THE DELIVERANCE

Give kindness and you will always receive it, babe.

***

WARNING: Yall, the wars between religion ended years ago. Please do not bring that shit back in the wattpad comment section. I know to some this chapter might be controversial but the truth of the matter is that my characters are Catholic and that's all there is to it. Nothing more, nothing less. I've written atheist characters, I've written characters that worship many different gods. One day when I'm more educated on Islam, I'll write Muslim characters. Please, respect your beliefs but respect other people's as well. Thanks.

CHAPTER L

*****

The gravel beneath the tires crunched as Daniel parked in the empty space before the grand, stone building before us. I felt my mind blur with confusion as my brows furrowed.

“A church?” I asked, turning to him. “You brought me to a church?” I found a slow, teasing smile spread onto my face as I watched him take off his seat belt. “You're not planning on marrying me, are you?”

He turned to me with a smirk and a single brow raised. “Do you want me to?”

I gasped dramatically and placed a hand over my mouth. “Yes, Daniel, I will marry you.” I then looked around as if searching for something before looking at him with an expression of mock confusion. “Where's the engagement ring?”

He chuckled, letting me see one of his rare smiles before shaking his head and opening the door. “Come on.”

I peeled off my seat belt and followed him out, running over the gravel road to join him as he walked towards the front doors. He pushed the large, wooden doors open without a thought and stepped into the brightly lit Chapel with me on his heels.

I stared on with wonder and awe. The ceilings were high and arching with golden chandeliers hanging from them and beautiful murals detailing heaven. The walls were made of stone, but it was warm and toasty inside, almost like I was under a warm duvet. On the walls were different pictures, illustrating Jesus's life, death and resurrection and at the front, near the alter, was a large sculpture of Mary and baby Jesus.

We walked along the carpeted aisle towards the front steps that led to the alter where a priest in white robes had his head bowed in silent prayer.

We were the only ones there and I felt creeped out by how silent everything was. I was only ever at church when other people were there and even though it was quiet, I was always reminded that I wasn't alone because of the odd cough here and there. It was the dead of night and no one else was with us.

The priest did the sign of the cross before he looked straight at us as if he always knew we had been there. I was sure we were exceptionally quiet, but he still seemed to have heard us.

He cast Daniel a warm smile as he made his way away from the alter and closer to us. “Daniel,” he said, his voice soft and even as he took us both in. “How many years has it been since I last saw you?”

“Many,” Daniel answered cryptically, only eliciting a calm laugh from the priest.

“I see you haven't changed at all.” Daniel actually smiled at that even though to any normal person, he would've just rolled his eyes and ignored them. The priest turned to me and offered his hand out to me for a handshake which I took softly. “May I have your name?”

His voice was soothing and made my heart hum. I wanted to listen to him talk all day. Even though I was freaked out in the beginning, I was really warming up to him.

“Araceli,” I answered simply.

He beamed at that and patted the back of my hand with his other hand before doing the sign of the cross on me.

“It's lovely to meet you, Araceli,” he said before turning to Daniel. “Thank you for bringing a wife to me so I can finally marry the both of you.”

I almost choked on my own spit as I dropped my hand and used the other one to pat my chest. The priest laughed at my dramatic reaction as Daniel just rolled his eyes at me.

“She's here for confession,” Daniel said, leaving me to gain my composure at the side.

The father looked between me and Daniel before nodding his head and taking a step back.

“Follow me then,” he said, turning around and walking into a back room to the right of the alter.

I pursed my lips before turning to Daniel. He didn't look at me, but he nodded and I knew his attention was on me.

“You can trust him,” he said lowly, placing a hand on the small of my back and nudging me to follow after the priest. “Tell him everything you need to. He's a good friend of mine.”

I held his gaze, trying to understand exactly what he was trying to say. “Even... about Vincent?”

“What about 'everything you need to' don't you understand?” he snapped, making me roll my eyes and walk up to him.

“Will you come in after me?”

He raised a brow at me. “Do you want me to?”

“I want you to find peace,” I said, placing my hand on his cheek as he stared intensely into my eyes. “However way you can.”

With a small smile, I leaned up and kissed his cheek softly before turning around and walking in after the priest.

The back room was small and was L shaped so I could see that it turned into somewhere else, but I couldn't see where that somewhere else was. The priest gestured for me to sit on a red, uncomfortable looking sofa opposite him. Between us was a coffee table that his knee almost touched as he leaned in closer to me.

With a sigh, I spoke up.

“I know I've come for confession, but I'm not sure if I plan on never repeating my sins again,” I sighed, looking down at my fingers.

“Then why are you here?” he asked, but his tone didn't come off as judgemental or angry or anything.

It was just soft and soothing.

“I'm looking for something.” I looked up to meet his eyes, expecting to catch him peering at me with confusion, but instead he stared at me with the utmost interest, it took me aback. “There's something that I've been lacking; peace within myself. And I think that maybe if I can find peace with my religion, I'll be one step closer.”

He sighed and sat back, a small smile on his face as he looked at me. “You are just as troubled as Daniel,” he said, making me chuckle lightly. “As a priest, I can not tell you how to live your life. I can only guide you. And if you plan to stay with Daniel, which I hope you do, I can not expect you to live a life as sinless as a devout Christian. The only thing I can tell you is that you should never doubt yourself if your actions are of good intentions. Never blame yourself when someone else has hurt you and always be willing to forgive... Not for the sake of others, but for your own.”

“What if the person is dead?”

“You still forgive and forget.”

“What if they're dead because of me?”

“Forgive yourself, and forget.”

A moment of silence passed between us before I shook my head and looked down at my fingers.

“Bless me, father, for I have sinned...”

***

I walked down the stairs and through the aisle towards where I saw Daniel sitting with his eyes closed. As I approached, I realised that he was asleep. His breathing was calm and heavy and he looked worry free as he carried on happily in dream land.

I tapped his shoulder lightly, hating the fact that I had to wake him up but doing it anyway. It was better he slept in a bed rather than on an uncomfortable church bench.

He jostled awake with a start, his eyes wide as he scanned the place before they finally settled on me.

But there was that same look in them again - the same fear.

He scooted away from me before my image probably finally registered in his head and he slumped forward in relief. He rubbed his face roughly before setting his eyes on me again.

“Are you done?” he asked, his voice deeper than usual. I nodded at him and smiled as he stood up.

“I have a few prayers to say though,” I said, but he only shook his head, showing that he didn't have a problem with it.

“Pray. I'll go help Martin with stuff for his next mass.”

“Are you sure you can do that?” I asked, making him wave his hand dismissively as he walked down the aisle.

“I do it all the time.”

As he disappeared past the door to the backroom, I couldn't help the smile that broke out onto my face. Daniel was a truly complex character - like an onion made up of many layers.

Did I just compare my boyfriend to an onion?

I shook the thoughts out of my head and sat down on the bench, bending my head and getting ready to start my prayers. I was distracted before I could even finish saying the first Hail Mary as the sniffles of someone just entering the church got my attention.

I peeked up from my crossed hands and looked up at the woman who had decided to sit in front of me instead of the hundreds of other options she had in the church. She sniffled again and stared straight on at the alter, not breaking her gaze at all as tears trailed down her cheeks.

What really confused me, though, was the little girl she had sitting beside her. The girl was no older than five, but she was on her knees with her head bowed in prayer. From their striking resemblance and the appropriate age gap, I assumed that they were mother and daughter.

The clothes they had on looked dirty and worn-out with some places even torn, but none of them seemed as bothered by it as I was. The young girl was bony and it didn't take me long to realise that they were homeless.

Something in my heart broke at that revelation.

“Hey, sorry,” I called for their attention, not caring if I was disturbing them in prayer. “Are you okay?”

The woman turned around to me, a confused look on her face before a look of realisation fell onto her features. She was striking even though her emerald eyes were dull and her skin looked paler than normal. Her hair was matted, but I could tell that it probably looked long and luscious in its un-matted form.

“Sorry, madam,” she said with a thick Spanish accent. “I do not mean to distur—”

“Oh no no. Its fine.” I quickly switched it up to Spanish, getting the fact that she struggled with English.

“No, I shouldn't burden you. Come, Maria, let's go.” She grabbed her daughter's hand, making to pull her away, but the young child shook her head vigorously and focused intensely on her prayers. “Maria—”

“No, please stay,” I begged. I reached into my bag and pulled out a tissue before handing it to her. “Here. Wipe your tears.”

She reluctantly took the tissue from me and rubbed violently at her cheeks.

“Thank you, madam.”

“Please, I'm just Araceli,” I said quickly.

I hated being treated like I was better than someone else; I wasn't. Just because I was fucking my boss so I had access to his bank account didn't mean I deserved to have the title 'madam'. Especially since I would have been in their position years ago if I wasn't as lucky as I was then.

She nodded her head and turned away. “I'm sorry for disturbing you.”

“No, it's fine,” I said quickly. “I just... she's really pretty.”

Even though she didn't turn to me, I could see the tips of her lips quirk upward at the compliment towards her little girl. “Thank you.” There was silence for a while before she spoke up again. “Her name is Maria. She's my everything.”

I smiled at that, feeling my stomach churn at her words. I placed a hand over it before looking up again. “Did you... Are you staying here?”

The smile slipped off her face and her lips were set in a thin line, letting me know that I had probably said something wrong.

“We have nowhere else to go,” she said coldly as she glared at the alter ahead of us. Maria kept praying, though, as if she couldn't hear a thing we were saying.

And that was the beauty of prayers. When done right, it was almost like meditating. I was just surprised that someone as young as her had mastered it so well.

“I'm sorry.”

“You did nothing wrong,” she said, still not looking at me. “You weren't the one that kicked me out at fifteen at two months pregnant.”

My mouth dropped at how young she was. She was my age for fuck sakes and there we were. The worst part about it was that we had both gone through the same thing at almost the same time.

“M-my mom kicked me out at fifteen too.”

That seemed to get her attention and she turned to me with wide eyes. “My mother too.” She sighed and shook her head. “She found out that I was doing sex work and that I had gotten pregnant from it and she threw me out with nothing but the clothes on my back. And my beautiful Maria. And ever since then, I've never had a place to call my own.”

There was too much that I had in common with her. While I wasn't doing sex work, I was sleeping around and that was why my mother had kicked me out.

“I recently...” she trailed off and looked down to her hands. “I recently tried to get in contact with her, but I found out that she had passed away two years ago.”

I felt my heart break in my chest even more if that was possible at all. For some reason, I found myself thinking back to my mother. What if she was dead? What if she was calling for me to come back to her?

“I'm sorry to hear that,” I said although I knew it meant nothing. Many people must have told her the same thing and it all amounted to nothing because her mother was still dead and her and her child were still homeless.

“We're looking for a way to go home,” she said, before laughing and shaking her head from side to side. “It's such a shame that the first time I'm going back in half a decade, the one person I'm waiting to see won't be there.”

What if my mother won't be there either? What if she was literally on her death bed calling for me?

“She wouldn't want you to dwell on her,” I tried to say comfortingly but she shook her head and laughed.

“Oh, you don't know my mother.” She looked up, the tears still trailing down her cheeks. “It took me so long to realise that I wasn't in the wrong. I made mistakes, but there were so many things she could do as my mother to guide me and steer me in the right direction.” She shook her head and looked down at her daughter. “It doesn't matter now. At least we can finally have a home to call our own.”

It that moment, Daniel walked out from the backroom with father Martin coming up behind him. I quickly got up and walked over to them.

“Oh, I see you've met Neives,” the priest said, casting a warm smile her way. “She's a lovely woman. And her daughter is so intelligent. It's such a shame that her potential in school is just being wasted.”

The frown on my face only deepened and I found myself turning to Daniel and grabbing his suit. He looked down at my hands before looking at me. “Yes?”

“Can you give me money?”

“How much?”

He didn't even seem surprised that I was asking him for money. I shook the thought out of my head and turned back to Neives and Maria before turning to him.

“How much do you have on you?”

“A lot.”

“Like five thousand dollars?” I asked, not really wanting to know how much money he had.

He raised an eyebrow and slowly pried my hands off his suit. “Much more.”

“Well, how much do you have in your pockets right now?” I asked, “I want to give it to them.”

He looked over to where they were. They looked like they had finished praying and they were sitting on the chair, conversing with each other.

Daniel dug his hand into his pocket before pulling out every dollar bill he had in it. All of the notes were fifties and over and I wouldn't have been surprised if the amount he handed to me was over a thousand dollars.

“Meet me in the car when you're done,” he said before walking towards the exit.

I made the wad of money as neat as I could before walking over to them. Neives raised her eyebrows at me as I walked to stand in front of Maria who looked up at me curiously.

“Here,” I said, crouching down and placing the money in her small hands. “This is a present from me to you.” I closed her fingers around the money as she stared at me with wonder. “I want you to keep it very safe and use it to take care of yourself and your mother.”

“Oh thank you,” Neives said, getting down on her knees but I grabbed her elbow and pulled her up, not wanting her to thank me for being a decent human being. “You don't know how this will help us.”

“Thank you,” Maria said making a smile blossom onto my face.

I shook my head as I began to walk away from them. “Don't thank me.” I looked back to the alter were Father Martin was standing with a wide smile on his face. “Thank God.”

And with that, I left to meet Daniel.

Who would've thought that two unlikely people would meet in the same place at the same time and find out that we were so much more alike than we thought. And who would've thought that I would end up helping her and she would end up helping me unknowingly?

*****

I know that warning was long af, but yall come on. I've seen so many comment sections be filled completely with arguments on religion just because one line in the paragraph was a reference to jesus or something like please! Of course we're going to all have different beliefs. That's not the problem. The problem is when some people don't understand this.

You don't have to believe in the same God. You don't have to believe in one God. You don't have to believe in God at all. Believe what you want but understand that other people will have different beliefs to yours. Come on.

Do better.