"Do you really want to accompany me to school?" Camelia asked again for the like, thousandth time. She was sitting on a chair in the kitchen, eating her breakfast. Her mother had left after waking her up. Camelia had explained that she worked at the hospital as a nurse. I knew more or less what a hospital was, but I was clueless about the nurse-thing. I only knew that it was her mom's job. Her father worked in a bakery, so he had to leave early each morning.

"Yeah, I wanna see what you guys do there," I answered. I was curious. I was full of energy again, having fed the night before. I wanted some action. What was so important that kids and teenagers spend all their time there?

"You will be disappointed. It's really boring."

"Then why do you go?" She sighed.

"That's the question I ask myself every morning," she responded.

"Wait." I had just thought about something. "Aren't you going to a, like, school for blind people?"

"...No... I go to a normal school with...normal...people."

"Why?"

"Well..." Camelia put her toast down. "I wasn't always blind, you see."

Yes, she had told me a little about that before. Very little. I wanted to know more about it.

"About a little more than a year ago, I suddenly woke up blind. Boom, over the night I had lost my sight. Just like that. My... worst nightmare had... come true." She paused, her voice shaking. "The doctors can't explain it. But they are still trying to create a cure. But while they do that, I have to keep on living, you know. So the docs and psychologists said it would be better for me to continue to go to a normal school, since they hoped that I regained my sight one day."

Overnight? Her worst nightmare came true? This... Her blindness wasn't normal. I had a little idea about what caused it, but I still needed more details. But she seemed so... broken as she told me her story that I didn't want to push her. I will ask more questions later.

"But it isn't so bad, really," Camelia assured. Liar. She was in pain. She hated being blind. It was clear that her condition was bad. I knew what she was doing. She was trying to convince herself that it was okay. She reminded me of myself, when I lost Wish. I had repeat over and over again that I would be okay, that I had to move on... But even years after, it was still painful. Just like what she was feeling.

"And I have Fabian," Camelia continued, "He has done so much for me... He volunteered to personally help me at school when I got blind, and still does it. He's so nice... I can't believe I have such a good friend." She smiled. Hm. I wasn't so sure about that. If I was Fabian, no way I would have been capable of helping someone blind almost all the days of my life. And he seemed pretty discouraged when I saw him yesterday. But, hey, you never know. Maybe he loved helping her and hanging out with her.

"So, are you still coming with me?" Camelia asked for the thousand-and-first time.

"Yep. Don't worry, I'll try to keep quiet," I answered, "So you won't need to talk to me. Or to yourself, as the others may think."

"Good."

"DING-DONG!" The doorbell rang.

"Oh, that's Fabian!" Camelia rushed to the door and picked up her school bag. She opened the door and greeted her friend. Fabian didn't look good at all, but kept his tone enthusiastic. He had a weird look in his eyes and didn't seem very happy to see Camelia. Weird. Either he was sick, or he was really tired with this. But Camelia couldn't know, since she couldn't see anything.

Something was wrong with Fabian. I knew the strange spark that rested in his eyes, that sly smile as he looked at Camelia... I had seen it on many humans after they had woken out of their dreams, when I still used their wishes to break them. Fabian was turning mad. I blinked and he looked normal. Had I imagined it? I wasn't sure. I decided to watch Fabian. I wanted to know what he was planning.

The two "friends" started walking away, in direction, I guess, of the school. I turned into my shadow form and flew over Camelia and Fabian. They were talking about some kind of achievement -or assignment or alignment, I don't know- that they got from a teacher. Fabian was holding her hand so that she would follow him and told her if there were obstacles. They were walking near a big boulevard packed with cars driving fast.

I continued to fly above them, advancing at their pace. If I remembered correctly, Camelia had told me that her school was close to her house. But I didn't see any big buildings around them.

Then I saw a sign in the distance which indicated "Saint-Mary School", pointing to the right. They were going the right way after all, but the sidewalk was strangely empty. I sprinted, well, flew fast, to the sign. Ah, I missed flying. The feeling of the wind on your face feels so good! You feel completely free. I stopped at the sign and turned back, waiting for Fabian and Camelia to come. They had stopped. Fabian seemed to be arguing with the blind girl, who was backing up from him, slowly coming nearer the boulevard at each step. I sprinted to them and quickly turned back into my human form. I went behind Camelia, while Fabian screamed:

"I can't take it anymore, Camelia! You are ruining my life! I can't do anything without having you follow me!" The teenage girl seemed like she was about to cry.

"Fabian... what... I don't understand!" she cried.

"What do you don't understand in "you ruin my life"? I volunteered to help because I liked you! But now I can't live with it! I hate you, Camelia! I hate you so much! Leave me ALONE!" He came closer to her to intimidate her, and she stepped back. This was bad. I had to stop this. She was going to end up dead, hit by a car! The vehicles weren't slowing down, and if she lost balance...

Now Camelia was crying. I could sense her sadness and despair, mixed with a little bit of fear. I wanted so bad to touch her, to absorb her swirling storm of emotions... But I had to concentrate. The only human capable of sensing me could die. And I would slip back into the same endless routine of boring days...

"I... thought...you w-were my...b-b-best friend..." stuttered Camelia.

"Well, screw you! Go find another slave somewhere else!" Fabian screamed. "I can't believe I didn't tell you this before!"

"I...I...I'm so sorry..." Camelia continued. She hadn't come closer to the boulevard, but the situation wasn't getting any better.

"You're not sorry at all!" roared the raging boy. "But you know what? I thought about this. I should make you pay."

He looked deeply at the blind girl and I saw the madness in his eyes. My intuition was right. This guy was crazy. But if he tried anything, he was going to regret it. Because I was going to protect Camelia. And you don't want a Nightmare as your enemy.

"...What....? I...don't under...stand..." repeated the girl.

"That right! You don't understand ANYTHING!" Fabian took out a pocket knife from his pocket, but hid it enough so that no one would suspect what was really going on. "...I know you can't see it, but I got a knife here. Don't worry, I won't do anything to you." He put a hand on Camelia's shoulder. She began trembling uncontrollably.

"Be careful boy... you don't know with who you are messing with..." I menaced softly.

Camelia froze, recognizing my voice.

"I won't do anything, if you obediently walk backwards a few steps," added Fabian, confident in his madness. I opened Camelia's backpack and took out a heavy book.

And I hit Fabian. Hard. Right on the jaw.

He was thrown back at least three meters, knife falling from his grip. Nightmares were much stronger than humans. I went to pick up the knife, which I bent, to prevent anyone from using it ever again. I looked at the blond teenager, lying down on the pavement, completely knocked out. He was no longer a treat to anyone.

"What...What just happened...?" asked faintly Camelia, tears slowly drying. I went beside her and softly pushed her away from the boulevard. She walked strait without any objections.

"Your knight protected you, dear princess," I responded nicely, trying my best to comfort her.

"What... Fabian... Then..." Camelia was lost. Her mind hadn't accepted that her best friend had tried to harm her, after crushing everything she believed about him. I knew that feeling. Again, she was like me. But I had pulled myself together faster. Then, again, she was human. Her feelings were more complicated than the ones of Nightmares.

"Look, Fabian tried to injure you, so I used one of your books to hit him in the face. He is lying at about two meters from you, absolutely knocked out. You are safe now," I said softly.

She took a deep breath. "Thank you."

"No problem. I didn't want you to die. You are the only one who can hear me."

Camelia nodded. She wiped off her tears and straightened her back. I put back her book in her bag.

"What will happen to Fabian?" she asked, definitely feeling better. Wow, I admit I thought it would have taken more time to pull herself together. She impressed me.

"Why do you even worry about him?" I sighed. "Well, he'll probably wake up thinking that you hit him hard enough to knock him out, which means he won't ever go near you again. Also, I am pretty sure you can tell someone that he tried to murder you, so he will go to..." What was it called again?

"Jail," Camelia said, her tone neutral.

"Exactly."

"I see," she added. "I need to go to school."

"What?" Did I hear that correctly? She almost got killed and she thinks about going to school?!

"I need to go to school," she repeated like I was an idiot.

"Are you sure about this? You don't have anyone to help you now."

"Yes. I have you."

Oh. Me.

Well, I must say that I felt definitely excited to go to that school. I mean, if her best friend attacked her, I could expect a lot from the other students. I wondered if it would be like a small war. This was going to be epic.

So Camelia got over Fabian's betrayal pretty quickly. And I helped her get to school without a scratch, with some indications from Camelia. When we arrived on the school grounds, no one was outside.

"Is it normal that there's like, huh, absolutely no one?" I asked.

"Yeah. We are late, idiot," she replied. Hm. Was that bad? "Guide me to the entrance, please."

"Oh, yeah, right." I took her hand and helped her get in the school. It was empty, except for a couple of students and adults. There were big gray boxes posed against the walls. What are they used for?

A woman in a suit came to meet us.

"Miss Osborn!" started the woman. "You are late."

"Yes Mrs. Dempsey. I am sorry, but Fabian said he was sick, so I had to get here by myself," lied Camelia. I assumed the woman was one of those "teachers", who controlled the whole building.

"Hum, I see," continued the teacher. "I still have to consider this a as delay. But I can assign you another student to help you during the day."

"I understand. Thank you very much for the help."

"No problem. Do you want me to help you get to your class?"

"Yes, thank you." Camelia let my hand go. I guess she didn't need me anymore. And she could not talk to me now. What a shame.

She left with the teacher to her class, and I followed, after turning into my shadow form. It was way easier to move as a shadow. I floated beside Camelia as she entered her class. "Science" was written the door. Mrs. Dempsey assigned a nice blond girl to help the blind teenager, then she left.

Camelia sat at her desk and the male teacher continued his lesson. I listened for a while, but I got bored, because I had no idea what he was talking about. So I flew around the class and observed the other students.

At least ten of them were reading something else than the science book, or drawing. A black haired boy was particularly good and I watched him draw a beautiful dragon for a while. But then the teacher saw him, took his drawing away and put it in a bin. I was really angry at the teacher, and the boy was too. I thought he deserved to have his drawing back, so I changed into human form to pick it up, while covering it in shadows, making it invisible, so that no one would see a random paper flying around. Then I put down the drawing on the boy's desk and took back my shadows. The look on his face was priceless. Let's just say it will probably remain a mystery to him for all his life. (:P)

After that, I observed the three humans who were sleeping, digging up their fears, and wishes at the same time. I chose the one who had the most interesting fear: dolls, and went beside the sleeping Asian girl. I put a hand on her head and created a very creative nightmare where dolls infiltrated the school in a class just like this, and where at the end she realizes that even the students were dolls. I included all her present classmates.

So when she woke up, after I had taken some of her fear, the girl was completely panicked. She kept glancing at her classmates as if they were going to attack her. Yeah, I was great at this.

I created other nightmares for the rest of the sleeping students. It was weird how much people slept during these classes. I turned back into shadow form and continued to float and observe the students.

Then the class ended, and Camelia and her helper went to one of the rectangular grey boxes on the wall. They called it 'lockers'. Probably because they had locks on them. The blind girl took some binders from the box and followed her helper to another class. I left them, after mentally taking a note to myself of where Camelia was. I saw some people laughing, doing "alignments", or just hanging out. I guess it was a break between the two classes.

I flew in the corridors. I was bored already. Camelia was right. I was disappointed.