SUPRA VIRES

PROLOGUE - CONFESSION

"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned."

"When was the last time you went to Confession, child?" asked the priest, glancing at a young girl.

She looked like a humble person, but something told him that it was only a pretense, that she wasn't a Christian at all.

"I haven't done it for a long time. So long that I don't even remember," she replied in a slightly trembling voice.

"Do you believe in God, child?"

"There is no God in my world," said the teenager, dropping her eyelids shyly. "There is only good and evil."

"Then why did you come here?" asked the priest anxiously.

"Because of evil acts I committed," she said miserably. She was calm, only sometimes the corners of her mouth twitching. "Does God exist?" she asked after a moment, breaking the silence. She was the only person in the church, so she didn't even try to whisper.

He hadn't confessed such a person for a long time. Usually, residents were coming to him and instead of saying what they felt, they were telling him the phrases they had learned earlier by heart.

"Yes, of course," he replied.

"And does he forgive all sins, even the worst ones, if someone regrets them?"

The priest fell into a reverie. He didn't know her but after hearing this question he had just realized that he had seen her before. She sat on the bench in the church last week, fervently praying, which caught his attention. Seeing a distraught face, he suggested her going to the confessional. For a moment he got the impression that the girl would go outside and run away. However, she asked only the same question: "Does God forgive all sins if someone regrets them?"

He didn't give her the answer then.

"It depends on sin," he told her today. "What sin have you committed, child?"

"There were so many of them but the worst I committed two months ago. It seems..." the teenager hesitated a moment.

She had a determined look on her face. On the one hand, she wanted to confess what hurt her so much, on the other -- she was afraid to do it.

"Go on," said the confessor gently.

"I think I killed somebody. I killed a man..." she added hastily.

"You think?" asked the priest in surprise.

"No, I'm sure of that," she blushed scarlet. "And now I'm constantly having nightmares..."

The man had heard a lot of stories in his life, but nothing could prepare him to a murderer's confession. He looked startled. In front of him was kneeling a young murderer, and though he heard the pain in her voice, he couldn't absolve her. So he left the confessional and stood over her.

"Why did you tell me that, since you are an atheist?" he asked a question, looking down at the teenager.

The girl was still kneeling and her hair covered her flushed face. She tilted her head slightly and replied.

"I just can't live like that anymore. I had to tell someone about it. I'm going back to school tomorrow. Probably everyone knows about this... accident."

That's how she named the crime in her mind. An accident.

"Did anyone see it?" the priest quietly interjected.

"I don't know. Probably not, there wasn't anyone with us then."

The girl started to cry. The first tear ran down her cheek. She knew that she should confess the murder, but she was in danger of being imprisoned and expelled from school, and the latter she was afraid the most.

"You asked me the same question twice. Now I'll give you my answer. If you want God to forgive you, you must regret your shameful act, but that's not all. You should admit to the crime and bear the consequences of it."

"I know that a reward awaits us up there," she whispered softly. "But why is it so hard to do good and so easy to do evil?"

Once again she did not hear the reply.