Free Unclean Spirit by Julieana Toth

tears flow from her eyes as she realized that they were a family once again. When Paul finally pulled reluctantly away from Starr and Tamara, he'd said, "I have something to tell you that I should have come clean about a long time ago."
                  And so, he'd began...
                  "I had an older brother, Matthew, whom I never told you about. I don't know why I felt I had to keep Matt such a secret--maybe because if I denied his existence I could also deny my pain--I don't know. At any rate, Matt was my idol and I loved him dearly.
                  "Mom and Dad were staunch Roman Catholics whose prayers were seemingly answered when Matt affirmed his complete devotion to God by studying for the priesthood. I was sad when Matt left for seminary school but I was also very proud of him. I was an impressionable fourteen year-old at the time and was in awe of Matt's dedication, sensitivity, introspection, and sense of purpose.
                  "For the first six months he was away, Matt called home weekly and sent wonderfully descriptive letters of his life as a seminarian. He sounded happy and excited about his theological instruction and I found myself thinking that I would one day follow in his footsteps.
                  "But then, the calls home became less frequent and the few letters we received from Matt were disappointingly terse and devoid of emotion. At first, Mom and Dad tried to convince me, and themselves, that the demanding nature of his studies must be responsible for the scarcity of Matt's communication with us. As time passed, however, we realized that we were just fooling ourselves and so we decided to pay Matt a visit.
                  "I was shocked by Matt's appearance; he had lost a considerable amount of weight and his once tanned complexion had turned sallow and lackluster. My folks insisted on taking Matt to see a doctor but he refused, telling them that he was finally recuperating from an especially virulent flu that the seminary physician had been treating. Mom and Dad seemed to buy that explanation, but I wasn't so sure that the flu was responsible for what was going on with my brother.
                  "When Matt and I finally had some time alone, I begged him to tell me the truth. I could sense that Matt wanted to tell me something, but he couldn't.
                  "The day we left for home, Matt pressed a note into my hand and told me to read it later, in the privacy of my room. Of course, I couldn't wait that long, so I opened the note in the car. 'Genesis 3:1' was all that was written on the small piece of paper.
                  "As soon as we got home, I took the Bible to my room and read the designated passage:’...the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made...’
                  “I had absolutely no idea what Matt was trying to tell me and I pondered over the verse for days. I was still trying to deduce its meaning when we received notification that Matt was dead.
                  "Matt had committed suicide; of that there was no question. Two significant items had been found with his body: An ornate jewel-encrusted crucifix and a lengthy suicide note. I kept a copy of the note."
                  Paul paused in the telling of his story long enough to retrieve the copy of which he spoke. Tamara and Starr knew better than to interrupt Paul's thoughts and emotions with either words or actions, despite their need to comfort him. The tears that had been welling up in Paul's eyes finally escaped as he read from a worn sheet of paper...
    To Mom and Dad: Words can't possibly convey to you the deep sorrow I feel for the pain that this, my final action, will cause you. Please know that I take full responsibility for the choice I have made; nothing you ever did or didn't do has influenced my decision to end my life. I