Petra's POV

"We made it. Finally," K said as the sight of the castle came into view. The rest of us felt too frozen to speak. I could barely feel my hands.

We came up to the castle from behind somehow, so we had to circle around to get inside. We didn't hesitate to scurry into the doors and get out of the cold.

"Well, I should go now," K said, "Hope you find what you're looking for."

"Hey," Lukas spoke, "M-maybe you could come with us? It's too cold t-to be out here for long, and m-maybe you'll—" he coughed, "get to see Cheshire again."

"No... no... I couldn't. I can fair just fine in extreme temperatures, and I don't want to bother you."

"I insist."

She grinned.

"Thank you," she said, sounding grateful, "I just don't want to trouble you, to feel obligated to take care of m—"

Suddenly, Magnolia appeared at the entrance.

"Oh, thank goodness you're back!" she exclaimed, "We thought that you died!"

"Uh... no," I said, "We're f-fine."

"Who's this?"

"This is K," Maya introduced, "She knows Cheshire and helped us g-get here."

"Come inside, please," Magnolia said, "Everyone was worried about you."

We stepped into the stone hallway as Magnolia shut the door behind us. The pleasurable feeling of warms immediately hit us.

Magnolia led us to the library while she and K talked. I didn't really want to talk to anyone at that moment; I was hurting too badly and my mind was fixed on what I was going to tell Ethro the next day. "Hey, Ethro, does it still count if I had the feather for a little while, but then had to give it up to save my friend?" That doesn't count. And I can't just waltz back over to Cheshire's castle and get it back. They don't even want me to leave a single little room upstairs. Maybe they had spares lying around the castle? But Ethro seemed like a pretty nice guy, I just hoped he'd understand.

The library had a relieving feeling of warmth when I entered. I sighed despite myself as I entered. The warm glow of a fire lit the room and everyone else was sitting around it, save for Aiden, who was probably still in his room.

"Hey!" Jesse greeted, standing up when she saw us walk in, "Good news! We got the horses back!"

"Yep," Sheldon said, "Good thing they don't have too good of a sense of direction without a rider."

"I thought horses were smart," Maya said.

"Not ours. Also the temperature probably had something to do with it. They stopped running after a little while."

"I guess that's a good thing about the cold, ha," Lukas said, "But, man, it feels good to be warm." He moved in closer to the fire.

"Hey, who'd you bring?" Dan asked.

"Dan, this is K," Magnolia said, "She helped them get back."

K smiled somewhat shyly.

"So you know your way around here?" Juniper asked, "Funny what I've never really seen you before."

"Well, guess now you know I'm here," K said, "I used to know Cheshire and maybe I could help you guys out."

"Awesome!" Darling said.

Looking around at everyone, I noticed that Melody was looking a little on edge. I walked over to talk to her.

Jesse's POV

"Jesse?" Melody asked, coming over to me, "Can I talk to you and Petra? Like, in private?" Petra was standing with her.

"Uh, sure," I said, "What's up?"

"Lukas too," she said, "It involves you three."

"Lukas," I said, turning to him. He was beginning to warm up near the fire, his hands folded near his face. "Come over here. Something's wrong."

He looked at me with a tinge of disappointment but walked over anyway.

"Come out in the hall," Melody said, her violet eyes filled with concern. I shrugged my shoulders as my friends and I exchanged glances. Then we followed her out of the room.

"Jesse," she began, "There's something wrong here. I just recently started feeling it, and the feeling hasn't gone away."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"It's this intuitive feeling I have; I think it's got something to do with how I used to be a phantom? I don't really know. But you need to watch out."

"Well, if you haven't already noticed," Petra said, then coughed, "I haven't really been at my best lately."

"I think you're just paranoid about Cheshire," I said, "He's got everything he needs to overrun all the worlds, and that's pretty scary."

"It's not that," Melody shook her head, "Something else. Something related to me. A couple things. Something wrong is happening. And I think it involves your group."

I stopped.

"And you're serious?" I asked.

"Of course!" she said, then cleared her throat to calm down, "I just wanted to tell you in private so I wouldn't scare anyone! But some bad things are out for you. I'll try to help as best as I can, but—"

"Wait, so we specifically are in danger, and you don't even know why?" Lukas asked.

"Yes, keep up," she said blankly, "I know I sound crazy right now, but the part of me that's connected to the Phantom realm says something is wrong. Being a human had almost completely severed the connection, but my genes haven't completely changed. It's vague, but just... brace yourselves."

...

That night Melody's words resonated in me as I got ready for bed. I shivered from the cold as I got under my blankets. I might have been tired, but my mind was nowhere near sleep.

Lukas's POV

It was the middle of the night when I felt myself drift awake. A rotten smell lingered around me. I opened my eyes, finding myself in a larger bed. Jesse and Petra were laying on either side of me. Confused, I lifted myself from the sheets.

"Jesse?" I whispered, "Petra? What are you doing--?"

I gasped in horror and almost vomited when I really noticed them. Blood was seeping all around them, staining the sheets red. Their faces looked beat up and mangled with chunks of their skin ripped apart, exposing their insides. I screamed and tore the sheets off, trying to scuttle off the bed. The rest of the room was pitch black, so I couldn't see where I was going. My heart slammed against my ribcage and my entire body shook.

In the near distance, the rim of light around an opening door appeared. I froze, my lungs surging. The door slowly creaked open, revealing a girl standing there.

"Oh, hi, Lukas," she said softly, "D-did I startle you?"

I was too dazed to answer her.

"Sorry about the bodies," she apologized, "I meant to get rid of those before you showed up." She smiled. "But you're here now."

"I-I-I—" was all I managed to get out.

"Never mind them," she said, "We can still have fun, can't we?" I gazed into her familiar orange eyes. A strand of teal hair dangled over her face.

"You're... you're the girl f-from the bathtub..." I stammered. She walked over to me, her eyes seeming to stay bright even in the dark. She looked disappointed.

"My true love... doesn't even know my name," she said sadly, "How about we change that?"

She reached over and yanked on the collar of my shirt, pulling me over to her. I could feel her soft breath on my face. I had to lean over Jesse's corpse to get close to her. I tried to pull away, but she held a firm grip and only managed to pull me closer.

"My name is Ombrexi," she breathed.

"You... you killed them!" I cried, struggling to pull away.

"They were distracting you. You can't have any other girls in your life, Lukas. Only me." She let go and heaved Jesse off the bed, then got on with me. She pressed her hands on my shoulders pinning me down.

"How about we just forget about them?" she said, leaning in closer to me, warmth radiating off her body. Her hand traveled down the front of my body as she slowly started to remove my jacket.

"Stop!" I yelled.

"But... Lukas," she said, "I... didn't feel anything at all... before you! But you fill me with the best thing I've ever felt... in forever..."

"Get away!" I whimpered as I tried to push her off me. I felt my jacket slip off my arms as I rolled off the bed. I landed on top of Jesse's body, sitting on the bottom.

"Ngh...!" I grunted, struggling to get away. I got to my feet and raced to the closest door. I yanked it open, which revealed the same bathroom that I had first encountered this girl in.

"Get over here!" called Ombrexi, "Why don't you love me?!"

Without answering, I scampered into the room and slammed the door behind me. I took a moment, my hand still on the doorknob, to collect my thoughts. Jesse and Petra were dead, and now this girl was trying to—

The sound of metal squeaking came from behind. I turned and saw that the bathtub had been filling with steamy water and bubbles, the faucet letting out its last few drops.

"Get in here," said someone behind me. Before I could look, a hand grabbed the back of my collar and pulled me backward into the tub. My legs slammed against the side of the tub as I splashed into the bubbles and water. My head was pressed under the water by Ombrexi, who was somehow already in the water. One hand was pressed down on my forehead, while the other was covering my mouth. I violently shook my head, straining to get a breath, but I was continuously pressed back underneath.

Ombrexi finally let me get a breath of air, but still kept me pinned down in the tub. I lifted my head to the surface and sucked in a breath of air, some water filling my lungs as well. I coughed vigorously and strained to breathe.

"I gave you a chance," she said, "You could have loved me."

I was shoved back under again. I tried with all my strength to push her hands off of me, but it was in vain.

She let me back up again.

"But you don't love me," she said. I was pushed back in. I let out a muffled scream, bubbles surging out of my mouth.

When she let me back up again, this time I tried to push my way out of the tub. She yanked on my ankle and pulled me back in. Water splashed outside the tub.

"But if I can't have you," she said, "No one can."

"What?" I asked in between coughs.

"It's time to die, Lukas," she said, "Then nobody can have you."

She slowly faded away into thin air, saying quietly,

"You had your chance."

The faucet came back on by itself, pouring a dark, red liquid in that replaced the clear water and bubbles. It swirled around in the clearness and circled around me. The lights started going nuts, turning off for a few seconds, then flickering back on, then off again.

Realizing I was sitting in a tub of blood, I leaped out of the tub as fast as I could. I landed on the hard ground, blood dripping off my soaked clothes. The lights flickered on again, and with every time they came back on, Ombrexi appeared in the room, her form turning more and more sickening, with her hair thinning out and her movements becoming unnatural. Her eyes were rimmed with the red fluid and her mouth filled with razors for teeth. She giggled maniacally, then vanished.

"NO!" I yelled, the scream tearing through me. I could feel her presence creeping closer to me.

The room finally went pitch black. The lights stopped working.

I could hear breathing.

"Lukas..." she whispered. My heart pounded.

Metal scraped something in the distance, making a shing sound. I shakily tried to get up, but somehow all my strength had been drained out of me. I laid there on the ground helplessly, just trying to breathe straight.

Cold hands grasped me on the back and creeped up to my shoulders. A chill traveled down my spine.

"Goodbye," Ombrexi breathed, gripping a hand around my neck. I gagged.

A sharp pain exploded into the back of my neck. I gasped, but it felt restrained like something was strangling me. My eyes began to weakly flutter, and I tried my best to stay awake.

My cheek hit the cold floor. 

---

Hey... so Ombrexi had a formal introduction. (yaay)

I got really into this one. Ombrexi is just a fun little yandere. Anyway, thanks for stopping by!