This is a brave post, and very very well written, it feigns for a moment, then sinks to the darkest depths. I always appreciate stories that don't shy away from difficult subject matter, to write it, or read it, forces a degree of uncomfortable relating that makes people consider the other side. By setting up the internal perspective, with the concern and emotion, it makes the realization of whats happening so much worse, but such it life, and trust, when betrayed, evokes those very feelings of repulsion and upset. The lack of explanation works well, was he involved in the disappearances, was his pain that of guilt and the desire for more he cannot have, or was he moved by the loss of the boys and the pain in the congregation and community? is what he does, a sick echo of something else, a perversion of its own, or a mixed up way of expression in the face of repression, where he is not necessarily thinking of the skull, the child etc, but more a conveniently found receptacle for release.