Just two people sitting on a park bench. Nothing suspicious about it. No gods, or fairies, or demons, or devils, or anything out of the norm. Their names were Jack and Mary.

Jack turned towards her and said, "You know I've been feeling rather blue lately, Mary."

"Oh, what's the matter Jack? You've always been happy and energetic."

"That's just the thing! Nothing happened, yet I feel like something absolutely horrible has happened, as if a ghost is sucking the life out of me, as if my soul has been sold to the devil. These words feel unnatural just I am speaking them."

Mary shook her head as if to say that this was something she vehemently disagreed with, and something that was absolutely not good. She hmm-ed, as if ending an argument, and put her arms together.

"What could it be I wonder." Mary said.

"I think it might be the doctor!" Jack said. "He gave me a couple of pills last night, and it feels like they've stuck inside of me all of this time, like they've changed me in a way that is unalterable. I sit here and wonder if I've lost myself. If who I was is a thing that has dissapeared, and that I will never get back. Thoughts like that worry me."

"You musn't say that Jack! Everything will be alright."

"And what if they're not? What if, my life is at the beginning of a downward spiral that will take me to hell? What if this is as good as it ever gets for me? That's the thing, there's no way of knowing. I guess that's a good thing. Would you want to know how you die Mary?"

"No, god no, why would I ever want to know that?"

"Some people try to prevent it. If they know they will die in a car crash, maybe they'll hang themselves, or put a bullet against their brain. It's a worthless thing, because what they fail to understand is that our lives were never ours in the first place."

"Oh god Jack, you are truly sick. What are these words you are spitting out?"

"See that's the problem!" Jack said. "I read a book, and those damn thoughts haven't been getting out of my head. I think they've changed me. I think the person who I used to be dissapeared, and I'm scared to death that it might be the case."

"Oh no Jack. What will we do?"

"There was a similiar thing to this that happened me once," Jack said. "I was nearly twelve years old, and on my way to school when a grizzly bear stepped into my path. It was a ferocious things, with long claws, dead eyes, a mighty jaw, but you know, it looked so soft. Just like a teddy. So I hugged it!"

"Jack, what are you saying? You're going crazy."

"I know," Jack said. "Nobody believes I hugged the bear. People called me crazy then too. But I felt it. I felt its warm fur against my arms. I heard it grunting. I felt it pushing me away. I think it was full on food. Otherwise I think it would have aten me. Honestly, I'm not sure why it didn't. I think that might be fate working its magic right there."

"Jack! What will we do?"

"I don't know. I don't fucking know."