In the name of God (Arvin Russellxreader)

Chapter 15 - Exodus

(A/N: Doesn't strictly follow the timeline from the film since its very ambiguous, so I'm prolonging when Arvin fought the three boys)

The following Saturday night, I sat by my desk, planning the demise of the preacher meticulously, starting with a slow descent into madness that was a fraction of what he'd gifted to my family. I only had to wait a few hours before Preston would be riddled with guilt and perplexed without relief. After years of waiting for him to be punished, a few hours were marginal and minute compared to what had come before.

(Time Skip)

While the crowds flooded out the Chapel's doors, I snook through the crowd and placed a Bible that Eliza left for me, annotated beyond belief, pages scrawled with endless cursive and slipped between chapter 32 and 33 of Exodus, the section of the Bible famous for God's revenge, of which it was not lacking. After it was left on the lectern, I skipped quickly through the crowds to catch up to my aunt and cousins who were talking with some of her friends, though my eyes immediately darted around, trying to pick out Arvin, Lenora and Mrs Russell, but they were nowhere I could see. They must have already escaped, lucky them.

I ran up to Anthony, tapped him gently, alerting him to my presence. He turned around with a gleeful look in his eyes and started running at me, so naturally, I started walking away, trying to escape his playful chase. It was incredibly childish, but it felt so free and natural to me, playing 'tag' with my cousins, since Rebekah had since joined him in chasing me around the area adjacent to the chapel. I heard a few remarks about me, how I seemed 'good with children' and 'of a child-like disposition' and I couldn't help but allow a smile to creep upon my face. The façade was working, efficiently too. I was chased for a good ten minutes before we were called away by my aunt who summoned us and ordered us to start the journey home, but I chose to wait behind, wanting to see Preston's reaction.

(Arvin's POV)

I was sat in the car, waiting for my grandma and Lenora to get outta' church; they were no doubt chatting to other members of the congregations. Then, I thought of trying to find Y/N, since she would be here and I set my eyes on her when I heard a small shout come from outside. She was jogging through the field, some kids following behind her, they continued to call her name as she moved out of their grasp with ease. While I was lookin' at her, I could only focus on how free she looked, how beautiful it was seeing her smile and laugh and play, when we usually met under other circumstances, and hardly ever in the bright midday sun. She was gorgeous, along with how smart and talkative I learned she was; I had thought it before, that she was beautiful, but it was only in the light of day that I realised that perhaps I felt something for her.

Suddenly, the sound of the door opening broke my gaze from where Y/N was last, but she had since disappeared again. "You alright Arvin? You seem kinda distant honey."

"Just thinking somethin' over grandma." I uttered, focusing on the road instead of the conversation that my grandma was tryin' to make us have.

"Well, you be careful, you know what happens when you have ideas." She responded and which I replied to with a loud scoff and a small giggle from Lenora.

(Unknown narrative POV)

As Preston Teagardin paced through the pews of the chapel, he hummed a little song in his head that rattled through the empty building. He peered out the window, seeing his wife, sat dutifully in her seat of his car, and a smirk appeared on his face. Preston wandered towards the lectern of the chapel, standing behind it, pretending to move the masses with his words, and only ceasing when his hands brushed the hefty book. He looked at it pensively before taking it up and flicked through its delicate, scribbled pages until he reached the slotted note, noticing where it was conveniently placed. He separated the note from the Bible, laying it on the surface before curiously unfolding the paper.

His eyebrow quirked with confusion as he read the words carefully written on the page; those haunting words were "Miss me, Preacher?" He dropped the note and scrambled the pages of the Bible to the front, to see if there was a name to the note. As he read the name inscribed onto the holy pages, Preston was forced back by sheer shock as he stumbled into the chair behind him. He recognised that name, a name he had not heard nor thought of in years, but for then, and days after, it was all he could think of, a name that haunted the man.

Y/N crouched beneath the window ledge, peeping up only to watch the preacher unveil his surprise, to which, a large Cheshire cat smile appeared on her face, obviously delighted with herself. She tried to contain her excitement but a tiny chuckle snook through her lips before she could catch it. As Preston turned to look over, Y/N bobbed beneath his vision and crept around the chapel until she reached the gap in the thicket of trees and darted through the small forest, running away from the preacher's palace, back to her temporary abode.

In her mind, Step one of her plans had gone without a hitch. She had just plucked the thread that would unravel the Preacher's façade, leaving him reeling without purchase or safety, not even in the heavens with his beloved God.

Preston Teagardin would face two hells; one by the devil, after his death, and a very real version, bequeathed to him by Eliza Williams and executed by her sister Y/N. His torturers would be the very being he feared as a Christian and a 17-year-old who wanted revenge, the latter he should have been more scared of, because he could not predict what awaited him at her hands. There was no Bible telling him what would come, it had abandoned him.

Preston Teagardin was something that he had not been since he was a boy; Preston Teagardin was scared.

(A/N: Towards the end, it occurred to me that the character of Y/N is the same age and has the same motive as Kaz Brekker from SOC. This is purely unintentional but i thought that it is pretty cool actually.)