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“Come, boy,” the Reaper calls, motioning Rhenn toward the threshold we entered from. “You know I don’t play favorites. Her test will be the same as the others. If she can resist the darkness, if she can find the light, I will let her go. For now. Humans are weak though. I don’t expect her to last long in my nightmares.”

I step out to the barren wasteland, looking into the forest of twisted trees.

“It won’t be long now.” The Reaper breathes in the tainted air, holding his hand over Rhenn’s stiff shoulder. “I suggest you find your pet before the shadows reach her.” Rhenn moves away from his reach, eyes too set on the forest ahead.

“And Rhenn,” his uncle calls, “if she somehow does manage to slip away from me, she will be yours to waste. Only a few months to go.”

His to waste? His to fucking waste? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Rhenn has already stripped me of everything. There is nothing more he can take. I have nothing left.

I follow Rhenn through the trees, unable to control the steps. It’s like they aren’t my own, like some part of me knows I won’t wake up until I see this story play its course. I’ve already lived it once, haven’t I? Why am I being forced to watch? Forced to learn these horrible secrets?

A new crack forms in my chest, filled with nothing but fiery rage for the man whose guest house I’ve been living in. It bubbles inside of me, threatening to knock me down.

Except, it would seem I’m already down. And even though I loathe the man holding me against him, I can’t help feeling a piece of my heart ache when I watch him.

“Fuck,” he chokes, rocking the still girl in his arms. “Fucking fight it. I need you to fight it.” He sounds so desperate, like this isn’t what he always wanted. Me gone.

It hurts to watch, but so much of me feels empty. I’m hollow from the inside out. I’ve been brought into this world—both Rhenn’s and my own—just to show how easily I could crumble. There’s no place for me anymore.

There never was.

The hairs on my arms prick up, the night suddenly colder. I watch the shadows overtake us, flowing into me like a breeze through mist. I am tempted to let them have me. To let them take me away. I can feel it already happening. She is fading, and so am I.

“Please…” The plea is quiet, pained. My eyes fall over him, seeing the way he breaks as he says it. He yearns for her life, unready to watch her slip away.

I’ve lost everything. So has he. Maybe all we have left is each other now.

She isn’t waking up though.

It’s been too long. I sense the darkness in my mind, feeling now what she feels. The shadows are devouring her essence. Black ink weaves through her veins, forming like nets across her skin. The light inside her is almost out, dimming softly like an ember.

She’s supposed to come to. This isn’t where it ends.

But she doesn’t move.

Maybe I died and this is my purgatory. I get to watch it happen again and again, thinking I get out, but I never do. Stuck in an endless loop of feeling my heart shatter and watching as Rhenn’s does too.

That’s the worst part, seeing the pain in his eyes while he looks down at her.

Something tells me this isn’t it though. There’s still a flutter of life inside her.

I step closer, crouching opposite Rhenn, and brush my fingers over her face. She’s so cold. She’s turning ashy.

Years of suffering, feeling unwanted, being used like a play doll. That’s where the darkness is deriving. She is wounded, tormented by her own mind, so she is reaching for the shadows, wanting them to take it all away.

Not yet, I think for the both of us. We still have so much to live for.

Like the shapeless figures did, I enter into myself.

I find her there, deep in her subconscious. But she isn’t alone. Rhenn, the part of him she secretly holds close, he’s with her, calling her name. The shadows block his voice from reclaiming her. If she could just see him, I know somehow it would be enough.

Turn around. Look at him. Let him save you!

But she doesn’t. She has no idea he’s there.

The shadows cling to her, draining the life she’s no longer holding onto.

My eyes flash to the man begging her to come back. It isn’t enough…