A Guide to Surviving Against Monsters

Stay away from me. You're dead.

I can never be dead.

I watched you die. We made that decision together.

I stared at the abyss of white around me. The realm between reality and my subconscious. I had been here before, but never remembered it. The only thing I could even faintly recall was the endless white space. Moving in any direction did nothing -- I would only see more white.

You need to rest peacefully, I said to the spirit that was haunting this place. My lips formed the words, but they were soundless.

He took on a physical form meters away from me. Green eyes, dark hair that had grown out longer than mine. A height I had only dreamed of.

I will never rest, Emmalyn. You haven't completed it yet.

That's up to me to deal with, I reminded him. And I have chosen to put it behind me.

Yet you use it on a daily basis.

It keeps me alive.

The man leaned on one hip. Does it?

I looked away from him. If I was here, that meant it was around midnight and I was finally sinking into a deep sleep in reality. I was getting proper rest, but it also meant that I could be here until I woke up. My alarm was set to go off at eight, meaning I had many hours left of sleep.

When I met his green eyes once again, my own green eye was alive with purple symbols. They were stationary, but if I called on that, they'd circle my pupil like before, in the fight with the shapeshifters.

Your control is better. Do you know the limits?

I shook my head. If anyone could figure it out, it would be them. But they're all dead, too. Everyone tied to that project... They're gone.

It was the right decision.

In the silent space, I scoffed. In this world, I was dressed in a green nightgown, the hem brushing my knees. My dark hair was neat, as if it'd just been brushed. The bags under my eyes were gone, my skin brighter than it had been for a while. It was like none of it had ever happened, but my eye was a glaring reminder of my second to last year of the Academy.

I can't change this, I sighed, so why do you keep bringing me here?

I miss you.

Spare me the crap.

They're worried.

That's what I thought.

I turned my back to him, staring at the sea of white. Don't worry. I'm behaving.

...Thank you, Emmalyn.

Warmth seeped into my back. I closed my eyes, forcing my body to relax as I listened to the scream behind me. To the crunch of bones, and the squelch of a bleeding wound.

Of course.

My lips formed the words I could no longer remember, and the white drained away.