Goose bumps covered up the small girl’s body as she shivered atop a red skyscraper.

The world below had become submerged in a never-ending crimson ocean, neon green rain blurring Chloe’s vision.

Combined with the harsh winds that tugged at her frail body, the orange-haired girl dug her feet into the floor and stared upwards towards the abyss that lay above her.

Two giant obsidian orbs greeted her, reminding the small girl of all the times she’d peered upwards towards them in her life.

Their first appearance had been when Chloe had been forsaken by the world she’d lived in up to that point, unchanging even when their host developed, for better or for worse.

They bore into her soul, pupils unmoving and lacking emotion as if they had been carved from stone, forcing the girl to shake herself out of the trance she had found herself in, focussing her attention onto something—or rather someone—else.

A gurgling sound erupted from in front of the girl, sounding as if the person it came from was simultaneously choking and laughing.

Chloe’s singular orange orb flung towards the disfigured body that stood slanted before her.

As if struggling to come to terms with its new body, the green orbed monstrosity ferociously shook its limbs, as if it had been submerged in dirt and was currently trying to rid itself of it.

Following its towering body, the figure’s long black hair fell to the floor, spreading several meters around their feet, leaving the girl wondering how long it would even take to grow one’s hair out that long.

A deep frown, fraught with pain and discomfort, had been splayed across its countenance, two stabbed emerald orbs frantically rolling around in their destroyed sockets before suddenly locking onto the stunned girl who stood in front of it.

The orange-haired girl opened her mouth, attempting to say something—anything—to the figure that stood well over twice her height but failed in doing so.

“So this is one of those dreams, huh?” The girl inwardly scoffed, subconsciously gripping her fists so tightly that her knuckles started to become white.

Orange orb trained upon the figure’s blackened hands; she silently watched as it reached into their abdomen and pulled out a crimson weapon forged from its own blood.

The handle of the knife came out first, the liquid sloshing around within the monster’s hands before hardening into a wooden-like handle that let out small metallic whimpers upon contact with the never-ending neon green rain that had been thrust down from the abyss above.

Chloe’s mouth inched upwards as she lowered her centre of gravity, squatting close to the ground as if preparing for her opposition’s inevitable charge.

Just as the girl had finished her preparations by holding out her hands in front of her as if she were about to hug the being who stood a few meters in front of her, the ruby knife finished solidifying, an inhumanly deep chuckle crawling its way out of both of their mouths as they locked gazes.

“Oh Lea. My best friend? Hah, of course not.” She chuckled to herself, launching forward towards her opposition.

Under the roaring rain, a crooked voice broke through, like a poisonous lighthouse that would lead ships towards its turbulent shores with promises of salvation and civilisation.

“I’m glad that you’ve shown yourself before me once again, Lea! I wasn’t satisfied with just killing you once!”

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A thunderclap of lightning smashed into the ocean, illuminating the two who were about to make contact. A fragile figure clashed against one twice as large as herself.

The crimson weapon plunged into Chloe’s stomach, forcing the girl to let out a shrill cry as she coughed up blood into the taller figure’s crimson abdomen.

A satisfied gargle sounded out from the emerald-orbed figure before they suddenly found themselves laying on the floor, neon green rain forcing them to close their eyes or lose their sight for a few moments.

But when they finally opened up their eyes, a blackened knife proudly hung above its throat, a few black drops of rain dripping from the weapon and onto the tall figure’s jugular as if the knife was drooling at the thought of lodging itself into the monster.

Timidly raising their disfigured hands up towards the orange-haired girl, they started to tremble after seeing the expression upon Chloe’s damp countenance.

Above it stood a small girl pinning down its body by sitting on its blackened shoulders; her once vibrant orange hair now turned a shade of damp bronze that cascaded down her figure, making her look like a resentful statue.

With all the force she could muster from her fragile body, Chloe brought down the blackened weapon upon the monster’s throat and pierced all the way through it, the knife refusing to move further upon hitting the cold concrete below it.

The knife seemed to have an odd aspect to it; everything it touched became ashened. As if infected with a lethal virus, the floor below the monster started to become covered by a sticky black liquid, shackle-like tendrils reaching from within it and immobilising their prey by slithering around the monster’s elongated limbs.

Attempting to free itself from the teen’s grasp, the emerald orbed being thrashed against the chains, each struggle weaker than the last as obsidian blood leaked from within the gaping hole in its throat that had been created by the other frenzied monster.

And Chloe wasn’t going to stop there.

Black blood launched into the air with every stab, fighting its own futile battle against the endless onslaught of neon green troops that fell from the abyss above.

The black orbs above the two figures melancholily looked onwards, turning downcast as Chloe struggled to pick up the nearly lifeless body of the monster who had once been so lively, dragging it over to the edge of the now blackened skyscraper before jumping off with it and entering freefall.

A crazed streak of laughter erupted from the small girl’s body as they fell towards the ocean below, ceasing slightly at the sight of the abyss above.

Chloe’s countenance stiffened as she peered upwards, forgetting about the now lifeless body that she had jumped off the building with and focussing entirely on the scene that was occurring directly above her.

In the ten years that she’d dreamt of this hellish landscape, not once had she seen the black orbs that rested in the abyss above act in such a way.

Tears.

Black tears fell from their orbs.

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Letting out a dissatisfied growl as she stirred awake, Chloe slowly opened her remaining eye and stared upwards towards the black abyss that had infected the ceiling of her apartment, and more importantly, the pair of obsidian orbs that calmly bore into her sole.

She scowled at the sight of them, kissing her teeth in dissatisfaction before greeting them.

“Good morning to you too. Huh. Since when can you feel emotion?”

Chloe rolled around in her single bed, groaning at how sore her whole body felt before sighing, “Whoever said that getting a good night’s rest will rejuvenate your body is a liar.”

Holding both of her scarred hands up towards her eye, she looked at the dried blood that caked them.

The small orange-haired girl harshly bit her lip whilst going over the contents of the dream she just had before scoffing, “As if I’d ever do something so cruel, such as relentlessly stabbing my best friend. Lea… Lea was an outlier… It couldn’t be helped… Or rather, It wasn’t even me who killed her. I didn’t want to kill her… A… And… She was going to die either way.”

“Using us as a scapegoat once again? Come on, Chloe, we both know you’re worse than that!” Nathanial chuckled, nudging the fragile girl with his mangled arm as he let out a small chuckle.

Chloe gave him a harsh stare, choosing not to reply to his provocative words. She knew he was just trying to get a rise out of her.

“Fucking hell. What is that smell?” The girl questioned, thinking that it might just be due to the fact she hadn’t showered before going to bed.

Inspecting her body, she still was hesitant to believe that she really smelled that bad.

“Do I really smell like a dead corpse?”

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Slowly moving into the living room, she silently made her way over to the ground, where she’d put Lea to rest just a day prior.

But no corpse was to be found. The only evidence of what had happened yesterday having occurred being the crimson carpet that she was currently standing on.

Her feet felt just like how her hands had when she stabbed the taller girl, as if millions of critters were crawling around them, attempting to find an orifice in which to enter her body.

“Definitely going to have to buy a carpet to cover this up… Yikes…”