A faint smile spread over Alice’s face. “You know how Angelica… she pressed her fingers to your forehead?”

“You mean how you guys practically assaulted me?” Actually, there was no “practically” about it.

Alice shrugged. “Sure. Anyway, that was her looking through your thoughts to see if you were a demon or something.”

“Wait. So you guys already knew The Obscurity was in my head?”

Angelica rolled her eyes. “Of course not. I mean, we know that now, but The Obscurity was so naturally intertwined with you that it seemed like it was, well, you. And The Obscurity gives off a very similar… energy to demons, considering that it made them.”

Neve’s eyes widened. If The Obscurity was meshed with her brain that well, would she ever be able to get it out? And how had it “made” demons? She kept these questions to herself and gestured for Angelica to go on.

“I want to try doing it again, except I need you to—”

“I don’t know what you’re going to do once you… get inside my head.” Neve couldn’t help the dread she felt at the idea of it happening again. “When Alice did it, I have no idea what she was doing, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t looking through my thoughts.’”

Angelica shot Alice a glare. “And that’s why I’ll be doing it.”

Neve narrowed her eyes at her, scoffing. “Like you’re any fucking better.”

“Look,” Angelica said, fists clenching in her lap, “it really doesn’t matter what you think about this or about us; at the end of the day, what matters most is that we get the hell out of here.”

Maybe it didn’t matter to them, but only an hour ago, they’d been treating her like a piece of shit, and they’d attacked her. Did they expect her to just… forget about that? “Look,” Neve mocked, an empty smirk rising on her face, “tell me what you need me to do, and maybe, just maybe, I’ll do it. Wouldn’t count on that though.”

Angelica looked about as shocked as Neve was at her insulting tone, but Neve didn’t let it show. She couldn’t say that she’d meant for it to come out that way, but it sent the message well enough.

“Okay,” Alice said, unreadable expression chilling Neve’s attitude. “When Angelica looks through your head, she’s going to try to find… the core of The Obscurity, in essence, and force her will onto it. This could work on its own, but it probably won’t because whatever The Obscurity wants, it wants it bad. And it’s wanted it for centuries. What we need you to do is try to transport us to Nirvana. The Obscurity is practically a part of you now, so if you concentrate, you should be able to force it to with Angelica’s help.”

Neve stared at her fingers. What they said made a certain sense, but what if they were lying? What if they just wanted the chance to, once and for all, kill her? And a few hours ago, Alice had said she would be taken to Nirvana for judgment. While the circumstances weren’t exactly the same as before, The Obscurity was still in her head, and The Obscurity and Alice and Angelica had essentially agreed on one thing: It was thoroughly entwined in her head. If they wanted to kill The Obscurity, Neve would have to go first. And Angelica searching in her head sounded like it could endanger Neve.

But if they didn’t do anything, they would be stuck in the Netherworld.

Neve opened her mouth to affirm her compliance, but pain struck from inside her head, so sudden that she fell forward, face hitting the ground. She gripped her hair and hunched her shoulders, unable to see or comprehend enough to sit back up. Her head burst with pain. Hands grabbed her from all sides as she arched backward.

“Get off me, get off me, GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!” She thrashed about, limbs smacking against all surfaces of the small space.

Hands gripped her arms and pulled her down. Neve cursed and screamed as pain lanced through her arms, pain a steady beat in her head.

Through the nonsense in her head, she heard Alice say, “Do it, Angelica!”

Neve wailed in protest, panic thrumming in her head as Angelica pressed a gentle hand to her forehead. Tears pressed against her shut lids, emotion bubbling up in her throat.

“YOU PIECE OF SHIT! GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME OR YOU’LL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN! I’LL KILL YOU! I’LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR TO GOD I’LL FUCKING—”

And then it all disappeared.

Or rather, the pain was a distant annoyance in a world swimming in light. Neve almost cried at how happy she felt for no reason. At first, she thought she was in a dark room, but her vision cleared to show images whirling around her.

“Neve, can you hear me?” Angelica’s voice echoed.

Neve cringed away from her ricocheting voice. “What the hell?”

“Good. Listen carefully. Our plan isn’t going exactly as I thought it would. When I looked through you head—”

“Wait—where the fuck am I?” Dizzy from the hurtling images, Neve shut her eyes.

Angelica sighed but answered her question. “You’re in your head. Look, no more questions. We don’t have the time. When I looked through your head, I’m not sure exactly why, but The Obscurity withdrew to the edges of you consciousness. I think it was scared. Unfortunately, that makes it really difficult for me to control it, so I need you to find it. If I try to look for it, I don’t know what kind of damage I’ll do to your brain.”

“But haven’t you looked through my thoughts before?”

“Yes, but that didn’t require me to actually look through them. I was just looking at the thoughts you were having at the time. The Obscurity was everywhere in your head, so I didn’t have to do anything to see it.” Angelica took a deep breath. “Bottomline, you need to find The Obscurity before it decides that your brain is its playground again because once it does, and you’re still in there… I think it’ll take you over once and for all.”

As the senseless positive feelings she had dwindled, the gravity of what Angelica said came upon Neve. The Obscurity would overrun her… but this was her mind, before and after The Obscurity invaded it.

And Neve would be damned if The Obscurity knew it better than her.