Characters: Siarra, Kim
Location: A dungeon cell under Felwinter
Time: Day 4 - 4:44 PM

Strings of color and light rained down in Siarra’s mind. She stared at them, half forgotten threads of the other world, and reached out to touch them. They slid through her fingertips like dreams—the ones lost overnight, the ones left to the darkness. But they touched her, dipped through her veins, began to wrap around her like coiled white asps around a tree. They began to join together, to become one after all. And they began to take her under.

Never again, they said. Never again will you feel it. Never again will you remember, child. Close your eyes and become the never. Open your eyes and forget the again.

“Who are you?” she whispered and her voice reverberated around the crystalline walls.

There was only laughter. Thousands of voices, laughing. Invisible mirrors shattered, crystal shards poured down from the heavens, and streams of color began to paint the world real once more. Siarra covered her head. Her eyes began to bleed broken rays of light. The voices howled with laughter. Then they began to chant something. Something awful. Something that lasted forever.

Suddenly, two bony hands grabbed Siarra from behind. She screamed, shooting up from her straw bed, welcomed only by the darkness of the dungeon cell. She gasped. Her blood was ice, frozen in the still flow of her veins. Beads of cold sweat clung to the shuddering vibrations of her skin.

“Where…?” she mouthed, but her voice was dry, dead to this world.

She remained staring into the darkness, waiting for the colors, the voices, to come again. But they didn’t. They were gone. They were all in her head.

But the memories… As her blood began to churn once more, the memories poured like liquid dreams.

“I’m telling you… You’ll love it.”

“Neverquest… Get out of my world… Neverquest belongs to me… This isn’t a game anymore…”

“Gena…”

“Spend all your time… In a little fantasy world…”

“This isn’t real… I won’t ever forget…”

“Don’t you like this world?”

“It’s not…supposed to hurt this much…”

“Imagine all the fun we can have… Imagine… Isn’t that why you started playing Neverquest? You wanted to be on top… Just like the rest of us… Imagine…”

“Why…?”

“Little fantasy world… Imagine…”

“No…”

“Don’t let her come near me! … … She’ll hurt me… She’ll hurt me again…”

“Frankie…”

“How are you better suited to care of your brother?”

“Frankie… No…”

“Don’t let her come near me… She’ll hurt me… Hurt me… Hurt me again…”

“Frankie.”

“Little fantasy world…”

“Lies… It’s all a lie.”

“My world… Get out…”

“All of you…are lies… … Stop doing this…to us… … …”

“Get out…”

“It’s all part of your sick game and I’m done playing.”

“Little fantasy world.”

“It’s not real! Stop…”

“This is my world!”

“Lies!”

“GET OUT! THIS IS MY WORLD!”

“STOP DOING THIS TO ME!” Siarra screamed, pounding on the walls until her knuckles bled down her arm. “Gena, fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you… Fuck you so much… Oh, God, Gena… I hate you… You stupid bitch… Oh, God… … Oh, Frankie… Frankie, I didn’t mean for… Nothing… … … Stop this… Stop everything… … This is insane… … …”

“Siarra! Siarra, calm down!”

“Let go of me!”

Siarra squirmed, trying to shake the darkness away. Colors flashed before her eyes.

“Siarra, it’s me! Kim. Kim, your friend.”

“Kim…?”

“Yes, yes… It’s me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Siarra opened her eyes. The room was dark, but lit enough by torches to make out the flickering red strands of Kim’s hair, combed so wildly across her brow. Blood trickled down Siarra’s arms as she wrapped them around Kim’s neck, holding her like a sister. Kim seemed taken back at first. Then, relaxing her muscles, she slowly embraced Siarra and knelt onto the bed of straw.

“It’s happening,” Siarra cried. “I’m losing it, Kim… I’m losing everything. I can feel it fading.”

“We’re not licked yet. Malkav and Adam seem to have escaped. I’m sure they’ll come back for us.”

“Oh, God, I hope so. I just want to go home…”

Kim nodded, gazing into the shadows of the room. “I know how you feel. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to go home. I guess it’s because I’ve…never really had one.”

“What? You’ve never had a home?”

“Not since my mother was killed in the war.”

Siarra pried herself away from Kim’s arms. “War!? What war?”

“The last war with the Forsaken, over ten years ago. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

Siarra’s mouth hung open.

“A lot of good Women died, including my mother. You should’ve seen the way she worked a bow… It was like magic. Um, no offense, of course! I know you work hard at your spellcasting, but the way she could a shoot an apple off a tree from a hundred yards away… No words to describe it, Siarra. No words at all…”

Siarra continued to stare blankly into the eyes of her friend.

“Kim…” she said softly, trying to keep from shaking all over. “Kim, where were you born?”

“In the Enchanted Forest, of course. South of Haledon.”

“And how did we meet?”

Kim cocked her head to the side, a bit curiously. “Um, are you feeling okay? How hard did you hit your head anyway?”

“I’m not sure. Just answer the question. And tell me everything that’s happened since.”

“I was vacationing on the island beaches off the coast of Ellewyn. I ran into you and some of your friends killing crabs on the shore, so we decided to join up and visit the Abbey together. Then you got mad when this evil Necromancer kidnapped your pet brother, so we set sail for Ellewyn to rescue him. Then we wound up at the Tournament of Champions, here in Felwinter, where you and I decided to confront Queen Isabella in an attempt to get him back. But apparently the Queen has already made a pact with the Necromancer, so we weren’t able to, and—”

“Stop,” Siarra said, holding up two fingers. “Just stop. I’ve heard enough.” Slowly, she lowered her eye sockets to her fingers and began to rub them. Kim had forgotten.

Or maybe Kim was right. Maybe Siarra had forgotten.

No, that couldn’t be. That wasn’t how it had happened. They had lived real lives—not in Ellewyn, but a small town along the east coast of the United States. Neverquest was a game, not a world. It couldn’t be. The blood coursing down her arm—that wasn’t even real. It was fake blood. Like all of this. Fake. Completely. All of this. Completely insane.

“You don’t remember, do you?” Siarra asked, but Kim’s silence was all she needed. She nodded now, shuddering close to her darkness, and hugged her knees close to her chest. “…Then it really is happening.”