Terrorforming || Yandere!Harem X F!Reader

Fire and Brimstone

You were awoken the next morning by someone gently shaking you and whispering, "Y/N... Y/N, wake up. You need to get dressed for the service. Y/N!" It took you some time to recognize this voice as Louise's.

The cabin was still dark when you finally cracked open your eyes. The sun hadn't risen yet. Of course! It wasn't enough that service was mandatory and three-hours long. It also had to be before dawn.

Fuck your life.

It was this or starve, though. So you dragged yourself out of bed, stripped out of your pajamas and stepped into your frock and petticoat while facing the wall.

Just as you were about to leave Temperance and give the other girls some privacy to get dressed, Louise stopped you with a hand on your shoulder. "Don't forget your veil. You won't be allowed in the chapel without it."

"You can't be serious... That's what it's for?" You asked incredulously, still wiping the crusties from your eyes.

"Hey, I didn't make the rule. Don't shoot the messenger," she said, holding her hands up. You likely wouldn't get credit for going to the service if you were turned away at the chapel door, so you grabbed your white veil before making your way out the door.

Elizabeth was waiting for your outside, already shrouded. Stock still, like a mounted butterfly.

You could tell where she got it from, that stillness of face and form, once you were seated in the back pew of the chapel and listening to Nurse Thorne's sermon. She got it from her mother.

They mimicked the sort of placidity seen in depictions of saints. They let their voice and words do all the expressing for them. It was all a mirage, though. A pretty picture meant to disguise all the ugliness lying underneath.

She stood straight and tall as a statue, head bowed ever so slightly, wearing a gentle, resting smile that didn't meet her eyes. You could see what she was going for. She wanted to be both the loving, all-embracing mother as well as the stern, forbidding maternal figure.

Her looks were soft and inviting, but she preached nothing but fire and brimstone. She must have spent a full hour just describing the nine circles of Hell.

How the lustful were buffeted back and forth by the terrible winds of a violent storm without rest. How the gluttonous wallowed in a putrid slush produced by a ceaseless, icy rain. How the wrathful fought each other viciously as they were choked by their own rage.

So on and so on... At some point her words dissolved into an endless animal bleat.

Your focus shifted from the preacher to the congregation. Almost everyone's heads were bowed, as if they had something to be ashamed of. Everyone's except yours. It was perfectly silent. The only girl making any noise at all was a little girl in the front row. She couldn't have been more than fourteen. She was crying quietly to herself.

You think she must have been from Faith, because Rosasharon was sitting next to her. You recognize her by the back of her head. You could spot that hair anywhere. She had an arm around the girl's shoulders, was rubbing soothing circles into her back and gently shushing her.

Did Faithful girls -ironically the ones without any faith- have to sit in the front pews? There was no way you were transferring to Faith if that was the case.

Just when Nurse Thorne had you thinking all hope was lost, she offered you a way out. You could be saved by believing the good news of the Gospel: Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

If you accepted this as the truth, that Christ loved you and died for your sins to save you from Hell... If you called upon the Lord in child-like simplicity, clinging only to Christ's merit and His righteousness... If you did all these things, you would be saved.

Fear tactics. Fun.

"Would you be willing to put your whole-hearted faith in Jesus to make it to Heaven, instead of trusting yourself and your own way?" Nurse Thorne asked. "If you say yes and trust what the Bible promises to every sinner who believes in Jesus Christ, would you humbly go to God in prayer and ask Him to save you in the name of Jesus?"

If she was expecting an answer, she didn't get one. The girls remained quiet as church mice. Still, she seemed satisfied. Her smile widened by the smallest fraction.

"I guess I'll leave that up to you," she said at last. "The Lord bless you and keep you. Service has ended. Camp counselors, please lead your campers out of the chapel and into The Ark."

One of the perks of being a Temperate girl was that you were the last group to enter the chapel and the first group to leave. Once you were a couple feet from the threshold, you pulled the veil from your head and fluffed your hair a little.

"What's for breakfast?" You asked Elizabeth. Whatever it was, you'd certainly earned it.

"Your choice of waffles or pancakes," she answered coolly. "By the way, you have pastoral counseling today after breakfast."

"Pastoral counseling? Like, religious therapy? Is that mandatory too?" To say you didn't want to go would be a severe understatement. You felt uncomfortable whenever you were alone with Nurse Thorne.

Unfortunately, she nodded. "Every girl meets with Nurse Thorne at least once a week for pastoral counseling and medication management."

"I'm not on any medication." Even if you were, Camp Bethel had a strict no drugs policy. No exceptions.

"Not yet." That came across as a threat.

"Yaaay. Can't wait," you cheered sarcastically.