Three days had passed and I was in the elevator, Kate was next to me, we were going down to the lobby to check out the city. The elevator stopped and we got out. Parker was sitting behind his desk, his eyes didn't move so I assumed he wasn't activated. We walked by his desk, "Hey Parker," I said to him. His eyes seemed to light up, then he looked at me and tried his best to smile. It looked more like a person awkwardly smiling than a genuine smile, At least he's trying, I thought.

We walked on to the streets. From what I've heard from Jane, we were in a less populated part of the city, and yet, the sidewalks were still crowded to hell. The entire time I was worried I would lose Kate. Eventually, we went into a mostly empty gas station. Besides for the cashier looking a bit more awkward than your average human, everything looked normal. There was one other person in there, something about him looked familiar. We walked by him, he was faced towards one of the shelves, so I couldn't see his face but I could see that he was wearing a blue jacket and jeans. He had blonde hair. I was confident I knew him, so I tapped him on the shoulder while Kate continued to walk. He turned his head, I could see his blue eyes and blonde stubble covering his face.

I stepped back from surprise, "Daniel?" I said.

He rubbed his eyes and squinted at me, "Landin?"

I took a step closer to him. My eyes weren't deceiving me. Before I knew it, we were hugging, "How long has it been since I've seen you? Six years?" Daniel said, I could tell he was happy to see me, as was I. He let go, "Why the hell are you in Glassrose?"

"I could ask the same thing," I said, my smile was hard to hide.

Kate came from around the corner, "Landin, what's going on-" her expression completely changed when she saw Daniel, "Daniel?!" she said, nearly running into his arms.

She wrapped her arms around him. Daniel returned the hug, "It's good to see you too Kate." They stopped hugging. Kate came to my side, "Seriously though, why are two here?"

I leaned against the shelve, "I guess I forgot to text you. Our new foster home is here," I said. I looked him in the eyes, "What about you? What brings you to Glassrose?"

He rubbed the back of his head, "Well, me and my family moved here five years ago. I just never told you guys cause I never thought you two would end up here."

Kate's smile was evident, "Believe me when I say neither did we," she said.

Daniel smiled before turning around and searching through the shelf, "So, how long have you two been here?" he asked.

"About four days, but this is the first time we've been out of the apartment," I said.

He grabbed a bag of chips, "How much of the city have you seen?"

Kate snapped her fingers, "A bit of downtown and the, uh...," she turned to me, "What's it called?" Kate looked at me like I knew what she was talking about, I shrugged. "You know, the place we're living at?"

"Oh, you mean Skyline Towers?" Daniel said.

Kate turned to him, "Yeah, that place."

Daniel walked up to the cashier, "Well then, let's change that," he said while looking at us. He turned to the cashier, "I would like to buy this," he said.

The cashier seemed to come to life when she heard Daniel, similar to how Parker did for me, "How would you like to confirm your purchase?" she asked him in a "too happy" voice.

"Iris Scan," Daniel said dully.

The cashiers' eyes began to glow. When they started to dim, she opened her mouth, "Thank you, Daniel. Your purchase has been confirmed."

Daniel grabbed the bag of chips and walked out, me and Kate followed. Just before I walked out of the store, I turned to the cashier, "Have a nice day," I said to her. She just looked at me confused before the door shut in my face.

I caught up with Daniel and Kate, they had seemed to forgot I existed. They were constantly staring at each other. After a while of amously walking the streets, the surroundings started to change. There were fewer skyscrapers and more comfy looking houses. The roads got smaller and grass was starting to bleed in. Eventually, rows of identical houses were starting to appear. We started to walk down one of these rows. The entire walk, Daniel and Kate had been talking. Whenever I tried to join their conversation I was gently ignored.

Daniel stopped walking in front of a house, a red car was parked next to it. "And there it is," he said, looking at the house.

Daniel walked up to the door, "What is this place?" I asked.

He looked back at me, "My house. If you were paying attention to our conversation, then maybe you would have known that," he said with a sudden attitude. Before I could say anything back, he walked into his home, "Come on in," he shouted back at us. Kate eagerly went in.

I sighed, then James appeared next to me. He pointed at the house, "And that's why I don't like him," he said. I rolled my eyes at him before following Kate's footsteps, "What? I think it's a valid reason to dislike someone," he said, following behind me.

I walked into the house and was met with a living room. Despite there being two couches, it was average in every sense of the term, Look, I know he can be a bit of an ass sometimes, but that's just how he shows his love, I thought to James.

He walked through Daniel and pretended to flop down on the couch, "Pffff, yeah right. He's never done that with Kate."

Before I could think of anything to say back, Daniel started talking "Make yourself's at home," he sat down through James, "What's mine is also yours and all that jazz."

James quickly floated up, "Hey! Watch it, buddy," he said to Daniel as if he could hear him. Unsurprisingly, Daniel didn't react.

Kate quickly took a seat next to Daniel, "Man this place looks nice," she said looking at him.

I looked around, "Eh, not really. It's actually pretty bland," I said taking a seat on the couch in front of them. James pretended to join me.

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Kate looked at me with an annoyed expression, but when she saw Daniel's smirk, it quickly changed, "Yeah, blame that on my parents. They aren't exactly the best decorators," he said.

I looked at a picture on the wall, it showed Daniel, his mom, and his dad. They seemed happy. I looked at Daniel, "Where're your parents at?" I asked him.

He thought for a second before answering, "My dad's out of town and my mom is hanging out with friends out of town. Neither of them should be back until tomorrow."

Kate looked up at him, "So it's just the three of us until we decide to leave?" she asked.

He cringed, "Well not exactly. You see, I'm throwing a party later tonight."

I was slightly blown away by his statement and my face showed it, "A party!? Since when did you get enough confidence to throw one of those?" I asked.

He smirked, "A lot of things change in six years, including confidence."

"Yeah I guess you're right," I said. I looked around, "Hey, where's your bathroom at? I have a headache," I said noticing the increasing pain in my head.

He sat up and pointed up a staircase, "It's up there, it should be the first door on the left."

I sat up, "Thanks," I said. Daniel nodded before sitting back down.

Following Daniel's instructions, I walked into the bathroom. At this point, my headache wasn't too bad, but it was getting worse by the second. The bathroom looked like your typical bathroom but something about it made me feel uneasy. I looked into the mirror, my tired eyes stared back. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something looked off about my reflection. I tried calling James out, but that only caused my headache to get worse. I heard a noise I can't quite describe behind me. I quickly turned around, nothing caught my eye at first. But then I noticed this small picture sitting on top of the toilet. Even though the rest of the room stood still, the picture shook like a light earthquake was going on.

I took a step closer to it, my brain screamed at me in response. Every being of my soul told me to stop in my tracks, but nonetheless, I took another step forward. The ground started to shake, lightly at first, but then the ground shook like a bomb was going off. I nearly lost my balance a few times. Another step. The picture started to shake more than the ground. It looked like it was flickering in and out of existence. I could hear faint whispering in my ears. The words they were saying were impossible to make out, but it creeped me out nonetheless. I looked around, the bathroom walls looked like they wanted to collapse. The door I walked through was gone, replaced by darkness. The mirror was cracked and my reflection had red eyes replacing my normal green. My jacket was torn and looked ancient and my skin was pale. I looked back at the picture, it had appeared to get closer. Despite my distance from it, the image was impossible to make out. The pain in my head was unbearable at this point. I reached out for it, something screamed at me from behind. I turned around, my reflection wasn't mimicking my movements. It looked at me with scared eyes. I looked back at the picture and grabbed it. Everything stopped.

It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulder. Finally, I could see what the picture showed. A girl with blonde hair and green eyes and a man with brown hair stood next to each other, a man reassembling me stood in the middle of the two, he had dark red eyes. They looked happy. I looked back at my reflection, whatever was attempting to be it stood close to the mirror, its head down. You could see it's eyes glow red. I walked up to the mirror to get a closer look, they looked ashamed almost. Suddenly, the walls collapsed like shattered glass. I looked down at the floor, it started to break into pieces. Darkness was behind both of them. I looked back at the mirror only to see that it had vanished, the thing stood in its place. It looked up at me with a smile I'll never forget. I started to back away but the floor was getting smaller and smaller.

I was backed into a corner as the thing slowly but surely made it's way to me. It got to the point where I could feel it's breath on me. Without any warning, it grabbed me by my throat and lifted me up like I was nothing. It got only a few inches away from my ear, "You Are Nothing," it whispered in it's chilling voice. I tried to fight back as it lifted me above the endless nothingness below me, but I was too weak to do anything to it. I looked at it with desperate eyes, it laughed before dropping me into the nothingness.

My eyes shot open as I gasped for air. I jumped up from the cold tiled floor and looked around, I was back in the bathroom. I looked on top of the toilet, the picture was nowhere to be found. I looked at the mirror, my green eyes stared back. Everything was in order. I noticed thumping music and the beer cans that lay scattered across the floor. I pulled out my phone and looked at the time, "8:00 PM" it read. 8:00 PM!? When did this happen? I thought.

I opened the bathroom door, two people were making out on the other side. I stared at them, it looked like they were ignoring me. Is this the party? I thought. I walked down the stairs, the living room was crowded with people. I pushed my way through the crowds keeping an eye out for Daniel or Kate. The music was so loud that I couldn't hear myself think and the people reeked of alcohol. Some of them looked twice my age, others looked younger. I struggled to make my way into the kitchen. I could barely make out Kate and Daniel having a chugging contest, it was impossible to tell what they were drinking. A crowd surrounded them I tried calling both of their names out, but the blaring music overpowered my voice.

Daniel finished first. He slammed the bottle of whatever he was drinking onto the floor, it shattered everywhere. Kate dropped her bottle. Both of their faces were red and they looked overjoyed. They stared at each other in the eyes as they slowly approached each other. I could guess what was about to happen so I pushed my way through the crowd as fast as I could. Right before their lips intertwined, I grabbed Kate's arm. She looked at me with a shocked gaze, Daniel as well. It looked like Daniel was saying something, but I either couldn't hear him or chose not to listen. I dragged Kate outside of the house, Daniel steadily following us.

The cold air hit my face as I pushed open the door. I could finally make out what Daniel was saying, "It's not what you think Landin," he said over and over again like a broken record.

I stopped at the end of the house's walkway and let go of Kate's arm. I quickly turned around, "What was it than Daniel? Huh?" I nearly screamed, my blood was boiling at this point. He looked at a loss of words. I rubbed my forehead, "Six years... Six years and the first thing you two try to do is make out," I said. Kate started to hiccup, she could barely hold her balance, "And even worse, you got each other drunk!" I screamed at both of them, Daniel looked like he hardly knew what was going on, Kate seemed more aware but only by a little.

"Hey! I'm not drunk," Daniel slurred. He started to walk up to me, but he tripped on air and fell into me.

I sighed before helping Daniel get his balance, I had started to calm down. "Look, I don't agree with this but if both of you agree to it, who am I to stop it?" I rhetorically asked. I pulled out my phone and put in the address of Skyline Towers, "Kate, I'm going home. I'll tell Jane you're staying with a friend," I said, turning around and starting to walk down the sidewalk.

"You can stay if you want," Daniel said.

"No Thanks," I said, "I need some time to think."

"Bye, Landin," I heard Kate say, I didn't say anything in response.

The walk home was cold and long. When I got home, I got a lecture from Jane and her husband about telling them where we are, but despite that, they seemed fine with Kate staying at Daniel's after I explained who he was. One of them would pick her up the next day. I went into my room and turned the TV on. The news was once again on, another murder had happened.

I felt James appear behind me, "Man, that's five in two days," he said.

I snapped to him, "Oh, so now you decide to come out?" I said, my anger was prevalent.

James put out his hands like he was trying to push me away, "Woah, what gives?" He asked.

"Oh, well maybe the fact that I passed out in Daniel's bathroom and saw a fucking demon in the mirror!" I said, my arms were crossed.

"Wow, okay. We both know that wasn't my fault."

"Yeah, but you could have interfered with it. You used to always kill my nightmare demons back when I was little."

"I couldn't with this one. I don't know why, but your brain blocked me off from you."

I was exhausted, "You know what? I'm too tired to care right now," I jumped underneath my covers, "Just make sure I don't have nightmares tonight, okay?"

He nodded before becoming smoke and floating out the window. He sure does like his dramatic exits I thought to myself. I felt my eyes start to get heavier and before I knew it, I was asleep.