Alex's POV

My dreams were always annoying. Did I want to dream about some damn fantasy roleplay that got me beat every other night? Fuck no. I had my normal memories for that. 

It was weird, because I usually never sleep. Insomnia or whatever. But when the dreams started, I actually got on a normal sleep schedule. Now I know why. Fucking magic shit.

The dream that kicked off the voice in my head went like this:

I was walking down the castle hall with “Eliza” and listening to her chat away about some annoying court case. But then she stopped and just…sighed really fucking loud. I realized what the problem was when a certain similar-looking bitch came running up to me.

“Alessio~! Welcome!” She purred—how the fuck do they do that? Genuinely, how the fuck do they purr? It's so fucking creepy. “You're just in time! I can show you the song I just learned on the piano—”

“No, thank you.” I deadpanned and tried to move around her. 

Of course she goes and grabs my arm and makes a pouty face.

“A~le~ssi~o, please? I was thinking we could play it at our wedding—!”

“There's no need to plan that sort of thing.” I shook her off. “My parents have already picked the music.”

“Do you not have more lessons to get to, Maria?” Eliza spoke up, sounding as annoyed as I felt.

“Maria” gave her a dirty look.

“Do you not have anything better to do than lurk around other people’s husbands?”

“I'm not your husband yet.” I snapped. “And we are not like that.”

“Suuuure.” She rolled her eyes. 

Eliza opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again and said something other than whatever was about to come out of her mouth.

“Shall I tell Father you're spreading rumors again? He didn't seem too pleased the last time he caught you.”

“Tch—don't you dare!”

“Then begone!”

Maria looked at me for help, but I just crossed my arms.

“...Fine then…!”

She glared darkly at Eliza.

“But I would watch what you try to say.”

She then turned on her heel and walked away. 

Everything blurred, and then a new scene appeared; I was sitting with Mattheus—who the fuck named him, by the way?—who looked physically sick with worry.

“They stopped the poison, but she's not waking up.” His hands were shaking so much that his teacup was as well. “The cook who made the food went to jail, but…”

“He had to have had outside help.” I grumbled.

“There's no way he wouldn't have.”

He finally set his cup down, without drinking.

I reached out and placed a hand on his.

“Eliza is strong,” I offered. “She will pull through this.”

“...I hope so.” He smiled sadly at me.

“Shall we go to the temple and pray for it?”

“...Sure. Perhaps someone will hear us.”

I woke up sweating, like I usually did after those dreams; I headed to the bathroom and was getting ready for the day when he chimed in for the first time.

“If only that moron had poisoned her instead.”

I choked on my toothpaste and almost fucking vomited because of this motherfucker.

“Don't go dying due to that. At least go down with honor.”

I stared at myself in the mirror before slowly turning around; but there was nobody there. 

That seemed to get his attention.

“What? Scared of your own shadow, now?”

“The fuck?” I said out loud; Eli told me a bit about psychosis, but I thought I was good even after my entire childhood happened.

“...Wait.” Dipshit finally realized. “...Can you hear me?”

“Uh, yeah? Am I still asleep or something?” I lightly punched the wall to see if I could feel it—which I did, even if it didn't really hurt.

“...Holy…you can hear me.”

“Ooookay,” I started to sweat again. “This isn't weird at all.”

“That must mean…is something new happening…?”

“Yeah, it's called ‘Alex ends up in the mental asylum.’” I started heading back to my room. “Rain! Can you knock me back out?”

“Can Radia get through as well?” He asked himself. “If so—”

“Look buddy, I need you to shut the fuck up for a sec.” I started knocking on Rain's door—a little more panicked than I wanted to admit.

“She went to Sonia's house last night, remember?”

“Fuck—”

Great. I'm going crazy and I have to deal with it alone.

I stumbled into my room and ripped my pajamas off; I was attempting to get dressed when What’s-his-Face kept yapping.

“Look, I'm you. But not you. You used to be me. I don't know.”

“That doesn't make any fucking sense.”

“I know. Blame the moron who started this shithole cycle.”

“Cycle of what? Me going nuts?”

“Of rebirth, idiot.”

Rebirth. That was…not something I actually believed in, that's for sure. Especially if a random voice in my head was telling it to me.

“Believe me, I don't want to be here either! But if you can hear me, then maybe you won't die horribly this time!”

That made me pause…and start sweating more.

“What?”

Look, I'm not a scared little kid. But I've brushed with death before, so it freaks me out. Even if the voice in my head mentioned it, it was still…worrying.

“You heard me. If things go differently, maybe we can stop you from a meaningless death.”

How promising!

“But we need a plan. Firstly—”

“Firstly, shit!” Having managed to get my clothes on, I grabbed my shoes and sprinted out the door, past Mr. and Mrs. Henderson who tried to ask what all the racket was about.

“Would you calm down, Alex?!” He snapped at me.

“Fuck you! I'm not crazy!” I ran past the neighbors in their lawn, who looked at me like I was crazy.

“Where are you even going, idiot?!”

I wasn't sure, but I wanted everything to just stop for a second.

I eventually found myself at Mitch's place—his mom said he wasn't home and sent me up to his room to wait. I couldn't stop staring at my water and fucking shaking as Alessio tried to reason with me.

I had tuned him out for the most part when Mitch finally came in.

“Mattheus.” He breathed; I couldn't tell if it was relief or exhaustion.

“That's not his name!” Mitch snapped out of nowhere.

*Oh, fuck.* 

“So you're hearing one, too.”