I woke up with a start. The room was violet from the U.V. lights. But that didn't banish my fear. I scanned my surroundings searching for the Shade. To my right, is where the door and Doctor's table is at. To my left where the wall and the windows showed me it was already dark outside, made me more frantic in my search for the Shade. I even tossed my blanket away from me, somehow convinced that the Shade was under it.

  But the Shade was nowhere to be seen. My hand inspected my neck, checking for bruises, but found nothing.

  I breathe a sigh of relief.

  "You're up," Dr. Barnes said. He was holding a cup of coffee. He pulled a chair and sat down next to my bed. "How are you feeling?"

  "Okay, I guess,"

  "Does it still hurt?"

  I kind of forgot about it, so maybe not anymore. But having been reminded of that, my tongue immediately went to the wound.

  "It still stings a little bit," I said. "When my tongue touches it."

  "Then don't touch it," Doctor said. "That'll be 2,000 pesos."

  I gasped. That scared me more than the Shade. "What!?"

  Doctor laughed. "I'm kidding." He brought a flashlight out of his left chest pocket. "Let me see."

  I opened my mouth.

  "Hmmm," he said. "Well, the wound had closed up quite nicely. No discoloration to be found." He leaned back and clicked his flashlight off. "You're all good."

  He got up and returned his chair to the front of his table. "After you eat dinner, brush your teeth and come back here again. We'll need to reapply the ointment. We don't want your wound to get infected. Especially since you're going to be spending a month here studying the Shade."

  "The Shade, huh..." I mused.

  "Oh right," Dr. Barnes said. "Major Coleman told me you haven't seen the Shade yet."

  "I may have gone a bit crazy last night," I said with a weak laugh.

  "No one can blame you," he said. His voice suddenly empathetic. "Your whole lives has been..."

  I didn't care for what he is saying since he is basically paraphrasing Major Coleman's words this morning. I just want to get out of here as soon as possible, go to my room and sort out what is real and what was a drug-induced fantasy. "Thank you," I said as soon as he stopped talking.

  He smiled. "You know, the most effective way of getting rid of your fear is to face them. Directly. It's the second night so it should be Group B's shift tonight. You should join them. See the Shade for yourself. Then see it again tomorrow. And the day after that. Until you are finally convinced that there is nothing to be afraid of. Provided you follow the handbook to the T, of course."

  I nodded. "Maybe I will join them." I drew away my cover and swept my leg off the bed. "Thank you so much for your help, Doc."

  He waved me goodbye as he rounded his table back to his seat.

  "Remember to come back later for the ointment," he said as I went out of the door. I thanked him again and closed the door behind me.

  The hallway is also covered in violet light. Even the back of the grand staircase has U.V. lights installed on them. There is no blind spot in this dorm's defense. They had decades to perfect this system.

  I know I said that I'll join them on their Shade Study but I found myself locked up in my room, staring at the ceiling, wondering what the hell just happened this afternoon to me.

  There was no mistaking it. It was Reina. Again. But this time, it was different.

  "Vergil! If you can hear me, repeat these words, TALE HET IIIGWA REVIAK HET DIGGENHA,"

  I remembered it clearly. Granted, it happened under the effects of a potent painkiller. But I've already seen Reina twice. It happened while I was wide awake, watching a movie with my friends in the middle of the day. There's no way it was a dream.

  A hallucination, maybe? Did my mind actually break or at least damaged by the many traumatic experiences I've had since the beginning of October? Possibly. The things I've seen, the sufferings I've endured are enough to make anyone lose it. What about the drugs they injected me with to put me to sleep? Was it laced with something else? Or is the temporary insanity part of its side effects?

  Then there's the latest memory. Or another drug-induced fantasy?

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  "Does he know?" Major Coleman said.

  "Maybe," Dr. Barnes said. "But he failed. At least, it is safe to assume that he thinks he failed. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here."

  "Good," Major Coleman said. "Keep carrying out your mission. That goes for you kids, too."

  "Of course, Major Coleman. We'll make sure he stays here." Cana's said. There was no malice in her voice but the willingness in her voice and the implications of their words made it clear to me that this world is not what it seems like. I don't know what this world is exactly, the secrets it holds. Nor do I want to know. Because based on my entire Haunted career, some things are best kept hidden.

  The gut-wrenching horror seized me and made me ran to the mirror and recited the phrase. The words just came flowing out of my mouth. I'm not sure if I need to be in front of the mirror. But I wanted to be. I wanted to see my lips move as the words leave my mouth. As if seeing myself saying the words would make it more effective. I repeated the words a second time, enunciating every words the way Reina said in my memory or dreams.

  Uttering the final word, I waited. I waited for half a minute, just staring at my face. I blinked. Then I blinked again. Not satisfied with that, I splash my face with cold tap water from the sink and look into the mirror once more, only to be met with the same, horrible disappointment.

  No changes, I thought.

  I don't even know what this phrase was supposed to do, what change would occur. But I just did it per Reina's directions. Besides, what else could I do in my situation? So I placed my bet on Reina. But now, it seems like even the priestess was wrong. Which means every instance of me seeing Reina, Cana, and anyone else in the Alpha TimeLine, my original world, was nothing more than a dream, or a hallucinations of a mentally-scared teenager.

  I shook my head and repeated the chant for the third time. I closed my eyes, believing every word coming out of my mouth, thinking that maybe it didn't work the first two times because I didn't believe it. But how can I be expected to believe in something I don't even understand?

  When I finished, I forced myself to look into the mirror. Still no changes. I took a deep breath to steel myself. I went to my window. Outside, I could see Mr. Donovan. Not dead. In fact, he is supervising Group B's Shade Study. As he is supposed to do. The Shade, a few meters away from them, hovers on the side of the tree. Unthreatening. Unimposing. And most important, unchanging.

  I was crushed but yet another failure, another disappointment. I was still in this new world where Mr. Donovan still lives and the Shade's still incapable of transforming, let alone, capable of choking me to death like in my nightmare. This should have been a good thing, but this is a reminder that I am not back.

  I guess it is not a total failure. It proves that the horrific nightmares I've had earlier, was just that—nightmares. Induced by drugs. Put together by my tired brain who thought it necessary to recreate scenes I've only heard of or seen in the news. Scenes I didn't actually experience myself.

  We didn't have a neighbor who wanted to kill me because I was haunted. That was from some news article I've read on the internet when my group was doing research for our presentation for the Dark Year on Mr. Chua's history class.

  The Reina in my nightmare was a character concocted by my brain no doubt, induced by the drug I took for the pain. Because it that was real, if she was really, then the chant, spell, whatever should have worked!

  But it didn't. Because I watched my tears stained the wood flooring of my room. From the hopelessness brought about by my exhausting all possible options and still remaining trapped in this parallel world. Instead of being under the roots of the giant Balete Tree back home, back to my original timeline.

  I was mentally drained. Even though, I just got up. All I wanted to do right now...is nothing. I curled up on the floor in a fetal position, staring at the floor. Not thinking of what might have I missed. Not racking my brains for anymore clues on ways to go back. Or how could have I said Reina's phrase any differently. No. I was just...starting.

  I can't tell how long it's been since my brain shut up like this. It was kind of nice, just noticing the smallest details of my room. The little bubbles of paint on one of the legs of my bed. The faint suggestion of a face made by the wood grain of one of the double doors of my lamp table. The strip lights attached to the baseboard that emits U.V. lights. Details I couldn't see when my brain was in survival mode. Until finally, my eyes cannot keep themselves open any longer.

  "Let the light reveal the hidden"

  A girl's voice said inside my head.

  "Vergil?"

  My eyes flutter open slowly. The first thing I saw was the wooden floor. And someone kneeling down in front of me.

  "Vergil?" the voice said again. The voice got clearer this time.

  I looked up from the floor.

  "Why are you sleeping down there?" Cana said. The bright morning light blinds my sleepy eyes so I couldn't actually see her face but her voice, that I cannot mistake.

  "I guess I just did..." was the best I could do in my sleepy situation. Just thinking about my entire situation already makes me feel so tired and hopeless so I guess that's also the reason I didn't try to come up with an excuse.

  "Anyway, what's up?" I said as I walked to the sink in my to wash my face.

  "We didn't see you at dinner," Cana said. "Mr. Marino was worried, you know? Especially after you stabbed yourself."

  The mirror was exactly in front of the door of my bathroom so I could talk with Cana without turning back. I inspected my wound with my tongue. It doesn't seem to hurt much any more. I don't taste the metallic taste of blood so I guess it's all closed up now.

  "I'm fine," I said. "And I didn't stabbed myself. Like I said, I was picking my teeth with your pen knife when..." I was just drying my face with a towel when I looked in the mirror and noticed something disturbing.

  In the mirror was Cana. Standing near my bed, talking with me. But her face is gone. Instead, there was just skin on what was supposed to be her face. Her eyes, nose, ears, even her mouth is gone, which made me think how is she even talking to me. How am I hearing her?

  "When what?" Cana asked somehow without a mouth. I heard her clearly.

  "You know what?" I said, barely containing the nervousness in my voice. "Can you wait for me downstairs? I need to use the toilet if you know what I mean?" I locked the door immediately without waiting for a reply. Once I heard the click! my hand let go of the doorknob, shaking.

  "Ohh," she said. Her voice muffled behind the door. "I'll see you down then."

  I listened to her footsteps leaving my room, gradually getting lighter and lighter as she descended down the stairs. I stepped back from the door.

  "W-what...was that?"

  The confined and silent space of my restroom provided me a safe space to assess what my brain just saw.

  "What-what? Did I just see?" I said.

  I mi-might be actually losing my mind...