“Are you really still practicing magic after what happened on Halloween?” asked Irene's mother as she entered the room.

Three weeks had passed since the incident with Damian’s body.

“I learned my lesson,” said Irene as she finished lighting the incense for her evening ritual, “I'm not trying to manipulate the spiritual energies for my own personal gain anymore.”

Her mother still looked a little concerned but changed the subject, saying, “Hey since you have tomorrow off, could you go to the store to pick up the groceries for Thanksgiving? I had to pick up an extra shift tomorrow, so I won't be home 'til late. I'll leave the list on the counter.”

Irene agreed and went to bed shortly after.

As Irene slept, an angelic being entered into her dream. Her surreal memories of the day from her subconscious were interrupted by an extra-dimensional creature ripping the fabric of her mind space. The being wore a suit of armor that resembled something out of an ancient history textbook – maybe Greek or some other early civilization.

“You are in danger!” said the angel.

Irene had developed the skill of lucid dreaming, so she instantly recognized that she was asleep at this moment. “Let me guess,” she said, “You're my subconscious reminding me of my mom's concerns about my spiritual practices? How witchcraft involves worshiping Satan and will lead me to hell?”

“I'm not your subconscious,” said the angel, who was a little taken aback by Irene's keen awareness within her dream. Seeing that she was skeptical, he said, “Try to change some aspect about me.”

Instantly, the whole landscape of the dream around them transformed from her community college lecture hall into an alien-looking planet straight out of a sci-fi movie. All the desks turned into weirdly shaped blue plants, and the ceiling of the auditorium evaporated into a bright orange sky with four different moons and faint stars in the horizon.

Irene looked back at the angel, expecting to see it as a green ten-legged creature, but she noticed he was unchanged – he still even had the same black goatee. “Okay, so you're not part of my subconscious,” said Irene. Suddenly all the blue plants transformed into various firearms and explosive weapons, which aimed themselves directly at the angel. “Then, what are you doing here? Who are you?” asked Irene.

The angel instinctively put his hand to the sword in its sheath in response to being threatened, and then he had an idea. He slowly withdrew the sword, revealing its familiar flaming light that Irene recognized from Halloween.

“You gave that to my mom,” said Irene, “To stop that evil spirit who hijacked my resurrection spell.”

“Yes,” said the angel, “I've been recently assigned to be your guardian, and I've determined that your life is in grave danger.”

“Who are you working for?” asked Irene.

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“The Lord Jesus Christ,” said the angel.

“Umm, no thanks,” said Irene, “I think your people have done enough damage to our world, and I feel more comfortable enlisting the aid of other spiritual beings with less bigoted views. Or did you not hear about what happened to my best friend last year?”

The angel's face turned downward and looked exceedingly somber. “I know,” he said.

“And don't you think Brittany's suicide had anything to do with the fact that she was gay and her family and friends were all Christian?” asked Irene.

“I was there,” said the angel, “Her guardian angel had called for reinforcements, since there was a multitude of demons influencing her and her social circle to get her to take her life. It was brutal. There were so many of them.”

Irene looked aghast. “Wow, did I hear you correctly? Demons? Did you essentially just blame the Devil for how that CHRISTIAN community created a toxic environment in which my friend felt that killing herself was the only reasonable thing to do? And yet I'm supposed to be the one who's working with Satan?”

The angel's face quickly switched from looking somber to confused to concerned.

“And I presume Brittany is in hell now, since she was gay and committed suicide?” asked Irene accusingly.

The angel paused and quickly said, “We're still working on her case. There's a lot of trauma to work through in her.”

Irene's face looked indignant. “I saw that hesitation, and I think you just don't want to admit it. Y'know, I'm pretty much done with having this dream,” she said as the alien planet started collapsing into itself, leaving them to float in an empty black space, “I'm going to be waking up now, but before I go, I will say, thank you for helping me on Halloween. I didn't ask for it, but it did save me; and I learned my lesson from it. But I won't need your services anymore. I can take care of myself. Goodbye!” One of the stars in the distance grew brighter, and Irene flew herself towards it.

“Wait,” said the angel, but it was too late. He got pushed out and found himself floating in the spiritual realm watching Irene wake up in her bedroom through a blurry portal surrounded by the spiritual chaos.

When Irene woke up, she could tell that she had some sort of dream, but it wasn't worth trying to remember. She deliberately let herself forget it as she set her intentions for the day.

The angel, whose name was Steve, got into his car, which looked like a white ambulance and flew it back towards his office in Paradise. Each wheel converted into a hovering pad, emitting a bright light of energy underneath. As he was driving, he kept thinking about how poorly that conversation went. He just wished he could have told her that the evil spirit who was ultimately behind her best friend's death was now planning to destroy her life.

As the floating heavenly castle got closer through Steve's front windshield, he thought of an idea. He pushed a button on the radio, and a holographic loading screen popped up on the dashboard that said “Awaiting Damian Nesbitt.” After a few seconds, a 3D hologram of a 19-year-old kid’s face appeared.

“Hey Steve!” said the hologram, “How's your new assignment going?”

“Damian, it's not great,” said the angel, “I think I'm going to have to borrow you from your classes, since you may be able to reach Irene when I can't, since she had the hots for you.”

“Eww, isn't that necrophilia?” said Damian, “It makes vomit when I think about what would've happened with my body on Halloween if we hadn't stopped it.”

“Yeah let's not think about that,” said Steve, “Irene's life is in danger, and I've got to do whatever I can to protect her. The evil spirit who is after her is the same one who took Brittany's life last year.”

“Brittany... man,” said Damian, remembering the tragedy of his classmate from high school last year, “Where did she end up? Did she make it here?”

“She's down in the lower levels of the kingdom,” said Steve as he began to park his vehicle in his normal spot.

“Lower levels – isn't that Hell?” asked Damian.

“No!” said Steve, “Hell begins after the second coming of Christ – it hasn't started yet!”

“Yet? So Brittany's going to go to hell in the future?” asked Damian.

“No! I mean, not necessarily!” said Steve, “It's kind of complicated, especially with her case. We're still working on it. You can visit her sometime if you want to. And no, she's not in Purgatory – that doesn't exist! But right now, I really need your help with Irene's case. When are you free this morning?”

“I'm free whenever, ” said Damian, “It's not like I have a time limit to finish these classes now that I'm dead.”