~AB dimension~

The first thing Zhaika noticed was...well...nothing. She didn't know what she had expected — what would a dimension filled with Demons look like? Come to think of it, what even were Demons, exactly? — but what greeted her was utter blackness, frigid cold, and no sense of gravity or direction whatsoever.

At least she could breathe, so there seemed to be some sort of air.

Shivering, she pulled her arms into her shirt sleeves, wishing she hadn't dropped her cloak. She pulled her knees in and felt the air brush past her as if she'd started spinning from the movement, throwing her sense of balance further off than it already was.

What had she been thinking? Allium had revealed himself as a Demon, told her the Demons wanted to take over her Kingdom, and she'd still gone and opened the Gates for him. She should have known not to trust him. She should have known it was futile.

And even if everything had gone as planned...maybe she shouldn't have chosen Caesia. Maybe she should have put her people first — the very people whose standards were probably what made her think she had a duty to Caesia in the first place.

It was just a little late to rethink that now.

A sound tickled her consciousness. She focused on it, if only to distract herself from her whirling thoughts and physical discomfort. As she continued moving, the sound gradually grew into several distinct voices.

"If Allium keeps making progress as slowly as he is, the Gates won't be open in any of our lifetimes," someone grumbled. "At least one more person should be able to get through by now. Have they checked?"

"They're going to check this evening, like usual," someone else snapped. "And that's no way to speak of your Crown Prince!"

"Well, the Crown Prince isn't here to hear it. Anyway, he's not going to be in line for the throne much longer, with the Princess' following growing like it is."

"Of course her following is growing! She's back here spreading gossip while Allium is actually out there in the Human dimension, risking his life for our freedom."

"Hold on," the first voice said, quieter. "Is there someone nearby?"

Zhaika went rigid, but the air kept brushing past her to indicate that she was moving.

There was a moment of quiet. "Not sure. They aren't making any noise, but I do sense someone coming over."

"Hello?" the first called loudly. "Did you need us for something?" It sounded increasingly closer.

Zhaika squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't know how they could sense her, or if they could tell she wasn't a Demon — if that was what they were. But she knew she didn't want to get discovered.

"Think it could be one of Princess Larkspur's people?" one of them whispered — the one who had been defending Prince Allium before.

"Now you're accusing her of sending spies out?"

"Is that what I said, or are you putting words in my mouth?" they demanded, volume rising again.

Zhaika didn't even know what they were talking about, and she already wanted to roll her eyes. At least it sounded like Prince Allium was losing popularity while away. I hope he loses popularity until they leave him to waste away in a hole.

She pulled her legs tighter into her chest, as if that would make her less noticeable. Her stomach was really starting to swim from slowly spinning in pitch darkness.

Something hit her shoulder with a painfully loud thump. She stifled a yelp of surprise, ducking her head despite not knowing what she'd hit or where anything else might be.

"Hello?" one of the voices asked again. It was getting frighteningly close.

Without prompting, Zhaika's hand jerked against the inside of her shirt.

Anxiety spiked through her, but her heart rate and breathing stayed perfectly steady.

Her hand found her sleeve and slid out into the cold. The other arm followed. Both hands reached down, finding the bottom of the shirt and pulling it into place. She tried to stop the movement, but her muscles didn't even twitch in the direction she wanted them to.

Her legs stretched out, slowing down her spinning, and then one hand shot out and grasped a piece of cold metal.

What. in the Gods' names. is going. on?

"Let's go check it out," one of the people from before suggested, somewhere to her right. "I definitely sense someone here."

Zhaika felt pressure beneath the balls of her feet for a second, before her ankles flexed and pushed her in a new direction as her fingers released the metal. Her stomach churned again at the change in direction, but still, her heart refused to respond to the anxiety in her head.

So this was what possession felt like. She hated it even more than she might have expected.

The next thing her hand closed around was warm and slightly soft; after a moment, she realized it felt like a limp human wrist. She tried to recoil, but of course, her fingers only secured tighter, pulling what was probably an unconscious body up toward her with an uncomfortably loud sliding noise.

"You hear that, right?"

"Yeah, you're not crazy. At least, not this particular time."

"Huh."

Zhaika's arm secured around the body's waist. Long hair floated into her mouth until her face contorted and spit it out. A second later, her feet hit another surface. This time, her knees bent down with the impact, then pushed hard, springing her out into the nothingness. She desperately tried to look up and see where she was heading, but her eyelids were stuck in a half-closed position, as if whoever had control over her body had forgotten her eyes were even there.

There was a quiet rustle somewhere behind her, followed by earsplitting silence.

They're chasing me.

She thought the Demon possessing her probably had little chance of outrunning the others while carrying an unconscious body almost her size, gravity or no.

Oh, Gods, that's the Demon's body, isn't it?

Panicking again, she focused all her willpower into opening her fingers. If she could just loosen the Demon's grip on its body enough to drop it, maybe it would go back to it and she would have full control again. But the only thing that happened was that her open hand reached forward and grabbed a bar she hadn't even known was there, swinging her — and the body — around in a different direction.

There was nothing but darkness, soft hair in her face, and still air passing by far too slowly if she was being followed — assuming the Demon that was obviously possessing her would be any friendlier than the ones chasing her.

At least with the movement, her body was starting to heat up a bit.

Pulling the Demon's limp form tighter to her chest, Zhaika's body tucked its knees, allowing it to rotate backward so that she was traveling feet-first. Her mind took a sickening second to reorient, trying to put her feet in some sort of 'down' direction.

Her empty hand gripped a thin metal ledge and guided her downward until her feet slipped between two bars, holding them secure. One finger flicked into some sort of button, before her head ducked down, only adding to the feeling of claustrophobia the pressing darkness already gave her.

A prickling sensation spread across her skin — the vague sense that something was closing around her.

The soft ding of metal above her would have been enough to make her jump, if she could.

After a few long seconds of silence, her arms slackened, letting the body float away from her. It rustled. Hair brushed Zhaika's neck one more time before being swept away.

Zhaika's heart rate doubled. Her lungs constricted. Her hands started to shake.

"I'm Bluebell," a voice whispered right in front of her. "I'm the Demon that just possessed you."