The Unknown Chapter 2, 3 and a little of chapter 4

When Michael meets Vincent and some of the other main charcters that will appear in the book.

Chapter Two  

            When Michael entered his office he looked at the clock that was in his office and realized that it was 2:40pm. At about 3:00pm Carla called him from the intercom and told him “Mr. Armstrong has arrived”. “Okay let him in” replied Michael. Michael then sat down in his office chair and a few moments later a handsome Caucasian man looking like he was in his late fifties wearing an all black suit with short brown hair and dark brown eyes walked into Michael’s office, closed Michael’s door and took a seat in one of the chairs that were across Michael’s desk. “So Mr. Armstrong how have you been doing lately” Michael asked? “Just call me Vincent” Mr. Armstrong said with his deep voice.  “I’m hanging in there” Vincent also said. . “Okay… is something on your mind” Michael then asked? “You look like you have some common sense you’re educated and a nice looking guy; you also look like you do well for yourself to me”. Vincent then looked at the black and white picture Michael had on his desk and he said to Michael “That must you and…I’m guessing your mother”? Michael glanced at the photo and he looked back at Vincent and said to him "Yeah”. “I hope you don’t mind me saying this but you have a very beautiful mother…I bet she is very proud of you doctor”. “I wouldn’t know because she’s dead” Michael says to Vincent “Oh that’s too bad” Vincent replied.  Michael didn’t say anything in return to Vincent already annoyed by him and this was their first meeting and he was upset that Vincent brought up his mother. Michael then said to Vincent as he realized that their session was pretty much over “I think we are done for today”. Vincent laughs and gets up from his chair and walks to the door and opens it and he looks back at Michael and exits Michael’s office and shuts the door. After Vincent left Michael’s office Michael then sat back down in his desk trying to calm himself down and he looks at the picture of his ex wife and his two daughters and he then out of anger he then pushes the stuff on his desk including the family picture to the floor. “Damn it” Michael says out of anger! Michael sits on his office chair and took a few breaths so he can calm down. A few minutes later Michael calmed down and he picked up the papers and the picture that he threw off his desk and he put everything back neatly on his desk and sat back down. The rest of the day since Michael didn’t have any more patients for the day he just did paperwork and made a couple of phone calls and wrote a check for 800.00 dollars to give to Vanessa and he put the check in the left pocket of the black slacks that he was wearing. Around 5:30 pm Carla left for the day but Michael stayed and worked until 6:30pm like he does every day accept weekends. At 6:30pm Michael finished up his paperwork and he put on his black leather jacket, turned off his office light, locked his office door and he headed to the parking lot so he can head off to Vanessa’s.  It was dark, windy and cold outside Michael was walking toward his car in the parking lot since it was getting late and that it was in the middle of October. While Michael was walking toward his car he had this eerie feeling that he probably wasn’t alone so he stopped and looked around but no one was around but only three cars that were parked in the parking lot, there was no noise or anything, the only thing Michael heard was the sound of the wind blowing. Since Michael didn’t see or hear anything except of the wind he continued to walk toward his car. When Michael got into his car he took off his jacket and threw it on the passenger’s seat, he then started the engine and drove off on his way to Vanessa’s. When Michael drove away Vincent walked from a dark area in the parking lot and he walked to watch Michael drive away and he said “I’m always watching you Michael” and he began to laugh and his brown eyes suddenly turned all black as he was laughing and he walked away. About forty minutes later he arrived at Vanessa’s house. The house was a white and light brown brick two story house with two car garages. Vanessa’s black 2012 Mercedes Benz was parked in the driveway and the light on the front porch were on so Michael knew Vanessa was home so Michael parked his car and before he got out of his car he took a slow deep breath and he got out of the car and rang the door bell. A few seconds later Vanessa opened the door and said to Michael in a calm way “hey”. “Hey” Michael replied as he went into the house. When Michael entered the house he noticed most of the house was still the same since he moved out two years ago, the beige walls were still the same, and the furniture in the living room and the appliances in the kitchen were in the same place. Michael really missed being in his old home, he missed all of the family dinners him, Vanessa and the kids used to have every day, he missed sleeping his old bed that he shared with Vanessa, he just missed everything in general even Vanessa, Kristina and Patrice. Michael looked at his watch and saw that it was 7:20pm so he said “I can’t stay long I have to meet a friend soon”. “Okay “Vanessa said as they walked to the beige couch that was in the living room. “The girls are sleep” Michael asked when they sat down on the couch? “Yeah” Vanessa said in a frustrated way, she gave Michael a look like she really didn’t want him there at all so she asked “do you have the money Michael”? Michael looked at her like he was annoyed with her so he took a deep breath and shook his head annoyed by the way Vanessa was acting towards him. “Yeah I got your 800.00 dollars” Michael said as he took out the check he wrote earlier in his office and gave it to her. “I hope that the money that I’m giving you is for Kristina and not for you to spend on yourself”. “I’m not Michael damn why do you always do that” Vanessa says frustrated? “Do what” Michael asked? “You always….you know what never mind Michael” Vanessa says trying to not wake the girls up by yelling as she took the check from Michael. Michael shakes his head and says “I don’t have time for this right now…I’m going to see the girls and I’m going to get going”. Michael goes upstairs and walks to Kristina and Patrice’s bedroom, when he opened their door he saw the girls sleeping in their individual twin sized beds so he quietly walks to Kristina first and kisses her on the check and Kristina wakes up and says “Dad…”? “Hey Michael quietly replies trying not to wake Patrice up. “How are you honey” Michael asks Kristina? “I’m good, how about you” Kristina replies? “I’m okay sweetheart, how is school going for you is everything okay”? “Yeah” Kristina says still sleepy. “Daddy” Patrice says suddenly. “Hey honey as he walked to Patrice and gives her a hug.” “Are you here to stay daddy” Patrice asks Michael? “No honey” as he shook his head. “I’m just here do drop off something that’s all, I have to get going in a few minutes I just wanted to see you guys before I left because I haven’t seen you guys in over a month and I missed ya’ll”. “We missed you too dad” Kristina said and Patrice nodded her head agreeing with Kristina. “Are you ever coming back home dad” asked Kristina? “I don’t think so…” Michael replied. Michael looks at his watch and it was ten minutes to 8pm so he said to the girls “Well I have to go ahead and get going I love you guys” he then kissed both of the girls on the forehead and as he got up from Patrice’s bed to leave their room Patrice said “I love you too” and Kristina said “Me too dad”. Michael smiled, left the room and closed the door and without saying a single word to Vanessa he left the house and drove away in his car to meet Erin at the diner.

                Around 8:20pm Michael arrived at the diner, when he arrived he didn’t see Erin so he took off his black leather jacket and took a seat at the same booth that they sat earlier for lunch that was by the glass window. Ten minutes after Michael arrived to the diner Erin arrived to the diner, took off her black trench coat that she was wearing over a long yellow dress with a black belt with black heels and sat down at the table Michael was. “Hey” Michael said happy that Erin came. “Hey” Erin replied with her usual kind and gentle voice. There weren’t as many people at the diner as it was earlier that day.”I’m happy that you came to meet me Erin” Michael said with a smile on his face. A pretty but plain Caucasian waitress looking to be in her early twenties with short dark brown hair with brown eyes came by their table and said “Hi my name is Stephanie and I will be serving you today are you guys ready to order your drinks”? “Yeah I’ll have a coffee with sugar no cream” said Michael. “And I’ll just have a coffee with cream and sugar” said Erin. “Okay” Stephanie said joyfully as she finished writing down their orders on her notepad and went to get their beverages. Michael then looked at Erin for a moment and asked “You’re not crazy are you”? “Excuse me” replied Erin? “You don’t look like you need a psychiritrist at all” said Michael. “Is there a certain look that people need to have in order to need a therapist” Erin asked sarcastically while laughing? “No….I’m just saying that’s all….how did you know all of those things about me”? Michael curiously asked Erin? “I just knew” Erin replied. “But how, some of the things that you knew about me I haven’t told anybody not even my ex wife, I’m just curious that’s all”. Michael said. “Let’s just say that I have a special source”. Erin kindly said. “You’re not going to tell me are you” Michael said as he chuckled a little. Stephanie then arrived at their table and handed them their coffees with their silverware and asked “Will you guys be ordering anything from our menu tonight”? “No thank you I’m not hungry” said Erin. Michael silently shook his head to let the waitress know that he doesn’t want to order anything else as well. “Okay let me know if you guys need anything” Stephanie said as she started to walk away but before she turned around she look Erin with a kind smile.  After Stephanie walked away from their table Erin asked Michael as she was looking through the glass window “What do you see when you look through this window”? “I don’t know…people walking, cars driving by, and businesses”. “What about you” Michael asked as he looked at Erin as she was looking through the glass window? “I see life and mystery, everyone that walks this earth has a story to tell, some sadder than others but everyone has a story…even you” Erin replied as she looked at Michael. “Yeah you’re right everyone does have a story…what’s your story Erin” Michael asked? Erin smiled and said “There are just some stories that just shouldn’t be told”. Michael started at Erin’s ocean blue eyes and said to her “I don’t know Erin but it’s something about you….I just can’t put my finger on it but you are just this big mystery. Michael drinks some of his coffee and Erin took of her coffee and asked Michael “What really inspired you to become a psychiatrist”? “My childhood really….my mother had bipolar and a real bad drug problem, when I was about nine years old when I came home from school one day I saw my mom packing and she told me that she was going away for a little while and she told me that my grandparents were going to take care of me and she just left not a goodbye or anything. My grandparents did all that they could do for me; they took real good care of me but I always felt lonely, every night before I went to bed I would ask god to let my mom come back to get me because even though my grandparents took me in I always felt that they really didn’t want me there even though they never told me verbally. My grandparents were poor and they had including me about six children to take care of in a two bedroom, one bathroom, yellow and white brick house…..I still remember seeing my grandma cooking dinner and watching my grandpa watching the news or sports game on TV while drinking a beer and playing with my aunts and uncles and my grandpa yelling and threating us to give us a spanking if we didn’t stop. Some nights when everyone is asleep and the house is quite I would be awake and all I would do through the night is think of my mom”. “Did you ever see your mom again after she you when you were nine” asked Erin as she took another sip of her coffee? “Once, on my tenth birthday on August 6^th 1979 my grandparents threw  me a party with balloons, cake, music etc and they gave me ten dollars it wasn’t much but that was all that they could get me because they were poor anyway my mom surprisingly showed up to my birthday party nobody expected her to show up at all, she was a mess her hair was all over the place, her clothes were dirty and torn, she smelled like she didn’t took a bath in weeks, she was super skinny like she hasn’t eaten, she was also drunk and high but I didn’t care I was just happy to see her. I could tell that nobody really didn’t want her there because she was addicted to heroin and alcohol and she caused my grandparents so much grief because of her drug and mental problem, my mom was referred as the “black sheep” in my family. Before my mom showed up to my party everyone was laughing, dancing and just having a good time but when she came it was an awkward silence, you could feel the bad vibes in that house between everyone. I hugged my mom and I told her that I missed her and I showed her the twenty dollars that my grandparents gave me. She told asked me can she borrow my birthday money for something she didn’t tell me what it was for but she said that she really needed it and she didn’t have any money, she also told me that the next day that she was going to come back for me and we were going to move somewhere and start fresh. She was rambling about that she missed me and all she did was think about me and that things were going to change for the better and that she what the reason why she left me was because she needed to get her head together and that she was in a really dark place and she knew that my grandparents were going to take good care of me while she was trying to get her life together, a part of me knew she was lying and another part of me thought maybe this time was going to be different but it wasn’t.” “What do you mean by this time” Erin asked? “That wasn’t the first time she left for my grandparents to take care of me; most of my childhood I was raised by my grandparents because my mom would leave me for days, weeks or months at a time to do drugs or be with one of her boyfriends, she would be taken to a mental hospital it was always something with her but she wasn’t always like that, my mom started doing drugs when I was four years old but before that she was a good mom, we would go to the park or museum every weekend, she read me stories every night before I went to sleep, she was a hard worker we never went hungry, without lights or hungry before she started drinking and doing heroin. My dad left before I was born so it was just me and her, she worked as a cashier at the local supermarket that was right across the street from the apartments that we stayed in. My mom before she started using drugs was always depressed. I would always hear her crying and she would always talk to me about her problems even though I was too young to understand. She always talked about dying like she wanted to die, I was always scared that she was going to end up taking her own life even when I was living with my grandparents, there have been times I have been so scared that I would lock my room door and push my dresser just close enough to the door so just in case she tried to come in my room I would have enough time to climb out of my bedroom window and runaway but she has never harmed me….anyway like I was saying on my birthday she promised me that she was going to come back for me so I gave her my birthday money and she just left and she never came back. The day after my birthday I got dressed, packed my bag and I waited for her but she never came, not the day after that or the day after that. I waited by the phone for her to call but she didn’t even call me. After waiting and praying for months for her to return but after a while I just didn’t wait for anymore. My grandmother told me that my mom does love me it was just that she didn’t love herself completely. I guess she was right but at the same time I was angry at my mom for all of the things that she’s done and all of the pain and damage that she’s caused me and at a point I hated her, I hated her for doing drugs, leaving me with my grandparents, bring all of those bad boyfriends that she had into my life, I hated her for all of the tears I cried because of her…..I hated her for a long time”. “What happened to your mom” Erin asked Michael? “In March 6, 1984 she committed suicide by overdosing on heroin, I think she was 30 years old I’m not sure. When my grandparents told me that she died I wasn’t even sad to be honest I didnt shed a single tear or anything”. “What about your father” Erin asked? “What about him” Michael replied? “Did you ever meet him” Erin then asked? “Nope, the only things that I know about that man is that his name was Paul, he was a drug using truck driver and that he barely knew my mom when she got pregnant with me, I was told that as soon as my mom told him that she was pregnant with me he left and she never heard from him again…I don’t even know what he looks like or his last name. I heard from a family member that he died while he was in prison a few years back and I was like.....okay and I didn’t care that the son of a b***h was dead I didn’t know him” Michael said in a tone showing Erin that he was getting angry as he continued to talk about his childhood. “The only people that I kind of felt loved me was my grandparents even though they maybe didn’t want me there they still showed me more love than anyone did even my mother. My mother was a beautiful woman, she had big baby blue eyes, long blond hair, her skin seemed like the glowed and she had beautiful long legs. Not only she was beautiful on the outside she was also beautiful on the inside; her name was Elizabeth Rose Thompson. She was so smart, she could have been anything that she wanted to be but she went the wrong path….I kind of felt sorry for her because she just had a sad and hard life, she was physically and mentally abused by the men that she dated, she never married, she didn’t have any other children besides me, she desperately wanted to feel loved by a man that she dealt with anything from them beating her to causing me and her to become homeless. She never reached her dreams to become a nurse like she wanted, she always had to work dead in jobs because she didn’t finish high school and dead end jobs was all she could get in she worked at all and being a single mom dealing with her own demons had to be hard for her….and the drugs and alcohol just made things just worse for her and I believe there was a certain point in that she just gave up on life. My mom’s tragic life and death inspired me to help people who deal with depression and other mental illness. I kind of feel guilty for what happenened to my mom” Michael says. “Why do you feel guilty….what happened to your mom wasn’t your fault” said Erin. “But I feel I could have saved her” Michael says as his green eyes began to fill with tears trying not to cry in front of Erin. “You couldn’t have saved her if you tried, what happened to your mother was out of your control. The only person that could have saved her was god Michael” Erin said. That’s what I don’t understand about God, he is supposed to be so powerful and he didn’t save my mother, I prayed and prayed for god to heal her and bring her back to me but he never did and I’m so angry at him Erin…he could have saved her but he chose not to that’s why I don’t think god is as powerful as people claim that he is” Michael said as he whipped a tear from his right green eye. “Maybe there are some things that God cannot fix, every day I see people come to my office dealing with all type of problems; depression, bipolar disorders and all other types of mental illness and most of them tell me that they pray and have prayed for god to help them for years and that’s with any issue people that are born with deadly diseases, children who have parents who abuse them, people who go through addictions, people that lose everything and everyone in their lives and everything else in between. I know some of them prayed and asked god to help them I know my mom did, I believe that’s one of the reasons why some people take their own lives because they feel that god is not going to help them and they lose hope and they think that death is the only way out….which is not really the most wisest thing to do but I understand….I understand. I used to have a lot of faith in God but now I don’t, so many bad things has happened to me in my life that I just don’t have any faith in God anymore…hell I don’t think that I even believe in him anymore” Michael says. “What happened to your grandparents” Erin asked Michael? “They are both dead, my grandfather died of lung cancer in ’93 and my grandmother died of a stroke in ’02. After my grandparents died I lost touch with my aunts and uncles, we weren’t even close anyway so I don’t care about that. I’m not even from San Francisco I moved here in 2003; I was raised in the southeast side of Houston TX, even though we were a lower middle class white family living in Houston TX we still tried to make the best of what we had, my grandfather was a hard worker and a good man. He was a metro bus driver until he retired in 1980 at age 74 his name was John Theodore Thompson he wasn’t the kindest man you can meet, he didn’t have a mean bone in his body, he loved people all races, ages and my grandmother god bless her heart was a homemaker her name was Charlotte Marie Thomson she was wise with the biggest heart, she always told you the truth, she never judged you and she was the best cook in the world too” Michael says as he laughs and he says “If my grandparents didn’t took me in I don’t know where my life would have turned out”. Michael looks at his watch and realizes that it was 1:00 in the morning and he said “We have been talking for hours its 1 in the morning and I have to be at work at 7am”. “Time just flies by doesn’t it” Erin said as she giggles. “Yeah it sure does” Michael replied as he got his wallet out to pay for coffee, he then took out 10.00 dollars cash out of his wallet and put in on the table and asked Erin “Do you want me to walk you to your car” ? “Yeah sure” Erin replied as she got up from her seat and putt on her black trench coat because she knew that it was going to be windy and cold outside, Michael got up from his seat, put on his black leather jacket and followed Erin to the door, opened the door for Erin and followed her to her 2010 dark red Nissan Altima that was parked three parking spots away from Michael’s range rover. Erin took out her car keys out of her black purse and unlocked the car door and before she opened her car door Michael said to her “I had a good time with you tonight”. “I had a good time with you too” Erin replied as the cold wind was blowing in her face and hair. “Can I see you tomorrow…I mean today” Michael asks as he laughs. Erin laughs with Michael and says “Yes”. “Okay…I guess I will see you later, can I call you later” Michael asks? “Of course…do you need my number” Erin kindly asks? “I already have it in your file” Michael replies. For a moment there was a silence between Erin and Michael and then Erin says “Well…I will see you later…goodnight Michael…I mean good morning…bye” as opens her car door and enters her car, closes the door and begins to drive always from the diner and as Michael watches Erin drive away he says quietly “Bye” and he gets into his car and drives away and heads home.

As Michael sleeps in his one bedroom loft he tosses and turns because while he is sleeping he’s dreaming of himself as a little boy as he once was. In Michael’s dream he’s in the old apartment that him and his mom once lived before he moved in with his grandparents, everything in the apartment was still the same to Michael. The apartment was clean like Michael’s mom always had it because she was a neat freak, the dark brown curtains in the living room were open which made the living room fill up with light because it was sunny outside, the television in the living room was off and Michael was all alone in the apartment playing with the small, brown teddy bear that his mother gave him when he was a one years old and suddenly Michael heard a voice behind him that said to him “Michael….Michael” and when Michael turned around he realized that it was his mom standing behind him. She was looking healthy and beautiful as she once were before, she was wearing a long white dress that had a slit on the left side of her dress, she was wearing no shoes, her long blond hair was in beautiful curls, her skin was flawless and glowing and her hourglass frame was back she wasn’t all skinny like the last time Michael saw her. She was just standing in the middle of the living room just smiling at Michael and she said to him “come here honey” and Michael walked towards her and she bent down hugged him it was nice for a moment but the dream took a awful turn when the apartment turned dark and the apartment was filled with big and scary demons and the apartment wooden floor started to break apart revealing dark red fire and suddenly his mom turned to this scary demonic looking creature. Her blue eyes turned big and black, her blond hair burned away leaving her bald, she was skinny and scary looking, she was screaming and crying because the demons that were crawling from the wood apartment floor were flying in and out of her and they started to drag her down into the bottom of the apartment that was filled with fire. Michael was too afraid and in shocked because of what he was seeing he didn’t move once, he just stood there and watched the demons drag his mom into the fiery ground until he could no longer see them and everything came back to normal, the curtains and the white walls were not on fire, the floor was put back together, it was bright and empty again and Michael’s mom was gone. Michael continued to stand where he was and a tear fell from Michael’s right eye and when the tear fell onto the wood floor a speck of smoke appeared showing that the floor was still hot but Michael didn’t feel the hot floor even though he was barefooted, he didn’t feel anything that happened and Michael’s teddy bear was still sitting on the floor behind him untouched still the same as it was always were. Michael awoke from his nightmare from the sound of the loud alarm clock that sat on his dresser that was on the right side of his bed showing that it was 6am the time that Michael gets up every morning during the week. Michael turned off the alarm clock and just laid on his king sized bed for a couple of moments, he just laid on his bed awake just trying to get himself ready for the day that was ahead of him. After a few moments Michael got up, fixed his bed, took a hot fifteen minute shower, got dressed, made him some coffee, put on his leather jacket and headed out to work.

                Around 7am he arrived to his office, Carla was already there doing some work on the computer and she said “good morning” as he was walking toward his office that was behind her. As Michael was walking to his office he replied back to Carla with a quick “good morning” and he unlocked his office door and entered his office, he then turned on the light, took off his jacket, sat down in his office chair, turned on his computer and started doing some work on the computer. Fifth teen minutes later Carla knocked on Michael’s office door and she entered his office and she said to him “Langley Porter Psychiatric hospital called and they asked are you still seeing Mrs. Harris at 11am today”? Forgotten the fact that twice a month he visits Mrs. Harris at the psychiatric hospital he then asks “That’s today”? Carla then nods her head without saying a word. “Okay then” Michael said and Carla left his office. As Michael continued to do some work on his computer he then felt a cold breeze surrounding him but he ignored it thinking it was probably the air conditioning. Then his office light started to turn on and off and the cold breeze that he was feeling got colder and colder and out of nowhere his computer suddenly turned off. “No…no…don’t do this to me” Michael said as he was trying to turn on the computer by tapping on the keys and the power button. Michael suddenly felt he wasn’t alone, the lights went completely off and Michael stooped trying to turn on the computer, he sat still in his office chair not saying a single word, he just sat still and he started to hear someone screaming and saying “Michael…Michael please help me”! Then he started to feel the office shake slowly and the screaming voice that he heard got louder and louder “Michael please help me”! Michael realized that the screaming voice that he was hearing was his mother’s and his office started to shake faster and faster and the glass black and white picture of Michael when he was little and his mom that was on his office desk fell off onto the floor and the glass broke and suddenly the office stopped shaking, the screaming stopped, Michael’s office light and computer turned back on and the cold breeze disappeared. Michael’s heart was beating rapidly; his heart was beating so fast that he could hear his heart beating every time he took a breath. After a couple of minutes of heavy breathing Michael finally calmed himself down and he then started picking up the broken glass of the picture frame of him and his mom off the floor. As he was picking up the broken glass he discovered something strange from the photo, there is a black figure standing besides the tree that was standing behind Michael and his mom. Michael never noticed the black figure in the picture. Michael and his mom were visiting Herman Park when the picture was shot. Michael realized remembered that day like it was yesterday. He was six years old at the time, him and his mom went to Herman park for the day, they swung on the swings, ate junk food, just having a good time and his mom asked someone that was visiting the park to take a picture of them sitting on a bench in front of a huge tree that was not too far behind them. The black figure looked like a person but Michael couldn’t tell who or what it really was, so Michael cleaned up the glass and placed the picture back on his desk. Michael looked at his office clock and realized that it was 10:30 am and he had to get to Langley Porter psychiatric hospital at 11am to see Mrs. Harris, so he got his car keys and his jacket and left the office. Around 10:55am he arrived at the psychiatric, he would have arrived much earlier but the traffic was bad. Michael went and signed in at the hospital and went to the fourth floor and into room 435 where Mrs. Harris’s room was. When Michael usually visits Mrs. Harris room always cold but he gotten used to the coldness because he has been visiting Mrs. Harris for two years now, her room was always dim because she doesn’t like light too much, and she usually lays in her twin sized hospital bed but on this particular visit her room was filled with light because her dark green curtains that she always has closed was open and the bright sun filled the room up with light and she was sitting  on the chair that always sat on the right side of her hospital bed  facing her big glass window that had a beautiful view of the city. Mrs. Harris was a fifty-two year old Caucasian woman but she looked older than fifty-two, she never had any children and she never really worked her whole adult life because her husband was a successful investment bank and he didn’t want her to work. After her husband died due to lung cancer seven years ago she had a nervous breakdown, she barely talks to Michael or anyone at that. She was wearing a hospital gown, her short brown and gray hair was brushed and she was wearing white hospital slippers. Michael took the chair that sat on left side of her hospital bed and went and sat across from her and after a few moments of awkward silence he said to her “You have a wonderful view up here”. Mrs. Harris didn’t say anything, Michael then asked her “So…how are you doing today…I see that you have curtains open, I have been visiting you for two years and I’ve never seen your curtains opened…and you are out of your bed which is a good thing”. Mrs. Harris still didn’t say a word to Michael. For a few minutes there was nothing but silence in the room between Michael and Mrs. Harris, they just sat and looked through the glass window, it was a beautiful day the sun was shining, the white clouds were out, and it was nice to see. Michael then looked at his watch and looked at Mrs. Harris and said to her “Well I guess you don’t want to talk today so I will get going” and after her got up from his seat and before he was about to but the chair back into its place and leave Mrs. Harris said “They are going to get to you too…sooner or later they will get to you and there is nothing that you can do about it”. Michael turned around and asked Mrs. Harris “What are you talking about”? “They are going to get you….and..” before Mrs. Harris said another word to Michael she turned to his direction and looked at him and she said”may God have mercy on your poor soul…I can see it right through you…they are watching you and soon they are going to take over you and you won’t be able to stop it Dr. Thompson”. “But who are you talking about…who is after me” Michael asked with a little fear? Mrs. Harris started looking at the window again and she didn’t say another word for a couple of moments and Michael walked towards her and asked her “Who is going to get me”? Mrs. Harris then looked at Michael in his eyes and said “Satan”. “There is not such thing as Satan” Michael said because he really didn’t believe in the devil, Satan, demons or hell, he’s heard of it but he doesn’t really think that those things are real. “He is real Dr. Thompson, they are everywhere…” as Mrs. Harris continued to talk she started to hear voices whispering in her head but Michael couldn’t hear the voices he just noticed that Mrs. Harris was starting to panic and she started to rock back and forth in her chair, her hands were in her ears and she started to cry and Michael asked her concerned for her “Mrs. Harris are you okay” but the voices that she was hearing made her scream out “Get out of my head…leave me alone”! Mrs. Harris said that repeatedly and Michael was trying to calm her down by saying “Mrs. Harris calm down” but she just continue to scream and sob by the torturing voices that the demons were saying inside of her head that only got louder and louder and Michael left her room to look for some nurses to calm her down but after he left the room Michael heard the glass window break  and people screaming so he ran back in Mrs. Harris’s room but before he could do anything Mrs. Harris jumped out of the window and landed on the concrete and she was dead. “Oh my god” Michael said as he realized what have just happened. Michael heard some of nurses and doctors surround Mrs. Harris trying to help her but it was too late. Michael stood by Mrs. Harris’s room door in shocked because of what have just happened. Overwhelmed by what has just happened Michael ran to the restroom and vomited in one of the stools. He couldn’t believe what has just happened to Mrs. Harris everything happened so fast. After Michael finished vomiting he left the hospital and just sat in his car for a few minutes to get his mind together. While Michael was sitting in his car he kept on thinking about what Mrs. Harris kept saying to him before she committed suicide “They are going to get you….sooner or later” over and over again and he was wondering who she was talking about if she was even serious at all. After a few minutes on just sitting in his car he started his car and headed back to his office. When he arrived to his office he sat in his office chair and laid his head down on his desk just for a few minutes so he can get his thoughts together. Meanwhile at UCSF Benioff children’s hospital in the medical center Erin is talking to a little eleven year old girl named Madison Hebert who is dying from leukemia while her mother was talking to the nurses in the hall, her hair was pretty much gone, she was really skinny, her skin was pale, she was also wearing oxygen and an iv. “Erin” Madison asked in her innocent, sweet and gentle voice. “Yes” Erin replied. “What is heaven like” Madison asked? “It is the most beautiful and wonderful place…words can’t even describe how wonderful it is”. Erin replied. “I know that I’m going to die soon…but I’m not scared, I just don’t want to leave my family especially my mom, my dad died in the army before I was born….do you think I will see my dad in heaven” Madison asked breathing slowly? “Yes…I believe so” Erin replied trying not to cry. Madison continues to breath slowly and she says “I believe so too….I believe so too”. Suddenly Madison started to breathe very fast and Madison started to breath heavily. Madison’s nurse and Madison’s mother ran into her room. “Please do something…Madison please don’t leave me” Madison’s mom screamed! “There is nothing to do ma’am…” Madison’s nurse replied. Erin didn’t know what to do but watch as Madison struggled for her life. Madison’s breathing started to slow down as Madison’s mom held her hand. Madison’s breathing got slower and slower until suddenly she stopped breathing completely. Madison took one last breath and her green eyes closed. Madison’s heart monitor went off and Madison’s nurse and her mom ran unto her room.  Madison’s nurse was trying to calm Madison’s mom down because Madison’s mom was crying hysterically and while Erin was at Madison’s door she saw Madison’s spirit come out of her body and she saw a thirty year old handsome Caucasian man that looked like he could have been Madison’s father held Madison’s hand and before they both left Madison looked at Erin waved and the two sprits disappeared. Erin left the children’s hospital and started to call Michael on her cell phone. While Michael was lying on his desk he suddenly hears his phone ring and after a couple of rings he answers the phone and says “hello”. “Hi…its Erin…is this a bad time” Erin says trying not to cry on the phone? “Yeah, it’s a good time” Michael replies as he gets his head up from his desk. Michael knew that something was wrong with Erin by the sound of her voice so he asked “Erin is everything okay”? “Yeah…..I’m fine” Erin then said. “Are you sure…because we can talk if you want” Michael said. There was a long pause between Erin and Michael until Michael said “Erin is you there”? Erin then replied “Yeah…..I’m here…”. “Do you want to meet at the diner and talk” Michael then asks? “Yeah we can do that” Erin replies as she whips a tear from her right eye. “Okay I can meet you up there in twenty minutes” said Michael as he got up from his chair and getting ready to leave to meet with Erin. “Okay” Erin says. “Okay I’ll see you in twenty” said Michael. “Okay Michael” replied Erin as she hung up her phone, Michael hung up his phone and left his office but before he went to the parking lot he said to Carla while she was on the computer “Carla I’m going to leave early today, so if I had anything today please cancel it” “Okay” replied Carla and Michael went to his car and headed to the diner. When Michael arrived to the diner about twenty-five minutes later he noticed that Erin’s car was parked in the diner’s parking lot. Michael got out of his car and walked into the diner and he saw Erin sitting in the same booth where they always sit at. When Michael sat down he noticed that Erin a sad look on her face but she tried to hide her sadness by covering it with by smiling but Michael felt that something was bothering Erin. “Hey” said Erin. “Hey” replied Michael. “How are you” asked Michael? “I’m okay” replied Erin. “How about yourself” Erin asked Michael? “I have been better” replied Michael. “What’s the matter” asked Erin? “It’s a long story Erin” replied Michael. “Oh…” said Erin as she started to look around the diner seeing people eating and talking and Michael said to her “I could tell that something was bothering you on the phone”. “Yeah…I volunteer at the children’s hospital and one of the children that I visited for about five months died today of leukemia” Erin said with sadness in her voice. “Oh I’m sorry to hear that” Michael said not really knowing what to say to Erin. “It’s okay Michael it was her time to go home, she has suffered enough, it was about time that she got some relief” Erin said. “How old was she” Michael asked? “She was six years old…she had a good spirit” Erin said. “I bet” Michael replied. A very handsome black male in his early twenties walked to their table and said with a smile on his flawless face “Hi my name is Keith and I will be your waiter for today can I start you off with drinks”? “No thank you I’m not hungry” said Erin and Michael shook his head to let the waiter know that he wasn’t hungry or thirsty at the moment and Jacob said “Okay let me know if you do need anything” and he walked away. Erin looked at Michael and she could tell by the look of his face that something was on his mind so she asked Michael ‘Is something wrong”? Michael looked at her hesitant to tell her of what happened with Mrs. Harris earlier so he said “I’m not sure if I want to talk about it”. “You would probably feel well if you talk about it…is that what you tell your patients” Erin asked?  

“Yeah” Michael replied as he took a deep breath. There was a silent pause between Erin and Michael and then Michael said to Erin “One of my patients committed suicide today”. ”Oh my god what happened “Erin asked out of concern? “She seemed fine until she started freaking out because she heard voice in her head, she was screaming and crying and before I was able to get her some help she broke the hospital window with her chair and she jumped…everything happened so fast…and I feel it’s my fault…” “Why do you think that it’s your fault” Erin asked? “Because I was supposed to help her” Michael said as water began to fill his eyes. “What happened was out of your control” Erin said. “But I feel that I should have done something to help that poor woman….I’m a doctor god damn it…..I’m supposed to help my patients and I feel that I didn’t help my patient today” Michael said out of frustration! Erin saw the sadness and guilt that Michael was feeling, she felt a since of pity for him because she knew that this was the beginning of sorrow for Michael but there was really nothing she could do but comfort him so she then slowly placed her warm right hand on his and she said to him with a kind smile on her face “everything is going to work out for the good in the end Michael…everything is going to be just fine”. Michael then felt a since of comfort, he still felt horrible because of what happened but he didn’t feel as bad the smile on Erin’s face made him fell a little bit better and then he said to Erin “I don’t know Erin but….it’s something about you that makes me think that you are not like everyone else in this crummy world that we live in…I can’t explain it but you are not like other people to me”. Michael then started to feel really hot almost feverish in the diner so he asked Erin “Are you hot or is it just me”? Michael started to sweat and he started to feel hotter and hotter and Erin asked him “Michael are you okay”? “Yeah I’m fine” Michael replied trying not to make a scene in the diner suddenly Michael heard a male’s voice say to him in his head “I am coming for you Michael….and there is nothing you can do….you think what you saw earlier with your patient was something, that’s nothing compared to what’s in store for you….I am going to tear you apart piece by piece and I am going to enjoy watching you break “ the unknown males voice disappears and Michael suddenly stops feeling feverish. Michael starts to feel afraid because of what has just happened but he tried to act like everything was okay because he didn’t want to show fear in front of Erin. Michael asks Erin “do you believe in demons, hell, and the devil”? “Yes they do exist…why” Erin asks out of curiosity? “Because some weird things have been happening to me lately” Michael replies. ““Like what” Erin asked? “I have been having nightmares about my mom, I hear and visualize strange things, and I know it’s all in my head because the things that I see and hear can’t be real” Michael says. “What kind of nightmare did you have about your mom” Erin asks? “One minute she was fine…..and out of nowhere she changes into this demonic type of creature and the wooden floors in our old apartment started to break apart and there were demons torturing her and they dragged her down the fiery ground, I don’t know where they took her but it looked like they were taking her to hell…but I know that I was having a nightmare because there is not a such place as hell or heaven, I used to believe in all of that when I was younger but not anymore…” Michael said. “Hell and heaven does exist Michael” Erin replies. Michael shakes his head in disbelief and says “I don’t think so anymore Erin….” Erin looks at Michael with disbelief that he would say such foolish things and she then asked him “If you didn’t believe in those things then why would you have a nightmare about that type of stuff”.  “I don’t know Erin….but that stuff is not real, it’s all in my head that’s it” Michael says frustrated. Erin and Michael suddenly heard loud thunder and they saw from looking through the glass window that it had started raining and then Michael looked at his watch and saw that it was 4:00pm and he then said to Erin as he putted on his leather jacket and got his car keys “Look I have to get going Erin I will talk to you later okay”. “Okay” Erin replied. Michael quickly rushed out of the diner, entered his car and he quickly drove off. As Michael was driving not knowing where he’s heading because he didn’t want to go back to work at the moment the rain poured harder and harder so Michael turned on his windshield wipers and kept on driving around town. Michael turned on the car radio attempting to calm himself down because he was still pretty freaked out by some of the events that has happened to him so far. On the radio the middle of AC/DC’S highway to hell is playing on the radio so he changes the channel and he stops on another channel hearing Marilyn Manson‘s Anti Christ is playing and Michael starts to freak out even more, the rain gets harder and harder so Michael changes the channel one more time and he hears God Smack’s Voodoo and creeped out by the songs that were playing Michael turns off the radio and continues to drive until he stops at red light. An older white woman driving a white Mercedes Benz convertible with her top up pulls up on the red light on Michael left side and Michael looks at her for a moment and she looks at him back and for a quick second the older white woman turns to a scary looking demon, her blue eyes turned big and pitch black giving Michael the illusion that she didn’t have any eyes, blood started streaming down from her eyes and her skin looked like it was peeled off. Michael quickly stops looking at the woman and the red light turns green and he drives off “What’s the matter with me” Michael thinks to himself as he continues to drive around town. Suddenly the same male’s voice that Michael heard earlier in the diner starts to say in Michael’s head “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with you, you can’t face the truth…” “What truth” Michael says out loud frightened by what’s going on. The unknown male doesn’t say anything else there is just silence in Michael’s car. The rain calms down a little and Michael then decides to drive to his office. When Michael arrives to his office he turns on his office light, he then sits down on his desk and places his hands on his face trying to freak out because of the past events that has happened so far.  Michael takes a big deep breath and he removes his hands away from his face and he says out loud “Its all in my head…..demons are not real...They don’t exist” Michael then sees the black and white picture of him and his mom that broke earlier that day laying on his desk, so Michael picks it up and looks at it, he then remembers the black figure that was standing by the tree in the picture that he saw earlier and Michael stares and stares at the picture trying to figure out who or what the black figure in the picture was. As Michael continues to stare at the black figure suddenly Michael heard  a loud evil sounding laugh and he stopped looking at the black figure for a couple of moments. A few moments later Michael started to look at the picture again and as he was looking at the picture he closed his eyes and he started to picture in his mind on what happened the day that he and his mom took that picture. He imagined him and his mom laughing and playing around the park, his mom pushing him on the swings, eating junk food on in the park and taking that picture, it was a happy day.  Michael then opened his eyes and looked at the picture for a few more moments before placing it back on his desk and he started checking his emails on his computer. As Michael was checking his emails his cell phone rang and when he answered the phone he realized it was Vanessa by the sound of her voice when she said “Hello”. “Hello Vanessa” Michael replied as he leaned on his office chair and rubbing his head because he started to have a headache. “Hey Michael I just wanted you to know that Kristina has a gymnastics’ completion at her school tomorrow night if you wanted to go” Vanessa said as she was at her home preparing dinner for her and the girls. “What time tomorrow” Michael asked continuing to rub his head? “7:00pm” Vanessa replied. “Okay I’ll come” Michael said. Before Vanessa said another word Patrice ran unto the kitchen and asked “Is that daddy on the phone”? Vanessa nods her head at Patrice letting her know that yes her dad was on the other line and Patrice then asked Vanessa “Can I speak to him please”? “Okay sweetie” Vanessa replied but before she gave Patrice the phone to talk to Michael she said to Michael “Patrice wants to speak to you real quick”. “Okay” Michael replied then Vanessa handed Patrice the phone and Patrice said to Michael with her sweet sounding and innocent voice “Hey daddy”. “Hey honey, how are you” Michael then replied? “I’m fine daddy, how are you doing” Patrice asked? “I’m okay” Michael said trying not to sound like something is wrong with him. “Are you coming to Kristina’s completion tomorrow” Patrice then asked? “Yeah honey” Michael replied. Vanessa then whispered to Patrice “It’s time to let go with daddy now, you have to eat your dinner and get ready for bed”. Patrice showed a sad look on her face and she said to Michael “I have to go now daddy”. Michael heard the sadness in Patrice’s voice but before he said another word the phone hung up. Michael hung up his cell phone, took another deep breath and he fell asleep in his chair. As Michael sleeps in his chair he starts to have another dream. In his dream Michael is running towards a bright white light but it seems like that the bright light is far away, it is nothing but darkness surrounding Michael in his dream and there is loud screaming sounding like more than one person like hundreds of people screaming but Michael cannot see who is screaming because it is so dark and Michael starts to run faster and faster but he cannot seem to get to the bright light that is ahead of him and Michael then awakes up from his dream and he sees that it’s 6:00pm so he turns off his computer, takes the picture of him and his mom that was laying on his desk, his keys, his jacket, he locks up his office and he leaves his office for the day.

                When Michael gets into his car that was parked in the parking lot and as he attempts to start his car the car doesn’t start. “What’s wrong with you stupid car” Michael frustrated says as he tries to start the car again and again until finally the car starts again “Thank you” Michael thinks to himself relieved that the car finally started and Michael drives out of the parking lot. Michael drives to a local bar that was about twenty minutes away from his office named Smithy’s. When Michael walked into the bar he noticed that the six to seven people including the bartender Michael takes a seat in the bar next to a older dark skinned black man looking in his mid forties wearing a plain black shirt, some dark blue jeans and a old man’s hat covering his bald head who was drinking dips from his scotch and Michael tells the bartender who was a thirty something white male “Give me a vodka on the rocks” and the bartender started to prepare Michaels drink. The bartender then gave Michael his drink and as Michael started to take sips from his drink the black man that was sitting next to him said with his deep voice “Rough day” as the man drank another sip from his drink? “Yeah” Michael replied as he took another sip from his drink. “I can tell” replied the mysterious man. “I can tell something was on your mind when you stepped in here” said the mysterious man. “By the way my name is William”. “My name is Michael” Michael replied.  William then said to Joe the bartender “Joe give me another one of these and another one of what he’s having” as William was referring to Michael. The bartender gave Michael and William their refills and William then asked Michael “You barely drink don’t you”? “Why do you think that” Michael asked as he took another slow sip finishing his first drink starting to drink his second? “Well for one I never seen you here before and I come here every day and two you are drink like it’s medicine or something, I’m trying to stop my drinking problem…but you know how that is” William replied as he started to chuckle a little. “Well I barely drink” Michael says as he drinks another small sip. “I can tell” William replies as he takes a sip from his beverage. Michael continues to drink his beverage and when he finishes his beverage he looks at William as William was drinking his drink and Michael says to William “Let me ask you something you seem like you have some sense….do you think there are such things as demons, hell, the Devil, God, angels or anything that is associated with those things”? “Without a doubt…why do you ask” William replies? “I don’t know…I used to believe in that kind of stuff but now I don’t…I just don’t think that they are real...but today has been very weird and it’s got me thinking that’s all…maybe I’m starting to lose my mind I don’t know” Michael says. William chuckles and he says to Michael “Join the club” and William finished his drink. “Why don’t you believe in demons, hell and the devil because I’m telling you man that stuff is real” William asked Michael. “I stopped believing in that stuff after my mom died…I also think there is no God, angels or heaven as well as there is no hell, demons or Satan it was all in my imagination” Michael says. “If you don’t believe in God then you are headed towards a dangerous path man” William says as he shakes his head in disbelief. “Maybe I am because I’m sure don’t think there is a god anymore” replied Michael. “I don’t know you man and I don’t know that what you went through but I’m telling you Michael there is a god, he is real and so is Satan, I can count a many times that I felt like there was no god because of all of the crap that I have been through but eventually god makes a way for me to change my mind, even my life today is messed up, my youngest daughter Britney died  a year ago, my eldest daughter Carey doesn’t want to deal with me anymore because I am a alcoholic, I lost my job a week ago and I have been working at that job for four months…but I know that god is going to come through for me…I don’t know when and I don’t know how but I believe that things will get better for me…but I can’t imagine me not believing in god, I don’t know what you have gone through in your life but whatever happened must have been pretty bad for you to lose your belief in god” said William. Michael felt a since of empathy for William and for a short moment he forgot his own troubles that were in his life and he then said to William “I’m sorry about your daughter…”. “Don’t worry about it man. It was her time to go” said William. “How old was she” Michael asked? “She was sixteen years old, she died in a car accident…but I keep on going, it’s not like I have a choice anyway” William said. Michael then asked William “Were you and your daughter close”? “Nope, I wasn’t really in her or my eldest daughter Carey’s life. Especially since I was in prison for manslaughter for ten years, and before that I wasn’t in their lives because I allowed my alcoholism take over me. I pray all the time for me and my eldest daughter Carey have a relationship because she is the only child that I have left…but if god doesn’t allow us to have a relationship I would understand because it’s for a reason” William said as he asked Joe for another drink. “Man…that’s something” Michael said. “That’s nothing compared to all of the other stuff that I have gone through in my life. I have been through worse” said William as he drinks some of his third drink. William then notices the wedding band that Michael was wearing. “I see that you’re married” William says. “I am but we are separated” Michael replied. “How long have you been married” William asks Michael? “Eight years” Michael replied. “Hmm…do you have kids” William asked? “Yeah two girls” Michael says as he takes out his wallet from his back pocket and shows William a picture of him, Kristina and Patrice posing with Mickey and Minnie mouse while they were hanging out at Disneyland. “We went to Disneyland two years ago for vacation two years ago” Michael says as he points out both of his daughters to William “The girl on the left is my oldest Kristina she’s thirteen years old and the girl on the right is my youngest daughter Patrice she’s eleven. As I see my beautiful girls grow older I can help but think that I’m getting old even though I’m only forty”. Both of Michael’s daughters look just like him both of them have dark brown eyes, dark brown hair, and cream colored skin. “My daughters are the best thing that has happened to me” Michael says. While Michael continues to look at the photo he sees the same black figure that was in the picture of him and his mother but on this picture the black figure was standing behind Michael. As Michael continued to look at the mysterious black figure in the picture the lights in the bar begins to twitch, as the lights were twitching Michael starts to see shadows of demons crawling on the walls of the bar. The demons weren’t making any noise, just crawling all over the dark brown walls. Nobody in the bar saw the demons crawling on the wall except for Michael. As Michael continues to watch the demons crawl on the walls in disbelief he starts to notice the people that were sitting in their tables all of a sudden look at Michael, they were staring at Michael not saying a single word and out of nowhere their faces turn demonic similar to the woman that was driving the convertible earlier, their faces were mummified, their eyes seemed to disappear but they didn’t have blood stream from their eyes like the woman that was driving the convertible. Michael then looked at William and the bartender and as he was looking at them they turned demonic and fear started to grow upon him. As Michael continues to watch the events that were going on he started to feel feverish again and the same unknown male’s voice that Michael heard earlier in the diner started speaking to him in his head saying “It’s me again you son of a b***h you see what’s going on here this is nothing compared to what’s in store for you, I am going to mentally torture you until you break just like your mother and I am going to enjoy second of it” the unknown voice went away, so did the shadows of the demons and the demonic looking people turned back looking normal again and Michael stopped feeling feverish. William then asked Michael “Are you okay man, you looked like you saw a ghost or something”? “Yeah….yeah I’m fine” Michael replied still freaked out by what just happened so he then said to the bartender “I need another drink”. Joe then fixed Michael vodka on the rocks and when the bartender handed Michael his drink he drank the strong alcoholic beverage he quickly drank it and he requested another drink from the bartender attempting to block out what has just happened to him. William looked at Michael as he was drinking his drink and saw the fear on his face that Michael was trying to disguise and he said to Michael “Are you sure you okay man because by the look on your face I can tell something is wrong and I just met you”? For a few moments Michael was silent and then he said to William “If I told you I don’t think you would believe me, you might think I’m crazy”. “Well let me be the judge of that” William said wondering on what Michael was going to say. “Lately I have been seeing and hearing some weird a*s s**t man, things that I have never seen or heard before…..I don’t know what’s going on with me man. I’m having nightmares, I’m hearing things that I’m not supposed to hear, I’m seeing things that I’m not supposed to see and I don’t know why, the things that I have been seeing and hearing are not normal to me. I don’t know why this is happening because I have never been through this type of s**t and its starting to freak me out” Michael said. “What type of things are you seeing and hearing” William asked out of curiosity? “It’s hard to explain….lately I have been seeing things that look demonic, I have been hearing a voice in my head, my patient committed suicide today out of f*****g nowhere, and…..” Michael paused for a moment and William asked him “And what”? Michael took out the picture of him and his daughter and the picture of him and his mom and pointed out the mysterious black figure to William and Michael then said “you this man…I have never seen this in these picture before until today…I don’t know what the hell that is, I don’t know if it’s a person or what. I think it’s a person but I can’t really tell but it’s strange because I have never seen that in those pictures until today, maybe it was there the whole time and I haven’t really noticed it but it’s weird….I have never felt this way before but for some reason I feel something is going to happen I don’t know when or how but I feel something is going to happen to me”. “Let me take a closer look at those pictures” William said to Michael. Michael handed William the pictures and as William was taking a closer look at the black figure that was in both pictures he started to have a quick flashback of him and his father and he took out a colored picture of him and his dad, in the picture there was a black figure that looked very similar to the black figure that was in Michael’s pictures. William was imagining him and his father playing basketball when William was thirteen years old and he was imagining them taking a picture that day and he took out a photo that was in his pocket of him and his father and showed it to Michael saying “You see that” pointing out a black figure that looked like the black figure that was in Michael’s photos and William then said to Michael “A few days after we took that picture my dad was committed into a mental hospital because he was also seeing and hearing strange things, he went crazy and nobody understood why because he didn’t seem to have any mental problems he was a normal guy and after a few weeks he was released from the mental hospital he was killed by the police because he went totally nuts so he robbed a bank and when the police were called and as they were trying to turn him in he started shooting at the police and they killed him which really freaked me out because before we took that picture he was a normal guy. He was hardworking, god loving, never did a crime in his life type of man. After that picture was shot my father changed for the worse, he stopped going to church, he lost his job as a sales clerk that he had for seven years because he attacked some of his coworkers because he said they monsters,  he started having nightmares, he was paranoid all of the time….he totally lost his mind”. “Did anyone tried to help your father” Michael asked? “My family tried helping him, they tried taking him to church but every time they took him he would run out screaming because he said that they were following him and that they wouldn’t leave him alone and they even tried committing him into a mental hospital like I said but that only made things worse” William replied. “When you say that your dad complained that “they were following him” what did he mean by “they” Michael asked? “He never really said what they were but he described them as demonic looking monsters and they scared the crap out of him and it drove him nuts” William replied. “Did those types of things ever happen to you” Michael asked? “No” William responded and William then said “But I sometimes wish that I did because I feel that the things that I’m going through now is worse than what my dad went through but I could be wrong though because it must be horrible to see and hear things that scare you and there is nothing that you can do to stop or control it”. For a couple of moments there was nothing but pure silence in the bar because everyone in the bar left except Michael, William and the bartender. Then William said to Michael “I know what you are going through is very similar to what my father went through and if you don’t get help you are going to suffer the same fate as my father’s”. “How do I stop it….who or what is this that’s in these pictures….I don’t believe in this type of crap…demons and stuff…why this is s**t happening to me” Michael said in fear! “I don’t know why this is happening to you man and I don’t know who is in those pictures….but I think I know someone who can does” William said. Michael looked at William and he then asked “Who the hell are you talking about”? “A friend of mine…he helped me understand what happened with my dad but I think he can help you too but we have to see him tomorrow….because its late and I’m tired and I need to get some rest….look like you need some rest as well so go home and meet me back here tomorrow at 6:00 pm, I would call you but I don’t have a phone” William replied as he got up from his seat, paid for “his drinks and before he left the bar he said to Michael “Get some sleep  man things will be better tomorrow” and William left the bar and into the cold night.  A few minutes after William left the bar Michael looked at his watch and saw that it was 11:30 pm so he paid for his drinks, left the bar and went home. 

Chapter Three

          When Michael returned home thirty minutes later and after he turned on the lights he noticed some strange things in his home. His white painted walls had footprints on them like someone or something has been walking or crawling on them. The glass pictures that he had hanging on the walls of him, his daughters and his grandparents seemed to have been thrown on his marbled tiled floors and there was broken glass everywhere, and his couch in the living room was ruined. As Michael continued to walk around his loft to find any more damage he noticed something very strange in his bedroom. The window in his bedroom was open and there was a piece of notebook paper laying on his bed, when Michael walked closer and when he picked up the piece of paper he realized that it was a note addressed to him the note read “I am watching your every move…” the words in the letter were seemed to have been cut out from a newspaper the letter also read “look inside your bathroom and you will see the beginning of the sorrow that brought your mother over the edge and the same fate that you will soon face….like mother like son”. At the bottom right side of the note was an image of a small black and dark green spider. Michael felt the cold wind blow through his dark bedroom and a since of fear grew upon Michael as he slowly walked toward his closed bathroom door. Michael slowly opened the bathroom door and as he turned on the bathroom light he saw long scratch marks on the walls, bloody footprints and scratch marks were all over the bathroom floor, the bathroom window was shattered and blood was written “HELP ME MICHAEL” all over the white walls, the way the bathroom looked like someone was terribly beaten and by the way the walls looked it looked like someone was dragged all over the walls. Michael was horrified because the bathroom looked like a crime scene. Michael then noticed a silver charm bracelet on the floor. When Michael tried to pick up the charm bracelet he dropped it because it was scolding hot. A few moments later Michael picked up the charm bracelet again this time it wasn’t as hot, when Michael took a closer look at the bracelet he saw a horse, a heart, a smiley face, a capital letter M, a capital letter E and a cross. Michael then took out the folded picture of him and his mom out of his back pocket and as he looked at the picture he saw the same charm bracelet on his mom’s right wrist and he realized that the charm bracelet that he was holding in his left hand was his mom’s. Michael started to hear a female screaming loudly, the female was screaming “Save me Michael…please help me” repeatedly and the bathroom door loudly closed and the screaming got louder and louder so loud that it was hurting Michael’s ears, caused him to drop the picture, the charm bracelet and caused him to drop to his knees. As the loud screaming voice continued and as Michael had both of his hands on his ears trying ease his hurting ears due to the loud screaming Michael then started to feel very cold wind and the bathroom lights started to twitch. Michael then felt like someone was going through his body over and over and it was very painful for him. Michael was frightened because of what was currently going on so Michael then started to loudly scream out “Go away…please leave me alone…I can’t help you…leave me alone” knowing that the screaming voice was his mother’s! A few moments later the loud screaming and cold wind went away. After the lights stopped twitching and freaked out by what has just happened Michael picked up the picture, the charm bracelet then he packed up a few clothes in a suitcase and he left his loft, drove to a nearby holiday inn and checked in. When Michael checked in room 1A he turned on the lamp that was on the dresser next to the bed, put down his suitcase on the carpet and looked at his watch and saw that it was 3:00 in the morning so decided to try to get some sleep. As Michael lay on the bed tying to fall asleep Michael couldn’t help but think to himself “what in the hell is wrong with me”? “I must be starting to lose my mind because there is no such thing as demons….all of those things I have been seeing and hearing is all in my head…it can’t be real….can it”? “Nope it can’t be….it can’t be”. As Michael continued to think he remembered that he still had the charm bracelet, so Michael took out the bracelet out of his right pants pocket and he started to look at it. As Michael continued to look at his mother’s bracelet more closely he then thought to himself “it can’t be…” Michael then yawned so Michael decided to get him some sleep. Michael placed the bracelet on the small dresser that was next to the bed, he turned off the lamp and he fell to sleep. As Michael laid on the bed asleep he felt a since of coolness upon him but he didn’t pay it no mind, he just put the covers on him and he continued to sleep. As Michael continued sleeping he started to have a dream. In his dream he is running toward the bright white light, he heard loud screams, the screams sounded like a whole bunch of people were getting tortured or they were in a lot of agenizing pain and he was also surrounded by darkness but then the atmosphere of the dream changed a little. As Michael continues to run toward the bright light that was ahead of him suddenly he noticed that he was running on a rocky sidewalk that was fifty feet tall and as Michael ran on the rocky sidewalk it would crumble and the broken parts would fall below. Below there was fire and hundreds of screaming demons, it was a scary sight to see but Michael continued to run towards the bright light. While Michael continued to run six of the demons that was below him jumped onto the sidewalk and began to run after him. The demons were running on their hands and feet like animals and they ran very fast. Michael began to slow down and more demons pounced onto the sidewalk and one of them attempted to attack him but he pushed the demon down below into the fiery ground and as it fell it made a loud screeching type of scream. Michael began to slow down more and the other demons started to attack Michael, he fought most of them off of him because even though they were bigger than Michael he was stronger than them but one of them scratched him on his back before Michael threw it down below. Michael got very weak due to trying to fight off some of those demons off of him so three more demons jumped onto the sidewalk and attacked Michael. Michael was too weak to fight all of them off but he fought some of them off of him but four more jumped on Michael and Michael fell off of the rocky sidewalk screaming and before he fell into the fiery bottom Michael awoke from the dream. Michael awoke breathing very fast and sweating, Michael then started to breathe normal and he turned on the lamp light. Michael just sat on the bed for a few minutes trying getting his head together. Michael then looked at his watch a saw that it was 5:40 am, since it was almost time for Michael to get ready for work he decided to stay awake and watch television. When Michael turned on the television he decided to watch the news. As Michael was watching the news the female reporter was talking about a black male named Andrew Johnson who was a suspect in a murder involving a forty-two year old black female named Renee Walker-Johnson and her two young children a boy and girl looking by their pictures to have been between ages four and seven years old which it seemed to have been his children because both children had Andrew’s last name. They didn’t show a picture of Andrew nor his age. The little girl’s name was Chelsea and the boy’s name was Andrew Johnson Jr. The reporter said that the victims were found in their apartment each had multiple bullet wounds. The woman had two bullets wounds one in her head and one in her back. Both of the children had one bullet wound in their heads and one in their chests. The female reporter then continued by saying that the police has stated “Andrew has been sent to custody and when he has told one of our officers that he believed that things just happened and he didn’t have any further comments”. The reporter then said “We will keep you posted on this case”.  As Michael was listening to the sad news he then thought to himself “why would god allow something this horrible happen to those innocent people…and the fact that he said that he was said is complete bullshit”? “What was the point of bringing that man into that woman’s life and allowing them to have children together knowing that this was going to be the outcome…what was the damn point”? Michael turned off the television and took himself a shower so he can get ready for work. After Michael finished taking his shower and as he was drying off he whipped the steamed up mirror and he started to look at himself in the bathroom mirror for a moment. As Michael was looking at himself in the mirror with the towel wrapped around his waist he noticed a long scratch on his back and he said to himself “it can’t be” not believing what he was seeing because the only way he could have gotten that scratch was from that dream that he had and he was having a hard time believing that the dream he had was real. The scratch was thick and seemed to have been fresh like he just got it because it was still a little bit bloody. Michael turned on the hot water, wetted a face towel with the hot water and he cleaned off the wound. Michael thought to himself as he was cleaning off the wound “it can’t be…it just can’t be. How in the hell did I get this scratch if it was all a dream, it couldn’t have been real….can it”? After Michael cleaned up the scratch he finished getting himself dressed he put on a black suit, a white shirt, a black tie and black shoes. He brushed his hair and teeth, got his car keys, his watch and he headed off to work leaving the picture of him and his mom and his mom’s charm bracelet. The traffic was pretty bad and it caused Michael to arrive late which frustrated Michael because he is barely late for work. Michael arrived to his office at 7:50am he didn’t speak to Carla like he usually do he just walked straight into his office. When Michael sat down at his desk he took a deep breath and he thought to himself as he rubbed the sides of his head with the first two fingers from both of his hands while his eyes were closed shut “today is a new day….a brand new day, it’s just starting off a little rough but it will get better”.  Michael opened his eyes and placed his hands on his desk and started doing paperwork. At 9:15am Carla appeared on the intercom saying to Michael “Your 9:20am appointment has arrived” “Okay” Michael replied as he finished his paperwork. A few moments later a young white male looking about eighteen years old walked into Michael’s office. The white male was 6’1, slim but built, he had short light brown hair and dark brown eyes, and he was a handsome looking man as well. He was wearing dark blue jeans, a plain black t shirt and white shoes. The young man quietly sat down on the couch dark green couch that was sitting on the left side of Michael’s office. For a few minutes there was nothing but awkward silence until Michael broke the silence by saying to the young man “So how have you been Jason”? “I have been okay” Jason then replied. Michael noticed that Jason was looking at the beautiful view through Michael’s office window so he asked Jason “Do you like the view Jason”? “Yeah I suppose…” Jason said. “Is there anything that you want to talk about Jason…anything at all” Michael asked? “Do you believe in luck Dr. Thompson” asked Jason as he continued to look through Michael’s office window? “Sometimes I do…why you ask” Michael replied curious what Jason is going to say next. “I just asked that because you look like you believe in luck” Jason replied. Michael paused for a moment and Michael then said attempting to change the topic “So…is there anything new going on in your life right now Jason”? Jason chuckled for a moment and he said “Not too much, I’m in a new relationship now”. “That’s good Jason” Michael replied. “Do you go to school Jason” asked Michael trying to avoid another awkward silence? “Nope…school isn’t really for me” replied Jason. “Well you’re right school isn’t for everybody” said Michael. Michael then noticed a medium sized color tattoo of a woman on Jason’s arm. “If you don’t mind me asking you is the woman you have tattooed” Michael asked? “It’s my mom…her name was heather; she got murdered in 1979” Jason replied. By looking at Jason’s tattoo Michael noticed that his mother was really beautiful she had long and straight, dark brown hair, she had big beautiful dark green eyes, and her face looked like it was carved by angels. On the bottom of the tattoo of her face her name was Heather Lorraine Childs and it was written in cursive. “Your mother was very beautiful” Michael said. “She was inside and out” Jason replied. Michael then noticed another color tattoo on the top of Jason’s left arm, it was a skull head that had a small black spider on the top right side of the skull’s head but Michael didn’t say anything he just looked at it and after a few seconds he said to Jason “How have you’ve been dealing with your mother’s death” Michael asked? “I’m still trying to get over the depression though but I’m taking it one day at a time step by step” replied Jason. “That’s all you can do” replied Michael.  Michael looked at the time on his office clock and saw that their hour session was almost over because it was 10:05am and he then asked Jason “Is there anything else that you would like to discuss”? “No” Jason replied.  Michael then said to Jason “Well I will see you in a few weeks”. “Okay thanks doctor” Jason said as he got up from the couch, left Michael’s office and closed Michael’s office door.  As Michael sat on his office chair he thought about some of the things Jason said and he thought about his own guilt that he held inside of him. He also thought about some of the things that have been happening to him so far and he was trying to figure out why he’s going through what he was going through. He also thought about his daughters, his mother, even Erin and as he was thinking about all of those things suddenly his office phone starts to ring. After about the third ring he answered the phone and on the other line it was Erin saying in her natural soft and gentle voice “Hey”. Michael had a big smile on his because he was happy to hear from Erin because he hasn’t heard from her in over a day so he happily replied “Hey”. “Is this a bad time” asked Erin? ”No not really what’s up” asked Michael as he turned his chair towards his office window so he could look at the view. “Can I you meet me somewhere later if possible” Erin replied? “Yeah sure, where do you want to meet and what time” Michael said as he got a pen and some notebook paper that was on his desk so he can write down the information. “Can you meet me at Buena Vista Park in one hour if possible” Erin said. “No problem Erin. Is everything okay” Michael asked as he wrote down the name of the park that Erin wanted to meet at? “Yes everything is fine I just wanted to see you that’s all” replied Erin as her phone started to break up. “Do you know where Buena Vista Park is” asked Erin? “What… I can’t hear you your phone is breaking up” Michael replied. “Do you know where Buena Vista Park is” Erin repeated? “Yeah” Michael replied. “Okay I’ll see you in one hour” Erin said. Before Michael was able to say another word Erin’s phone hung up. “Hello…Erin” realizing that Erin’s phone hung up on him he hung up his office phone. For a few minutes there was nothing but silence in Michael’s office and Michael like the silence, it gave him an opportunity to think and get himself together because he was still a little freaked out by the events that have happened to him. As Michael sat in his office he thought about the weird dream that he had, the charm bracelet that he found in his bathroom, and the huge scratch that he found on his back and he thought to himself “what the hell is going on with me…am I starting to lose my mind because none of the things that has happened to me can be real, I’m just imagining all off this crap…it’s all in my head”. Michael also thought about Mrs. Harris and wondered why things had to happen the way it did for her and what or who she was referring to when she said that “they are going to get him sooner or later”. Mrs. Harris’s death affected Michael a lot because he was supposed to help her but he felt that he failed and that really bothered him. He thought to himself “What is the g point of me being a doctor if I can’t really help my patients? I didn’t even help David…not really, if it wasn’t for Erin David would have been dead”. Michael got the picture that he had of him and his daughters from his wallet and he stared at the picture for a few minutes, he also stared at the mysterious black figure that was standing in the background behind Michael. He stared and stared wondering who or what that black figure could have been and in the mist of him staring at the black figure he was got off guard when suddenly his office phone rang and the sound of the phone ringing startled him a little because he was caught off guard. When Michael picked up the phone he said “Hello this is Dr. Thompson’s office”. For a few seconds nobody replied back so Michael then said again “Hello this Dr. Thompson’s office” waiting for whoever was on the other line to answer back then a mysterious man with a deep voice then said on the other line “I have been watching you for some time now and it’s wonderful to finally talk to you”. “Who is this” Michael asked concerned that some strange person has been watching him. “I know everything there is to know about you Michael. I believe I know you more than you know yourself Michael. I can see you right this very moment; you are wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a black tie. I know about your late mother, the incident that happened with Mrs. Harris, your two daughters, you’re ex wife, even Erin and the attraction that you feel towards her. I know about the nightmares that you have been having lately, the things that you have seen and the horrific things that you are going to face”. “Who the hell are you son of a b***h” Michael asked as he started to get angry? “We will keep in touch Michael” said the unknown man and he quickly hung up the phone before Michael had a chance to say anything thing else. After the mysterious man hung up the phone Michael got really angry Michael roughly placed the phone back where it need to be and he said out of anger and frustration “son of a b***h” he was angry at the fact that someone would call him at his job trying to play mind games on him, he didn’t need after what he has been going through lately for some nutcase to call him out of nowhere and try to play with his head. After a few moments after the phone call Michael calmed himself down and he realized that he had to go and meet Erin at the park. Michael placed the picture of him and his daughters back into his wallet, he got his car keys, and left his office to go meet Erin without locking his office door this time because he was in a rush because he was probably going to be late because Erin wanted him to meet her in hour it would have been an hour really soon because it was 11:00am when he left his office. At about 11:25am Michael arrived at the Buena Vista Park because the traffic was pretty hectic since most people were probably heading to lunch. It was a beautiful day to be at the park the sun was shining, it was breezy and it was not too hot which was a plus because Michael hated the humid feeling. As Michael was walking trying to see where Erin was he saw that there were small children playing and laughing in the park, some people were playing with their dogs, Michael also saw two women having a conversation on one of the park benches. After two minutes walking around the park he then sees Erin sitting at another bench alone with her legs crossed she had on a red and yellow sundress, gold hoop earrings, red heels and her hair was in a ponytail. When Erin saw Michael come to her a smile then appeared on her face Michael then sat down on the bench beside her and said with a smile on his face because he was happy to see Erin. A few moments after Michael sat down he asked Erin “have you been here long”? “No I got here about ten minutes ago. How are you doing Michael” asked Erin as she watched the children playing? “I’m doing okay…how about you” Michael replied? “I’m good, it’s such a beautiful day don’t you think” Erin said. “Yeah…it is really nice out here” Michael replied as he looked around the park and watching the people enjoying themselves. “Can I ask you a question Erin” asked Michael? “Sure” replied Erin. “Do you believe that everything and everyone that comes into your life is for a purpose” asked Michael? “Yes definitely, nothing happens by accident” replied Erin. “Hmm nothing happens by accident” Michael said. Erin looked at Michael and she could tell by the look on his face that something was on his mind that he wasn’t saying so Erin asked Michael out of curiosity “Do you trust me Michael”? “Yes I trust you because if I didn’t I wouldn’t have told you the things that I shared with you” Michael replied as he looked at Erin. “Okay then what’s bothering you” asked Erin? Michael hesitated to answer Erin’s question but he then said after about one minute “I think I’m starting to lose my sanity Erin”. “What makes you think that” asked Erin? “Lately I have been imagining some strange things”. “What type of things” asked Erin? “It’s hard to explain Erin. I have been imaging and dreaming of things that couldn’t possibly be real such as demons, hell that type of s**t and I have been hearing screams”. “What kind of screams” Erin asked? “Horrific type of screams…screams like whoever was screaming was in either in a lot of pain, very afraid, and I can’t seem to escape it. I had a recent nightmare about my mom. In the dream I was a little boy playing with my old teddy bear sitting in the living room inside my old apartment and I saw my mom, she was looking like she did before she started doing drugs….I remember in the dream that I walked towards her and I hugged her and out of nowhere she started to look really scary and demonic looking and these demonic looking creatures were torturing her and they took her away” Michael said. “Do you know where they took her” asked Erin? “Most people would call it hell but I don’t believe that there is such a place and if there was a place like hell I don’t believe that my mom would be there. She made some bad choices in her life but she wasn’t an evil person…there’s no way she would be in a place like that” said Michael. “Why do you believe things like hell and demons don’t exist “asked Erin? “Because God, heaven and angels don’t exist” replied Michael. “God does exists Michael” said Erin disappointed in Michael for saying that there is no God and after a few seconds Michael looked at Erin dead in her eyes and said “try saying that to my heart Erin” and he continued to look forward at the people in the park. 

                There was a long silence between Erin and Michael after Michael said what he said and suddenly Michael saw a man that looked like Vincent walking towards them, when Vincent got closer Michael then realized that it was him. Michael was kind of surprised to see Vincent because he hasn’t seen or heard from him in a few days. Vincent was wearing a black Armani suit, a black shirt underneath, a black tie and black shoes. When Vincent walked up to Michael and Erin he looked at Erin and as he looked at Erin she saw that his pupils turned red so she knew who he was but Michael didn’t notice that Vincent’s pupils turned red so Michael said to Vincent “Hey what are you doing here”? “I come here during my lunch break sometimes to get fresh air…what about you” Vincent replied? “Just here with a friend…speaking of friend this is Erin” Michael said. Vincent then said to Erin “it’s nice to meet you Erin” Vincent said to Erin with a smile on his face but Erin didn’t say anything back she just looked at him and faced forward looking at the children play avoiding eye contact with Vincent. Michael saw by looking at Erin’s face that she was a little uncomfortable with Vincent being there but he didn’t know why. “So how have you been Vincent” asked Michael trying to avoid an awkward silence? “I’m doing pretty well, I can’t complain” Vincent said as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “That’s good to hear” replied Michael. There was a long awkward silence between Michael, Vincent and Erin so Vincent broke the silence when he then said to Michael and Erin “I hope you two have a wonderful day”. “You too Vincent” said Michael, Erin still didn’t look at Vincent she continued to look at the children playing. Vincent then walked away from Michael and Erin, when Michael saw that he was gone he turned to Erin and asked her “You knew him or something because you looked very uncomfortable when Vincent was around”? “Yes I know him but it’s a long story” replied Erin. “Oh okay” replied Michael. Erin then looked at Michael and she asked him “How do you know him”? “He’s one of my new patients” replied Michael. “Oh okay” said Erin. Erin’s phone made a quick sound caused by a text message so Erin took out her phone from her purse and she saw that it was a text from Stephanie and the text message said “Hey Erin are you busy”? Erin replied to the text message by saying “Yes a little why what’s going on”? “Nothing serious I just wanted to talk to you that’s all but if you’re busy we can talk later if you want” Stephanie replied. “Yeah we can talk later no problem” Erin wrote in the text message. “Okay cool just text or call me later when you are done with whatever you are doing” Stephanie wrote replying to Erin’s text message. “Okay” Erin replied with a smiley face and she placed her cell phone back into her purse. After Erin placed her cell phone in her purse Michael asked her out of curiosity “That was a friend of yours”? “Yeah” replied Erin as she chuckled a little. Michael then asked “Do you have a lot of friends”? “No not really…I have more associates then friends on this earth. What about you Michael do you have a lot of friends” Erin replied as she looked at Michael? Michael then chuckled and shook his head and said “No I don’t…I really don’t have friends in this world and I really don’t care that I have any friends because they end up disappointing you anyway and besides nothing lasts forever”. “Well you have a friend in me” Erin then said. Michael looked at Erin and he then said to her “You are very beautiful Erin”. Erin then said “Thank you”. Michael then leaned towards Erin to kiss her but before he could kiss her Erin stopped him and she said to him “I’m sorry Michael but….”. “It’s okay you don’t have to explain to me” Michael said feeling stupid by what he was trying to do. “No I do like you believe me I do Michael but there is a line that we cannot cross because I am one of your patients and….” “And what” Michael asked? Erin hesitated for a moment but she eventually answered when she said “Nothing…I’m one of your patients and I don’t want you job to be in jeopardy because of me besides you are still a married man and I wouldn’t feel right being in the mist of that”. “I understand Erin” Michael then replied, Erin saw by the look on Michael’s face that he was a little embarrassed by trying to hit on her and she felt bad that she had to tell him that because she was really attracted to Michael as much he was attracted to her but she knew that she that it wouldn’t be best if she crossed that line. Still feeling embarrassed and rejected Michael decides that he needed to leave so he said to Erin “I’m going to get going okay but I’ll call you later” Michael said as he got up from the bench getting ready to leave the park. “Okay” Erin then replied. As Michael was walking away towards his vehicle Erin then said “Poor Michael….poor Michael”. When Michael left the park Erin continued to sit on the bench watching the people in the park and as she was do that Vincent walked to her and sat down on the bench beside her. “What are you doing here” Erin asked Vincent? “I’m just sitting here watching these people enjoy themselves that’s all just like you Erin. There’s no need to be rude” said Vincent. Erin didn’t say anything back to Vincent. Vincent then said to Erin as he was looking at the people enjoying themselves in the park “You know what Erin you and I are similar as we are different you know”. “No we’re not and you know that” replied Erin annoyed by what Vincent has just told her. “But we are. You and I are both trying to help Michael, and both of us are connected to that God that you serve. By the way how is that going for you” Vincent said. Erin then said to Vincent trying not to be rude towards him “I love it…it’s a whole lot better than serving you”. Vincent then laughed at Erin and he then said to her “You enjoy serving someone who likes to control your every move, makes you follow a whole bunch of rules and someone who is too damn selfish and jealous to allow you to go after what might bring you a lot of happiness….such as Michael. I seen the way you look at him, you want to be with him as much as he wants to get with you but you choose not too because you want to “serve” God, now if that’s not selfish than I don’t know what else is Erin”? Vincent continued by saying “If you serve me I promise I will give you anything that you truly desire and I won’t punish you for wanting to live the life that you really want to live Erin”. Erin looked at Vincent and she then said to him “You go rot in hell”. “I’m going to do that later but will you join me” Vincent asked sarcastically? Erin got up from the bench and started to walk away from Vincent and as she was walking away he shouted to her “I can bring true happiness that’s all I’m saying sweetheart”! When Erin completely disappeared Vincent then looked around the park and he noticed a ten year white old boy with glasses staring at him while he was standing with a basketball in his hands. Vincent then said quietly to himself “its bad manners to stare” and as Vincent was looking at the little boy Vincent’s face changed his eyes got big and they were pitch black, his face turned mummified and Vincent shouted to the little boy “You like what you see son of a b***h”! Frighten by what he had seen the little boy ran away crying Vincent laughed hysterically as he turned back to normal and he continued to watch the people in the park.

                Meanwhile back in Michael’s office Michael was sitting in his desk still embarrassed by trying to make a move onto Erin. He really didn’t know or understand why he tried to kiss her. As Michael continued to think to himself Carla knocks on the door and she enters. When Carla entered Michael’s office she had a folded white sheet of paper. Carla handed Michael the paper and she said “This came in through a fax for you while you were gone but I didn’t read it”. “Does it say who it’s from” asked Michael? “I don’t think so” replied Carla as she started to walk out of Michael’s office before she left the door Michael then said “Thanks Carla” and Carla smiled at him and she closed the door. After Carla left Michael unfolded the white paper and it read…

“You believe that there is no God, no devil or anything in between but at the end of this journey you will find out the truth about your poor mother’s fate and who is really to blame”.

                On the bottom right side of the note was another image of a black and dark green spider, the same spider from the last note Michael received. There was not kind of identification letting Michael know who sent the mysterious fax. Michael got a little creeped out after he read the message because he didn’t understand who sent it and what the message meant so Michael just balled up the note and threw it in the trashcan that was sitting on the right side of the couch. Michael then did some paperwork and did some work on his computer until 7:00pm then he stopped working for the day and left to head to Kristina’s gymnastics game. About forty-five minutes later Michael arrived to Kristina’s school he was afraid that he had already missed her performance because the match started at seven and it ends at eight so pretty the match would be over in about fifth teen minutes. When he got there he noticed people cheering and clapping. While Michael was standing near the bleachers he saw Kristina standing alone near her teammates with her head down and Michael noticed when she saw him by the look on her ace that she was disappointed with him because she already performed and he wasn’t there to see her. Michael was sad because he felt that he let her down once again but he tried not to show it on his face. While Michael was looking around the gym he then saw Vanessa and Patrice sitting in the bleachers. Michael was about to go and sit with them until he saw a man wearing an Ed Hardy shirt, dark blue jeans, and sunglasses with his arm wrapped around Vanessa and he kissed her. When Michael looked closer at the man he then noticed a tattoo of a skull with a black spider on the top of it and he noticed that the guy that was kissing Vanessa was Jason. Michael couldn’t believe what he was seeing one of his patients was romantically with his wife and he was around his daughters and that made Michael furious but Michael didn’t confront them then because he didn’t want to make a scene he just decided to wait to wait until the gymnastics game was over. When the gymnastics game ended Kristina changed clothes and met Vanessa, Jason and Patrice in the parking lot. While Vanessa, Jason and Patrice were walking toward the car Michael walked to them and angrily said to Vanessa “What the hell are you doing”! as he grabbed her arm. “Let go of me” Vanessa yelled as she pulled her right arm away from Michael’s hand! Michael then looked at Jason and he saw that Jason was smiling at him at that made Michael even angrier. Michael was so angry by what he has seen that he really wanted to kick Jason’s a*s but he controlled himself because he didn’t want his daughters to see him lose control so Michael then said to Vanessa “What are you doing with him, he’s one of my patients and you have him around my daughters”! “It’s none of your damn business…come on Kristina and Patrice get in the car you don’t need to see your father like this” Vanessa said as she opened the car door so Kristina and Patrice an get inside of the vehicle. Some of the people that were leaving the school were watching what was going on between Michael and Vanessa in the school’s parking lot. Patrice looked at Michael and said to Vanessa “I want to go with daddy” and while Patrice was walking towards Michael Vanessa stopped her and said to her “No you can’t go with daddy today okay”. “But I want to go with daddy” Patrice then said. Frustrated by what was going on Vanessa then yelled at Patrice “Get in the car Patrice...Now”! Patrice started to cry and she went inside the car Kristina didn’t say anything throughout the whole thing, before she went inside the car she just stared at Michael for a few moments with a very sad look on her face and she went inside of the car and closed the car door. Michael yelled at Vanessa while she was about to get inside the passenger’s side of the car “What the f**k did you yell at Patrice for”! Vanessa ignored Michael and before she was about to say another word to Michael Jason calmly said to her “Just get in the car honey let me talk to Michael real quick”. Vanessa looked at Michael for a moment and she went inside of the car and closed the door. Jason walked up to Michael and he said calmly to Michael “I know that you must be angry for whatever reason but Vanessa and I are together now and we are going to stay together so I suggest that you just get over it and besides….” Jason got closer to Michael and said to him “if you were being as good of a husband as you are a doctor then your wife wouldn’t need someone like me to fulfill her needs and desires if you know what I mean”. Michael looked at Jason and said to him “You son of a b***h”. Jason laughed and said to Michael “Am I”? Michael walked away towards his car and while Michael was walking away Jason yelled out to him “Don’t be mad at me because I make your wife happy”! Jason then went inside the driver’s seat of Vanessa’s car and drove off, while they were driving away Kristina watched Michael walking away towards his car from the car window and she whipped a tear from her face. When Michael entered his car he just sat for a few moments just quiet not saying a word, he was trying to digest what has just happened and calm himself down before he went to go meet William at the bar. After a few moments of thinking he looked at his wedding band that he was wearing and he took it off and he went out of his car and he threw the wedding band and went back inside his car and drove away from the school’s parking lot. As Michael was driving on his way to the bar to meet William he then decided to stop by the motel because he wanted to pick up his stuff because he decide that he should go back to his home after he met up with William. A few minutes later Michael stopped by the motel and went inside his room and he quickly packed up his things, got the charm bracelet and the picture of him and his mom, returned his room key and he left the motel and headed to the bar. About fifteen to twenty minutes later Michael parked his car at the parking lot of the bar and he got out of the car and went inside of the bar. When Michael entered the bar he saw William waiting for him at the bar and he walked up to William and when William saw him he then said “Hey man where have you been I have been waiting for you I thought that you wasn’t going to show up”? “I got into something and I had to make a stop before I got here” Michael replied. Michael looked at his watch and saw that it was 9:00pm and he asked William “Where are we going anyway”? “You’ll see” William replied as William and Michael exited out of the bar and went inside Michael’s car. When they entered the car William looked around the inside the car and said to Michael “This is a nice car man”. “Thanks” Michael replied as he started to drive away from the parking lot of the bar. While Michael was driving he asked William “where are we heading”? William replied by saying to Michael “just keep going straight and I will tell when you need to make a turn”. Michael kept driving straight and after he passed up four streets and when he stopped at a red light William then said to him “You are going to turn right when it turns green”.  “Okay man” Michael said waiting on the light to turn green. Michael then took at deep breath and a few seconds later the light turned green and Michael turned right and William then said to Michael “keep going straight and on the next street make a left”. After Michael made the left turn he looked around and he then realized that he was in the poorer side of San Francisco of the area and he asked William “Are we almost there”? “Yeah keep going straight and I’ll tell you to stop” William replied. A few minutes later William told him to stop at this small old yellow house that had a big hand that had bright pink light as the outline of the hand. Michael really couldn’t believe where William lead him to and it upsetted him so he asked William “What in the hell are we doing here”? “There is someone that I want you to meet” William replied.  “Why” Michel asked William? “Remember when you was talking about your mom and that you have been seeing and hearing weird things lately” William replied? “Yeah…so” Michael replied. “Well the person that I want you to meet will help you understand why…she’s an old friend of mines. Come on” William said as he got out of Michael’s car. Michael then got out of the car, locked the doors and he started to follow William into the small yellow house. When they entered the small house the first thing that Michael noticed was the house was dark but the only light that showed was from an old lamp that was sitting on top of a wooden coffee table light surrounding inside the house. Michael also smelled instincts throughout the place. The way that everything was decorated to Michael it looked like whoever ran the place seemed to have lived there as well because there was a couch, an old television, pictures were hanging on the wooden walls, to Michael it looked like an older person lived  there. William then shouted out “Hey Phyllis you’re here”! “Yeah come on in” Phyllis replied. William and Michael walked into a small room that was across the hall passing up the small kitchen. When they entered the room looked like it was her bedroom because she had a queen sized bed near the table she was sitting and she had a lamp that was sitting on a small wooden dresser. Michael and William then saw Phyllis sitting on a wooden chair across a small round wooden table. The room was also dim but Phyllis had a fan that was circulating on top of the wall with a light bulb underneath. Phyllis was an older light skinned black woman; she had long, thick black and gray hair, she looked like she was in her mid or late fifties, she was also slim and Michel could tell by looking at her face that she was pretty in her youth. William walked up to Phyllis and hugged her and said “This is the guy I told you about”. “Oh okay” Phyllis replied as she smiled at Michael. Phyllis then said to William and Michael “Why won’t you two take a seat”. There were two wooden tables sitting across Phyllis. As William sat down in one of the chairs Michael said as he stood in the corner by the door with his arms crossed “I’m fine where I am”. Phyllis could tell by the look on Michael’s face and by the way he was standing that he really didn’t want to be there so she then asked him “You don’t understand why you are here don’t you”? “No I don’t” Michael replied. “Well the reason why you are here is because someone or something is coming for you Michael” Phyllis replied. “What the hell are you talking about” Michael asked with a frustrated tone in his voice? “The bad dreams you have been having, the voices you hear, the scary things that you have seen, the strange letters. Should I keep going” Phyllis replied. “How did you know” Michael said shocked that Phyllis knew those things? Then Phyllis said to Michael “Like I said someone or something is coming after you but with my help I can help you find out whom but Michael you have to believe and trust me”. “Yeah Michael you should trust her she knows what she’s talking about” said William. Michael thought about it for a few moments and then he decided to sit down next to William on the second wooden chair that was sitting across Phyllis. Michael then asked Phyllis out of curiosity “What is going on with me and how in the hell did you know”? Phyllis giggled and she then said “Son what is going on with you have been happening to different individuals since the beginning of time but there is really no name for it. Something evil is after your soul”. “Why” Michael asked Phyllis? “That I can’t tell you” replied Phyllis. “Why” asked Michael? “There are just some questions man cannot answer” Phyllis replied. There was silence for a few moments until William broke it by saying to Michael “Tell her what you told me about your mom”. For a moment Michael didn’t know what William was talking about and then he remembered and he then said to Phyllis “Oh…my mom died when I was young and lately I have been having these horrific dreams about her and lately I have been hearing loud screams that sounded like a woman’s voice and I have been thinking that it was my mother…in fact” Michael took out the folded black and white picture of him and his mom out of his back pocket, unfolded it and handed it to Phyllis and he said “That’s her right there, before she got on the drugs”. As Phyllis looked at the photo she had a look on her face like she has seen her before and she then said to Michael “I knew her…”. “Wait…you knew her” Michael asked shocked by what Phyllis have just revealed? “Yes I did…when I met her she was messed up, she looked like she had lost her mind, I met her one night when I came home from work one night on October 19^th 1979 she was sitting on the side of my house looking sick and frightened so I brought her in and I tried to take care of her. I fed her, gave her a place to stay, and cleaned her up because I felt sorry for the poor thing. She told me that she had a son named Michael but I didn’t know that it was you. She was lost and damaged. She talked about you all of the time, she talked about how much she missed you and about how much she loved you and how bad she felt because she wasn’t the mother that you needed or wanted her to be. I took care for her for about nine months and she seemed to have gotten better and one morning I woke up and she was gone…and I never seen or heard from her again”. As Phyllis was talking William noticed that Michael had a sad look on his face and William felt a since of sadness for him because he felt the pain of losing a parent himself, so he understood the pain that Michael was feeling. “Let me ask you something Michael”. “Okay” Michael replied. “Do you believe in God, the Devil, angels and demons”? “Not anymore…I used to but after my mom’s death I stopped believing”. “So you wouldn’t believe me if I told you that when I said that something “evil” is after you I’m talking about the devil and his demons”? “No because they are not real” Michael replied. “So you saying that the long scratch mark on your back is not real” Phyllis asked? Michael didn’t say anything because he didn’t believe that Phyllis knew that he had the scratch mark on his back, he still didn’t believe that the scratch mark was real in the first place. Phyllis then asked William “If you don’t mind can you take off your shirt so Michael can see what I’m talking about”. Michael was a little skeptical at first because he just met Phyllis but he decided to do it, so Michael took off his shirt and when he took off his shirt Michael and Phyllis saw the long, light red and almost faded scratch mark on William’s chest. The scratch looked  whoever had scratched Michael scratched him deep and it had long and thick nails and Phyllis then said “You see Michael you are not the only one who has been through this”.  Phyllis then said to Michael “Michael you may not believe that these things don’t exist but believe me when I tell you that they are…and they are after you Michael”. Phyllis gave William his shirt back so he can put it back on. As William was putting his shirt back on Phyllis looked at the picture of Michael and his mom, as she kept looking at the picture she felt a since of sadness for a moment because the fact that she once knew Michael’s mother and the fact that her soul may not be in peace. After a few moments of looking at the picture suddenly Phyllis heard a loud scream and a little frightened she quickly placed the photo on the table in front of her. William then asked Phyllis “You okay Phyllis”? “Yeah I’m fine” Phyllis replied. After William finished putting on his shirt Phyllis then said to Michael “You say that you don’t believe in demons and things like that”? “Yeah I don’t” Michael replied. Phyllis then looked at William and back at Michael and she then said to Michael “What if I can prove to you that they are real”? Michael looked at her and Phyllis then said to him “Take a seat Michael”. Michael wasn’t sure if he should do it or not but he went ahead and sat down in the chair next to William. “Okay Michael take my hand” Phyllis said to Michael. Michael looked at Phyllis not sure if he should go on with this or not and Phyllis then said to him “You can trust me Michael” and Michael looked at William and as he looked at him William nodded his head and he took Phyllis’s left hand and Michael decided to trust Phyllis and he took Phyllis’s right hand. “Okay whatever happens do not let go of my hands okay” Phyllis said to William and Michael. After William and Michael both agreed Phyllis then closed her eyes. After a few moments after Phyllis closed her eyes Michael looked at the black clock that looked like a black cat tick slower and slower, the time was 1:03am and when the clock stopped at 1:04am the clock stopped ticking and suddenly the light bulb that was attached to the fan in the room turned off and the door behind Michael slammed loudly closing it. Frightened by what going on Michael still was held on to Phyllis’s hand. Suddenly while the light bulb was still out Michael started to hear something walking or crawling on the walls. Then out of nowhere the light bulb that was attached to the fan came back on and it started to twitch rapidly and the fan started to turn very fast and Michael’s mom appeared standing on Phyllis’s right side not saying a word for a few moments. Michael is paralyzed with fear and shock not knowing what to do. Michael’s mom had a long scratch mark on the left side of her face and she was wearing the white dress that Michael had seen her wear in his dream. Then she said to Michael “Leave Michael….get out of here now”. After Michael’s mother said what she said the light bulb went completely out again then the sound of whoever was walking or crawling on the walls got louder and louder then Michael started to hear objects falling off of the walls, Phyllis and William wasn’t aware what was going on. Michael full of fear he lets go of Phyllis’s hand and runs to the door and attempting to get out but the door was locked shut and Michael couldn’t open the door. The light bulb began to twitch rapidly again and while Michael was trying to open the door he stops because she starts to see a demon crawling slowly like a spider near a corner on top the wall near him. The demon was dark brown, thin and big as an average male human. The demon had big hands with very long, thick nails, it also had no eyes on its face and its face and body had holes in different sizes all over. The demon stopped and started to sniff in Michael’s direction for a moment not saying a word as the lights continued to twitch and it started to slowly crawl towards Michael, when Michael notice that the demon was coming towards him he started to try to open the locked door again and the demon started crawling faster towards him. “Come on open” Michael said as he was trying to get out when he saw that the demon was crawling faster towards him and when the demon was just about to get Michael the door finally opened and Michael ran out of the house. The lights came on completely, Phyllis opened her eyes and William went outside after Michael. When William went outside he saw Michael pacing back and forth near his car. As William was walking towards Michael, Michael said to him “What type of s**t was that”? “Why the f**k you even brought me here….”? William wasn’t sure why Michael was acting this was so he asked “What are you talking about man”? Michael stopped pacing and looked at William and said “You didn’t see or hear that s**t man”? “No…I don’t know what the hell you are talking about man…what the f**k did you see”? Michael didn’t say anything for a moment he just stood still. William wasn’t sure if Michael was okay or not so he asked Michael “Michael…you alright”? Michael suddenly started to walk back in Phyllis’s house, when he entered he walked back into the room that he ran out of and he saw Phyllis sitting in her chair not saying a word everything was back to normal, nothing was knocked down on the floor, everything was back to normal. William followed Michael back into the and into the room where Michael and Phyllis were. Michael asked Phyllis “What the f**k did I see”? “What you have been denying to believe all of this time…that’s what you saw Michael. I told you that they existed but you were too stubborn to believe me.” Phyllis replied. Michael went inside his back pocket and got out a twenty dollar bill and he threw it on Phyllis’s table and he said to her and Phyllis said to him “I don’t want your money son, the thought that I helped you realized what is upon you is real is payment enough”. “What is upon me” Michael asked still full with fear? “That is something that you will have to find out on your own…I can’t help you with that” Phyllis replied. After Michael realized that there was no need to be there anymore he started to leave but before he exited the room door Phyllis said to Michael “Wait a minute Michael”. Phyllis got up from her chair and walked to the dresser that was on the right side of her bed and she pulled out a small wooden box out of the first floor of the drawer and got out a small piece of folded paper and she handed it to Michael and said to him “I hope that this can help some kind of way”. Michael didn’t unfold that piece of paper, he just put it into his left front pants pocket and he left with William following him leaving Phyllis’s small house and into Michael’s car and the drive off. There was silence between Michael and William for a few moments until William broke the silence saying to Michael “What did she give you”? “I don’t know I haven’t looked at it yet” Michael replied. After a few more minutes of silence Michael then said to William “I want to show you something”. “Okay” replied William. Michael then continued to drive towards his loft.   

                Meanwhile back in the empty diner Erin, Stephanie and Lauren sat in a table talking having a cup of coffee. “We both know how you are feeling for Michael and believe me we understand but there are just certain lines that we can’t cross” said Stephanie in her British accent. “I know you guys but he just reminds me so much of Steven. The way he looks and talks reminds me of him and I can’t help but feel the way I feel. I see so much of Steven in Michael. ” Erin said as she sat across Stephanie and Lauren. Lauren then said with her British accent “But that was a long time ago Erin and your job is to save Michael not fall for him”. “She’s right Erin…we have jobs to do” said Stephanie. “What happened to Steven was not your fought Erin” said Stephanie. “Well why do I feel like is” Erin asked? Lauren and Stephanie didn’t say anything. Erin then looked at the window and she took a sip of her coffee. As Erin continued to look through the glass window she started to have a flashback of a man riding a black horse through the woods in the night. The mysterious man was wearing a black cloak with a hood and he was wearing black gloves. The man’s face couldn’t be seen because of the darkness in the night and Lauren called out to Erin saying “Erin…you okay”? “Yes…I was just thinking that’s all and a few seconds later she asked “Do you guys miss your old lives sometimes”? “Sometimes yeah” Lauren said. “Yeah…but that was the past” Stephanie said as she took a sip of her coffee. “Just remember Erin…you have an assignment to complete, don’t allow your feelings for this man distract you from doing what you are supposed to do” Stephanie said. Erin looked at her and said “I know…believe me I know”.

 

Chapter four

                Michael and William arrive to Michael’s front door of his loft, when Michael was about to unlock the front door he sees a medium sized package sitting near the door so Michael picks up the package and while he tries to see who the package was from it didn’t have an address which was weird to Michael because packages usually are supposed to have a address from who sent it and he wasn’t expecting anything. “What is it Michael” William asked curious what Michael was holding because he couldn’t see what it was since he was behind him.

Author's Note

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