Daniel fell like a puppet with cut strings. Michael rushed forward to catch him, but stumbled as his full weight pressed onto him. The teenage boy was rather bewildered at how everything played out, and he wasn’t sure what to do.

  “Put him on a chair for now.” Penelope said from the bed.

  Michael hurriedly complied, dragging Daniel’s body away from the bed. He took a glance at the brown-haired girl sitting in the center of the room. Her eyes were red from crying, and she seemed more fragile than she did when they first met. Despite that, there was a certain stubborn strength to her that made her so...

  Petra coughed, jerking him out of his thoughts. He did his best to drag Daniel to the chair, but he was ultimately a 15-year-old trying to carry an adult. He could only do his best.

  “Uh, miss Pepper, what happens now?”

  Although they were roughly the same age, he found it difficult to not act polite around the Penelope. A not-so-small part of that was her status as a celebrity, but besides that there was a force of personality that commanded his respect.

  She was also very pretty.

  “I’m going to transfer his consciousness directly into Penny’s dream. After that... it’ll all be up to him.” She said, wiping her eyes.

  The teenage girl took a deep breath, before her eyes flared open. She approached the girl on the bed slowly, but as she did, Michael felt something shift under his arm.

  “Michael, the bag!” Petra hissed.

  He let go of Daniel’s body instinctively, and he fell to the floor with a thump. As he did, the creature suddenly leapt out of the bag, landing on the floor in confused fury. It looked around itself in bewilderment, before spotting Daniel’s body. It approached him and gave him a poke, and then another poke. Unfortunately, Daniel was in no position to respond. When it couldn’t elicit any reaction from him, it instead turned to glare at Michael.

  The teenage boy backed away slowly. He still remembered the day it had torn off Petra’s wings, but while its beady black eyes had been burned into his brain, today’s creature was different – he could swear he saw anger in those eyes. Or maybe that was just his imagination.

  The creature snapped its eyes towards Petra, who flinched and almost dropped out of the air.

  “Don’t look at me, don’t look at me, don’t look at me...” She mewled desperately.

  The creature turned towards Penelope on the bed. And then it charged.

  “What- hey!”

  Michael leapt towards the creature to stop it, but he was too late. His warning caused the girl to turn towards the disturbance, her eyes widening as she saw the creature thundering towards her. Its pitch-black eyes met hers and it abruptly stopped in its tracks, before it started curling up where it stood. A semi-transparent membrane emerged from around its eyes, engulfing them in a protective coating. Once its limbs were securely stowed away under it, it stopped moving entirely.

  Michael approached the creature, inspecting it as it stood immobile. He hadn't known it was capable of sleeping.

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  “Oh god damn it.” Penelope said suddenly.

  “Miss Pepper?” He said, looking up.

  The teenage girl was looking unsteady as she swayed drowsily on the bed. She was fighting to stay awake, blinking to keep her eyes open, but it was clearly a losing battle.

  “Michael.” She said forcefully, another attempt to stave off sleep.

  “Yes!” He replied, instinctively snapping to attention.

  “Make sure no one comes into the room, alright?” She said, turning towards him. “I don’t know how long this will take. But I’m not stopping until she’s back. If anyone gets in the way...”

  Michael nodded vigorously to show he understood. Penelope shakily got off the bed and started kneeling down by the sleeping girl’s face.

  “This isn’t going how I wanted it to... But I'm going to save you. One way or another.” She whispered, before promptly falling asleep.

  The teenage boy took one last, long look at the sleeping girl’s face before turning back and continuing where he left off, dragging Daniel’s body to a chair. He looked at the creature on the floor and grimaced, but eventually began pushing it under Daniel’s chair. The spikes on its legs dragged on the carpet, making it harder to move, but he got it there eventually.

  Michael wiped his hands on his hoodie and sighed as he beheld his handiwork. He saw Daniel breathing steadily and the creature dozing quietly. And if he turned around, he would see Penelope sleeping peacefully by Penne’s side. He himself had done what he could and could only hope that they succeeded.

  “Come on Petra, let’s watch the hallway.”

  Daniel woke up in the office. The din of computers and keyboard typing made for a quiet but persistent backing track, punctuated by quiet chatter and the occasional footfall of dress shoes on thin carpet.

  “Huh?” Daniel said, confused.

  Hadn’t he been somewhere else just now? He looked around, confused, and made to get up from his chair.

  “Daniel, you’re not slacking off of work again, are you?” A female voice said suddenly.

  He turned and saw Samantha in the hall, wearing her usual jeans and white shirt combination, and she was even wearing her red cap. She was also wearing a blood covered apron, for some reason.

  “What did I say about skipping work, Daniel? You have no excuse this time.”

  “Alright, alright.” Daniel said, sitting down again. “But, uh... What’s up with the apron?”

  “I’m working, obviously.”

  Oh, that made sense.

  “I have to go back to my shift. I can’t babysit you forever.” She said, waving goodbye as she walked away.

  Daniel waved back and turned his computer on. It was the start of the month, and there were many bills he had to sort through. An indeterminate amount of time passed, and he stretched his hands over his head, satisfied. One set of work was done, and it was on to the next. But as his hands reached for the keyboard, he froze.

  “Sammy doesn’t work here.” Daniel said to himself.

  He got up and looked around. The office building looked the same, but the layout was wrong. The position of certain cubicles was different, and the floor plan wasn’t logically spread out. And as far as he could tell, they were in a giant square right now. Daniel left his cubicle and began walking towards a nearby wall.

  “Daniel, can you hear me?” A familiar voice suddenly said. “Listen, you’re in a dream-”

  “I know.” He said, continuing to walk. “Where are you?”

  “I’m up above, trying to guide you. But... It’s not easy.”

  “Can you tell me how to get out?”

  “I don’t know, usually there’s some kind of exit somewhere.”

  “Well, that’s straightforward.” He said, as he spotted a door with a glowing green sign above it.

  If he remembered it correctly, it should lead to the stairwell.

  “Hey, why exactly are we in my dream?” Daniel said as he reached the door. “I thought we would be going straight for Penny’s.”

  “We would, but something happened. Something messed up, and-”

  “Uh oh.”

  “...What is it?”

  “This... isn’t a dream.”

  The door creaked open to reveal an endless sea of cubicles. There was the familiar clacking of keys, humming of computers, chatter of co-workers, but the din had somehow grown slightly louder in his ears.

  “We’re in one of my nightmares.”