As soon as I saw the door, I noticed Echo was with me.

"Are you real or an illusion?" Echo asked.

"Real. Why are we together?" I asked.

Echo shrugged his shoulders. "I hope Zolona's fine."

"She's pretty tough," I said.

"I guess we're going through the door." Echo gestured to the door in front of us.

"Do you think the woman will be in there like the last two games?" I asked.

"There's only one way to find out," Echo said.

I opened the door and we were pushed through.

"Well, look who decided to play another game," the woman's voice said.

I tried to spot her. "I know about my past now. Why did you take my memories from me?"

The figure's voice chuckled. "You obviously remember more, but not everything, right?"

Her voice echoed in the emptiness around us.

"Why do this? Do you enjoy making people's lives more miserable?" Echo asked.

She stopped laughing, caught off guard by Echo. "Of course, you still don't remember me. I should be the one pitying you two."

"Why?" I asked.

"You're still playing the same games from fifteen years ago. You believe you can win, but you can't. My plans are so strategized you can't beat them," the woman said.

"Except you don't play fairly," Echo said.

"Why should I? In order to be what you want, you have to grow up and take what everyone has and you don't. Making people afraid works better than love and hope. Wishes are for babies, hope is for weaklings, and games are for children, and you two just want to keep playing," she said.

My eyes widened. "You can't be. My mother killed you."

"As I told her, not just anyone can kill me," she insisted.

"You're..." Echo said.

"Yes, but you don't have it, do you Echo? Guess you got contaminated with common blood," she said.

"Come out coward!" I yelled, clenching my teeth together.

"Coward? You're afraid of me," the figure laughed, "The hooded figure, the black mist, the woman in the black dress. We're all the same."

"You've been in our dreams." Echo's eyes widened.

"Our memories of you are haunting us," I said.

"No, I went inside your dreams to make sure you were afraid of me," she said.

Echo's face was grim. "Fear doesn't always get you what you want."

"Really? Maybe it's why people didn't care when Clyde died, but mourned over me getting thrown into a portal?" she asked.

"If you do that, what real friends do you really have?" Echo raised an eyebrow.

"What friends do you have?" she whispered.

Echo clenched his teeth together. "I have a lot of friends."

"Do you?"she asked.

"How can I even call you my mother? I'm friends with several people," Echo said.

"Are you sure they're friends with pure motives? They're really just friends with you because you're one of the twins," Isla said.

"That isn't true. I didn't become friends with him because he was one of the twins," I said.

"Then you might be his only real friend in this state," she laughed.

"Come out," I said.

"You guys will see me in the final challenge. Right now I'm just teasing you," she said.

Her voice faded away.

"What was that about? Why tease us like that?" Echo asked.

"I don't know, and I don't care. I want answers," I looked around the room.

"What do you think our challenge is?" Echo asked.

I continued to look around the blank space. "I'm not sure," I noticed the two easels.

"I think we get to paint," Echo smiled.

We walked over to the easels and sat on the stools beside them. That's when I noticed there weren't any paints.

'Crap! This is just like last time.'

I let out a heavy moan. "There aren't any paints. This happened before and I failed a challenge."

Echo smiled. "We can still pass this."

"Without paints?" I sighed, "If we lose this challenge, it'll be harder for us to face your mother."

Echo laughed. "It's not wanting us to physically paint, just use creativity and imagination to create an image in our head to appear on the canvas."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"She told me to do that before," Echo pointed to a little girl with blonde hair and a pink dress: Laila. She smiled and waved in our direction.

I smiled back. She seemed at peace. Of course she'd say something like that, and creativity was a talent like no other. It allowed you to believe you could do the impossible. I only wished I had used it more.

"So we just think of something?" I asked.

Echo nodded. "Yes."

I concentrated hard. I had to think of something, preferably something other than strangling Echo's mother.

That was a thought. 'My mother. She was so brave and inspiring. I wish I could be like her. I hope she's in a place where she can be happy.'

I looked at the canvas. My mamá, Valentina, was in the garden of our house surrounded by flowers, shades of red, lilac, white, blue, and yellow painting the grass with bright color. On her face was a smile.

I turned my attention to Echo's picture. On it, were several people in front of a river. The terrain was grassy, but it seemed nice enough. I looked at the people there. I could see Arvin, Ruby, Melinda, a blonde haired boy, and Echo. Next to Echo was someone I wouldn't expect: myself and Zolona. Ember, Dusk, Cora, and Jordan were beside Zolona on the other side. They all smiled in what seemed to be a photo. I couldn't tell where we were, but I could tell we were happy to be there. I smiled.

"What do you think?" Echo asked.

I turned to face him. I smiled. "It's wonderful. Where is this?"

"This is Wellspring. It's the place Ember and I were born, but I didn't go there until a couple months ago. Even though we traveled to a lot of interesting cities, this is the one I felt like I belonged at. It has a feel to it," Echo smiled.

"I'll say," I looked at myself in the picture, "What's with the purple dress?"

"Cora asked one of the other designers for sizes so she could make you a dress," Echo said.

"And she chose purple..." I paused, "Did she finish it while we were asleep?"

Echo shrugged his shoulders. "We'll have to ask her when we wake up. They were making stuff for me too."

"Are they as good as..." I looked at Laila.

"They're all good at different things."

The door appeared in front of us for the next challenge.

Echo smiled. "Guess we're going through the entire thing together."

"Do you think your mother wants this to happen? She said she was pulling the strings in our dreams," I wondered.

We rose from the stools and opened the next door.

Laila muttered a faint "Good luck" as we passed into the next room.

Echo and I were greeted by a familiar face.

"Ember?" I asked.

Echo smiled. "Obviously from one of our memories."

"Hers," Ember pointed at me.

"What's the challenge in here?" I asked.

Ember smiled a mischievous smile back at me. "What's your challenge? Come on. Can't you figure it out?"

"Well, there's nothing in this room. It's blank," I looked around the room, confused by its appearance. It was a void of emptiness.

Echo's face lit up. "That's the entire point. It's blank."

"What does that mean though?" I asked.

Ember shrugged her shoulders. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Most of the other people in the rooms know what the challenge is. How could you not unless you're pretending not to?" I asked.

"This is one of your rooms. You're not sure what you like anymore?" Echo asked.

"I guess not," I sighed.

There, we found a piano. I thought this was a trick The Game was playing on me. There was no way I could still be with him after all of this time. We weren't that close.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"I guess we start playing," Echo said.

We sat at the bench.

The song we created next was amazing. It used different octaves of course, but it was gorgeous. I couldn't believe what I just created. It all to me seemed like harmonies flew out of my fingers like water. The chemistry with the notes was perfection. As soon as we stopped playing another door appeared. I could never forget the notes and the harmonies that the notes that had clicked together.

'Wait a second, you don't think... no.' I said to myself before proceeding.

He had only seen my memories and saved my life twice. He tried to be my friend, understand me, help me get my memories, and was fun to be around. We were friends. We had been friends long ago, and it seemed that we got back on that track now.

I saw everything in a different kind of light with him around. He said he wanted to help and befriend people in the shadows. I guess he got his wish. However, no matter how long I tried to like it, the name Raven still provided me with several different feelings. Sometimes, I felt as if the name confused me, other times it worried me since I didn't know my real name, but other times it caused me to have my heart jolt.

I wasn't supposed to have a heart. There was still a slight possibility something could happen, and I would feel something strong about the people I cared about. I didn't want to feel as if it would be my fault if I lost someone.

Ember clapped slowly. "I guess that was decent."

"She really does act like Ember," Echo said.

We laughed in agreement.

"What's so funny? Mother's manipulating The Game so you two will be together to face her. She's next. I would think twice and prepare myself if I were you," Ember snapped and a door appeared.

Echo nodded. "Don't worry, Ember, I will. Raven will defeat her and we'll be safe."

"You're not skipping?" I asked.

"I would, but for some reason, I can't. My control over The Game stopped," Echo said.

"Like an interference?" I asked.

"What did you think I meant when I said Isla's manipulating The Game? Come on, Echo. What did I tell you about running away from danger?" Ember crossed her arms.

Valentina appeared behind her and smiled.

"Mamá?" I asked.

"My beautiful hija," she embraced me, "I've come to warn you."

"What is it?" Echo asked.

Mamá put a hand on Echo's shoulder. "She's trying to kill Raven."

"She can do that?" Echo asked.

I nodded. "If your worst fear gets strong enough. We haven't lost any challenges, have we?"

"I don't think so. We can still beat her, Raven. I know it," Echo said.

"But you don't fight," I said.

"I'll give you support," Echo said.

Ember sighed. "You better not die."

"You carry Raven's memories after all," Mamá said.

"Speaking of which, any more powers I should know about?" I asked.

"You can teleport, and your healing only works for three hours at most after an injury. Any longer means you can't help them," Echo said.

"Good to know," I said.

Mamá squeezed me. "Be careful. Both of you. Deja que la luz y el amor te guíen, incluso en la oscuridad."

"What?" I asked.

"Let the light and love guide you, even in the dark," Mamá said.

"Don't expect this to be easy," Ember said.

We approached the black door with caution, each took a deep breath in, and opened it, only for darkness to come out of it and consume the room. When I could faintly see, there was no weapons table. All I had was Echo-- and he didn't fight.

"Where is the weapons table?" I asked.

"There isn't one..." a voice echoed.

"That isn't fair for Raven," Echo said.

"I know it isn't fair. This is where you'll die. You're going to die a mental death so painful, I won't have to lift an actual finger to kill either of you," the voice said.

"Not if I can help it." I clenched my teeth together.

"Let me guess, my son is running again. Pitiful," the voice laughed.

"Come out of hiding," I said.

My voice echoed in the darkness.

"Raven, watch your back," Echo said.

"It's not normal for it to be this quiet," I said.

Echo gulped. "That's why I said that."

A sword jabbed from the darkness, attempting to stab me. I jumped backwards to avoid it.

The voice chuckled. " There's always a second strike."

"I was expecting one," I avoided another attack and used a light blast in the sword's direction.

She cried out from pain.

"Nice shot, Raven," Echo cheered.

"Scared to face me head on?" I asked.

"You think I'm scared of you? I'll show you who's really scared." Isla came out of hiding and attempted to stab me.

She was in the black dress, her sword matching, and her cold, blue eyes, giving a wicked stare. She smiled at me.

"You can do this!" Echo said.

"Don't be optimistic. You're next," Isla said.

Echo gulped. "But you can't hurt me."

"Physically. We're inside your heads," Isla's eyes widened.

I threw another light blast at her when she dodged it. "I won't let you kill him! He's my friend."

"Friends are overrated," Isla took a knife from her pocket and hit my right hand. She put her sword to my throat and smiled.

"First, you'll die. Then he's going to die. The prophecy's finished, and to think you'll die in vain just like your mother..." Isla raised her blade.

Echo jumped between us. "You won't do anything."

"Oh, you want to go first. I guess I can improvise," Isla raised a blade again, this time a knife from under her cloak.

"Get out of our heads, Mother!" Echo snapped a finger.

Everything pulled towards a newly formed hole. Isla slid backwards. She put her sword into the ground, attempting to stay, but it was already slipping. She smiled at Echo.

"This isn't over! I've already gotten half of what I expected. If you weren't the chosen one of the prophecy, you would've been dead long ago. This is only a game, children. You have to enter the real world soon enough, and when you do, you'll die!" Isla laughed.

Her sword was pulled out of the ground. She went into the hole, before it disappeared.

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said that power wasn't working."

"It wasn't," Echo said.

"Then how did you make it work?" I asked.

"I felt some pull, like if we didn't make it out..." Echo said.

Silence entered the room at full force.

Echo's eyes widened. "Something's wrong with Ember."

"I didn't know you were telepathic," I said.

"We're not. Trust me, she's tried... I don't know what's going on," Echo said.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked.

Echo lowered his head. "I don't know."

The silver door appeared to take us out of The Game. I looked at him before he tried to smile but couldn't.

"Come on," I gestured to the door.

We opened it and jumped through.

I just didn't know what could be wrong. I didn't know what Isla, meant when she said she got half of what she expected. It made a shiver run up my spine. If something did happen while we were asleep, it probably wasn't good.