Saint Within the Sinner: Chapter 2 – Piety and Pretentious

Chapter 2 – Piety and Pretentious

While walking along the road, Astra continues silently praying and Estella tries to not be bored.

Unable to take it anymore, Estella asks, “Do you know this road, sister?”

“…”

“If you do, do you know how much longer it will take to get to the nearest town?”

“…”

“If you are too caught up in your prayers to talk to me, then can you at least pray for me? I’m afraid that I’m feeling impatient and…something else.”

“Don’t go proving me right.”

“I’m trying not to. Hey, don’t you think it might be safer to go through the woods? There are probably more people after me and they might be using the roads.”

“And you don’t think that the woods are dangerous?”

“Well…they might be, but I don’t know.”

“Just don’t worry about it and stop bothering me.”

“Can you at least tell me why I’m so irritating to you?”

“…”

“Is it something personal? I feel like it’s something personal as if you were in my position before.”

“You really need to be questioned once you get your memories back.”

“Am I correct?”

“What did I say before?”

“I understand, sister.”

“She’s a danger to you,” a demon says inside Estella’s head.

“No, you are,” Estella responds inside her head.

“I can grant you safety and a good life. You remember how good you had it before.”

“But that was…wrong. It wasn’t me.”

“It was you. No one else could do the job you were doing. It was your God-given role.”

“I don’t think you would know anything about that.”

“And the nun does? You can smell her pride. Her sins reek more horribly than yours. You know her past. She’s no nun.”

“I’m not going to listen to you anymore.”

“Why? I’ve been your trusted advisor. Kill the nun before she can bring you to the exorcists. Do you think the tattoos on your eye, arms, and stomach will be painlessly removed? The pain that your penance requires will be severe.”

“If that’s what I’ll have to do to get rid of you, I’ll…”

“Will you go through it? I don’t think you want to. I don’t think that you’re the most sinful one here. She is. Kill her.”

The demon repeatedly commands Estella to kill Astra in a trance-like manner that makes Estella move behind Astra with the intent to kill her. Her demons come out of her stomach, eye, and struggle to come out of their restraints as they thirst for blood.

“No, no! I don’t want to kill her. You can’t make me! What was that prayer that the nun said before?”

“You don’t have the authority to say it to us,” a demon says.

“I think I do.”

Estella says the nun’s prayer in her head and the demons recede for now. She then walks into Estella as she regains full control of herself.

“Watch where you’re going. We’re here,” Astra says in an annoyed tone after slapping Estella.

“Huh? Oh.”

Astra and Estella see that they’ve arrived in a small town.

“It’s a good thing we managed to find this place so quickly.”

“If you say so. This is a relatively uninteresting place with inns and places to stock up on food, drink, and basic weapons for self-defense on the dangerous roads. It’s not really a good place to make a living.”

“Still, it’s a good thing it’s here.”

Right now is the time of day when businesses start packing up and the night workers come in. When they see Estella entering the town, the people who have things to give go to her and offer them to her while others ask what she needs.

“Huh? What’s all this for? What did I do?” Estella asks.

The people are confused about her response and whisper to themselves.

“I’m sure it has something to do with that sinfully wretched side of yours and whatever she did. People of this humble town, you have nothing to fear from this whore because I have restrained her demons and am taking to a place where she can be freed from her wicked nature and will do penance for her evil deeds.”

The people of the town rejoice and profusely thank Astra. She soaks in the praise while telling them that she doesn’t need it. While Astra is distracted by the crowd, Estella looks around then notices a tattooed man on a horse arriving in the town. He asks the people around the town questions and Estella assumes that he’s asking about her.

“Sister, I think we have trouble.”

“Trouble? What trouble could there be with all of these great people here?”

“Look over there. I think that tattooed man is looking for me.”

“Huh? Oh. He does look like trouble.”

“Uh oh. I think he’s noticed us.”

“Sorry, grateful citizen, but we have to leave!”

Astra and Estella try to make a quick escape from the crowd and hide, but they are quickly caught up to by the tattooed man who finds them when they turn a corner.

“Estella! I knew I would find you here at one of our favorite places to relax and find more workers!” the man says with a sinister grin.

“I don’t know who you are! Leave us alone!”

“What? But I’m your favorite! You tell me every time we…you! You whore of a nun! What did you do to my mistress?!”

Demons with blades coming out of their mouth manifest themselves in the tattooed man’s eyes and mouth.

“I exorcised her and brought her back to her senses! The same thing that I’m going to do to you!” Astra says before starting her exorcism prayer.

The prayer appears to be ineffective as the man charges at her and knocks her down.

“You don’t have any help to constrain me like you did my mistress. There’s a reason I’m her favorite and I’m going to show it to you!”

“No, stop!” Estella says as she pushes the man away from Astra.

“You shouldn’t get in the way, my mistress. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“If you don’t want to hurt me, then leave me alone! I order you to!”

“I’m sorry but I can’t do that. I have to bring you back and help you get back to the way you were. You helped me when no one else will. You gave me a place I can call home and people I can call family! I need you to come back home!”

“No!”

Demons come out of Estella’s eye, stomach, and her arm restraints are broken by a demon within her arms.

“Don’t use the power of your demons, Estella! You’ll completely lose control!”

“I-I can handle it. I can control it. There’s no other way for us to get out of this. I have to do what I can.”

Estella attacks the tattooed man with her demons and slashes at him her tattooed hand, but he doesn’t do anything.

“That nun and her friends have weakened you despite your exquisite tattoos. I’ve taken harsher beatings from you in the past.”

Aggravated by her ineptitude, the demon in her eye bites off half the man’s head though it doesn’t appear to be over just yet as he smiles.

“Haha, that’s the Estella I remember.”

Estella then gets pushed back as a demon head with other demons coming out of it manifest from half the man’s head.

“I got the inside of my mouth tattooed just in case anything like this happened. What do you think?”

“I think you’re giving me an even better reason to kill you.”

Estella’s anger gets to her and the demons give her more power. Seeing this, the tattooed man’s demons take away his powers so that Estella can critically wound him and cut his body in half with her claw-like hands.

“I-I’m glad I brought you back-”

Estella crushes the tattooed man’s head into mush with the demon hand in her stomach. She is then ominously quiet as she tries to stand still while shaking.

“Estella?” Astra says as she cautiously approaches Estella with her crucifix dagger drawn.

With her back bent completely backward, Estella says with a smile, “Yes, sister?”

“I knew this would happen! People like you never listen to me!”

“I did what I had to do while you were no help at all.” Estella straightens herself out as she turns around as she struggles to regain control of her fading true self. “You…you’re nothing to me, sister Astra. Never were. Always an annoyance. Always took the spotlight away from me.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t have a clue as to who you were before.”

Estella charges forward and puts Astra’s face into the dirt.

“Bow before your superior…superior…mother.”

Flashes of her old memory wake up Estella and give her the strength to say an exorcism prayer to regain some control of herself. The demons inside her fight to stay in control as they make her run away into the woods. Astra gets up and wonders what Estella was talking about.

A citizen of the town approaches Astra and asks, “Aren’t you going to go after her?”

“I had a hard enough time restraining her the first time, and I had help that time. This time. It’s impossible.”

“But isn’t anything possible with God?”

“Yes, but I can’t do anything.”

“Why don’t you ask God for help?”

“You don’t think I do already?”

“No, but maybe you have to pray harder. It seems like she’s struggling to control herself so you could use that to help you exorcise the demons from her.”

“Hmmm. You have a point.”

“So, are you going to go after her?”

“…yes, I will.”

Astra heads off after Estella while leaving the kind citizen without a thank you for their helpful advice.