MADAM GRASSHOPPER.

1774, NOVEMBER 28th, MONDAY 7:50 am.

Noche was frozen in time. The creature before her seemed so familiar. It even knew her name. She stared at the thing as tingles went up her left arm. Her glance fell to the limb as it glitched in and out of sight. There was no pain when it vanished completely. She blinked and the arm returned, but she couldn't feel it.

Somehow, it seemed fake.

The fingers of her right hand brushed against the numb limb – a wave of pins and needles shot across every inch of skin. Her gaze shot back up to the entity before her.

"What are you? A monster?"

"Perhaps," The grasshopper smiled. "I would be to anyone who threatened my girl."

There was a pregnant pause between the two of them.

"Are you scared?"

"No. I feel fuzzy," Noche said. "My mind feels so distant... Foggy and clouded."

"Well that's to be expected," the insect lady said. "Not every day you have your arm ripped off. I bet you're still recovering from the blood loss."

"Blood loss?" Noche slurred.

The grasshopper walked over and gently took Noche's hand like a child's. The insectoid was a full head taller than the blonde.

"It's ok, I'm right here," Grasshopper said.

Noche snapped her hand out of the lady's grip and shook her head.

"No... No, I just met you," Noche said. "I don't know why you seem so familiar, but I know we've just met."

"I'm familiar because you want me to be," Grasshopper said. "You want to be comforted."

Noche's eyes widened and she scowled at the thing. The world darkened a tad and a howling gale picked up. A bit of thunder crackled in the distance in tandem with her boiling anger.

"The world is reacting to you again," Grasshopper smiled. "You need to calm down. I understand you've had a pretty bad day, but don't let it define you."

"W-Why is your dress riddled with bullet holes?" The blonde stuttered.

"You know why," she said. "Deep down, you know why."

The landscape became fluid. It changed like a mixture of oil and water. Swirling into a typhoon filled with thunder and lightning. Noche clamped her eyes shut and, for some reason she couldn't explain, tears streamed down her face.

Overwhelming sadness slammed into her like a truck and she didn't know why. On cue, as if reacting to this mysterious sorrow, the world exploded into a torrent of rain. She screamed and the howl of the gale drowned out her wails.

"What is going on!" Noche shouted. "Why am I so overwhelmed!"

"You know why!" Grasshopper said. "You need to calm down!"

Noche wrapped both arms around her torso, but the left one glitched and vanished. Her legs buckled and she fell to her knees. Gravity seemed all over the place, as if she was being tugged in various random directions; it was dizzying.

It was almost like a feedback loop. Similar to placing two phones next to each other when both are on the same call. Noche's emotions feed into the chaos of the world around her. In return, her environment stressed her out further. A never-ending cycle of things getting worse.

The cacophony died.

Noche was wrapped in warmth. It was another overwhelming feeling, but this time it was one of joy. A feeling of safety and security, tinged with happiness. She opened her tear-stricken eyes to Grasshopper's embrace.

"It's ok. I'm right here," the woman muttered.

The world was brighter, the colors more vivid, and the cold gale had become a warm breeze. In a way, everything seemed softer. Noche blinked and took in the drastic change to the world around her.

"What happened?" She whispered.

"The world is reacting to your emotional state," Grasshopper said. "Until you've mastered this realm, you'll need to control yourself better."

Swirling shapes became the landscape of the forest once more. It was like watching water freeze into ice. Trees took on solid form from clouds of gas. Mushrooms erupted from the group in the span of a second. Everything changed scenery like something out of a dream.

"Almost forgot. I made a gift for you," Cherries said.

Noche's head snapped in the direction of the voice. There was a floating cloud of images like a video recording taken straight from the perspective of her eyes. She raised her fingers to the choker she currently wore as the memory played before her. Everything around the nimbus was bright, colorful, and warm.

"Love," she muttered. "It feels like love."

The ear-piercing sound of metal shattering made Noche's head spin to another cloud. In it she headbutted Hectare's knife – the blade had exploded. Her fingers rose to the scar over her right eyebrow as she watched the memory of her punching Hectare's face over and over again. The air around this nimbus was a grumbling storm ready to erupt.

"Rage," she whispered. "I can feel myself getting angrier."

A writhing blackness caught Noche's eye. She turned to a third cloud, one that froze all movement. A dozen decaying knees buckled under the immense weight of a bloated body. Crow feathers formed around the thing's neck. A big grinning maw full of jagged teeth emerged. Everything around this nimbus was dark, cold, and had gravity so intense it made Noche's legs buckle.

"Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope," she swatted the cloud away into a million fluffy pieces. "I am not reliving that nightmare."

"Fear?" Grasshopper said.

Noche didn't respond.

"Have you seen anyone else come through here?" She finally asked. "A little girl maybe? About four years old, wearing a red and white stripped shirt, has blonde hair and gold eyes like mine?"

"I think that girl is long gone," Grasshopper said.

Noche did a slight frown as her eyes narrowed.

"Why is this place so dark?"

"Why are you afraid to see the sun?"

The blonde shot a glare at the insectoid, but couldn't maintain direct eye contact.

"You could say it's always noche here," Grasshopper giggled.

"Dude... Really?" The blonde rolled her eyes and sighed. "Is this place even real?"

"As real as the imagination," Grasshopper said. "I mean, infinity exists, so this place has to fit somewhere in it."

Noche paused. "Am I asleep? Is this a dream?"

"It's similar. Dreams also love distractions. When dreaming the mind meander from one topic to another without finishing a single thought. This world is the same."

"Ok, what I'm hearing is this place is real and I'm not asleep."

"It certainly seems that way."

"Very helpful. Thanks."

"You're welcome," Grasshopper smiled.

Noche groaned.

"Oh dear. We best be leaving. Tar is consuming this world."

"What? What are you talking about?"

Grasshopper pointed beyond Noche to a flood of encroaching black. It seeped through the forest like spreading lava, only infinitely more dangerous. She took Noche's hand and lead them both away.

"Fucks going on?"

"You lost control of your corruption powers," the insect lady said. "So now it's spreading rampant here... Destroying everything."

"How did I lose control?"

"You overtaxed yourself fighting Creeps... And you can't accept that you've failed."

Noche yanked her arm free from Grasshopper.

"I didn't fail."

Acidic bile swelled in her throat as red hot daggers slid into her skull. The mental anguish of facing that possibility was far worse than any physical pain.

"I need more strength," she muttered. "If I was stronger, then everything would be alright."

Her left arm glitched in and out of sight.

"I didn't fail!" She shouted.

Noche's form changed as rapidly as her arm. For a brief instance, she went from female to male. With buzzed hair and a goatee. Then from human to crow. She cawed and if a bird could appear surprised, she did.

The blonde transformed into what she looked like as a four-year-old girl. Next, she became tall and slender with pointed ears like an elf. A second later she was short, stout, and hairy like a dwarf. Her skin turned green, she sprouted tusks and was massive like an orc.

Noche's shape shimmered as her skin became a combination of metal sheets, bolts, and lights. From a robot form she turned into something pale, ghastly, and with pointed teeth like a vampire. For the briefest moment, she became a being of pure energy. Then she was a gigantic dragon, a demon, an angel, a troll, a cyborg, a ghoul, a mutant, a fairy, an undead, a werewolf.

She changed form after form as if her body couldn't decide what her true appearance was. The only thing that stayed the same in each form was her scars.

"Make it stop!"

"I can't! Only you can!" Grasshopper shouted. "I shouldn't have mentioned your fight against creeps – it's making you doubt yourself and your body is reflecting that!"

Noche closed her three eyes, then one eye, then six eyes and focused on her she saw herself. A few seconds passed where her body kept shifting, then the turmoil died down. Noche opened two normal eyes to see her original, human form. She gasped for air.

As she drew in air a tree changed shape. It turned to stone as if petrified, melted into water, froze into metal, exploded as a rain of diamonds, then vanished into whisps of smoke.

"Why is everything here in a state of constant flux?"

"Because your imagination is too fluid right now. It's running wild," Grasshopper said. "You need to tighten up. Concentrate on how solid you and your environment are."

"I need to get out of this fucking place."

"To do that, you'll have to find baby Noche."

"Do you know where she went?"

"I might," Grasshopper hesitated. "But we have to leave. The tar is almost here."

A tree fell behind Noche. She turned to see most of the forest devoured by a lake of black. It grew larger and was encroaching towards them.

"What happens if it catches us?"

Grasshopper smiled, raised a finger to her neck, and dragged it across with a grin.