“Guys, do you see that?” I asked, turning to my friends.

“See what?” My friend, Miima, poked her head in and shrugged. “I see nothing.” The others - Silla, Skai, and Ivino, all looked in themselves, all giving me a strange look. Evie pat my shoulder with a sincere look I knew meant she thought I was seeing things. But I wasn’t. I had seen something. Eyes. Smoke. A threatening feeling deep in my soul, like whatever it was wasn’t natural. Or friendly. Like it was just wrong.

I looked back towards the room. It wasn’t there anymore. Whatever it was that I had seen, or thought I’d seen, it just wasn’t there. The kitchen was perfect, untouched, perfect. Was I just imagining it?

As I pondered how sane I actually was without Ashe, I saw it again. Right in front of me. A flash as if I was in a game, a flash of smoke, a wide smile with sharp teeth, two red eyes in the dark.

Terrified, I screeched and ran away into the elevator. All five of my friends followed close behind, shouting at me to slow down, asking what happened. I paid attention to none of them.

With a quick pull of the lever, the gates shut and we all started cruising upwards. I was still shaking from an oversized man’s face two inches from my own. A face that didn’t exist.

When we got back up, I started walking in a random direction. I didn’t care where I was going or what I doing, I just needed to get away from the crowd, away from the spirit that haunted my imagination.

I only stopped when my friend’s loud screech made me turn around to look at my them. Miima's hands yanked my arm back. I gave her a confused face before turning back around to look at what they were.

There was a giant hole in the lake, catacombs made of ice digging down several miles into the lake. If I’d stepped one more foot, I would have fallen to my death. There were wisps of purple, pink, blue, green, all moving within the hole, weaving through the catacombs, swimming in the air.

“What is this? This wasn’t here before…” I muttered, turning back to look at my friends’ faces. Skai had her hands over her mouth. Ivino's mouth gaped open. Evie had her hands on her arm, staring blankly with a wide mouth at something behind me. Miima's face reflected sheer terror. Silla just stared ahead like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. They all took steps back, all except for Evie and me. Soon, all the others were a good quarter mile away from the hole.

Confused, I looked back to see a large, 7-foot tall ghost of a woman with white wings and dark hair smiling down at me. The wisps focused mainly on her, weaving between her fingers, breaking off from her hair and making her glow.

“A m i l l y a . . . . . A k i r a g o . . .” The woman whispered our names, the names we’d given our characters in our books. Being called “Akirago” felt natural, normal, even though it wasn’t really my name. Evie and I exchanged a look that let me know she felt the same way.

“Wh-Who are you?” I choked out, trying to ignore the fact that I was probably dreaming this and I’d finally gone insane.

“Y o u . . . k n o w . . . , A k i . . .” The woman’s head turned my way, her voice bouncing across the ice of the lake even though her lips didn’t move.

“I know someone you look like, but… She doesn’t exist…” I started. The woman rolled her eyes. Evie stepped up so she was standing beside me at the edge of the hole. She peered inside, grabbing my shirt sleeve and pointing down. I followed her gaze.

Five figures had appeared in the catacomb gaps, five figures I knew intimately, as I’d helped to create them.
“Shramie…” Evie whispered under her breath, clearly in awe of the ghost fairy. She smiled.

“Y e s . . . , A m i l l y a . . . Y o u . . . g o t . . . i t . . .” Shramie smiled, her brown hair turning golden for a moment as did happen to the gods when they stepped foot on the mortal planet.

“I-I’m not Amillya, and she’s not Akirago. Not really. They’re fictional. They’re just characters.” Evie started, being shut up quickly by an invisible force knocking her back. A woman floated up from one of the catacombs, her bare feet landing lightly on the ice. Her turquoise dress dragged on the ground behind her as she glared at Evie, her aqua orbs glowing menacingly in the moonlight. A green, blue, and black wisp each followed her, flitting between her blue and gold wings.

“A-Amzi?” Evie choked out, staring her goddess counterpart in the face. Amillya nodded, her wings twitching from just knocking Evie back.

“H o w . . . d a r e . . . y o u . . . s a y . . . I ‘ m . . . n o t . . . r e a l . . .” Amillya’s voice was soft but threatening, growing louder as she whispered more. She stepped forward, but her feet landed just above the ice. She was hovering, like a ghost. In fact, she was glowing like one too. Her hand reached out to touch Evie's, their palms and fingers interlacing as they contacted each other’s skin. Amzi’s eyes glowed brighter and the wisps went into her heart, stabbing her before she poofed into thin air. The lake became dark again, except for Shramie, who was smiling.

Evie's eyes glowed equally as bright, changing color with the moon. Her hair glowed golden as if she were Rapunzel from “Tangled”, and it blew even though there was no wind. When it finally settled back down, it now reached her thighs. She yelped in slight pain and hunched over, whimpering as the ghostly shadow of wings ripped from her back, glowing themselves before disappearing again and becoming a tattoo across her back and arms.
“Wh-What just happened?” Evie choked out, catching her breath as she stood hunched over, her hands resting on her knees. I could swear I still saw her wings floating, hovering just off her back like they were there and weren’t at the same time. Shramie smiled.

“Y o u . . . b e c a m e . . . A m i l l y a . . . . Y o u . . . a r e . . . b a c k . . . t o . . . y o u r . . . o l d . . . s e l f . . .“ Shramie smiled wider, more wisps surrounding us all. A light blue one wrapped around my waist, and I could feel like it was smiling at me. Even though it didn’t have a face.

Four other women floated up out of the hole, each wearing identical white dresses that dragged on the ground, each floating like Amillya had. I knew each of them. And each one started walking towards their respective counterparts.

Ivino accepted Zorak coming to her, raising her hand and smiling as the black-haired girl kissed her cheek. As the kiss happened, Ivino's hair curled slightly, glowing golden and stretching to her hips. Her eyes glowed the same robin’s egg blue as Zorak’s had been and changed color, just like Evie's had. The purple wisp following Zorak stabbed them through the heart just like Amillya’s wisps had. At the kiss, Zorak disappeared just like Amillya, blowing a shockwave of air out and knocking all of our hair back.

Miima and Silla held hands as Cheishiyoka and Akune walked forward. Akune’s purple pigtails blowed as walked, a bronze wisp swimming through them. Cheishy's golden blonde hair hardly moved from the two gold wisps flitting about her. Their auras mixed with each other and the two Honorans smiled at each other before both falling into Miima and Silla's. They, too, went through transformations as Miima's eyes and hair changed color, her hair going down to her thighs just like Evie. Silla's eyes just became more vivid and grew to her waist, a gray stream of energy emitting from both my friends. They let themselves get taken over and smiled as I could see peach wash over them. They looked like they were home at last.

Skai, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as accepting as the others. She tried running from the white-haired angel following her. Of course, since she was on ice, she slipped, fell, and slid like Bambi. The look of pure terror on her face was funny since her cheeks became puffed out and she tried struggling to get up before Miyarase reached her. She didn’t succeed. The goddess’ black wings ruffled as she bent down to pick up my friend. Lainee reluctantly accepted her hand and got swept off her feet as Miyarase pulled her into a death hug. A white wisp stabbed Lainee in the heart from behind, just like all the others had done, and turned her hair golden, growing it to her hips before becoming completely white. Her eyes glowed blue and Miyarase became absorbed inside of her. The shadow of her black wings tattooed themselves on her back just like Amillya’s had done to Evie, and Lainee screamed in terror. I could faintly see one of Miyarase’s wings reach out from Skai's breast and slap her across the face, knocking her unconscious. She fell gracefully, meeting the ice with a soft grunt, as if Miyarase was still looking out for her and had caught her.

I turned back to Shramie, suddenly becoming disappointed. What I wanted more than anything was to meet Akirago, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Umm… Shramie…-” I started, but the goddess Honoran cut me off.

“- W h y . . . i s . . . A k i r a g o . . . n o t . . . h e r e . . . ?” She cocked her head to the side. I started walking around the edge of the circular hole in the ground, looking into the catacombs to try to will my goddess to come meet me. Nothing happened, but the blue wisp around my waist tightened and became more frantic.

“Yeah. Has she given up on me?” I asked, fear setting into my heart. The wisp moved to rest on my chest, going in circles across my skin, like it was trying to comfort me.

“N o . . . . Y o u . . . o f . . . a l l . . . p e o p l e . . . s h o u l d . . . u n d e r s t a n d . . .”

“Understand what? What am I not getting?” I stretched my arms out, practically yelling now.

“I . . . c a n n o t . . . d o w n l o a d . . . h e r . . . f i l e . . . a s . . . e a s i l y . . . a s . . . t h e . . . o t h e r s . . . . Y o u . . . a r e . . . o n l y . . . a . . . b a b y . . . . L a s t . . . t i m e . . . I . . . t r i e d . . . , o n l y . . . h e . . . c a m e . . . .”

“Wh-Who came?” I asked, fearing the answer, still pondering the whole ‘baby’ thing. Akirago was seven hundred and thirteen years old. She’s not a baby.

“Y o u . . . k n o w . . . , y o u ‘ v e . . . s e e n . . . h i m . . . . T h e . . . o n e . . . w h o . . . h u n t s . . . y o u . . . . R a b n a h i a e m . . .”

Anger entered my heart at that name. Rabnahiaem. The demon notorious for bothering Akirago and Amillya. That was who I’d seen earlier in the kitchens. He was hunting me?

“R-Rabby came when you tried to- What did you mean, ‘download her file’?”

“Y o u . . . k n o w . . . .”

“I really don’t… Please explain?” I begged the goddess. She winked at me, her, the hole, and all the wisps fading away into the dark.

“T h i s . . . w o r l d . . . i s . . . a . . . g a m e . . .” She whispered, her voice lingering long enough to say one last thing before she disappeared forever. “W a k e . . . u p . . . , s i s t e r s . . . . C o m e . . . h o m e . . .”