The barely lit figure of Hayden stood in front of the only way out of this dark, damp dungeon, staring directly at us. I was just behind Thalia and trapped between shelves upon shelves of stuff. The metaphorical noose tightened.

“Interesting, that you thought that broken down old church was so interesting, when this, the real haunted place, was right here all along.” He said.

“Hayden?” I said.

“That’s not Hayden.” Thalia said.

“No point in trying to fool you huh? Well in that case allow me to introduce myself. I am called Xegluron. I used to have a different, more normal name but honestly I don’t even remember what that was anymore.”

“So is that what we’re looking for?” I asked Thalia.

“Not exactly.” She said. “The fragment has corrupted his ego.”

She keeps throwing all this jargon at me like its supposed to make sense. “What?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

” Destroying the projection of his ego, which is what we’re looking at, would be counterproductive. We need to find the actual fragment which has taken control of the subconscious.” Thalia explained, as if it was obvious.

“If you want to find the fragment, follow me.” A new, familiar voice came from behind us once again.

“Laura?” I said, immediately recognizing her. “How did you get here?”

“She isn’t here.” Thalia said. “That must be his conscience. The uncorrupted parts of the soul always fight back when a foreign one enters.”

“Like the body fighting infection.” I said.

“Yes, exactly like that.” She said.

There wasn’t much of a choice in what to do at this point. Behind us was the demon, forward was at least a chance. We followed Laura… the mental projection through the basement maze once again. The room darkened more as we ran, getting closer to the pitch black outside. Eventually Laura stopped and picked up a shoebox off the top of the shelf and handed it to me.

“Destroy this.” She said. “And then find its equivalent in the real world. Your sister will understand.”

I took the shoebox and smashed it on the floor. The darkness of the basement was instantly replaced with a blinding light, and then…

----------------------------------------

My eyes opened and I found myself back in the hospital waiting room, the real world, sitting next to Thalia, who was also just waking up, and Kish. Laura was sitting next to her.

“That wasn’t very long.” She said. “Did it work?”

A nurse approached us and we soon had our answer. “Good news, he’s finally waking up.”