I answered the phone, "Hello?"

"Hey Leia! Are you free tonight?"

I recognized Lydia's voice on the other end, "Don't you have finals?"

"Nah, I just finished them."

"Well I suppose I'm free tonight."

"Great. Because I'm already at your door."

*ding dong*

I turned to walk out of my library and tripped over the books scattered on the floor, "Urgggh!" My phone flew out of my hand as I landed on the ground face first. I sat up with an irritated expression.

What the hell?! Who threw all these books on the floor?

Lydia's panicked voice was on the other line, "What happened??"

I grabbed my phone and stood back up, "Ah. There must be a ghost in my apartment because all the books in my library are suddenly on the ground. I accidentally tripped over them just now."

I could almost hear her roll her eyes, "Ghosts aren't real. You must have thrown those books everywhere on the floor and forgot about them."

"Yeah... Maybe." I tapped my chin. But why can't I remember? I shrugged my shoulders. It must have not been important. "Whatever. I will just leave it and not think about it."

She giggled, "Jeez Leia. Shouldn't you at least clean it up?"

I spoke on the phone while walking to the door, "Nah. I will just leave it for the cleaning lady to clean up on Monday."

"I feel bad for your cleaning lady."

I opened the front door and clicked the phone off, "Well don't. That is what I pay her for."

Lydia squealed and jumped to hug me. I embraced her back. As she released me, she pushed her natural hair back with a large smile. "Leia! Happy birthday girl!"

I frowned, "Birthday? It's not my birthday."

She winked at me, "That's not what it says on your license."

I rolled my eyes, "You know that's a fake birthday."

She nodded, "Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't still celebrate! Come on! Let's go clubbing!"

I smiled, "Alright. I need to lose weight anyways."

She chuckled, "How does clubbing lose weight?"

"Dancing burns calories."

"Riggght. If you want even better exercise, you can also do THAT." She winked at me suggestively.

I rolled my eyes in response, "There's no way I'm going to bring a random man home."

"Who said anything about a random man?"

We arrived at the club wearing high heeled boots, short shorts, and crop tops. I stretched as we waited at the bar. I shouted over the music, "It's been so long since I've shown this much skin! It feels freeing!"

Lydia giggled, "Freeing? Didn't you wear something similar just a few days ago?"

I furrowed my brow and looked down at the drink in my hand, "Did I?"

I looked around the room in confusion. I could see everyone dancing and behaving normally. However, something just felt wrong. I took a step back feeling strange. Lydia glanced at me in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Lights. Cameras. DJs. None of this should be here. I turned around and ran out of the building. I looked around outside in a panic as cars drove past me. Wrong. Why does this all seem wrong? I grabbed my head and clenched my jaw from the sudden massive throbbing headache. It felt like my brain was being ripped apart each time I tried to recall why this all felt so wrong.

Lydia rushed out to meet me outside, "Leia! What is wrong with you?"

I shook my head, "This is wrong. Something is terribly wrong."

"What are you talking about? There's nothing wrong."

"No. There is something wrong. I shouldn't be here."

"At the club?"

"No. Here. This place. I shouldn't be here. I should be somewhere else."

"Where else could you possibly be?"

I struggled to explain, "I... I don't know... But this place... Feels wrong..."

Lydia stared at me silently before smiling. She stepped beside me and grabbed my arm, "You are right. We should be at the bar."

"The... Bar?"

She started leading me over and I was momentarily confused by why the bar I had always attended suddenly appeared next to the club. Has the bar always been here? I looked back and saw that the club was no longer where it had been. We entered the bar and my questions disappeared into thin air. I couldn't remember why I was panicking before.

I arrived at work the following Monday wearing sunglasses. I sat down at my desk and Sidney poked her head over, "Wow. You don't look very good."

I shook my head, "I don't feel so good either."

She chuckled, "It seems like you drank too much again last night."

I forced out a laugh, "Hah... Yeah. I know."

In reality, I hadn't spent the night drinking. I felt as if there was something missing so I spent the entire time trying to figure it out. It made my head throb in pain, but I was determined to figure out what felt so wrong. Every time I was close to discovering it, something would distract me and cause the idea to slip away completely.

As I went through the work day, I didn't even bother to try and sell any cars. I continued to watch the coworkers around me. For some reason, whenever I saw their faces it filled me with revolting disgust. I didn't understand why I felt so wary of them. It wasn't like they had ever done anything to me before.

Once the work day ended, we all left to go to our cars. Brett pulled up in his green station wagon causing me to freeze at it's sight. The others laughed at him, "Jeez Brett. When are you going to get a better car?"

"What do you think the customers will think if they see you driving that?"

Brett chuckled, "Hey! This car is a classic. Okay?"

I took a step back in fear. My eyes never left the trunk. I shook my head, "No. No. No. No."

Sidney turned to me, "What's wrong Leia?"

"This is wrong!" I shouted at them. They flinched.

Sidney reached out to me, "There is nothing wrong..."

I smacked away her hand, "No! There is something terribly wrong with this situation!!! You all murdered me!!!"

They all broke out into laughter. Brett spoke, "It seems like Leia started partying a little too soon."

I ignored them and shouted at the sky, "You think this is funny?! You think this is entertaining?! Well F*CK YOU! These motherf*ckers held me down. Injected me with sedatives. Then tossed me out in the middle of f*cking nowhere; where I was forced to die from dehydration and starvation! So F*CK YOU for making me go through this!"

I don't want to be here! I don't want to see these murderers! I don't want to pretend that nothing ever happened!

As I cursed at the sky, the people all around me froze as if their bodies were suddenly possessed. However, I didn't pay them any attention. My head throbbed as tears ran down my cheeks. Every memory that I had forgotten upon arriving here suddenly rushed through my head.

I wasn't supposed to be here. I was supposed to be in that novel's world. I was supposed to be with Dante. Millie. William. I was supposed to be with them. Not here with these terrible people!

"Is this some kind of sick joke?! Do you find it funny to see me here pretending like everything is fine and dandy?! COME OUT HERE AND FIGHT ME!!!"

I had no idea who I was shouting at, but I felt the need to scream. How dare they bring me back to this awful place and pretend like nothing ever happened. My death was not a dream. I had to endure every painful second of that long lasting death. To just be brought back here and ignore the pain and suffering I went through felt like a large smack to the face.

"This is what you wanted."

I stopped cursing at the sky and turned to see who had spoken. A small teenage-looking girl stood off to the side wearing an old worn out pale pink dress. She wore a bonnet and a veil which covered her face mysteriously. She had an elegant posture and she didn't appear to be worried. She looked suspicious, but I felt no malice from her.

My eyes widened once I caught sight of the hair she tried to hide. "You're..."

She repeated herself, "This is what you wanted."

I snapped out of my surprise and looked at her furiously, "This isn't what I wanted."

Her head tilted, but I couldn't see her expression. "Oh? Didn't you say you wish you could return? Didn't you say that you missed driving in a car, using a cell phone, and watching television?"

"T-That's..."

"You wished that you had never died that way. I fulfilled your wishes."

I tightened my fists, "It's true. I had thought that. But those wishes weren't what I truly wanted."

"Oh? Then what do you want?"

"I want my old life back. I'm not talking about this life, but the life when I was Seri. I want my father and mother back. I want to be able to play with my little brother. I want tease William again. I want to bully Mary. I want to try to rehabilitate Millie some more. I want to see Artie and Lucius together. I want... I want..."

I took a deep breath, "I want Dante back."

She listened to my demands silently. Once I finished, she spoke softly, "But you aren't Seri. You are Leia."

I glared at her, "Give me my life back."

She shook her head slowly, "But that life was never yours to begin with."

I shouted, "GIVE IT BACK!"

She was unperturbed by my shouting, "I don't understand. This is exactly what you wished for."

"Why don't you understand?! This wasn't my wish! My wish was... My wish was..." My eyes widened, "...I remember my wish now..."

The scenery changed and we were suddenly standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down at a mangled body beneath us. The woman was struggling to breath. Her skin was sunburnt. Her lips were peeling from lack of water. Her eyes were despondent as they refused to give in to fate. I bit my lip feeling the same pain I had felt that day.

My mouth moved with hers simultaneously, "I wish I could have felt love..."

That's right. I never allowed myself to feel or accept love towards anyone after my little brother died. I closed myself off from people to avoid getting hurt. I was so terrified that they would leave me that I always kept my distance. When they did end up leaving me, I just shrugged it off. What else did I expect?

My hand was always outstretched waiting for someone else to grab it. However, no one else would reach out to me. Those who did, only seemed to be grasping at thin air because I couldn't bring myself to allow them in. I had a barrier that seemed to separate everyone else from me. I desperately wanted to let someone in, yet I was too afraid to do so.

My face softened, "I never wanted money. I never wanted unlimited power. I wanted to understand what it meant to feel true love. More importantly, I wanted to let myself love another... But I was always too scared..."

I had never been able to feel genuine love before. It was only natural for me to crave and desire it.

I turned back to the girl who was familiar to me, yet not at the same time. "Just what the hell are you?!"

She answered calmly, "What do you think?"