Good evening, Laura Young.

  “Good evening, Mr. Spirit.”

  The situation had taken a drastic turn before I knew it. My first thought was to resist it. But in the face of such irrefutable evidence, then there was no longer any going back. I had no choice but to accept the reality manifesting before me. Laura Young had been pulled into the world of Dream Paralysis.

  The girl before me was eyeing the spirit with a childish curiosity that betrayed the supernatural gravity of its existence. This girl is always like this. It’s like she knew what the normal response to something was and would decide intentionally to go against the grain. Of course, that wasn’t the case. Laura Young wasn’t trying to be different; she just was. But surely there had to be a limit to a person’s quirkiness, right?

  “Aren’t you scared?” I asked.

  “Why?”

  “’Why’? It’s a spirit…”

  “Yes, and?”

  Conventional logic didn’t seem to be working on Laura Young.

  “Yes, and…”

  “Hey, Mr. Spirit...” Laura interrupted. “Why are you following Tristan around? Did he do something bad?”

  “Wait, don’t…” I stopped. I needed to tell her everything myself. I didn’t want the spirit giving her the wrong idea. “He’s… this spirit is tied to me.”

  She tilted her head. “Tied? Tied how?”

  “It’s a part of me. It’s… look, it’s a long story, and I should really be heading home soon.”

  The girl before me, as casually as she had ever been, glanced around her room, then stepped back to take a seat on the soft mattress behind her. Her warm eyes that seemed to smile without her mouth beckoned me to go on.

  “Tell me, Tristan.”

  Yeah, those eyes. They were the same as they always were. How was that possible after what had happened to her last night? How was it possible in the face of something so… otherworldly?

  I swallowed anxiously. “Are you sure you want to know?”

  At my question, her eyes scanned the ceiling of her room as she pondered my words.

  “Hmm. I don’t know if you’re really concerned about whether or not I want to know.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…” Her eyes came down with the force of a hammer, meeting with mine with such determination that I found myself flinching. “You look like you’ve been dying to talk to someone about it.”

  “I…”

  Was it true? It’s true that ever since I’ve cut Zoey out, I haven’t had anyone to talk to about Dream Paralysis. But even when I did talk to Zoey, none of those conversations ever truly left me with any space to talk about how I felt. In retrospect, I might have been so blinded by my desire for her that it left me ignoring my own feelings about these powers.

  “Uhm, Laura. Since we’re on the topic, there’s something I need to confess to you before we go any further.”

  “I’m listening,” she said.

  I don’t know if she was as nervous as I felt, but I found it difficult to maintain eye contact. My gaze instead darted around the room until it settled on my own feet.

  “I… I was there last night,” I said. “When that thing with Jacob happened.”

  There was a heavy silence in the room. Like weighted blankets had been placed on every single atom or molecule inside of this space.

  “What are you…”

  “That’s what this is,” I interrupted her, gesturing at the spirit behind me. “This spirit is… it’s like a bridge. I can transfer my soul into anyone’s body that I please. That’s why I… I was there last night, Laura Young. I was in Jacob when he…”

  My stomach turned. The self-hatred I felt was resurfacing. “I… I was in his body when the two of you were… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, it just…”

  “Tristan, is that true?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “What color were the sheets?”

  “The sheets? They were gray.”

  Laura pondered this, placing her hands on her chin. “Then… what he did back then… was that you?”

  “NO! I mean, that is… I got a tip from someone that he might do something bad to you that night, so I… I went to check in on you. I didn’t control any of his actions, I swear!”

  Laura contemplated my words almost too casually considering the gravity of what I’d just confessed to, then stared up at the spirit.

  “Is he telling the truth?”

  For the most part.

  “Hey,” I said. “Are you really just gonna tell on me like that?”

  I am almost as much connected to Laura as I am to you. I see no reason to hide things from her.

  I scratched my head. Laura was fine, but if he kept his lips loose with Zoey then I might run into some serious problems. “Okay, can you just not do that from now on?”

  Very well then.

  Laura glanced between the two of us. “I’m connected with him?”

  “I…” There was no point in holding it all back. She was involved now whether I liked it or not. I decided right then, with some reluctance, to explain to Laura everything I knew about Dream Paralysis. From how it functioned to what I learned from the spirit the night before. I also explained everything I knew about what happened that night, including that her own brother had found out about the video that was taken. I also told her that she had become a secondary host to the spirit, and that we were essentially connected by invisible threads now.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  There was a part of me that questioned whether she was taking it all seriously judging by her ability to accept everything at face value, but the spirit’s existence most likely made it difficult to not believe any of it. I was appreciative of her silence though, as it allowed me to get through everything without having to trip over how messed up everything was. Once I was done, she took another minute to ponder it all in her head until she finally spoke.

  “The person who told you about what was going to happen to me last night… Is that person the other secondary host?”

  I nodded.

  “Is that person Zoey?”

  I nodded again, though with some reluctance this time.

  At my words, she fell back into her bed so suddenly that I thought that she’d been shoved by someone. My body tensed up in surprise.

  “L-Laura?”

  “It makes sense now,” she said. “Now I know why the two of you were dating.”

  “We’re not dating. Not really. We’re just… connected.”

  By Dream Paralysis. By this spirit. Our fates are tied whether I like it or not. I want nothing more than to be rid of her, but her knowledge of the power as well as her existence as a secondary host makes it so that we’ll most likely never truly be free of one another. The most I can do is get her to keep her distance.

  “But then Tristan,” she said. “You told me that Jacob sent the video to Enzo, but that he didn’t have it when you hacked him afterwards. And you also said this other secondary host, Zoey, has the video now. Does that mean that Zoey convinced him to delete the video after sending it to her?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted.

  “Ask her then.”

  “Ask…? I…”

  Laura sat up and stared at me with those cold, indifferent eyes of hers. “Call her.”

  I bit my lip. If there was one thing I refused to do, it was to play into that woman’s hand again. I would do anything else but deal with her after everything she’d put me through.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t go back to her.”

  Laura stared down at her bed. “But…”

  “Besides, Lawrence will get in trouble with her if you do that. He’s the whole reason that I know about her having the video.”

  “That is true.” She put her finger up to her lip. “I suppose I’ll have to ask Enzo himself then.”

  I blinked twice and stared at her in awe. If Zoey was right, then isn’t Laura meeting up with Enzo exactly what Lawrence didn’t want? Her conclusion was the only logical one though. If I couldn’t get her to talk to Zoey, then she would have to talk to the only other person who was in on it. But still, was that the right choice?

  “I don’t know if you should do that,” I said.

  “Why not?”

  “Well…” I looked away. I couldn’t lie. I needed to give her a good reason, but I was drawing a blank. Nothing I thought of sounded convincing to me.

  “I can’t say. I just don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I said.

  She tilted her gaze down at the bed. It seemed that she had caught a vague scent of what I meant. Had she known that it was a bad idea and was choosing to ignore it? Or warier than she appeared.

  “Then we’ll both go.”

  “We?”

  She nodded. “I’d like you to come with me.”

  Why did she want me to come with her? Is it because of Dream Paralysis? Did she feel safe with me?

  “I don’t understand why you’d want me of all people,” I said.

  If it were the case that she wanted to use the spirit’s power to help her out of this situation, then I might have to part ways with her. It’s not that I didn’t want to use it to help her, but I still felt strange about being asked about it. Perhaps Zoey was right. Telling others about this would only be a mistake.

  “I need you to help me see this through, Tristan.”

  But her answer caused me to face her in surprise.

  “Laura…?”

  “I don’t know what I look like to you Tristan, but I’m not afraid to admit that I’m afraid. The reason I came back home today was because I couldn’t be on campus anymore. I find it difficult to trust even my closest friends after what Jacob did to me. Truthfully, when you mentioned that you had been there, hacking… Jacob, I had hoped that you were the one who caused him to engage in those terrible acts.”

  She traced the edge of her mattress with her finger, staring down at it with a solemn expression. “But I realize now that I was only trying to use you as a scapegoat to help salvage everything that’s been broken. When I had grabbed his phone back then, I knew that something felt off. It wasn’t something I did out of instinct or anything like that. It felt like someone was moving my body from outside of me. But I was there mentally, and I could have resisted it. I was just so shocked that I kind of let it all happen. So, in reality, there’s no way that he couldn’t have resisted if all of his actions that day were being done by you. He could’ve cut you off the second you set that phone to record.”

  “I… see…” I stared down at my feet.

  “But you saved me, Tristan. In some way, even if Zoey has the video now, there’s two people who should have had it now that don’t. And I appreciate your efforts for that. But I still need to know why Zoey has the video and Enzo doesn’t, and I need to convince her to get rid of it.”

  Convince her? That’s impossible. There’s no convincing that monster. She’d have a better shot if she asked me to hack her. But it wouldn’t be like Zoey to not take precautions against that. She might have it stored in multiple different places, from cloud services to hidden flash drives. I can’t possibly know where she has those copies saved. Besides…

  “We’re done, Tristan. Don’t call me or hack me ever again.”

  What would happen if I disobeyed her words? While she did spread those rumors about us dating today, she hadn’t directly contacted me at all. What would happen if I found my way back into her midst?

  I don’t know what opening that door would lead me to, but I was terrified. I felt myself finally breaking free of her, and the last thing I wished for was to dive headfirst into that labyrinth again.

  “I… I’ll go with you. To see Enzo.”

  The slight tension in her face eased up at my words. Her expression was lit up.

  “Thank you, Tristan.”

  She got up from the bed and walked towards me. I felt myself grow more self-conscious with each step. But it wasn’t until she lifted her arms and wrapped them around my body that I felt my face go red.

  “Laura…?”

  “Hey, Mr. Spirit. Do you think that Tristan is a kind person?”

  At this moment, I believe that he is.

  “Yeah, I think so too.”

  Her words no doubt came from a place of relief.

  But the spirit’s words couldn’t be further from the truth.

  I’m not kind.

  A kind person wouldn’t have drugged Benjamin.

  A kind person wouldn’t have put Gwen in danger.

  A kind person would have taken responsibility for everything a long time ago.

  I am not kind.

  I am…

  “Hey, spirit,” I said. “Since Laura is a secondary host, is it possible for me to transfer you to her?”

  If you wish.

  Laura pulled away from me with confusion in her eyes, but I don’t think I’d ever been surer of anything else in my life. If there was someone truly kind, someone truly deserving of wielding such terrifying power, then it would be Laura Young. Whether she chose to use it for good or to not use it at all, I know that it’ll be the right decision.

  “Don’t be a quitter, Tristan.”

  At least, I thought I had never been surer of anything else in my life.

  But with just five words, my worldview was shattered like a glass window at a baseball game.

  “What do you…”

  “You were the one who found the spirit. This ability found you. It’s your destiny, and it’s also your burden to bear. That became the case the second you used the power for your own benefit, and it’s still the case now. Don’t run away from what you’ve done.”

  I bit my lip. She was right. I had already used it to cause harm to others. Did I really deserve to just get rid of it just like that? But still, such a power…

  “Laura… do you really think I deserve such a thing?”

  My question seemed to give her pause. She picked herself up from the bed and circled around it, facing the window.

  “Dunno. I don’t believe in ‘deserving’ in this life. Whatever you do or don’t deserve will come after you die. But for now, you need to decide on what you can do, not what you deserve.”

  “But… what if I’ve decided that the best thing I can do is to give Dream Paralysis to you?”

  At my words, after a moment of glancing out at Bucktail silently, she twirled on her heel and walked towards me, stopping only a couple of inches away from me. I found myself mesmerized by the curls of her eyelashes and the gorgeous streak of eyeliner she’d decorated her warm eyes with, as those dark stones penetrated my face with their gaze.

  “Then I’d question your judgment,” she said. “I don’t think you should give that kind of power to a girl who’s just had her heart broken.”

  And after leaving me with that, she walked past me without acknowledging my presence any further. I was left with nothing but the empty room before me, and the sound of the door creaking behind me as she stepped outside.

  “We’re done, Larry. Are you guys still gonna hang out?”

  “Huh? Oh… no, I was just going to get him back home before you came in.”

  “I see. You did a good job with his hair, by the way. It looks good.”

  “What, you’re surprised? You should know how good I am with scissors by now.”

  “If only you were that good at keeping your grades up. Basketball isn’t everything, you know.”

  “Shut up already. So what, are you gonna be crashing with us again?”

  “For a while, yeah. Dorm life is a bit overbearing right now.”

  “New roommate not up to your standards, huh? I get that. I don’t know if there’s anyone I’d be comfortable living with personally.”

  “Whatever you say. I got you some donuts, by the way.”

  “Dude, we have a game next week Tuesday.”

  “Is that a no? I guess I’ll have them myself then.”

  “Okay fine, fine! I’ll have one! Geez, what’s with you?”

  As I listened to them chat about trivialities in the other room, it took everything to stop myself from breaking down. Perhaps she was right. I couldn’t give the spirit to her then run away. This thing, Dream Paralysis, is my burden to bear. I already told myself that I would right all the wrongs I’ve done. And if she really thinks that I can use Dream Paralysis as a force for good, then I would have to do my best to live up to what she said.