-Yamin perspective-

  Waiting in this room was getting me antsy. I couldn’t stay here any longer waiting to wake up from this possible dream. I already normally spent hours at a time without anyone to talk to, did I really need to experience that in my sleep too?

  Instead, I reached for the phone and dialed up room service. Maybe they could tell me where everyone else was.

  “At least, they could tell me if the phone were actually working.”

  The line was dead. There wasn’t even a wire connecting it to the wall. I’d heard the news that wireless phones were popping up in fancy places, but even Adalyn hadn’t made the switch as far as I knew.

  “Great…” I holstered the phone headset back down and folded my arms. “That dream lord better not be messing with me again.”

  If I had a nickel for every dream world I was trapped in, I think I'd have two nickels. Which wasn’t a lot, but it would suck if it happened twice.

  The difference this time was that things felt more real. I didn’t have control over anything, like the last one. So if this really was a dream, then it wasn’t lucid.

  “Alright… Let’s think about things clearly,” I tilted my head up and closed my eyes to picture the situation. “I don’t remember what I was doing before I woke up here, but it looks like I’m all alone in this looping mansion.”

  I did have a real nightmare before waking up, so maybe this wasn’t actually a dream after all. But that didn’t mean a demon wasn’t changing things. If I remembered correctly, Yalda used stardust to fight against an altered demon reality, letting normal people see things for what they were. Maybe it was time for me to see that for myself.

  “Here we go…” I stretched out my hand and summoned a flare of light from my palm.

  The light revealed strange things. The fireplace wasn’t actually lit up, instead it was filled with a pile of cold ash. The wallpaper was peeling away and awful little bugs were creeping through moldy cracks in the wood floors. The windows were chipped and broken in a few places, letting a chilly wind into the room.

  “I-I think I liked it better with the lights off…”

  I dispelled the stardust, letting things return to their more comforting version.

  “Creepy demon room hidden with dark energy? Check,” I made a checkmark motion in the air. “Looping hallway? Check. Lonely Yamin? Check. And, I’m not just saying that last part because I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  There were definitely some dark things at work here. What surprised me was how it seemed like I couldn't see the changes without stardust to reveal the true reality. Last time when my home was being invaded by demons, I was the only one who could see what was going on.

  If only my friends were with me now. They had a lot more experience dealing with demons than I did. To be fair, those evil guys had me locked up like a sleeping princess in a tower.

  “That must be what’s going on here again.”

  No doubt I was already captured again. I had no idea who or how, but I intended to get to the bottom of it quickly. This time though, I wasn’t going to be helpless. Yalda wasn’t the only one with stardust on our team. I could use it too!

  I wasn’t very good with weapons like Yalda and her Uncle were, and I wasn’t strong like Marek and Indena. But stardust could do a lot of other things too, like make a shield.

  “The best offense is a good defense.”

  As I began growing a thick sheet of crystal out of thin air, I came upon my first issue. I was tapped out of the good ole’ stardust.

  To mitigate that problem, I improvised by taking the phone headset and turning it into a handle for the shield. Not the greatest fix, but it was significantly less I needed to actually spend the energy on. One needs to be resourceful if one doesn't want to be a demon's wife.

  “I wonder how many people can benefit from that experience,” I sighed in shame.

  Demons didn’t like light, so I just needed to use this shield to keep them at bay.

  “As Yalda says, let there be light.”

  The shield was bright and able to easily fight back against the dark reality I was stuck in. In my absent minded creation of it, I made it look a lot like the Seven Star shield emblem. That didn’t do much more than pump me up, but a little enthusiasm went a long way.

  From my experience, the worst thing that could happen in these dark realms was losing yourself. My self-deprecation wasn’t just a joke at my own expense, it was a little humor to keep my spirits up. I mean, what self esteem did I honestly have to begin with though?

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  “There I go again… Thinking about how silly I am.”

  I chuckled, feeling a little less spooked. But I was just in a single bedroom. There was an entire creepy mansion ahead of me that I had yet to explore.

  ~☆☆☆~

  I peeked out of the hallway like a creeping cartoon character, looking both ways, as if a demon truck would come barreling down the halls to take me to another world.

  “You know, getting isekaied right now doesn't seem so bad.”

  On my tiptoes, I cautiously moved into the hall. The look of things out here wasn’t any better than my room, so that wasn’t just an isolated thing.

  “So far so good.”

  A weak, but audible ambiance hung in the air, like a spooky ghost wind. I shivered and turned around, facing my stardust shield that way to check for a real ghost.

  “Nothing…”

  I was about a meter away from the door and already shivering to the max. This was going to be one hell of a night, and I hoped that wasn’t going to be literal.

  Further down the hall I reached the old staircase. Steps fell down when I shined the shield on them.

  Without much consideration, I decided to take a different path.

  “Hey old room, how are you?” I playfully said, passing by the room I’d left. “I’m doing great, if it wasn’t obvious. Like, creepy demon houses are my kinda place. You know?”

  Lying wasn’t my strong suit, even if it was to a door.

  The left path was where I kept looping before, but thanks to my shield, it broke through that fake reality and I wound up in the kitchen, even though technically I should have ended up in the foyer. To my disappointment, there wasn’t any food in the fridge.

  “Not that I’d eat anything right now in this freaky house anyways. Stuff’s probably poisoned.”

  *Clink Clank!*

  Something was moving around the vents above my head. I freaked out and shined the shield light on it. For a moment, little blue eyes appeared behind the grate, but disappeared in the span of a blink.

  “Oh, so something is watching me now,” I frowned. “Creep! Hasn’t anyone told you it isn’t nice to spy on a girl?”

  This whole time I felt like eyes were watching me, but I just kinda ignored it for the sake of my sanity. Rather than focus on that encounter, I kept moving along.

  On the other end of the kitchen was another pair of double doors. Those led out to the dining room, like they were supposed to. This wasn’t the main dining room though, since the other was really big and meant for a lot of people. This was one meant for friends and family.

  There were clothes everywhere. All over the long table, the chairs, the floors… There were even some on the rafters of the ceiling. To make matters infinitely worse, a bunch of naked mannequins were strewn about. Some were lying on the floor like they were dead, and others were proudly standing on display.

  “Yeah, I hate this room already…”

  I tried to turn back, but the door to the kitchen was locked.

  “Freaking great.” Go figures I’d be locked in a room with a bunch of mannequins in the dark.

  *Shuffle Shuffle*

  “Oh no…”

  There was zero joy as I turned around to see the mannequins had moved right up behind me.

  I panicked and raised up my shield, causing them to lift their arms and cover their faces.

  Bloody murderer screams echoed out of me as I fell and scrambled backwards. I stopped when I hit the door.

  “Go away go away go away go away!” I kept repeating that until one of them started moving toward me through the light.

  its hand pressed down gently on the shield, lowering it until it got a clear view of me with those glowing blue eyes.

  “Go away!” I shouted, but it just gently grabbed my hand and helped me stand back up. “Wha, what?”

  While I was processing its aid, a female mannequin came over with some pretty looking black dress with gold details. I was too stunned to deny her actions, so I let her dress me in it.

  “What are you guys doing?”

  All the other mannequins came over and stood together, each in a kind pose like they were waiting for me to say something.

  “Er…” I looked them all over, noticing none of them had clothing. “It’s a little weird to be the only one with clothes on right now, you know?” I chuckled.

  They took that as a command and started getting dressed with all the clothing on the ground. It was kinda cute watching them dress up, but very weird.

  There was a shorter female one who came over to me. She was in something I would have expected a bridesmaid to wear.

  She took my hand and started leading me toward the door on the other end of the dining room. Once we reached that destination, another mannequin took my shield and held it for me.

  “Wait, I need that.”

  The bridesmaid mannequin poked my shoulder and silently shook her head.

  “You don't think I need it?”

  She nodded this time.

  I had no idea where she was taking me, but she led me out into the hallway and gestured to a door that looked clean and brand new, even by the mansion's standards. The mannequin who took my shield was right behind me, so even when the light shined on it, it stayed the same.

  “Weird…” I pressed my hand to the freshly painted door and turned to the bridesmaid. “Do you want me to go inside?”

  She nodded, then opened the door for me. My eyes had to adjust to a light that burst out from behind it. Once I could see again, a swirling vortex of watery energy was only a few meters away. Surely she wasn't asking me to dive into that, right?

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please support me, Taylor The Writer, here on Royal Road! :)

  -I forgot to let you guys know something last chapter! That's what I get for being sleep deprived lol I'll just re-post the message here-

  Thank you for reading!

  -Taylor