"Fuck you, fuck your god, fuck your little religion, and fuck whoever actually believes your nonsense!"
Sunny always wanted to yell out these words to the elders of the sun religion. Every time they ordered him around, claded him in their robes to parade him around as the miracle of their oh so benevolent sun god, used him to spread their deceit throughout the world as a counter to other religions, he said this to them-in his mind.
Until, of course, he snapped.
In one of the priest chambers, brightly lit by sunlight penetrating through the massive dome of glass overhead, illuminating the paintings of the sun god and his 'great,benevolent achievements'.
He had just been put in the usual golden robes they always put him in to parade him to the congregation in the main halls alongside his siblings, the 'sons of the sun'.
Idiotic name, he always thought, there were more females than males, and in the heavy robes, he was always mistaken for a girl.
"Brighten that face, it is a good day that the one true god has blessed you with, to be consumed by gloom would be a slap to the highest," Arch Priest Bilhom said to sunny, over and over again, almost each day.
"Fuck you, fuck your god, fuck your little religion, and fuck whoever actually believes your nonsense!" This time,Sunny retorted.
It was meant to sound in his head, as it always did. But the barriers meant to hold his thoughts back from his speech failed at the worst possible moment.
Silence.
Cold.
Even the lighting from the sun seemed to flicker- no, the sunlight didn't flicker, Sunny just blacked out for a second the moment the Arch Priest's hand met his face.
It burned, it felt as if the Arch Priest had used a heated hammer instead of his hand.
"What cursed tongue is that?In the holy house?You dare?" The Arch Priest roared at Sunny who tried backing away from him.
"I think he's learnt his lesson, father, we shouldn't keep the people waiting for too long, right?" Halo stepped in between them.
She had a red ribbon around her waist alongside her robes.
It symbolised purity, as the elders claimed. But every one knew that was a lie. If it did, then why was she only given to her when she had her first flow of blood? And why did the last female sons of the sun to wear a red ribbon mysteriously vanish?
It was a mark, one that meant she was next in line.She knew that, Sunny knew that, whoever didn't was a fool.
According to how the congregation looked at her when she first walked out in the robes with the ribbon on her, it was obvious that they knew too.
Before he knew, Sunny was left alone in the Priest chamber room, the others leaving to be paraded around.
Cheers.
They went for whole minutes, as they always did, until they sat.
It was the same thing that always happened, a sermon and some claims for divine revelations.
'Divine revelations my ass,' Sunny thought to himself.
It's not that he didn't believe in the spiritual, or the gods, or anything. To do so would just make him foolish, he had seen with his own eyes people do things that could only be supernatural.
And of course, the sun god had to exist, for how else would he have killed his parents and spare him as a baby to be rescued by the sun religion as a chosen one to be paraded around to praise the sun god?
Absolute bull crap, he always told himself.
The evening meal was more quiet than it usually was. It was a compulsory thing, otherwise none if the sons of the sun would attend. Sunny definitely would be a no show.
"The Grand Bishop is coming tonight, so tomorrow at the break of dawn, you will retry your bonding ceremony with our Lord," the Arch Priest announced, eyes locked on Sunny.
"Your Lord," Sunny mumbled, between a slow chew before Luce stepped on him, signalling that this was not the time.
Not a single other word was spoken throughout the meal. Each one of the sons of the sun knew well speaking was prohibited at the table.
They instead shot glances across each other, as if communicating telepathically, in an attempt to avoid punishment from the Arch Priest who sat at one end of the table, across an empty seat-the seat of the sun god.
Ridiculous waste of food, Sunny always thought as he watched food get served to an empty seat.
After the divine murder of his parents, he was technically an orphan, had he not been taken in by the religion, he'd have starved. Due to this, the waste of food always irked him. Who knew how many children had gone through the same as him, but ended up in the streets?
But maybe that would have been better than this, he thought, caressing his blackened eye.
Once the Arch Priest is done eating, the meal is over, regardless of whether any of then still had food on their plates.
When the priest was done, he said prayer, praying to the murderer of his parents always felt like reaching out to burning coal and pushing it down his own throat.
"What did you really think you'd accomplish with these stunts today?" Luce asked once they were in their shared room.
"Would be a real relief if a ball of fire fell on me from the sky," Sunny replied, sarcasm etched in his tone.
Before Luce could respond, Sunny was already on his bed, turned against the wall.
"Take off your shoes at least," she said.
"It's my bed, unless your god wants to come take it."
She didn't speak another word, defiance was his solace every time he had had a bad day, she had learnt to accept it over the years. It's always little acts for him to reassure himself of his own free will, she knew that.