The evening in Rosa’s apartment was warm, too warm to say at least. The air conditioner in the room turned all way up didn't seem to warm Rosa at all. She stared at her phone. Her eyes were half-open because of exhaustion. But they were still unable to close because of the burning sensation that would take over. The headaches settled a few hours ago which made the withdrawal at least a little easier. The headaches were the worst thing as a part of the withdrawal, in her opinion.

Rosa’s blank stare focused back on the phone when she saw the screen light up. She felt and heard it buzzing of it on the palm of her hand. She tapped the answer button and placed the phone to her ear, not bothering to see who was calling.

“Yes?”

“Hey, Rosa!”, a familiar voice buzzed from her phone, it was Theo.

As soon as Rosa heard his voice, she tried to mask the clattering of her teeth by biting down on her tongue. She didn’t want Theo concerned about her. Making him concerned when she is in withdrawal made her hate herself even more for the addiction.

“Rosa? You there? I wanted to tell you I won’t be able to make it to you today, sorry.”, Theo said from the other side of the line but got cut off by Rosa.

“It’s alright. I didn’t have much planned so you didn’t ruin anything.”, Rosa said. She felt a bit of relief because Theo won’t come over. She didn’t want him to see her like this at all. She was a mess in withdrawal, all because she couldn’t control herself in the sight of general anesthesia.

“No, Rosa- I didn’t mean we won’t get to see each other at all, can you come over? I don’t know why but It feels something is wrong- if feels confusing I don’t know what is happening at all-

Please come over.”

That last sentence sent a shiver down Rosa’s spine- something definitely was not right. But the thing was: this didn’t sound like Theo at all. It’s not like his speech or anything was wrong, but her gut kept telling her that this is a bad idea.

“Please don’t ask anything! Come over as soon as you can.”, Theo pleaded from the other side of the line. As Rosa was going to reply she heard a click and looked at the phone only to find that Theo has hung up on her.

“What?..”, she muttered to herself. She tried to recollect the events that happened. But she gave up as she tried to get up and to the bathroom as quick as she could. Not wanting to risk the fact that Theo could’ve gotten poisoned. This could've explained the confusion he was in. As she entered the room, her gag reflex was almost set off by the horrid stench of vomit that still reeked in the room. even though the vomit got flushed hours ago, it still lingered. Rosa tried to hold on as she went to check herself in the mirror; needless to say, she was not looking her best. Her skin was deathly ashen, her eyes bloodshot and puffy.

“Hell..”, Rosa said to her reflection. She let the cold water run from the faucet, grabbing a towel and soaking it before putting it over her eyes. She tapped her foot on the gray tiles, impatient, as she tried to make the time go by faster. She took the towel off in not even full 2 minutes, before looking at herself in the mirror again. The eye situation wasn’t favorable, but she looked somewhat normal at least.

She hurried out of the reeking bathroom and to the closet. She threw down a simple outfit onto the bed before getting dressed. She took her bag, still full of the medicine she threw in when she was visiting Theo earlier. She head out of the door, running her hand through her hair to smooth any stray hairs that might have sticked out. In less than a minute Rosa was out of the building and counting her steps to Theo’s house. Halfway on her way, she felt a slight unease and started to look around. She decided to call Theo to check up on him and to relieve herself of the tension.

“…Nothing?”, Rosa questioned as she listened to the beeping of the phone for a while before hanging up. She sped up her pace, more concerned than she was moments ago.

A weird feeling started to envelop Rosa. She felt tired and her legs were getting weaker, she felt like her body wobbled at every step.

‘Alright Rosa, maintain yourself at least pass out in front of his door.’, Rosa thought to herself. Looking around, she spotted an anomaly. Strange, no people were around. Most of the people always came out during the evening. But even more strange was the fact that the street was deathly quiet. Rosa could only hear her fast breathing and footsteps, which seemed a bit unnatural. It was like every time her foot parted from the ground 10 other feet hit the ground.

Rosa’s vision begun to blur in and out. She swayed with each step. “Come on suck it up.”, she muttered to herself but the tiredness and swaying became worse and worse.

- Thud.

It was like her foot couldn’t find the ground as she swayed front and began falling. Her eyes closed moments before impact and she faded away, not even feeling when she hit the ground.

Rosa awakened in a small tight room, on what looked like a dentist chair. The chair was rather uncomfortable to be in. This was most because of her height (which made her legs hang from the end a buit awkward). Apart from the uncomfortable feeling of the chair, Rosa was also awoken by the light directed at her face. She grunted as she darted up, realizing her mistake when she felt her forehead slam into a lamp. It fell over with a loud crash. She instinctively put her palm to her forehead in pain but took it off when she felt a burning sensation. She looked at her hand, seeing some blood along with another strange liquid. She didn’t mind the liquid as she found it more important to see where she even was.

“Hello?”, Rosa called out, not expecting an answer. She stood up, searching around the room for her bag. “What the...”, she was about to say but stopped abrupt by a bang on the big metal door of the dome-like room. She took a deep breath before she approached the door with caution. Every moment she glanced around for anything that could be lurking. Once she got to the door, she once again looked around the room. The whole room was white, covered in big metal tiles. Off-center of the room was the dentist chair she awoke in and beside it was now shattered lamp.

“Hurry up!!”, Rosa heard a yell from outside. Whoever said it directed it at her. She braced herself before putting both of her hands onto the large knob of the metal door. She pushed the knob down with some difficulty. When she finally got the door open a little bit, she felt a bit of a relief from pushing the door. It felt like someone was pushing the door for her. After a bit of space got provided, she squeezed herself through the crack. She was finally able to see the terrain around her, though she couldn’t spot the person that had been yelling at her.

“Could’ve said you were squeezing through, would’ve been easier on me. The door is like the stone at Jesus’ tomb.”, Rosa looked around, searching for the individual. She looked up to see them, rather surprised.

They were... Floating?

The individual was floating in mid-air, their gaze seemed to be glaring at the door that was moving. Once the door was halfway opened, they looked at Rosa with a much softer gaze. They scanned her from head to toe as if searching for something.

The person was a short female, looking at her Rosa assumed she was the same height as Theo. She had tanned yellowish skin, which gave away the fact she was of Asian descent. Her hair was a buzz cut which made Rosa stop for a moment and try and determine her gender beforehand. But upon hearing her voice clearer she guessed it was a woman. One more feature that gave away her Asian descent was the double eyelids. One weird fact about her skin was the blueish tint of in the head area, which made it seem as if she suffocated all the time. The cause of this might be what seemed to be a wide fabric that tied around her neck with a bow in the front. She was wearing a swamp green sweater along with jeans and diluted blue sneakers.

“Sorry about that. Where are we though?”, Rosa asked the female. She seemed to be descending from the air now.

“Well, as I have noticed,”, the girl said, now only around 4 feet above ground. “Since I’m able to use my kickass powers, I guess we are in the Dreamworld. Don’t know why though, I had the experience once and now I’m in a completely different world from then and I can’t wake up at all.”

Rosa thought about that for a moment. But her line of thought got cut by a sound which she could only describe as a sharp object driving through flesh.

“What-”, Rosa started but got interrupted a loud scream-like noise and then silence.

In front of her was the girl she was conversing with. Now she was with a wound in her chest which the shadow person before her had inflicted.

Rosa stood in front of the sight, completely paralyzed. The shadow individual moved beside the girl’s body which was still floating in the air. In its hand laid a machette as he came closer towards her. Rosa was completely paralyzed, she couldn’t move a muscle. She could feel the liquid that was the anesthesia forming in her hands drip down her fingers.

“Well aren’t you full of courage.”, Rosa heard the girl speak up as she shook her head and looked in front of her. The shadow man had stopped in his tracks like he was being held.

'Ke ke ke'

A sound resembling something like teeth clattering escaped the shadow man. He didn’t even open his mouth when that noise came out.

“What are you, going to stand there while I hold this motherfucker down? Help me out a little!”, the girl’s voice boomed from behind the shadow man. He seemed to be escaping the invisible grasp on him bit by bit.

Rosa looked around at what she can do, as she did, an idea popped into her head.

‘Hope this works-’ , she thought to herself. She placed her single palm out towards the shadow and closed her eyes as tight as she could. As soon as she bit into the inside of her cheek she heard a splash and an ear-piercing screech in front of her. Rosa covered her ears and opened her eyes. The glowing eyes of the shadow man dimmed and he was starting to weaken his struggle.

“That’s how it’s done, catch him right in the eye with the acid, what a motherfucker.”

“That’s not acid-”, Rosa started, getting interrupted by the girl.

“Yeah, whatever. Also, take the machete from him. I can’t feel when he is about to come free.”

Rosa sighed as she approached the shadow man with caution. She attempted to grab the machete out of his hand. As her palm came in contact with the blade she felt a sharp pain and burning. Rosa pulled her hand away as a reflex and stumbled back.

“What the-”, Rosa stopped herself mid-sentence. The same teeth clattering sound came from the shadow.

Ke ke ke ke

“What’s up with you?”, the girl yelled both at Rosa and the shadow man. At that moment the shadow man also fell back, as if dragged to his fall. Above him was the girl Rosa had met. Her thorn sweater worn stained with a brown blotch of blood from the wound. She stared at the man, one of her fists clenched tight. Rosa assumed this meant that she was holding onto him.

“Listen to me now, fucker- Why are we here? Who are you? How do we wake up?”, the girl began interrogating the man. He, though, laid there in peace, even while threatened.

“My dear, that is for you to uncover yourself. You’re the one who led them here.”, an echoing high-pitched voice came from the man. Moments after, he seemed to have started to evaporate from existence.

“Where the fuck are you going?!”, the girl yelled as she tried to grab him with her hand, but to no avail as she grabbed the air.

The girl let her arm relax as she sighed loud, “What the fuck does he mean by them? How many of you are there?!”, she said and pointed at Rosa who watched the chaos unfold in front of her.

“I don’t know, I mean, my friend experienced this too. He could be out here right now.”, Rosa said. She remembered the phone call that night as clear as ever.

“Well great, guess you’re coming along with me! Because I’m supposed to have some sort of team if I’m planning to kick that guy’s ass in the future.”, the girl said. A slight smile creeped up on her face, as she floated a bit closer to Rosa, hiding her hands behind her back.

“Anyways, I guess I should tell you who I am. So we don’t have to address each other with Girl one and Girl two for therestr of whatever this is. Hello, I am Linh and I come from an actual hellhole, what about you?”, the girl introduced herself.

“Nice to meet you, Linh. I’m Rosa.”, Rosa said, not knowing what to say about her so she stuck out her hand to shake hands with Linh.

“No way I’m shaking hands! You have fucking acid on them.”, Linh said with a laugh.

Sure, Rosa felt a little embarrassed, but couldn’t help but laugh too.