I walked back to the church with slow, dazed steps. I made my way back to the confessional, but it was empty. Its door stood wide open, a forgotten refrigerator letting all of the cold repentance out. I walked back and forth between the pews, my hand on my raw and tender arm, but no one else was there. My secular friend had disappeared.

I shook. What could I do? Sirens wailed in the distance, their cries growing louder. Whatever phenomenon I had just witnessed, it was over now. The ...