierce this door through sheer force of will. Her face was splattered with blood, giving a very clear idea of how all the gunfire had begun.

"I've got to admit," John said to Hudson, "she is damn persistent, your partner. You must be so proud." Hudson only cried as he crossed the room to the door, a wide smile on his face as he came up to the window. The Deputy's eyes tracked him as he moved, but her expression did not shift. John wasn't fooled. He could read her better than anyone else in this valley. The burning rage was just beneath the surface, waiting only to reach out and tear the world apart in its desire for blood.

Rage… Yes. Of course. That made sense.

He slowly nodded as he stretched out a hand to a control pad built into the wall and delicately pressed the intercom button.

"I know what your sin is, Deputy," he said to her through the window. "The thing that drives you. Every thought, every action. Every waking moment, you spend in service to it."

She stared at him with those eyes for a long moment. "Enlighten me," she said at last.

"Wrath," John said. "How else could you take so much life? Cause such destruction? Act without thought for all the good you are undoing just by… existing!" His voice had grown in volume as he spoke, to the point that he was nearly shouting. He stopped, taking a breath to calm himself and pray for fortitude in driving so much wickedness from this world. "So…" he continued when he was ready, "I'll indulge you: become Wrath. Go from this place and gorge yourself. Let it fill your body and consume your soul. Know that, in the end, you will still be empty." Her eyes narrowed at him and he grinned. "And when you have satisfied yourself in your river of blood, I will come to you and hear your confession." He drew his knife from his pocket and held it up to the window for emphasis. "I will carve into your being and draw out the Wrath that drives you. Every drop of sin will be purged so that you might…" He paused, pondering the right word. "Blossom in the grace of the Father's presence." He shrugged. "Well, whatever parts of you are left, of course."

With that, he gave a little nod of farewell to her and started to turn away.

"Wrath, you say?" came the Deputy's voice through the intercom, making him pause. Her lips parted to show bloodstained teeth. "And what does that make you?"

Don't listen to her, John. Your faith is strong. Your cause is righteous. Your soul is-

"I think I know your own sin, John," she said, smiling coyly at him. "The one you can't even admit to yourself." She leaned closer to the window until her nose was practically pressing against the glass. "It's Envy, John."

John's smile fell away as he felt his blood start to pound in his ears.

"After everything you've done for your big bro, Joseph still feels the need to tell you how to do your own job. He has you in here sorting rice bags while Jacob and Faith are out there having all the fun." There it was. That evil, bloodthirsty grin of hers. "You heard him just as well as I did, John. If I don't atone, Old Joseph is gonna kick you out of the parish." She suddenly slammed a bloody baseball bat against the window, startling him and leaving a wet smear on the other side of the window. "You know deep down he doesn't want you here! He wants me! Not some piece-of-shit baby brother who's too stupid to know when no one loves him!"

And then she laughed. It was different from the last time he had heard it. That had been filled with satisfaction. Now, it was pure madness.

John snatched his hand away from the control pad, deactivating the intercom and abruptly cutting off the sound of her laughter. But he could still see her through the window, her shoulders convulsing in malicious mirth, her face holding only darkness and pain. He turned away from the sight, his hand clutching a fistful of his vest as he tried to breathe.

Don't listen to her. She is a sad, pathetic creature. Those who have never seen the light of faith can only claw deeper into the shadows. You know this to be true. She is powerless before the force of your belief. Take heart.

But as he flipped the switch to pump Bliss into the vents, as he ordered his forces to drive her from this place, John could not escape the inky worm of doubt that had crawled into his heart.