I sat down, settling my open palms against the softness and the dewiness of the grass, allowing the nippy breeze to reinvigorate my spirit - trying in vain to veer away my eyes from staring too much.

To no avail, like the Fey, I guess being a creepy creep was encoded in my DNA, cause Ria was all I allowed myself to see.

Soon, I'll be meeting with you again, talking to you again. What you'll say, what I'll say… guess we'll soon find out, won't we?

Come to think of it, it's been quite long since I felt your warmth. Before, I didn't even have to be within a meter to know you're like a portable radiator… now I'm barely even five centimeters from you, and I'm shoving my hands into my pockets, shivering… realizing…

You're cold, Ria.

More than I ever could know.

Okay, alright, I think I've expired my waiting time, just where the hell is this -?

"Sera?"

A creaking in the darkness, a rustling within the bushes has got my gaze straying all around. It was the type of rustling that gets you painfully aware of just how alone you were and just how dark it was.

The bushes rustled again.

Is this she trying to scare me? Not very funny. Upset that I came early?

"It's not midnight, I know," I spoke out loud, feeling very much foolish for doing so. "But I figured an hour early won't hurt, so I - "

Something darted out from the bushes, something speedy, something small, and something very much on rapid pace towards me.

I could see it now - news reports, headliners, "Young Man Mysteriously Found Dead At Public Park", I gave a yelp, scurrying away, dragging myself back from this mysterious ravenous creature that's going to fucking -!

"Meow."

Meow?

Everything tensed up inside - I was frozen. A statue stiff in the most uncomfortable retreating position. My eyes were wide open - not from horror. My mouth gaping - far from fear.

I know that squeaky meow. It spurred through the grass again - I saw it again, more of it… wasn't mysterious, wasn't even ravenous. That little ball of puffy white fur, small pointy ears twitching, slender slightly crooked tail swaying…

It approached, it sniffed, and purring, caressed its face against my leg, as she has always done so many times before...

"Mrs. White…" I was more than just reeling, I was more than just shocked. "You… you're…?"

Alive?

No.

You aren't.

I carried you, I buried you. You were lifeless, you were dead. You aren't supposed to be here.

She meowed again that innocent happy meow, and continued brushing herself against me, happy to see me, happy to greet me. I know she was… but I don't know if I can really say the same.

Sera, you… you must have… you found her… you took her… and you did your work on her.

Why didn't I think you'd find her? Of course you did. These woods were yours now, you'd have walked them every day, round and round, how could you have not? Whatever's in it is yours, whatever you find in it, the dead are yours, their bodies are yours - nothing's fucking sacred around here anymore.

You brought her body back, but you didn't bring her back. She might look the same, sound the same… very well feel the same - but it's the eyes you never get right. They are always blank, the dead always stared blank.

There was another rustling in the darkness, only now there was no jumpscare horror creature to brace for, it was the genuine article this time, emerging forth from the trees, clad fully in her signature enigmatic violet drapes, Sera greeted me the usual way she had always done.

Glaring with eyes unwelcomed.

I glared right back.

Mrs. White immediately broke away from trying to claw her way over my knee joints, and quickly pattered towards the direction of Sera, skirting and gliding through the end-curls of her cloak.

It made her eyes go soft, her expression gentle… as she slowly fell down to her knees, reached out her hand, and…

"Don't touch her."

Her arm shook, stopped - her scowl returning with much greater intensity. I still glared right back.

"Lonely, are you? Very?" I said to her, not bothering to soften the edge in my tone. "She was buried for a reason, and it wasn't so you could just un-bury her again anyway. Can't believe you actually did it - God!"

Sera kept quiet, no grumbles, no groan - just a stiff unblinking stare.

"So what'd you call her, huh?" I nudged my head. "Nelo the Second?"

At that, I definitely had a growl, she looked furious now. Probably wondering in her head how I knew all these things, like I had a backdoor in her head or something. I mean, how else could I possibly know the name of her scaly lizard pet she kept cooped up in her domain that no one but herself knows about?

Magic, maybe.

"She's not your pet - she was mine, kind of. And I really do not like what I'm seeing. Stop defiling her body with your magic," I continued, "She might be alive, but she definitely ain't living."

Kinda like yourself, Sera.

Mrs. White meowed again at her, her tail wagging back and forth. Sera looked away from me, as if I hadn't said anything at all, and still went ahead and stroked her fur.

"Hey!" I called out.

Rolled eyes, she rolled - the fuc - did this little shit just rolled her eyes at me? Oh, she did not just do that. What in the goddamn…

I stood up, fuming, and my lips tightly narrowed. "You're mute, not deaf - don't pretend. I said she isn't yours to - ACK!"

Yesterday's midnight was a gradual process, one thing at a time. Tonight's midnight was very much different. Things escalated significantly faster, some processes were skipped too.

I wasn't on the ground yet. I wasn't lying down at that specific angle, with my arms positioned in that specific manner - my breathing definitely wasn't relaxed.

So why the fuck did she shoot out her deformed, mangled skeletal arm-thing from out her cloak?! Why was she wrapping it around my throat?! Here we go again with the splintered, jagged edges - rending, burrowing, I could feel the warmth of oozing blood dribbling down my neck.

Trying to get me to shut up? Skipped the steps so you didn't have to hear me moan? Putting me to sleep now so you don't have to listen to my voice?! Like this!?

You're so fucking immature! Petty! Selfish! No wonder you're evil!

You wait, in the morning, I'll…

Once I wake up… you'll… you'll be getting… it...

My cat… not yours…

Not fair…

Mrs. White…

White…

All around…

All around me.

Wait.

White?

I don't remember white. Why was there white now? There wasn't white before.

There was no transition before, nothing faded into nothing, it's one second I was dying, the next I was dreaming - blue skies, sunny skies, lush forest, that's how it was yesterday.

So why was it just vast white nothing today?

Am I even dreaming? Did that petty idiot mess something up skipping all those steps and just getting right into it? Is that what's happening right now?!

Can't be. I'm up on my feet, my body felt just as agile and dexterous as it did in the dream yesterday. Everything I felt about me was just the same as back then, it was everything else that was… different.

White voids. How quaint.

"Um," I took in the air, if what I was breathing in even was air, "Hey! Hello! How you do?!"

No echoes in the infinity glaring bright white. No sense of spatial awareness, no depth perception. Wow, this is like the perfect place to have an existential breakdown.

Which I'm probably about to be put under in like five, four, three, two…

Something tapped my shoulder.

"Yo!"

That same something also said 'Yo!'.

"You don't really listen, do you?" That something spoke again in a snarky, cheery, condescending all-too-familiar tone. "Seriously, what's even the point of getting old and getting wise if the young ones don't even respect you enough to listen to reason?"

If it were my old body I was in - I'd be bursting a vessel at the drastic 180 turn I just took to look behind me, then my legs would probably be turning to jelly, and my knees into mush just taking it in that something.

A Beacon of hope in the numbing void. A smarmy smile, a lofty gaze, and burning, blazing red all over… this time, really this time… I was face to face with her.

But just to make sure…

"Latrissa?"

Her wide smirk flipped over unamused. "I'll smack you. Cheeky bastard..."

That settles it, she was the one, she was the bomb, she was the thing, the one and only.

The next breath I exhaled was like me releasing an entire world population's worth of apprehension. "Ria…"

That frown flipped back to that smirk, this time with a bright mischievous twinkle in her crimson eyes to match, as she spoke up so casual and aloof, "Not really Ria either - I smack you twice."

The following breath I inhaled next was like sucking back in all of that regurgitated apprehension.

I thought I heard wrong, I wished I heard wrong, "Not really Ria?"

"Well, I sound like her, act like her, I certainly also do got all her curves at just the right places," She paused, gave her body a little seductive wiggle, and continued with a chuckle, "But make no mistake, I'm no Ria Ignis, the seductive number one Phoenix."

There's confused, and then there's just having absolutely no fucking clue. I'm engaged, married, and am having kids with the latter now.