They were back. Whoever had been there before with the distorted muffled voices, they were back. She could feel their presence, the slight shift and change in the atmosphere, the sudden alertness of the creatures still trying to dig into her soul.

She didn’t know if it had been hours or days since these people were last here. All she knew was that she hadn’t slept.

A man. A man formed in front of her. It was one of the teachers. The one with the long dark hair she had seen working with Namu before. He had a long metal band or rope that he laid on the ground in front of her before he disappeared.

There was a kick at her back, she rolled, and then her vision went black. She felt the creatures scurry along her body, trying not to get crushed. There was another kick, this time in two places on her side, and she rolled again. Now she was not looking toward the trees, but to the lake in the distance. She was facing the teacher, and the boy she recognized was Namu. Namu ran, possibly around her, as the teacher snatched up the metal band. She felt it tighten around her metal skin. The teacher scowled when he tried to ignore the creatures that only had attention for her. He was tightening the band somehow.

If her eyes could have widened, they would have. His fingers. She saw them shifting, changing into the metal.

“Vero!” she heard Namu yell.

There was a click and then a pop. She saw the teacher’s throat bob as he chucked something down.

Then he was gone. He was a mist. Just like the mist she had seen before in her room.

But then she heard two pairs of feet scuffling in the grass and two people arguing and grunting as her body started to move. They were tugging, pulling, and trying to take her somewhere. But to what? Were they trying to get her to the door? Were they trying to save her?

She started counting to distract herself from the sudden panic she felt about not being able to help them. The two of them made three big heaves until one yelled at the other to drink. Then there were four more heaves until the metal snapped. Because, from what they had said, it had burned through.

Then they left her there. There was no more tugging and only silence. She was left alone with the creatures. One was gouging into her right eye.

***

It might have been the next day that they came back, only to fail again. It was the same process. She felt a metal band tugging at her waist. But the grass was rubber this time, slowing their progress and only allowing them five good pulls before the metal band snapped.

***

Another day. This time she was half asleep. Her mind was not working any longer. Her body was growing weak, and her mind was eating away at itself.

She felt them connect the band around her, but then, suddenly, her body was as loose as sand.

Her limbs touched the prickles of the raw live grass.

“Hey! Hey!”

One of them was yelling at her. She couldn’t tell which. She could only feel them lift her head and tilt it back. Her head was unsteady.

“Drink this!”

Something touched her lips, but then it dribbled down her chin before a curse left their mouth. They were gone.

Another one was there trying again, but the liquid, whatever it was, would only sit in her mouth. She could not swallow it. Her body would not allow it. The smell, the burning smell of the world, was too much. She rolled over and puked acidic bile along with whatever they had put in her mouth.

Then she felt her body starting to change again. It was hardening into stone. A cooler stone. One that didn’t burn.

There was more cursing before Molly was trapped in place. She was in the most uncomfortable position on her side with her hand at her throat and her mouth forced open.

Those things were crawling all over her again.

“Gods dammit! Get away!” she heard someone yell.

Then the band was around her again. She didn’t care to look out from her eyes. She thought she was too tired to open them. Then she realized that they were stoned shut.

She was being pulled again, faster this time. This time, the band or whatever they were using didn’t burn. It didn’t break.

But then her body fell free again, and the metal tugging at her skin cut into her softness, causing a gurgling scream to erupt from her.

They stopped pulling, and she started sliding down a hill until they grabbed at the band again, which pressed her too tight, threatening to squeeze her in half.

Hands were behind her, stopping her decline. Those hands picked her up. She felt air all around her for once, until they dropped her, and she smelled burning flesh. Her face and her body hardened again.

She was left in the grass, alone, staring at the door.

***

“Do you really think she’s still alive?”

They were back again. They looked as tired and worn as she did.

“Of course, otherwise those things wouldn’t still be at her the way they are.”

“But how?”

The teacher didn’t answer.

***

A single strand of grass tickled the end of her nose and made her sneeze.

Hands grabbed her up. One, two, three, four, eight. She wasn’t sure how many.

They pulled her through the door.

The door slammed shut.

There was a loud slap and a blinding flash of light before the itching and burning all over her skin and her eyes went away.

They didn’t try to make her stand. Two of them looked down at her before she passed out. Her outer self breathed a sweet release, while her inner self ached.

***

Molly woke up in a bed. It had a stiff red cover that she pushed them away from her cheek.

It wasn’t her bed.

Over by the desk sat that boy. One of her saviors, Namu.

She tried to throw the covers off, but she was weak. She tried to sit up, but her head spun, forcing her to lie back down. She closed her eyes and put her hand on her sweaty mess of curly hair.

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“Mr. Vero is going to get you some food.”

The thought of food turned her stomach. She rolled over to puke. She tried putting her hand to her mouth to stop herself, but was too late. She vomited all over his sheets.

He grimaced and sighed, but did not turn away.

“We also destroyed your phone….”

What? Why? Her hand grasped at her burning insides, first her chest and then her aching stomach.

“Because it was tainted from that world. Mr. Vero will get you a new one. But all your contacts and everything are gone now. He’ll meet with Koz and take the new phone to see if he can reestablish anything that he can remember from it before. That is, if you had given your phone to Koz like practically everyone else has.”

She nodded. Regret was beating the insides of her skull.

Opening her eyes, she saw Namu was still there, guarding her, regret growing hard like stone in his eyes. He took something out of his pocket and held it up for her to see.

It was the golden bracelet.

“Who gave you this?”

“Li…” Could she talk? It burned her throat to do so. She clamped her mouth shut and tried again, only to feel her pain coming out in tears.

“Lily,” he said as if he knew, biting his bottom lip in disappointment. He nodded once and put the bracelet back into his pocket.

She wondered why he was upset. She wondered what that place was. Why she felt the way she did.

The door opened, and Mr. Vero came in. “Oh, good. She’s awake.”

He gave Namu something; a glass containing liquid. “Give her this. It’s a calming drink. Her body will need it before it will accept any food. But make her sit up.”

“Why do I—?” Namu stopped whatever he was going to say.

He went to the side of the bed, drink in hand, and with a gentle caress, moved his hand over his pillow and under Molly’s head to help her lift herself up. Mr. Vero was on the other side, his hands beneath her shoulders. He had moved the blankets to cover up where she had puked.

As soon as Molly sat up, she felt like she was going to faint. But the drink was in her hand, and she tipped it back, relishing how it wetted her mouth and healed her throat. It awakened her insides, cooling them down. The ice spread up into her head, quelling her headache.

She sighed with deep relief and drank some more.

When she was done, Namu took her empty glass. Then Mr. Vero held out her right arm, examining it. He made a few waves and twists with his fingers, then closed his eyes and breathed.

Then she saw his faint hint of a pure-white soul coming out, trying to draw hers out.

But hers never rose.

He tried again, but Molly took her arm away.

“Odd,” he said.

Molly tried to give him an awkward smile but couldn’t. She could only stare down at her arm. She knew that her soul could come out partly, but she felt it deep inside her, hiding more than it ever had after everything.

“What’s wrong? Why isn’t her soul coming out for you to look at it?”

Namu seemed panicked for some reason.

“I don’t know. I could try another area.”

“You think they took her whole arm!” Namu latched onto the limb that Molly had been staring at. She tried to pull it away but was too weak.

“I… don’t know…” Mr. Vero answered.

Namu let go of her arm and ran his hands through his hair. He looked as though he might pull it out. “I—I’m so sorry. I—what else is she missing!”

“She was in there for a few days. I would say—”

But Molly cut him off. “I don’t think I’m missing anything. Or if I am… maybe barely at all.”

Hatred, hatred stormed its way from Namu into her. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about. You don’t even know what that place was! If you’re trying to make me feel—”

“I’m an empty vessel,” Molly spouted.

Namu’s eyes did not calm, but he did look at Mr. Vero in confusion. Mr. Vero only sat back on his heels and looked at her as though she were something he had never seen before.

“What… what does she mean?” Namu asked.

“It’s something most people don’t know about. Something rare.”

“What does that mean?”

“No one knows exactly. It’s just someone with a soul that is a little different. It hides in itself and is willing to lose itself for some reason. They are easy to take over.”

“Then why wasn’t her soul eaten by those things?”

“My guess is because it hid deep inside her. Can you even perform spirit magick?” he asked Molly.

Molly nodded. “I can. My soul just doesn’t expel itself all the way.”

“Interesting... When you feel up to it, I would like to study you.”

Namu looked like he did not agree with that suggestion at all. He shook his head at his teacher, who ignored him.

Mr. Vero continued, “As for that door. You can’t tell anyone about it, for obvious reasons. We don’t want any more kids getting stuck in there like you did. You were lucky. Anyone else would probably have died.”

“But why is it here?”

Mr. Vero smiled. “That door is why our world changed. That is where all the disintegrated weapons went.”

Molly was perplexed. “But… but why at a school?”

Mr. Vero chuckled, then got up to leave. “It’s always the same questions.”

He turned to Namu. “I’ll meet you at the usual time tomorrow. When Molly is ready, send her back to her room.”

Then he left.

“But… why a school? And what did he mean the same questions?” Molly asked.

But Namu waved off her questions to ask one of his own: “You asked me a question before. At the fountain. Or you tried to. What was it?”

Molly was surprised that he would bring that up now. Suddenly, she felt uncomfortable and ready to go to her own room. She wanted to call her parents but realized she couldn’t. She had forgotten that she didn’t even have a phone and that they thought she was dead.

Loneliness sank into her. Did she have anyone to talk to? Obviously not if she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about the door. So, she couldn’t talk about what had just happened to her, no matter how traumatic?

Except for him… She could talk to Namu. But why did Namu know? How did he know about it?

“It isn’t important,” she answered. “How do you—” Suddenly, she remembered something. “Why is the door in your room?”

He brushed her off again, a stern expression in his eyes. “Your question at the fountain was important. What was it?”

She had already told him she was an empty vessel, so it wasn’t like that was new. And if he was the only one she could speak with about the door, besides the teacher…

“Sometimes spirits try to take me over because I’m an empty vessel. I saw you doing something. Mrs. Sleck refuses to teach me how to protect myself until I build a better foundation. I don’t know what that means. I just wanted to know—”

“I’ll train you,” he interrupted her.

She flinched in shock.

“I’ll train you either during your first or second break. I’m sure Mr. Vero will lend us his classroom. Once you get your new phone, I’ll give you my number so we can work things out on a day-to-day basis.”

“Oh, okay.” She had not been expecting that, but maybe if she met him on some days and he helped her, she could learn more about the door too.

All of what she had just experienced felt like a dream, but a vivid dream that filled her head with questions. It had been terrifying but somehow less terrifying than being in the place of ice. In the world she had just been in, she still felt like herself. She never felt she might lose herself. Even though she feared she might die, she felt as though she would die as herself. In that world she did not feel like she would be lost in a black oblivion of ice never to be seen again, like she had felt since she was young.

“Is that a yes?” Namu asked her.

Molly nodded.

“Okay.” He got up and returned to sit in his chair at his desk to watch her. “Whenever you’re ready to leave, I’ll help you.”

***

It didn’t take her long to be ready. It did take her a while, though, to become steadier on her feet. Namu helped her get out of bed and then led her down his hall where they ran into Derrin who gave them a weird look. He took her to the entrance of one of the restrooms on his hall.

She was a mess. Her hair was full of sweaty oil, her face was thinner and paler than before, and her eyes looked lost and shallow.

She would have to shower once she found the strength, but she was too weak now.

Namu then supported her down the stairs to her hall. After that, she insisted she go the rest of the way by herself.

There was a surprise waiting at her door.

It was Ova. She was sitting on the ground in front of her door, almost half asleep with her legs crossed and her body leaning against the wood. When Molly approached her, Ova didn’t look up until Molly stopped and stood in front of her, staring at her saddened friend.

It was then that Ova’s thin pink lips pressed down into a frown as she lifted her head, heavy with tight braids, to meet Molly’s teary eyes. Shock stilled every muscle in Ova’s body before she pounced up from the ground and wrapped her arms around Molly, almost dragging her down.

“Where were you!? I was so worried! I called! I asked Lily! I asked the teachers! I begged for them to let me in your room!” She pushed Molly back for a second and held her out at arm’s length. “You look horrible! What happened!? Where did you go!?”

“How long have you been waiting here?” Molly asked, her voice hollow and breaking with emotion.

“How long? Every chance I got. I do my homework here! My online classes. Waiting for you to reemerge from this door! And do you know how bad this hall smells?”

Molly couldn’t help but to smile and hug her friend tighter.

She let Ova into the room, and they both sat on the bed. The worst part was that she could not tell Ova where she had been, and she told her so. All she said was that Kren had her go somewhere. Ova had asked if that was the mini-troll. Molly had said yes and that one of the teachers had taken her where he needed her to be.

Instantly, Ova had known that teacher was Mr. Vero, and then Ova filled in the rest of the story by herself. Molly wondered if filling in the blanks, even though she had to know those blanks were forged, helped Ova feel better. Ova had decided that Molly had taken an insightful trip, maybe even one for Molly to try to find her religion or gods to follow.

Molly only nodded and didn’t say a thing. It was such a typical conclusion for Ova to come to.

After that, Ova showed how much she wanted to take care of Molly. She took her to the bathroom, helped Molly get in the shower, and then handed her things whenever needed. She brushed Molly’s hair. Then, when Molly lay down to sleep, Ova prayed over her to her gods while pressing on the axe tattoo on her right forearm with two fingers. She set out a tarot spread on Molly’s stomach and seemed satisfied with whatever answers she got. She then took out a leaf, put it on Molly’s forehead, and told her to sleep. It smelled like daisies with a hint of mint. Then she kissed Molly goodnight on the cheek.