And then Ella was in his bed. 

He expected to wake up screaming, but he was silent. He just stared wide-eyed up at the ceiling.

Well, he would have, but his view of the ceiling was blocked by a certain cat tailed girl standing over him. She was still wearing his schoolgirl uniform.

“Good morning,” K smiled.

“Good… morning,” he managed to reply.

She tilted her head. “You okay?”

“No.”

“Aww, what’sa matter Ewwa?” K gave him a pouty face. “You have a bad dweam?”

“I don’t know,” he sighed. “I feel like I don’t know how to tell dreams from reality anymore.”

He sat up. He had a full night’s sleep and yet he felt more exhausted than ever. He looked down at his wrists. The handcuffs were gone, but the sensation of them digging into his skin remained.

He got out of bed and grabbed his phone off of his desk.

“What the hell? It’s already past 4:00,” Ella groaned. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“It’s Saturday,” K jumped up on Ella’s bed, bouncing up and down. “You got a date? Meeting up with a cute girl?”

“No, but I didn’t exactly want to sleep my weekend away.”

“I’m here to protect you, not serve as your alarm clock,” K said.

“Well maybe you should start doing both,” he glared at her.

Unlocking his phone screen, he noticed that there were several missed calls from his mother, as well as a text from Urara.

Urara: Hey, you okay? Apparently, a bomb went off downtown or something.

What the hell was going on in this city? First the murders, now a terrorist attack? Wasn’t everything going on with him already too much to think about?

He sent back a text saying that he was alright, as well as one to his mother so that she wouldn’t worry either. Putting his phone in his pocket, he let out a deep sigh and sat back down on his bed.

It was coming back to him. All those men killed by that monster. Running for his life. Coming to that dead end.

Images of the strange black door went through his mind. That thing attacked him just as he opened it. He strained himself to remember. Where did it lead? Did it even matter?

He didn’t know, but there one thing was clear: whatever attacked him the previous night was the same thing that attacked him in his dreams.

“K,” Ella said. “Is there anything you can tell me about why you have to protect me? Anything at all.”

K frowned and stood with her arms crossed for a moment. “All I can say is that I’ve been ordered to make sure you’re safe.”

“Ordered?” Ella asked. “By who?”

“I can’t say, dummy,” K stuck out her tongue.

He wasn’t surprised that she couldn’t tell him, but this was the first time she had said anything about anyone ordering her.

“Alright, if I can’t know about that,” Ella sat up. “Tell me about you then.”

K wrinkled her brow. “Huh?”

“I said tell me about you. It’d be nice to just have a normal conversation for a change,” he said. “Besides, if you’re supposed to be my cousin, I should probably know some stuff about you.”

K sat down on the bed, facing him. “Well whaddya wanna know?”

“I don’t know. Don’t you have any hobbies?” Ella asked. “You’re always just lying around or following me wherever I go.”

“Hobbies? Like how you like to wear girl’s clothes?”

“Uh, sure,” he said. It was really more than just a hobby, but Ella wasn’t going to go through the trouble of explaining himself.

“Hmm...” K let herself fall backward, leaving her legs dangling off the side of the bed. He tail was out to her side, twitching slightly. “I dunno. I like that CD that Urara gave me. Sadie Quasar’s voice is super pretty.”

Alright, so she liked music. That was a start. If he could get her talking, maybe she would let something slip.

K put her index finger up. “She’s Portland’s rose, you know.”

“Yes, Portland’s rose, I know,” Ella said. Urara literally just talked about it yesterday. “What other music do you like?”

“Haven’t really heard any other ones,” K said.

Ella paused. “You haven’t listened other music before? At all?”

“Uhh, I don’t think so.”

“Where are you from?” Ella asked. “Like, where were you born, I mean.”

“Dunno.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m… not sure,” K’s voice was getting uneven.

The likelihood of K being an alien, an amnesiac, or both, was through the roof.

“Do you have any family? Brothers or sisters?” Ella sighed. “Come on, you’re not giving anything here.”

K’s eyes were wide open now. Her breath was starting to get ragged.

“K?”

Her eyes were glazing over.

What was wrong with her? He reached out and grabbed her shoulder, giving her a small shake. “K?”

“Maybe,” K’s voice was low, and she wasn’t looking at him.

“Maybe? What are you talking about?”

“I have a sister,” K said, her breathing getting more and more labored. “I think.”

“A sister?” Ella asked. This was probably the first evidence he had that pointed to K being human. Although he supposed that aliens could probably have siblings too.

“I can’t remember,” K put her hands over her eyes.

“It’s okay, just forget I asked,” Ella said. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m, uh, going down for some breakfast,” Ella wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible. “You want something?”

“No, that’s okay,” she said, still not looking up at him.

He got up and walked out of his room, going down the hallway to the kitchen. As he poured a bowl of cereal, he felt a buzz in his pocket.

Urara: Do you wanna hang out tonight? I thought maybe we could go to that old park like we used to.

He quickly typed a message back. With everything going on, maybe some childish fun was just what he needed. After covering his cereal with milk, he walked back to his room.

“Ewwa!” K jumped out at him as he opened the door, almost causing him to send the contents of his bowl everywhere.

“You scared the hell out of me,” Ella sighed. More importantly, she sure perked back up quickly. Was she joking about having a sister? He had never seen her look so troubled before.

K gave him a smile, showing off her perfect white teeth.

“I’m meeting with Urara in a bit,” Ella said. “Don’t worry, I’m not asking you not to come. I’d just like it if you could give us some space if I ask for it.”

“You’re not worried?” K asked.

“Of course I am. I’m terrified,” Ella said. “But I’m not going to let all this keep me from living my life. Besides, you’ll be there to protect me, right?”

“That’s true,” K said.

“And also,” Ella broke eye contact. “I’m sorry about yesterday. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.”

K bent down and looked up at him with a huge smile on her face. “D’aww! What a sweetie!”

“Why are you talking to me like I’m a baby anyway?” Ella sneered at her. He felt relieved though. Along with that cloaked woman, she may have saved his life.

K stuck out her tongue again. “Just feel like it!”

After eating, he got dressed and the two of them headed toward the park. It was a place he and Urara played a lot when they were in middle school. It was around an equal distance from both of their houses, and it was nearby a wealthy part of town. Being tucked away, they almost always had it all to themselves.

They arrived around 5:00. The air was still a little warm, and the sun wasn’t quite going down yet. As expected, they were the only ones around.

“Hey you two!” Urara waved them over from the gate to the park.

Ella gave a halfhearted wave back. K, however, was going ballistic, throwing her arms into the air to greet him.

“I listened to the CD!” she proudly announced. “And I loved it!”

“See? You’re a real Portlander now,” Urara said, latching onto Ella’s arm as they entered the park.

K seemed to like hearing that, her eyes lighting up. “So what do you do here at the park?” she asked.

“Lots of stuff. Ella and I used to take turns spinning each other around on this thing,” Urara pointed to a dark blue roundabout in the center of the park. “We’d do it so much we’d get sick.”

“You blew chunks?” K turned to him.

Urara’s grip tightened around his arm. “Ella threw up lots of times.”

“Can we not talk about this?” Ella sighed.

“You should get on,” Urara looked over to K.

“Really? It’s my first time,” K said.

Urara swooned. “You can’t say things like that. You’re gonna drive a guy insane.”

Ella doubted that K understood what Urara was saying, but she laughed like she did. She hurried over to the roundabout and jumped on.

“Now what do I do?” K asked.

“You have to crouch down and hold on tight,” Ella said. “Then we spin you.”

He was looking forward to this. He might actually be able to embarrass K for a change. Although he wasn’t sure if K was even capable of throwing up in the first place. It seemed like she almost never ate.

K sat down and grabbed onto one of the bars with both hands. “Okay, now what?”

“Just hold on a second.”

He and Urara walked to opposite sides of the roundabout, and then gave each other a nod. They weren’t going to hold back.

They started off slowly, but started building speed rapidly.

“Whoa!” K yelled.

They both threw their hands inside the spinning bars, pushing it along with everything they had. Ella was confident that if anyone were watching, they would think the two of them were professionals. Well, if professional playground equipment players existed, anyway.

It was spinning faster and faster, but K wasn’t screaming or asking them to quit. After about a minute, they finally tired out and let the roundabout slow down by itself. When it was almost to a stop, K stepped off.

“Dizzy?” Urara panted.

“I don’t think so,” K said.

“No way,” Ella was heaving too. “Try to walk in a straight line.”

K shrugged and then walked a few feet forward. She didn’t even go slightly off course.

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“Wow, that’s amazing!” Urara burst into applause.

Ella sat down on the roundabout, completely defeated. However, the evidence against K’s humanity was only getting stronger.

“That was fun,” K grinned.

The three of them went from one piece of equipment to the next. No matter how much Ella tried to show off, K was somehow always better. However, for once, he didn’t mind. The only thing he thought about was how much fun he was having.

Time seemed to drift away from him. It was getting dark, and nearing 8:00. The lampposts in the park were lit up, creating pockets of orange light around them. Ella had asked K to wait by the gate while he talked to Urara. The two of them sat on the swing set next to each other.

“That was really fun,” Urara smiled.

“Yeah, it was,” Ella said, not looked at him.

They spent a moment just enjoying the silence of the park, then they started to swing.

“I want to tell you something, but…” Ella started, letting the swing move forward and back. “Please don’t think I’m crazy.”

“Why would I think that you’re crazy?” Urara pumped his short legs to make his swing move. “If this is a confession, I’ll remind you that I’m mostly into girls.”

Ella let out an unconvincing laugh. “It’s about some dreams I’ve been having lately. Well, just two dreams, I guess.”

“Dreams?”

The gruesome scene of the men in SWAT gear flashed in his mind.

“Well, I don’t really know if I should even call them dreams,” Ella let his swing slow down. “I sort of feel like they might be real, as weird as that sounds.”

Urara let his swing slow as well, and looked over at him. “Okay, well what happens in them?”

“They both start the same,” Ella’s said. “I wake up in a mansion wearing a frilly dress.”

“Sounds awesome,” Urara said.

“It’s… not awesome for very long,” Ella continued. “Both times, I end up getting attacked by something. Some kind of monster.”

“A monster?”

“Yeah.”

“And why do you feel like they aren’t dreams exactly?” Urara raised his eyebrow.

“There’s actually a third time it attacked me,” Ella said. “The difference is that it attacked me while I was awake, out in the street by your apartment.”

Ella looked over at Urara. The two of them didn’t say anything for a few moments.

“Don’t worry, I believe you,” Urara said.

“You have no idea how good it feels to hear that,” Ella slouched on the swing. Just telling someone and having them take him seriously felt like pressure off his chest. Even if he couldn’t do anything about it, it was nice to just have someone acknowledge that he wasn’t going insane.

“I actually need to talk to you about something too,” Urara said. “If it’s okay.”

“Of course,” Ella perked back up. “Anything.”

“It’s just that… I haven’t really been feeling like myself lately,” he said.

“What do you mean?

“I sort of feel like I have a voice in my head,” Urara looked down. “And it’s telling me to do things… Bad things.”

Ella wasn’t sure how to respond. Wasn’t that a sign of schizophrenia? He didn’t know much about it, but he knew that it was serious. Finally, he managed to find some words. “How long… has that been going on?”

“A few days I guess,” Urara said, fiddling with his hands in his lap.

“Have you thought about going to see a doctor?” Ella asked.

“I can’t.”

“Why?” Ella asked.

“I just can’t,” Urara said. “You don’t understand what it’s like.”

“Look, we can, uh, get help,” Ella said, his mind racing. “It might not even be anything serious.”

“It’s usually quiet during the daytime. But the nights…” Urara put his head back, looking up at the sky. “It’s so loud, and it just keeps repeating itself.”

Ella’s heart dropped. “What… does it say to you?”

Urara jerked his neck so that he was looking over at him. His pupils were like black holes, with a seemingly infinite darkness in them. “It says that I need to capture you and bring you somewhere.”

Ella stood up. “What?”

A chill ran down his spine as the meaning of Urara’s words solidified in his head. Capture him?

“K!” he yelled out.

Urara stood up from the seat of the swing, still looking at him. Something like black flames started burning from his hands, quickly spreading to the rest of his body.

K came running from the gate to the park. “Ella! Get away!” she yelled.

He couldn’t budge. He knew what was happening, but he couldn’t get his legs to move. This had to be another nightmare. He would be waking up in his bed any moment now.

Urara was completely engulfed in the darkness now, covering up any remnant of the fact that he was a person. His eyes were bright red, and a mouth filled with long fangs filled up half of his face.

He couldn’t wake up.

The monster in front of him raised its claws.

This wasn’t a dream.

Just as it lunged at him, it was sent flying backward as K reached his side. She waved her hand in the air, and it froze in place midair.

“Stand back, you dummy!” she yelled.

Just as Ella turned to run, he heard a low roar and looked back up to the dark figure suspended in the sky. It was struggling like mad, trying to break free of whatever K was doing to it. The side of its head suddenly bulged out, and another dark figure came pouring out of it like the insides of a squeezed banana. It left an empty husk in the place of the original, the new body falling back to the ground.

“What the hell?” Ella yelled.

“It’s shedding its skin or something,” K said, throwing her hands up again and sending the monster flying into the roundabout. It hit hard, letting out a pained cry.

K readied herself for another attack.

“Wait,” Ella said, tears running down his face. “Don’t hurt him. This is… this is Urara.”

“I know,” K said. “But I can’t hold him in place. What am I supposed to do?”

“Just try to stop him again!”

K shook her head. “That won’t work!”

“Please!”

The black figure jumped at her again, but she stopped it. However, this time it shed its skin immediately, coming at her with its jagged claws before she could react. It slashed her across her stomach.

Or that’s what he thought happened. It looked like she had been able to back step in time. Only the shirt of his schoolgirl outfit she was wearing showed any damage.

It was going to strike again.

Just then, something lit up before his eyes. It hit the dark figure, bursting into flames.

It let out a screech, rolling on the ground to put out the fire. As it got up, Ella’s eyes met with it. Urara’s eyes were nowhere to be seen in that glowing red. It ran into the nearby brush and out of view.

“Did you do that?” Ella asked.

“No,” K said. The two of them looked around panicked, expecting another attack.

“Are… Are you alright?” a quiet voice called out to them.

Near the gate of the park stood a girl in a red jacket. Her hair was up in pigtails, tied with red ribbons. She was probably around the same age as Ella was.

“Are you another member of the KPW?” Ella asked.

“The KPW? Oh, no, I’m not,” the girl waved her hands in front of her. “I’m the first daughter of the Weisert family. Ruby. I was just passing by when I saw you and your familiar and… whatever that was.”

“Uhh, familiar? Ella asked. They kept their distance from the girl.

“Oh my gosh,” the girl that introduced herself as ‘Ruby’ covered her mouth. “Does she prefer ‘demon’? I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“Uh, no, it’s fine,” Ella had no idea what she was talking about, but tried to play along. It was obvious that this girl was thinking he was something that he wasn’t, but it was a chance for him to get some information for a change.

“P-Please don’t tell anyone that I used magic,” Ruby took a few steps forward, making K tense up next to him. “I’ll get in a lot of trouble.”

"I, uh, won’t tell anyone,” Ella said. Magic? What the hell? He supposed it explained a lot about K, but had this girl seriously just fired some kind of magic beam a minute ago?

“Whew,” Ruby let her arms go slack in front of her. “You have no idea how mad my daddy would be.”

Ella looked to his side. K was still looking cautious, like she might attack if the girl got too close. Fortunately, it didn’t look like it would have to that. “Thanks for saving us,” he said, struck by a sense of déjà vu. He was starting to feel more and more like he was playing the part of damsel in distress, and he didn't like it.

“What was that scary thing?” she asked. “Do you think it has something to do with… the government?”

“The government? I don’t know anything about that, but…” Ella glanced around the park. The roundabout was bent up from where the monster slammed into it. It didn’t look like it would work properly anymore. “I think it was my friend.”  

“Your… friend?”

“I don’t know how, but someone or something did that to him,” Ella said. “They turned him into a monster.”

“But… how is that possible?” Ruby stammered.

“I have no idea,” Ella said. “But I have to help him. He's... really important to me.”

Ruby’s mouth twisted into a frown. “You’re going after it?”

“I am,” Ella stood silently for a moment. “I don’t suppose you have any advice for how to do that?”

“Oh no,” she was waving her hands in front of her again. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. I don’t even really know what’s going on.”

“Well that makes two of us,” Ella sighed. “Anyway, I have to go. I don’t want to waste any time. Maybe you could… keep this a secret too?” He wasn’t sure if it mattered, but he decided it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, he couldn’t exactly ask her many questions without revealing that he wasn’t whatever she thought he was.

“Of course. I won’t tell anyone. I promise,” Ruby said, almost frantic. “And please, please, please don’t tell my dad.”

“I won’t,” Ella said, and then turned to K. “Let’s go. He might still be somewhere around here.”

K nodded.

The two of them headed toward where they had last seen Urara, but were stopped by the sound of Ruby’s voice behind them.

“And thank you!” she said. “I think you’ve… you’ve helped me make my mind up about something.”

Ella had no clue what she meant, but he gave her a wave goodbye as he left the grounds of the park.