She grabs me by my throat and lifts me into the air and I’m suffocating, but I quickly reach my hands around my new shotgun and fire it into her stomach, finding it to use the same process as firing a shotgun in the real world. This stuns Fake Ashley well enough to get her to release me. I already know from prior experience that this won’t stop her for long, but this is all I need; I take the moment she is healing the wound to run away and take cover behind some of the pews.

“Wow, now this is a first!” I hear her call jeeringly after a few seconds. “I’ve never seen someone awaken their Persona and then immediately run away before!”

I stay crouched behind the pew, silently. She can’t see me, right…?

The air rushes out of my lunges as I start flying straight up and through the air towards Fake Ashley.

I have no chance of winning or even getting away like this… but unlocking your Persona is supposed to give you some sort of magic, right? There has to be something I can do…

In a rush, I outstretch a hand and try something. Fake Ashley seems to be shrouded in some type of aura.

“You g-… huh… what are you…” she says incoherently.

It must have worked, because I feel myself suddenly fall to the floor, as if gravity had been turned back on. In front of me, Fake Ashley’s eyes shut, and she suddenly falls over onto the floor, motionless.

Wow… did I do that? She’s still breathing… she must just be asleep.

If that’s the case, I better use this opportunity to go hide somewhere. I waste no time in turning around and dashing out of the church sanctuary.

We finally arrive back at my house. I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, but this is where Zoe would’ve been when I left, so she can’t be far.

I put up my right arm to signal the others to stop. I listen for sounds of a scuffle happening inside.

I do hear something… but it’s not coming from the house. It’s coming from our right. I hear a sort of low grunting sound.

“You hear that?” I ask the others.

“Yeah. Sounds like someone who’s in pain,” Anja observes.

“Come on.” I take off in the direction of the noise.

The noise turns out to be coming from Ted, who is lying in the middle of the road. He looks really bad. His shell has several large dents and bruises, and the impact of whatever happened left him barely conscious.

Anja lets out a loud gasp upon seeing him and kneels next to him. “Oh my goodness… what happened to you?”

“Moloch… disguised… Zoe with him…” Ted groans.

I feel a charge in my blood at these words. “Where are they?” I demand.

“In the church… here…”

He must mean the Methodist Church… Without further ado, I run towards it.

After hearing this, Ashley immediately runs off in the direction of the church, leaving Anja and I behind with Ted.

“Ted, we need to get you healed up!” Anja croons over him. “Here, let me…”

Ted, however, shakes his head. “Too much… take me back…”

“T… Take you back?” Anja asks, confused.

“I think he needs you to take him back to the regular world,” I tell her. “I think he’s saying… his HP is zero. We can’t heal him, and he’s just gonna lose consciousness and die.”

Ted nods.

“Okay. I’ll take him back. You go help Ashley rescue Zoe,” Anja tells me.

“Got it,” I agree.

She uses her Metaverse app to take herself and Ted back. I take off in the same direction that Ashley went.

I arrive at the church to once again see that things are eerily quiet. Ted’s limited wording suggested that they went inside the church, so I fling open the door so hard that it fills the hall with a loud bang.

My eyes scan the entry hall quickly, but there is still nobody around. Where could they have gone?

Then, somebody runs into the hallway, and I immediately turn towards them, startled… Then, I am flooded with relief when I see that it’s Zoe. Thank God, she’s okay…

I run over to her and immediately wrap my arms around her, just feeling her pressed up against me for a while.

But then, I have to release her, knowing that we’re probably still in danger. “Zoe, is Moloch still here? Where has he gone?”

“He’s still around here somewhere,” she tells me seriously.

It’s then that I notice something… Zoe’s outfit has changed, meaning that she must’ve had to awaken her Persona. Her outfit is a very regal, but it also has a distinctly foreign air to it. In contrast, her weapon of choice is a shotgun, one that looks pretty close to a good old-fashioned Remington. Even if it’s plated gold, it helps retain a piece of her rural southern heritage.

“Hey, nice outfit,” I tell her.

“Thank you,” she says. Suddenly, her eyes pop open. “Ashley, look! Behind you!”

I whirl around to find… nothing. I’m about to ask what she was referring to, but then, I feel a pair hands clench my throat from my behind, and I quickly begin suffocating.

God damn it… I’m an idiot.

“Hehehe… you thought it was your precious girlfriend, but it was me, Moloch,” she says. Though she says it in Zoe’s voice, it’s in a twisted, evil tone that just sounds totally wrong for her.

I thrash desperately to try to escape, but her grip only grows stronger. Hell, at this point she might snap my neck before I can finish suffocating.

Thankfully, at that point, some others run through the front door; Nova charges in first, and following him closely is… Zoe again, presumably the real one this time.

Nova, quickly discerning what is happening, shoots a lightning bolt at Moloch, knocking her against the wall and causing her to lose grip on my neck. I take the opportunity to desperately gulp air back into my lungs.

“Thanks, Nova,” I tell him, as he and Zoe approach me.

“You’re… the real one, right?” Zoe asks, looking at me cautiously.

“I might ask you the same thing,” I reply.

Unfortunately, our reunion is cut short by Moloch re-emerging from the shadows, giving us all a spiteful look which, once again, doesn’t suit being on Zoe’s face at all.

“Alrighty then. I see you’re too smart for garden variety trickery. We’ll have to do things the old-fashioned way,” she announces.

“Bring it! It’s three against one now!” Nova shouts. “You don’t stand a chance.”

Moloch snickers. Then, she clasps both fists in midair, which causes the church’s roof to collapse in. Reacting quickly, I jump out of the way of the falling debris but am still knocked to the ground by a chunk of rock striking my shoulder. From there, a bunch of smaller debris pelts me, burying me under a pile of rock. I begin trying to push it off of me, but it’s heavy and my arms hurt from the fall, meaning that I’m stuck for now.

I can do nothing but pathetically lie on the floor for a while, having several bruises on my body and legs from the falling rocks. I only managed to avoid being totally covered by the rubble because I was the one nearest to the archway. All of the debris and dust everywhere makes me feel claustrophobic... I start pushing the rubble off of my legs so I can be free.

And then I see… myself. The form that the demon took to fool Ashley. Standing over me, with a twisted, hungry expression.

“Well, now it looks like all of your friends are incapacitated” she says, flashing a wicked grin. She takes a huge breath in, like someone smelling their favorite pie, and is so stimulated by it that she twitches a little bit. “Ah yes, those falling ceiling chunks hurt, didn’t they? I can taste it… Such a wonderful, wonderful taste...”

I don’t like how close she’s getting to me, so I grab my shotgun and fire it straight at her. With amazing reflexes, she uses telekinesis to bend the path of the bullets away from her without even flinching. She then kicks me hard in my right arm, creating yet another bruise and causing me to drop the gun.

“Nice try, but did you really think I wouldn’t see that coming?” she taunts, still grinning. She squats behind me and grabs my arms. “Well, it’s back to the original plan now. Through the portal we go.”

All of a sudden, Nova appears from the rubble, somehow completely unharmed. Quick as a flash, he slams into Fake Me with his hammer, knocking her all the way to the other side of the hall.

Then, he reaches out his hand for me, which I take with my own. He hurriedly fumbles with his phone. I can feel myself leaving the Metaverse, and in the last few moments before I fade out of it entirely, I hear a terrible scream of fury rend the room…

I appear again inside the church, back in the regular world, my body whole again, and dressed in the pajamas I went to bed in. All of my cuts and bruises are thankfully gone now, but I still find myself momentarily frozen from the shock.

“Wow… I had no idea how I was gonna get out from under there,” Ashley comments, pulling herself to a sitting position. “Great work, Nova.”

She shuffles over to me and wraps me into her arms. “Zoe… are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Not anymore,” I reply reassuringly. “I just… need a minute.” Ashley seems to understand what I mean, and brushes through my hair a little bit.

“Wait a minute… where are Anja and Ted?” Ashley asks suddenly. “Are they still in there with that maniac?”

“No, they left already,” Nova reassures her.

Regardless, Ashley quickly gets to her feet, and gives me her hand to do the same. “Well, before we get too relaxed, we should go and make sure they got out okay,” she asserts.

I take her hand and stand up. Even though there’s nothing wrong with my legs, they still feel really weak, so I almost fall over before I gain my balance back.

“Come on, it’s okay. We’re safe now,” Ashley croons to me. I nod in acknowledgement, and we briskly walk out of the church still holding hands.

We exit the church, having to unlock the door to get out, and start back in the direction of Ashley’s house.

We see Anja and Ted both by the road, Anja sitting on the ground and Ted in her lap. They both thankfully look unharmed, though Anja looks very mad about something…

“Excellent. Glad to see that we all made it out,” Ashley says upon reaching them.

“Ashley, what the hell were you thinking?” Anja accosts her. “Why did you leave Ted behind here? If we had been a few minutes later, he could’ve died! Like, in the real world too!”

Ashley’s expression quickly shifts from relieved to indignant. “Well Anja, I was thinking ‘Wow, I better get to Nova’s place as soon as possible to help out.’ And to pick up Ted on the way would’ve been a major detour.”

“Yeah, well, he could’ve been useful to us during the fight!” Anja snaps back.

“Well… Ted being here probably did save me from being kidnapped,” I say to the others. “He was the one who alerted me of that other Ashley being a fake one.”

“Alright, sure. Take her side then,” Anja says to me coldly.

I feel very sheepish all of a sudden. “N-no, that’s not what I meant…”

“Think about it the other way, too,” Nova cuts in. “If Ashley had gone to go get Ted, then both of them would’ve been there to intercept Moloch. Then Ashley could’ve told us about the ruse, and we could’ve gotten there a lot sooner.”

“Oh, what is the point of all these ‘what ifs’?” Ashley says, looking haughty and starting to lose her temper. “We all got out of there okay! That’s all that matters!”

“I just don’t think it’s a good sign that you seem to think of other team members as being expendable,” Anja accuses calmly.

“I don’t think that at all! I had no reason to believe at the time that Ted was in any immediate danger!” Ashley says defensively. She sighs very loudly. “Ted, what do you think? Should I have stopped by to get you on the way?”

“I think that you kids are all out past your bedtimes,” he says bluntly, “and it’s making you grouchy. We can talk about this in the morning.”

“Yeah, I wanna go home and go back to sleep!” Nova complains. “Can someone drive me home? It’ll take way too long to walk.”

“I’d really rather not wake up my parents at 2 AM and try to explain why they need to drive two of my friends home,” Ashley says.

“Well, it would be much harder to walk to your place from here now, since we no longer have our extended endurance from being in the Metaverse,” Anja reasons. “Plus, it’d be dangerous. And suspicious looking if you ran into any cops. At least in the Metaverse we could sneak past most of the shadows wandering around. How about this- my place is much closer to here, so we can make our way there and then I’ll drive you.”

“Okay, that works,” Nova agrees. Anja sets Ted back on the ground and gets on her feet.

“Thank you very much for helping me get out of there,” I say to Ted politely. I look at Nova. “And the same to you.”

“Eh, I wasn’t gonna just leave you two there,” he replies. “C’mon, Anja, let’s go. I feel like I’m gonna be sick if I’m awake for much longer.”

Zoe and I make our way back to my place. Thankfully, the back door is unlocked, as I wasn’t looking forward to having to use the Metaverse to get back in and risking running into Moloch again.

We quietly open and close the door, and then tip toe through the living room and back into our hallway.

“Okay, let’s get some sleep,” I tell Zoe in a low voice as we arrive at her room.

“Um… can I sleep with you tonight?” She whispers back. “Right before I ended up in that other world, I was having this horrible dream where I was drowning in oil… I’m worried it might happen again.”

“Okay, sure,” I say, leading her to my room instead. This does make me wonder… how on earth did Zoe even get into the Metaverse to begin with? Furthermore, what was Moloch’s operation supposed to be here? His actions honestly seem totally irrational in hindsight… but my brain is too fuzzy to think about this right now, so I try and put it out of my mind.

Anyways, Zoe and I snuggle up together in my bed, and I’m back asleep in no time.

I’m in the middle of what looks like a football field, sitting down. I’m wearing a loose white t-shirt, short shorts and tennis shoes, just like I would be during practice. I can’t see the stands, but I can just… feel that there are people there. I feel a strong sense of hostility coming from each and every one of them. It makes me feel very much alone.

Then, I see someone walk up to me. It’s my mom. Ominously, her eyes are glowing red, and dislike is etched into her features.

“LIKE MAGGOTS, THE SPAWN OF MY OLD ENEMIES CRAWL OUT OF THE GARBAGE TO IRRITATE ME AGAIN!” She says. Her voice is horrible and unnatural, echoing throughout the whole stadium. “DON’T YOU DARE THINK THAT YOU’VE WON. ALL YOU DID WAS RUN AWAY, BECAUSE YOU WISELY JUDGED THAT YOU HAVE NO CHANCE OF BEATING ME. THIS IS MY COUNTRY, YOU HEAR ME? THE CHURCH IS MY BITCH! THE MEDIA IS MY BITCH! AND SOON, EVEN THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE MY BITCH! YOU CAN’T CHANGE ANYTHING. EVEN IF YOU DO SOMEHOW MANAGE TO CHANGE YOUR PASTOR’S HEART, IT’LL BE INSIGNIFICANT IN THE GRANDER SCHEME OF THINGS!”

Seeing my mother yell at me like this, combined with the generally oppressive atmosphere, is absolutely horrible. I feel like I may break down from it…

“ANYWAYS, TAKE THAT MESSAGE TO HEART, AND NEVER COME BACK HERE AGAIN, UNLESS YOU WANT TO END UP LIKE POOR SUZY…”

At that point, my vision started to blur and become tinted red. My head is pounding, pulsing so hard that I can see my own heartbeat. The football field disappears, and instead I am in some sort of empty room. In front of me now are three little girls, sitting on the floor. They can’t be older than 10. One of them is a Hispanic girl with bushy hair; one has straight, blonde hair; and one looks sort of androgynous, with medium length brown hair sort of like Anja’s and glasses. All three of them look extremely scared and helpless… The blonde one in particular is crying. I feel nausea in my stomach. There’s something horribly wrong with what I’m seeing. I fight it the best that I can. No, I don’t want to see this. I want to wake up. WAKE UP…

The room disappears, and I hear a malicious laugh in my ears, so loud it seems to fill my very soul. Now, all I can see is a strange, red and black spiral, which I seem to be falling down infinitely.

“YOU STILL GOT SOME SPUNK!” The voice says again. “WELL, MAYBE I SHOULD GO BACK AND TORMENT MY EASIER TARGETS FOR A WHILE. BUT DON’T WORRY… I’LL BE BACK LATER TO FINISH OFF YOUR LITTLE GANG. SO IN THE MEANTIME, DON’T YOU DARE MISBEHAVE, ASHLEY. ASHLEY. ASHLEY…”

The spiral fades from my vision, and I’m back in my room. The lights are on, and Zoe is on top of me, trying to shake me awake. My heart is racing way too fast, and I have to pant to keep up with it.

“Ashley, are you awake?” Zoe simpers, looking extremely worried.

“Yeah… what…?”

“While we were sleeping, you started thrashing around like you were having a seizure… it was really scary,” Zoe explains.

“Are you okay? Do you need something to drink?” Mom asks me. I turn my head, just now noticing that she was at my bedside. For some reason, the sight of her makes me feel an inexplicable sense of dread.

“Yeah… and maybe an exorcism, too,” I say weakly. “What time is it?”

“About 3:30 AM,” Mom replies. She’s giving me a dark look. I hope that she doesn’t think my “exorcism” comment was serious.

“What was happening to you?” Zoe asks me.

“I was having a really bad dream… I think,” I explain. I try to remember what it had been about. I remember feeling really alone… someone was lecturing me with incoherent rambling… something about three little girls… It’s all fuzzy in my head now.

“Okay. Well, try and calm yourself down. I’ll go get some water,” Mom says to me. As she’s getting up, however, I get a sudden, random urge.

“Mom?” I say to her. “Do you still love me?”

She turns back and looks at me with a sympathetic expression. “Of course I do, sweetie.” She bends over and gives me a kiss on the forehead, before leaving the room.

I don’t know what possessed me to ask that. I feel kind of stupid about it now. Still, her simple assurance made me feel a lot calmer. It makes me feel a sense of contentment from deep inside of me that’s hard to describe. Then, I suddenly realize this is the first time she’s called me “sweetie” in years…

“Ashley? You look really sad about something,” Zoe says to me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” I respond, trying to get myself back together. “Let’s just try and not go on any more late-night Metaverse adventures if we can help it. I think that experience somehow addled my brain…”

Zoe nods in agreement. “Yeah, that whole thing was really scary…”

With that, my mom brings me a glass of water and bids us good night, thankfully not making any comment about us being in the same bed. After drinking some, I say a quick prayer that Zoe and I will be able to sleep at least a few more hours without any more nightmares, and I go back to bed.