Ella had a dream.

She found herself sitting in a plush velvet chair in the corner of an unknown room. A bed covered in white curtains, an antique mirror, pale rays of light coming through the window. Everything looked old, but well maintained. She had the uncanny feeling that the room’s contents had been left to sit for an indefinite amount of time, although it didn’t seem as if they had been neglected.

Ella’s eyes drifted down to her own body. She could see her long hair hanging down over her shoulders. She was clothed in a magnificent dress.

It was adorned with gorgeous frills, like something out of a period piece. Who did it belong to?

She rose from the chair. From the window, she could see sprawling grass-covered hills. Wind swept through them, leaving a temporary path in its wake before the hills came to a rest again. Beyond that, she could make out a forest far off in the distance. From what she could see, there were no other buildings around.

She left the room and entered a long hallway. Immediately, she was aware of the sound of a piano. The melody was somber, but relaxing.

She walked down the hallway toward the sound, looking down at the deep red carpet. The walls were lined with long wooden tables, each of which displayed unlit candelabras. Was she actually in a church? She hadn’t gotten that feeling from it, but the décor made her reconsider the possibility.

Finally, she came to a door at the end of the hallway. Opening it up, she found an outdoor garden surrounded on all sides by the house.

Calling it a house was a bit of an understatement. It was more appropriate to call it a mansion. A large tree stood in the middle of the garden. She imagined that it would offer quite a large amount of shade, but with the sky gray with clouds, it was difficult to guage. Around the walls, there were lines of bushes covered in deep red roses. It was like she was walking into something out of a fairytale.

Ella took a step onto the grass. It was difficult to walk without keeping the bottom of the dress from dragging on the ground, so she held it up as she moved into the garden. Besides, she felt she would have to take care of it. It was delicate, and it didn’t belong to her.

She reached one of the rose bushes. Gently, she plucked one and brought it to her nose. The smell brought back memories of spring. Memories of playing with other children out in neighbor’s yards. Somehow, the sound of the piano still traversed the air despite her being outside, but she didn’t think much of it.

“Hello,” a voice came from behind her.

She turned with a start, but no one was in sight. She looked up to the windows of the house, but they were all shut tight.

“Down here.”

Ella lowered her gaze until she spotted a small figure below the tree. A black cat sat staring back at her.

Ella hesitated for a moment before answering. “Hello?”

“What are you doing here?” the cat spoke in a stern tone.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not sure how I got here.”

“I see.”

Ella looked around to once again make sure that there wasn’t someone else that was talking to her. When she was sure there wasn’t, she turned back to the cat. “Where am I?”

The cat stayed silent, staring at her from across the garden. Its yellow eyes were a stark contrast from the black of its fur.

Maybe someone was hiding behind the tree. She moved to take a step toward it, but the voice spoke again.

“It’s best for you to stay where you are.”

Ella stopped dead in her tracks. “Who are you?”

“I am a cat,” it said. “The important question is, who are you? And how did you get here?”

“I’m… Ella,” she said, fidgeting with the sides of her dress. “I’m not really sure where this is… or how I got here."

“Lies.”

Ella’s heart skipped a beat. “Excuse me?”

The cat moved and arched its back making its hair stand on end. “It’s time for you to leave.”

Ella could feel herself breaking out in a cold sweat. “What are you talking about?”

“You lie to everyone. You lie to yourself.”

Ella looked at the rose in her hand. The stem was hard, with a line running down it. The petals were faded and frayed like fabric. It wasn’t real.

“It’s going to get you,” the cat said. “Run.”

The piano’s melody suddenly ceased with a cacophony, like someone slamming down all the keys at once.

A shiver shot through her body. Picking up the sides of her dress, she rushed through the garden and to the door she had come from. Swinging it open, she was back in the hallway.

Then it was dark. In a blink of her eyes, it had become night. Rain pounded against the windows furiously, creating a loud banging sound as if something was trying to break in through them.

She hurried down the hallway. Through the sound of her own footsteps she heard a loud groan, followed by frantic running behind her.

The dress was making it difficult to move. It was going to get her killed. She grabbed at it with her fingernails, tearing it away from her body. Its fragile material ripped and came apart, stripping her naked and allowing her to break into a full sprint.

Behind her, something let out a shriek that made her blood run cold. She felt something pull at her from behind. Something was grabbing her hair.

“No,” she screamed. She flailed, and managed to pull off her wig in the process.

Adrenaline was bursting through his veins. The hallway didn’t seem to have an end to it.

“Please,” Ella yelled. “Someone help me!”

The rug seemed to come out from under his feet, and he was flung forward, landing hard on his back.

Then he found himself lying in bed, gasping for breath.

That was too real. Too intense, he thought. It was still dark out, but there was enough light to see around him. He was relieved to find that this time, the room was undoubtedly his own. He let out a sigh.

“Good morning.”

He gasped. He wanted to spring out of his bed, but his body felt paralyzed. Someone was in his room.

A dark figure bent over him, its blue eyes gleaming. “It’s just me.”

“K,” All of the adrenaline drained from his body. “I forgot about you,” he said. He would probably never get used to her.

Next to his bed was a teenage girl, around his age. Her shoulder length black hair hung down as she stared at him.

“You were making a weird face,” K smiled mischievously. “Having a good dream?”

“No. It was terrible,” Ella frowned. Being chased by a something horrible aside, he hadn’t particularly like being called a liar.

Sure, Ella might not have been his real name, but that didn’t mean he was lying. Using an alias online was normal. Even someone like Sadie Quasar was probably using one. John Doe was using one for sure. And he wasn’t being deceptive either. If someone online asked if he was male, he would always answer honestly.

He looked K up and down. “Why are you wearing my school girl outfit exactly?”

“Oh this?” K glanced down at herself, looking satisfied. “I can hide my tail under the skirt, that’s why.”

“Now that I think of it, a talking cat was in my dream,” Ella glared. “Was that you? First you invade my house, then my room and now you’re invading the privacy of my mind?”

“No one can do something like that, silly,” K laughed.

After these last few days, Ella wasn’t so sure. “Anyway, take it off,” he said, sitting up in his bed.

“Hateful!” K crossed her arms. “Why don’t you wear this to school, anyway?”

“Besides the obvious reason, my school doesn’t have uniforms,” Ella said.

“So why do you have it?”

“I just like it, okay?” he felt his cheeks burn.

“Then shaaaaaare,” she poked him on the nose with her finger.

“I don’t like you wearing my clothes,” he said. “Especially in front of my parents.”

“It’s fine,” K plopped herself down on the bed, letting her black tail drape outside of the skirt. It wiggled playfully on the bed. “They don’t know anything,” she grinned. “That goes for both of our secrets.”

“I still don’t like it,” Ella said.

He had to admit that she was right though; his parents had no idea who K really was. Then again, supposed that in some ways, they had no idea who he really was either.

However, in his case, it made sense that they didn’t know. He kept all of his clothes, wigs, and make up a secret, hidden in his closet. He went by ‘Ella’ on Clock Link. He was extremely careful to block people that he knew from being able to view his profile. As far as he knew, no one had made the connection between his online identity and his school persona.

In contrast, K’s case made absolutely no sense whatsoever. She had come completely out of thin air. A week ago, he had just come down to breakfast to find her sitting at the dining room table.

“Look,” his mother said. “Your cousin’s here.”

“My cousin?” he asked. K had been smirking at him from across the table.

“Her parents wanted her to go to school here in the city,” His mother seemed overjoyed. “She’ll be moving in with us.”

And just like that, a cousin he had never heard of moved into the room next to his. A cousin with a secret cat tail calling themselves ‘K’, as if that were a person’s name. Maybe she was an alien with no sense for human naming conventions. That would explain a lot.

He knew it was futile, but he decided to ask again. “What the hell did you do to my family?”

“Hmm?” K’s tail curled and slapped the bed. “Why do you gotta be like that, cuz?”

“Please don’t call me your cousin,” Ella said. “It creeps me out.”

“Well what am I supposed to call you?” K said as she kicked her legs. “I can’t call you Ella in front of your parents, silly. Can I?” she raised her eyebrows. “Can I?”

“Okay, cousin is fine,” Ella said. The last thing he needed was for her to go and do something like that. She was making his life difficult enough as it was. “Seriously, why are you doing this?”

K turned her head to the side. “Doing what?”

“Pretending to be my cousin, living in my house, wearing my clothes, following me around outside,” he pointed his finger at her. “I could go on and on.”

“I told you,” she said, falling back onto the bed. “I have to protect you.”

She had said the same thing the day she appeared. He had learned not to ask more than that. If he bothered her, she could shut his mouth with the flick of her wrist. Literally.

K had some kind of strange power. It was something similar to telekinesis. She could even lift him up off the ground if she wanted to. It honestly felt like he was losing it. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was going through some kind of psychic break and was hallucinating everything.

“You sure you don’t want to let me know that this is all a joke?” he asked. “It’s April Fools today.”

“Sorry, no joke.”

Ella let himself fall backward on his bed and let out an exasperated sigh.

“So it’s decided then,” K jumped up off the bed, her hands on her hips. “I hereby decree that as your cousin, I have unconditional rights to wear any and all clothing that you possess.”

“Wonderful.”

That’s how his day has started. He hadn’t been able to get back to sleep after his nightmare, and K hadn’t helped by showing up in his room. Things only got worse after school ended. She was waiting for him outside. Chances were, some of classmates had seen him leave with her.

“What’s the big deal?” K asked as the two of them made their way down the street.

“The big deal?” Ella said. “The big deal is that you’re messing up my life.”

“Oh come now,” K nudged him with her shoulder. “You don’t get to choose family.”

“I feel like I’m talking to a wall,” Ella looked up vacantly into the sky. It was clouded over like it would rain soon.

“Hey,” K suddenly stopped walking. “There’s a lot of people over there.”

Up ahead of them was a huge crowd. “I wonder if there’s some kind of event going on,” Ella said. As they got closer, he could see that police were everywhere. It looked like they were trying to get people moving. Some kind of accident must have happened.

“Let’s ask someone,” K said.

“Fine.”

After looking the crowd over, Ella spotted a white haired woman near the edge of the pack. He walked up behind her, tapping her gently on the shoulder.

The woman turned around. Her facial expression was blank. Ella was surprised to find that despite her hair, she was in her late twenties at most.

“Umm, excuse me,” Ella said. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Before the woman could answer, a man in a long brown coat walked up beside her. “Arlene, what cute kids you’ve found,” he said.

“They’re just passing by,” the woman said. Her voice was as cold as the aura she carried around her.

“I see,” he said with a smile. “Are the two of you a couple?”

“We’re cousins,” Ella found himself saying. Damn. K had already made it his default answer.

“Well that’s just as cute,” The man laughed. “It’s always nice to see kids getting along. Looks like you’re on your way back from school.”

“Yes,” Ella said.

“That’s assuming you didn’t skip that is,” he laughed. “I’m not ashamed to admit that I did my fair share of that.”

Ella wasn’t sure how to answer. He just knew that he wanted to try and end this conversation as quickly as possible.

“Are you in middle school?” the man asked.

“I’m a high school sophomore,” he replied. He knew that his frame was small, but he didn’t look like a kid.

“Well that’s great,” the man said. “Now, what were you asking my dreary friend here?”

The white haired woman really was dreary and she seemed to be in a bad mood too. Her eyes were like daggers. Despite the invasive questions from the man, the woman was making him more uncomfortable.

“We saw all the people and wondered what was going on.”

The man placed his hand on his chin. “Hmm, I think you can hear about it all over the news by now,” he let out a sigh. “It may be best for kids like you to skip it altogether, though.”

Ella exhaled through his nose. It was clear he had asked the wrong person, and an annoying one at that. He decided to just thank them and move on.

“More importantly,” The man reached into his jacket pocket. “Did either of you see this man on your way here?” He pulled out a grainy black and white picture. In it was skinny man with shaggy hair. His face was so bony; he was almost like a skeleton.

The man was running through a crowd of people. Ella couldn’t be sure, but it looked like he was splattered with something. It was difficult to tell with the quality of the photo, but he had a feeling it wasn’t paint. Something serious really had happened here. Was this the picture of a murderer? Was it a victim?

The brown-coated man’s expression changed considerably. It was as if he simply flipped a coin, going from a friendly eccentric to a stone-faced interrogator in a matter of seconds. “Does he look familiar?”

Ella felt his heart drop and his mouth go dry. With his words escaping him, he could only shake his head no.

The brown-coated man turned his head to K, then to the white haired woman. Finally, he turned back to Ella. “Alright,” his hard face seemed to melt away. “You kids run along now.”

“Let’s go,” Ella turned to K. They hurried away from the crowd. Glancing behind him, he could see the man and woman watching them leave.

They reached the bus stop. K hadn’t said a single word the entire walk. In this last week, he had never seen her so docile. He supposed that even for someone as strange as her, it was impossible not to feel nervous after talking to people like that.

“Do you think they were detectives?” he broke the silence.

“I guess,” she said.

The bus pulled up in front of them.

“Do you think someone was killed?”

K didn’t answer.

They got onto the bus, sitting down next to each other. Ella thought back to the dream he had the previous night.

Why was it still so fresh in his mind? His legs felt restless, like he was still running through that hallway. Leaning back into the seat, he closed his eyes. On the back of his eyelids, he could see the bloody man running. The picture seemed to come to life in front of him.