The creature was very close and, although Emily was shaking so much that her teeth were chattering, it didn't make her the slightest scratch. Emily had her eyes closed and was squatting with her ears covered. She couldn't stop thinking about all the corpses surrounding her. All ripped apart and brutally murdered.

She had entered that kind of vision as a challenge that she had to overcome, but she couldn't think of anything else. She just wanted it to end. “Enough, enough, enough! Please! Stop this! Please!

Finally, the creature touched her. Startled, Emily began to scream repeatedly. "Please! Please! ..."

Emily crawled until she ran into the nearest hallway wall. When she saw it so close, she realized that the creature was a red-haired girl with green eyes, staring at her inquisitively. Her body was remarkably similar to the one she saw every morning in the mirror after showering, but stronger. Her eyes opened wide as she realized. "Oh shit! ... Is it me?"

The creature that looked just like her, bent down, and with a hoarse and sad voice whispered to her as it began to cry. "They've already paid for all the harm they've done to me. Now, it's your turn."

Emily couldn't take it anymore. She kept begging with all her heart for this test to end. But the creature did not vanish, nor did all the blood that covered her. Nor did she stop hearing its growls as it spoke. "You are just as guilty as they are for making me suffer for so long. Why do you run away from me? Why don't you stand up to me instead of letting them humiliate me? Over and over, every damn day of every damn year of this filthy existence."

After a pause that didn't come to be, the creature screamed deafeningly. "Why?!!"

The creature stood up and began to gesticulate nervously, splattering blood all over. Blood that seemed to be born from it. There was more and more." It was your fault that mom took us to that place. A place where mom allowed those priests to convince us that we were the devil. You let them bury me deep inside. So deep, that they almost forgot about me".

The creature was crying it heart out. "I hate you so much! I hate you! I hate you all! Mom too, for doing all this to me, thinking she was helping me to be her perfect daughter, when she just turned me into her perfect puppet. I hate..." Something caught the attention of the brutalized version of Emily, interrupting it.

Without realizing it, Emily stopped covering her ears, but she could barely hear. The deafening ringing in her ears and the overwhelming pounding of her heart made it challenging enough.

The creature pointed down the hall where a short silhouette could be seen. "I hate you too, you filthy old woman! You cheated me! You fooled us all! How could you? We were just kids!"

Emily finally understood why the old woman's face looked familiar. "The old woman from the park?". The creature looked at Emily angrily, "See? She doesn't even remember that." The creature clenched its fist as if to strike her, while Emily stood petrified.

The brutish being, punched the wall right next to Emily's face. "This is all your fault! You better fix it. Or I'll find a way to do to you what you've done to me multiplied by a thousand. Come out, you coward…" Suddenly, something pushed the creature, throwing it several meters through the air till hit the back wall.

Emily watched in astonishment as a new figure appeared in the middle of both. It was much darker than that rabid version of herself. It was covered in hideous spines forming a strange living armor, crawling across her body. When it turned around, Emily could see that they had the same face. A dark face that conveyed tenderness and sadness. "Get up and get out of here! I'll stop her."

Emily watched stupefied as the other creature recovered from the tremendous blow, spitting blood from its mouth. "Are you serious? You don't know anything. I'm not talking to you, idiots."

Emily felt that there were many more versions of herself, coming from all sides. Each one different. The brutalized beast was crying and screaming in anger. "Don't you realize I'm not the enemy? Are you blind? Or is it just me you're looking for? If that is what you want, so be it! You'll never be able to beat me! Then, she looked at Emily and shouted. "If it were up to them, you would never follow the old woman. You'd go home and get on that damn bus tomorrow."

The version of herself in the spiked armor shouted. "No one is getting on any buses here. No one is going to fall down any ravine. No one is going to suffer or scream in despair as they let their life slip away in pain and despair. No one here is your enemy. Stop attacking us! Stop seeing enemies everywhere."

Emily closed her eyes again as the most violent creature shouted deafeningly. "Liar! Liar! There is one, and it's right here!"

Emily tried to shield herself from the horrible feeling that death was looming over her, but suddenly, everything quieted down. She heard the sound of the cars again, driving back and forth. She opened her eyes and saw with delight that, the old woman was looking at her with a poker face. Emily grabbed her head. "Ouch! My head is killing me!"

Emily lowered her aching head, feeling defeated. With a tension that made her hands and legs tremble. But now, she was relieved. Even though she knew she had behaved like a coward, it was over.

She waited for the old woman taunts, but nothing like that ever happened. The old woman saw her understanding something that wasn't so obvious to Emily. Still, Emily begged her. "I know I haven't shown what you expected but ... I want you to know that..." Emily raised her head, trying to hold back her tears. "Shit! You know what I mean. You constantly read my thoughts, right?"

The old woman cleared her throat and stared at her. "Over the years, I've created lots of illusions in many people. Appealing to their will to live. Many. But I’ve never come across a case like yours. I created a challenge in your mind where you would put your worst enemy. But you actually have a battle going on in there."

Emily looked at her without understanding what she was referring to. "You didn’t create that vision?".

The old woman swung her cane as if to gently tap Emily's head. But it never touched her. "Something is wrong inside you, child. Something you should have fixed years ago. You may never get to fixing it, or you may. I don't know. But, where I hope you go, it’s going to be one more of the many problems that you’re going to have to face. And... I'm already anticipating that you’re going to have to deal with many.”

The old woman finally put away the filthy handkerchief in her hand and with the other, pointed to the door of a huge old stone building that now, looked somewhat abandoned. The door was ajar and through a thin crack a dim light was visible. “Go in there and do me a favor. Don't shout when you enter.”

Emily had a bad omen and stepped back. The old woman, very serious, added. "Okay! So, I'll meet you tomorrow in the afternoon? One hundred and twenty-five kilometers from home. On a curve too sharp and with a driver who isn't feeling well. I guess the salad at the last bar wasn't a good idea".

Emily stopped and mumbled. "Impossible!" Then, she thought. "The high school is only fifteen kilometers from home”. At that instant, she remembered that she had a school trip. Tomorrow. Her legs trembled hopelessly again.

Emily looked down at the ground again and lost herself in a sea of sensations. She was recreating herself inside a bus as it spun around while falling down a ravine. She was bruised and with a broken arm. Maybe, also with a mangled leg, trapped somewhere. Maybe a seat.

The old woman removed her from that bloody scene by pointing to the door again. "I see you are determined to waste my precious time. Get in there, dammit!"

Emily, frightened and trembling, looked toward the door, which was still ajar. The building had coats of arms of surnames carved in stone that she couldn't recognize. They were too deteriorated, even for a connoisseur. It was quite old and the door looked rather heavy. The mold hadn't made too much of a dent in the stone even though the air was always damp there.

Suddenly, Emily saw the old woman crossing the street. A shiver ran through her body as she saw the cars just about to hit her. Although her first impulse was to scream, she didn’t. She just closed her eyes, waiting for the impact, just right after the braking. But the horrible succession of sounds never came.