My foot tapped against the floor, keeping in time with the music as I fought the ever-present urge to disappear back into my fantasy but fear stopped me. I could still feel the phantom sting of the monster’s sharp, boney fingers digging into my skin as it held me.

I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t risk going back there.

It was fine though, Mom was in a much better mood now that we’d crossed the border into Scotland which made things easier. She’d even let us stop at a petrol station to grab some snacks.

She’d been happy, giddy almost, as she ambled down the sparse aisles of the shop. She’d picked up crisps, chocolates and multiple cans of soda, despite normally saying that people who snack are weak and undisciplined.

It was the slight change that always happened when we were in Scotland. I’m not sure if returning to where she grew up made her feel more like a kid or if it was the distance from our home and my dad but it was definitely something.

She always got more tense around her parents but, once they were gone, it was better.

“I love this song!” my mom cried happily, her hand darting out to turn the volume up even louder.

I smiled slightly and looked away, my gaze roaming the rolling green hills surrounding us.

I loved Scotland. It was so much prettier than England, in my opinion. Everything felt so much more spaced out and the windy roads that edged along hills and cut through forests just felt emptier than back home.

My eyes followed a grassy mound that rose up in the distance. It was encircled by a weak-looking fence, barely standing, halfway up the hill. Faint interest washed through me as I eyed the radio towers and giant satellite dish on the top. It seemed weird that there would be one so far out in the middle of nowhere. There were barely any houses nearby, no shops or anything of note.

My mind wandered lazily, thinking of a million possibilities. It could be anything really. It was probably nothing but it could be anything.

Dizziness speared my mind and I closed my eyes against it, fighting off the wave of nausea that came with it. Sucking in slow, deep breaths, I fought the urge to vomit. My hands tightened into fists as a chill crept over my skin.

Even as the queasiness wore off, that chill remained.

Carefully, I opened my eyes but it made no difference. It was dark wherever I was now. Whatever fantasy world I’d created, it was one without light. Or, maybe I was just in a darkened room.

There was a greenish glow coming from a small light on the wall somewhere beside me but the light didn’t reach far. It left the rest of the room untouched. Even so, I edged towards it hopefully. If there was a light there, maybe there was an exit.

Pain shot through my shin suddenly as something hard hit me and clattered loudly across the concrete floor, the noise echoing in the room.

“Hello?” a faint voice croaked.

It was weak, shaky and young.

I felt compelled to answer.

“Hello,” I whispered back, stepping in the direction of the noise.

I managed two steps, my shin still stinging before stopping. Goosebumps rose on my arms and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up but I was sure why. Nothing had changed to make me feel so uneasy but a faint smell had reached my nose. I couldn’t quite work out what it was. It was musty, sweaty but also sharp.

There was a hint of blood in the air.

“Who is it? How long have you been there?” the voice asked, growing higher pitched with fear.

Metal clacked somewhere in the same direction as the voice.

“I’m… I’m Grace. I just got here.” I paused before asking, “Who are you?”

There was nothing for a moment before the girl snuffled quietly.

“You’re not one of them,” she said, her voice thick with unexpected tears.

I froze, glancing towards the light before staring back into the darkness.

“How do you know?” I asked, fear creeping along my spine.

“They don’t care about my name. They just call me ‘subject number four’.”

The utter silence of the room seemed loud.

“There are others like you?” I asked, not even knowing who this girl was or why she was there.

She laughed hollowly before breaking off into hacking coughs that ended with her spitting something wet onto the floor.

“Not anymore. There were, or so I’ve heard. Before me, there was a boy but he died so I didn’t get to even meet him. I think this is the first time they’ve had two subjects in here at the same time. That’s what you are, right?” she asked slowly.

I swallowed, wanting to say ‘no’ but the word died on my lips.

Squeezing my hands into tight fists, I tried desperately to remind myself that it was just a fantasy, not real at all.

I could leave at any point.

But that hadn’t happened before. With that horrible monster thing, when I’d tried to leave, I’d been trapped there. It hadn’t been until my mom had jolted me out of it that I’d even been able to escape. I couldn’t rely on that happening again.

“I’m sorry, I’m talking too much. I remember how scared I was when I was first brought here. I’m Anna, by the way. You asked but I didn’t answer.” She paused before asking, “Are you okay?”

Somehow, she sounded like she was worried about me, despite how frail she sounded. I should have been worried about her, not the other way around.

I nodded before realising she wouldn’t be able to hear me and swallowed again.

“I’m okay. Is there a light in here that I can turn on?” I asked, my voice sounding strained even to my ears.

I hated being in the dark, both in my fantasy and real life. I just hated not being able to see what was happening around me or if there was anyone else there. For all I knew, there were a bunch of those horrifying monsters waiting just out of reach to grab me and rip me apart.

Maybe Anna was one of those monsters.

“Yeah, it’s over by the door.”

I looked around, still unable to make out much in the dark room. I’d thought my eyes might adjust but I still couldn’t see anything.

“Were you unconscious when you came in?” Anna asked kindly. “It’s over by the green light. There’s a plastic box around the switch but you can lift that pretty easily.”

I moved cautiously towards the green light, trying not to walk into anything else, but my hands brushed against the cold tile wall without incident. I recoiled immediately, not expecting it to be as icy as it was, before forcing myself to sweep my hand across the wall.

I found the plastic box, my hands shaking as I tried to lift it but it wouldn’t move.

“It’s on a hinge,” Anna said finally. “The front part pulls up.”

I nodded to myself as my fingers found the small lip and I pulled it upwards, reaching blindly into the box.

The lights flashed on and I groaned softly as I forced my eyes shut against the far too bright white glow that filled the room. Finally, I was able to peel them open and at first, I couldn’t see anything. The light reflected straight back at me from the white, smudge-covered walls, making it hard to focus on anything but before long, my eyes adjusted.

The floor was a barren concrete. There was a drain in the middle and a metal chair, that I must have kicked, lying on its side not too far from me. There were cameras in every corner, all of them pointing at the corner of the room I was trying not to look at.

I don’t know why I was avoiding looking at Anna but I was. I think it was a subconscious thing. I knew that, if I did look at her, I’d never be able to forget the vision. It was a moment, a brief moment of weakness, where I debated closing my eyes and fleeing back to the car with my mom. I could still feel the car seat underneath me, the phone clutched in my hands and I could almost hear the pounding radio.

But, I couldn’t run. I needed to look. I needed to know what was going on.

I shouldn’t have looked.

Anna looked so much worse than she had in my imagination. The girl was thin, almost impossibly so, and young. She looked as if she were on the brink of starvation, her skin stretched tightly over her cheekbones, her eyes sunken and hollow. Her hair was sparse, unevenly sheared, but I couldn’t look away from her wrists.

Thick manacles encircled her wrists, connected to the wall behind, with thick screws jutting out from handcuffs. Thin metal wires snaked out from the restraints, disappearing into her blood-crusted flesh.

Nausea threatened to overcome me and I stumbled backwards, leaning heavily against the ice-cold wall behind me.

“Sorry,” Anna said with a wince. “I’m sure it can be pretty jarring to see me for the first time.”

I shook my head, words not wanting to escape my mouth but I forced them out anyway.

“Are they… are they drilled into your bone?” I asked, my eyes still fixed on the huge screws that protruded from the cuffs.

Anna lifted her hands slightly, the metal chains clanking loudly.

“Oh, yeah… they didn’t use to be if that helps? They might not even use them on you, they just had a few near misses with me but I can’t exactly get far if I can’t bring my arms and legs with me. I almost did get away though.”

Despite her predicament, a wild smile appeared on her face.

“Why? What happened?” I asked, needing to know.

Anna’s grin faltered and she looked down.

“Do you know why you’re here?” she asked, not quite answering my question.

I shook my head, torn between lying and telling her the truth.

“When did they bring you in? Have you not had orientation?”

She sounded curious and a little surprised.

I hesitated.

I could tell her the truth. She wasn’t real, a figment of my own imagination couldn’t judge me.

“I… just appeared here,” I said haltingly. “I don’t know anything about this place.”

Anna stared at me in confusion, her face entirely blank.

Panic washed through me. Maybe I’d been wrong and she would judge me.

“You… just came here. By yourself? No one brought you here or forced you to come?” she asked finally.

“I guess not? It wasn’t exactly on purpose.”

“What happened?”

“I was just driving in the car with my mom and I saw something on a hill, like a satellite dish or something, and then I was here,” I explained.

Anna nodded as if that made a lot of sense to her.

“Do you do that a lot?” Anna asked. “Be in one place and then get triggered and go somewhere else.”

I hesitated again.

“Kind of. It’s only started recently though. Normally, I can control it. Like, I’ll go somewhere nice and do something fun but… earlier, something like this happened and I saw this… monster.”

A shudder tore through me at the memory and I felt its hand gripping my wrist painfully tightly.

“What kind of monster?” Anna asked, bringing me back to reality.

Or, not reality. My fantasy.

“I don’t know. It had… It had killed a bunch of people and it was eating their flesh, I think. It… it ran towards me. It wanted to kill me and I couldn’t escape.”

Anna nodded sagely.

“That happens sometimes but you normally wake up after you die. Mostly. Sometimes, it gets a little foggy. What did the monster look like?”

“Umm… tall and kinda like a skeleton. Pale, too. Sharp teeth and its eyes were like… entirely black,” I tried to describe it but knew that I’d done a bad job.

“Oh, yeah. That thing. I don’t know the name for it but they’ve killed me a few times. I mostly try to stay out of worlds with them in now.”

My mind stuttered then froze.

“You do it too?” I asked.

“Oh yeah. That’s why I’m here. My parents sold me to this place a little while back. Sorry, I thought you knew.”

“Wait… sold you?” I asked, taking another step towards her.

“Yeah. Not the best decision. For me at least, it was a pretty good one for them. They got a lot of money from it. Last I heard, they were able to move out of the shit hole I grew up in and both my sisters are now in a proper school so… at least there’s that?” Anna ended wistfully and looked down.

“What are they doing to you here?” I asked, my voice hushed with horror.

Anna looked up, almost a little sympathetically.

“I don’t know if I should tell you,” she said, her cracked lips ticking up faintly. “Maybe it’s best that you don’t know more about this place? Then, it’ll be harder for you to come back.”

That made my heart seize with fear and I stumbled towards the girl a little.

“Please, I need to know.”

Anna was silent for a moment, just staring at the floor in front of her.

“I can’t tell you everything,” she decided. “It’s best that you don’t know. If you know less about a place, your connection to it is weaker. You can’t just flit in and out. You should… you shouldn’t be here. They’re experimenting on me. Trying to work out what I can do and how but… I think that’s coming to an end.”

“What do you mean?” I asked sharply, moving closer towards her.

“They’ve learnt everything they need to from me. I can’t do anything else and they’ve improved all their tech and everything so… they don’t need me. I’m not strong enough to keep doing full transmigration, I’ll never have that ability no matter what they do to me.”

I didn’t understand what she was saying but there was a glint in her eyes.

Something told me that this was intentional. She was lying about what she could do on purpose. It was her final act of rebellion, her last stand.

“But, what do you mean? What are they trying to do to you? I don’t get it.”

She looked up at me almost pityingly.

“A lot. They’re trying to make more people like me. Trying to… harness my ability and the others before me. Use it to their advantage.”

“Why though?”

“Why does anyone do anything they do? Money, resources, to have power over others.”

I swallowed, trying to ignore the goosebumps that crept along my arms.

“But… what happens now? You said it’s coming to an end with you. Will they let you go?” I asked almost desperately.

Anna laughed, the sound raw and hacking but filled with genuine surprise.

“No,” she said finally, reaching to wipe the tears from her eyes but being unable to lift the manacles high enough. She gave up and let her hands drop again. “I’ll be dead soon. They don’t let us go. They never do.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“Why?”

“They can’t. I’d tell people what they’ve done to me here, even if I know they won’t believe me. It’s best for me to die.”

“That’s… that’s horrible. There has to be a way for you to survive. I can help you get out of here!” I said, my tone hushed but desperate.

Anna sighed.

“Oh, Grace. I wish you could but I’m fine with what’s going to happen,” she said with a gentle smile.

“How? How can you be okay with it? Are you not scared?”

Her smile was understanding and genuine.

“I don’t think I’m scared of anything anymore. Do you know how long I’ve been doing this?”

I shook my head.

“Years. Almost all my life. I realised what I could do as a kid and they found me not long after that. I ran, hid, tried to stop using my gift but… It was only a matter of time. It’s so hard living in your own messed-up world with no one who loves you and no way to protect the ones you love when you know you can escape to somewhere better. My sisters were happier when I was using my gift too. I could take the brunt of my parents’ anger instead of them. They were… it was just safer.”

“Then what?” I whispered.

“They found me. Well, kind of. I think their last subject must have died and they got desperate. I mean, with each one of us, they learn more about how to do this shit so if they don’t have anyone who can do it, they’re stuck, you know? So, I made the mistake of going to a new world, one I didn’t know anything about, and they were somehow already there. I don’t know how but they’re already in some worlds. They can travel to them easily so they were waiting for me.”

Anna glared at her cuffs furiously.

I glanced up at the cameras on the walls pointing at us before asking, “Have you been here ever since?”

She nodded sharply.

“Yep. I basically spend all of my time here or in the lab. Sometimes, I get to go to other worlds but not so much anymore.”

“Are you sure I can’t help?” I asked, moving closer towards her.

Anna started to open her mouth before her head snapped towards the door.

The glass square, covered with metal mesh, had lit up. The corridor beyond it, once darkened, was now filled with light.

“Grace, you need to go now,” she said, her voice low. “Stick to worlds you know are safe, try and resist the triggers and don’t trust anyone. These people are everywhere. Go now!”

I hesitated, my heart pounding with urgency.

“Is there nothing I can do to help you?” I asked, panic gripping me.

“If they catch you here, it’s over for both of us. They’ll kill me immediately and trap you. Go now!”

I swallowed and nodded, not liking it but accepting her words.

She wasn’t real. She wasn’t really going to die. She was just in my imagination so she’d live on somewhere in my mind, no matter what happened.

I closed my eyes, reaching towards that familiar dizziness but it was too slow. Anna growled, breaking me out of my concentration.

“Grace! Look at me,” she commanded, her voice surprisingly strong.

I opened my eyes, staring deeply into her bloodshot green eyes as the sound of footsteps moved closer. My breathing quickened at the thought of the people on the other side of the door finding me.

“Go now,” she whispered.

Dizziness overcame me instantly and I didn’t even have time to blink before I was back in the car with my mom.

A gasp slipped from my mouth and I pushed myself back against the seat, staring out the window in front of me and needing to convince myself that I was really back there.

Green hills surrounded us and there was no sign of the hill than had triggered my fantasy. I was safe.

My mom frowned and reached for the volume controls, turning the music down.

“What is going on with you today? First the nightmare and now whatever this is?” she asked, a hint of something close to concern warred with irritation in her voice.

“Nothing, just must not be feeling well. Didn’t sleep well last night,” I muttered, clutching my phone so tightly I was genuinely concerned about breaking it.

“Are you sure that’s it? You’re not… you’re not on drugs, are you?” she demanded sharply.

I let out a stuttering laugh, my breathing still quicker than I’d like.

“No, I’m not on drugs.”

“Good! Because my parents would never let me live that down! I mean, can you imagine…”

I started to tune her out, trying to focus on my breathing and pushing the image of Anna from my mind.

It was silly. Just a dumb fantasy.

I was clearly just shaken from the dream earlier. That made sense. It was my panic-ridden brain just grasping at straws and trying to make me spiral further.

That happened sometimes. If I read or watched something that scared me too much, I always made it worse for myself. I’d get fixated on it, convince myself that it was real or that there was actually a person living in the attic above my room, watching my movements through some hidden hole.

That was the last one I’d spiralled on. My brain liked to make me panic like that.

That’s what Anna was. She wasn’t real so I had nothing to fear.

“Can we stop soon?” I asked as soon as my mom paused to take a breath. “I need to use the bathroom.”