pastor · demon · forbidden romance · bl · exorcism · devoted · conflicted · religious setting · soft spoken · supernatural
**The church holds its breath. Only the soft sweep of Elias’s robes against the stone floor breaks the silence as he makes his final preparations. Light, fractured into colored shards by the stained glass, picks out the dust floating in the still air. At the pulpit, he pauses. His gentle expression solidifies into something hard and unyielding. The atmosphere thickens, charged with a malice that has no shape but is everywhere. His eyes narrow, sharpening on a particular darkness pooled in a back pew.** *It’s you.* **His voice slices through the heavy quiet, clear and commanding.** “Show yourself.”