There's a monster I caged deep behind my eyes

I can never escape, I've been running for miles

When the morning comes I know it will still be there

-- Citizen Soldier, Never Ending Nightmare

Compared to dying it was easy to think this wasn't all that bad. All right, so it was boring. Now that Abihira had withdrawn there was no one to talk to. Even so Ilaran found himself having to fight the temptation to become complacent with this situation. Wherever he was it felt like the time just before going to sleep, when he was still partly-awake but not alert enough to take an interest in what was happening. He couldn't see anything around him. In fact he wasn't sure if there was anything around him. It was very strange, yet he had to make a real effort to be upset about it.

At least the hunger was gone. In fact he didn't feel anything at all. Not even pain, though from Abihira's account that thing possessing him was doing its best to break every bone in his body.

The urge to sleep grew stronger and stronger. Ilaran forced it back. He had an unpleasant suspicion that if he did go to sleep he would never wake up, and he refused to let that happen. He'd already died once. He didn't fancy doing it again and having to explain to Death how he ended up back in her realm so soon. Anyway, he still had things to do with his life. In the first place the parasite that was possessing him was going to pay dearly for it as soon as he regained control of his body. And in the second he was going to box Abihira's ears for causing this once he dealt with the parasite.

From time to time he saw flashes of what was happening in the real world. They were very confusing and left him with more questions than answers. Apparently the parasite had very different eyesight to him. He couldn't imagine why else he saw bright red figures amidst a blurry grey background.

If that thing has permanently damaged my sight I'll tear out its eyeballs with a screwdriver, he swore.

A distant screech reached his ears. It sounded like a pig being killed.

What in the Nine Heavens is happening out there?

Ilaran tried to telepathically reach out to Abihira. He found someone's mind, but it was so full of blind panic that he couldn't tell if it was hers or not.

Without any warning he felt as if he was being shoved forwards. Suddenly he could see again. He took one look and wished he couldn't see after all.

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There were no reliable records on what happened when necromancy went wrong. Once again Abi found herself having to make things up on the spot and hope for the best. She'd done it when reanimating the mice, she'd done it when raising the corpse, and she'd done it when bringing Ilaran back. Surely she could do it again without much trouble.

The only problem was that this time there was a high chance of being killed if she didn't get it right the first time.

Her barrier wouldn't hold for much longer. Every crash against the door sent a painful reverberation through her whole body. Something wet was trickling from her mouth and nose. She brushed it away with the back of her hand and found it was blood.

"Get everyone out of the palace," she told Siarvin. To her own surprise her voice was almost completely steady. "And lock the gates."

She held the barrier in place while Siarvin and Irímé half-shooed, half-dragged Shizuki away. She channelled more magic to hold it in place when she heard the alarm go off in the main palace. Most of the other guests had already gone home after the festival so there were very few people who had to leave. She calculated how long it would take them to get out.

When I hear the gates close I can let the barrier fall, she thought. That was quickly followed by, I hope the guards don't interfere.

This would be the absolute worst time for them to be seized by a sudden attack of competence. She would have enough to do just trying to keep herself safe without worrying about other people.

Crash. Crash. Crash. The front door began to creak ominously beneath the continuous attacks in spite of the magic supporting it. When it broke Abi's barrier would be all that stood between her and that thing. She looked around for ways to escape. In the background she heard the gates close.

There were flights of stairs built into the wall, leading up to the second storey and the attics. Owing to the unique architectural design of Gihimayel Palace it was less of a building and more of a block of flats with little chance of the residents encountering each other unexpectedly. None of the upstairs rooms were occupied at the moment; they were reserved for diplomats and royals from Dolovera. If she got into one of them before the door broke she could hide and keep an eye on the-- Her mind skidded to a halt as she wasted time trying to decide how to refer to the thing. It wasn't Ilaran and it wasn't a walking corpse. It was more like a parasite.

All right then. She could hide and keep an eye on the parasite while she figured out what to do.

You'll be trapped if it follows you up there, a little voice warned her.

That thought gave her pause. But there was really nowhere else for her to go -- unless she wanted to run all the way around the palace to reach the main hall, and who knew if the parasite could outrun her?

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If I have to I can open a window and jump onto one of the other stairs, she thought.

It wasn't a very comforting idea when there was the possibility she would miss and fall all the way to the ground.

The door splintered. It didn't completely break but it was now cracked in two.

Abi summoned up more of her magic. Dimly she realised she should have run out of it by now, but she had no time to worry about that now. The parasite threw itself against the broken part. At the same time Abi threw a spell directly at it. She'd meant it to be a disorientating spell that would leave the parasite confused for a few minutes. To her own amazement it struck the parasite with such force that it went flying back into the house.

Her triumph was mitigated by the fact it was still possessing Ilaran. I hope that didn't hurt him too much.

And there was the worst part about this sorry mess. She couldn't try to kill the parasite for fear of harming Ilaran. The best she could hope for was to try to exorcise it and destroy it as soon as it let go of him.

While the parasite was still somewhere inside Ilaran's house Abi took advantage of the opportunity to flee. She ran up the nearest flight of stairs, wincing at how loud her footsteps were on the metal. When she reached the door there was a moment of blind panic when she found it was locked. She wasted precious seconds struggling with the doorknob before she gave up and hit the door with an opening spell. Not only did the door open, it almost fell off its hinges. Abi blinked. After all the magic she'd used recently she shouldn't be able to cast such powerful spells. Then she dismissed it and ran into the house.

All of the furniture was moved to the edges of the rooms and covered with dust sheets. To get to the window closest to the next staircase she had to climb on top of a table. When she looked out she could see the garden below, the path leading round to the main gates, and the tall hedge surrounding the palace. She couldn't see a single sign of life, not even so much as a bird perched on a tree branch.

Maybe I knocked it out, she thought.

What effect would unconsciousness have on the parasite? Would it loosen its hold on Ilaran or would Ilaran be the only one harmed?

Abi's thoughts came to an abrupt halt at the sound of someone walking up the stairs she'd just come up. Clunk. Pause. Clunk. A clang that suggested they had tripped and fallen onto the next step. She craned her neck to see the stairs. Her vain hope that it was Irímé or Siarvin died the minute the person came into view. Neither of them was so tall or had dark brown hair. Even without seeing their face she knew it was the parasite puppeteering Ilaran's body.

She would have to make a jump for it after all.

Luckily the window was easier to open than the door. She pulled back the latch and shoved it open. Then she climbed out onto the outside windowsill. She couldn't avoid seeing how far it was to the ground. For a minute she felt too queasy to move. The windowsill was so very narrow and the ground was so very distant. If she fell would she survive?

A snarl behind her snapped her out of her alarm. Abi jumped. Distantly she felt an ache in her leg as she left the windowsill. She grabbed hold of the rails around the staircase. The abrupt halt to her fall almost wrenched her arms out of their sockets. For a minute all she could do was cling to the rails for grim life and wait for the pain to go down from "agonising" to "bearable". As soon as she could move she hauled herself up and over the rails onto the top stair.

She'd left a bloody stain on the metal railing. Abi looked down. The pain in her leg turned out to be a long gash running from her knee almost all the way down to her ankle. It tore through her trouser leg as if the fabric was as flimsy as paper.

A quick examination revealed the cut was shallow and not bleeding too badly. She half-leant, half-collapsed against the railing and finally looked back at the windowsill she'd jumped from.

How did I jump so far? part of her wondered, the part that was still thinking about irrelevant details even at a time like this. The rest of her was too busy screaming a warning to care about that.

Her blood ran cold. Ilaran stood motionless in the very spot where she had been a few minutes ago. His eyes were blank and covered with a white film. The dark magic clung to him like a cloak. Blood dripped from his nails. It took her a minute to realise that was her blood. The mystery of how she'd gotten the cut was quickly solved.

I could've sworn his nails weren't that sharp, thought the questioning part of Abi's mind. The rest was much more preoccupied with how to get out of here.

She reached for the door handle. Immediately Ilaran tensed. His movements were jerky and like a clockwork toy in need of winding. On the bright side that meant he probably couldn't jump far. On the less bright side he was taller than her and wouldn't have to jump as far to reach the rails.

Abi glanced down at the stairs behind her. She weighed up the pain of the cut and the likelihood of her leg giving out if she tried to run.

All right then, she thought. Here we go again.

She turned and ran down the stairs. Against her own wishes she couldn't resist the urge to look back. She was just in time to see Ilaran jump. He missed the rails and fell straight to the ground.

Abi winced. That must have hurt.

He was still lying motionless on the ground when she reached the bottom of the steps. She fought back the wish to check if he was all right. She had to get as far away as possible before he recovered. Worrying about his health could wait until she dealt with the parasite.

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It turned out there was something worse than being a prisoner in your own mind while someone else controlled your body. That was being a prisoner in your own mind and forced to watch as someone else controlled your body, while being unable to stop them. Ilaran stared in horror as the parasite tore open Abihira's leg. So much blood poured from the wound that for one horrible moment he thought it had hit an artery.

He watched with wide eyes -- well, metaphorically, since he currently couldn't even widen his own eyes -- as she climbed onto the staircase. Fortunately it seemed the wound wasn't as bad as it had looked. Abihira checked it and didn't seem too concerned.

Of course, there was also the possibility she was just a reckless idiot who didn't know anything about serious injuries.

The parasite was about to jump after her. Ilaran had had enough. He wasn't feeling very kindly disposed towards Abihira right now -- she'd gotten him killed and possessed in the space of a week, which made her more personally dangerous to him than Haliran -- but this was his body. If the parasite wanted to murder her it could get a body of its own.

He did the mental equivalent of grabbing the parasite by the neck and throttling it. Whether he did any actual damage was debatable, but he distracted it enough to make it stumble just as it jumped.

It missed the rails and plummeted to the grass below.

Oh no, was Ilaran's last thought before he hit the ground. This is going to hurt.