"What?" Mickie asked, confusion rippling across her face as she finally caught up with Lexie. "What did you say?"

Lexie shook her head. "I was not talking to you."

"Then who were you talking to? And how come Pierce didn't see you when you were standing right there? Also, I tried calling your phone, and you didn't answer. What's going on?"

Lexie shook her head. She didn't have any answers for Mickie's questions. And the longer she spent around the girl, the more uncomfortable she became.

"I do not have time for you," Lexie said. As she passed Mickie, she overheard her mutter, "What else is new?"

The words pricked at her deep inside, but she kept going.

Lexie saw Ryn and Little Fae after she turned into the other side of the hall. Ryn sighed in relief.

"I had tried to follow you but didn't see where you'd gone again," she said. "It appears this maze is playing even more tricks on us."

"The maze isn't the place," Lexie repeated her recent discovery. "It's the people."

"What does that mean?"

"I believe there are four different types of people inhabiting this space. One, the players. Those are you, me, the V'Sala, and Little Fae."

"Her name is Zu-Lo-Ya, just in case you wanted to know."

"I don't." 'Little Fae' was a sufficient enough label for the silent interloper whom Lexie didn't like to look at for too long. "After the players, there is a second group who can see us. Well, so far, they can only see me, but I assume that some may also see you, should you interact with them. This group also affects the third group, who are the loopers. They are basically people who are stuck repeating the same motions until they interact with the second group, whom I shall call the activators."

"That is fascinating." Ryn's eyes shone with interest. "It reminds me of a play I once saw at–"

"The final group," Lexie said. "Are the miscellaneous. They are individuals who seemingly do not affect the maze itself. They are there merely to distract us and give the illusion of continuity. They go about their daily activities and go from room to room, but their actions are meaningless. That is to say, I think the majority of people here are dead ends."

"I see," Ryn nodded slowly. "And the activators are the right paths."

"Yes. But there's a trick. We have to interact with the right people in the right order, and that will lead us to the way out. We use the loopers to know if the order is right. For example, I interacted with Mickie before Tate, and I wasn't supposed to do that. I was supposed to wait in the classroom for Tate's arrival, and only after he stormed off was I supposed to talk to Mickie." Lexie figured she was supposed to bump into Mickie on the way while chasing after Tate, and the fountain boy was then supposed to stop drinking water and smirk at Mickie.

Such an insignificant-seeming detail, but the fact that his loop had finally broken meant that the story was then in the right order.

"We need to find all the loopers and all the activators and interact with them in the right order," Lexie decided.

"That is smart," Ryn said. "But we often lose each other. Why is that?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe there is another role you and the V'Sala are supposed to play separately from me. Speaking of which, where is the V'sala?"

Ryn gave her a one-shouldered shrug.

Lexie sighed. "He might be causing problems. Find him, and any other loopers. Also, see if you can find anything that might give us a clue into the secrets of this level. In the meantime, I will finish my conversation with Mickie. I believe she will lead me to the third piece of the maze, the same way Tate led me to her."

Ryn nodded and began in the opposite direction. Lexie went back toward Mickie, but the idea of talking to the girl for a long time made her feel unsettled.

Mickie was still standing in the same spot, but it wasn't like she was stuck there. She simply looked trapped in her own thoughts, staring straight ahead.

Her face was pale as Lexie approached her.

Lexie felt awkward and said, "Hello."

Mickie turned to her, and there was none of the joviality. Instead, there was a sinking dread in her face.

"You're a ghost, aren't you?" she whispered. "That's why no one else can see you but me."

Lexie hesitated. She was not a ghost, merely an Eldritch, but she didn't want to tell Mickie about that. Even though the lie made her uncomfortable, she nodded.

Mickie gaped, slapping her hand over her mouth.

"Oh my God, I can't believe it. My best friend is a…" She couldn't say the last word, and she asked in a low tone once more, "How did you die?"

"I don't know exactly," Lexie admitted, and luckily, there was enough honesty in her words that she didn't feel a visceral discomfort. "I was hoping you could help me find out."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure how I got here. I need to leave this place and go somewhere else." Lexie figured she should play along with the ghost story if that was where the maze was leading her. She could maybe find her way out through that. "I have to find my body."

Mickie continued staring at Lexie, then she shook her head. "I must be losing my mind."

"You are not."

"No, I am." She shut her eyes, taking deep breaths and pinching her inner arm. "This is a dream, and I'm going to wake up any second. There's no way my best friend is dead, and I can somehow see her ghost. This is some super freaky shit."

Mickie kept rambling to herself, and Lexie stared at her. She is in denial. Lexie knew what that was, and could almost remember what it felt like.

This whole level was awakening things in her that she didn't want awakened. She needed to solve it and get out as soon as possible, before something bad happened.

She felt like there was an invisible clock ticking somewhere. If she didn't solve the level in time, they would go back to the beginning.

Hopefully, the solution would take her right into the Other.

Not likely, Lexie thought, but it was nice to hope.

"Why are you just standing there?" Mickie asked.

"What am I supposed to be doing?"

"I dunno," Mickie shrugged. "I thought you would look more upset at being dead."

"Death is a natural part of life," Lexie said. Except for Eldritch. They did not die. They only got denatured. Which was a kind of death.

Mickie frowned. "Why do you sound like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like….not like yourself."

Lexie didn't understand what Mickie said like that, but apparently, there was someone who did.

"That's because she's not Lexie." Tate's voice was grave and suspicious as he emerged from the teacher's offices. He held a fire extinguisher in his hand and glared at her. "She's a demon."

"What?"

"That is not the real Lexie. It's a demon who is using her likeness to torment us."

Mickie glanced between Tate and Lexie. "Wait, you can see her?"

Tate nodded. His face tensed.

"How do you know she's a demon?"

"Because they always are."

Lexie was a tad offended by that. Sure, she was technically a demon, but it felt rude for him to point it out in such a way.

Plus, he was holding weapons which were clearly meant to threaten her.. Excitement bubbled in her blood. Was he going to fight her? If he came after her, then she was given free rein to attack him…wasn't she?

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

She thought about whether or not one of her fireballs would hurt him. She was so tempted to try.

Then again, how did he know she had fire powers? He'd grabbed an extinguisher, which meant that he was expecting her to torch him.

Was it a coincidence, or did he know what she was?

Leixe frowned. Her curiosity distracted her from her bloodlust.

Tate had said, 'Not again.' What did he mean by that?

"Has this happened to you before?" she asked him.

"Don't speak to me, Demon. We have to get out of here." The last part was said to Mickie, who looked a little shell-shocked.

"Is all this real?" she asked in a low tone.

"I'm not sure. Let's just leave and worry about the rest later."

"I agree, but the door is locked," Lexie said, but once again, Tate ignored her.

But Mickie wasn't willing to leave with him. Instead, she faced Lexie and asked, "Are you really my best friend or are you something else?"

"I am Lexie," Lexie answered simply.

"Lexie wouldn't have responded like that," she said. "Tell me something only she would know."

Lexie searched through her memories. She had to probe deep to recall anything about Mickie, but after a few seconds of silence, the information dropped into her mind casually.

"October 2nd, 2016."

Mickie gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "You remember?"

Lexie nodded.

"Remember what?" Tate asked.

"That was the day we had our first big fight," Mickie said. "We didn't speak to each other for three whole weeks after that, and that's the longest we've ever gone without talking. So we marked that day as our fightaversary and we celebrate it every year to remind ourselves not to fight like that again."

Tate raised an eyebrow. "That is the strangest thing I've ever heard."

"That's because you don't have friends," Mickie shot back smoothly before she gave Lexie a soft look that made her uncomfortable. "She's Lexie. A demon wouldn't know that, would they?"

"They might."

"How do you even know all this stuff about demons?" Mickie asked.

"That's not your business," Tate said, and Mickie gave him an annoyed look. Lexie was also annoyed. She, too, wanted the answer to how Tate knew so much as well.

Why is he always like this? It seemed like every Tate in every realm was a secretive little prick that didn't share information, even if it would make things easier for him.

"Call her brother and ask about her whereabouts," Tate said. "Then maybe you'll know if this is the real Lexie or not."

"He'll be in school right now."

"No, he got suspended for fighting."

"Okay, again, how do you know that? I didn't even know that."

Tate sighed. "Just call him."

Lexie stayed where she was as Mickie made the call. She also wanted to know if she was the real Lexie. It was all getting confusing, but she tried to keep the story straight in her head.

I am either a ghost of Lexie or a demon. The phone call will decide which.

At the end of the confusion would lie the truth, and beyond that…

Well, they would see.

Once again, faced with either the past or the present.

The thought drifted through Lexie's head.

It occurred to Lexie that she had said Yasycht was a being who also travelled through both the past and present. Did that confuse him like it did Lexie?

Did the confusion stop when he was confined to one realm?

What realm had the Fae given him? Was it a given dimension that he would rule? She had to find Ryn and ask her, but she waited for Logan's answer.

"He's not answering the phone, so I texted him," Mickie said. "We'll wait for him to text me back." She peeked at Lexie, wavering between doubt and grief. "If she's really a demon, shouldn't we warn the school?"

"I tried. Mr. Norris acted like I wasn't even saying anything. He just brushed me off and then went back to what he was doing."

"Fifth period is supposed to have started already," Mickie said. "Yet the hallways are still crowded. Yeah, this can't be real. This has to be some hyper-realistic fever dream."

As they talked, Lexie formulated a new theory. The activators might be real people taken from other Earth dimensions, while everything else in the space was essentially a prop.

Were they players, too?

"How did you get here?" Lexie asked.

"What do you mean?"

"If this place is not real, then you must have accessed it somehow. Is it through magic?"

"Magic?" Mickie scrunched her face.

"Are you dreaming?"

Mickie shook her head. "I would have woken up by now."

However, the dream theory took hold, and Lexie continued to think about it.

Yasycht was locked in the beyond, supposedly guarded by Neqal. The Fae would not have locked him up without adequate security, so he would need a clever way to get out.

What if he was doing it through dreams?

Naem was a dream meister who regularly travelled through dreams.

Did Neqal have the same skill, too? Was that how they were getting Yasycht to break the bonds, letting him access different dimensions through dreams?

Well, Naem had implied it was possible, though difficult. If only Lexie had learned dream magic when she had the chance.

She touched her neck, the space where she'd hung the necklace Naem had given her. It was gone. Pain lanced through her.

Her head hurt. Too much thinking.

Okay, so her theory so far was that this test had pulled people from other dimensions through some means, possibly dreams. But she and Ryn had entered through the dungeon heart. However, Ryn might not be a player because everything so far had been affected only by Lexie. Or Ryn might have another role they hadn't discovered yet.

Right now, Lexie wanted to use the Fae to observe patterns behind the game.

Mickie's phone buzzed, and she said, "Logan texted me back."

"And what did he say?"

"He said Lexie's asleep."

"Tell him to wake her up."

Mickie nodded and did just that.

"If he can't, tell him to get down here right now. I want to know if he can see her."

Good instincts, Tate. Lexie also wanted to know the same thing: if Logan was an activator.

"He said she's not waking up," Mickie said, her voice a tad panicked. "I told him to get over here, that we might know what's wrong with her, and he's on his way." She looked up again at Lexie, and the devastation in her eyes made Lexie uncomfortable.

Lexie turned around and left.

"Where are you going?" Mickie called, but Lexie ignored her. She didn't like the emotions the girl triggered. While they were waiting, she decided to see how many people could see her. She wandered into classroom after classroom, causing a ruckus by screaming her head off, trying to see if they would stop what they're doing to pay attention to her.

No one did. She kept going around the hall until she ran into Ryn, and she found her with Little Fae and V'Sala.

"You found him," Lexie said.

"I did. We also found four more loopers. Do we come with you now?"

"Not yet. I don't want them to see you. The two humans are very concerned that I'm a demon."

"You are a demon," the V'Sala said

"Eldritch," Ryn corrected.

"Yes, but I don't want them to know. Can Yasycht pull out souls using dreams?"

"Not without access to the dream realm."

"But he has access to all the realms through doors, doesn't he? Isn't that what you said?"

"Technically, yes, but the dream realm's magic is attributed to another Great Old One, Nabrycht. It was under the jurisdiction of Nabrycht and his spawns."

"Who are his spawns?"

"Lord Naem is one." The V'Sala answered.

Of course. So Naem also had to be behind this. Had he been plotting with Yasycht this whole time?

Or was it his brother? Speaking of which, how exactly were they related?

"How are Neqal and Naem related?" Lexie asked, and the V'Sala flinched.

Lexie remembered what Naem said about Neqal and names. Hmm. Could she call Neqal to her by saying his name enough times? She would try it after they were out of this test.

Maybe he would lead her right to Naem.

"They are brothers," V'Sala answered.

"So he is also Nabrycht's spawn?"

The V'Sala hesitated and then nodded.

"Why did you hesitate?" Lexie asked.

"His heritage is more muddled and complex than Lord Naem's..."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure that is important right now. We have learned something else," Ryn said. "The separation technique. I explored it with the V'Sala."

"What about it?"

"It's the corners," Ryn said. "Every time the maze wants to keep us apart, we get separated once we're at a corner and transported to different parts of this hallway. It cannot separate us if there is no corner, or if we do not move through a doorway."

Lexie thought back to when Ryn had first disappeared. It had happened right as they walked underneath the hallway arch, which she supposed acted like a kind of open doorway. Lexie had looked back, and they weren't behind her. Same with Tate moving through the doorway, and she no longer had any idea where he went.

"Transitions," Lexie said. "Doorways. Corners. They work as transitions from one place to another. That's where he lies. It's how he controls this realm. It's why the door is locked." Lexie glanced back at the front door.

The door must remain without a key.

So none unlock what none should see.

It became clearer in Lexie's mind. The door had no key. She was simply supposed to solve the puzzle in this level, and she would be allowed to move forward. She was not supposed to go out through the doors.

Was that the same with every test? There was no door in the first test, but that had been corrupted by the Old One, who had likely made the test different than what it was supposed to be.

Or perhaps it wasn't a test from the dungeon at all, and the Old One had acted on its own.

But maybe all the other tests had doors too.

What happened if she somehow managed to open the doors?

If Lexie solved the puzzle, the dungeon heart would give her a way out.

But if she found a way out herself...

What would happen then?

Lexie slowly walked to one of the doors of the classroom and stood right at the doorway. She stood there for a long time, closing her eyes, meditating.

That's when she felt it. A buzz underneath her skin. In her mind.

And then in her inventory.

I am a genius, she thought smugly, flooded with exquisite light.

She opened her inventory, saw that the buzzing was coming from a device she almost didn't recognize.

It was a cell phone. Her Earth 2 cellphone.

She frowned and opened it up.

80 missed calls. 515 messages.

What?

"Logan!" Lexie heard Tate say. "Logan, wait, we don't know what she is yet."

Lexie spun around, and right as she did, she saw her brother turn the corner.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.