Anneliese POV

Last night I stayed up praying so hard for things to solve today. I told Josh that he could go to his house and get some rest for tomorrow. I still can't believe what happened yesterday, it's so surreal. And just when I recovered from the excitement, I remembered something: I didn't ask her what was going to be with today's exorcism. I don't know what to do, but before they come to my house, I need to talk to father Alt. I think that if I tell him, he should know how to act. There are a lot of things in my mind right now. First of all, I don't know what to choose. I'm terribly scared, but I don't want people to be damned forever because of my lack of guts, and God is calling me, I can0t say no. Also, I don't want to disappoint my sisters, Josh and my friends. They are sure that this is going to end today. From Saint Mary's talk until now, I haven't felt that gaping hole inside me. Neither the constantly burning pain in my throat. Neither have I felt the horrible cracking pain in my knees and elbows that I used to feel. During my episodes, people have told me how much I fought back the demons, and how the threw me on my back into the floor, how they made me hurt the people I love. But when I saw it yesterday during my vision, it's a lot worse than the people told me. I washed my hair this morning, and I saw that some of my hair has been ripped off, like I have been told. I put some of the hair of my bang in the little hollow in a side of my head, near my ear. I putted on a black T-Shirt, an old jean that doesn't hurt the bruises all around my stomach and stay bare foot. I go down to the living room and the first ones I see are Alexander, Evan and my dad.

"Hey guys" I say, they all look at me and smile, because I can walk normally again, and there is a lot of time since the last time I could dress in normal cloth, since I had to use nightshands, because that was the only thing I could rip off without caring the cost of it. I move to sit on the couch in between my dad and my brother Alex.

"My mom told us about what happened yesterday" Alex states, all of them smiling at me with proud smiles. But as I look closely to their smiles, I see there is a lot of fear and insecurity in their smiles.

"Yes, and I guess my mother told you about the decision I have to make." They all nod, and I can see tears in my Dad's eyes. I hug him and he hugs me back, sniffling and crying his tears in my hair. Evan comes and hugs me from my side, well, hugging both of us tightly. I hear him sniffle too, so I know he is crying. Since our childhood, I seem to be the only one that gets him. Everyone thinks he is an airhead, even if they love him, they still think that. Then I feel someone hug my other side. I turn my head a little and I see Alex' black spiked hair caressing my cheek. His face is buried in my shoulder and he is crying too. Soon, I feel my eyes burning, and the warm tears fall, mixing with theirs.

"I won't get away from you, ever. God won't leave me alone; you should know that as clear as you know your own names." I feel they nod. "I'll take the right decision, and you all know what it is." They hug me tighter once I say that, and cry a lot more. They calm down, and we pull back. When we see our crying faces, we giggle a little, whipping the tears away from our cheeks and eyes. There is some silence for a little. Alex breaks the silence

"So, what's going to happen today?"

"I need to talk to father Alt. I'll tell him to wait for these 2 days up coming. The day past tomorrow, I'll talk to Saint Mary again."

"Well, let's call him" Says my dad. With shaky hands he lifts the phone and dials the church's number.

"Eh, father Alt?" He asks as someone attends the phone.

"It's Joseph Michel, how are you today?" He asks fiddling with the phone's cord. We can barely hear the voice in the phone.

"I'm fine thanks. The reason of my call it's that, eh, Anneliese needs to talk to you, and it's really important" I hear father Alt's voice answer, but it's not enough for me to understand what he is saying.

"Okay, thanks so much, father." With that my dad hangs up the phone and looks at me.

"We'll take you to his house. There, you two will talk." I go upstairs for my shoes and then go downstairs. My dad takes me to father Alt's house. It's not very big, but really comfortable and has religious features all over. We get on the door and knock on it. Father Alt attends. He has his black soutan, it remarks because of his extremely pale face and his black hair, as black as the soutan. He eyes me up and down, his features lightening as he sees that I don't need help to walk again. He hugs me and shakes my Dad's hand.

"Hey, come on in." He gestures for us to get in. We follow him in silence until we reach his office. He stops in front of the door and turns around to look at us. He nods his head at my dad and he turns around walking towards the living room. He then gestures me to get in his office. I get in and he closes the door behind me. He sits in the chair behind the desk, and I sit in the chair in front of this.

"So what did you want to talk about?" He leans against the back of the seat.

"Something happened to me yesterday, father." He nods encouraging me to continue. "When I woke up from my unconsciousness, I felt an urge to go out of the house, so I told Josh to take me to park. He did so, and we were walking across the park, when a vision, or a flashback, I don't know, hits me. I saw myself in the sessions, when I wasn't myself. When the vision ended, I looked at Josh, but I saw someone instead him. It was the Holly Mother of God, and she was smiling at me. I didn't say anything, I was stunned, but She broke the silence. She told me that the heavens were suffering my pain too. I asked her why I am suffering so much. She told me that it was a great suffering of her heart that there were so much souls going to hell, but that there is a person that has the fait and power to change that, and that it's me. I didn't know what to say. She continued, and told me that I have two choices: Stop suffering and the souls go to hell, or accept the pain and save all of them. She told me that I had three days to make a decision. She disappeared then. After that, I've been capable of walking, running, the pain in my throat is gone, and my legs and knees don't hurt anymore." He looks at me straight in the eye, without saying a word, and it's creeping me out.

"That changes today completely. We can't make the exorcism. Have you made your decision yet?" He asks. I look down and answer him

"That's the most probably, but there are a lot of things in my mind right now. My family hasn't taken it really well. They are very devoted, but they are really concerned about all the things I have to go through if I say yes. They are afraid of losing me. My dad, Alex and my cousin Evan cried this morning when they were talking to me about what happened yesterday. They need me. That made my mind shake up a little bit, but I have made of my mind, I'm pretty sure." He taps his chin with his thumb and forefinger before saying

"What about Josh?" That question sent waves of quilt all around my body. I haven't told him yet!!! How could I forget? Oh, I already know, I was too caught in my excitement.

"I-I haven't told him yet" I say barely a whisper. He looks at me sternly and says

"Promise me you'll tell him after school. He loves you, and you should know what he thinks about this task. Also, remember he'll support you in every decision you make" I smile at this. I feel like shit in this moment for not telling him something so important.

"Listen, Anne, I think you should pray a lot today, so you can get some clarity about all of this. Different things are getting on your way to make your decision. I want you to pray to make your decision clear." I nod and he gets up, looking for a book in the shelves. I look the book he is handling, while ordering the other books in the shelf. He turns and meets my gaze, so I quickly look back at my hands in my lap. He gives me the book, and it's a praying book, full of Saint Mary's prays.

"Take this book with you, and pray as much as you can" I nod and walk out of his office. My dad is out in the living room sitting in the couch, and as they watch me go out. He shakes father Alt's hand and we get out of the house and in the car. Once we are in, my dad asks

"What does he say?"

"If it's not obvious, we can't do the exorcism today, and he doesn't know what's going to happen until Saint Mary talks to me again. Also, he says there are forces trying to keep me from reach my decision." My dad nods his head and pulls the car into the street.

"I forgot one thing, dad." He looks briefly at me and nods for me to continue. "I forgot to tell Josh about the decision I have to make. I only told him about Saint Mary."

"You should tell him, he cares immensely about you."

"I will dad." With that, the conversation is over. We continue in silence until we reach the house. You will probably think we love each other at all, and it's true, it's just that we have had a lot of problems connecting in our relationship. He always thought I was weak. Maybe because I was predisposed to be sick all the time in my childhood. I enter the house and look for the phone immediately. I dial Josh's number and call him.

"Hello" It's him.

"Josh, its Anneliese. I need to talk to you now."

"Do I get there?"

"Please do." I close the phone and I can feel the tears falling one by one, every time hurting more. This wasn't supposed to be like this. I love Josh. I love him so, I love him enough to let him go. The tears fall harder and it's like they are burning my cheeks. But that is the way it has to be. Someone's gotta go, and I'm sure is going to be me. I didn't come here to hurt him like that, but I can't stop. It's better if I go now. He will live even better without me, and he is going to survive. I just want him to know, so I can accomplish my fight knowing that he knows why I left him. The tears are falling harder and harder, and as I said, each one hurting more than the last one. Oh my God, my sisters. They don't know about this, the only one that knows is Sarah. Oh, this is going to last forever. And my friends don't know, nor the ones from Bavaria, neither the ones from here. Just thinking about it, more tears fall. I'm sitting on the sofa, with my elbow in the armrest and my hand supporting my cheek. I'm not even sobbing. I get interrupted by the door opening, revealing Josh.

"Anneliese, I..." He shuts up at the moment he sees me in the sofa. He gets near me and hugs me. I don't hug back. I don't have the strength right now. I just keep crying and the tears fall harder than ever. He pulls back, takes my face in his hands and makes me look at him. His eyes are clouded with tears, but he keeps them from falling.

"What's wrong?" He sounds extremely worried. I remove his hands from my face and take them in my own. The tears fall slowly now, but are hurting a lot more than before.

"Listen to me, Josh. I didn't tell you everything yesterday" He nods and the lump in my throat keeps breaking my voice, so I swallow and continue "Saint Mary talked to me about what was happening. She told me that the heavens were suffering my pain too. I asked her why I am suffering so much. She told me that it was a great suffering of her heart that there were so much souls going to hell, but that there is a person that has the fait and power to change that, and that it's me. I didn't know what to say. She continued, and told me that I have two choices: Stop suffering and the souls go to hell, or accept the pain and save all of them. She told me that I had three days to make a decision. I was caught in my excitement so I forgot to tell you. The exorcism is not happening today, and I think anytime soon." The last three words came out as a cry. Looking his face is only making it worst. It looks hopeless and scarred. "I should have told you… But I didn't. I'm going to take the right decision. I'm going to accept God's plans for me. But if I do, you know what is going to happen. I probably will be in this state for a long time, I don't know. I don't know anything if I say yes." The tears are falling uncontrollably down his face. I swallow the lump again, so I can continue. "And I've come to a decision. You can't try to protect me anymore. You are suffering a lot more than you should. I didn't come here to hurt you, but now I can't stop doing so. At the end of this, someone is going to go. So it's better if you go now. I didn't want us to fall like this. I don't want this to end like this. But there is no choice. I want you to be happy, and I don't make you happy, I make you sad. I'm the reason why you cry so much. I want you to move on. It doesn't matter right now how we feel, because I just wanted you to know." He is crying, but he doesn't talk. His silence is killing me, so I reach out for him

"Say something"

"You want me to go, there is nothing else to talk here" The most hurtful tears come out of my eyes as he says this. "How can you ask me something like that?"

"I'm hurting you more if you stay" I say as a matter of fact. "And I don't want you to go, but it's the only solution"

"So, that's the reason you enter my life is just to get out when there is a problem" He just doesn't get it.

"Josh, you know it's not that. I need you to stay away for some time so I can follow God and do my best in this challenge." He only looks away and he looks pissed off.

"Oh don't say that, please. I'm tired of seeking God with you when he wants to take you away from me."

"He doesn't, Josh. I don't want you to leave, but you have to. The only thing that it's stopping me from accepting this challenge is you, because you are going to suffer even more than I." He looked at me with hurt clearly in his eyes.

"So that's what I am for you. An obstacle." He says nodding lightly. The more I'm trying to let him know that it doesn't matter where we take this, someone's going to go or at least get hurt, the less he is comprehending it. I take his face in my hands making him look at me.

"You. Are. Not. And you know that." Another pair of tears come down his eyes, as well as in mine. That makes me just give in. I sigh and tell him. "You know what, Josh? Stay, stay if you want. Just please do not cry or suffer because of me, because it is what kills me the most." His eyes get bright and he hugs me tightly against his chest.

"I promise, Anne. I'm so sorry." He whispers in my ear, sobbing lightly. And that's all I remember before I fell asleep against his chest.