Chapter 10.

Everything around her was dark as Nikki opened her eyes. She blinked a few times, but she was still surrounded by complete darkness. She held her hands in front of her face, but wasn't able to see them.

She walked a few steps forward, but still her vision didn't change.

"Hello? Is there anyone here?" she called and she heard her voice echoing.

There came no answer.

"Please? Anyone?" she called louder, which caused her own voice to fill her head completely.

She put her hands over her ears, sat down and put her face against her knees.

"Of course I'm here, Nikki," a voice said. She looked around, but she couldn't locate the source and the echoes made her feel frightened.

"I'll always be there, Nikki," the voice said. Now Nikki heard it was Jesper.

"You'll never be alone, sweetheart," he said, his voice echoing inside her head.

She tried to exclude his voice, but instead it kept getting deeper and deeper inside her head, until a point where she just couldn't take it anymore.

"Go away!" she shouted.

"Nikki, darling, don't you understand? I'll be with you, always," Jesper whispered and he added an evil laugh.

"No! Go away and leave me alone!" Nikki yelled. She got up and started running, although she still couldn't see a thing.

"You can't get away.. you try and you'll regret it.." Jesper sounded even louder, in a way that really scared her.

"NO!" she screamed and started sprinting, as if her life depended on it.

"I said you were going to regret it..." echoed Jesper's voice in a whisper.

Then, all of a sudden, something appeared right in front of her, something she knew was bad. She couldn't stop running and she knew she was going to collide with it. At the last moment she could see it was Jesper.

"Noooooooo!" she yelled as she was heading straight into his arms.

"Noooooo!" Nikki screamed while she woke up and sat up straight. She was gasping for air, like she really had been running for her life. She turned on the light; she needed light, she needed to be able to see everything again.

It took her a few minutes to realise she was safe inside her own bedroom and that nothing was the matter. But for some reason she still didn't feel at ease. She had never had this nightmare before, ever.. There had to be a reason this had been the first time she dreamt all this.. Maybe she could discuss this with that psychologist in a few hours. She looked at her watch; it was 7.56 am now, so she'd better just get up, get a very long shower and some good breakfast..

She could feel that every day she had less energy than the day before, but that made sense of course; she was barely sleeping. Moreover, if she did manage to fall asleep, she always found herself waking up in a nightmare, which really didn't contribute to a good night's sleep…

Just as she got out of the shower she could hear her phone ringing. She rushed towards the living room to get it and picked up.

"Nikki Alexander."

"You sound quite tired I have to say," sounded Harry's voice on the other side. Nikki's mood changed instantly.

"Tell me something I don't know.." she joked.

"Eehmm.. Let me see.. Oh, Leo has to do community service again.."

"What? Really? What for this time? Not drunk driving again?" she chuckled.

"He won't say, too embarrassed I think," Harry said and Nikki could hear he enjoyed that fact. "But anyway, how have you been holding up? I still am so sorry for not coming over.."

"Ah just.. forget about that.. Well, haven't really been sleeping, have had yet another nightmare last night and I look like a ghost now.." Nikki said without hesitation.

"Oh.. well, you'll always look better than all of them dead people around here.." Harry said and Nikki laughed. "But I hope this psychologist will be able to help you, but I guess you shouldn't expect too much from it, especially as it's your first meeting."

"Yeah I know, but I really hope this woman can help me.. Otherwise I really wouldn't know what to do anymore.."

Suddenly Nikki felt a wave of anxiety going through her head. What was she going to do if this didn't work?

"Nikki.. Just relax, it's her job to help you so she will probably be able to help you," Harry said quickly, hoping to reassure her.

"Yeah well.. we'll see.."

"Would you like drop by in my lunch break? Then we could go through everything you've talked about," Harry suggested.

"Ehm…" Nikki hesitated. Perhaps she would rather be alone after all that.

"Well, just give me a call if you want me to come over and I'll be there at around 12.30, okay?"

"Okay, Harry. Talk to you soon, okay?"

"Yeah, good luck Nikki," Harry said and he hung up.

After that conversation Nikki got dressed, had breakfast and got ready to go out. She tried to make herself look okay, but by now she had big bags under her eyes which she wasn't able to conceal any more. Well, what did it matter anyway? She wasn't going out for a job interview or something..

While she was waiting until it was time to go out, she spent her time fervently hoping that this was going to be the turning point of all this..

When it was finally time to go out, she got her back and coat and went out.