Homecoming
By Fewthistle

Author's Note: Written for the Home for the Holidays Challenge at the Thursdays100 LiveJournal community.

The service had ended an hour ago. Serena didn't want to go home. Not to the emptiness of her apartment. So she sat, the unyielding wood of the pew hard beneath her legs. The sanctuary was darkened, the lights swallowed up by the gloom in the stillness of the vaulted ceiling.

The cathedral smelled of wood polish, and candle wax, of incense and piety. Closing her eyes, Serena could still hear the choir, voices raised in joyful noise. She wished that she could feel that joy, even for an instant. It had been too many years, too many murders, too many heinous acts for one midnight mass to erase. Even this homecoming had failed to heal her soul.