Alex sat up in a cold sweat, feeling as if something sharp was poking her brain. She tried to collect her thoughts and remember what she was doing, but her memory was a haze. It took her a while to get her thoughts in order.

The first thing that came to mind was the ritual, then Sugar.

Is she okay? Did she survive? Actually, where am I?

Alex looked around, taking in her surroundings. She noticed that she was in the bedroom of her old home.

Posters of the big city were hung up all along the paint-chipped walls, and the scent of wheat floated in the air. Alex was dumbfounded, knowing that she had just been in a life-and-death struggle.

I shouldn't be here. I left this place months ago to live in the big city.

Alex got up from her bed and walked over to the window to pull the curtains away.

Instead of seeing the golden wheat fields outside, the view revealed the big city streets she once longed for. That wasn't all, however. For some strange reason, wheat could be seen growing up along and within the building structures.

Should I explore?

Making up her mind, Alex went to the bedroom door and opened it. The rest of the house was just like how she remembered it. The kitchen was full of cast iron pans and large steel pots. Wooden furniture livened the place up despite the fact that the walls were desperately in need of a new paint job.

Alex didn't stay in the house for long, as she had the urge to go out and explore more. She walked up to the wooden front door and soon the sound of squeaking grated against her ears, reminding her that her father never did fix the door hinges.

Stepping outside, Alex noticed a change in the air. The warm air now had a bit of a cold breeze blowing through it. As she felt the wind brush past her cheek, Alex felt a subtle voice calling to her in the back of her head, telling her to go in a certain direction. The voice seemed so familiar, yet at the same time, so alien.

With a strong urge to find out what the source of the voice was, Alex headed in the indicated direction. She was thrown off a bit when she noticed that the road was made up of cooked meatloaf, however. But she took it in stride and quickly recovered from her shock.

Alex took in the strange city sights as she silently walked down the street.

It’s really quite strange seeing the buildings covered in wheat, the windows made up of books, and the weird signs dotting the streets.

The signs were made up of pencil shaped poles and the books hanging off of them, pointing the way. There were various street names written on the covers of the books, ones such as Favorite Food St., How to Pluck and Cook a Chicken St., or 5th Grade History Class St.

Alex curiously observed her surroundings and after a careful look, she realized that she wasn't alone on the streets. A few large books walking on two human legs passed her by, paying her no attention even as she stared at them, dumbstruck.

Unlike the signs that seemed to point the way towards a wide range of subjects, the books within the streets seemed to contain more focused items such as Classic Meatloaf Recipes, First Day of School in the City, and Sugar.

Are… Are these my memories?

Though she was bewildered at the thought, it felt like the most correct answer since, despite everything looking so weird, it all felt so real to her. Was this a dream? Was this another test from the magical girls? If so, what were they trying to accomplish here?

Alas, there was no one to answer her questions so all Alex could do was to keep moving along the road made of meatloaf. Her memories passed her by, walking along the streets, going to and from the wheat lined buildings.

Alex didn't feel like stopping them since they seemed quite busy with... something. So she kept going forward while glancing at the strange signs along the way. As she moved closer to the voice that was calling out to her, Alex noticed that the words on the signs began to scramble, fragmenting the words and even including symbol characters. It got worse and worse the closer she went towards the voice.

Yet that wasn't the only change. When she left the copy of her old house, it had been quite sunny but now the light around her had dimmed somewhat, making the area quite gloomy.

She also noted that her memories were running away from the direction she was heading as if they were afraid of something.

As she went further the streets she was walking on started to change. First, the wheat and book buildings began to decay at a noticeable rate. Second, the meatloaf underfoot began to mold in a grey and black color, as if it were rotted by something.

Despite the sunlight fading around her and the signs that something wasn’t quite right, Alex persisted and continued to press forth. Her curiosity got the better of her as she pushed down her ever-growing feeling of unease.

Further along the road, the meatloaves making up the road had disappeared completely and turned into plain old asphalt while the wheat and book buildings had to return to a natural, boring gray color. The changes that should, by any reason, have made her more relaxed somehow only caused her uneasiness to grow.

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The now normal signs had become an unrecognizable jumbled mess, and her book memories that once held a playful appearance were quickly changing into trembling grotesque messes.

The words on the covers had started melting away, and one covers that she’d once seen that had been a solid brown color now had black cracks running along with its distorted legs, and some of its skin had bloated up and split apart.

Instead of running with the normal books, these cracked and bloated books rushed towards the same direction that she was headed.

Alex grit her teeth and kept going, as the urge to find out what was happening was something she could not ignore.

As she moved deeper into this strange city, the normal buildings along her path crumbled and cracked. The signs turned into a scribbled mess of characters and numbers, their lines crawling together and piled into a tangle. The road under her feet didn’t fare any better, for the asphalt had been broken up and riddled with potholes.

The worst thing in Alex’s opinion were the pitiful memories filled with mutations crawling along the ground towards an unknown goal, but the buildings and streets pulsating and bleeding black sludge were a close second.

Something within her subconsciousness told her to avoid touching the black slime, so Alex walked on the pieces of uncracked, sludge free asphalt. The thought of turning around never crossed her mind. Alex knew that she was close to finding the source calling out to her.

The pathway continued to grow more difficult as she progressed, and eventually, Alex finally reached a point where she couldn't proceed any further. Luckily she noticed a raft-like object formed from a twisted abomination of what used to be her book memories.

Alex found some torn-off legs and used them as paddles. The strange boat somehow didn’t leak, and after rowing for quite some time she turned at a ruined street corner and her eyes immediately widened in shock.

The street had opened up into a large forest park, and in the center rested an enormous black cocoon that pulsated with an evil red light. The cocoon felt familiar yet at the same time foreign, as if it was part of her that shouldn't exist.

Alex was disgusted just by looking at it.

“Is that any way to treat yourself? My, my. How can my manners be so lacking?”

Alex looked around, trying to trace the voice that sounded exactly like hers. She quickly gathered that the voice had come from the black cocoon, putting her on guard.

Suddenly the cocoon cracked open like a flower, revealing a naked girl.

But this girl wasn’t just any girl. This girl looked exactly like her, except this girl had pitch-black hair and red eyes. She looked so stunning that Alex couldn’t find any words to describe the girl who stood before her. Although the girl was naked, she didn’t seem to care. Her stance was full of confidence, standing there with her arms crossed and not hiding a single thing.

Unlike Alex the girl didn’t wear glasses, her hair was well done, and her eyes were filled with conviction. Everything about her seemed to be what Alex dreamed of being. It was like she was looking at her ideal self.

Someone who didn't care what others thought. Someone who was able to walk with confidence instead of cowering away.

Alex felt anger rise up just from looking at this copy of what she wished to be.

“Who are you?!” She yelled.

The lookalike merely smiled in response. She snapped her fingers and the black sludge around her suddenly converged and headed towards her, wrapping around her body.

A black, tight fitting leather outfit formed from the sludge appeared upon her body. Now clothed, the lookalike sat down in her newly-formed cocoon chair.

“Who am I? Well, that's a stupid question. I am you. Or to be more precise, I am your desire. I am your wish to become confident, your wish to be powerful. I am your wish to not just be another extra in someone else’s story. I am everything that you are, but better.

But I guess I can't call myself Alex as well or that would confuse your little brain. From now on I shall be known as Xel, and henceforth I shall be the new owner of this body.”

“Your body? But this is my body, not yours!”

“You see this WAS your body, but now you’re in my territory. I can't believe you listened to that voice and were so foolish as to actually come here. You can only blame your own incompetence for dying here today. Farewell, useless version of me.”

Raising her hand, the black sludge around them slowly started to rise and surround Alex. Somehow Alex felt that if any of the black sludge touched her, she would be corrupted and killed.

Only she had fallen too deep into this trap with no means to get out. There was no escaping. If only she had been more cautious and ignored that nagging voice, she wouldn’t die here today.

Alas, there was no pill in the world for regret.

Alex closed her eyes, laughing bitterly at her misfortune, and awaited her death.

She waited. And waited. Yet death never came. Instead, she heard growling in front of her, which she assumed must be coming from Xel.

“You lucky bitch! Just you wait, one day I will devour your soul and this body will be mine!”

Opening her eyes Alex saw a red shield had, at some point, spread around her, protecting her from the black sludge. But that wasn't all. The energy slowly made her float in the air and lifted her away from Xel, whose face was contorted with hatred.

Like a beam of light, Alex was shot straight back through the streets, all the way back to her old home. The door opened automatically and she was thrown straight into her bedroom, right onto her bed.

…

When Alex woke up, she was in a strange medical facility that smelled like acid. She wasn’t alone though. Next to her was a nurse dressed in red, who smiled down at her with a strange look in her eyes.

“My oh my. What a foolish girl. Confronting your curse straight away. Do you truly seek death, little one? If so, make sure to tell this big sis here so that I can help you out with that, okay?”

“Um... thanks for the offer, but I’ll take a rain check. I’d rather not go back to that place anytime soon.”

The nurse shone a light into Alex's eye and muttered, “Excellent, still responsive even after having her soul split in half. The eyeballs aren't dilated, showing that she's conscious. She also isn't saying gibberish that could be interpreted as her becoming mentally disabled.“

“Soul scan shows no abnormalities other than her split soul. It looks like her memories are intact for the most part, meaning that she isn't a failed magical girl...

“My diagnosis is that this girl has completed her magical girl transformation and definitely isn't insane. End report.”

“Um, hello? Where am I? And where is Sugar? Is she okay? Can I go see her?"

"You're currently in the medical ward and...”

Hema, who was finishing up her report, snapped her head back towards Alex with a smile.

“You’re now finished with your examination, and free to go join the other new Magical Girls. I welcome you to the Gang, little sister. My name is Hema, and you’ll be seeing a lot of me. But for now, one of the meat bags will escort you to the dormitory where your friend is staying.”