Fedora froze at that precise instant, his brain and body swept into a current of raw shock that made him forget how to function. But guess what didn't stop like he did? The church.
The very moment that dirty snippet transitioned into identifiable sacrilege, every single head and eye snapped toward Fedora in a prepared, almost synchronized motion.
It was as if they had been expecting something exactly this mischievous from him all along, their internal "sinner sensors" finally pinging with a direct hit.
Fedora's neck was so stiff he didn't dare look around, but he could tell, from the sheer weight of the atmospheric pressure crushing him, that these people were looking at him with total judgment.
