Bitter Sacrament

She has eaten the sins of one hundred and nine souls, and not one of them has thanked her.

Dolores comes when the bells ring in the dark-summoned to draw the sins from the dying with a breath and send them clean to Heaven. It is holy work, the Church tells her. Penance. A path to salvation.

But salvation is killing her.

Her fingertips have turned blue. Black lines spread across her skin. Her body crumbles under the weight of sins that were never hers to carry. Still, the bells ring. Still, sh...