"What have you done, Mr. Brown?" Jonathan asked as his trembling hands pressed against the wounds of the old man who was agonizing on the ground.
"Give me your hand, priest. Now that you are here, I cannot deny that I feel calmer, and it comforts me not to die alone…" Harry looked at Jonathan, and being able to feel him made him believe he was not dreaming.
Jonathan's eyes showed pain; he could not bear these sensations that were surging from his body, and he could only look in silence at Harry, who was standing in front of him while maintaining his friendly smile.
Jonathan found himself wrapped in a tide of intense emotions as he witnessed the departure of someone he believed he could save. A deep sadness took hold of him, like a weight on his chest that made breathing difficult.
For the first time, he felt the sting of loss, an absence that seemed to fill his entire chest.
But his outward expression soon changed to one of indifference. Despite the fact that his inner self was crying at that very moment, Jonathan outwardly remained serene, as if someone were watching him right now.
Breathing abnormally, Jonathan tightly held the old man's hands while an overwhelming helplessness enveloped him. He knew that if he had tried harder, perhaps this old man would not have died.
This was his fault…
If he had been better and had not respected what Smith wanted to do, perhaps this person, seeking his own way to die, would not have died under these circumstances.
Once again, all of this is his fault.
"Priest Jonathan, can you say a prayer for me?" Harry asked while still tightly gripping Jonathan's hands.
"Of course…" Jonathan murmured in a hoarse voice and said, "May you find peace in this moment, resting in the love you have sown. May each breath gently carry you toward serenity, knowing that your legacy will endure in those who love you, appreciate you, and cherish you."
In his final moments, Smith embraced serenity, acknowledging that his journey was coming to an end and that he would soon be able to see his wife again. Peace took hold of his thoughts as he reflected on the moments lived and the connections shared.
"Thank you, Priest Jonathan. May you also find your path…" As he murmured these last words, Harry stopped breathing, and his eyes slowly lost their light.
Jonathan, who was holding old Smith's hands, could feel his strength fading, and moments later he knew that he had died.
"I'm sorry…" Jonathan murmured, kneeling in front of old Smith.
A dead silence lingered around him. Loneliness, guilt, and fury were the only things Jonathan felt at that moment upon knowing that Smith had died.
"Help me…"
In that moment of silence, Jonathan opened his eyes upon hearing a dying voice calling out to him. As he stood up, he looked at a man with tattoos on his eyes crawling toward him while staring at Jonathan, who watched him indifferently.
"Rest in peace…" Jonathan pulled out a silenced pistol and closed his eyes, thinking about the consequences, but firmly believing in what he was doing, he ignored those thoughts.
"No, please!"
Bang!
"We're going home, old Smith…" Jonathan said as he lifted the old man into his arms after having finished off everyone who was lying collapsed on the ground.
Before that, Jonathan had sent a message to Rafael so that he would come for the women who had survived this and take them back to the church.
If for any reason some of the people who are saved in these places go to a hospital, in addition to the questions the doctors would ask, they would have to give many explanations to the police, aside from the very real possibility that the mafia behind these people might find them. Therefore, no one would touch the churches where there is an Exorcist Priest; these were the rules.
Just as everyone respects the Continental Hotels because of the consequences, everyone else also respects the churches where there is an Exorcist Priest, likewise because of the consequences.
And at that moment, as Jonathan walked with old Smith's body in his hands, he sighed deeply, knowing that he had failed.
"Let's go home, old man. Now you can rest in peace…"
As the shadow of death draws closer each time, Jonathan experiences an amalgamation of emotions.
A deep nostalgia for past moments arises within him, while the uncertainty of the afterlife looms like a fog in his mind. However, amid the memories and the unknown journey, he feels a strange acceptance, a resigned calm that connects him with death.
Are they going through the same thing he is?
Will everyone have the same opportunity to change their future?
Jonathan did not know if he was special, but what he did feel at that moment was an infinite doubt about who he was. It arose every time darkness appeared on his path, and although it did not affect him much now, in the long run the consequences were staying with him.
Once again, he imagined that this was his destiny, a discreet way of making him pay for all the bad things he had done in his past life, or so he believed.
He had read that when people have lived a bad life, they pay for their past sins. His situation was the same, with the sole flaw that he remembered his past life.
Now he pays for all of this with the sole hope of being able to touch heaven and be forgiven. Now that he knows heaven exists, he abandoned his thoughts that there is only one life. What he was doing here was planting his virtues in order to earn a place in heaven once he died.
But that was changing. That desire to be in heaven was fading away, and now he acts purely on impulse, because he believes it is his duty to do so, ignoring the fact that he was doing it out of his own whims.
Jonathan, as he is now, had completely changed.