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Olli jerked awake, pulled sharply from sleep and trying to figure out what had roused him.
It only took him a moment to realize when he heard a soft whimper.
He flicked on the lamp on his bedside table and turned to the body that was tossing and turning next to him.
"Hey," he reached out and gently tried to shake his boyfriend awake from the nightmare he was living, taking a few tries until Johnny's eyes flew open with a gasp.
He recoiled from Olli's touch, trying to make himself small while his eyes quickly scanned the room, looking for something or someone.
"Hey, it was just a nightmare." Olli assured him, "you're ok, you're safe."
Johnny's breathing was rapid, eyes still filled with terror and not seeming to see what was actually in front of him.
"Johnny, baby, look at me." Olli urged, letting his voice get a bit firmer, trying to reach him through the haze of sleep and fear.
He turned to Olli slowly, a mix of emotions filtering through his eyes, but fear was the most prominent.
"Olli?" He said quietly, his voice shaking.
Olli let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Yeah, I'm here. It was just a nightmare."
Johnny leaned back into the pillows, slowly pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes.
"Want to talk about it?" Olli asked softly.
His boyfriend was silent for a few minutes, making him think that he didn't, before he started in a small voice.
"It wasn't just a nightmare, it was a memory."
Olli laid back beside him, "a memory of what?"
"My last fight with my ex."
He nodded a little.
He had known Johnny had just gotten out of a bad relationship when he first came to them; hell, he would also have to admit he had used it to his advantage to convince him to stay in there in the forest, devoting himself to the gods.
And Johnny had embraced his new life wholeheartedly.
But once they had started dating properly, especially once Johnny moved into his apartment, he started seeing the cracks in his sunny disposition.
One time he had knocked over a mug, harmlessly, nothing broken and no liquid left in it to stain anything, but he had flinched as if he expected to be screamed at.
Another time they had been watching a movie together and Olli had teased him about liking an actor.
He hadn't meant anything by it, but Johnny had seemed almost panicked as he reassured Olli he wasn't looking at other men, that he only had eyes for him.
Olli hadn't need to probe much before Johnny had admitted his ex had always accused him of such things, yelling at him for "looking at other men" even though he wasn't.
"That last fight was the worst," Johnny continued, "screaming matches was something I was used to, but he got so mad..." He swallowed, "and he was drunk. I can't even remember what the fight was about anymore, but... He threw a glass at me, I can still hear it shattering next my head." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I tried to leave... It just made him angrier."
He fell silent, lost in the memory, and Olli scooted closer so he was pressed to Johnny's side, entwining their hands.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He told Johnny, running his thumb over his hand.
"No... I think I need to tell someone. I'd rather it be you."
He laid out the whole night; insults, screaming, hair yanked almost out of his head and a bloodied lip before his ex had finally left to go drink at the local bar.
By the end Johnny was pressed fully against him, head buried in his chest while Olli wrapped his arms around him.
"I ran while he was gone." Johnny whispered, "I had already wanted to, already had some stuff packed... But that was the final straw."
White hot rage was boiling in Olli's chest, a primal scream wanting to burst from him throat.
But he wouldn't, not at this moment when Johnny needed him; no, a plan was already taking root in his mind. He rubbed his boyfriend's back and muttered soothing words, lulling him back to sleep.
He would talk with his priests in the morning.
...
Joonas had agreed with his plan in an instant.
Not that he thought his right hand would refuse or argue, especially as they hadn't chosen a sacrifice for this month's hunt anyway.
Olli never directly participated in the hunts. His role on their ritual nights was just to condemn the sacrifice and release them to whomever was going carrying it out; and then he could spend the rest of the night working or watching a movie with Johnny.
So Niko and Aleksi were surprised when he told them he would be joining them this time, but they both had been more than happy when they found out they were going to have a special guest.
And what he had done. They didn't need to be given full details, but the fact he had hurt Johnny was enough for all of them to be riled up.
It was always easy enough for Joonas and Aleksi to slip away from the compound; while Niko and Joel always ran their nightly services together, only one other priest was expected to be present and they rotated, so no one had thought it odd that Olli had taken that spot or even realized the other two were gone. They were good at their jobs and brought him in with no issues, kept in the secret chamber under the temple until tonight.
According to Joonas it had been far too easy for them to grab the man, the most inconvenient part was them having to drive so far away to get him.
Aleksi had informed him that he tried to stick his tongue down Joonas's throat as soon as they had started talking and had been quite handsy.
He would have to let Ale get a couple good hits in for that.
The moon was high, bathing the forest in silver light, a perfect night for this.
Normally on the hunts Niko and Aleksi had a select few members of the flock that had proven themselves over the years and had been allowed to join them, being told one of their closely guarded secrets.
Those members may think they were in the upper echelons of the congregation, but the true inner circle was very small, Olli's four priests were the only ones that truly knew all of the secrets they held, the only ones that knew he was the one that the gods spoke to so loudly.
So tonight it would just be himself, Niko and Aleksi; the rest of the hunters told that this was a special sacrifice that the two priests would be handling themselves; no one was to know of Olli's involvement, most only knew him as gentle and kind and he wished to keep it that way, it kept people coming back to him to reveal their secrets.
With Niko and Aleksi on either side of him, he released the man into the trees with none of his normal words, sometimes of comfort that they were serving a higher purpose, sometimes of commendation that they had been chosen in the first place.
Their sacrifice would get neither tonight. Not yet.
He was fighting, Olli had to give him that much as they ran after him, cool autumn air blowing through their clothes; one would think most would when their lives were on the line but there was a decent amount who just turned to pleading and praying, just hoping someone would take pity on them and get them out of the situation, or at least the mercy of a quick death.
Neither of those would be granted to their sacrifice and he seemed to realize that.
Olli's own bloodthirsty tendencies tended to stayed buried unless he was getting extremely annoyed with someone, but tonight the gods seem to find his endeavor worthy, his own rage felt tenfold and his friends were content to let him take the lead.
The three of them gained on him slowly but surely; they knew every inch of this forest and the man had no clue where he was going, but they let him have a bit of distance, his long pale blonde hair glinting in the moonlight and easy to see as he ran between trees.
They caught up to him when he started climbing a tree to try to get away from them.
"You really think we can't climb trees too?" Niko called up when he saw where the man had finally paused on a thick branch, "we can come up there and get you or we can wait for you to eventually fall asleep or slip and drag you away when you fall to the ground."
The man clung to the base of the tree.
Aleksi gave their prey a shark-like smile "if you come down willingly at least you won't have any broken bones tonight." He reasoned, "it's three on one, if we come up there you will hit the ground very, very hard, I assure you."
Olli chuckled a little, Aleksi almost sounded reasonable.
He was almost disappointed when the man nodded and slowly started to climb down, taking his sweet time to do so. As he got close to the ground he pushed off from the tree trunk and took off running as fast as he could. Aleksi let out a wild laugh as they started running after him again; he was going exactly where they wanted him to.
The man was fast but fear and exhaustion were taking their toll and just as he was starting to get to the clearing they had been slowly herding him towards, Olli tackled him hard to the ground.
The man punched and kicked out, screaming and trying to bite, but Olli had always been rather good at wrestling and quickly had him in a headlock.
He released him just before he could pass out from lack of oxygen; Niko and Aleksi each took an arm and dragged him to the middle of the clearing as he gasped for air.
They threw him to the ground and Niko sat on his back before he could try to get up. His legs flailed up to try to kick at him, but was quickly caught by Aleksi, holding them steady as Olli quickly pulled out his dagger from his thigh sheath and dug the sharp blade into the tendons on the back of one of the man's thighs, severing them.
The man started screaming in agony, his leg falling dead to the ground.
"Now are you going to keep flailing?" Olli asked softly, "or do I have to hamstring the other? I'd rather you not bleed out yet, I'd like to have a chat."
Niko and Aleksi chuckled under their breath, quickly tying their sacrifice's arms behind his back before retreating a little. Olli crouched down by his head, watching as his face turned and looking up at him with eyes blazing with anger and pain.
"You're probably very confused as to why this is happening to you." Olli began in the same soft tone he used when trying to soothe particularly nervous new members "no you probably don't understand anything you could have done to warrant this."
"Haven't done anything," the other man grunted out.
Olli laughed, "oh but you have. Arttu, isn't it? But you prefer Archie, don't you?" He sat by the man's head, legs half tucked up as if they were having a picnic, his now crimson dagger still in his hands. "We don't usually seek out particular people for this you see, we let them be chosen naturally; you're special in that regard, you should feel flattered."
He wrinkled his nose in distaste "although my friend here tells me that you did try to stick your hand down Joonas's pants that night in the bar, even when he tried to tell you to wait."
Aleksi growled at that.
"Don't worry, Ale, you'll be able to get your hits in." He chuckled, turning his attention back to Archie.
"But see, being a general asshole isn't enough to deserve this; so I will give you one chance to confess your sins, I am a priest after all, what you can tell me about a man named Johnny?"
"What did that bitch say about me?" Archie said with a painted growl, "I never did anything to him, he's my boyfriend and-"
"Was," Olli cut him off, his voice dropping dangerously low, "he was your boyfriend."
"You see that's the problem Archie," Olli told him casually, playing with the knife in his hand "you still think you own him in some way don't you? I'm not okay with that."
"The fact of the matter is you hurt Johnny quite deeply; emotionally, mentally, physically... all of it. You took someone sweet and kind and gave them trauma. So I'm going to make sure you can never harm him or anyone else again."
Terror seems to be growing in the other man's eyes as he realized this was not an idle threat, or something being done to scare him; he really was about to die.
"So I can go to therapy or something," he said fast "I can leave the country even."
"No no, see," Olli tilted his head and looked at him, one god starting to dominate the other in his head, calling for blood, "that doesn't work either because then you could just be out hurting somebody else and I would never even know about it. Plus you could always try to come back. No," Olli shook his head, "you need to be taken out for good."
"Because of the word of one guy!?" Archie tried to argue, "he's my bo- EX boyfriend, we had a bad fight, how do you know he wasn't lying or at the very least exaggerating? You're going to kill me for it!?"
"You can't make up the look in someone's eyes when they relive their trauma." Olli said sternly, "do you really want your last words to be a lie?"
"Johnny won't like this, I can't believe he would ask for this or be ok with it." Archie's voice was strained from pain, but the desperation in it was clear.
"You don't need to worry about Johnny" Olli said, voice dropping to a whisper. "MY boyfriend won't want for anything, not with me around."
And still somehow there was a flash of anger at him calling Johnny his, somehow Archie really had still thought of him as his own.
"So you're going to murder me for hitting him a few times?" Archie spat out, "how are you any better than me?"
Olli grinned wickedly, seeing Niko and Aleksi sharing the same expression.
"When did I claim to be better?" Olli asked, raising an eyebrow, "I've merely told you why you will be meeting your end tonight. And really glorifying our gods with your death is more than you deserve."
He gave the other two a nod, both pulling out their daggers as well.
"Go ahead," Olli told them, getting to his feet, "but I get him for the last cut."
Olli watched as the two set to work, Archie's screams echoing in the night.
But he didn't worry about anyone back at the compound hearing them, they were quite a bit away from it at this point and he had made sure all the exterior walls of the each building had a good amount of soundproofing.
Besides, if someone happened to be out they would just think it was an animal, the forest was full of them after all.
After a while he walked back over to the man; his hair was staining red, bleeding out slowly. He knew Aleksi and Niko could have done more; even with Aleksi making sure to pay special attention to a certain area, which just made Olli wonder just how aggressive he had been with Joonas, before he knelt back by him.
"Normally they would ask if there was any last words," Olli told him, noting the man's eyes had already glazed over in agony, pinkish-red bubbles at his mouth, "but I don't think I'll hear yours."
Before Archie could try to respond Olli slowly dragged his blade across the other man's throat.
The three of them watched as he as he took his last gasping breath, before quickly slicing his bonds and taking his clothes.
They didn't have to worry about the body. There were plenty of animals around and the forest always provided for them.
They made their way back, the voice that had gotten loud in all three of their heads was appeased for now, a pleasant humming taking it's place.
"You should join us more often." Niko observed.
"No," Olli shook his head, "you two can have it, it's not my role. This was more a one time thing."
By the time they reached the hidden entrance to the temple Olli felt exhausted and rather sticky, ready to go home.
There was a sink to wash up in and they all wore dark clothing so blood wouldn't be visible unless someone was close, but Olli had brought a change, identical black shirt and pants, so that Johnny wouldn't have the chance of seeing the blood at all if he was awake; while Joel and Joonas knew exactly what they were up to tonight, Johnny wasn't in on their secrets.
Although lately he had been starting to think of Johnny joining them as well; he was very devoted and the gods had been starting to whisper the idea in his head, that he was ready for that step.
Niko was nice enough to offer to take his soiled clothes to wash with his own, and the three walked back to the living quarters mostly in silence, all of their apartments close together.
The other two bid him goodnight, and he opened his door as quietly as he could, hoping Johnny would be sleeping peacefully.
And he was, only waking when Olli slid into bed and pulled him close.
"Mmm. How was the meeting?" He mumbled, throwing an arm across his chest and settling his head on top of Olli's shoulder.
"Good, we have the festival planned." Olli replied, which was true, but he and Joel had planned it almost a week ago.
But Johnny didn't need to know that, not yet at least.
"Sorry I woke you," he said softly, "go back to sleep."
Johnny sighed contently, lips barely brushing Olli's neck, "I'll try."
"Were you having a nightmare?"
"Beginning of one, I think."
Olli hummed a little, petting his hair, "don't worry love," he whispered, "you're safe here, I'll never let anyone hurt you."
Johnny hummed back in agreement, already starting to fall back asleep.
He was already breathing evenly against him when Olli pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, his voice barely audible.
"You never have to worry about him again."