“Wait, wait, wait. She wanted to destroy you?” I pulled on my shirt, my eyes widening in shock. “Why the hell would she need to kill you guys? You seem like you are doing things for the better cause!”

“Oh jeez, why not go and ask her yourself? Oh wait, she hates you.” Cartoonz hissed out, standing back up.

“You are the one who sent her to the dream world. You are the one who stopped her biggest plan of the century. You, you are the one who choose to send her, alone!” He grinned, shining his sharp teeth, and continued, “We could use you as bait if we wanted, but luckily for you, you are the key to killing her.”

If I wasn’t even shocked, my skin turned even paler. “Kill her? She’s still my mother, not just some woman who wants to kill you!” I stood up, poking at his chest.

“Yeah… but you know she won’t give up again.” Wildcat added in, looking at me with his bright blue eyes. Honestly, I wanted to get even angrier, but those damn eyes he was staring at me with, I couldn't even argue with.

“Fine, let’s just, not talk about it, okay?” I glanced at Evan, who just nodded in response. “Let’s get going then, since we’re done here!” Delirious looked at Cartoonz, who just rolled his eyes, muttering a “fine.”

“So, Hailey, we need to go get Smitty, since we just need him and Ohm.” Delirious added, pulling out his hands from his pockets, and holding them out.

I looked at them with confusion, before realizing that he needed to hold my hands, for some reason. “What are we doing, exactly?” I asked, hesitantly grabbing onto his hands, looking down at them and back at his mask again. “We’re gonna travel back to your house, and get Smitty.” Delirious answered, without giving any other context to the current situation.

Suddenly, both me and him were surrounding in a green hue, and all my feelings became fuzzy, as if my nerve system was completely cut off from my body. In just a second, my vision turned completely white, and instead of feeling awful, I felt completely fine and relaxed.

We were instantly back at my room, everything was still in place as when I left it, even the time. Delirious let go of my small hands, and headed out my room. The house felt rather cold, and too silent for my taste. “Okay, summon you weapon.” He casually told me, pulling out a green machete out of thin air. “Uh, I can’t? I’m not like you…” I rubbed the back of my neck, looking nervously at the weapon he held in his gloved hand.

“Sure you can. I heard you could do it all the time as a kid.” Delirious looked straight at my face, pulling his machete over his shoulder, his free hand at the side of him.

‘Well, I don’t have any memories of that, if you listened to the conversation.’ I had thought within my head, trying my best to not grow angry again. I just sighed, pulling out my hands, like Delirious had, waiting for a weapon.

“Well?” He looked at my hands, tilting his head to the side. Nothing was appearing in my hands, as I had expected, and I just stared at him.

“I don’t remember anything from my childhood. I can’t just summon something without knowledge of it.” I purely guess, crossing my arms over my chest. It was silent for a few seconds, before we heard creaking in the hallway.

“Hailey, is that you?” I spotted Karen standing in her pajamas, wiping her hands against her eyes. Only the moonlight shown her face, having none of our lights turned on. I gulped down, not wanting to explain Delirious and the situation to her, “Hey, uh…”

Delirious looked at the same direction I looked, noticing Hailey. He held out his machete in front of me at the same time Karen’s face grew of anger. “Woah, woah! That’s my friend!” I grabbed onto his shoulder, not liking where this situation was growing. “You’re friend? Hailey, she’s fake.” He said seriously, looking at her without moving a muscle.

“Fake?” “How’d you get back? Rosemary locked Hailey away from your team!” Karen suddenly hissed at him, showing me a personality I had never seen from her. I looked at her with confusion, but it turned into fear once I saw her start to morph into something more sinister.

Her body turned completely black, and grew a few inches taller. Her facial features disappeared, leaving her with only bright white eyes and mouth. “I’ll kill you, both of you! Rosemary will be pleased with your blood smeared against this wall!” Her voice was deep, neither masculine or feminine, though.

I stood there in both shock and fear, my eyes widening at what was a lie to me my whole life. ‘Karen… you weren’t real? Not even a real person?’ I had thought in my head, not moving my eyes from what used to be her face.

She had pounced towards us, but Delirious was fast enough to react. He raised his machete, slicing at her side, before having her be sliced in half. It’s eyes had widened, screaming a horrid sound of pain and anger, then just ‘poofed’ into a cloud of black dust.

I held my hands over my mouth, holding back any tears my eyes had held within them. I couldn’t seem to think properly, nor contain my breathe.

Delirious patted my shoulder with his free hand, “You’ll see lots of that, so don’t cry just yet.” He dragged me towards the living room, in which I barely even made my own steps. “She was fake, though? From Rosemary, that’s… that’s my mom.” I had breathed out, looking towards Delirious. He had nodded, before out heads snapped to the sound of another pair of feet walking to us.

For a split second, it looked exactly like Marissa, then the next, she was a monster too. She had roared, jumping over a couch, landing on her feet, then looking back at us.

She, or it, jumped at us, and time seemed to slow down for me. I was looking at its bright white eyes, before putting my arms out. ‘I don’t want to die yet.’ I had thought without any emotion. Before I had blinked, I saw that my hands became covered with black, without explanation.

When I had opened my eyes back up, my hands were holding onto something that I wasn’t holding onto before.

They held a, what appeared to be, a katana, that was inside of the creatures stomach. I was holding it mid air, the creature just crying in pain, before poofing, like the other did. I rushed my hands back to me, and the katana just disappeared into thin air, as the black from my hands were gone, too.

“What the actual hell?” I had questioned myself, looking at Delirious for answers. He just had his hands in his pockets, walking to our kitchen, just saying “You summoned a weapon. Pretty cool.”

I just deadpanned, heading after him, glaring at the back of his head. “Are we seriously gonna blow off me summoning a freaking katana from my hands?" He looked back at me, and seemed to grin under his hockey mask. “It’s just basic knowledge, kid.”

We continued our trip to the kitchen, while I held my tongue from cussing him out right then and there. I still didn’t understand how I didn’t seem in a whole lot of shock after the incidents.

There, in the corner, was my sleeping dog, Shrimps, who didn’t seem to even stir at the fighting earlier. He seemed to have more human traits than dog traits, the more I realized. Delirious also spotted him, staring at him for split seconds, before taking a step closer to him.

“Smitty?” He called out from under his mask, having to dog lift his head from the floor. Shrimps blinked, before getting up and stretching, waking up from his recent nap.

Delirious leaned down to his level, pulling out his hand, again, waiting for him to come and sniff it. “Smitty, are you seriously a dog?” He laughed, in which in my opinion, sounded something like a psycho serial killer. The dog just tilted his head at him, trotting over to him, completely clueless.

Once close enough, Delirious forced his hand onto Shrimps’ head, both of their eyes turning bright green. I took a step back from the scene, as Shrimps’ body started to morph something other than a dog.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m just turning him back into his normal human form.” Delirious didn’t even move his head to look at me, and kept his sight onto the dog. I shook my head, “I must still be on those drugs, because I don’t understand anything at this point.” I kept my eyes on Shrimps, or Smitty, as his body eventually turned into a human man.

Both of their eyes went back to their normal colors, and Smitty stayed silent on his knees, before falling down onto Delirious, who caught him. “Okay, we’re done here. Let’s get going.” He pulled Smitty onto his shoulder, looking back at me.

“Why was he my dog? I know at least of you did something to do this.” I glared at the eyeholes in his mask, not seeing any form of eyeballs. He nodded, “Yeah, we agreed to use Smitty as a viewer for you, until you could come back.”

“Why would you even do that?” “He’s… the closest age to yours, and-” “That’s not what I meant! You know what, nevermind, let’s just go back to the group.” I huffed out, whipping out my hand to him, ready to leave this place.