Obscurity, The Fifth Chapter
In which the widow confesses her sins in the sacrament of reconciliation.
e last read The Fourth Chapter, in which a rather mysterious figure appeared to know the widow’s secrets.

Séverine always had a fair amount of darkness within her. Like an enchantment, sometimes she could only feel the very edges of it, and yet other times she felt entirely enveloped by it.
In her dreams, she saw beings beyond her recognition—shadows that hung suspended over her bed as she slept. Demons, her confessor had called them, lost souls who clung to those at Providence’s doorstep. Pray, he instructed her, and be assured that they cannot reach you. Providence created us as human beings for a reason, he said, to lovingly spare us from the dangers of the spiritual world.
She hid as best she could—attending church, singing hymns, reading scripture, and dedicating her life to charity—but as soon as the lights were out and her eyelids closed she would fall victim to the reverie of her dreams and the darkness would descend upon her once more. Visions of those sinister beings filled her head, until at last she awoke, lit the candle by her bedside, and tried to forget her visions of the dark.
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