“I think it’s almost time,” Alchemia said.

“We should be ready, so just stay patient and keep that hand of yours in the mercury.”

Alchemia, sitting in the center of Jaine’s magic circle, had one hand in the mercury jar, the top of which was wrapped tightly with tape to ensure as few fumes as possible escaped. Kait was still against the wall, having been moved from the bed after she’d fallen asleep.

“Are you legally able to handle that mercury?”

He produced a card from his jacket, flashing it. “Yeah, I can. Who do ya think I am?”

“A seventeen-year-old necromancer who accidentally dropped his girlfriend’s soul.”

Jaine gritted his teeth, scowling furiously at Alchemia, his former buddy-buddy attitude falling away.

“I-I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I think…” She looked down guiltily.

He turned his head to the side, his expression melting into sadness. “Whatever, man.”

Alchemia quickly changed the subject. “I think I’m about to be sent back to the dream realm. Is it all prepared for me?”

“It’s all prepared. A: we have the runes, B: you are in the runes, C: you’re in extreme proximity to the mercury, and D: I’m touching the runes. That should be everything.”

“My life is probably on the line, so are you sure this will work?”

“Nobody’s done anything like this before, man. Like hell I am. If you want, I can explain the theory behind it all.”

“I think I do.”

“Right now, your soul is tethered to both Hailey’s body and the quicksilver due to the trapping runes I placed.” He motioned to the complex magic circle. “When you are sent back to The Consciousness, it will probably break your tether to Hailey’s body, but not your tether to the mercury. Once your business with The Consciousness is complete, you will ideally return to the mercury instead of being stuck in The Consciousness. After that…I’ll check up with you, and we can figure out what you want to do.”

“Oh, I think I’m leaving now.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later…I hope.”

“Bye…” Hailey’s body fell to the floor.

He sighed. “And that’s my cue to clean up…”

Hailey appeared in an alchemy lab alongside Kait. It was still a little bare, but now there were two desks with various cool-looking liquids and beakers, and other mysterious devices atop them.

“Well, this isn’t what I expected,” Hailey said.

Kait walked to a desk, raising an eyebrow as she studied the equipment. “What did you expect?”

“Last time, her room was literally just a few doors.”

“My tastes have changed, I believe.” Hailey’s clone sat in a chair in front a desk.

Hailey shook her head, not finding the lab particularly interesting. “Whatever floats your boat.”

Kait put her hands in her pockets as she walked to the table near the clone and stared at the knick-knacks with interest. For some reason, her clone seemed apprehensive towards her, even scooching her chair away a foot.

“So, I need to deal with your ridiculous sabotages again?” Hailey asked, throwing the gear she’d picked up along the way on the ground.

The Fake Hailey walked to the gear and bubbled it up. “I’d prefer if you didn’t view me so negatively.”

“Whatever.”

“I am, most likely, you.”

“So are you or are you not me, dude?”

“I think you know.”

Hailey knew it was obvious what the thing meant, but she didn’t want to succumb to her dumb, evasive statements. “Okay, how about I be serious with you, alright?”

“I think that’s alright.”

Hailey moved right up into her counterpart’s personal space. “You aggravate me so much. It’s like you are everything I hate to see in people. You’re like Linne, on steroids. You back off when I press you, you hesitate to stick to a plan if it wasn’t proposed directly by you, and you’re always ready to sit back and watch others do things!”

The fake version of her didn’t respond.

“So, do you have anything to say back to me?!” she asked, secretly curious about what the clone had to say.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Y– wait, did you just say no?”

“I think so.”

Hailey shook her head. “Yeah, you won’t stop pissing me off. Just tell me how you’re me, again?”

“Those traits.”

“Those…traits?”

“If Linne has all of them, why are we friends with her?”

“W-well…” Hailey didn’t have a retort. She’d criticized her friend for those traits, but she never…meant it. Or at least, she would quickly regret her words. “I guess that’s because she works well with me.”

“So you can’t get along with me, but you can with her?”

Hailey frowned. “I think I can, but…that doesn’t mean I don’t dislike you.”

“That’s fine, I think.”

Kait bounced a little as she watched, curious about where their conversation would lead. She was disappointed when both Haileys were disinterested in continuing their discussion, their shared nature of ‘do first, who cares about asking questions later’ getting in the way of Kait’s entertainment.

Hailey defiantly cracked her knuckles, then threw open the lab’s double doors. “Let’s get going.”

The clone nodded and escorted the bubbles to the blue void outside, setting them off to fly to the end. “I think we should set some rules first.”

“You still don’t want to just send me to the top?”

“I think it’d be fun not to.”

Hailey threw her arms out dismissively. “Whatever you say. Tell me the rules.”

“The first rule is that I might change the rules midway.”

“No comment on that stupidity.”

“Two, have fun.”

“Okay, so you never meant to have rules in the first place.”

“I did…I think.”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Kait asked, lost in their nonsensical conversation.

The clone waved Kait closer. “Come join us, please! I think this is a platforming challenge.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Which one is which,” Kait whispered.

Hailey pointed her thumb to her chest.

Kait looked out the double doors and observed the void. “No tricks?” she asked.

“My ‘counterpart’ loves tricks.”

“And if I fall into the void, I’m not going to die, right?”

The clone shook her head. “I don’t think so. You should be safely teleported to the start.”

“I know that’s just how you talk, but I don’t like the way you said that…I’m sure I’ll be fine, though.”

Instantly, the two were teleported onto mirrored routes, each with a few dozen platforms that led to a single, swirling cloud of mist high in the sky.

Hailey’s counterpart hovered in the sky between the two. “On your marks, please…”

Kait raised an eyebrow. “Marks? What’s that supposed–”

“I think you should get set!”

Hailey rolled her eyes. “You can’t stop being uncertain even when you say that?!”

“You should go now!”

Both participants took their time before taking their first step, despite Fake Hailey presenting the game as a race.

Hailey called out to her counterpart, “Hey, you aren’t randomly going to do something like turn the floor to ice, are you?”

“I think that’s a great idea!”

Kait leaped onto the first platform, only for it to turn to ice beneath her feet. Her miscalculated jump ended in her slipping off the platform and into the void. “W-whaaaaa!”

When Kait reappeared at the start, she shot Hailey’s counterpart a nasty glare.

“You really did that to her?” Hailey asked disapprovingly.

“I think it was a little funny, though.”

Hailey averted her eyes. “Don’t make me admit you’re right.” She braced herself, then leaped onto the second platform. Hailey wasn’t very sure-footed, though, so she slipped on the ice and fell into the void, too.

After she appeared at the start, Hailey rolled her eyes, quickly shook off her dizziness and tried again. She managed to leap onto the next platform before putting too little strength into her next jump and falling back into the void.

She felt, for a moment, like scolding her counterpart for the ice, but after seeing the content smile on her face…

She stood up, straightened her pants, and ran.

Once again, Hailey fell into the void, but she’d made progress beyond the third platform.

Hailey tried again, beginning to understand the timing of each of the jumps. She failed again, returning back to the start.

Once more, she stood and tried jumping the platforms, using her momentum to leap to and fro and skate between each platform in swift, satisfying movements. However, she was distracted after seeing Kait doing far better than her, and tumbled back down.

She stood once again with a gritted smile, then leaped onto the second platform.

The wind was nice, the perfect temperature.

She leaped to the left, slid across a platform, then took two steps to redirect her momentum to the right, jumping seven feet off the edge like she was on the moon.

It felt…right. As if it was all made for her.

She leaped between four closely placed platforms in succession. It was fun once she could pull the timing off, like figuring out a rhythm she had to bounce to.

Then, she bounded eleven feet, soaring across the void…and for a moment, she was sure she didn’t go far enough, but…was she lighter? She landed soundly on the next platform, but she hadn’t thought far enough. As she approached the edge, she took a leap of faith in panic, and…she landed.

Hailey continued to leap between platforms, every movement as intuitive as could be. It wasn’t exactly a challenge, but she was having fun. A lot of fun, actually. She simply kept leaping between the platforms, enjoying the liberating feeling that began growing in her chest.

Wow, that was new. When was the last time she had fun?

She glanced to the side to see a genuine smile on her counterpart’s face—something she couldn’t help but mirror.

Yeah, this was what she wanted. She wanted to be happy.

Kait watched from her broom as Hailey’s course grew more and more intricate. Her doppelganger had entirely ignored Kait once she’d finished the standard course, so she was free to spectate.

Hailey’s course had started off as the standard one, but it quickly began to move and warp, turning far more elaborate once she’d gotten into the flow of jumping to and fro platforms. As Hailey skirted across one platform, new ones appeared wherever she felt like jumping. That eventually changed, though, as her course grew more outrageous with each addition.

Hailey’s linear path began to curve wildly to the left and right, circle down and up, then introduce new gimmicks. Hailey raised her arms as she jumped into the void, only to grip a rapidly forming zip line and slide down it onto another platform. By that point, Kait had begun cheering from her broom, enthralled by their little acrobatics act.

Hailey rolled onto a crescent-shaped ramp of ice, and gravity suddenly shifted to give her the inertia needed to complete a two-seventy-degree flip, landing on a higher platform. Then gravity completely flipped, sending her flying between platforms that alternated between entirely vertical and horizontal. Her course ended with Hailey leaping from a vertical platform to one that was upside-down before propelling herself back onto the final, rocky platform.

Her counterpart clapped happily and joined the two on the final platform as the real Hailey fell to the ground, absolutely bushed despite having infinite stamina. She covered her eyes with an arm, hiding the tears that were growing in them.

Kait smiled and clipped her broom onto her back before sitting beside Hailey.

The three remained as they were for a few minutes.

“Um…Hailey?” her counterpart began, “Do you want to see me again?”

“Huh?” Hailey was perplexed by the statement. “I mean, you’re me, right? Aren’t I always ‘seeing’ you?”

“It doesn’t work that way…not for me, I think.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Hailey sat up, narrowing her eyes in concern.

“I’m…changed. I might represent you, but I’m probably not…you.”

Hailey shook her head. “Hey, I only just met you a moment ago, don’t you start to pull on my heartstrings!”

“Well, I think I’ve been sharing your memories.” Her ‘counterpart’ glanced at Kait, knowing she was smart enough to pick up the hints. “Once you leave, that should no longer be the case. You and I will have nothing to do with each other.”

“I-I don’t understand a thing here, but are you saying you’ll live on?”

“Wait, you already counted me out?”

“Uh, yeah,” Hailey said sheepishly.

Her counterpart chuckled. “I think that’s ironic.”

“Whatever you think, bud.” Hailey shrugged.

“So, if I could live past this, would you be interested in seeing me again sometime?”

“Well…” Hailey narrowed her eyes, feeling conflicted, but gave a noncommittal shrug. “I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

“I think that’s good enough. You can call me Alchemia from now on, okay?”

“Whoa, I wish I got a name as badass as that.”

“Jaine actually picked it out for me, sort of.”

“How do you know that guy? Are you consorting with that jerk? I swear, I never want to see him again.”

“I may have offered to be friends with him in exchange for his help.”

“Never mind, there’s no way you could ever be me.”

The two laughed, savoring their last moments of being connected with good-natured fun.

“Whether we like it or not, my dimension will soon collapse. You all better get going.”

Hailey nodded. “I–” She grumbled, then shook her head. “That was actually pretty fun, Alchemia. I’m sorry about being a butt to you, earlier.”

Alchemia smiled, tears appearing in her eyes. “Thanks. Please have a good bye.”

Hailey stepped through the black mist.

The two people left behind remained in silence for a moment.

Alchemia turned to Kait. “So…what do you want to do, erase my memory?”

Kait shook her head, looking at the portal. “Don’t get me wrong, Mark…er, Alchemia, that wasn’t just to protect me.”

She narrowed her eyes. “It wasn’t?”

“No, it was both for Hailey’s sake and my convenience. What Hailey saw…” Kait brought her necklace out from beneath her shirt and stared at it. “Witchcraft went too far. This is the result. I’m carrying what…what I hope is the last of these. The broken souls of my friends remain in here. But that’s beside the point.” She stared Alchemia in the eyes as she slid the necklace back under her shirt. “I’m a Successor. I didn’t want Hailey, or you for that matter, to get involved in this, but that necklace, The Witch’s Catalyst, isn’t meant to exist. She wasn’t meant to see the catalyst’s power.”

Alchemia tilted her head, the slightest bit curious as to what a ‘Successor’ was.

Kait patted her thighs, still filled with energy. “You know that spirit, Kaetha?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re pretty good friends.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yep. She’s got…problems, but she’s nice when you get to know her.” Kait sighed. “But from the sound of it, once you leave this place, you’ll be a wanted criminal in The Consciousness’s eyes. I may even be asked to deal with you. I know how it treats souls. It won’t end pretty.”

Alchemia worriedly narrowed her eyes.

“If that happens, you can call me a sleeper agent. I don’t want to hurt anyone if I can. I probably won’t even remember this happened, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem, sis. Just one more thing before we leave.” Her eyes grew dangerous. “Never tell anyone what I just told you. My necklace, my purpose, your existence…don’t talk about any of that to anyone, not if you can help it.” Kait leaned back with a wry smile. “But I’m rooting for you either way. Bye!” Kait stepped through the portal, waving back at Alchemia.

Alchemia waved back as the dimension she’d been born in collapsed.

She’d done her job, and now it was her time to live.