ALTAR BOY MARCUS Vol. 1 - Guilty Conscience

About this scene

It is a sunny morning at St. Peter’s Catholic school for boys as Father Sargent takes advantage of the brilliant beams of light trickling in through the window. He sits comfortably in his ruby red armchair as he tries to catch up on some of his readings. Despite attempting to focus on the words on the page, the priest catches himself scanning the same lines over and over again without properly processing them. Unable to snap his mind back into focus, he gets lost reminiscing of past memories…of past conquests. Is it happening again? His mind has already betrayed him as the images of his previously committed sins flash behind his eyes. Father Sargent understood it was his duty to set the example for the boys they are taking care of, he mustn’t surrender to those impure thoughts. He had methods of quieting that kind of desire, but it only promised to establish even more sinners. The older man could almost still feel the warmth that emanated from Noah’s smooth body as he so willingly accepted his punishment. It almost seemed as though the priest was intentionally being tested, as if both his fellow priests as well as many of the altar boys were also being tempted and unsuccessfully abstaining from engaging in the forbidden desires that lurked around every corner of this religious facility. When Sargent hears the doorknob turn audibly, it pulls him out of his naughty flashback. He sees altar boy Marcus Rivers enter half-heartedly and the priest is natural in his movements as he gestures for the boy to situate himself on the wooden prie-dieu just beside the armchair. Father Sargent can immediately detect that same weight of guilt weighing down on Marcus, it is one he is able to recognize. It was a weight he himself was guilty of carrying even just moments before. Marcus has always proven to be a very honest boy, the older priest knew the young man would never intentionally deceive him. And it would seem that the two of them now carry the same burden of yearning for th