5 years earlier.
A wide-eyed young boy called Edward was leaning forward towards the grand Petulistian Church's stage, he stared at it whilst on the stage a priest hosted, what they called, an anointing ceremony. Edward stared at the stage with bulging sparkling blue eyes that looked like they wanted to escape out of his sockets and onto the stage where they could bask in the Holy Spirit that Edward believed to be present on the Church's stage. Not only him, however, but all of the silky smooth dark mahogany pews in the church were filled with people of all backgrounds sporting wide smiles and gleaming gazes.
Most were hunch-backed and exhausted peasants; so droopy that they looked like their skin was melting. However, on the way to the Tollon town church, they all marched with a spring in their step. Those that were sitting at the front of the church were either the lord of a nearby village or the lord of Tollon Town. They were all looking equally well-rested and plump due to their sufficient, but for some, excessive feeding. Their usual pompous attitudes, arrogant postures and snobby facial expressions were replaced during this service by a childish excitement.
Despite living contrasting lifestyles, looking different and having widely dissimilar personalities, everyone in that Church was one way or another, similarly and utterly transfixed on what was happening on the stage. This was not the only church where this level of engagement took place, but all across the Kingdom of Nothrotita, on that Sunday morning, there were crowds of people watching each of their respective church services, in awe. And on that Sunday morning in the Tollon Town's church, forty thirteen-year-old children were waiting in line at the edge of the stage, to do what the two children at the centre of the stage were doing; pouring barrels of honey on to each other.
That's the holy event that tens of thousands of people across the Kingdom were so entranced by. They called it an anointing ceremony. The children anointed each other in order to rid the children of their original sin. This was done by drenching them in a golden and, what they believed to be, holy liquid; honey. Whilst they were pouring honey on each other a priest would stand beside them and read out a prayer from the Petulistian holy scriptures that were called the Agribidian. He would restate the prayer after every pair of children poured the barrels of honey that they were given.
To the right of Edward was his mother, Kaylee. He would look over to her occasionally during the service. When he did, his excited high rising eyebrows would furrow, and his enthusiastic wide eyes would squint into a darting glare, that possessed a penetrative focus because his mother was a black sheep.
Despite the enthusiasm of the rest of the churchgoers, his mother was laid back, yawning, and twiddling her thumbs throughout the entire service. Her head would occasionally nod towards the ground as she would briefly fall to sleep; the briefness of that sleep being a result of the sound of Edward's clicking tongue but mostly from the slight pain coming from her ribs being jabbed by Edward's elbow. She would then sigh deeply, roll her eyes and go back to twiddling her thumbs, tapping her feet or quietly humming.
To the left of Edward was his best friend, Jake. He was much more focused on the stage than Kaylee, but his focus wasn't founded upon a cheerful foundation like it was with Edward or the rest of the churchgoers. Jake's face wore a forced, weak and wry smile. His face was dripping with sweat and his skinny arms were shivering. Edward looked over to him with the inner corners of his eyebrows rising. He opened his mouth with the intent to say something to comfort him, but he couldn't think of anything to say.
"Hey, wait, aren't you two gonna be doing this honey thing next Sunday?" Kaylee loudly whispered as she leaned over to Edward and Jake, smiling. Jake's face crumpled as he cringed at what Edward guessed was probably the terrifying mental image of having barrels of honey poured onto him.
"Don't remind him! He's anxious enough as it is! Not to mention you shouldn't be talking, it's a church service you need to be quiet!" Edward whispered with a quiet but aggressive rasp in his voice.
"Why is he anxious? Honey is sweet and tastes nice; albeit the stickiness can be quite annoying." Kaylee whispered even louder than before; punctuating her speech with flamboyant and energetic hand gestures. An older woman sitting in the row of pews in front of them looked back at Kaylee and scowled.
"It's nothing to do with stickiness! I've told you before, he has a very severe allergy! Didn't I tell you about the allergic reaction he had to honey as a child!? He nearly died! So please, be quiet!" Edward's whispers were even quieter than before, despite his voice being deeper and the raspiness of his voice increasing.
"Wouldn't his anointing be extremely dangerous then? Why is he still planning to do I -?��� Kaylee was then interrupted by shushing that came from the older woman sitting in front of her. Kaylee looked turned her way and looked through her.
"This is a holy ceremony! You're a damn sinner if you interrupt this, and if you are a sinner you better leave now!" the older woman whispered whilst pounding on the backrest of her pew with her tightly clenched fist.
"I'm sorry, what did you say? Could you speak up?" Kaylee barely whispered as she leaned towards the older woman, sneaking a slight smirk.
The older woman opened her mouth but then closed it, biting her lip in utter frustration whilst Kaylee smiled and then giggled. The older woman then flicked up her middle finger at Kaylee and turned around, tightly crossing her arms. Instead of getting intimidated, Kaylee just laughed harder and louder.
"Mother, come on," Edward softly whispered. "If you keep making noise you're just gonna ruin the ceremony for everyone else."
"Oh please!" Kaylee scoffed, now giving up on whispering all together. "Son, everyone is here for the free food, ok? Not to see kids pour honey on each other or to hear the incoherent speeches of a borderline schizophrenic."
The man next to Kaylee shifted his eyes towards her, grimacing and so did a bunch of other people sitting on the row of pews in front of her.
"Oh, looks like the people here are a lot dumber than I thought," Kaylee said as she dropped her shaking head into her palm.
Kaylee then became quiet again for the rest of the service and sat still, only fidgeting with boredom and impatience. Edward then noticed Jake staring at the floor, his eyes locked on the ground; his body shivering and fidgeting even more than before. Edward then heard a bunch of whispering and giggling from the row of pews behind them. He looked back and saw three boys laughing and whispering to each other.
"Look at how much he's shaking! It's just as you said, he's scared of honey!" one of the boys whispered whilst holding back his laughter.
"Just wait until we use what you brought, it'll be hilarious!" another boy said.
"He's such a loser. Him being scared of such a stupid thing; he's practically asking for it!" the third boy whispered.
Edward knew that Jake heard as well, which was why he had a stare that was locked on the floor, due to a layer of shame and sorrow being piled upon his anxiety. To just make matters worse, Jake's father also heard the laughing from behind and saw where it came from. However, instead of showing any kind of compassion for his son, he slapped his son on the back and whispered into his ear, "Chin up. Sticks and stones will break your bones but words - fuck it - you know the rest. Man up, kiddo."
Jake dropped his face into his hands and clawed at his forehead. Edward then scowled at Jake's father but then his face softened as he tapped Jake's shoulder. Jake took his head out of his palms and looked at Edward, who looked at him with a glimmering smile and then softly but deeply whispered into his ear. "Ignore them. They don't understand what you're going through. Just close your eyes and imagine being at home; laying in bed. Try and relax, ok?"
Jake's quivering lips spread into a slight but genuine smile as his eyes closed tight and Edward's soft and warm hand wrapped around Jake's, even tighter. Jake began to lean back and his legs widened as he felt more relaxed. His face began to soften and his smile spread wider.
Edward leaned back as well, however as he did, he began to smell something sweet coming from behind. He looked behind his row of pews, and his heart pounded his sternum harder than a battering ram as he saw one of the kids behind him beginning to pour honey down onto Jake's head from out of a small cup. Edward thought Jake's anxiously vigilant senses must have smelt it too as he was suddenly looking behind himself and his eyes were so wide open that it looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. His face was appropriately as pale as a corpse' and his mouth gaped as he loudly gasped. He stared upwards at the viscous liquid of doom, that might as well have been lava. He watched it as it was being poured out of a swiftly tilted cup, just above his head. Edward then plunged his arm like an arrow towards the cup.