“So here we are, the staircase of memories,” Hailey said with annoyance.

“Hmm, I just see cracked earth. Where’s the staircase?”

“You’ll see if you get transported into my memories with me.”

“Your memories? Are you sure you want me to see that stuff?”

“I don’t mind…probably.” Hailey actually did mind, but she had a feeling that she should share them with Kait anyway.

She stepped forward.

Kait and Hailey stood in a gas station. In front of them, in an aisle filled with candy, was a younger Hailey, gazing at the sweets enviously.

“So for some reason,” the real Hailey explained, “there are a bunch of spirits acting out my memories.”

The Fake Hailey’s eyes rested on a Wishie-Washie bar, salivating over it.

“Can I just snag…” The real Hailey inched closer to the bar before her hand was nonchalantly slapped away by her younger self.

Clera happened to walk by, so Fake Hailey snagged a bar and presented it to her. “Can you buy me this?” she asked.

Clera opened her mouth for a moment, then closed it and shook her head. “No, Hailey. Maybe if you ate more vegetables yesterday, but you threw it all away. Now put that back.”

“B-but…”

Clera walked away.

The younger Hailey growled as she stared at the Wishie-Washie longingly. Her eyes opened a little like she’d gotten an idea. After looking every wishie way, she stashed one in her pocket and ran after her mother.

As the scene crumbled away, the spirit ran back and took the whole box of bars before it collapsed.

The cracks in the ground raised a few feet above where Hailey had stepped.

Hailey shrugged, “I still feel a tad guilty about that.”

“You stole it? The whole box?”

“No, not the whole box, you dumb-dumb!”

“Quell, quell, quell,” a voice said suddenly behind Kait.

Kait placed her hand on her broom and apprehensively swiveled to meet the newcomer.

“Ja nom Kaetha of Witchcreaf.” Fake Hailey held the whole box of Wishie-Washies in its arm.

Kait quickly relaxed. “Well, if it ain’t Kaethy! Didn’t expect to see you today.”

The younger version of Hailey bowed respectfully. “Neither did I.”

Hailey, perplexed, asked, “Are you two friends? Something made me think you might fight. Actually…gimmie one of those!” Hailey snatched a Wishie-Washie from the box.

The spirit lost its composure and ran to Hailey, trying to snatch it back. After Hailey avoided its first swipe and raised the Wishie-Washie above her head, the younger version of herself began jumping up in an attempt to take it back.

Kait laughed. “You could call her my old caretaker from when I was in stasis.”

The spirit finally gave up and tried to regain her stern composure. “More like a teacher. You hardly needed my help,” she said, pretending nothing happened.

“Why are you nice to Kait and not me?!”

“Because.”

“Because?!”

“Yes, because. Now mind your own business!”

Kait frowned. “Hey, Kaethy, don’t be so rude to her.”

“Silence, mortal! You have no right commanding me!” the spirit yelled.

“A legit one-eighty?!” Hailey exclaimed.

Kait scruffled the spirit’s hair, despite its annoyance. “You never change.”

“Falsehood,” it grumbled.

“Whatever,” Hailey said. “You all are already annoying me, so I’m going to press on.” She began to take a step forward.

“But I wanted to catch up with Kaetha!”

Hailey hesitated, then set down her foot. “Alright, just make it quick.”

The two wordlessly walked away to speak to each other in private.

“Have you considered my offer at all, Kait?” Kaetha asked.

She looked to the side. “I’m still not sure I want to do that.”

“Why not?! You’re a wonderful candidate for The Succession!”

“Maybe, but…not even you know what happens to Successors, Kaethy. I-I won’t give up my life for it.”

The young Hailey lookalike rolled her eyes. “You would rule over everything, I know that much. If we work together, we could change the world, undo what Elemencia did to magic!”

“I don’t care about any of that, Kaethy. The world doesn’t need a witch from ancient times ruling over it. I’d rather try to live my life.”

Kaetha shook her head in disappointment. “The eclipse is drawing nearer and nearer. I need your answer sooner or later, one way or another.”

Kait sighed. “I want to give you my answer, but first, I need to get Hailey out of here. It’s my fault she’s in The Consciousness in the first place.”

“Do as you wish, then.”

When they returned to the steps, Hailey said, “Can I continue, or what?”

“Yep, if you want to.”

“Cool.”

She stepped forward.

“It looks like they are beginning to make progress,” said Alchemia—no longer Mk2.

“Then I think we gotta get busy.” Jaine opened his duffel bag and took out white chalk. “I thought of how I might save you from death while I was driving here. I’ll need to draw on the floor to do it, though. Why don’t ya sit there?” He patted the ground.

As she sat where he’d indicated, she asked, “What are you doing?”

Jaine began scribbling the chalk onto the floor around her, making a circle with six hexagons inside. He pulled a pink stick of chalk from his bag and inscribed an intricate rune into one of them.

He explained as he began filling the circles with different-colored runes. “When people die, their soul is recycled in The Consciousness. It cleans their slate.”

He flicked a finger against his chalk, drawing attention to the symbolism.

“That’s when a person dies for real. It can then use their soul for either reincarnation or…anything else. In your case, you died and then got sent to The Consciousness. Then, it cleaned your slate. However, instead of being reincarnated, you were reimagined as a part of Hailey’s self-concept or whatever. That’s why things like you are referred to as reimagined souls.” He realized he’d written a rune in the wrong color and quickly wiped it away. “Whoops. Anyway, that’s how it works.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“So am I a real person?”

“Difficult to say. You’re an incredibly rare anomaly, though. Only real in theory.”

Alchemia stared at her hands with wonder. “I am?”

“I bet you’d be a treasured test subject for the educational scene.”

“I don’t think you send friends to become test subjects…” Alchemia warned fearfully.

“Hey, nobody said I couldn’t choose not to be your friend.”

“A-a-a-a–” Alchemia stuttered with a panicked look in her eyes.

Jaine placed his hands on her shoulders. “WHOA, don’t break on me! That was a joke. I wouldn’t send you off without your permission!”

“Oh.”

“So you don’t need to punctuate your sentences with ‘I think’? Anyway, I don’t know enough to say whether a reimagined soul like you is capable of change like you said you were, but…if I had to say, I believe what you said.” He finished the last rune. “And done.”

Suddenly, the door opened, revealing a cross Taylor.

“Been a while, Taylor,” Jaine said with a quick glance back.

“It sure has,” he replied. “Why are you here, Jaine?”

“No one likes me today, do they?”

“I-I-I do,” Alchemia said, stuttering again.

“Thanks.”

“Jaine, again, why are you here?” Taylor asked impatiently.

“Because I was asked to be.”

“By Kait?”

“You mean the witch? No.”

“How did you know–”

“I told him about her,” Alchemia responded quickly.

“Oh. Then was it Hailey’s friends?”

“Also no.” Jaine shook his head. “I’m here for Alchemia over here.”

“Who?”

“Me, I’m fairly sure,” Alchemia said.

Taylor looked between the two. “So, you’re now Alchemia?”

She nodded.

“She is,” Jaine stated. “Now, I need to continue my ritual and all, so please get out.”

“What ‘ritual’ even is this? Also, I just cleaned her room, did you seriously need to chalk the floor?”

“Course I did. And the ritual is to save Alchemia’s life.”

“Her?” he raised an eyebrow. “Fine, whatever. Just don’t do anything stupid.” Taylor walked away begrudgingly.

“With that guy out of the way…”

“Hey, please don’t talk to him that way.”

“Fine. Since we are friends, I’ll be nicer to your brother. Is that better?”

“I believe so.”

“Now, place one hand on those runes, and as for your other hand,” he said, taking a latex glove from his bag, “put this on.”

“I think I’m allergic.”

He pulled another, non-latex, glove from the bag, completely unfazed. “What about this?”

Alchemia took the glove and put it on. Jaine then carefully produced a short, wide jar with a layer of silver liquid at the bottom. “You need to put that hand in this mercury.”

“Do you want to poison Hailey?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be keeping this thing wrapped up safe and sound so no vapors get out.

“Why mercury?”

“It stores souls.” Jaine swapped his sunglasses for black safety goggles. “Safety first, necromancers.”

There was something strange about watching her memories with Kait, Hailey thought. Kait didn’t say much unless she was spoken to, and even then she simply provided what needed to be said. When Hailey asked why Kait was unusually quiet, she responded: “Everything in this realm is centered on your personal growth. I’m only here because fellowship can be important to that growth.”

Hailey eventually lost her reservations about sharing the memories with her. When she stepped up for the tenth time, she and Kait stood in the driveway behind her school. It was a fairly big school, one of just a few in the somewhat sparsely populated city of Conifera. A Hailey about two years younger than the real one stood there with her hands in her pockets. The sun had almost set behind the mountainous skyline apparent from their view of the school.

Fake Hailey looked at her phone, checking the time impatiently, then slid it back into her pocket.

Linne, adorned in a black outfit and her usual jewelry, jogged to Fake Hailey from behind her. She nervously said, “Don’t do something rash, please.”

Fake Hailey rolled her eyes dismissively. “Sure, I won’t,” she said unconvincingly.

Hailey placed a hand on her forehead. “This seems familiar, but…”

Kait remained silent as another figure walked from the other side of the building and faced the two.

“So you actually came, Abbie,” Fake Hailey said ominously.

Abbie always held herself with a posture of superiority, challenging other people to boost her ego. That was why they’d gotten along, Hailey remembered now, but also why they had been more like bitter enemies at first.

Abbie spoke with a competitive edge, “I guess I am.”

“You really shouldn’t call my friends black flowers.”

Abbie shrugged dismissively. “She totally is one, though.”

Hailey grimaced, knowing she’d be laughed at when Kait realized what the memory was about.

Linne looked between the two nervously as they stared daggers at each other. She opened her mouth but didn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, speak.

“I’ll give you one chance to apologize for what you just said, girl. What do you have to say for yourself?!”

Abbie remained quiet in thought.

“Nothing?”

Linne finally spoke, “Hailey…why don’t we just–”

“I’m not letting her get away with slandering you like that! It’s just stupid to call you a black flower! The last time I saw you flirting with a boy was never, so I’m more than sure she called just called you that to get in with some crappy group of losers!”

Abbie chuckled, but then looked down thoughtfully. She suddenly shook her head, and let out a breath. “Okay, fine, I’m sorry.”

Fake Hailey grew furious and leaped toward Abbie, slamming a fist into her gut, despite the fact that the other girl had done exactly what she’d demanded.

Surprised, Abbie fell to the ground with a cough as Hailey said, “Oh, so you think you can just slander my friend, say, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then walk out without a bruise?!”

Abbie tried to speak as she held her gut. “N-no…I shouldn’t have even tried to get into their group–”

Fake Hailey pinned Abbie to the ground with a stomp and towered over her. “You’ve got some bad excuses, lady!”

“Really, I’m sorry, and I regret it all!” Abbie yelled, raising up her hands defensively.

Linne ran to them and threw Fake Hailey aside, then helped Abbie get to her feet.

“Hailey! Don’t hurt my friend like that!”

“Uh, what?” Fake Hailey asked in confusion, looking between the two.

“Jeez, Hailey! Your bro gets in one small fight, and you think it’s perfectly fine to do this?!”

“W-wait, she called you a black flower, but now you’re friends?!”

“Well…you aren’t wrong, but…” Linne averted her eyes in embarrassment.

Abbie continued for Linne, “We’ve been friends for two years now.” She quickly glanced at the guilty-looking Linne, who nodded in understanding.

Fake Hailey looked between the two girls, not noticing what had passed between them. “Wait, so you’re saying–”

“You dragged me into this mess without asking a thing!” Linne shouted.

“Oh.” Fake Hailey slumped as she realized she’d humiliated herself and hurt her friend.

Kait snickered behind Hailey as the world began to waver.

“Forgot about that one,” Hailey said, trying to save face.

“You forgot you first met your best friend when you punched her? Soldier love, eh?”

Hailey shook her head in annoyance. “Cut it out!”

“Heh, and you said Linne jumps to conclusions.” Kait began laughing.

“I get the feeling you’ll never let me live this one down,” Hailey said.

The two reappeared in the front of a black mist once the memory ended.

“Whatever. This leads to that other part of me’s room,” Hailey said.

“Whenever you’re ready, then.”

“Yeah, but hang on…when we walked here earlier, couldn’t we have just taken a car?”

“Time and distance work strangely in The Consciousness. Even if we blasted off faster than sound, we’d take the same amount of time.”

“I guess there aren’t any shortcuts through this,” Hailey said.

“Not exactly, nope.”

Hailey stepped through.