Jesse's POV

Shortly after Lukas had passed out, I had brought him over onto the couch and laid him down. He acted half-awake with fluttering eyelids and short breaths. He would moan slightly as sweat collected on his forehead.

"Lukas?" I asked, gently shaking him gently, "Lu-kas?"

His eyes slowly opened with a look of panic, but that turned into relief once he saw me.

"Jesse," he said, "that... that was awful!"

"What? What happened?" I asked urgently.

"Something changed about the nightmares," he began, "It's... uh... it's started to get kind of fuzzy, but it was like, all the nightmares compiled into one bad dream. Nightmelody, she's gotten pretty bad, Jesse."

"Oh, no. And we're going to have to deal with it tonight, aren't we?" I said.

"All I know for sure is that there's something different going on here."

Going to sleep that night was hard- well, harder than usual. What Lukas had said earlier still lingered on my mind as I tried to fall asleep. I couldn't stay awake forever, though. Eventually, though, sleep won and I was out.

I fell into a dark room where I couldn't see a single thing. Already I was nervous. I made a small "oof" noise when my chest hit the floor.

"Jesse?" Lukas whispered, "You there?"

"Yeah," I said, "Do you know what's going on?"

"No, I just got here."

I saw the outline of a doorway in the distance, which suddenly opened, revealing the silhouette of the person standing there. I held my breath.

Once the light illuminated her face, though, I could tell who it was.

"Petra!" I exclaimed as I ran over and scooped her into a hug.

"Hey, Jesse," she said as she hugged me back, but then quickly pulled away.

"Petra!" Lukas exclaimed happily, "I thought you were—"

"We don't have much time," she said with a serious tone, "Run."

I heard something start to collapse around me as Petra raced outside. I followed quickly behind, but stopped and held my mouth open when I saw what was around me.

I saw everywhere was comprised of previous nightmares; some of them I recognized, while others most likely belonged to my friends. I would have looked longer unless Lukas hadn't pushed me from behind, screaming. I glanced back and saw the room bursting into flames and quickly decomposing. I yelled as I jumped out after Petra, only falling into what felt endless.

Petra, Lukas, and I were falling, the air around us seeming to come alive and envelop us, wrapping around our bodies and necks trying to choke us. I grabbed my neck and gagged. I could feel blood leaving my head. Once I had reached the point where I couldn't feel the falling anymore, we hit the ground hard. It felt like it was moving, and when I looked around I saw thousands of tiny silverfish-like bugs crawling around the floor and up my pant leg.

"Ah! Ew! Get it off! Get it off!" I screamed as I tried to shake them off.

"Come on!" Petra said as she again pulled me and Lukas along.

She ran us along several platforms containing something more awful than the last.

"Petra!" I yelled, "What are you— "

"Just hold on!" she said as she continued running. Everything kept getting darker the lower we got and the wind chilled my arms in a way that stung them.

"Is... this what happened to you when you disappeared??" Lukas asked.

"Yeah!" she responded, "Look out!"

A giant rock the size of a ghast came hurling at us. We jumped out of its way as it exploded the platform that we were on.

We landed in another room, but this one had cut out windows and an entryway.

"Aiden! Maya!" I exclaimed as I saw them. I picked myself up and raced over to give them both a hug.

"Jesse," Maya said sincerely, "I'm so relieved to see you."

"We've been here for over a day," Aiden said, "Nighmelody's gotten really bad."

"You all completely disappeared in waking life," Lukas said, "Jesse, that means we must be gone too!"

"Wait a minute," I said, "Are we even dreaming now?"

I put my hand to my nose to check. In a dream, I would have been able to breathe doing that, but now, it worked perfectly fine.

"Oh, no."

"I know you're in there!" laughed Nightmelody's booming voice. The sound vibrated the whole building.

"Get down!" yelled Aiden with large eyes. He Maya, and Petra all jumped to the ground and covered their heads. Lukas and I followed.

When I looked back up, the building that was around us was nowhere in sight. The sky was pink, and we were inside what looked like a huge arena, Nightmelody in the middle, but she was different. Instead of being human sized, she was much, much larger, towering over the walls of the arena with what looked like lavender colored spider legs emerging from her. Her dress had gone from paid blue to black with a faint smearing of blood on it. Her eyes were solid yellow and glowing and her teeth were replaced by fangs.

"Welcome to the show!" she sang with a laugh.

"Erin?!" exclaimed Lukas, his voice cracking slightly. Flying beside Nightmelody were two girls, one I recognized as Eva the Fire Princess, the other had on a flowing white dress with a blue sash and pink hair. Transparent blue wings came from her back and she was shooting the same colored orbs from her hands at Nightmelody, who deflected them with ease. She turned her head when she heard her name, revealing that the sclera of her eyes was blue.

"Lukas! I-I'll explain later!" she yelled right before receiving a blow from Nighmelody's hand.

"That's cute, but there won't be a later, sis!" Nightmelody sang.

"Don't call me 'sis!'" Erin yelled from the ground as she flew back up to keep fighting. Eva noticed our presence and flew down to us.

"Friends!" she exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"We—" I began.

"I brought them, don't worry," sang Nightmelody.

"Why would you do that?!" yelled Erin, "They can't fight! They don't have powers or anything!"

"I know!" sang Nightmelody before laughing.

Eva looked back at us. Lowering her head and closing her eyes, she said,

"I will grant you pieces of my power. It will make you strong!"

An energy came out of her and surrounded us, bringing us off the ground. I was slowly lifted back down, but I felt different.

"Wow, really dumb move on your part," Nightmelody teased, "Now I will destroy you all easily!"

"Let us fight! Jump in the air!" Eva exclaimed as she returned to her battle.

Petra's POV

I jumped, but stayed suspended in the air. I forced myself upward, and my body obeyed.

It was all of us up against Nightmelody. We fired our shots, but she would only absorb them and fire them back at us; it was impossible. I would hold out my hands and a shot of my energy would shoot out, the force pushing my body backward a little.

My friends used their power sparingly, making sure to only shoot when she was in a venerable spot, but I went full-force. Screaming, a shot a spray of fire at her as I raced in a big circle around her. The wind blew my red hair behind my shoulders as I continued to fly.

"LOOK OUT!" Jesse screamed. I whipped my head around at her to see what she meant, but Nightmelody forced me to the ground.

"Stupid kid," she sang with a smile. My body was pinned down as she held out her hands to me, while the rest of her legs deflected the others' attacks. I screamed as I felt the power being ripped out of me and going into her. Her eyes kept getting more and more bright and her smile widened. All the power was out of me when she turned back the others, leaving me lying, coughing, on my back. My eyes glazed over to the side and my eyelids closed.

"Petra!" someone yelled. I opened my eyes and saw Eva coming toward me with worry in her eyes.

"I—she—" I began before bursting out coughing again.

"Look, shhh, shhh, it's gonna be fine," she said, coming over to me and propping me up in her arms.

"I will give you the rest of my power," she said, "It will all be restored in you, and then we might have a chance."

"But... will you... be okay?" I asked, barely keeping my eyes open. She paused and shook her head.

"No. I will turn back into the ashes from which I came."

"What? No, I can't let you do that for me!" I said, sitting up more.

"It's our only chance! It's for the greater good!" Eva protested.

"I won't let you! No!" 

"This is not your decision to make, Petra."

I was quiet, unsure of what to say. She lowered her head and held out her arms the same way she did before and blasted into me a power that filled me with energy and raised me up higher into the air. I saw down below Eva's body slowly denigrating.

"NO! STOP!" I shouted. She looked up at me with weak eyes and a smile.

"Go fight. From now on, you are the new Fire Princess!"

With that, her body completely turned into ash and blew away. Sparks came from all around me and a light surrounded me. The crown Eva had previously worn was placed onto my own head as the light spiraled away. I was the new Fire Princess, now I had to fight.

"Petra?!" someone shouted behind me. I turned and saw Aiden, looking astonished, "You look... whoa..."

I looked down at myself and for the first time noticed that I was in Eva's red and orange dress.

"Uh, thanks," I said.

"Aww, so much for love, Eva!" Nightmelody chimed, "You always die at the end!" She laughed as she took a swing at me and Aiden. Aiden was the only one that got knocked to the ground, I didn't feel a thing.

She had all my friends and Erin knocked onto the ground screaming as she pulled the magic out of them.

"This was all just way too easy!" she teased, "This fight wasn't long enough to be any fun at all!" The trail of magic ended as she consumed the last of it, leaving everyone laying vulnerably on the ground. She smiled as she started inching toward them.

"I don't think so!" I yelled.

She heard me and turned around, her eyes almost blinding to look at now.

"Really?" she asked, "You think that you? Can defeat me?"

"Melody! STOP!" Jesse yelled desperately from below. It caught her attention and she turned around to her.

"How about we... talk about this?" she asked.

Jesse... I thought, Why?

"Oh, you pathetic fool," Nightmelody said, "You really think that you can talk your way out of this?" She chuckled. "The real world doesn't work like that, Jesse."

"That's... it!" Erin yelled. She flew up to eye-level with Nightmelody and began to attack, but Nightmelody simply swatted her away like a fly. Erin crashed outside of the arena.

 Aiden's POV

I saw Petra up in the sky, the only chance we had left. She was flying beside Nightmelody, out of view. I saw her getting ready to attack, Nightmelody still oblivious. I saw the rage building up on her face as her hands begin to catch fire.

She flew over in front of Nightmelody screaming as she shot the fire out of her hands. Nightmelody blocked her attack, but Petra continued on with all her might. Petra was winning. Nightmelody began to back up. Petra screamed louder. The fire was beginning to hurt Nightmelody. Petra lurched forward and shot out more fire as her forehead dripped with sweat. Nightmelody screamed as the fire began to burn her skin. Petra had the fight in the bag now.

Come on, come on! I pleaded. 

The fire quickly spread and Petra was gasping for air now. Her power was almost out, but she would soon win the battle.

Nightmelody's body was completely on fire now, burning to a crisp. The stream of heat coming out of Petra came to a stop. She took in a gasp for air, but then fluttered down to the ground.