(Astrid's P.O.V.)

Ouch. I have 5 words for you. I feel so frickin' sore.

I feel weak, drained, bloody (don't ask), dead. Just like first time in the game, I feel very much dead even though I know I can't die. I just feel dead, assuming I know what that feeling is.

Whenever I try to open my eyes, it's as though this external force is literally pushing them back closed. It takes about 75% of my energy to do just that. And, try again and again. In the end, I always lull myself to sleep with the sound of absolute nothingness ringing in my ears.

Well, guess what? Now is different! I can actually open my eyes with only 50% of my energy! It takes some energy to keep 'em open, but I'll live. 'Cuz seriously, I'm starving. My eyelids weighed 1000 pounds. Heck, it sucked. So much. My vision was really, really blurry. White spots danced here and there, everywhere. My head was throbbing, my muscles were aching. This was the best.

And it just had to get better didn't it?

~~~

Something-wait no, I don't even know what it is anymore landed square on my stomach., making me wince in pain. As soon as that thing got off me, I lurched forward, attempting to reduce the soreness. What the heck was that!?

Talk about mood swings, my glare softened and a goofy smile was on my face. The pain was still there, harsh as ever, but in front of me was the most adorable puppy I have ever seen. It was a black, gray and white Shih Tzu with warm, brown eyes and incredibly soft fur.

"I see you've met...uhh...whatever its name is." Kathrine said, popping out of the door.
"Yep! Name...umm...Oreo?" I suggested.
"It's yours, so Oreo it is!" Kathrine declared. "This is Misa my cat." she introduced, showing me a tiny black kitten.
"Heck no, you kept it?"
"Yep."
"And the dog?"
"Found it wherever. Thought you might like it, so I attempted to take it with me. I took forever. You know how I am with dogs..." she complained.
"That's it, whole story. Now."

She sighed.
"Okay...well, you see, Iwalkedallthewaytpthestoreearlierandthislittletroublemakerattackedme."
"Again?"
"I went to the store, and this little troublemaker attacked me. I shooed it away, but then, it came back trailing in my purchases..." she admitted.
"Which was?"
"Call this magic or coincidence, Oreo. I was in desperate need of chocolate."

My eyes twinkled in delight, I gladly hopped off the bed and gently picked up Oreo. "Who's a good girl? Now, Oreo. Let's play!" I cooed. I was too overly excited about this. Only explanation. "Calm down now Astrid! Today, we gotta learn to bear with cat and the dog. You hate cats, I hate dogs. We learn. Today." Kathrine said. Yay. A day with a cat. What fun...

I shook away my doubts (there were a lot of them), and with the most enthusiasm as possible, I said "Nya!"

Kathrine facepalmed. "Let's get to it!"

~~~

"Gah!" Kathrine complained as she very discreetly walked towards Oreo. "I swear, I need a protection charm to even go near that thing!" I laughed. I've succeeded at sort of touching Misa the cat, so now, it's Kathrine's turn to do it.

I made Oreo walk to Kathrine's let out hand.
"Nya!" Kathrine dodged.
"You're hopeless."
"Am not!"
"Are too!" I giggled.
"Gah! What the heck!? You could've told me!" she glared. Sneaky little Oreo cuddled into Kathrine's foot when she was too busy getting mad.
I decided to start stirring up her anger. "It was entertaining. Oh wait, very entertaining to watch."
"Y-you hopeless so-called best friend of mine! You suck. Very lazy, annoying and sarcastic."
"But you befriended me anyways."
"You suck!"
"And I'm well aware of that,"
"Ughh! You just...suck!"
"And so?" I asked with a fake sweet voice.
"That's my line! 'And so, and so'- "

A notification appeared in front of Kathrine out of the blue.

---
Anonymous:
Read the book. Or you're dead. Both of you.
---

Say what? The book? What book? I looked at Kathrine. She had a grim expression on her face. What was happening?

Scenes flashed in my mind making me recall everything that happened. Kathrine took the grimoire to prevent that unreal thing (a.k.a. the knife) from cutting my head off. She joined this Hundred Souls guild and is now forced to read some book because of me.

"Astrid-" Kathrine started. "No Kathrine. I'll read it. Not you. It was my fault. I was too careless. I was the reason why you were forced to take the book. You prevented that unreal thing from killing me. I shall now pay my debts." I stated. "No Astrid. No! I decided to take the book and save your life! I will receive punishment for my actions!" Kathrine argued. "You don't get it Kathrine, you don't owe the world anything. You don't deserve to be punished when you've done absolutely nothing wrong."

"Astrid. Astrid! I will read it. I'm the one in the guild anyways. End of story."

She stormed off to wherever. Probably her room though. That rebel! Call me hypocrite, but I don't care! She doesn't deserve this. I laid down on my bed staring off into space. "Arf?" Oreo asked as she laid next to me. "I'm fine Oreo. Just a little woozy." What stupid lies. I wanna hide from the vicinity of the world, on the brink of dangerous insanity and hide. I'm going away. What made me me was slowly drifting into the vast universe, far away from my reach.

I'm telling you. Even my lies are getting more see-through. My rebelliousness is going downhill. My I-don't-care attitude is floating away. The one thing that stayed was probably my sarcasm. It doesn't wanna flee from my oddness. Nothing's wrong with that I guess. What's a world without comedy? No matter what world, a world without laughter is a world without life. It lightens the mood, and heck, I need that right now.

My eyes slowly drifted off into dreamland as little old Oreo snuggled into my coat. I didn't even change into pajamas, dammit.

~~~

Color me shocked. It's as if absolutely nothing happened yesterday. Kathrine and I were happily munching away our breakfast with no one mentioning a single word about what happened. There was something different though. Kathrine's eyes looked like a dark abyss. Her once emerald green eyes were now dull and lost. Empty. I was worried. I'm quite sure it's the book. Grimoire of a Hundred Souls. My mind did me a good deed and sent me some creepy thoughts. Kathrine's soul sucked into a dark abyss, her gleeful self, just a facade. Kathrine betraying our friendship, choosing to actually follow to rules. I have the weirdest definition of creepy. The things I find weird are pretty much in no way weird at all.

Right after we ate, we played with Misa and Oreo. Kathrine's eyes still scared the life out of me, but I played along.

We ran and played and got exhausted and hungry and got tired and thirsty and whatever until right when I was about to release Oreo and make her surprise Kathrine, Kathrine was staring into nothingness with an undecipherable look in her eyes. She looked distracted, scared, flabbergasted and curious at the same time. It was very much something I could not comprehend, but for all I knew, it was scary. Not only that, Kathrine was scared too.

I shivered. The somber look in her eyes was just too painful to see. Too disheartening to watch. I couldn't stand it anymore. My patience has reached its limit. I've lost my bearings. "Kathrine!" I cried out. She didn't respond. "Kathrine!" I choked back a sob and put a sense of authority into the word. I said it as though it was mandatory for her to answer my plea. The color of her eyes changed from dull green to emerald as she was snapped back into reality.

'Oh great.' I thought. 'She passed out on me. How lovely.' It's like Kathrine has experienced some unreal phenomenon occur. It gave me the creeps. She tossed and turned in her slumber mumbling something about home and whatever.

I summoned some wind to carry her to the couch because she was well, too heavy for me to carry I followed the wind and bent it into the direction of her 'bed'. It's either she was slightly heavy for me, the winds were too light or my magic was too weak because the magic kept on faltering, I was scared out of my wits.

I sighed as I plopped Kathrine straight onto the couch only to see her turn around and unconsciously slip over the edge. She fell with a thud, and I cringed. She woke up in a cold sweat eyes widened in fear. Breathing heavily she said "W-why *pant* why are we here?"

I stared at her in confusion. "Where are we? Where is home? We're living a lie. No one even knows if we are alive."

How did I not realize. No one knows anything. Not much information of this other-worldly land where we all live an eternal life-that is if we are alive. Magic, re-spawning, grimoires, other stuff like that, if my memory never betrayed me, they never existed, but now, they do. It's impossible. It was always impossible. Magic never existed. We were this oblivious to the truth this whole time. We got jobs, laughed, played with pets and went wherever without realizing we've been living a lie. Maybe.

"Do you get me Astrid? We know nothing about this place while it knows so much about us."
"..."
"You're speechless aren't ya. You ain't the only one who was this sidetracked from reality. Everyone was."
I grimly nodded. "I know. I'm just well, incredibly curious. Too much questions. Knowledge is power, but sometimes, knowing just makes you too scared to try. Very risky."
"Yes. I'm aware. 'Beware the rise and fall of man.' That's what it said." Kathrine quoted.
"It? The grimoire. H-he-Percy was right."
"The truth must be revealed. We need to know." she concluded.
"Yeah. No matter what the risk. Curiosity will rule for now. We must unlock the wicked secrecy of this world, to the depths of its darkest secrets."