The forest ground is wet from the drizzle; the leaves no longer have that dry crunch to them beneath our feet. I can hear the howling wind letting the trees dance high up in the air, but they are a protective barrier to the increasing intensity of the rain. The fog at our feet is getting denser the further and deeper we walk into the woods. The full moon glistening in front of us. There is a sense of an eerie atmosphere that I can feel lingering around me, so I shove my hands into the pockets of my jacket.

Damien is walking beside me, looking straight ahead occasionally pushing me from one side to the other so I don't trip over some branches. He has a vexed facial expression plastered all over his face and it burns my curiosity.

"Are you worried about something?" I ask as we continue to walk deeper into the forest.

"No, why would you think am worried about something?" he comments back as he holts to a stop to look at me.

"You get a little crease in-between your eyebrows whenever you're deep in thought," I say as I walk up to him and caress the crease with my thumb, my hand eventually stopping at his cheeks.

I still wanted him, a desirable urge that I couldn't explain, so I lean in to kiss him. Attacking his mouth with my lips. He kisses me back, harshly. His arms wrapping around me pulling me closer. He finds his way inside my mouth, shoving his tongue inside. I allow him to devour me whole. I had a quenching desire to have him fuck me right here, my hands wondering and wanting to take off his jacket, but he stops. He pulls away his lips from mines and grabs a hold of my hands, squeezing.

"Not here, not right now Anna," he says, his breathing heavy, he wants me too.

I look down and back up at him through my lashes like an innocent little girl, licking my lips in the process.

"Okay," I say pulling away. He grabs my hand and starts walking again.

After both of our heavy breathing calms down I decide to bother him with my questions again.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, what is it you want to ask?"

"Well... I'm curious about what you said this morning at the restaurant, when you said you and God don't see eye to eye."

"What about it?"

"What did you mean by it..." I look down at my shoes as we walk, "You made it sound like you know all about Christianity, having some kind of connection with it, yet you claim you aren't Christian," I continue.

I hear him sigh loudly before he finally chooses to answer me, "Don't you think that God has a funny way of showing love and loyalty to his people?" he begins sparking me back to give all of my undivided attention to him. "He despises anyone who challenges his throne and authority, eventually casting out the seven angels from Heaven."

"The seven angels from Heaven?" I ask. I don't remember being taught about the seven fallen angels.

"Beelzebub, Abaddon, Mammon, Belphegor, Asmodeus, Satan and Lucifer," he replies. A number of cold chills go down my spine when he says the last two names.

"But isn't Satan and Lucifer the same person?" I ask trying to remember what I was taught in my religion classes back in high school.

"They're related, but not the same person," he says with a grin on his face.

What does he mean by all of this? I am so confused with the whole Satan and Lucifer comment. How could they be related? I don't think I have ever heard him say such things throughout our discussions on religion before.

"How do you know so much about this?" I eventually ask.

"It was taught to me."

"By who?"

"My father," he replies simply.

"You never really talk about him" I say surprised at the mention of him. All that Damien has told me about him was that he passed away when he was a child.

"Because there isn't much to say about him."

Just then I stop us from walking, pulling on his hand. I hear a noise. A growling, like a wolf or something. I hear it again, I let go of Damien's hand and turn around, my eyes darting to every corner of the forest to see what it is, but I see nothing but trees and empty gaps.

"Did you hear that?" I ask as I turn back around to face Damien but he's not there. Am I dreaming? I swear he was just here a few moments ago.

"Damien?" I try shouting out by I feel like there is something stuck at the back of my throat. Swallowing my own saliva is proving to be difficult. My heart begins to speed up, accelerating through the roof. What on earth is happening? There is a growing anxiety in me, I'm scared and I'm all alone in the middle of a forest.

The smog beneath my feet is thickening. I can barely see the ground anymore. The wind is becoming more aggressive, shuffling the branches of the almost empty trees from side to side at a pace I cannot follow. The growling is becoming more distinct, louder and clearer with each passing second.

When I get startled with a big thunderclap, I jump with absolute fear washing over every inch of my body and I start running. I don't know where I'm going but I'm forcing my legs to run deeper and deeper into the forest trying to get away from the noises, the panic patronising my body.

As I'm running, I keep looking back to see if anyone or anything is following me. It becomes a routine: thunderclap, turn around and run. I want to cry. I can feel tears pulling in my eyes, but I am too frightened. I have no idea what is happening. I feel like I am in my dream.

I trip. My hands and knees thumping against the cold wet musky ground. The smell engulfing my nostrils. I start crying. I cannot possibly fathom the fear that I am feeling right now. This has to be a dream; this is a dream! I repeat to myself over and over as I drag my heavy body back up. I hear the growling once more; it is louder than before. When my eyes search the trees, I feel like I can see a dark obscure figure hiding behind the rough bark wood. I gasp holding my breath, praying that it is not real, that it isn't watching me. I start moving backwards, slowly. Taking a big gulp of air with each step carefully place onto the ground.

Then, insistently I turn and start running again. My legs feel like jelly. I'm out of breath, but I run. With each and every thunderclap I turn to see if the figure is still behind me. Then all of the sudden I bump into something, or someone. I feel an insensitive grasp onto my arms. I'm terrified to look and when I do, I see Damien, or what looks like him but his eyes! They're huge and black, completely black. I try pushing away. Panting loudly. My heart beating in my ears. The growling is back, I turn around to see and see nothing again. When I look back Damien is back to normal, his eyes a crystal blue. I erupt crying, nuzzling myself into him. I must be dreaming! My hands are covering my face, this cannot be real.

"Shhhh," I hear him say as he wraps his arms around me. I can feel his head shaking from side to side like he is trying to say no to something.

"Hush baby, it's okay I'm here," he adds as his hand goes up to my hair. His thumb massaging my scalp.

My body is shaking in fear. I cannot grasp what has just happened. I am crying uncontrollably. My stomach twisting making me feel nauseous.

"I- I don't understand what just happened," I begin crying over my tears. "One minute you were there, the next you were gone," I say pulling my head up to meet his eyes, blue eyes.

"Shhhh, you need to calm down Anna," he says in a soft voice. It instantly starts to soothe me. His hands cup my face, his thumbs gently rubbing away my salty tears.

"I thought... I thought there was something chasing me, an animal!" I say panicked, my body still shivering.

"Nothing was chasing you Annabelle," he says with a somewhat confused expression appearing on his face. He doesn't think that I am lying about this, does he? It felt very real to me, it was real.

"But-" I begin again but he shakes his head in disapproval pushing me into his embrace. His body is warm, reheating me in a matter of minutes as we just stand there. The rain still heavy but the sounds of thunder and growling were now gone. Was I really just imagining this? I couldn't have been! I was not about to go irrational. Its Halloween for god's sake. Maybe it was just someone trying to play a spooky trick on me.

"Come, I want to show you something," says Damien after a few more minutes.

He releases me from his embrace and grabs a hold of my arm, tugging, forcing me to follow him. He's walking fast, faster than usual. I struggle to keep up with  him, my legs that still felt like they had a lingering tremor to them. My fear of my own imagination has not fully diminished either and I was not up for surprises right now.

"Where are you taking me?" I ask my voice weak from all the crying. If I could I would scream right now and run home. Cuddle up in my bed and sleep. But what about Lily and Hardy! I completely forgot about them this entire evening. I hope they are all right and find their way back safely. I'm going to have to text them soon when I get out of this musky place.

"To a small cottage, I have to tell you something important," he replies hastily. He is looking around the forest as if he is making sure we aren't being followed. This doesn't do my anxiety any favours.

"Tell me what?" I ask quickly, my voice breaking.

He doesn't reply. He squeezes my sweating palm harder, almost making me wince from the sudden crushing pain and continues to walk ahead. I have no idea where we were headed to, some cottage he said? Why would anyone have a cottage in the middle of the forest? I look back thinking about how far and deep we have managed to walk. The fog at our feet is thinning and I am finally able to see my black shiny boots, although they weren't that shiny clean anymore. They were covered in dirt from the woodland.

A TEN-MINUTE WALK later and we are at an open place surrounded by trees, a small cottage smacked right in the middle. My scalp prickles at the spine-chilling look of it. It's all bricks and wood, but it appears bigger than what you would expect a cottage to be. There's a chimney on the side with smoke coming out of it, an ash kind of colour.

"Come," he says tugging at my hand again. Submissively, I follow without asking any further questions.

When we come near the cottage, we walk up exactly three wooden steps onto the porch. A black cat is sleeping on the rusty and dusty fence. He unlocks the door and urges me to go inside first.

Immediately the first thing I notice is the smell, cinnamon with lemon or some other citrusy fruit. The wood is very dark and old in a way and so are the floors, creaking beneath my feet. There's a small living area and a double door which leads to the other side of the cottage. There's a fireplace burning the wood and crackling away. A small coffee table in front of a dusty red leather sofa, had a clear crystal vase of red roses, dead red roses. The lighting is very sensual, dark with orange hues and there's candles almost everywhere I look.

I walk over to a bookshelf in a little corner. My fingertips caressing the sharp wood colleting the dust. I notice a lot of odd titles all about religion, cults or witches. How odd. I take my hand away blowing the dust into the open air. I cross my hands in front of me to protect myself. I didn't know whether I could feel safe here just yet.

"Cosy," I murmur looking up to find Damien. He took off his jacket and hung it on a hook near the front door. "Who lives here?" I ask.

"It's just a small place I keep when I need some time to myself," he replies, hesitant. He is reluctantly walking towards me.

I am surprised. Is this where he runs away all the time? Surely this can't be his actual home. He has never taken me to his actual place, but I never imagined it to be in the middle of the forest. It's quite warm in here too. I can feel my cheeks scorching from the warmth, so I take off my jacket throwing it over the arm of the sofa and sit down. My legs were still feeling shaky from the forest incident and finally being able to sit down allows me to ultimately bring my equilibrium back to normal.

"So, you wanted to tell me something, what is it?" I eventually ask rubbing my hands on my legs.

He stands before me in front of the fireplace and the coffee table, almost like he is trying to keep his distance. His body is all tense and I can tell he is worried about something. That crease between his eyebrows in back.

"I just want to make sure you are ready; I need you to stay calm and take me seriously," he begins, and I know if I don't force it out of him right now, he will keep beating around the bushes.

"Damien for Gods' sake just tell me!" I say sitting back into the sofa. It's hard but surprisingly soft and comfortable.

"I am..."