So many questions were spinning in my head. Where was I? What was happening to me? And most important of all, who was this strange — no, “strange” wasn’t enough — this crazy woman who just ate a chunk of my Star Wars poster?

As much as I hated it, she was the only one who could answer these questions. However, before I could ask her anything, I heard someone knocking at the door.

“Ashley? Is everything okay? I heard a loud noise!”

My mother’s voice came from the other side. I turned my gaze to the door, then back to the woman. She placed her index finger on her lips, signalling me to keep quiet about her. Could I really trust her? Or rather, did I have much of a choice?

“It’s… It’s okay, Mom!” I replied in a panic. “That was my chair, I just got up a bit too fast and it fell down. Everything’s okay! Nothing weird is happening at all! My room is very normal!”

The voice on the other side of the door stayed silent for a few seconds, and then spoke again.

“Okay, be more careful next time, honey. Also, we’re having dinner in a bit, so go wash your hands and come to the kitchen.”

“Uh, sure! I’ll be right there! I’ll, uh, finish doing my very normal stuff in my very normal room and get ready!”

I stayed quiet, holding my breath and listening carefully. After a while, I could hear some faint footsteps, walking away from my door. It seemed she had finally left. I let out a sigh of relief. The woman, on the other hand, seemed just as relaxed as before, a satisfied smirk on her face.

“What the hell was that…” I murmured. “I mean, if this isn’t my room, then that voice outside… That wasn’t my mother either, right?”

“Maybe? I mean, you could leave the room and find out.”

“Hell no!”

“Why not? You heard your Mommy just now, it’s almost dinner time. You must be starving, you should go check it out,” she said, with a bit of drool hanging from the corner of her mouth.

“You’re clearly the one who’s hungry here!!”

More noise suddenly came from the door. Whoever was on the other side was done knocking — they were now banging at it.

“Ashley!?” yelled the voice, noticeably angrier and more agitated than before. “Is something in there with you!?”

“Uh, I, uhh…!”

I turned to the woman in a panic, wondering what to do, but once again she didn’t seem fazed at all.

“Relax,” she said in a calm voice, “she can’t enter the room unless you let her in.”

The banging became louder and louder. I could feel the walls shaking around us.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “It seems like that door could give way at any moment…”

“But it won’t. Don’t worry, you’ll be safe as long as I’m with you. Now listen to me, very carefully. You’re the only one who is capable of opening that door. As long as you don’t picture it open, you’ll be fine. Okay?”

“O… Okay.”

“Just don’t think about it opening, and it won’t open.”

“Right. Okay.”

“Don’t imagine it opening. Don’t imagine your mother turning the doorknob. Whatever you do, just don’t think about this door being open, not even for a second.”

“If you keep saying it, it’s going to be hard not to!!”

“Anyway,” she said, completely dodging my remark, “don’t just stand there watching. How about we did something about this predicament, hm?”

“What am I supposed to do? I’m not sure I even understand what’s happening… Let me think!”

She let out a sigh.

“Ash, Ash… This is why you never get anything done. You spend too much time overthinking things.”

“Hey, don’t act like you know me!”

“But I do. Okay, how about getting out, first?”

Her eyes darted around the room in search of an exit. Unfortunately for us, there weren’t that many options.

“Looks like the window is our only way out. Say, what floor are we on?” she asked.

“Uh… The third… No, the fourth floor.”

Not letting go of her grip, like an angry parent pulling her disobedient child around, she walked to the window, and I followed. With her free hand, she opened it and looked outside.

“The fourth floor, huh… Yeah, that should be fine.”

“Fine? Wait… You’re not thinking of jumping, are you?”

“Jumping? No way, I’m not jumping from this height.”

“Oh, okay. You sounded like you were going to for a second there…”

“Well, I’m not jumping.”

“Huh?”

Before I could realise what was happening, I felt her hand grabbing me and pushing me over the windowsill. In a split second, I was falling off the fourth floor of my apartment building, watching powerlessly as the face of this mad woman, staring down and waving at me with a smile, got further and further away from me. I wasn’t the only thing she had thrown through the window. The desk and numerous sketchbooks soon followed their owner. Human, furniture, book, all were falling to their doom in the deep of night.

Or so I thought.

I expected to either crash into one of the cars or end up splattered on the asphalt of the parking lot below, but my landing turned out to be much softer.

“See? Told you you were safe with me.”

I opened my eyes, which I had shut as I was bracing for impact, and looked up. There she was, standing in the middle of the parking lot, holding me in her arms, again with that same stupid grin on her face. It took a second for all my bottled-up emotions — terror, confusion, rage, and embarrassment at being held in a lady’s arms — to explode all at once.

“What the…!? Why did you…! I thought I was going to…! And more importantly, do you realise how completely insane you have to be to throw a child out a window!?”

“Eh, I’m sure a lot of parents have done that at least once.”

“Ugh! Put me down! Put me down immediately!!”

“Your wish is my command.”

And just like that, she let go of me. It involved a lot less splattered blood and guts than I imagined, but I still ended up lying on the asphalt after all.

One by one, the rest of what she threw out the window gently fell into her arms, like gravity magically decided to slow down just for her, and she carefully placed all of them down on the ground.

“What the hell…” I grumbled as I painfully stood up. “How did you do this…? You were up there just a second ago…”

“I ran very fast,” she answered with a smile.

“That’s beyond just ‘very fast’!”

Sketchbooks were still falling, and she calmly grabbed them one by one and piled them up on the desk.

“Why did you throw these as well?” I asked. “I thought we’d want to hurry and escape.”

“We’re going to need something in there. I’m still not sure what exactly, though, so I just brought everything down with me for now.”

As always, her answer only served to make things even more confusing. What were we going to need this desk and these sketchbooks for?

“This whole situation is crazy… How did you even get my desk to fit through the window?”

“Oh. I ate the edges until the hole was wide enough for it to go through.”

“You what!?”

“Your window and walls had an interesting taste. Kinda reminded me of…”

She paused.

“Of…?” I enquired, afraid of how the sentence would end.

“… paper.””

“Are you sure you didn’t just eat the rest of my poster while you were at it!?”

“Ah. That could have been why, yeah. Alright, that’s the last of them,” she then said, grabbing the final falling sketchbook and placing it on the desk. “Now we need to figure out where it is.”

“Where what is?

Once again, my questioning was cut short by a loud noise. The sound of metal getting crushed and glass shattering, followed by an alarm going off. I turned around in surprise and let out a gasp at what I saw before me.

“Mom…!?”

Standing atop the now completely ruined car she had just landed on, was my mother. Or at least, someone, or something that looked like her. She didn’t even look at me, her stare instead going directly in the direction of my strange companion, as always completely unfazed.

“You…” she roared, almost sounding like a wild beast. “I had a feeling something was off… You shouldn’t be here, intruder!”