"What are you most afraid of, Freya?" the psychologist asked, leaning forward in his white comfortable chair.


"I'm afraid of many things, sir. Too many things," the girl answered, averting her eyes from the man's insistent stare.

"Would you like to talk to me about some of those things?"

"No. I don't want to talk about anything," replied Freya in a calm but none the less steely voice.

"Now Freya. You told me that your parents didn't send you to me but that you came of your own free will. I can't help you if you don't talk to me." Mr. David spoke in a professional voice.

The girl nodded.

"You've told me that you have trouble sleeping. That something scares you. Tell me about that. What are you afraid of?"

"Loneliness," the girl answered promptly, raising her eyes to look at Mr. David. "I'm scared of having to face all the ages of this world alone. I'm scared of not having someone with whom to share all this planet's beauty. What's more, I'm scared of loosing all those I hold dear. I'm afraid of knowledge. I know that this world has a lot of dark secrets, hidden from us people, just like a Pandora's Box. I'm scared of finding out those secret truths. I know that once I do, my life is never going to be the same. It will be like a veil of fog will be lifted off my eyes and I will see things as they really are."

"Go on, don't stop. I'm here the listen, not to judge. Don't be afraid of talking to me, Freya," the man spoke with a curious look plastered on his face.

"I want to know. I yearn for knowledge. It's just that I"m afraid of finding out too much. I know that once I start, there will be no going back. I will have to give up a lot of things....my life will be radically altered."

The girl paused, waiting for Mr. David to say something but all he did was look at her, telling her to go on. So she did.

"Thoughts keep me up at night. My thoughts. I'm hiding from something. Something inside my own head. I have to keep talking so that I don't get a chance to find out what it is that I'm shying away from. I pretend not to know anything. I pretend,but that's all it is. I feel silly."

"What do you know Freya?" Mr David asked still keeping the cool professional mask in place.

"I know that they exist."

"Who Freya? Who exists?"

At that the girl once again looked up from her hands and into the ice blue eyes of the psychologist.

"Angels.....and demons."

"Angels. And demons? How do you know they are real? Have you seen them?" The doctor asked, scribbling something on his shiny new pad.

"No. But I have dreamed of them. I do all the time. There's a war going on between the two sides now and I can hear the angels talk. That's it." Freya looked at her feet as she finished talking.

For a few moments the only thing to be heard in the smallish, brightly lit room was the tip of Mr David's pen furiously scratching paper. Freya looked out the window and noted that darkness was once again covering this side of the world. The street lights were now creating puddles of light on the dark asphalt. Faintly, Freya could hear a dog barking in the distance but besides that there was nothing to disturb the night. Even Mr David had quit writing. That's when she saw the man. He was standing with both his hands shoved in his pants pockets and was casually leaning under one of the poles. Despite the bright puddle of light he was standing in, his face was a mass of shadows, hidden by the hood drawn over his head. One second he was there and then he was gone. Freya searched the shadows a little frantically but found no trace of the man. She was beginning to ask herself whether she had imagined that or not. Feeling the weight of his gaze, Freya turned and found Mr David closer to her than he had been a minute ago, just staring at her.

"I...I saw something outside. He was looking at me like he was waiting for something to happen and then when he noticed my attention he just vanished," the girl said a little hesitantly. The last thing she needed right now was to be locked up in a white room.

"I'm sure it's nothing. I want you to tell me about these demons. What do they look like?"

"I can't see their real faces. Just the ones of the human bodies they are wearing. I just know that they have eyes that turn completely black..." Freya said, casting another worried glance out the window.

"What, you mean like this?"

At that moment the doctor's eyes turned completely black and Freya could feel all his power rolling off him in waves. How could she not have felt it? As an ear shattering scream erupted from Freya's mouth, Mr David rose from his chair swiftly, like a great predator stalking it's pray. No matter how hard she struggled she couldn't move or even scream. It was like invisible forces tied her to the chair. She could feel them like black bands encircling her body. She tried to fight it but he was too powerful. She did the only thing she could do. She preyed. She preyed with all her might, putting her heart into it and closed her eyes, abandoning herself completely to faith.

Just as the doctor's fist was about to connect with her face, Freya woke up. She was back in her own bed in her apartment. Still shacking from the nightmare she breathed a sigh of relief but winced as a sudden pain erupted on the left side of her face. Vaguely she could see a bruise in the mirror she kept near the bed and wondered how she had gotten it. She had never been so happy to find herself home but....something felt wrong. Slowly, she got out of bed and slipped on her silk robe over her champagne colored matching gown.

Freya thirstily gulped down a glass of water as she turned on the lights but the shadows of her nightmare were still following her around. She just couldn't shake off the feeling that she was being watched. The girl let her eyes wonder over the familiar pieces of furniture but nothing was amiss. Everything was just the way she had left them.

'Just a silly nightmare' she thought as she crawled back in bed.

What she couldn't see was that outside, a hooded man was watching her patiently from under a yellow circle of light.