Lawyerbox

He couldn’t have said what possessed him to do it. Prayers hadn’t crossed his lips or mind since he was nine years old. Even prior to that praying had been more of habit than an act of belief. So it was especially strange when, in the deepest depths of his nocturnal Hell, fueled by several holiday-induced weeks worth of nightmares and exhausted by a near-deficit of sleep, his desperate thoughts turned to the angel.

'Even you,' some rebellious corner of his mind cried. 'If you could take all of this away I might even worship you, you sanctimonious prick.'

He regretted the thought the moment he thought it. He was disgusted by the very idea of praying to some unfeeling, self-righteous tyrant or any other being that thought themselves above him. Doing something so damnably foolish helped to drag him from that moment of extreme weakness. Chest aching, he rolled over in bed, curled in on himself and struggled to control his haggard breathing. At least he could take comfort in the fact that only he would ever know how pathetically low he had sunk.