“

  May I have your attention, please?

  Will the real Starshady please stand up?

  I repeat, will the real Starshady please stand up?”

  A speaker in the ceiling suddenly came to life with Nessa’s voice. The girl with the reflective shard-knife didn’t bother stopping.

  “Hrmmmphh... We're gonna have a problem here…” The speaker sighed.

  I stared at Annie’s reflection in the unbroken mirrors. She was wrong.

  Tall. Dark. Seven feet tall. Massive black antlers. Black claws like elongated blades. I choked. She looked like my imaginary best friend… but wrong. Tall. Monstrous. Antlered.

  Somewhat familiar music burst from the speaker. Of course. I would die to the dream-twisted sound of early 2010’s pop.

  "Just peachy," I muttered.

  The two Annies circled me, their forms undulating between teenage bully and seven-foot Wendigo with each flicker of the fluorescent lights.

  "Y'all act like you never seen a Wendigo before," Nessa's voice boomed from the speaker as a shard of mirror sliced through me.

  The pain was immediate, absolute; dream-real in the worst way, silver blood spilling across the floor.

  I fell, crawling away, leaving a trail of silver behind me.

  "Claws on the floor while Ash crawls for the door

  You threw him in lakes like never before

  Now memory's divorced - You’re not all there, Oh No!”

  They descended on me like a pack, tearing, rending.

  I died with a scream.

  The dream reset.

  My hands were trembling. The memory of being eviscerated by black claws was too fresh, too damn real.

  "But Princess, please remember Ash!" Nessa sang with her own voice and from the school speaker. "Chicka-chicka-chicka, Starshady, remember our pact!"

  I was in the damned hallway again, but now there were dozens of Annies in the crowd, all different heights and stages of transformation. Some still looked mostly human. Others were full nightmare fuel—antlers nearly scraping the ceiling, bodies wrapped in feathery shadows that moved wrong.

  One of the Annies at the front hesitated. Her silver eyes flickered with confusion. But the others didn't stop. They rushed towards me like a wave of death and claws.

  "Look at you, hunting around, grabbing his beating heart—"

  And they literally were. One had torn open my ribcage, holding my still-beating heart up like a trophy while I somehow remained conscious enough to watch.

  "Ripping our Emperor apart... Wait, but he's your mate though!

  Yeah, you definitely got something making you loose,

  Not enough focus in dreams, I guess you forgot the truth!

  Sometimes you wanna eat his face and just cut loose, huh?

  But wait... Remember campfire, remember marshmallow juice?” The speaker sang.

  "Marshmallows?" The confused Annie… No, Shady, suddenly shrieked. "CIRCLES! I remember circles!" She suddenly tackled the one holding my heart. "NO! That's—That's mine! He's MINE!"

  There were too many of them. Even as Shady tried to defend me, the others overwhelmed her, shoving her aside to continue their feast.

  The real Shady tried to block the others. "Stop! STOP! He smells like... he tastes like... I KNOW HIM!"

  They did want to eat my face. One of them was actively doing it. The defender-Shady fought three others, her antlers locked with theirs. Sadly, she was one against dozens. The hallway had become crowded with Wendigo-Annies, all hungry for my flesh.

  Their claws took me apart as I screamed.

  "My claws are in his chest, my claws are in his chest!" they chanted along with the song.

  “But if you'd remember, you'd give him a different kind of death

  And that's the message I'm trying to get through your head

  You claimed him as yours and now you want him dead?

  Of course you're gonna kill what you can't recall

  By the time you taste his fear you've lost it all, but wait y'all,

  You ain't nothing but soulmates... well, one of you's a cannibal

  Who cuts her lover open like a cantaloupe

  But if you can remember the weight of shared hugs

  Then there's a reason that your heart calls him home

  So if you feel what I feel, here's the antidote:

  Remember, wave goodbye to ghosts, find your soul, and it goes...”

  The speaker sang as I drowned in spilling silver blood.

  The defender-Shady was roaring now, fighting desperately but losing ground. "I remember! I REMEMBER! But they don't! My hooks don't remember! They're just hungry! They're so hungry! No, no, no! Stop eating him, damn it!”

  Another reset. The defender-Shady was immediately at my side, arms spread.

  "Please," she begged the others. "Please, he's our Emperor! Our Ash! Our best friend—"

  They tore her away from me, held her down, made her watch as they resumed their feast.

  "I CAN'T STOP THEM!" defender-Shady screamed. "Ash, I'm sorry! I can't control them! I’m… I’m so hungry… and now my hooks think you're just prey and I can't..."

  “You're Starshady, yes you're the real Shady

  All these nightmares just imitating

  So won't the real Shady please wake up?

  Please wake up, please wake up?

  'Cause you're Starshady, yes you're the real Shady

  Shady Ash is bleeding and you're demonstrating

  So won't the real Shady please wake up?

  Please wake up, please wake up?

  Remember the mansion? My pasta disasters?

  How you called him Emperor Master?

  Remember the lake throws? The terrible fear?

  How you needed him always near?

  Stop eating his liver, that's your Emperor there

  The one you marked with antler-scarred care

  You're not some mindless monster from the void

  You're Princess Aquillianne, not destroyed!”

  The speakers sang above me as I died with a smile on my lips.

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  Nexxali. Our kitten. Shady. My best friend. I wasn't alone.

  Reset.

  They attacked from all angles. Defender-Shady tried to shield me with her body but there were too many. Her black feathers were torn away in clumps as she fought.

  "I remember the hugs!" defender-Shady sobbed. "I remember everything! But remembering isn't enough! They're me, but also not me! They're what I was! What I could be! What I'm afraid I am!"

  I died as they sliced me.

  Reset.

  “So you're Starshady, yes you're the real Shady

  Your memories aren't just fading

  So won't the real Shady please wake up?

  Please wake up, please wake up?”

  This time when we respawned, the real Shady immediately grabbed me and ran. The hallway stretched infinitely on and on but she kept running, carrying me, her breath ragged.

  "They're not imitating!" defender-Shady gasped. "They're me! The parts I can't control! The parts that only know blind hunger and murder!"

  Behind us, the horde of Shadies gained ground. Their footsteps sounded like thunder, like an avalanche of claws and teeth.

  “You awake yet?” Nexxali asked from the speaker.

  "YES! I AM AWAKE!" Shady howled up. "I'm awake in his dream but I can't wake up properly! I can't pull my hooks out! They're tangled in his nightmares, in his memories and fears and I can't..."

  They caught us as Shady tripped over a suddenly twisted, warped floor tile, letting go of me as she fell.

  Nightmares don't let you escape that easily.

  The defender-Shady fought even harder this time, actually managing to kill one of her doppelgangers. It dissolved into black smoke that immediately reformed as two more.

  "Ashy!" defender-Shady whispered, looking at me as my intestines were pulled out like party streamers. "Ashy. I'm so sorry. I'm trying. I'm trying so hard but I'm not whole enough to..."

  Reset.

  She grabbed me, running.

  "I need you," she whispered as she held me. "I need you but I'm killing you. Over and over. I can feel every death. Every bite. Every claw. It's me doing it… but I can't stop. I’m sorry, Ashy."

  “Guess you didn’t scare me enough today?” I asked.

  “Guess not,” she sighed. “Sorry.”

  She nuzzled into me, holding me tightly.

  “Mrrrrrr,” Nexxali voiced from the speaker. “That takes care of at least one Shady. Let me think… Oh, oh, I know!”

  “Hurry up and help!” I yelled at the ceiling.

  ","

  Nexxali's voice sang from the speakers, the new melody burrowing deep into my panic-addled brain.

  "Across these halls without a name…

  And your death here won't make you wake,

  So how much fear can one boy take?"

  Another Annie lunged from a classroom. Defender-Shady spun, kicking her into lockers that rippled like mercury.

  "These halls go on forever more, behind each grey-lit classroom door,

  She's waiting with her silver eyes, to hear your heartbeat's lullabies!"

  Every door we passed spawned another hunter. They were multiplying off my fear. My heart hammered. Shady clutched me tighter.

  "Run, rabbit, run through liquid walls, I'll cheer her on through empty halls!

  The thrill is in the chase, you see, when predator meets prey-to-be!

  She'll pin you down where shadows bend, and whisper... 'this will never end!

  Your death's a door, not final rest... tomorrow night, another test!"

  “Another night? I don’t want to do this every night,” the Shady holding me whined.

  The walls liquefied slightly, chrome surfaces reflecting our desperate flight. Something shifted in my mind...

  Nexxali was right.

  This wasn't simple terror.

  Three Annies cornered us. The Shady holding me kicked at them while I searched for escape.

  Death as a door. The concept clicked. If death was a door, then maybe...

  "In corners where the darkness pools, she breaks all of this dream's rules,

  Her claws trace patterns on your skin, while I just watch and purr and grin!

  The hunt's foreplay, if truth be told... these nightmare halls where passion's sold!

  She feeds on fear but wants much more, behind each rippling metal door!"

  Rules. Dreams had rules that could be broken.

  "NEXXALI!" Shady roared. "Stop being horny and HELP!"

  I focused all of my dream-will on trying to create a door out, a path, a way out of fear. I reached out towards hope, towards friendship, towards the understanding Shady and I established as kids and then as adults when we once again met in my grandfather’s home.

  "You'll die a hundred times tonight! Each death a kiss, each scream delight!

  And when you think you've found escape, she'll pull you back to demonstrate

  These endless hallways know our names, they echo with her little games

  Where Annie plays and Ash must run, until the two become just one!"

  "That door!" I pointed ahead of us, opening my eyes.

  Shady saw it too. A colorful door.

  We ran forward, the murderous-Shadies pack converging from everywhere. The glowing door grew closer.

  Behind us, dozens of Shadys gained ground.

  "So close your eyes and count to three, pretend that you don't want to see

  Dream deep, my dear, she's waiting there, with feathered mane and jet black hair!

  But here's the trick, my frightened dear, these dreams are just illusion's sphere!

  You hold more power than you know, to change the script and steal the show!”

  My hand found the handle. I turned it.

  The door exploded open. Light flooded everything.

  We burst onto the rooftop filled with brilliant color.

  "It doesn't have to be so grim, this playground's yours to sink or swim!"

  Rewrite her hunt to lover's game, and set these silver halls aflame!

  With every death, you can respawn, turn predator to prey at dawn!

  Make out against these dreary walls, transform the fear to passion's calls!"

  We rushed outside into bright, radiant sunlight.

  The school floated on an endless purple-blue-silver ocean.

  Other buildings drifted past like enormous ships: the Clifford mansion, a Blockbuster Video store that closed when I was twelve, the Cascade movie theater, Cascade Books & Nooks café, all sailing majestically across dream-waves.

  The rooftop itself bloomed with violet grass, cherry trees sprouting from ventilation units. The Annies emerged onto the sunlight and stopped chasing, staring left and right in confused wonder.

  "Pretty," one whispered, catching falling petals. "Not gray. Pretty. No… fear.”

  "Meow! Meow!" I spotted Nexxali sitting atop the statue of Cascade founder Lord Aaron Chandler drifting by the school. "Ha ha ha ha! He he he!" She laughed.

  The eternal sunset painted everything golden. The hunting pack of Shadies spread across the rooftop, exploring. Some lay in the grass. Others watched the Blockbuster float by with expressions of nostalgia.

  "Phew. We made it out of that stupid dream," the Shady clinging to me breathed out, her heart beating fast. "You found the way. Good job, Ashy!"

  "Nexy’s song helped." I looked at the serval who hopped off the statue and walked across the water to the edge of the school’s rooftop and then grinned at us. "Even if someone was being insufferably horny about it!”

  "You're welcome!" Nexxali giggled, climbing over the parapet, leaning down and kissing me with her snout.

  “Couldn’t you just order us to get here with your voice without the whole ridiculous rapping and singing?” Shady demanded.

  "Nu-huh.” Nexxali shook her head. “This isn't my dream, I cannot control it directly. Charmchain orders require precise targeting and intent. A physical target. But dreams… Dreams are slippery. The soft subconscious resists direct commands. It's like trying to grab water."

  "So you sang instead?" I asked.

  "Yep. Music bypasses resistance," she nodded. "It weaves through the cracks, plants subtle suggestions rather than commands while describing what’s happening. Dreams respond better to rhythm and metaphor than 'stop eating Ash immediately.'"

  Several of the Wendigo-Annies had gathered around us now, no longer hostile. One reached out tentatively toward a cherry blossom, then pulled back as if afraid she might destroy it.

  "Hrmmm. They're all me," Shady said, looking at her duplicates and finally releasing me from her bosom. “But I can’t seem to get them together. They’re just… doing whatever the fuck they wanna. Why can’t I get my brain hooks in order?”

  "Mrrrwwlll.” The serval stretched, tail swaying. Her ginger and black fur caught the golden dream-light. "Whatever the Abyss you did to mess yourself up, it created this. These are basically disconnected… pieces of your psyche, sheared bits of your soul, Fractal Engine and mind that aren’t under your direct control. They’re… shards of your Astral self you’ve somehow managed to slice off yourself. They're existing on their own. Weirdest shit I’ve seen in a dream.”

  “Shit. So did I… hunt Ashy last night too?” Shady asked.

  “I dunno,” the catgirl shrugged. “I wasn’t there. You probably did. Wendigos feed on fear to maintain psychic bonds. I guess when a Wendigo soul gets torn up… you get this mess."

  Shady looked at me.

  “If you did chase and murder me, I don't remember it,” I said. “I don’t often remember my dreams.”

  “M'sorry,” She slid to her knees hugging me gently. She offered me a tentative lick, tail wrapping around my leg.

  “It's fine,” I patted her feathery mane. “It's better now. They're calm.”

  "Mmmmm," Shady murmured, turning her skull-head and watching a RadioShack drift past on its own little island, "your subconscious is weird."

  "Says the girl who spent an hour trying to eat me in various creative ways."

  "That's just love, baby." Shady grinned.

  "That's therapy. Gonna need sooo much therapy after this.”

  She laughed at that.