Two days later, at night, Eory miserably lay his heavy head on his desk, listening to the shrieking wind outside. Today was a sad day. No energy, no giddiness. Just Eory, alone with himself.

He was drowsy--nearly in a dream state, he blinked slowly, wanting to dream because it was the only way to escape his small, mundane reality.

At the limits of his hearing, Eory could have sworn he heard a woman’s voice. He thought he felt the presence of someone’s eyes upon him.

He turned and looked behind him.

And behind him was himself. Only, it was not himself. It was him, but wearing a female’s clothing instead of a male’s. The woman had his same, large, fairy ears that were shaped like a butterfly’s wings, his same, vivid, rosy, tilted eyes, and even his exact nose--a nose that curled like a spiral at the tip like all Arrozan fairy noses did. 

For as long as he could remember, Eory could hear this woman’s voice in his head, but he had no idea who she was. Constantly, she whispered evil things in his ears, trying to convince him to engage in hurting others--trying to convince him that engaging in those behaviors was what all members of the Arroan Royal Family did and couldn’t stop themselves from doing.

The woman looked at him with a confident smirk. At the same time, all the candle lights in the room were stifled by a surreal and violent wind that shouldn’t exist indoors.

Eory breathed heavily in fear, left alone in the darkness with the woman.

“Taylor…” Eory murmured. He knew that was her name, although she had never introduced herself as such.

She was silent in response. The whole room went still; even the wind outside stopped shrieking.

Covered in sweat, Eory stood up, frantically moving through the room with his arms outstretched, trying to find the woman.

A pair of rosy, menacing eyes flared in the darkness. Eory stumbled backwards and bumped into the sofa behind him in shock.

Blood pounded in his ears. It was all he could hear.

The wind kicked up again, storming through his room and causing the handled on his dresser to thud against the drawers.

He felt a sharp-nailed hand digging into his shoulder.

The fairy whirled around, coming face-to-face with the woman. Her raspy voice echoed around the room, followed by a hideous cackling. “You think you can hide who we are from her? Oh, silly, silly, Eory. Give me the word and I will kill her for you. You need only ask. I have all the secrets to unlock our powers. We can be free.”

The woman’s hands wrapped around his neck. Eory shoved her, yelling, “Leave me alone! I’m a good person!”

The lights flickered on and off three times, and on the third flicker, they stayed on.

Taylor had vanished.

Eory breathed in sharply.

The door to his room appeared in the familiar burst of magical fire, and Kori stepped out of it. She saw him panicking and ran to his side.

She put a comforting hand on his back.

“What happened? Are you alright?” Kori asked.

Eory shook his head, but said nothing. He couldn’t tell her of the woman. She would surely never let him free if he did. It would only serve to convince her of his madness and cruelty.

After all, he knew that the woman was trying to climb her way to the surface and take over.  And he knew she harbored his worst intentions.

“You must tell me what happened! You must let me help you if you don’t want to stay in this prison forever! Don’t you trust me?” Kori asked him with her wrinkled, blue, waif hands on his cheeks.

He didn’t trust her. Not after he had heard the vile words that had come out of her mouth when she thought he wasn’t listening.