I ran from the collapsing theater, ground shaking as I did. By this point I’d gained the awareness that I was in some kind of dream. Usually this realization meant the end of the dream but here it kept going. The unreality of my surroundings was both obvious yet still playing out. Now I was in some ruins. I realized this place had been appearing in my dreams recently, as had Thalia, though at the time I hadn’t made any connection between it and the real world.

Eventually I found myself confronted again by Thalia and another, a black haired woman named Sabreal, who I also somewhat recognized unconsciously, and not in a good way. Thalia clearly didn’t like her either judging by her tense body language. Fists balled up, teeth gritted, she looked as if she was about to pounce on her at any second.

“Excellent, now both of you are here.” Sabreal said.

“Leave.” Thalia shouted pointing at her.

“Don’t be so aggressive Green.” Sabreal said. “I know we have had our differences but at least let me say my piece. Besides it is not like either of us can affect the other here anyway.”

“… Fine.” Thalia said, beginning to pace back and forth.

“All due respect but I know neither of you are real.” I said. ” You’re both part of the dream. Frankly I’d rather you just tell me how to wake up.”

“Not real? Just a dream?” Sabreal said. “Oh, I see my former comrade has failed to explain. We are but visitors in the space that is your soul. This place, this beautiful, purest base of life. A whole world in itself, yet most never know its truth depths. Sad, is it not?”

“Oh Sabreal, as two-faced as ever.” Thalia said. “You speak of the purity of the soul as if you weren’t the one who first brought corruption into the soulscape.”

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“It is sad that none of you bothered to understand.” Sabreal said. “We are the only beings that know the intricacies of the soul, yet only I have bothered to explore its full potential, only I have tried to discover what it truly is, and what our purpose in knowing is. This is what our master wanted us to do. Our real master, not the usurper you follow.”

“You still haven’t answered my question.” I demanded. “How do I get out of here?”

“My child, don’t you understand you are here to find yourself Only then can you awaken a true Seraph.” Sabreal said. ” As it happens I have someone who can help you.”

“Sabreal! Whatever you are doing, stop.” Thalia said.

Sabreal smiled and continued anyway. Snapping her fingers, and once again the body of my past life, San appeared.

“You can’t trick me with illusions.” I said. ” I’ve seen this already.”

“Impossible.” Thalia said. “What did you do Sabreal?! ”

“So you sense her aura Thalia?” Sabreal said. “I did nothing, I just found her like this. Blue, your soul may have passed out of San when you “died,” but for some reason the body continued living, and simply created a new soul.”

“No!” Thalia shouted. “That’s not possible, it’s unnatural.”

“What do you say Blue?” Sabreal said, looking at me. “Together we can find out who you are. Who you really are.”

I starred at San. She looked like me, maybe I was this person before, but, I knew she wasn’t me. I was me. No one else. And if this was my space, then I could control it. “I am Grayson Park Blackwell! I don’t know who you think I am and I don’t care! Kish Park Blackwell is my sister, Catherine Blackwell is my Aunt! Only I can decide who I am! Now get out of my head.”

The shaking of the ground turned even more violent. Reality itself was starting to destabilize. Sabreal and San both merely stood where they were, even as both started fading away.

“I was hoping we could do this the easy way.” Sabreal said as she and San disappeared. “We’ll be seeing each other again.”

The world continued to collapse, chunks of the sky started falling like it was nothing but a roof. I watched this sight with a shocking amount of calm.

And then I jolted awake, as did Thalia next to me. We were in some kind of darkness. It didn’t matter to me at the moment. I stood up. Ran my hand through my hair, grabbed a few loose ones, and pulled them in front of my eyes.

My hair was blue now.

I was a Seraph.