Reaching the hub, I found Frankie, on his knees, his head down, with a flashlight lying on the ground. Something about it made my skin crawl. The air itself was also too frigidly cold to breathe. It felt like needles stabbing at my lungs. The hairs on the back of my neck stood upright. Something darker than a pitch-black shadow that lingered around was here. But I couldn’t see it. And what I couldn’t see, I could feel. It was like a death grip around my heart.

“Frankie, mate. You alright? Can you hear me?”

“…Woody?”

“Yeah, it’s me. I am right here. Where, where is it? The Witch.”

“…Woody?”

The way my name rolled off the second time was eerily strange. It’s hard to describe, but after knowing someone for so long, you just know that there are slight differences in how they call for you. Sometimes, it’s from disappointment, joy, longing, or humor. But this one—the way my name curled in my ear as if to scratch my very sense of self. 

My finger was already ready on the trigger of my weapon. All that was needed left was a target to fire at. But something strange overcame me—a soft, gentle touch.

“Jack…”

“…Rose,” the words escaped my lips to the tempting voice that hummed in my ear like a sweet harp. From behind, I was being hugged. The hands that touched my own were no illusion. I could feel the warmth—her genuine affection—Rose’s. 

“Jack…”

It whispered again, this time with lips that kissed my ear—an intoxicating feeling of being held in her embrace. I wanted to drown in it, never to see the surface. Her reflection was more real than anything else in this world as it smiled at me.

“Rose…”

“Boy.”

The gun went off, and my aim was nowhere else but the sky. My hands held firm by the love of my life. Her features were the very same, just like how I remembered. Raven-black hair, eyes that were the purest color of amber with a mix of brown similar to hazel, and cheeks that gleamed a slight blush of red that left many curious about how she did her makeup despite never wearing any. Turned out she was never good at it, nor did she like how it felt on her skin. All the same, her flaws made her perfect. The true, unmistakable love of my life—Rose.

But the longer I stared at the one standing before me, the more I realized the subtle differences cropping up. A beauty mark was on the left side of her chin, while another sat near her eye on her right cheek.

“You’re not Rose… Lilith?!”

“That’s right, boy. What a fool you are.”

That was her trademark. A sharp underlying tone to her words, with an ever-slight scowl present to match. 

“But—I saw you with my own eyes. No pulse. Your chest caved in with your heart missing. They announced that you were dead. Not to mention, you were a bag of bones the last time I saw you.”

“Excuse me? A bag of what?”

“Nothing, it’s just—how are you alive?!”

Lilith looked several decades younger. That and the fact that she was dead the last time I saw her, had me baffled.

“I’ll explain at a more appropriate juncture. Right now, I need you to leave. That Witch nearly took over your entire being just now.”

Lilith’s words left me speechless. Was that what happened? I don’t recall seeing anything nasty, like a witch, other than Rose. And everything about her was damn near perfect. Is that what happened to Frankie?

“I can’t leave. He’s my friend—”

“Your friend is already gone.”

That can’t be right. He was right there. He is still there. Ignoring Lilith’s words, I called out to him again, but he didn’t answer. Instead, his back twisted as if his spine was being controlled by a series of strings invisible to me and anyone but the puppet master controlling him. 

“Frankie… Mate. Please tell me you’re in there…” My voice trembled to a whimper. My hand was shaking. To be honest, I couldn’t tell if it was being scared of knowing the truth that stared me in the face or the consequence of going sober for this long.

“Frankie………”

“I’m sorry—”

I fired off a few shots into the man husk that was huddled over, cutting whatever Lilith was saying off. If it had to end here with my friend already gone, it would have to be me.

My heart raced. My head was cloudy. It didn’t make me feel any better knowing I did it, but damn, it sure did hurt like pouring those drinks down the drain. If anything, this was far more painful. But I wasn’t going to tell him that when I see ’em in the afterlife.

“There… It’s done… Right? Right?”

Lilith didn’t bother looking me in the eye. Her gaze was still towards Frankie or whatever was left of Frankie. The silent air that filled the space between us became cold again. Suddenly, laughter filled both my ears before the ground, and the space around me shifted as if to tilt on its side.

However, I alone began to slide as if to follow this now law of nature.

Grabbing onto anything was my priority as I felt the entire station rotate to a 90-degrees angle. The ground and ceiling had come to the sides, and the shadowy abyss around me felt like it would swallow me whole. Was this all a dream?

“Hang like your life depends on it,” Lilith advised. Her existence continued to adhere to something separate from me. The ground was still the ground to her. Her dress and hair were the only things that flowed to the side to let me know that I was not alone in this strange predicament where the laws of physics were all being distorted. “You are in her world now. Stay right where you are—not like you have a choice. If you fall into the shadows below, you will be out of my reach and gone, Sonny boy.”

My sideways view widened to Lilith strolling right up to Frankie, who stood up and grinned. The expression on his face was not anything I had ever seen on Frankie. 

“You…” the words curled out. A voice that was not Frankie’s at all. “You’re a Witch!”

“Aye, and that stench of yours annoys me. It was you. You laid a hand on my granddaughter. I smell it.”

Slowly, the world shifted again, this time completely inverting. Everything below was enshrouded in absolute shadows aside from the flashlight that remained at Frankie’s toes. With the little strength I had, I swung and fell to the old beams and random construction work that remained idle. 

Glancing upward to the ground that was now the ceiling, I watched Lilith and Frankie stare at each other.

“You should not be able to—”

“Shut up,” Lilith snapped. “I know thee name. You think this is my first rodeo? Witch of Dreams, Alicent Marinette LoveQueen.”

Frankie’s eyes went wide. It was clear dismay, nay—shock. I didn’t understand what sort of thing was going on. But I did hear Frankie call Lilith a Witch.

What happened next was the most bizarre scene. Lilith reached out, grabbing Frankie’s jaw. His body moved strangely as if something inside of him was being pulled back by a series of strings to be freed from a grasp that looked so gentle. Without a care, Lilith brought her lips to Frankie’s.

It was brief, but when she pulled her face back instead of what looked to be a sensual kiss with tongue, I saw vines. Thick and black, with jaded thorns curling. Frankies’ body began convulsing. Even from where I was, I could see his veins turn to the color to match the thing that was clearly sprouting and growing inside him. 

I could only imagine the pain he was in. Both Frankie’s body and whatever was inside being pulled by their imaginary strings were recoiled in all sorts of directions. A scream of agony reached my ears. 

“Doesn’t matter if you leave this world or the next,” Lilith declared. “The pain will only grow into a searing fury. Burning everything connected to your existence. Ta-ta. Au revoir!”

The station turned, this time much faster, to return to what I was comfortable with—the ground being the ground and the ceiling being the ceiling. My flashlight returned with power as Lilith cracked her fingers. Her heels were before my nose as if asking for me to kiss them.

“Li—”

“Boy, listen,” she shot, cutting me off. “I have a meeting to attend to. There is one more who invokes my fury. See to it that you handle the rest by yourself.”

“The rest?” I questioned. Suddenly, my coat buzzed with a call. Not even a second had passed before Lilith was gone, as if never being there to begin with.