I had gone to sleep peacefully for the past few days. While I was worried about poor Alyssa and her nightmares, I was relieved to find that Dianite had sent none to me.

That changed the night I returned from vacation.

The dream was much more vivid than any other I had experienced before, which scared me right away. I liked the feeling of drifting, half-asleep, through my dreams. I was looking down at grass. When I lifted my head, I was greeted with the Realm of Mianite. Some things looked slightly different, and all of the structures that we had added were gone.

"Where am I?" I muttered. I turned around to get a full glance at my surroundings, and yet out a small yelp. Me, Jeriah, Spark, and Alyssa were laying in a pile behind me. It must have been the moment when we first arrived, because Alyssa looked no older than six or seven. Blood was trickling down our faces. This must have been the point where the priest came and rescued us, only to throw us in jail.

"Shall I keep them here?" someone behind me asked. I whirled back around to face a smiling Dianite. My instincts told me to attack him, but I knew better than that now. The only way to get to Dianite was to not let anything get to me.

"If you want." I sat down on the grass. "Doesn't matter to me."

He grinned. "It doesn't? Spectacular." He pulled out a long, thin diamond blade and walked over to the pile of bodies. He moved us apart with his feet, and pointed his blade at Alyssa's neck.

"Go ahead. See if it bothers me," I challenged him.

He moved his blade up slightly, drawing a thin line across her cheek. "Shall I stop now, Mot? Is it too much for you to bear yet?"

"That's up to you to decide," I answered. "That's not my daughter. It's an image."

He shrugged. "I'll continue, then." He pointed the blade at her stomach. Her shirt had risen while she was falling, and the bottom of her stomach was exposed. He drew a slightly thicker line across it, and blood leaked out instantly. He then moved the sword to her leg, and drew another line all the way down to her ankle. Blood poured over the side and stained the ground.

"You think this will bother me?" I snorted. "Nice try. My daughter is back in her room, sound asleep and uninjured."

Dianite laughed so hard he shook. "Is that what you think? Do you think my threat to harm her was just empty talk? Did you underestimate my abilities, Mot?"

The laugh frightened me, but I was going to stay strong. It's not real. "Dianite, you're trapped in the nether. You can't hurt her in the overworld. I'm not an idiot."

"I can't hurt her myself, no. But who's to say that I can't convince her to harm herself?" He grinned at the look on my face. He had finally gotten to me.

"Alyssa wouldn't self-harm. She may have depression, but it's getting better for her. It isn't going to go to that level," I said firmly, trying desperately to believe my own words.

The devil shrugged. "Maybe not. But if she thinks she's doing something good for herself, there's no telling what she might do." I had no reply, so he continued, stepping closer and closer to me. "Tell you what, Mot. I'll kill your dream-self, and allow you to wake up to witness the event. Once you're awake, go check on your precious daughter. See if she's resting peacefully in her room, like you think she is. If you were wrong, and I was right, go to the spot we're in right now." He looked down at the bleeding six-year-old Alyssa. "You may see something similar to this. And then, maybe you'll learn not to underestimate me."

"This can't be..." I whispered, panic slowly filling me. I stood completely still as Dianite walked over, holding up his blade, and cut right through my throat. Still trembling, I sat bolt upright in my bed.

Terror seizing me, I flung the covers off of me and tore out the door. I dashed down the hall to Alyssa's room, and saw that her door was open. I leaned inside and was greeted by an empty bed. She was actually gone.

"No! NO!" I screamed. My words echoed around the empty castle. Only silence followed it. I turned and took off, trying not to fall down the ladder in my attempt to get out the door. What had Dianite said? Go to the spot we're in right now. She's at spawn. Why is she at spawn?

The horse was startled at my arrival, but I didn't have any time to waste feeling bad for it. I jumped on its back and sped off in the direction of spawn, terrified of the sight that might greet me. It was barely past midnight, which only added to my confusion.

"Alyssa!" I started to call once I was getting closer. "Alyssa, are you there?" In the distance, I saw a figure laying on the ground. My head was spinning, and I was surprised I didn't faint.

I finally got close enough to see that it definitely was Alyssa at spawn. I jumped off the horse and ran over to her. Just as Dianite had predicted, there was a long cut on her cheek, and even longer gashes running down her stomach and leg.

"WHAT DID DIANITE DO?" I yelled, tears rising to my eyes. "WHAT DID HE DO, ALYSSA?"

She attempted to answer me between sobs. "He... tricked me... it was a trap!"

"What was a trap?" I was panicking. "I need to get you out of here, now! Oh my gods, what am I going to do?"

"Dianite... told... I'm an idiot!" she hollered, covering her blood-soaked face with her hands. I lifted her up and carried her while jogging toward the priest's house. What else could I possibly do?

"It's going to be okay, Alyssa," I said, even though I didn't believe my own words. "Just calm down and everything will be fine."

I finally reached the priest's house, and had Alyssa stand again. She put her weight on her good leg, and leaned against me to make up for her injured leg. Sweat pouring down my face, I knocked on the door as loudly as I could. If I had hit it any harder, I probably would've knocked it down.

A few minutes of knocking later, the priest burst through the door. He looked mildly annoyed, with messed-up hair and bags under his eyes, until he saw Alyssa's state.

"She's badly injured," I stated the obvious. "Can you help her, please?"

"Come inside," he said, rushing to prepare a place for her to lay down on. "What on earth happened?"

Alyssa was panting and still crying, but she managed to talk through the pain. "In... in the nightmare that Dianite gave me, there was a dead girl speaking to me. She told me that... that this world is full of nothing but fear and pain. That the only way out of it is to escape this world." She winced as pain shot through her again. "She told me that the portal our alternates jumped through was still active. I... I believed her. The second I woke up, I went out of the house and traveled to Aethoria and jumped into the void. I truly believed that it would... it would take me home." She let out a small sob. "When it's not a portal, I guess, it cuts up the left side of your body and dumps you at spawn. So that's how I ended up here." She stared tearfully up at me. "How did you know to find me?"

"Dianite told me in the dream he gave me," I said quietly. "He wanted me to find you so I could realize that he was more powerful than I had believed. He said that if you weren't in your bed, that I should check spawn."

The priest looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack. "We have to do something... somehow...."

"No," Alyssa whispered, covered in her own blood, sweat, and tears. "There's nothing we can do."