"Where is she? And what have you done with her?"

 

 Giselle's lips twisted into a snarl, and her eyes pierced my skin, split my skull. She knew. She knew. She knew.

"Who?" I choked out. 

 "You know who. I'm talking about the person whose body you stole."

 Her forearm pressed harder into my collarbone. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to regain myself. If I just denied - denied everything - what could she do? She couldn't prove anything.

 "I don't know what you're talking about!" 

 Giselle didn't waver. Her expression didn't change at all, or the pressure below my throat. But I couldn't move anyway. I'd frozen myself into nothing. I was nothing. I was screwed. 

 "Don't screw with me. I know you're not Amacia. So just admit it!" 

 "... I'm not her." 

Giselle reacted then. Her eyes widened, and her arm fell away from my collarbone. Then I felt a biting cold under my chin. It bit harder before it registered. Ohhh... a dagger. It forced me to tilt my head back to look her straight in the eyes. Her brutal, terrified eyes. 

 "What did you do to her?!" she cried out. "Bring her back! Tell me how to bring her back!" 

 "I can't. I didn't cause this to happen. I don't know how to bring her back. She's just gone. I'm sorry," I added impotently to the knife at my throat. 

 Giselle had stopped hearing me. She crumpled in on herself in a silent shriek, desperate, inconsolable. It felt horrible just to watch, even for her victim. I could get away now, for the first time, and instead I stood there, back to the wall, pulled in to the black hole of her grief, her inconsolable grief, as she slowly raised herself, looking down on me with tears glittering in eyes that were beyond fatal. They were furious.  

 "Then," she said slowly, flicking the dagger back to my throat quick as someone who was very good at flicking daggers. "I have no reason to keep you alive. I will put an end to this. For the crime of walking around in her skin, like you had any right to. For thinking you could just take her past, her present, and her future for yourself and get away with it."

 "But I didn't mean to!" I gasped. 

 "Do you think that makes any difference?" 

 This was how I died. I was as horrible at this life as my real one. Turns out, my life as a Villainess was a straight-up failure after all. Usually, main characters did better than this...

 "Wait!" I shouted. 

 And she did. 

 "I don't know how to bring her back, but I know she's not gone." I was panting hard, but I wasn't dead yet, which was good news. I kept talking. "I know where she is. I know who she is. We can find a way to bring her back, I promise. I can help you." 

 She pulled away. 

 "You're serious?" 

 "Yes! Of course! This is common, where I'm from. I'm - I come from another world. We switched bodies." 

 She blinked at me. Bit her lip. I'd calmed her down enough to think. The corridor dimmed behind us. The lamplighter had started turning out the lights. Our window of secrecy had closed. I could scream, though I doubted I would make it much longer after that. As long as she held that dagger, I was stuck reasoning with her. 

 She'd seen it too. "Very well," she murmured. "I'll let you live until the morning. Then you can explain exactly what your plan is, and I will decide then what to do with you." 

 "Thank you," I said. It came out less genuine than I'd meant. I don't think she cared. 

 "You don't want anyone to know your situation, do you?" she added lightly. "Good move. They'd burn you for a witch if they caught you, if you meant to or not. The Queen especially. If you tell anyone about this, you will die. You're very lucky I'm the only one that caught on. I've been covering for you for weeks, until I could get you alone." She shrugged, and tossed her hair. "What I'm saying, is right now you've only got one chance for survival, and it's through me. And see you tomorrow. Don't look for me. I'll find you." She turned on her smile as she swirled away. 

 The gloom approached me and nothing could quite come together. Everything was still collapsing in on me. I could still feel the pressure of her arm against me. 

 All I could understand was that everything was wrong and horrible. I was alive, but not for much longer. 

 You see, I had lied to Giselle. I knew two things about how I got here. 

 The first was that my original body no longer existed. 

 The second was that Amacia was dead before I arrived in her body. 

 She was murdered.