Karen is pacing near the entryway of the church. She needs to go to confession. Really, actually needs to go, way more than she usually needs to go. She has KILLED PEOPLE, or at least maybe people, and maybe they were killing people, and also maybe they were vampires, but she really feels like this is still the sort of thing that you're supposed to get spiritual guidance about.

Except, of course, if you try to get spiritual guidance about that, the priest will think that you're insane, and Karen just super doesn't want to have conversations with people who think that she's insane.

She's fully aware that she's going to pace by the entryway being pointlessly anxious until confession is over. She's still going to spend the whole time trying to gather her totally insufficient reserves of courage.

Also waiting outside the confessional, not exactly in line, pacing: a large, sturdy girl in what appears to be hand-sewn clothing, holding a rope bag with twelve empty Gatorade bottles in it and also carrying a sword. 

She doesn't really have good enough English for conversations but she smiles brightly at Karen because it would be unbefitting of a paladin to be annoyed that more people are coming to confession which will help them correct their errors and save their souls, just because if the line is too long she'll probably get eaten tonight. 

Oh NO she might have to talk to people ANYWAY.

- wait, why does this girl have a sword? She supposes that anyone can carry a sword - it's not like she can tell whether it's sharp - but it's also the sort of thing you might do if you knew, right, and the overall presentation is -

- oh, no, she's staring.

"Nice sword," she says, and then immediately decides that this was idiotic of her.

She doesn't actually know the English word but the girl is clearly looking at the sword. 

"Thanks," she says, and then doesn't have the words for anything else she wanted to say, like 'it is a family sword' and 'my father gave it to me when God chose me'. "You know how to sword?"

"Oh! Uh, not well." Not at all, what, where did that come from. - and the girl must be a non-native English speaker, oh no, this is going to be even harder to do without saying something awkward. Why is she having this conversation - "Do you? Uh, know how to use it?"

"I am a holy warrior! I know how use it."

- okay what.

"A holy warrior?" she says, desperately trying not to sound like she thinks the girl is insane - because, you know, she's probably not.

"I serve God, fight evil?" She taps the sword. "I here for holy water. For -" and she makes fangs at her lips.

"Oh! Right! Do they, uh - already know about those, here, then?"

"- two my people eaten. Know now. Not-now, only know bad place, full of evil."

"Right, no, I mean - the priest. Uh. Do you usually come here, to the church, I just wasn't sure if they knew about - you know, the vampires - "

"We here - five days. Not yet Mass. No good priest if no know fight evil. Priests good fight evil."

"Oh."

She glances at the door. Confession's not actually over, yet. 

" - I guess I could go in and ask him. If he knows about - that stuff. I was going to confess something about it, but I didn't know if he knew about the vampires, and I got nervous, and - " She's probably talking too fast, now, for someone who's still learning English to understand. Gotta slow down. "Would it be good if I checked?"

"Yes. I don't have English good."

"Okay." 

That is not actually less terrifying than going to Extremely Awkward Confession for the sake of her own soul or need for life advice, but it's somehow less impossible than going for herself. Maybe it's just that leaving would also be extremely awkward, now, and also kind of make her - well, worse than a jerk, the girl said that some of her associates were dead, so.

Deep breaths. She can wait behind the one person left in line and then go in and then panic once she's already inside and backed herself in.

It's not a divided confessional, but at least it's got a screen. She - really wants to use the screen but maybe actually shouldn't, if she wants to try to read this guy's reaction to the existence of vampires. 

She takes another deep breath, walks around the screen, and plops herself down in the chair across from the priest. 

"I think I killed a vampire, last night," she says, very seriously, kind of not entirely able to remember all of the other stuff that she's supposed to say. "He was attacking someone. I don't actually know whether that's a sin or not. They didn't really cover it in confirmation class. I just thought I'd - I didn't know who else to ask about under what circumstances you're allowed to kill vampires."

"- daughter," says the priest, after quite a long pause, "I am glad of any impulse that drives one to the confessional, in these difficult days, but this is not a place for pranks. Or video games."

"Thanks," she says. "That's very helpful."

She kind of wants to make the rest of a confession, but she's not actually sure that it'll count, if she doesn't actually confess everything? Except - really it ought to count unless she thinks that killing vampires in defense of others really is a sin, and - if she had to guess, she'd say it wasn't, or she wouldn't keep doing it, it's really much more difficult and unpleasant than not doing it -

"Can I confess everything else?"

"Of course."

"I haven't been praying or reading the Bible as often as I should. I skipped mass once without a good reason. I haven't been helping out at home with chores as much as I'm supposed to. I wrote a story last week and it had a sex scene in it and I deleted it later but I probably shouldn't have written it at all. And I skipped doing my algebra homework, I dunno, five times, and I did have a reason but I don't really know if it was a good enough reason and I guess I'm sorry that I didn't take it more seriously and manage my time better."

It was vampires. She was fighting vampires.

" - you should say your act of contrition," he prompts her gently.

"Right." Ugh this is terrible how does it even go. Technically you can literally just say "I'm sorry" but it's kind of embarrassing to need to, isn't it. - Focus. Switch on some kind of autopilot, it's got to be in her brain somewhere. "Uh, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong, and failing to do good, I have sinned against You, whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin." There's something after that in that version, probably, but she's so done, and that's enough. "Amen."

"You should come to Mass early this week, so as to be in the opposite habit from missing it, and say fifty Hail Mary's. 

God, the Father of Mercies, 

      through the death and resurrection of his Son,

      has reconciled the world to himself

      and sent the Holy Spirit among us

     for the forgiveness of sins;

Through the ministry of the Church

     may God give you pardon and peace,

     and I absolve you from your sins

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

     and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."

"Thanks," she says, with absolutely no discernible feeling, because she's never gotten fifty Hail Marys before and she's pretty sure that this priest is personally pissed off with her about the vampires thing, which is kind of understandable even though ACTUALLY that was a GOOD and NOBLE thing of her to do for that RANDOM GIRL OUT THERE WITH A SWORD AND TEN EMPTY GATORADE BOTTLES.

(She's glad he at least didn't ask her if she was sorry about that. She's not.)

Normally she thinks of it as good form to do your penance right after confession, if you can, but she's absolutely not gonna sit around saying the Hail Mary fifty times so that the girl with a sword can ask about holy water for fighting vampires and then the priest can think that there's a conspiracy of badly behaved teenage girls who are trying to personally annoy him. She half-runs out of the confessional, and takes the sword girl's hand and tries to firmly lead her away from the confessional, which she would normally be way too self-conscious to do, but having to watch this interaction play out sounds infinitely more horrible than that.

"He doesn't know about the vampires."

"He does not? Then we tell him! He need fight the vampires with us!"

"Nnnno. He doesn't believe in vampires, and he's mad at me for talking about them, he thought I was - not taking confession seriously, I think."