"Ben," said a voice from nowhere. "Ben, wake up."

I opened my eyes to darkness. Lightning ripped across the black sky, creating a brilliant white net of light before thunder shook the ground instead. It reverberated against the walls and shook my body like a growl. When I looked up, I saw the moon through the opening of the cave, a thin white sliver in a starless sky that barely managed to illuminate my surroundings.

Water dripped somewhere behind me and the air smelled damp. My body felt weird, like it was somehow disconnected from my head. As if I had no body at all. There was a presence behind me though, lurking somewhere just outside of my reach. I felt it like a breath in my neck. I wanted to turn around but my body wouldn't comply. Trapped in a state of weightlessness, I was unable to move forward.

"What do you want?" I asked into the darkness but received no answer, instead, something crashed into me, pushing me over the cliff and into the emptiness before me.

I woke to a hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently, but determinedly and a now-familiar floral scent tickling my nose. For a second, everything seemed hazy and unfocused and coming to was jarring, like I was pulling the curtains back and staring straight at the blinding sun on a summer day. Warm light surrounded me and I slowly remembered the storeroom. Then shapes registered and I came face to face with Sakura leaning slightly over me.

"You know, you really have the strangest eyes," she said, letting her gaze rest on me for a second. Curiosity and something else, something wary, seemed to flit across her features before she quickly looked away again. Still sleepy, I barely made out her words. I mumbled something indistinct and she pulled away.

"What do you mean?" I finally got a good look at her. Her face looked different now and I realised that she must've washed her make-up off. I couldn't decide if her eyes seemed smaller or larger now that they weren't rimmed in black liner anymore but her features were softer, younger. I thought I saw a slight blush on her cheeks when she looked at me again but when I blinked, I wasn't so sure if I had imagined it.

"I never knew blue eyes could be this dark. I've only ever seen them bright and brilliant but yours are... navy, almost black."

I wasn't sure what to reply, so I said nothing. Was she making me a compliment? I couldn't tell. A few seconds passed between us in silence before Sakura seemed to remember why she had come in here in the first place.

"I brought you some tea." She held up a little thermos and I was thankful for the distraction it brought. I realised I was too self-conscious again, too fixated on little things that probably meant nothing. But my mind couldn't seem to stop asking itself what she might think of me and if she could sense what kind of freak I was.

She poured a cup of the steaming liquid and immediately, the smell of herbs filled the little room and brought the memory of Sunday mornings at my grandmother's to mind. Just the three of us; me, my brother and grandma. Sakura's fingertips brushed my hand when I reached to accept the cup she was holding out to me and the tiny touch send a pulse through me. I recoiled quickly and mumbled a quick thank you without looking at her even though I could feel her stare on me.

I didn't stay long after that, I simply didn't want to occupy any more of Sakura's time. She'd been kind enough to help me out when I needed it but I felt the sooner I returned to my own place and was out of her hair, the better. It didn't help that what little confidence I had seemed to completely melt away when she was near and now that I had talked to her, I wanted to do it again. I cringed at myself and my silly thoughts. I couldn't, wouldn't be one of those guys, who liked a girl just because she had been nice to him once. Because that was definitely creepy.

I kicked off my shoes and let myself fall into my bed, not bothering to shower or even undress. Not long after my head hit the pillow, I was already slipping away into sleep.

I sat at a big oak table in a kitchen that was vaguely familiar. The cupboards were a faded blue colour and the tiles were white but the details beyond that were fuzzy, blurred. I felt like there was something wrong with my eyes, like I had had to rub them to remove the veil that was obscuring my view.

I was waiting for something, I remembered. The smell of dinner hung in the air and I heard dishes clattering. And then my grandmother stood before me, strangely sharp and focused against the hazy backdrop of the kitchen. Her blue eyes regarded me and she smiled.

"Ah, Benny," she called out, "you already changed and washed your hands." Her hand came to rest on my head before she pulled it away again. "Go get your brother, will you?"

Something yanked at the seams of my consciousness, loosening the threads that held the picture together. My socks slipped on the wooden floor when I ran out of the kitchen and into the hallway. The weird sensation that my body was wrong came over me again. Somehow this didn't feel right. I was too tall, taller than I remembered to ever be when standing in this kitchen and this hallway. I shouldn't be able to see my reflection in the mirror next to the telephone. It had been hung at a height where I or my brother couldn't reach it.

I felt a tug again and the corners of my view seemed to glitch, like an old broken TV. The shadows darkened around me and the hallway that had been glowing in the evening sun spilling through the window was suddenly cold and tinged in grey. A dark figure appeared in the mirror behind me.

I wanted to turn and again, my body betrayed me, I couldn't move, instead, I was frozen on the spot and could only stare at the person, the presence behind me.

"Why are you fighting me?" The voice grated against my eardrums, deep and dark like a grumble and with it, the spell was broken. The next tug was harder and I could feel the structure surrounding me sway slightly.

"Why do you keep me locked up in this memory?" I asked back. There were no eyes, no face to stare at in the mirror, just a shadowy silhouette that resembled the shape of a tall man. It came nearer and I felt its coldness in my back, felt it breathing down my neck. It made the little hairs on my arm stand on end.

"The girl," he said. "Do you like her?" I shrugged.

"That's none of your concern." If I had a physical body in this moment, my heart would probably be racing. I swallowed and tried to remain calm, seem detached and unbothered. It had almost become second nature to me at this point.

But the presence saw right through it. He laughed, if you could call the sound a laugh at all, it was more like a growl, unpleasant like the scratch of nails against a chalkboard. It sent a shiver down my imaginary spine. Coldness enveloped me when the shadow-man lifted his hand and grabbed the back of my neck.

"Don't forget that I'm in your head, boy," he drawled. "I can see and hear the secrets you keep. I see how you look at her, when you look at her, that is. So don't play coy with me." His voice at my ear was hard, his breath icy. His hand squeezed my neck once more for emphasis before he let me go. A burning sensation spread where he had touched me. I would find a bruise on my neck when I woke.

"Just remember what happened to your brother." The words hit me like a punch. "Go on, open the door if you prefer another memory."

I blinked and found myself in another hallway, another house. The door in front of me was slightly ajar as if someone had left in a hurry and had forgotten to close it all the way. My mind was pulling at me violently, trying to yank me out of it, screaming at me to wake up. But right before I did, I looked down at my hands.

They were covered in blood.