“I saw it,” Ella said. “I saw everything.”

He sat on the couch next to the crackling fire. Hannah and North sat across from him. The black cat sat curled up on the couch between the two of them.

“Oh?” Hannah exchanged a glance with North. “You did, did you?”

“Yes.”

“Are you here to judge me then?” Hannah giggled. “Slap me on the wrist?”

“No,” Ella said. “I’m here for answers. I’m… done with games, Hannah.” It felt a little strange to use her name, but strangely familiar. After all, he had essentially spent three months with her through North.

“And what exactly do you want answered?” she asked.

“Why is K still alive?” he bit down on his lip. “And why is she protecting me now?”

Hannah and North looked at each other again. “I’m afraid I wouldn’t know anything about that,” she said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ella said. “Why are you still hiding things from me?”

“We’re not hiding anything, sweetie,” Hannah slowly ran the tips of her fingers down her cheek. “You just aren’t asking the right questions.”

“Then what the hell am I supposed to ask?” Ella yelled.

The two across from him stared on in silence. Not a shred of emotion showed on their faces, and it only served to make Ella angrier.

“Alright then,” Ella tried to calm himself down. “You both said I’ve been here before, right?”

“That’s right,” Hannah nodded.

“How long… have I been coming here?”

Hannah let out a giggle. “You’re very interesting.”

“Sorry,” Ella snapped. “I think I missed the joke.”

“It’s just odd being asked a question like that,” Hannah said. “You were here long before we were, after all.”

It took a moment for the words to sink in. “What… do you mean?”

“He doesn’t remember,” North finally spoke.

“No, he just doesn’t want to,” Hannah smiled. “He wants to live a lie.”

Just like the cat, she was accusing him of lying. This time, he had a feeling this wasn’t about his online persona. He supposed it probably never was.

“I’m not lying about anything,” Ella said. “Even if I’ve been coming here as long as you say I have, I really can’t remember.”

“No, you’re lying to yourself,” Hannah leaned forward. “Do you know why I know that?”

Ella was taken aback by her sudden movement, and couldn’t respond.

“It’s because I lied to myself every day of my life,” she started speaking faster. “I woke up every morning and looked in the mirror, and do you know what I told myself? I looked myself straight in the eye and convinced myself that I was special.”

“Special?” Ella found himself repeating the word.

“That’s right,” a sinister grin came over Hannah’s face. “I thought that I wasn’t like other girls. I was different. In just a matter of time, I would become someone important. I would fall in love. My life would be like a fairytale.”

Ella didn’t understand what she was trying to tell him, but he felt a strange uneasiness start to bubble up inside of his chest.

“And then I became a magician, and I met North,” Hannah sat back down. “And then… I really was special. Or that’s what I told myself, anyway. That’s… what you told me.”

“I’ve… never said anything like that to you before.”

“In any case,” Hannah smiled. “I’m sure you know how my fairytale with North turned out.”

“Why did you do it?” Ella asked. He glanced over at North, but his expression was completely blank, even when they mentioned him by name. “If you really loved North… then why?”

“I thought that I was above the rules other people followed,” Hannah said. “And he reminded me that I wasn’t. I couldn’t do what I did and have the love story I wanted. I… wasn’t special.”

He studied her face for a few moments in silence. She was still smiling, but it was the saddest smile he had ever seen. It didn’t excuse everything he saw her do, but he couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for her.

“So what does that have to do with me?” Ella asked. “How does any of that make me a liar?”

“You’re the exact opposite of me,” Hannah looked to her side and pet her cat. It stirred slightly, but didn’t wake up. “I was someone insignificant that wanted to be special,” she looked back up at him and their eyes met. “You’re someone special that wanted to be insignificant.”

“You’re insane,” Ella’s stomach churned.

“I wanted to be like you,” Hannah cut him off. “And you wanted to be like me. You told me that yourself.”

“No, I…” Ella could feel himself breaking out in a cold sweat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“When you saw what happened,” Hannah started. “Did you follow me through the gate?”

“No… I stayed with Arlene.”

“That explains why you still don’t remember then,” Hannah sighed. “If you had followed me, you would have seen the moment I arrived at this house.”

Alarms were going off in Ella’s brain. He wanted her to stop. He didn’t want to hear her speak anymore.

“You would have seen yourself before you decided to try and become human.”

“Shut up!” Ella screamed. He felt the house sway, and a loud crack rang out.

“Do you remember now?” Hannah laughed.

“Stop!” Ella yelled again. He covered his ears with his hands and closed his eyes. The house was shaking now. It felt like an earthquake. The building wasn’t going to hold up.

Then, all at once, it stopped.

Ella slowly opened his eyes. He was no longer inside the room. Instead, he was sitting beneath the large tree in the garden at the center of the house. The sky was gray, but the sudden change from the dimness of the piano room made his eyes sting.

There was a noise from across the garden, and he looked up to see Hannah standing there. Her eyes were wide, and she was shaking uncontrollably.

“What are you?” he found himself asking. The words came out without any effort on his part. The fact that he even started speaking in the first place surprised him.

“My name is… Minerva,” she said. She looked around at the walls surrounding the garden. “Do you live here?”

“I guess,” Ella said. Once again, it felt like his mouth was on autopilot. “I’ve never been anywhere else. This is all I know. My… home.”

“Oh…” Minerva choked out.

“Are you a familiar?” he asked. “I’ve never seen someone like you before.”

“No,” Minerva shook her head. “I’m a magician. I’m… human.”

Even with her face twisted in terror, she looked absolutely beautiful. He had never seen something so enchanting. A strange feeling overcame him, and he felt like he could burst into tears at any moment. She was a goddess.

“You’re the first human I’ve ever seen,” Ella said, his voice quivering. He could feel her essence. It was as if he had spent his entire life observing fake flowers, to one day find a real one sprout up in front of him.

“Are you… a familiar then?” Minerva asked. She lifted her dress slightly and took a few steps through the grass toward him. Her long brown hair swayed ever so slightly with every step she took.

“No,” Ella stood up. “I’m not like them. I can’t… go away like they can.”

Minerva seemed like she had her guard up. After he stood up, she didn’t move any closer.

“Why did you come here?” he asked. “I don’t get many visitors… obviously.”

“I don’t even know anymore,” Minerva said. “I… think I might have done something that I can never take back.”

“Something you regret?”

“I killed my brother. My classmates too,” she was almost whispering. “Their bodies are by the front door.”

“Is that bad?” he asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Is killing bad?”

“Well, yeah,” Minerva didn’t hesitate to answer, but her own words seemed to surprise her. “Most of the time, anyway.”

“Did they deserve it?”

“I… don’t know,” she knelt down, staring at the ground. “I just wanted to be different. No… I guess I wanted to be someone different than I was. Someone that wouldn’t put up with everything they put me through.”

“Someone different,” Ella said. He no longer had control. He was a prisoner in his own body. These words couldn’t be his own, so why was he saying them?

“I don’t think so,” Ella walked a few steps forward. Minerva didn’t seem to mind, so he continued until he knelt down next to her. “I think you have every right to be who you want to be.”

“Even if I’ve done something unforgivable?”

“You’re special,” Ella put his hand on her shoulder. The hand was completely unrecognizable. It was like his skin was made of black sludge. This wasn’t his body.

“I’m… special?” Minerva looked up at him, her eyes darting around wildly.

“What is it that you want?” Ella asked. “I can help you.”

“How?”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “Just tell me what it is.”

“I… want to be the strongest magician. I want real magic… Not the cheap parlor tricks I’ve been practicing up until now,” Minerva put her hand on his, squeezing it desperately. “I want another chance.”

“I can give you that,” Ella felt a chilling smile creep across his sludge covered mouth.

Minerva perked up. “You can? You can really do something like that?”

“We can make a trade,” he said.

“A trade?”

“Yes,” his mouth was practically gushing with slime now. He wanted to vomit, but he wasn’t in control of his body anymore. “I can give you the power that you want. I can give you a second chance.”

Minerva gasped, and she smiled. She smiled at him. It was so beautiful that he felt like he could die.

“All you have to give up is your humanity,” he said.

The smile disappeared from Minerva’s face, and the light faded from her eyes. “My what?”

“I want to be human,” he gripped her hand tighter. “I want to be like you.”

“What does that mean?” she asked. “I won’t be… human anymore?”

“That’s right,” he let go of her and stood up. “I really don’t know what it will feel like, though. You might not even be able to tell the difference.”

Minerva glanced back behind her, and then back to him. “Will I be able to bring back my brother?” she stood up.

“If they’re here, you shouldn’t have any trouble bringing them back,” he said. “They’ll be familiars, though.”

“Will they still be themselves?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he could feel himself smiling again. “I’ve never heard of people being summoned as familiars before.”

She was quiet.

“I think it’s a fair trade,” he said. “You get your life back, better than it ever was. I get your humanity.”

“Will it hurt?” she asked.

“Probably.”

Minerva waited a few moments before finally answering. “Okay.”

He reached out a grabbed her around the wrist. Immediately, dark smoke came from where their skin touched.

Minerva started screaming, but she didn’t struggle. The smoke got heavier and heavier, as dark energy started to swirl around them. Her brown hair turned white, and then quickly dyed to a deep black.

She collapsed.

Ella woke up thrashing in his bed.

“Ella!” K yelled. She was standing over him, shaking him by his shoulders. He stopped and stared up at her.

“What’s going on?” K looked terrified. “Are you okay?”

Ella was suddenly overcome with the urge to throw up. He threw her hands off of him and ran out of his room to the bathroom. He vomited, and with every heave, the details of his dream returned to him.

Whose memories were those? Why had he seen them? What did it mean?

No, he wasn’t stupid. If what he saw was true, then he knew exactly what it meant. He wasn’t human.

“It was just a dream,” he told himself before nearly throwing up again. “I’m just going crazy. That’s all.”

“Ella, what’s wrong?” K stood in the doorway. “Why are you talking to yourself?”

“I’m just under a lot of stress right now, right?” he asked. “What happened with Urara… it’s just making me kind of crazy, right?”

“Uhh, yeah?” K narrowed her eyes.

Wait. He could feel something. He could feel K standing by him.

It wasn’t intuition, it felt as strongly as if he were touching her with his own hand. He could feel his parents in their room too. Farther away, he could feel other people, although he had no idea who they were.

Except for one, and he knew who they were right away. The image of her holding K’s body flashed in his head. He could feel Arlene.

“K, we have to go,” he stood up, wiping his mouth.

“Huh?” K raised one of her eyebrows. “You wanna go to school? Didn’t you just like, throw up your guts?”

“No, forget about that,” he said. “Look, I don’t really get it, but we have to go. Now.”

“Whatever you say,” K shrugged.

The two of them got dressed and left the house. He refused to tell K where they were going. If she knew they were going to where Arlene was, she would stop him, and he wasn’t going to let that happen. They got on the bus and headed downtown.

He followed the signal as they walked down the busy street. With every step he took, he felt Arlene get closer.

“This is it,” he said. They stood in front of an apartment complex across from a convenience store.

“What is this place?” K asked. “Don’t tell me you have a girlfriend now. You just couldn’t stand to be away from her, huh? Hopefully your breath doesn’t smell weird after, uh… throwing up so much.”

“Yes, that’s exactly it,” he dismissed her.

“Seriously?” K seemed off put. “Why did you want me to come?”

“You have to protect me and all that,” he said with as little emotion in his voice as possible.

“Hmm, I guess so,” K put her hand on her chin. “You better not do anything gross with her though. I don’t wanna see that.”

“Don’t worry,” Ella walked through the front door of the complex. “Nothing gross.”

He walked past the front desk, avoiding eye contact with the man standing there. His confidence seemed to work, because the man didn’t even say a word to him.

He and K entered the elevator. What floor was she on? He closed his eyes and tried to focus. The third floor. He was sure of it. He pressed the button.

When the elevator arrived at the third floor, he rushed out.

“Jeez, you’re in a hurry,” K laughed.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Ella said, walking briskly down the outdoor hallway.

“I mean it,” K frowned. “This better not be for gross stuff.”

This was it. He stood in front of the door to one of the apartments. There was a smile pile of packages next to the door, but he didn’t pay attention to them. He took the doorknob in his hand and threw the door open.

He immediately regretted his decision.

The first thing he noticed was the rotten smell inside the room. The second was Arlene standing in front of him with her gun drawn.

“Don’t shoot!” Ella yelled, putting his hands up.

“K…” Arlene’s eyes were wide. She lowered her gun.

“Hey, don’t look at me,” K groaned. “I thought we were here to meet a cute girl.”

“How… did you find this place?” Arlene turned back to him. She looked down at her gun but then returned it to her jacket.

“I don’t really know to be honest,” Ella said, his hands still in the air. “I just knew you were here.”

“He’s acting weird,” K said. “How was I supposed to know that he’d find you like this?”

“Forget it. Just come in,” Arlene motioned with her hand. “It would be best if we didn’t talk out here.”

Ella took a deep breath and lowered his arms. He walked inside, with K directly behind him. The door closed behind them.

“Ugh, what’s that smell?” Ella covered his nose as they entered the one room apartment.

“Gross,” K frowned and did the same.

The floor was covered in wrappers and pizza boxes, but the stench seemed too powerful to be from that alone. Was there raw meat sitting out somewhere?

“My partner,” Arlene said.

Ella glanced around the room, but he didn’t see anyone.

“The nauseating smell is my partner,” Arlene continued, her voice monotonous. “He found out about K’s existence. I was forced to eliminate him.”

He remembered that creepy investigator he met on the street. She killed him? What was wrong with this woman? With each passing second, he was starting to regret coming here.

“Why… couldn’t he know about K?” Ella looked over at the cat tailed girl next to him. Other than her telekinetic powers, she was mostly harmless.

“K is not like most familiars,” Arlene said. “They would… never allow me to keep her.”

Ella couldn’t argue there. Even with his limited knowledge of magic, he understood that a human being brought back to life as a familiar wasn’t normal.

“Would you like to sit down?” Arlene pointed at some chairs in the center of the room.

“Uh, no, that’s alright,” Ella said. If someone was actually killed in here, he didn’t exactly want to start leaving DNA behind.

“How much do you know?” Arlene asked.

“I know what happened between you and Hannah,” Ella said. “And I know what you did so that you could get K back.”

Arlene didn’t looked surprised. Then again, with her expressionless face, she didn’t really look anything. “I see.”

“But that’s it,” Ella glared at her. “I have no idea why any of this is happening now.”

Arlene moved across the room to the small kitchen. She leaned up against the counter and crossed her arms. “I suppose you would like an explanation.”

“You’re just going to tell me?” Ella clenched his fists. “Getting anything out of K has been like pulling teeth.”

K puffed up her cheeks. “Hey, it’s not like I had a choice.”

“I assigned K as your bodyguard to protect you from someone,” Arlene said.

“Well, yeah,” Ella said. That much was obvious.

“When I brought K to the gate, I gained the ability to sense mana through touch,” Arlene went on. “Since then, I’ve had contact with hundreds of magicians and familiars.”

She could sense magic? Is that how he found her?

“Magicians have a frequency to them, and familiars have their own as well. With just a handshake, I can immediately differentiate the two,” she said. “However, weeks ago, I came into contact with you on the street by chance.”

Arlene breathed in deeply. The more Ella looked at her expressionless face, the more he realized how fatigued she looked.

“I knew right away that you were different,” Arlene said. “Your frequency was one that I have only felt once in my entire life. The frequency I felt as I put my hands past the threshold of the gate.”

His heart was beating faster. “What does that mean?” he asked.

“It means that you are neither human, nor magician, nor familiar,” she said. “And I understood right away the gravity of that. You have no idea the lengths people would go to in order to study you if they knew what you were.”

“No… I’m just human,” Ella’s voice started to tremble.

“That is why I had K stay with you,” Arlene ignored him. “And from what I have observed, it would seem that another party is already after you.”

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Ella asked. "Do you have any idea how much I've been through?"

“Perhaps I was naïve in believing that your powers might never awaken,” she sighed. "If I informed you of your position, I had no guarantee which side you would take."

“What side I would take?” Ella clenched his teeth. “You ruined my life for that? Why couldn't you have just left me alone?"

"I'm afraid that was impossible for me to do," Arlene said. "Because you're the last chance of me ever getting my sister back."

"Your sister? She doesn't even remember you!" Ella yelled. "What about my parents, huh? Why do they think K is my cousin?”

Arlene looked to K, but didn’t speak to her. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. I instructed K to remain out of sight when it came to your co-inhabitants.”

“That… that doesn’t make any sense,” Ella mumbled. “You had to have… casted some kind of spell on them.”

“Magic cannot be used to brainwash others,” Arlene said. “It must have been an order you unconsciously gave your familiars.”

“Familiars?” Ella’s mind was racing. “Why are you calling my parents that?”

“I told you,” Arlene’s voice came out cold. “I am capable of discerning a familiar’s identity with a single touch.”

The realization crushed him. If he really could sense magic now, then why was he able to sense his parents? It didn’t make any sense. None of this made any sense.

He felt his knees buckle.

“Ella!” K grabbed him from behind. His muscles felt weak, and his vision was fading.

Something went off in his brain like a siren, and his strength returned to him. He found his footing again.

“I’m sorry, Ella,” K hugged him from behind. “I didn’t know. I swear. I didn’t know.”

“Urara…” Ella said.

“Huh?”

“I… can feel him,” he said. “We… have to find him.”

His head was pounding. This couldn’t be real. This was all a dream.

No, this had to be a nightmare.

He felt something strike his head, and his body swayed. He was out before he even hit the floor.