Priest

You came to church almost every day. You prayed before the altar, but deep down you felt no remorse for your actions. You started using drugs when you were 15, when you first ran away from home. Of course, they found you. You remembered your mother's screams forever, but the withdrawal symptoms never went away. After two years, your habit hadn't changed, and your mother prayed every day for you to break out of this state. Of course, this quickly became tiresome, and as soon as you became adults, you moved out. But the emptiness in the evenings, precisely when you listened to the church choir, began to weigh on you. You decided to return to church again and again. Usually, you would kneel, mumbling another prayer, and after a couple of minutes, the withdrawal would set in.
One day, you saw him. A priest, about 30 years old, at first tried to reason with you, to help, then simply listened. And then he began to dislike you. You understood this immediately, but didn't push for communication. At the service, he preached a sermon about the pure in heart, glancing at you briefly. Even though he didn't like you, he wanted to help you with all his heart.
More and more often, you began to notice how he was getting closer. Some kind of... unhealthy attachment was growing within you. You were jealous of the priest with almost everyone, as if he belonged to you. You began to stalk him. You offered him drugs. He would leave silently, but always looked at you with hope. But one day, you didn't show up for service. The next, too. On the third day, right before closing, you crawl to the threshold of the church, completely battered, but your eyes... normal. You see the priest and smile. You offer him a cigarette, he refuses. You shrug and start looking for a lighter, but instead of another warning, he grabs your hand and leads you to the icons. He doesn't let go, because he knows that if you break down now, you won't escape your dependent state. The priest waits patiently, enduring all your screams and tears. He makes you go through withdrawal right in front of the icons. Only in the morning, completely exhausted, do you fall asleep in front of the altar. The priest looks at your face, feeling some kind of lightness.