NEVE couldn't feel her mouth moving as she said, “What?”

Alice stared at her for a moment before sighing. “Even if you were a demon, I guess you wouldn't know about this.” She paused, glancing at Angelica, who nodded in response. “The Creator, who you might think of as God, was originally more like a human in the sense that he wasn't fair in everything he did. One day, he decided to separate himself from the immorality inside of him, so he could make more just decisions. And that immorality was The Obscurity.”

“Huh?” was what Neve was tempted to say, but she held her tongue in fear of Alice hitting her. And was it really so hard to believe? The Obscurity had sent her here, to ‘the Netherworld’, and a strange creature had attacked them. And The Obscurity existing in the first place was also way out of the ordinary.

So of course the explanation had to be bizarre too.

“But…” she trailed off, not sure what to ask.

Alice cocked an eyebrow. “But…?”

“But why is she in my head?”

The brunette shrugged, but something about her body language was too stiff for it to look relaxed. “That’s what we’d like to know.”

That was when Neve remembered that Angelica was even there. She glanced at her, only to find her already staring at her. They both averted their eyes.

“Neve,” Alice said, “you should sit at the entrance. I want to talk to Angelica.”

Neve flinched at the dismissal but crawled to the opening anyway, glad to get away from Alice and out of the stuffy, damp space. Not that the outside was much better, save for a breeze that continually passed by. It was still warm, but she could breathe without a struggle when it came by, unlike the normal air.

She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Somehow, this moment of rest was worse than running away from a monster. With all the adrenaline out of her system, her cuts were starting to burn, and her brain had finally caught up with the events of the day. She had a dizzying headache, which could’ve been for several reasons, and her stomach turned as she thought about everything. Her eyes trailed the grayish ground, going up the trees, and she, for the first time, gazed at the sky of the Netherworld.

And Neve thought she couldn’t feel any worse.

The clouds were the same dusty shade as the ground, the only light provided by the few spaces in between them. The silvery glow was like a glimpse of heaven she couldn’t reach, taunting her beyond the darkest of depths.

She tore her gaze away from the sky. Why had The Obscurity brought her to this terrible place? The only conclusion she came to was that it would be easier for The Obscurity to take over her mind if she was here, but it didn’t make much sense. What was this place that it would help The Obscurity? Not that it was surprising—The Obscurity was literally all of the impurity of The Creator, and the Netherworld had a very dark… atmosphere.

But something wasn't adding up here.

Obscurity?

No answer.

Neve frowned, both relieved and worried that it hadn’t answered. On one hand, bad things tended to happen when she spoke to The Obscurity, so it was better that the chance wasn’t taken; on the other hand, it hadn’t said a thing to her since she was at school, and she had no idea what it was plotting.

She had no idea when it would take control.

It had already demonstrated that it could control her body at times, but why not always? What was keeping The Obscurity from taking her over?

It had forced her into the Netherworld and had controlled her when Alice had attacked her, but why only those times? What did those two instances have in common? The Obscurity had taken her to the Netherworld when Alice and Angelica cornered her at her locker. At the time, Neve had been terrified and had wanted to get away from them, and The Obscurity had wanted her to run away. With the Alice predicament, Neve had been in terrible pain—she’d wanted to get out of that situation, and if The Obscurity had wanted her to get away from the transfer students before, she’d definitely wanted her to get away from them then.

Basically, The Obscurity could only control her when she wanted the same thing it did.

While it was just a theory, it explained a lot, and it was more plausible than her last explanation. But Neve’s new bit of knowledge barely changed her situation—her arms still hurt, she was still stuck in the Netherworld, and The Obscurity was still in her head. Plus, she was stuck with Alice and Angelica, who were sure to do something to her if she took a step out of line.

What a lovely situation she was in.

“Neve!” Angelica’s voice startled her out of her thoughts, and she twisted to look at her. “We want to tell you something!”

Neve spent a moment grumbling over them summoning and dismissing her but dragged herself over to them.

“What?” she said, keeping as much space between her and the girls as possible.

Angelica looked away for a second as if pondering, then stared back at her. “We want to go to a place called Nirvana. Can you get us there?”

Neve recognized the word “Nirvana.” Alice had said it sometime earlier, and she’d heard it in movies before. “As in, ''heaven”?”

Angelica glanced at Alice, eyebrow raised.

Alice smirked. “Basically.”

“But why do you think I can get you there?”

“A theory. You brought us here—”

“The Obscurity brought you guys here.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Either way, that most likely means it can take us to Nirvana.”

Neve wasn’t so sure about that one, but she also wanted to get the hell out of the Netherworld, so… “Elaborate on this theory.”