Lia's Choice: Beyond the Book of Balance

It had been months since the last dream. Lia was always expecting another visit, but it never came.

She thought about it often. The mysterious force that had appeared to her dreams and given her the ability to read minds. What did it want from her? Was she supposed to do something with this gift?

She told herself that she would just have to wait and see what happened. For now, she would continue living her life and going to school. She had just gotten back from her Alain's house, where she had attended a party with some of her fellow students. She wanted to go home early, as she had a big exam tomorrow morning in psychology class.

She took the subway, thinking about how much she wanted to get home. The party had been fun, but it was kind of hard for her to be around people all the time. She preferred the quiet.

She walked up the stairs and exited at the street corner closest to her apartment building. As she was walking through the dark streets, she felt an uneasy feeling creep up on her. It was so strong that it froze all movement in her body. She turned around slowly and saw a silhouette standing next to a lamppost, about twenty feet away from her. Her eyes started adjusting to the darkness, and she could see that he was tall, thin and wearing some sort of cloak over his head, which covered most of his face. He looked like he was staring straight at her with his piercing black eyes.

She tried screaming for help, but nothing came out of her mouth except for a soft whisper. She noticed how hard it was for her to breathe normally - like someone was weighing down on top of her chest. Her legs moved automatically as if they were not part of her body anymore - they moved towards him until they finally touched his feet. Her lungs didn't seem capable of producing enough air anymore, so they gave up altogether and Lia fell on her knees in front of him.

"I know you", said the figure while taking off his hooded cloak revealing his face under it - it was Alain! Lia's heart skipped a beat when she realized that it wasn't just a dream anymore - this was real! "We are connected... somehow", he continued as he walked forward towards Lia until he stood right in front of her looking down at her with those piercing black eyes again. His voice sounded like thousands of voices echoing out from one source - hypnotic yet terrifying at the same time! "You are here because I called for you", he said calmly as if he wasn't making any sense at all! "You have a choice..." He suddenly closed his eyes and opened them again after a few moments, with an expressionless face "Do you want me?", he asked innocently without moving his lips!