Day in the story: 7th December (Sunday)

I left a note for Jason saying I was going for a morning run and would be back in about two hours. Then I changed into my running gear, but instead of actually running, I teleported straight into my Domain and collapsed on my bed, catching at least half an hour of real sleep.

Forty minutes later, I woke up totally refreshed, wonders of ancient magical crystal medicine. It was nearing six, so I grabbed my belt with all the card holders attached and teleported to Lebens' training hall. I was going to get sweaty one way or another.

Dam was already there, looking like something between a porcupine and a salt golem. His entire body was covered in thin, crystal-like spikes, or maybe they were salt, or sugar? Hard to say. He was firing them into the training hall's far wall and they exploded into jagged fragments, practically drilling a tunnel through it.

"Alexa!" he shouted when he saw me, instantly shifting back to his human form. The speed of his transformation was still wild to witness.

"One day," I warned, "I'm going to teleport into here right in the middle of your training and you'll turn me into a shish kebab."

He laughed, the hall rumbling with the sound. "You're right. I should never train when you're scheduled to arrive."

"How did you change into that thing? What the hell did you eat?"

"Just salted fish," he explained, grinning. "The fish bones crusted with salt crystals, one of my favorite forms. I once fought a drake in it."

"Drake the singer, or a small dragon?" I teased.

He burst out laughing again, shaking the floor. "A flying, fire-breathing lizard. It wandered into Suburbia and I had to take care of it. Anyway, you're not in your usual suit today. No full training?"

"Oh, I want to train," I assured him, "but let's keep it light today, okay?"

"Sure. Something happen?"

I told him about last night, with all the details I could remember.

He listened carefully, then nodded. "Alexa, there are two types of people in our world: Sleepers and Awoken. Awoken can cross through openings, as you know. But there are also two kinds of shadows: Drifters and Lucids. Drifters just sort of float through lives, feeding on borrowed emotions. Lucids, though, they're aware, like lucid dreamers. They can cross fully into our world."

"That thing I saw," I said, "was it one of them?"

He paused. "It could be a Domain Master with a weird shape, but honestly? I'd trust your instincts. Most likely, yes, a lucid shadow."

"And what about Jason?"

"Shadows are connected to dreams, dreams spawn them, influence them. If this shadow fixated on Jason's dreams, it could explain why it felt like it was watching you but actually targeted him."

I let that settle in, uneasy. "So it was looking at Jason, not me?"

He nodded. "I've heard of shadows like that, Alexa," he said grimly. "They call them succubi."

"Why do you think it was that particular type?" I asked.

"It attacked a man while he was sleeping," Dam explained. "Who spoke of love right after waking, which suggests an erotic dream, the kind succubi feed on. It didn't physically attack, but ran away as soon as confronted by an awakened person. That fits their description perfectly."

"So… no real harm was done to Jason? Will it come back?"

"From what I know, no and no," Dam reassured me. "Succubi don't actually harm their targets, they just feed on the dreams. And usually they don't come back, since they return to the Ideworld through the opening after feeding. As you know, those openings rarely appear in the same place twice in a short time. And even if they did, the odds of your boyfriend having exactly that kind of dream again, at the exact moment, are basically zero."

"You don't know Jason," I sighed.

He laughed at that. "Fair point. It could happen, but I doubt it. If I'm right, you won't see this happen again."

I didn't exactly love the sound of if I'm right, but so far Dam had been spot on with everything Ideworld-related. I'd just have to hope for the best.

"Nick told me you once fought some nasty Lucid with the Hexblades, something about a kindergarten?" I asked.

His mood changed instantly. His skin shifted, hardening into scales. The transformation was so abrupt it made me flinch.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, shifting back to normal. "That was… an instinctive reaction to that nightmare." He gestured toward the safe room. "Come on, let's sit down for this one."

We went in, took chairs and settled.

"If you don't want to talk about it, I'll understand" I offered.

"No," he sighed, "it's better that you know what's out there."

"Nick said something about… blood rage?"

"That's what I told him," Dam admitted, "because he only heard pieces of the story back when he was little, while I was talking to Ariana. But the truth was a lot worse than a blood rage."

His brow furrowed and he took a deep breath before continuing.

"It was about eleven years ago. I was Spellguard for the New York Hexblades squad, basically a senior officer. That day we were called by an Oracle."

He paused when he saw my confused look.

"An Oracle is a group of seers who volunteers to go into a medically induced coma. They attune themselves to the Earth's rhythms somehow, so they can sense any abnormalities, then report them to Hexblades supervisors. That day, one of them, one of the Oracles, straight-up died the moment she sensed it. Her heart stopped on the spot.

So the High Marshal, think of him like a Chief of Police or a Commissioner, he ordered three full units to the site. A public kindergarten, no less, that had been perfectly fine just three hours earlier when parents dropped their kids off."

"When we arrived on the scene, there was an opening right by the entrance. One team went through to check what was on the other side, while my squad and the third team went into the building.

What we saw that day, Alexa, was pure horror. Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Yes," I nodded, bracing myself. "I need to know what I could face if I'm unlucky."

"Okay." He drew a long, shaky breath.

"The walls of the place were decorated with… a web of entrails. The entrails of the children and the staff working there. And they weren't dead. This creature had somehow strung up their skin, their muscles, their bowels, their spinal cords and nerves, stretched all around the building, while keeping them alive and in constant agony."

My stomach turned. I almost told him to stop.

"Parts of those small children were on the floor too," he continued, voice flat. "As we moved through, I stepped on… what was left of them and I could feel their pain through the connection, like a psychic echo.

My colleague was stronger than me back then. He used every ounce of his power to crush every single nerve in that place, ending their agony, killing them, mercifully, but sparing that fucking monster that had done it.

The creature howled when their pain ended, Alexa. It was feeding on their suffering and it lost its meal in that moment. It was… an eldritch spawn."

"Eldritch?" I asked, trying to focus past the nausea building in my throat.

"They aren't normal shadows," he explained. "They're something from beyond, from gods, cosmic horrors that dwell in the Ideworld. Some of them only partially exist there, their true forms born in even more alien realms. That thing we faced was just a messenger of something far worse.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

It looked like a mass of slimy bones, both hard and flexible, with more eyes than it could ever use. I still have nightmares about it, even after all these years.

I quit the Hexblades that day."

"That's…" I struggled for words. "I'm sorry, Dam."

He nodded, eyes distant.

"How can you even tell," I asked quietly, "if you're facing something like that, an Eldritch spawn, instead of a normal shadow?"

"Oh," he exhaled, "you will know. You feel it. Your soul feels like it's under attack the moment you come near one of those things."

"You killed it that day?"

"Yes," he said, voice low. "For a group of eight Hexblades, it was an easy kill, physically speaking." He sighed again, more deeply this time. "We burned the whole building to the ground afterward. It was to help Reality stitch itself back together and maybe make the parents hurt a little less, if such a thing is possible."

My throat was tight. "I'm sorry I brought it up."

"No," he shook his head gently. "You were right to want to know. I just… I didn't think it would still hurt this much after so many years." He tried to force a smile, but it looked broken. "Some scars go deeper than the skin, Alexa."

He stood up. "If you want to train, please do it alone today. I… I need to see my wife."

"Of course," I said softly.

Dam nodded once, then headed upstairs, leaving me alone in the training hall.

I turned back toward the training hall, drew out my cards and began to hurl them at targets, imaginary horrors, faceless monsters, Eldritch nightmares. Over and over. Forty minutes passed before I could feel my hands steady again. Most of the cards turned to steel.

**********

I knocked on the door for the fourth time, after already trying the com. Jason still hadn't answered and a prickle of worry crawled up my spine. I tried again, harder this time, but nothing.

Something felt wrong.

I decided to risk it: I teleported to my Domain, then jumped directly into his apartment from there. I ran straight to the bedroom.

He was still there, in bed, exactly as I'd left him two hours ago. His breathing was steady, but too deep, like he was lost in some unnatural slumber.

I found the note I'd left on the nightstand and sat down on the edge of the bed. Tentatively, I shook his shoulder. Nothing. I poked his arm. Still nothing. A spark of fear hit my chest, so I leaned in and slapped his cheek, carefully but firmly.

That finally did it. His eyes fluttered open, unfocused, then he blinked up at me.

"Woah, Lexy?" he mumbled, voice thick with sleep. "What's going on?"

"Is it normal for you to sleep so deeply?" I demanded. "I've been trying to wake you for ten minutes."

"Really?" he frowned. "I don't know… I don't think so? Why are you dressed like that? Going for a run?"

I glanced down at my workout gear, realizing I'd forgotten to change after the training hall. Luckily I wasn't sweaty, just exhausted.

"I planned to," I admitted, "but right now I'm worried about you. Do you remember anything about getting up in the night? Going to the bathroom?"

He blinked again, confused. "No? Are you pranking me?"

I sighed. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd almost think I was hallucinating.

"Never mind," I said. "Maybe it was a dream."

He stretched and grinned, that same cocky grin I had found repulsive for so long. "Wanna go for a run together? I like watching your ass jiggle."

"Charming," I sighed, rolling my eyes. "At least you know, you'd be the one staying behind."

"I don't mind being behind you," he teased.

I pushed him away, gently but firmly. "Not now, Jason. I'm serious, I need to clear my head, not… do anything else."

"Okay, okay," he relented. "Give me a few minutes to change, alright?"

"Sure."

I stepped into the living room, looking out the big windows. Across the way, on the same rooftop, the strange opening was still there. It shimmered even in daylight, harder to spot against the bright sky, but still devouring the sunlight around its edges.

I wondered if that succubus had gone back through it, or if she was still somewhere on this side of the world.

While Jason changed, I kept staring at that rooftop, a chill running down my spine.

**********

I had trained for running nearly my whole life, so naturally I was good at it. Long distances, intervals, sudden sprints, even parkour, none of it posed a problem. Still, most men could usually outpace me on a flat-out sprint, no matter how hard I tried. It wasn't sexism, just plain biology.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I made my joke reality and set the pace for our joint run with Jason and he could barely keep up. I wasn't even breaking a sweat, while he was gasping for air. I had to consciously slow down to keep him from falling too far behind.

"You weren't kidding," he wheezed between breaths. "Do you have Kenyan or Jamaican ancestors or something?"

I eased the pace once more, letting him catch up. "Sorry, I think I hit my zone. Didn't realize how fast I was going."

"Seriously, how? When do you even find time to train to that level?"

Yeah. That would be hard to explain. Especially to someone who had a pretty good sense of how impossibly packed my schedule was.

"I don't sleep much," I said, shrugging. "And I'm freakishly good at regaining energy."

"No shit," he laughed weakly, coming to a stop. I slowed to join him, standing by the shop fronts, the city's reflections dancing across the glass windows.

He bent over, catching his breath. "Aren't you, like, a superheroine in disguise or something?"

I chuckled along with him, partly because of how close he was to the truth. "You disarm thugs at the club like it's nothing, you run faster than me and you don't even look tired. I wish your parents were alive to see that genetic miracle."

He winced a moment later, realizing how badly that might have landed. "Shit, sorry, Lex. That was tactless."

I waved it off, trying to smile. "No, you were almost right. I'm a super villainess."

"I knew it!" he laughed again, completely oblivious to how close he was skirting the truth.

I wondered for a second if Reality would erase his memory of these odd little remarks, or if they were simply too mundane for it to bother. After all, he clearly remembered the club fight, so maybe not.

Then I turned to glance at the shop's front and my heart froze.

Something was inside the glass. Its mouth was jagged, full of teeth like broken mirrors and each finger ended in long glassy claws. It hovered above Jason's reflected image, staring at him with an alien, predatory hunger. Jason himself stood completely still, paralyzed as if Rei's shadow technique had struck him, while his reflection cowered in obvious terror.

For a split second, I couldn't move. I was caught between surprise and something dangerously close to fear. I was the only one seeing this. And that made it even worse.

Other people bustled past, oblivious to what was happening, as if the nightmare belonged only to me. I lunged for Jason, grabbing his arms, trying to wrench him out of whatever paralysis had gripped him, but he wouldn't budge. He was like a statue, frozen, while his reflection in the mirrored glass seemed to be speaking to the monstrous thing on the other side.

I ducked, trying to throw him over my shoulder to haul him away, when the screaming began, first a woman, then another voice, a man's, ragged with terror.

I spun around and saw the creature pulling itself out of the store's window, oozing from the glass like a swimmer breaking the surface of a pool.

Panic clenched my chest. I had nothing, no suit, no cards, no pistol, not even a can of spray paint that might buy me a second. My powers always needed preparation, symbols, focus and there was no time for any of it. All I had was the Lifeline Talisman tucked at my chest.

Well, if there was ever a moment to test how strong I really was, it was now.

I drew a sharp breath, forced the fear to the back of my mind and ran straight at the nightmare as it emerged from the glass. Just before I reached it, I threw myself upward, letting momentum carry me into a brutal downward hook to the side of its head.

The blow landed with a wet, crunching sound and drove the thing to the pavement. Its arms flailed to catch its balance, long legs still half-trapped in the mirror. Before it could recover, I pivoted and delivered a hard kick from the opposite side. My boot smashed into its head, ricocheting its face against the wall beside the glass.

"Move away!" someone shouted from behind me.

I leapt back just as the creature's claws came slashing down, ripping into the concrete like it was nothing more than damp earth.

Two police officers came skidding to a stop, guns raised and opened fire. The rounds slammed straight into the creature's head and chest, but the only response was a hiss like steam.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" one of them called to me, eyes wide. I managed a nod.

"This shit isn't done!" the other officer shouted, firing off another pair of rounds into its chest.

The creature lashed out with a swipe of its claws, an impossible reach, cutting through the air far beyond where its arm should have ended. If I hadn't lunged forward and tackled the officer out of its path, he would have been split clean in half.

"Jesus!" he yelled as we crashed to the pavement. He rolled away, scrambling to regain his weapon while the other officer ran over to help us to our feet.

I cast a frantic glance toward Jason, who was still locked in place, his eyes distant and glazed.

Cursing under my breath, I pushed away from the officer and launched myself at the creature again. It slashed at me, but I dropped low, narrowly ducking beneath its claws, then drove a rising kick up beneath its chin. I twisted midair into a backward somersault to follow through with the strike.

The impact was solid, rattling its glassy, serrated jaws and driving its head straight back toward the window it had crawled from. Instead of passing through, its body shattered the mirrored surface, shards spraying in every direction as it was sucked back inside with a shrieking hiss.

The glass crackled and collapsed, leaving only silence.

"What the fuck was that thing? It had no eyes…" one of the officers breathed.

The other edged forward, peering at the ruined storefront as if half-expecting the creature to leap back out.

Behind them, I saw Jason finally stirring, his expression dazed, movement returning to his features as though nothing had happened at all.

"I think I'm ready to run again," he said with a sheepish grin, as if the last few minutes had simply vanished from his mind.

I nodded, meeting the officers' shocked stares one last time, then made a quick decision not to stick around for the inevitable questions.

We turned and ran, hard and fast, until we were around the next corner, leaving the nightmare and the broken glass, behind us.

We ran, hard and fast, until we vanished around a corner and finally slowed down, breath catching up with us. I kept a close eye on Jason the entire way, scanning every reflective surface we passed for any sign of the monster's return. But nothing emerged. We made it back to his apartment without any further trouble.

**********

"Well," Jason said with a grin, wiping sweat from his brow, "after I rested a bit, you have to admit I crushed that second part of the run, right?"

"Yes," I answered, forcing a smile. "You were great. Can I use the bathroom?" I asked, trying to keep my tone casual.

"Sure, go ahead."

I slipped into the bathroom, heart pounding. If I was right, that mirror was more dangerous than it looked. Without hesitating, I sighed, picked up the toilet brush and smashed the mirror into a spray of fractured glass.

"Everything alright in there?" Jason called from the living room.

I opened the door, putting on my best apologetic face. "I'm so sorry, Jason. I got a little lightheaded and… well, I broke your mirror."

He peeked past me to see the shards scattered across the tile. "Don't worry about it," he said, giving me a reassuring smile as he helped me back to the couch. "Good to know you're not a superwoman after all."

While he cleaned up the mess, I tried to steady my breathing. My gaze drifted to the windows, calm and blank now, reflecting nothing but daylight. But deep down, I knew. When night came, those windows could become portals, openings for whatever that creature had been.

And two things were certain, it wasn't a succubus. Not even close. And I had to prepare.

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