Some say that being a teenager is hard. Most teenagers have to leave their childhood behind and think and act like adults. This means boyfriends and university degrees and jobs, and without knowing it, you would soon be an adult with a family.
I had a good childhood. I lived with my mother and dad in a huge old house. I had everything that I needed, and always had enough love and understanding given to me. I had the best clothes and the best toys any girl would want. I was not a spoiled child and I must admit that I was well behaved and had a good heart.
My mom was a house mom and worked nearly as much as any person I knew. Dad was a doctor, so he was very smart. This meant for some reason, he gave me lots of checkups. I hated these checkups and had to endure them once a month. Dad would take blood tests and check everything that a doctor does. He even tried to be funny checking my head for horns. Even though I considered myself too old for that, he still did that joke.
I went to a Catholic school and always was one of the best in the class. The teachers always praised me for the work I have done and how smart I was. Some of the teachers were nuns and I always secretly wanted to be a nun. They had such quiet lives and were married to Jesus. They dedicated their lives to helping others and this could not be so bad. I liked the idea of living like a saint and helping as many people as I could.
Emma was my best friend. She lived with her mom. We did everything together and had no secrets from each other. I thought it was sad that she had no dad. My parents liked her and said she had a good heart, and was polite and all that. The main thing she was the best friend I could ever have. Emma was at my side in the good times as well as bad times. She was not a bad influence on me as she never did anything wrong. I always felt lucky that I had her as a best friend.
Ohh, I forgot to tell you my name. It's Ann.
This story starts when I was at Emma's house on a sleepover. We have done this since we were children and we had no plans on stopping them yet. Emma's mother did not mind when I came around. She was a strange woman. She was very quiet and seemed like she did not want to speak with me. She would speak in a low voice to me and not look straight at me. I joked at Emma and asked was her mother afraid of me or did she not like me. Emma just smiled and said that she was just shy.
Otherwise, the sleepover was fun. We talked about school and the nuns there. We discussed how bad homework was and talked about music and films. It was not like other sleepovers I heard other girls had. We did not try on makeup on or talked rudely about boys. We did not sneak any alcohol in. We could have fun without all those temptations.
I didn't sleep well. I had a nightmare that I had all my life. I dreamt that I was in a Church and suddenly I started getting headaches. The pain was so much that I fell to the ground holding on to my head and rolling around. I was screaming in pain and everyone was standing around me and praying. Horns were coming out of my head and everyone was calling me a demon and praying for me. My skin would burn as they threw holy water on me and I would scream much harder. The nightmare would finish where I screamed so much, that a fire started and was spreading in the Church. I would stand up with these two horns sticking out of my head. The pain was gone, and the raging fire or the falling church did not even hurt me. I would be the only one that survived,
I had this dream on the sleepover and woke up sweating and found it hard to breathe. Why did I always have this nightmare? Emma woke up and quickly came to my sleeping bag and asked if I had the same nightmare again. I could not breathe and was in an anxiety attack. I hugged her and asked why did I always have this dream? Emma just hugged me and told me to relax and think of nice things. She always managed to calm me down. She never said it was just a dream and I should not overreact. She would just speak in a comforting voice and tell me the dream is gone and now I just needed to relax
I finally went back to sleep. Emma promised that she would pray for me at church the next day. I was looking forward to the Church. My parents would be there and this would end the sleepover. Besides that, I liked the Church. We heard nice stories from the Bible and I liked it when we sang songs. I would sit next to Emma and we would both be smiling as we sang. I know my teenagers my age do not like church and think it's boring. Maybe it was Emma's influence on me. She was never afraid to show her faith and talked a lot about God.
The priest must have been in a bad mood again because he was talking about the Devil.
“ Satan is a fallen angel,” he said, “ We must all know that Satan turned his back on God and wanted all the power for himself. This fight between God and the Devil is still going on. There is a fight between good and evil. The Devil wants each and every one of you to give your souls to him. He is tempting you with sin and hoping your weakness will be your fall. The devil's temptation is easier in our modern world, where more and more sinful ways are now being accepted as a right and something that should be normal. Satan is winning. The church even believes that Satan has children among us that will help him in the fight against God.”
The priest continued on an on how we should all keep our faith and not be tempted. For some reason, I felt uncomfortable when he was talking about Satan in this way. I could not sit quietly and began to squirm around on the seat. The worse bit was that I started to sweat and this was strange, as I felt suddenly so cold in the Church. Maybe I preferred the priest to talk about something nice.
The next day at school, I was eating lunch with Emma. She told me that the priest's sermon was scary. I looked at her and after a bit, I told her that I felt sorry for Satan. God would never forgive him, and this meant that Satan would always be considered evil. I told Emma that Jesus said that we should forgive our enemies. Does this not apply to God?
“ Satan does not want to be forgiven. His aim is to humiliate God and he is trying to do this by turning God's greatest creation against him. Satan does not want the human race to be God's friends. He wants us to turn away from God and worship him.”
I had to think a bit and could not help thinking about Satan. I looked in Emma's eyes and said, “Even if what you say is true, then it does not excuse God. God is allowing Satan to use the human race as pawns in a fight between him and Satan. God does not have to include us and if he was all-powerful, he could destroy Satan!”
Emma admitted it was not easy. The best we could do was to avoid temptation.
A few days later, we were once again eating lunch. Emma noticed that I was very quiet and did not really want to talk. I told her that I had that dream again, and this confused me. Why did I always dream that I was turning into a demon and end up killing everyone that went to Church? Was this because I was not good enough and I was evil? Was it Satan trying to win over my soul? Was it because of the priest's sermon? I knew deep down that I was not a bad person. I did not do what other teenagers did. I kept away from sex and drugs and drink. I did not really have impure thoughts. I was a good person! Why did I have these dreams so often?
Emma gave me a hug and told me that she will always be my friend. She joked and said even if the dream was true, and I was a demon, it was still me that had the power. She reminded me that Satan was an angel and was close to God. Even as an angel Satan decided that he would be evil and turn his back on God.
Emma told me to look at our classmates. They were more worried about how they looked or who they flirted with. They were weak with temptations. Emma said that this made us weird, as we turned out backs on temptation and this meant we were not normal!
“ Its all about choice,” She said, “ You or I could be demons, but it's our choices that matters. It does not matter if we have horns on our heads. The choice we have is if we will be God's friend or not. The choice we have if we will be good or bad!”
Emma had such a good way of calming me down and making things better. In a way she is right. I did not have the same problems as other teenagers. If my worse problem was a bad dream I had once in a while, then things were not so bad. Emma was right. I did my best to be a good person and friends with God. That is all that matters!
Maybe I spoke too soon.
Mom and Dad and I were going to church, I was hoping that we would sing some nice songs and the priest would not talk about hell and the eternal fire.
I did not even make it into the church. When I put my finger down in the holy water, I started screaming. The water was like acid and the pain was so bad! I quickly lifted my finger up again and it was so red and even some smoke was coming from the finger. Everyone was looking at me and looked like they were in shock. I was relieved when mom said we should go home and do something about the finger.
On the way home, I was in tears. I was of course in pain and I was confused. Why did the Holy Water only burn my finger? Mom and Dad blessed themselves before I did. Why did they not get burned? On top of this, mom was whispering to dad that the metamorphosis has started. I knew this meant some type of change. This confused me more as I wondered what mom meant by that.
When we got home, we went to Dad's office. He put some cream on my finger and said it was only a slight burn. This made me glare at him as I shouted that Holy Water should not burn a finger. I thought that he would say something funny. Mom asked him if he could see any changes, which made him check all over my body. He even tried to see if I had horns. I did not find this funny.
The good thing was that he said I was the same as always.
That night mom came into my room and said we should say prayers before bed. We have done this often and we would recite prayers like “our father” and “Hail Mary”. I thought it was a good idea as we did not go to church that day. When mom started to recite the prayers, I opened my mouth to join in. Nothing came out of my mouth. The more I tried the worse it became. My throat blocked up and I could not breathe. I tried to say the prayers and even tried to recite them in my mind, but the more I tried, the more I was choking and couldn't breathe.
I was crumped on the floor in a fetal position as I tried to catch my breath. Mom shouted for Dad and he quickly came with an oxygen mask. Mom cuddled me in her arms and told me not to try praying. I was to relax and think of nice things. This helped a lot as I slowly started breathing again.
I was not the only one that was scared. Mom was scared as well. She even asked Dad if he could see that my eye pupils were so red. She said it was like I was wearing a contact lens. I tried to ask her what she was talking about. My eyes did not hurt. Why would they be red? Mom and Dad went quiet and just cuddled me and telling me to relax and calm down.
Things did not go better the next day. I was telling Emma about the holy water and what happened that night during prayers. She suddenly took a step backward and said that my eyes were red once again. She said it was like some eyes that you see in a horror film. I didn't answer, as my eyes were blinded by a bright light and I was once again sweating and feeling cold. I whispered that I was weak and it felt like all the energy was being drained from my body.
Emma must not have believed me, as she took a picture of me with her cell phone. I squinted and could see what was making me feel so bad. I shouted at her to take the cross off she had around her neck. I collapsed to the ground and was feeling so cold while every bone in my body was in pain.
It took me time to recover and Emma asked me was I sick or something. She showed me the picture and it was quite clear that the pupils in my eyes were a flaming red color. I hugged Emma and asked her what was happening with me? Emma told me that I should ask my mother.
This was wise, so I rushed home and told mom about what happened when I have seen Emma's cross. I asked mom did I have cancer or was I a vampire?
“It's about time you knew,” Mom answered, “ Come, let us have a serious talk. I never wanted this day to come, but it has. I think you need to sit down”
To be continued
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