Is god real?

Ana stopped listening to them and let her thoughts wander away to all the new information she just gathered.

"Will my memory be wiped after all this is over?", she asked puzzled interrupting their conversation.

"Yes… For your own safety…", Lucas said and smiled while Oliver smirked at her arrogantly.

She ignored him and spoke to Lucas, "I want to go home… Can you drop me at my place?"

Lucas hesitated for just a beat and Oliver protested immediately, "Absolutely not!"

"What? Why"

"I can't repeat myself every damn time. I'm not letting you go anywhere until I get what's mine…", Oliver sneered.

"So, your grand solution is to abduct me and keep me at your place forever?", she was irritated by him.

"Yes! You're coming back with us….", he said firmly fixing his eyes on her.

Before Lucas could intervene, they had spoken a lot. He slowly said, "Ollie, it's okay… We can leave Ana to stay at her place…"

"No! I can't… How can I trust her with the pendant? If she skips town, then how would we find her?", he disputed the case.

Ana wasn't having any such thoughts. She only needed some time alone and rest, but now she was considering it. Maybe she should skip town and let them suffer and die.

"I have my family and job here… Where am I going to run away?", she retorted to him.

"You have something that's mine… That's reason enough for you to stay with me… ", he wasn't ready to let go.

Lucas whispered to Oliver, "She won't run away… Trust me on this…", and Oliver shot a look at him. Meanwhile Ana found it suspicious but if Lucas was trying to get her back to her place, then she wasn't going to fight with him.

"Fine!", he accepted grudgingly his green eyes furious on her. He gave off serial killer vibes to Ana. A person who would lure his prey with his charms, only secretly to kill them off. But she took the victory anyways and let it go.

All of them finished eating their food, even with an espresso her migraine was still bothering her. She decided to just rest after getting home.

After driving back in silence, Lucas dropped Ana with Oliver grunting occasionally to let them know his displeasure on the matter. Such an obsessive guy, she thought. He was selfish to want to kidnap her and keep her for himself for just a small thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She entered inside her house and threw off the keys on the key bowl. She took a huge glass of wine and plopped on her couch. What a day!

Pepper hadn't seen her in a while, and she came up and curled on Ana's lap as soon as she sat down.

"Aw…. You missed me, baby?", she stoke Pepper taking a sip of her wine. She saw that someone had already given her milk and food. Must be Kathy.

Ana sighed deeply, appreciating the peace and calm after a long time. It'd been three days but Ana felt like she had spent forever with them. She slouched on her couch examining the red wine in the glass.

It reminded her of the red diamond, the red eyes, red magic. She was extremely happy just few days back to know that Oliver was resigning, now he just turned from being her obnoxious boss to obnoxious demon who was haunting her. When would she ever be able to be free from him!!

She shook her head to clear off the negative thoughts causing her distress and wanted to finally have a peaceful time. She didn't have to unnecessarily boggle her mind with everything. If the pendant came off, she was free to go.. And for some reason they wanted it bad enough, so they'll figure out a way to get it off her. They made a deal and that was all that mattered.

She finished the wine in no time and fell asleep on the couch.

*Ring ring*

Ana wouldn't have been asleep for more than an hour, when her phone rang out.

She sleepily swiped it up knowing it was from Kathy, "Hey…"

"Hey… Were you sleeping?", her best friend asked on the other side of the line but Ana felt like she heard her voice very nearby.

"Yeah, a bit… What's up?", she asked plopping an elbow on her eyes to blind away the lights entering through her huge balcony. She must've forgotten to close the blinds.

"Open the door… I'm outside..", Kathy said excitedly.

"Oh….", Ana was surprised how she knew that she was home.

She opened the door urgently and found her friend outside. She was dressed in a pink top and jean with a bottle of red wine in her hand and a wide grin on her face.

Ana scrunched up her eyes and asked, "What's wrong with your face?"

"What do you mean, you idiot? I'm happy to see you after so long?"

"So long? I was hardly gone for three days…", Ana replied although she felt like it was so much longer than that. Kathy gave her a half hug because of the wine and entered inside.

"Btw, how did you know I was back?", Ana asked while closing the door.

"I called you but you didn't pick, so I checked with Lucas….", Kathy replied which made Ana think of all the secrets which Kathy was ignorant of.

"Sooooooo…. how was it?", Kathy probed in a sing song voice.

"How was what?", asked Ana.

"The trip, obviously…. How was it?", Kathy asked again like what was wrong with Ana, while setting the wine on the kitchen counter, Ana and Pepper trailing behind her.

Ana remembered the lie Lucas told her family and friends and played along, "Yes… It was… okay… Nothing special.. It was about business anyways…", she added insouciantly.

"What are you talking about? This is awesome, isn't it? I mean, Lucas was promoted like just few days back and you guys immediately went on a trip meeting artists and all… Don't you feel great? I thought….. you'd be extremely excited but… why are you dull instead? Is something wrong?", Kathy noted. She wasn't sure why Ana was behaving this way when they both should be celebrating for their future. By any chance, did Joshua talk to her?

Damn you, Kathy!

It was really hard for Ana to fake anything to her best friend. She always found out her feelings just with her facial expressions. Now, she had to make up some reason to convince her and Ana was racking through her brain for the same.

"Did…. Um, Joshua call you?", Kathy asked unsure.

"Yes", Ana immediately said thanking Joshua for their breakup. At least she could use him as a shield and provide some logic to Kathy.

"Oh…"

"What did he say?", Kathy asked as she was picking up glasses from the cabinet.

"Mm…. Nothing good… He still wants to break up, move on…. I just felt really bad after hearing his voice again…", Ana immediately lied. In the midst of all the chaos, she completely forgot about Joshua, the breakup and everything. If someone got to know Demons and angels existed and walked amongst them, obviously a breakup wouldn't be their top priority.

Kathy filled wine in both the glasses and handed one to Ana while Pepper was loitering around them until she got bored.

"I'm sorry, Ana….. I don't know what to say…"

"That's fine…. I'm anyways coming to terms with it… So, don't worry…", Ana completely faked it.

They both took a seat on the couch in the living room and Ana casually asked her friend, "So…. I want to ask you something…."

"Yeah?"

"Do you… believe in god? Like…. God is a person and he's real?", Ana was calculating her reaction.

"Um… Yeah… I believe it…", Kathy said right away like this wasn't a very hard question to her.

"Then if god came in front of you or he sent an angel to talk to you…. Will you believe it without doubts?", Ana wondered.

"Ana… what happened to you?", Kathy asked.

"Just answer me…."

"Okay…. I think I would believe it… I'm religious Ana…. I would believe anything… Why are you asking all this?", Kathy was suspicious if her friend was having some unholy thoughts.

Ana took a sip of her wine and spoke, "Nothing special. Just hypothetically asking….."

"Ana…. Are you…. by any chance…. ", Kathy trailed while Ana was looking at her intently.

"What?", queried Ana.

"Nothing…. I mean, are you having any bad thoughts?", she finally spit it out and Ana looked bewildered.

"What do you mean, bad?", she asked still unsure what her friend was trying to say.

"I mean like…. Going to god….or something….", she trailed her sentence seeing how Ana would react.

Ana immediately understood what her friend was hinting at and cringed, "Oh my god, Kathy! No... what the hell… I'm not that depressed, man… What do you take me for….", she protested a little too loud.

"Fine fine…. It's just… Why are you asking all these questions suddenly….", she swatted a hand and continued enjoying her wine.

"Oh my god… I just had a weird dream and was trying to find its meaning and I… kind of wanted to know your thoughts about it…..", Ana rolled her eyes.

"What dream?"

"It's stupid… I dreamt like god, angels everything was real and like I was in heaven… That's it…. The dream felt too real to ignore…", Ana gestured with her hands like it was nothing but deep down she was feeling scared.

"Hmm… then, fine… But, to be honest to you…. I believe everything is real…. Maybe god might be walking amongst us and we'll never know", Kathy was speaking like it wasn't a big deal.

Ana thought that maybe it was one thing to believe and a whole other thing when things got real in front of their eyes. She could only smile at her friend. 

"Hey… when did you get this?", Kathy asked stretching a bit touching Ana's necklace.

"Shit!", Ana muttered under her breath wondering what was she going to tell Kathy now.