Unlike Leon, Cynthia found herself standing in the middle of a forest. Cynthia scoffed. The Driren did not even leave from tormenting her when she was in an unconscious state. The sixteen-year-old girl did know a solution, however. Fear. She simply needed to overcome fear. That was the basic thing she needed to do.

"Not fearing is the solution to every possible threat," the words of Alana reverberated in Cynthia's eardrums.

Before, she was frightened. Hence, the Driren could have his way with the girl and entrap her in his enchantment. And right now, fear was her biggest enemy. If only she was stronger like Alana.

Cynthia clenched her fists tight when she felt those tremble inadvertently. Shivers crawled on her skin. The temperature was not low. It was rather moderate, and Cynthia would have founded sweating to be more natural. Instead, goose-bumps rose through her body.

The rustling of dry leaves caused the girl to flinch. She needed to walk more into the forest to ultimately discover the source of the sound. Else, there was a possibility that she would forever be trapped in another one of these illusions created by the Driren.

This was just one nasty illusion. Nothing was real. Repeating each and every word over and over again in her mind, Cynthia walked ahead. She walked and walked and walked more into the deep forest. It was almost as if the place where she was, contained no knowledge about light. The more she walked deep into the forest, the more the surroundings seemed to darken, even though when Cynthia had opened her eyes, she was already under a darkening night sky, covered with thunderous black clouds. The sound increased as Cynthia grew closer to it.

The sound was extremely obnoxious. It was the resonation of something or someone being dragged across the forest floor.

For some reason, uneasiness took over Cynthia, and she discovered herself increasing her pace. First she speed-walked. Then she jogged. And thereafter, she ran when the familiar and broken voice rang throughout the forest.

"Save me Cynthia!"

Cora. Cora was in danger.

The branches piercing through her skin was not bothered about by Cynthia. In her mind, she only bore the thought of her little sister being in danger. She had forgotten to distinguish between the reality and the illusion. Wherever she may be, she needed to save Cora.

Cynthia panted heavily when she finally reached there. A big area, devoid of any tree, was where she was. And in front of her was her little sister Cora, struggling against the hold of a Dragonesian.

"Leave her!" Cynthia did not waste any more time before dashing towards the Dragonesian.

However, she could not move her feet. It was as if her feet had suddenly frozen by an unknown power. Her face grew purple with lack of oxygen while she attempted to go against the anonymous force, inflicted on her body.

Cynthia failed miserably.

And thus, she had to witness her sister Cora being eaten by the Dragonesian, in front of her very own eyes.

Cora's blood-scorching screams invaded the sobbing Cynthia's ears.

"Save me please!" Cora yelled continuously as the Dragonesian bit onto the soft skin of her arm, tearing apart the flesh and muscles from her bones. The scene was traumatizing to witness, and that also without being able to do anything. The little girl was crying and wriggling in pain, while the Dragonesian fed upon her, scrumptiously chomping on her organs and body parts.

The Dragonesian was one of those Dragonesians who violated Dragonesian Laws and fed upon humans illegally. Not that the Dragonesian Government cared much, but did they not contain even an ounce of sympathy, love, and kindness?

They were shameless. That was what they were. Shameless, oppressive creatures who were followers of a dictatorial nation.

Cynthia Kiorsa failed miserably.

Cora could not help smiling from ear to ear. Her dream had always been to attend a school, sit with her friends, study hard, play with her classmates and enjoy her school life. She wanted a normal life where she could have the opportunity of education, in peace and without any discrimination, either from humans or Dragonesians. If Cora were to be honest, she did not want to completely wipe off the species of Dragonesians from the face of Earth. She wanted to live in peace and harmony, coexisting together with them.

"Cora, congratulations!"

The nine-year-old girl flinched when one of her classmates nudged her elbow with a grin on her face, "It was expected to have our Class President come at the top of the class once again."

Right, Cora had achieved first rank, in the entire fourth grade at her school, for the second time in a row. The teachers could not take a break from showering the girl with compliments over and over again while some of her classmates, although were envious, congratulated and some, genuinely praised her. Cora was perfect. She was the best at sports, academic skills, arts, socializing and what not. She was kind and generous and helpful, unlike the other first rankers of their middle school, who were quite competitive and selfish.

One could ask Cora to borrow her notes and she would, without any hesitation, hand it over.

Kindness was her most beautiful trait.

And her worst trait was being oblivious to the fact that her sister Cynthia, once existed.

Her friend, who had congratulated her, was perplexed when she found Cora standing up on her feet and running out of the classroom. Cora did not stop running through the hallways until she reached the girls' lavatory. Her heart beat picked up pace when memories of Cynthia rushed through her mind.

Cynthia protected her. Cynthia looked after her. Cynthia gave up her life for her. And what did she do? She left her. All alone there, to die in the hands of Dragonesians. If only Cynthia had not run away that day.

The girl splashed water from the tap, on her face. She continued splashing her face with the cool water till she made sure that she was no longer having her thoughts scattered around.

And then a sudden realization dawned upon Cora as she glanced at her own distorted reflection in the mirror.

Cora was with Alana, Leon, Lucian, and Lena not long ago. Cynthia was in the arms of that vicious creature before everything blacked out for the nine-year-old. When she woke up, she found herself in this beautiful world where everything was just the way she wanted. The only thing that she did not find was her elder sister Cynthia. It was as if her mind had made her automatically think that she had left Cynthia alone and that she had perhaps been killed.

Cora could not understand which was the reality and which was her own fragment of imagination.

"How could you?"

Cora gasped as both her hands flew up to cover her mouth while painful tears streaked down her eyes. Now in the mirror was no reflection of Cora and, rather, the imagery of Cynthia.

This Cynthia was grotesque. Her right arm was dangling from a thread of flesh, whereas her left eyeball seemed to have been plucked out brutally. Blood was dripping down her slashed chest, and there were evidences of deep wounds and bruises present all over Cynthia's body.

The right eye that was still there intact, was devoid of any emotion.

Cynthia spoke again, accusing the little girl on the other side of the mirror, through her cracked lips, "How could you be so selfish and cruel to leave your sister alone?"

"I-I was scared," Cora whimpered as profuse tears plummeted down her eyes like a waterfall and tearing her insides seeing the condition of Cynthia, "I was s-so scared Cynthia. I didn't want to run away. You told me to live for us—"

"Lies!" Cynthia screamed with that single word so loud that it was enough to cause a crack on the mirror and the light bulbs to flicker, "You are nothing but an opportunistic, self-obsessed, insensitive and inconsiderate liar who wanted to get rid of me so that you could live your life alone and in peace. Why? Because you knew that I was more perfect than you could ever be. Is that not right, my dear little sister?"

"No, you are wrong," Cora stepped back, mumbling to herself. She put both her palms on her ears to block those voices mocking her, "You are all wrong. I am not selfish. I am not...I am—"

Cora collapsed on the floor, breaking down into uncontrollable tears. She was so immersed in letting those teardrops out that she did not notice that she was back again in the classroom. All the desks were moved aside while she sat on the floor, motionless. There was not a single door or window, and the room was dark. It was not necessarily pitch black dark but it was still dark for the broken girl.

Her classmates stood there, surrounding her in a circle. Their faces held no emotion whatsoever as they stared at the girl without any statement. Until...

"You are cruel," the girl who had congratulated Cora before, spoke emotionlessly, "You cheated on your examinations."

"You are nothing but a liar."

"You should be thrown out of our school."

"You do not belong here."

"Cheater."

"Liar."

"Murderer."

Cora looked up with her terrified, depressed, tearful eyes at the last word. The word was uttered by none other than the wounded Cynthia, who was now crouching in front of her as a rotten smell erupted from her.

"You are a murderer, my dear little Cora, who murdered me. Your elder sister."