Vartan came home from church feeling stressed because he had a lot of homework to do. In fact one of his papers was due on Friday and now it was already Wednesday. As he sat in his room looking over his syllabus his mom suddenly called out, "Vartan I made your favorite dish; pilaf and korovatz". Vartan imagined that his ancestors must of eaten "Armenian Barbecue" like this everyday during the golden years of Armenian reign.

He quickly took off his day clothes and put on his pajamas. Vartan still loved to wear his bedtime uniform becuase it made him feel relaxed and stable. For him life was moving along as it had always done since his early childhood.

As he made his way to the kitchen he could smell the garlic seasoned food that he had been so accustomed to. His mom was such a joy to his heart. But, she could be a pain as she would sometimes nag him about his unorganized room, tardiness to school or late nights out with friends. Yet Vartan knew she meant well. Like, most Armenian moms she ran the house efficiently and made sure their was always good food on the table, clean clothes in his drawers and a tidy, organized house to come to.

His older brother had moved out with  his girlfriend, Ani and had lost these privileges. Ani his girlfriend was kind of Americanized and a 9 to 5 employee for Home Depot. As a result she could not give his brother the kind of service his mom had given to his father before he died of cancer five years previous.

As he began to eat, his mom began to say that she was worried for him. This caught Vartan off guard. Far as he was concerned he was having a normal life and a normal day. Yes, he felt kind of stressed over school and guilty over his sins, which the pastor mentioned at church, but otherwise life seemed normal to him. Or at least he wanted to make himself believe that.

His mom proceeded to tell him that she had a bad dream about him the night before. She said, "That he was being attacked by this strange looking creature. She looked like beautiful women with wings,a horn and an evil eye. She seemed to be attacking his mind and driving him to the ground as if she was a hammer and he was a nail. The whole time she did that, you laid their motionless and with your eyes caught in a gaze. It was as if your were a alive, but dead at the same time. I am scared for you son."

Vartan said to her, "Mom your weird, you must be eating to many sweets before you go to bed or watching to many scary movies; your mind seems to operating on hyper mode!"

She smirked at him and walked away to her room to watch her favorite Russian soap opera. This is what Armenian moms do in the evening.

As she left Vartan in the silence of the room, he sat at the dinner table eating and thinking to himself what her statements were all about. He did notice that lately he had been thinking extremely weird thoughts about himself and others. He noticed that the slightest little annoyance sent him into a mental and emotional frenzy, to the point that he felt like punching someone in the face. Also, every night around 12:00 am while surfing the net for school he felt this deep uncontrollable desire to watch porn and masturbate. sometimes two to three times a night. Even though he knew it was a waste of time and senseless in light of all the homework he had to finish, he seemed to be trapped with no where to turn, but himself.

That is why church seemed unusually stressful for him lately. How could he go before God with such dirty, ugly sins. Maybe that is what his mother sensed. Frustration!

Vartan was a youth leader in his church and if people found out that he was "out of control" and addicted to porn he would loose his position and most of all his respect.

Respect is a very important virtue for Armenians to posses and preserve. You never loose it even if you have to lie (i know it is an oxymoron). Because if you do something to bring shame, your enemies could surely use it against you and your family name.

At this moment though all Vartan kept asking himself was, "Could his mother's dream be true? Are their some kinds of monsters or demons driving him into the ground?"

Even if it was so, he couldn't talk to anyone about it, it must be something he deals with by himself, him and his God!

He knew the Bible talked about Satan and demons, but they could not be involved in peoples lives on such an intimate level. Also, what would demons want from him. He is only a young college student with little influence in his church. It's not like he was a pastor or missionary or something.Surely demons attack spiritual people. he was far from it. Just a regular guy.

That night Vartan would have his questions answered in the most unusual way. That night his life would change.

Story to be continued.............

Written by :

Jack Hakimian