My eyes widened at the figure on the screen, it's twisted grin widened and my face paled. It held its arms out before them and slowly raised them.

Dark shadow figures formed all around the room, I took a deep breath, hoping that it was simply a figure of my imagination.

But it wasn't.

I glanced around the room, no one else seemed to notice the creatures. No one else could see the image of the Dark Lord grinning at me. I was alone.

...Great...

I tried to act as though all was normal, but the creatures moved closer to me. I panicked and stumbled out of my chair, knocking it over in the process.

The noise must have startled the creatures as they disappeared into the shadows of the room and the projector shut off, the images fading from the screen.

"Miss Wells. What do you have to say for yourself?" My mythology teacher crossed his arms as his eyebrow raised and he leaned against his desk.

"Um, well," I looked around the room as all eyes lay on me, "the creatures on the screen came alive and were in the room." I explained what had happened and laughter erupted. They thought I was insane. If I was in their shoes, I would have thought I was insane too. To be honest, I really did not know what was going on nor what was happening to me.

"I see." My teacher bit his lip and shifted his gaze towards me. "Enough. Stop laughing." His booming voice hushed the laughter and then all was silent. "Come with me out into the hall." He stood up straight and walked towards the door, I reset my chair and followed him out of the classroom. I glanced back at Lance before leaving the room. His warm eyes reassuring my fear.

Ooh~ someone's in trouble.

Shut up, whoever you are. And get out of my head.

***

I held my head and stared up at the ceiling of my room, in the hallway I could hear my parents bickering with my teachers.

"Ugh... I feel like my head was run over by a rhino-dog." I closed my eyes and a shadowed figure stood in the corner of my mind.

"Hello princess~" it spoke in a teasing manner, I narrowed my eyes and glares at it.

"Who are you? And why are you in my mind?" I hissed, my brown hair draping along the curves of my face. I clenched my fists, I couldn't tell if it was the same creature from my dreams, but it felt somewhat familiar.

"Awe, wouldn't you like to know." It laughed, it's voice sounded like a feminine voice, almost like my voice.

"Yes. That's why I asked. You're a little slow. Aren't you?" I crossed my arms and sat down upon my bed, I might've been dreaming, but everything appeared like my mind. My bed, my drawers, my desk, my bookshelf, everything was there. I looked around, noting that the figure stood tall behind my closet door.
——
"I am not slow, at least not as slow as you." It laughed, leaning gently upon its lower right limb.

"What do you mean?" This comment caught me off guard and my face expressed my confusion. The creature grinned widely at my confusion, taking it as fuel for its fire.

"Awe, you seriously don't recognize me?" It laughed, chuckling darkly. "And here I thought that you'd recognize your own conscience." It shook its head, lowering it as though it were disappointed in me. It's dark shadowy figure let off a purple shimmer as its head moved from side to side.

"My conscience? I don't understand. Are you saying you're like my Jiminy Cricket?" I furrowed my brows at the creature, nothing it said made sense, should I actually be listening to it now?

"You could say that." The shadow figure leaned against the wall, and then I could feel it's eerie gaze upon me. "Or you could say I'm more of a rebel version of that goody two shoes though." It let out a laugh that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"So you're more like the devil that sits upon my shoulder than the angel?" I leaned back a bit and tilted my head slightly to the left. "That doesn't seem right, to be completely honest with you."

It let out another laugh at my comment. My ignorance was clearly hilarious to this shadow figure and it left me a bit on edge about it.

"Ah..." it paused for a moment to calm itself from laughing any more. "You, child, are too cute for your own good." The shadow figure lifted it's hand to its face to wipe away a non-existent dripping teardrop.

"I'm not a child." I puffed out my cheeks and tightly crossed my arms. "I'm a teenager. Which means I'm a T. E. E. N., a teen now. Not a child." I shot a daggered glare at the figure.

But I could see amusement in it's golden eyes.

I gulped.

"Of course you are, my mistake." It toyed with me, trying to come off as sincere while making fun of me at the same time. "Oh," it stuck out its arm and looked at it as though there was an imaginary watch upon it. "Look at the time," the shadow figure lowered its arm and it's gaze returned to me. "I have to go feed the cat, you know how she gets if she's not fed right on time." They winked at me before disappearing with a fizzle.

I opened my eyes and sat up on the bed. I blinked for a few moments.

The cat.
...They couldn't mean...

I froze for a moment.

"But she's been dead for ten years now." I whispered softly to myself before I looked up at the window which I lost her from. Tears soon began to spill from my eyes from the memory.

"I'm sorry,"

...Arizona...