As Penance walked through the church, listening to the choir sing like angels, she knew that the cuts on her back were going to scar. Her shoulders, cheek, and legs were all healed. "Miraculously." Praise the Lord... Penance arched her back, trying to see if it would effect the pain, maybe dull it, but it did nothing. So she kept walking.

She rounded a bend to see exactly what she'd been looking for. The Confessional. With a deep sigh, she stepped forward. She could see rows and rows of classmates who's faces she hated but who's names she'd never learned, all waiting to get up their nerve and go tell Reverend Saul that, at Rebecca's big party last Friday, they'd gotten so impossibly drunk it wasn't even funny, and then had stripped for their boyfriend in the backseat of his rundown Chevy. They weren't model Christians at all, though Penance, but I imagine there are some other things they could model for...

And then: "Bless me Father, for I have sinned." She was in the Confessional and talking to Reverend Saul. "It has been three days since my last confession." Penance tried to gather her thoughts, and then once she had, she spoke again, "I am guilty of the sins of lust, of pride, of wrath and of envy, sloth and of gluttony and greed."

"Penance?" Reverend Saul began.

"Yes?"

"Tell me the truth. Do not tell me what your grandmother thinks of you."

"This is the truth, Father."

Saul sighed. "What are your sins, my child?"

"The other day at school, I disrobed myself for the entire school to see. I removed my skirt and let them watch me touch myself. That, too, I am guilty of. And all the while I was envious of the other girls who were prettier than me, but I knew that I was prettier than most, and I loved myself for that."

"Penance, I saw from my window, that wasn't what happened."

"I would not lie to you, Father!" Penance cried. "Least of all in a confessional!"

"I'm sorry, my child. Please, continue with your perception of the events."

Penance tried to speak, but it was hard, things wanted to come out in a silent sob. She choked back her tears, her initial confidence gone, and Reverend Saul sighed. "My child, you are not guilty of what you claim. Your grandmother has wormed her way into your mind, made it hard for you to see between the light and the dark, the good and the evil. This is not your fault, and you must not be reprimanded for it."

"Oh, but father, you're wrong, you're wrong!"

Saul sighed. "You do not need penance."

"Give it to me."

"No! I can not give you what you don't deserve! You are in God's favor!"

"No! Gramma said I'm not!"

"Penance!" Reverend Saul had the strange urge to reach through the wall and slap her, but he couldn't. He took a deep breath and continued. "Your Gramma did not see what happened on the school steps. She does not know what you went through, or that it is the fault of the other students that you were, as you say, disrobed. You were humiliated, I saw, and God loves the humble. Blessed are the meek, you know?"

Penance sniffed, and he knew she wasn't comforted.

"Do you really want a penance?"

"Yes, Father, oh yes, yes!"

"Go to your grandmother, then, and tell her what happened. Confess the sins of the students to her. It is only with her understanding and her teaching that you can hope to see the truth of yesterday's events."

"No, Father!" Penance cried. "Anything but that!"

"Penance, if you want to be forgiven, confront your grandmother."

There was silence in the confessional for a long time.

"Do you understand your penance?"

"Yes, Father."

"Are you prepared to repeat the Act of Contrition?"

"Yes, Father."

Penance began, as Reverend Saul began to recite the words of absolution. "Oh my God," she said automatically. "I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who are all-good and deserving of my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of thy Grace, to sin no more and to avoid near occasions of sin."

Peter Saul didn't believe she'd done anything needing of absolution, but for her comfort he said the words anyway. "I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Go in peace, my child."

Penance rose from her seat in the confessional and pushed her way through the curtain. The other students giggled at her as she walked by the row of them, and she ran off toward her home.

Saul watched her go, and wondered if she would actually do as he wanted. It seemed he had complete control over her so long as she followed his penance, as well, and he hoped he could maintain that. Her Gramma had created a Hell for Penance that rivaled that of the Inquisition, and he hoped he could help her find herself.

And then he saw some young slut coming to the confessional and, with a sigh, he began contemplating her penance.